An Chen turned his gaze, and before he could ask a question, Su Xiaojiu spoke impatiently.
"The tongshen jade talisman can also transmit sound over a thousand li; you just need to project your Divine Sense into it and connect with the talisman of the person I need to find. As for viewing images, that's also possible, but since you don't have Divine Sense, you probably can't see them."
She seemed to be trying to use the jade plaque called the tongshen jade talisman, but after much effort, she didn't succeed.
"There are no Cultivator in your world, and the Spiritual Qi is so thin, the tongshen jade talisman can't be used at all!"
Su Xiaojiu puffed out her cheeks and tucked the talisman into her pocket.
An Chen watched Su Xiaojiu curiously walk towards the kitchen, carefully examining the gas stove, and reached out to stop her.
"Don't touch that knob."
"What's wrong?"
"There will be fire..."
Su Xiaojiu extended her finger, and a flame shot out from her fingertip again.
"I'm not afraid of fire!"
"...This is different."
An Chen pushed her away. To prevent Su Xiaojiu from secretly twisting the gas stove knob later, An Chen simply demonstrated it once.
He gently pressed the knob, then rotated it a quarter turn counter-clockwise, and the gas stove immediately burst into a ring of flame.
"Oh..."
Su Xiaojiu was immediately captivated by this thing.
"There's absolutely no spiritual energy fluctuation. How did you manage to do this?!"
"It's hard to explain. Let's just say it's through a flammable gas transported through a pipe... Now, put out the fire!"
"Oh..."
Su Xiaojiu stuck out her tongue, retracted her hand, and the flame on her fingertip extinguished.
"Although this fire probably won't hurt you, if it ignites that kind of flammable gas, it will cause an explosion."
"Explosion?"
At the mention of this, Su Xiaojiu's eyes lit up instead, seemingly very interested.
"What kind of explosion?"
"The kind that blows up the entire house..."
"Awesome!"
Su Xiaojiu gave a thumbs-up, sincerely praising it.
"Don't even think about blowing up my house!"
An Chen felt a sense of "urgency" for the first time in front of Su Xiaojiu.
Su Xiaojiu seemed to lack common sense; what if she really blew up his house one day...?
"Don't worry, don't worry, I won't mess with your house, and I'm the most reliable person, I would never do something like that!"
Su Xiaojiu patted her chest, grinning.
Squinting his eyes, An Chen found it a bit hard to see through Su Xiaojiu.
He could usually see through or roughly understand a person through their words, demeanor, and actions, but there were two types of people he couldn't.
One type was people with deep schemes. These people either buried their true selves very deeply or disguised themselves with false masks, and An Chen couldn't determine what they were truly thinking.
The other type was simpletons...
These people had unusual thought processes, and no one could guess what was on their minds.
Su Xiaojiu was clearly not the former.
"I have something to do now and must go out. You stay at my place alone, don't go out. If you're tired, there's a room inside, just sleep on the bed. I'll be back at 5 AM tomorrow."
After thinking for a moment, An Chen added:
"Also, don't mess with anything. If you're curious, ask me when I get back."
"Okay..."
Su Xiaojiu nodded obediently. She looked about the same age as An Chen, yet sometimes she was as childish as a small child.
An Chen glanced at Su Xiaojiu twice, his eyes still betraying a hidden worry.
An Chen walked towards the door, looking back three times, changed his shoes, and stepped outside.
After closing the door heavily, An Chen's face relaxed, returning to his usual expression.
That was no expression at all.
In a sense, this could relax one's facial muscles, but An Chen did it only to make himself appear more mature.
He needed to become mature.
He was not like his classmates, who had happy and complete families and didn't have to worry about their basic needs, but he was different.
He had to shoulder everything.
If he remained as naive as those people, he would suffer losses.
When he was 12, after work, he helped deliver meals at a construction site two streets away. That was the first time he found a job to support himself.
What he had to do was simple: every evening, he just needed to help transport the bento boxes delivered by a van to the construction site using a cart, then distribute the bento boxes, and finally collect and dispose of the empty boxes.
He worked happily for a month because the person in charge promised him 600. So, even though the work was very tiring for a 12-year-old, a happy smile always radiated from his face.
But in the end, he only received a 50-value banknote.
The person in charge said with a stern face:
"Don't you pay for your food? You should be grateful you even get to eat!"
And so, that smile full of anticipation for life disappeared.
A week later, An Chen went to the construction site again.
He smashed a 撿 beer bottle, took a large shard, held it to his neck, pointed the sharpest part at his throat, and even cut his skin, drawing blood.
He still got those 600 yuan.
An Chen entered the elevator that had just opened its doors and pressed the button for the second floor.
His home was on the eleventh floor, unit D, and now, he was going to the second floor, unit A.
This was his work every Tuesday and Thursday.
The lady of that house was quite kind to him. Knowing he was poor, she gave him a job tutoring her middle school daughter starting last year.
Now the girl was in her second year of middle school, and her grades were excellent.
He tutored from 8:30 to 10:00, a total of one and a half hours, earning 200 yuan.
This amount was already considerable for An Chen, and for someone like him, almost guaranteed to be a top student in the province or even the provincial champion, tutoring for this price was not considered high.
Both sides were very satisfied.
"Knock, knock, knock..."
An Chen knocked on the door of unit A on the second floor. Soon, footsteps were heard from inside, and then the door opened.
"Oh, Xiao Chen, you're here?"
Zhao Jing showed a full smile and welcomed An Chen in.
An Chen nodded, took off his shoes, walked in wearing slippers, and forced a smile onto his face.
"Come, have a cup of hot water."
Zhao Jing held a cup of hot water, handed it to An Chen, who took it, said thank you, and then drank it all.
An Chen had just put down the cup when Zhao Jing pulled out a handful of candies from her pocket and put them into An Chen's hand.
An Chen sometimes lacked money for food, eating only lunch once a day and a few candies for dinner, which Zhao Jing had seen a few times.
When asked, An Chen only said he liked to eat them, unexpectedly, Zhao Jing remembered it.
Zhao Jing was the lady of this house, and she was really good to him.
An Chen, who hadn't seen his mother in a long time, felt a trace of maternal warmth from her.
"Xinxin has been waiting for you inside for a long time, go in."
An Chen turned to look inside, only to see the bedroom door suddenly push open, and a girl with twin pigtails and a chubby round face bounced out, a joyful smile radiating from her face.
"Brother An Chen is here! Come in quickly!"