QTIMP -Chapter 18 Character Persona – Greedy (Part 18)

Mainly, after all these years, she had completely given up trying to tolerate her own cooking skills. There was simply no saving them.

But she looked forward immensely to the weekly and monthly gift packs. The items in those packs were relatively rare for this era—and the quantities were generous too.

The New Year gift pack went without saying. Last year, she had opened one that contained a whole box of twenty South Sea pearls and a coral branch nearly a foot tall, along with several nourishing medicinal herbs—all of them in excellent condition.

She took out the shoes and tried them on. They were slightly loose, which was just right. When the time came, she could wear thick socks and add a thick insole.

Look at how thoughtful the little system was—last year’s pair had been a bit tight.

After getting up and tidying herself, she took out a piece of light gray woolen fabric, preparing to have a coat made.

In the past, she had never lacked these things. Whether it was herself or the old lady, both had treated her very well. But this year she had grown a little taller. The clothes were still fine, more or less—but the shoes had truly become too small.

She casually packed all the translation work she had finished yesterday into her crossbody bag. Holding the bundled fabric along with money and ration coupons, Si Qiu headed out. As for breakfast, she thought she might as well check out a state-owned restaurant—though not the one nearby.

The tailor shop in their area really wasn’t very good. She was afraid of ruining her fine fabric, so she decided to walk farther away.

It would also give her a chance to visit another district and try breakfast at a different restaurant. This old part of the city had originally been home to wealthy families. Now the properties had been reclaimed, but because the houses were neatly built, most of the current residents were leaders and technical staff.

Today happened to be a day off, so quite a few people were out and about.

Carrying her things, Si Qiu turned past the street corner and was just about to head to the state-owned restaurant when—

An explosion suddenly sounded in the distance, followed by a tremor and rolling clouds of dust.

Then came screams and chaos.

Clutching her bundle, Si Qiu pressed herself tightly against the wall at the mouth of an alley and looked in that direction. She saw billowing smoke—and then a surging crowd rushing this way.

Several gunshots rang out, sending waves of screams rising one after another. Fortunately, she was standing against the wall. Otherwise, being swept up in the crowd could have led to who knew what.

She watched as the crowd squeezed through several small alleys, flowing forward in a chaotic stream. Before long, most of the people had dispersed. She planned to take advantage of the moment and quickly leave this troublesome place.

Just then, another gunshot exploded near her ear. With her sharp eyes, she noticed a thin man running this way while glancing back over his shoulder.

His face and hands were smeared with grime, but where it had been rubbed away, his skin appeared somewhat fair. He was clutching his right arm with his left hand—blood continuously flowing from the wound.

None of that was important. What mattered was that Si Qiu felt something was off about him. Not wanting to get involved, she quickly turned and ran into the alley.

Why not run out toward the street? Because that would have meant colliding head-on with him. But she hadn’t expected that, in these interconnected alleyways, the unlucky fellow would follow her into one of them.

She truly didn’t want trouble. Even though she knew her biological older brother had returned and was getting close to those two people—which clearly wasn’t ordinary—she hadn’t asked a single question.

She knew she seemed to have something of a “trouble-attracting physique.” In her previous life, when she roamed the cultivation world with her master, the two of them were either being hunted down or rescuing someone.

The ones hunting them were the enemies of the people they had treated. The ones rescuing them were naturally those who had received their kindness. Back then, her master often said that ever since he had taken her in, life had become truly heart-stopping.

Since transmigrating into this world, things had been far more peaceful than in the cultivation world. Still, she had encountered human traffickers, pickpockets, and even robbers lying in wait.

Being able to grow up safely like this was largely thanks to the combat skills from her previous life. Although her cultivation speed had been as slow as a turtle’s crawl, she had picked up her physical techniques early on.

On top of that, she was skilled in using hidden weapons. With a flick of her hand, a few silver needles laced with anesthetic would fly out—this was how she had managed to stay safe all these years.

Even so, she had always been cautious—extremely cautious. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have suppressed her cravings so fiercely, not daring to make any big moves.

The skinny man ran into the alley entrance and saw Si Qiu, a young girl, sprinting ahead. His eyes lit up and he quickened his pace to catch her. But the girl in front of him was like a rabbit—whoosh! She darted away and turned into another alley.

Just as he was fuming in frustration, he saw her reappear from the alley entrance, hands raised high above her head.

Si Qiu was grinding her teeth in anger too. She had thought that once she turned into the alley, it would completely cut off the man’s chance of taking her hostage. Who would have expected that the moment she turned the corner, she would see someone pointing a gun at her?

Even if one would rather die than submit to force, wasn’t there also a saying that a wise person adapts to the times? She quickly raised both hands in surrender.

At the gunman’s signal, she turned around and walked back into the alley. The skinny man who had been chasing her visibly relaxed when he saw the armed man.

“So now you’re finally willing to show yourself? I almost got myself killed back there!”

“That’s because you’re useless. If you’d followed my plan, nothing would’ve gone wrong. Who told you to pull that stunt and alert those damn cops? You’ve already ruined half our plan.”

The man holding the gun grew angrier as he spoke.

Si Qiu watched the gun barrel wave up and down as he gestured, and her heart trembled along with it. She couldn’t help thinking—weren’t guns from this era rather unreliable? What if it misfired?

“Alright, alright, stop whining. We need to get out of here fast,” the skinny man said. His arm was injured and bleeding heavily, and he was starting to feel lightheaded. He wanted to find a place to treat the wound as soon as possible.

“The area’s already under lockdown. It won’t be easy to leave. Otherwise, why do you think I stopped this woman?”

“Use her as a hostage?”

The two of them discussed her fate as if she had no human rights at all, while Si Qiu shrank quietly to the side.

In her heart, she was debating whether to flick out an anesthetic needle later—or a poisoned one. She also had some itching powder and blistering powder on her.

Ah, if only she could capture these two and use them as test subjects for medicine—that would be perfect. There were still many herbal formulas in this world that she hadn’t finished experimenting with.

Back when she cultivated immortality, she had focused only on improving her realm and hadn’t studied folk medical arts in depth. As for the rare medicinal herbs she had received as rewards before—she truly couldn’t bear to use them.

The rewards this time were also quite precious, but compared to the rare treasures of her previous life, there was still a difference.

But if she really used these two as test subjects, she wasn’t worried about being unable to hide them. What she feared more was delaying the capture of their superiors and accomplices. After all, pests like these were best eradicated as thoroughly as possible.

Thinking of this, Si Qiu secretly shot the two men a glare. It was only because of this harmonious society that they were still alive.

Her senses were sharp—she had already heard approaching footsteps. The trace of regret in her eyes disappeared.

The gun barrel was shoved right in front of her face, and she was grabbed by the other shoulder and spun around.

“Behave yourself. Don’t shout. Walk with us.”