Glancing back, Fang Chenyi saw Bai Menghan sleeping soundly, curled up with the covers like a little kitten. He smiled, walked over, and gently pulled the blanket back over her after she had kicked it off.

The girl didn’t have his freakishly resilient constitution. A flight of over ten hours was bound to be exhausting for her.

Once she was tucked in, Fang Chenyi turned and left the room. He checked the door several times to make sure it was securely locked before finally walking away.

He took the elevator down to the lobby. Perhaps because it was the dead of night, even this five-star hotel was eerily quiet.

But as he approached the entrance, two attendants in tailcoats stepped forward to block his path.

A stream of incomprehensible words followed.

Fang Chenyi was left speechless. Of all the language books he had "picked up," he’d somehow managed to miss French.

What a pain. When they’d arrived, the French-fluent Bai Menghan had handled checking in and all the formalities. Fang Chenyi had even teased her about it, asking why she didn’t just use English. Was English not spoken here, or was she just trying to show off?

But Bai Menghan had simply rolled her eyes at him and explained, with little patience, that the people here were resistant to English and their proficiency was generally very low.

Unconvinced, Fang Chenyi had tried communicating with the staff in English anyway. The result? Their proficiency was about on par with Xiao Youzi’s.

Of course, Xiao Youzi’s poor English wasn’t because she was dumb, but because she was a patriot. Heh.

Listening to the two of them, Fang Chenyi felt a headache coming on. He slapped his forehead and muttered to himself, "Damn it. I’ll have to make sure I ’pick up’ a French book next."

He never expected that after he muttered to himself, one of the two attendants would actually speak in halting Chinese. "Sir... you are... from... Great Huaxia?"

It wasn’t perfect, but Fang Chenyi understood him. He was pleasantly surprised. "Oh? You speak our Huaxian language?"

The attendant smiled politely and nodded at Fang Chenyi. "Yes, sir. I greatly admire the culture of the Great Huaxia. I even took Great Huaxian language as my elective in university. My biggest dream is to one day study abroad there!"

Hearing a foreigner speak Chinese amidst all this unintelligible chatter made Fang Chenyi genuinely happy. Without a second thought, he reached into his leather satchel, pulled out a thick wad of hundred-yuan bills, and handed it over without even counting. "Here. May this help you achieve your dream sooner."

The attendant clearly hadn’t expected to be handed such a large sum of money. With his deep understanding of Huaxian culture, he knew this wad of cash was no small amount. He bowed deeply in excitement, thanking Fang Chenyi profusely.

Fang Chenyi waved his hand dismissively and prepared to walk past them, but the attendant once again blocked his path. His expression turned serious as he warned, "Sir, it’s very late. You’d best not go out. This isn’t like Huaxia; it’s very unsafe at night. Thugs, and even the homeless on the streets, tend to do unsavory things at this hour."

Fang Chenyi paused. Such a bustling metropolis was actually this chaotic? Did the police here just turn a blind eye?

Then again, from his perspective, this was a good thing. He was worried there would be too many people around for him to go scrap-picking. If the streets were as deserted as the attendant claimed, wasn’t this the perfect opportunity for him to get to work?

Besides, from what he understood, guns were banned in this country, so he didn’t need to be too concerned. With his skills, taking on ten or so opponents was no problem. The thugs had better stay hidden. If they did show up, it was hard to say who would be robbing whom.

"Haha, alright. Thanks for the warning, but don’t worry. I won’t go far, just a short walk around the front of the hotel. I’ll be back in a bit."

With that, he walked around the two attendants and headed out the door.

The two attendants exchanged a helpless glance. Why were all these foreigners so reckless these days? Sigh. By tomorrow, the man probably wouldn’t even have enough money left for his hotel bill.

Leaving the two attendants to shake their heads, Fang Chenyi began to wander aimlessly down the street.

What he didn’t notice, however, was that the moment he stepped out of the hotel, two homeless men lurking in a nearby corner had already locked their sights on him.

Anyone coming out of a hotel that nice had to be rich—that was a given. It was exactly why the pair was staking out this spot.

As Fang Chenyi walked on, stopping here and there, he found the street was utterly deserted, save for the occasional passing car. Looking at the scene before him, it was hard to believe this was a major, first-tier city. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

He spotted a row of trash cans around a corner not far ahead and quickened his pace. He had been too close to the hotel earlier, afraid of being seen, but this spot was perfect.

He took the satchel tucked under his arm, unzipped it, and prepared to pull out the woven bag he kept inside.

But just then, a gruff shout suddenly cut through the silence.

"@#￥!"

Fang Chenyi froze. He hadn’t expected anyone else to be out. He turned his head in confusion, only to see two scruffy, middle-aged men closing in on him like hungry wolves, daggers clutched in their hands.

Fang Chenyi was stunned for a second before a dry remark escaped him. "Holy shit. Are they actually trying to mug me?"

Although he couldn’t understand a word they were saying, their actions and the daggers in their hands made their intentions perfectly clear.

He glanced at their somewhat flimsy-looking frames and couldn’t help but shake his head.

By now, the two homeless men were right in front of him. One of them drew his dagger across his own throat in a threatening gesture before pointing at the satchel in Fang Chenyi’s hand.

Fang Chenyi found this amusing. So, the guy even knew how to use "sign language."

Seeing Fang Chenyi actually start to smile, the two men glared at him fiercely. One of them pointed his dagger at Fang Chenyi. Just as Fang Chenyi thought the man was about to make his move, the dagger suddenly...

[To be continued...]