Chapter 49: Driving

Watching Qiong Cang walk out of the cordon in broad daylight, the netizens stared blankly, flooding the comment section with petrified emojis.

It felt like charging up an ultimate move for ages only to find out it was completely useless, or spending ten thousand yuan on a lottery only to win a hundred-yuan coupon as the grand prize.

That was it??

As expected, true academic underachievers don’t even know where they went wrong on a test, yet they still mock others for not knowing how to solve the questions.

…What was frustrating was that they couldn’t connect the makeup-wearing Ning Dongdong with the down-and-out young man in the photo either, which made the realization sting a bit.

“Too naive. The Players are naive, and the NPCs are naive too. By the way, isn’t it a bit shameless of this guy to steal an NPC’s ID card?”

“This teaches us a lesson: trying to gauge a top student’s mind with an underachiever’s brain will only lead to disaster. So don’t look down on people.”

“A top student’s dedication to learning isn’t hindered by their environment!”

“Look at her, she’s thinking about studying even when she’s about to go to jail, while you guys can’t even focus on a livestream. 【Pointing fingers】”

“Shedding crocodile tears. Sympathy.”

“Is Fan Huai really this studious? 【Husky shock¹】”

“We still don’t know what else the genius has been studying behind our backs.”

“My mom lied to me. She said if I didn’t study hard, I’d end up like Fan Huai. 【Blows nose】 She was overestimating me. It looks like I can’t even reach his level.”

·

The outskirts of the commercial street were actually still very bustling. There was a top-tier hospital nearby, which naturally meant many surrounding restaurants and shops had cropped up. A bus pulled up to the stop, and a crowd of people got off in a noisy bustle.

Qiong Cang stopped moving forward. Instead, she found a spot without surveillance cameras and stopped by the side of the street.

Currently, there were not many police officers conducting searches inside the commercial district, and their actions did not seem to have a clear target. This indicated they were not the main force, but were just conducting a rough search to try their luck. After all, due to the holiday, the foot traffic inside the commercial area was too heavy. Relying solely on random checks was highly prone to errors and omissions, and was simply unrealistic.

The opposing side had a hundred people in total, which was neither too many nor too few. To ensure efficiency, their manpower would definitely be concentrated in the most critical transit hubs.

The police had already confirmed she was still in the commercial district, so they probably wouldn’t send many people to the stations or airports yet.

If Qiong Cang were in their shoes, she would select all the exits leading out of the city and conduct one-way checks on departing citizens.

Therefore, the further out she went, the higher the probability of running into the police. She couldn’t be lucky enough every time to encounter a face-blind, easily fooled rookie Player.

Qiong Cang leaned against a pillar, her gaze lazily sweeping across the street.

A black car followed the flow of traffic and pulled up in front of Qiong Cang, parking in a spot that had just opened up nearby. After the taillights went out, a middle-aged man stepped out of the driver’s seat. Immediately after, the rear door opened, and a woman stepped out happily with two children.

The middle-aged man stood by the roadside holding his keys, waiting for his family. Once everyone was out, he pressed the lock button on the key fob and bent down to pick up one of the children.

Qiong Cang walked over quickly. Her toe caught on an uneven paving tile, and her body lunged forward, seemingly about to crash right into the middle-aged man.

She let out a startled cry, causing the man to look back.

Seeing her tumbling toward him, the middle-aged man’s eyes widened and his expression froze, but his reflexes were fast. With his children right behind him, he couldn’t dodge. He immediately held out his hands to catch Qiong Cang, dropping his keys to the ground in the process.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Qiong Cang quickly steadied herself and tried to stand up straight, but in her haste, she stepped on the hem of her own clothes and almost tripped again.

She looked incredibly clumsy, stepping aside while adjusting her clothes, apologizing repeatedly. “I didn’t mean to. I think I tripped on something. Are you okay, mister?”

The middle-aged man said, “I’m fine, but you need to watch where you’re going.”

