Chapter 160: The Invitation

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Chang Yu mysteriously opened a wooden box, took out a piece of calligraphy whose paper had yellowed with age, and carefully hung it on a nail.

Throughout the entire process, Chang Yu wore a solemn, grave expression. His whole person seemed to radiate a sacred light, as though he were cradling some priceless treasure.

As the scroll slowly unfurled, four bold, flamboyant characters gradually appeared before Yangyang’s eyes.

“Rat-tail juice?” Yangyang read aloud instinctively, earning Chang Yu a forehead full of black lines.

“It says ‘upright and noble spirit,’ not ‘mind your own business’!” Chang Yu corrected him. “Sending you to kindergarten was definitely the right decision. Being uneducated is truly terrifying.”

“I couldn’t make it out because he used all those connected strokes.” Yangyang was momentarily silenced and flushed with embarrassment.

“They look practically the same anyway. Why are you being so fussy?”

“Although they sound somewhat alike when spoken, their meanings are worlds apart.”

Chang Yu thought for a moment, then encouraged Yangyang.

“You’ve only been here a short while, so it’s normal that you can’t recognize some characters. But you should study more from now on.”

“Why did you suddenly hang this on the wall? And where did it even come from?” Like every child who disliked studying, Yangyang tried to change the subject.

“Well... that’s a long story.” Chang Yu deliberately kept him in suspense. “All you need to know is that the calligraphy on the wall is worth three hundred thousand. From today onward, our family is a scholarly household—a cultured family!”

“How... how much?” Yangyang was instantly dazed. His head buzzed, and his reaction was hardly any better than Chang Yu’s had been at the time.

“Three hundred thousand!” Chang Yu declared in a tone of absolute certainty, radiating a baffling confidence from head to toe.

He lifted his chin, puffed out his chest, and wore an expression of pride, as though waiting for Yangyang’s admiration and worship.

“You’re kidding, right? These four characters are worth three hundred thousand?” Yangyang pursed his lips as if he had just heard the greatest joke in the world. “Just because I’m a child, you think you can fool me? Is paying three hundred thousand for a piece of calligraphy the price of becoming a scholarly household?”

“Whether you believe me or not doesn’t matter. Just don’t destroy it.” Yangyang was rather unruly, fond of playing and causing trouble, and Chang Yu was afraid he might accidentally tear up his three-hundred-thousand-yuan treasure.

“Tch! It’s only a piece of calligraphy. Who cares? You’re the only one treating it like some priceless treasure.” Yangyang clearly had no interest in it. He returned to the sofa and resumed watching television, which allowed Chang Yu to relax somewhat.

Time slipped away unnoticed. Before going to bed that night, Chang Yu carefully went over the appearance and details of that Gucci handbag in his mind once more.

After repeatedly confirming that he had not missed anything, Chang Yu finally fell asleep in peace.

In his dream, Chang Yu once again arrived at the Gucci store. All kinds of handbags were displayed in dazzling profusion on the shelves.

Unlike during the day, there was no sales assistant chattering away and explaining everything to him. At night, the Gucci store was deserted and utterly silent.

The handbag he had taken a fancy to during the day was displayed in the most conspicuous spot on the shelf, right in the center. Chang Yu spotted it at a glance.

“That’s more like it. This is the proper way for a poor man to buy a bag.” Calmly picking up the handbag, Chang Yu grinned like a child.

“If the rich want to spend their money, let them. I have no intention of handing over all the money I worked so hard to earn to those capitalist tycoons, just so it can become the capital they use to gamble recklessly, spend lavishly, and squander without restraint.”

“Poor people should have the awareness of poor people. If you can avoid spending money, then don’t spend it.”

Having learned his lesson last time, Chang Yu did not intend to take too much this time. One bag would be enough.

Excessive greed would only lead a person to ruin, plunging them into an abyss from which there was no escape.

He casually picked up the product certificate beside it and placed it in the gift box together with the handbag. Finally, Chang Yu even tied an attractive bow around the box.

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Without the product certificate and an elegantly packaged outer box, the handbag somehow felt incomplete, as though it had been bought from a street stall as a counterfeit. It simply did not look authentic.

“I wonder if Katerina will like it.” Chang Yu clutched the gift box tightly while wondering how he could give it to Katerina in a natural manner.

He paced around the store as he thought. Unconsciously, he moved from the center of the shop toward its edge, completely unaware of what he was doing.

Bang!

Chang Yu’s head suddenly slammed into what felt like a wall, and pain exploded across his forehead.

For a moment, his entire body froze in place. He could only clutch his forehead with one hand, a mask of agony instantly appearing on his face.

“Ow, ow, ow...” The pain brought tears to Chang Yu’s eyes.

He raised his head and looked toward the culprit that had hurt him, only to see the wide-open glass doors and the empty shopping mall beyond them.

He now stood before the open entrance, staring at the scene before him in bewilderment.

