An Chen immediately looked at Su Xiaojiu with a strange gaze.
Running away from home?
What kind of bizarre plot is this!
"What's wrong? Isn't running away from home a normal thing? Besides, who doesn't run away from home these days!"
"You guys... that's popular there?"
An Chen was increasingly confused about what kind of place the Kyushu Continent actually was.
The Kyushu Continent, as Su Xiaojiu knew it, seemed a bit strange...
Could running away from home also be a custom?
"I don't know about others, but it's very common in my Family. My brothers and sisters have basically all run away from home, and I've run away several times myself; it's just that this is the only time I actually got out..."
The other times were when she was still underage; she was caught as soon as she made a move.
After becoming an adult, she could use Talismans and spells to "legally run away from home."
"How old are you considered an adult there?"
"Eighteen, why are you suddenly asking that?"
An Chen's sudden irrelevant question left Su Xiaojiu a bit bewildered.
"Is there a possibility, just a possibility, okay?"
An Chen stroked his chin and slowly said:
"After you become an adult, you are independent. Your guardians, your parents and Elders, no longer have the obligation to look after you. So, this isn't called running away from home; it's called going out for a journey."
Su Xiaojiu immediately froze on the spot.
It seems... there's some truth to that!
Then... did she run out for nothing?
Is the Family's tradition going to be broken?
"No, no!" Su Xiaojiu shook her head and argued, "But my Dad still comes looking for me, and then he has people drag me back and beats me until I apologize."
"...What on earth is your Dad's background?"
"He's the Sect Master of the Fire Phoenix Sect."
An Chen suddenly wanted to laugh, for no apparent reason.
He finally understood why Su Xiaojiu's qiankun bag had so many good things: Medicinal Pills, Talismans, Formations, and so on, as if they were inexhaustible, like a small treasure trove.
So... so she was a rich second-generation!
According to Su Xiaojiu herself, the Fire Phoenix Sect was a First-Rate Power in Dongzhou. The Fire Phoenix Sect was also a massive enterprise, with experts like clouds within the Sect, a full treasury, and it was also vast, occupying a large area of Dongzhou... In short, it was incredible.
An Chen never expected that the daughter of such a Sect Master would be right in front of him.
An Chen even thought it was a joke.
"Isn't your Fire Phoenix Sect very powerful? Why don't you like staying in the Fire Phoenix Sect?"
"It's powerful, but the Fire Phoenix Sect is a boring and hot place. The Sect is full of belligerent people, each of them simple-minded and strong-bodied, with no brains at all! My Dad even arranged for an Elder to follow me around; that guy is so annoying. He'd constantly ask me if I'd taken a liking to any Disciple from any mountain peak, so he could report to the Sect Master and have the person I liked killed early!"
Are you sure you're not describing yourself?
An Chen's expression grew even stranger.
Could it be that being scatterbrained and brainless was the corporate culture of this so-called Fire Phoenix Sect?
Generally speaking, a Sect Master should be calm, solemn, and dignified, but it seemed Su Xiaojiu's Dad was probably just like Su Xiaojiu...
An Chen highly doubted how this Fire Phoenix Sect managed to become a First-Rate Power in Dongzhou.
"Then you've been out for so long, he must be very anxious, right?"
"Probably. After all, if I count the day I arrived in this world, if I stay outside for... um... another day and a half, I'll break my previous eleven-and-a-half-day record for running away from home, so Dad should be very anxious. But now that I'm here with you, he definitely can't cross worlds to find me, hehe!"
An Chen felt very worried for Su Xiaojiu's father.
To have such a daughter, truly unfortunate.
As for this strange Family tradition...
An Chen no longer had the energy to complain.
Su Xiaojiu held the bowl, slurped down the last few noodles, and let out a satisfied burp.
She noticed An Chen seemed to be thinking about something while he ate his noodles, so she waved her hand in front of him.
"What are you thinking about?"
An Chen didn't answer the question but directly stated the result of his thoughts.
"We're going out tonight."
"Where to?"
An Chen rolled his eyes at her.
"To steal an excavator."
Su Xiaojiu was stunned.
Didn't you tell me not to steal it???
...
Night quickly fell. Before dark, another excavator slowly drove onto the construction site.
Most of this road was blocked, making it impossible for traffic to pass, and residents were complaining, so the construction had to be completed quickly.
Therefore, another excavator was urgently brought in.
The police who came to investigate had already left, and some of the workers on the construction site had changed. Since it was quite late, they weren't working very hard.
"Are we really going to steal it? Didn't you say it was very dangerous?"
Su Xiaojiu stood in front of the excavator and asked in a low voice.
She was already holding the phone An Chen had bought for her, the screen showing an active call, the other party naturally being An Chen.
This phone cost around a thousand, but it was a fighter among low-end phones; it could satisfy Su Xiaojiu's normal needs anyway.
Su Xiaojiu hadn't learned anything else yet, but An Chen had just taught her how to make calls.
"Of course not. On the contrary, you need to protect it now."
An Chen's calm voice came from the speaker.
An Chen was currently sitting in front of the simply repaired service desk at the internet cafe. The damage here wasn't serious, and the monitors behind him hadn't been replaced yet, but reopening was not a problem.
Su Xiaojiu was only three or four meters away from the excavator. Su Xiaojiu held the receiver to her ear, and there was no one else around. The sound of the excavator covered their conversation.
Su Xiaojiu was naturally still in stealth mode at this time, so no one noticed her.
"Huh??"
Su Xiaojiu was confused again.
This An Chen always said roundabout and contradictory things, never explaining himself clearly.
One moment he tells her to steal something, the next he tells her to protect it. What exactly does he want to do?
"If you don't steal it, someone else might. If they steal it, then you won't be able to steal it, right? So now, protecting this excavator is for the sake of stealing it better. Understand?"
"Understood."
An Chen's bluffing somehow made Su Xiaojiu believe him.
An Chen couldn't be certain that the person who stole the excavator in the morning would appear again, but since that person was interested in this otherworldly iron lump, seeing a new one made it highly probable they would act again.
Without An Chen, the great swindler, to "analyze" the various dangers of this world for them, the other party naturally wouldn't have too many reservations.
So An Chen decided to wait here for a few days to see if he could catch the culprit.
If, as Su Xiaojiu said, only those in the Qi Refinement Stage had come to this world, then Su Xiaojiu's strength would be more than enough to handle them.