Qiong Cang turned around and was the first to pick up the keys from the ground. Her hands were hidden beneath her long sleeves, and she had to raise them and shake them to get her cuffs out of the way. She handed the keys back with an embarrassed smile. “Here are your keys. I’m sorry for startling you.”

The middle-aged man took them. Before he could look closely, Qiong Cang pulled two small plush toys from her bag and said, “I wanted to give these little toys to the kids. I won them in a lottery draw just up ahead. Consider it my apology to you all.”

Now it was the middle-aged man’s turn to feel embarrassed. He politely declined, “You’re too polite, there’s really no need!”

“It’s fine, I was planning to give them away anyway. I don’t really care for these kinds of toys.” Qiong Cang stuffed them into his hands without taking no for an answer, flashing a bright, harmless smile. She praised, “Your two little girls are so cute.”

“Daddy, I want it!”

Seeing that they weren’t anything valuable, the man slipped the keys back into his pocket and accepted the toys.

“Well then… thank you.”

Qiong Cang said, “Don’t mention it. Have a great time.”

She waved to the kids behind him, and the two little girls laughed happily, waving back warmly. Qiong Cang lifted the hem of her clothes and prepared to leave, catching the faint conversation between the husband and wife.

“Do young people like to dress like this nowadays?”

“He looks so handsome dressed like that! If you had a face like his, I’d let you wear it too.”

The man said sheepishly, “…Let’s not.”

Shortly after the family left, Qiong Cang reappeared, having changed into a shirt and suit.

She wore a face mask, her posture straight and imposing. Even though the shirt was a bit too oversized, it didn’t look out of place on her at all.

She strode over to the black car, raised a hand to cover her mouth as she coughed twice, swept her gaze over the pedestrians on both sides out of the corner of her eye, and then opened the car door and slid inside.

·

The netizens felt they had learned many tricks from Qiong Cang that seemed useful but were completely impractical, since the law wouldn’t allow them.

“Huh? How does she have the keys?”

“When the boss was walking around earlier, she bought a bunch of model keys. She secretly swapped them when she picked up the keys just now.”

“So the purpose of NPCs is to provide equipment. Learned something new. 【Just as planned】”

“A master thief! 【Eyes lighting up】 As expected, you need at least one skill to make your way in the world. So here is the question: which school should I go to to learn this?”

“She’s so skilled it’s suspicious. Boss, don’t you know a bit too much?”

“Human nature is too sinister. 【Sigh】”

“It’s mostly because this character model is so good-looking. If you swapped her out for someone sketchy-looking, would people still be this easy to talk to?”

“But I remember this boss saying in the last Instance that she doesn’t know how to drive. 【Numb】 She won’t literally crash and burn, will she?”

Qiong Cang indeed did not know how to drive.

Once in the driver’s seat, Qiong Cang’s expression turned serious, feeling a rare sense of facing a formidable enemy.

Her hands ran over the steering wheel and the various buttons, matching them one by one with online tutorials. Once she had confirmed all their functions, she inserted the key.

There was nothing a genius couldn’t learn quickly.

Including driving.

Parking spaces in the busy commercial district were naturally tight. The cars in front and behind were parked close together, and someone had even squeezed an electric scooter into the gap, making it much harder for Qiong Cang to pull out.

The engine started with a low hum. Qiong Cang gripped the steering wheel with both hands, turning it back and forth to get a feel for the resistance. At the same time, she scanned the space outside the window and the curb, trying to calculate the optimal path for backing out using mathematical angles.

Operating a car was actually quite simple, nothing more than starting it and stepping on the gas. But some things required natural talent.

After struggling for less than two minutes, Qiong Cang readily compromised. She got out of the car, stopped a passerby, and said, “Excuse me, could you help me back out?”

What a genius was best at was cutting losses early.