“That’s strange. The door is open. In theory, I shouldn’t have hit it.” Suspicion filled Chang Yu’s heart, and his expression shifted uncertainly.

There was no mistaking it. When he had struck it just now, it had truly felt like a wall.

If the glass doors had been closed, he could have explained the situation by saying that he had walked into them.

But the glass doors were open. That meant there was nothing separating him from the empty mall outside.

How could he possibly have run into a wall?

He cautiously extended a hand and touched the spot he had collided with. The surface felt exceptionally solid, as though an invisible transparent wall stood between him and the outside world.

So it had not been an illusion. He really had crashed into a wall.

It was simply transparent and invisible to the naked eye, which was why he had instinctively assumed he had struck empty air.

The open entrance was evidently on the other side of that transparent wall—visible but unreachable, reduced to a mere decoration.

“So this transparent barrier is the boundary of the dreamscape.” Chang Yu’s mind raced, and a deeper understanding dawned on him.

“Although I can manifest an independent space in my dreams that is identical to reality, this ability is not without limits.”

“At present, my ability is confined to this tiny room of only a dozen or so square meters. It’s obviously impossible for me to transform the entire shopping mall into my private domain.”

“So that’s why I can only wander around inside this little Gucci store. The moment I try to leave, I’m blocked.”

The next day, after taking Yangyang to school, Chang Yu went to find Katerina.

“Is something wrong?” Katerina asked as she looked at Chang Yu standing outside the door.

“It’s nothing important. I was just thinking that we don’t have any official business at the moment. We’d only be sitting around at home, so why don’t we go out for a walk?”

Chang Yu wore the ingratiating smile of a lovesick puppy, rubbing his hands together from time to time. His expression was as lecherous as it could possibly be.

One of his greatest strengths was his thick skin. He would never become timid or awkward merely because he was standing before the woman he adored.

“You... want to ask me out?” At first, Katerina had assumed Chang Yu needed her for something, but little by little, she realized what he was really getting at.

Her cool, clear eyes took on an unusual glimmer as she looked at him.

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Come to think of it, she really had reached the age when she ought to start dating.

She was no longer young. If she never went on any dates, she might never find a husband.

Hearing Katerina state his intentions so bluntly, Chang Yu was momentarily stunned.

But in the very next instant, he returned to his usual cheeky smile, showing not the slightest trace of nervousness.

“You know I’ve been in H City for two years now.”

“For these past two years, I’ve been so busy with work that I’ve rarely had a chance to go out. Even now, I’m still unfamiliar with the place.”

“You’re a native of H City. With you as my guide, perhaps I could adapt to the city more quickly.”

“This...” Katerina, who had always been decisive, suddenly hesitated.

To be fair, she did not dislike Chang Yu. Unlike other men her own age, he did not evoke that faint sense of rejection in her.

Especially when Chang Yu had been hospitalized before—she had even shared an intimate period of feeding him. Without either of them realizing it, that experience had brought them considerably closer.

It was not that she was unwilling to go on a date with Chang Yu. She was simply unaccustomed to the feeling.

After all, she had never gone on a date with a boy in her entire life. It was only natural that she did not know how to react.

When Chang Yu saw that Katerina had not rejected his invitation outright, but had instead begun to hesitate, his heart grew wildly excited, as though someone had injected him with stimulants.

He knew that Katerina was already wavering.

So he decided to use the infallible trump card that had never failed him—the shameless approach.

“Actually, I have a reason for asking you out.”

“What reason?” Katerina indeed began taking one step at a time toward the trap Chang Yu had carefully laid.

“Lately, I’ve realized that I’m a little depressed. No matter what I do, I feel gloomy and can’t seem to cheer up.” Once again, Chang Yu was lying through his teeth with a perfectly straight face.

“You know how dangerous our work is. We could easily end up becoming martyrs. That puts a great deal of psychological pressure on me.”

“You also know that people in our line of work have to be cautious. Sometimes, even a tiny mistake on the job can lead to a catastrophe.”

“I’m afraid my emotional problems might cause me to make a mistake at work, so I thought I should go out and relax.”

“If you could accompany me, perhaps you could help me become happy again and restore my confidence and vigor as a man.”

“Your situation is not unique. Many active investigators have experienced the same thing.” The moment Katerina heard that Chang Yu was suffering psychologically, her expression became serious.

Chang Yu had described it all so convincingly that she had actually believed his nonsense.

When she remembered that he had only been employed for a month, yet had already endured several brushes with death—some of them leaving him seriously injured—Katerina felt that his thoughts were entirely understandable.

“We battle those evil creatures known as Calamities year after year. It’s inevitable that we sometimes accumulate too many negative emotions.”

“So I recommend that you find a way to relieve your stress and release all the negativity you’ve built up. Otherwise, you may eventually suffer an emotional breakdown.”

End of Chapter

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