The viewers burst into laughter at the sight, and the “tool²” she had pulled over also wore a look of utter helplessness. Fortunately, everything went smoothly. The helpful “tool” backed the car out of the space and left it at the intersection. Once Qiong Cang took over, she followed the car ahead closely, hugging the side of the road all the way. Eventually, she turned into a secluded alley and parked in a quiet spot.

Qiong Cang unbuckled her seatbelt and let out a long sigh of relief.

Anyone driving in a busy downtown area needed nerves of steel, as terrible drivers were everywhere. Cutting people off and tailgating were common occurrences. This short drive had actually broken her out in a cold sweat.

Qiong Cang turned on the dashcam and found the playback function on the small screen.

The owner had driven in from outside, so the camera must have captured where the police had set up checkpoints and how they were deployed. Qiong Cang scrolled back through the footage in reverse chronological order.

She did not have a phone on her. She had left Ning Tingting’s phone back in the clothing store. Cut off from social media, she had no idea that a new storm was brewing in the outside world over the name “Ning Dongdong.”

·

He Jueyun, Zhang Wuping, and the other Players with professional backgrounds kept trying to locate Qiong Cang from different angles.

The last person who had definitely seen Qiong Cang was the shop owner who had exchanged cash for her via mobile transfer.

So, He Jueyun and the others changed into plainclothes and headed to the northeastern section of the commercial street, less than two kilometers away from where Qiong Cang actually was.

“I really had no idea he was Ning Dongdong,” the shop owner said, leaning against the cash register with his hands spread. “Besides, when he exchanged money with me, the news hadn’t even broken yet. How was I supposed to know what was going on?”

“We’re not here to hold you accountable,” He Jueyun said. “We just want to ask for clues. What did Ning Dongdong buy from your shop?”

“My shop only sells clothes,” the owner replied. “He bought a very basic white shirt and casual pants. You can buy them anywhere, a very common style.”

“Where did he go after that?” He Jueyun asked.

“I don’t know,” the owner said quickly, terrified of getting into trouble. “Officers, I’m responsible for customer service, but I can’t control where a customer goes after they leave.”

“Let us see your security footage,” He Jueyun said.

The owner nodded. “Of course, we’re happy to cooperate. But could you please watch it in the back? We still have a business to run.”

He Jueyun didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He turned to the colleagues beside him and said, “I’ll stay here and check the footage. The rest of you go ask around the neighboring shops. Keep in touch if you find anything.”

The others agreed and headed out to gather statements from the surrounding shops.

He Jueyun followed the owner to the back room to review the security footage.

Finding the footage of Qiong Cang’s appearance was easy.

Qiong Cang was bold. True to the personality He Jueyun remembered, she had swaggered in wearing the same old clothes she had on when she left the residential area. She strolled through the shop as if walking in her own backyard, picked out a few items, and went to negotiate with the owner.

Before she completed the transfer, took the cash, and left with her shopping bag, she had casually slipped her phone onto a nearby shelf.

The shop was small, and the racks were packed tight with clothes.

The long hems of the garments hung down, completely concealing the device. Unless someone moved the clothes aside, it was impossible to see the phone resting on the wooden shelf.

He Jueyun instantly grew alert.

Given Qiong Cang’s personality, she would never make such a careless mistake. If she only wanted to avoid tracking, she had countless ways to dispose of the phone. Even tossing it into a random trash can would have been easier than this.

This meant she had left the phone for the police on purpose.

It meant she had discovered important clues on Ning Tingting’s phone after taking it.

He Jueyun walked out quickly and retrieved the phone from the spot shown in the footage.

The phone case was still stained with dried blood. He Jueyun scraped at it with his finger, then looked up, realizing that this spot was directly in the line of sight of the shop’s security camera.

He pressed the power button on the side, and the screen lit up.

Sure enough.

There was no passcode.

Qiong Cang had changed the wallpaper to a plain white image. Two sentences were written in bold black font right in the center:

I don’t think this world is going to get any better³.

At least, my world won’t.

Translator’s Notes