Chapter 928 Adding a Friend
When Stiano volunteered to help, Lumian"s thoughts raced. He smiled and said, "Thank you so much!"
Stiano took off his backpack and, like a magician, pulled out one car repair tool after another. He opened the hood of the gray sedan.
Seeing this, Franca couldn"t help but wail inwardly, No!
It was only going to cost one or two thousand to fix before, but now it might cost several thousand after he"s done!
She could guess why Lumian was willing to let Stiano help. The information provided by the Major Arcana card holders didn"t mention this high-ranking Church of Steam member"s projection in the dream city. He didn"t seem very important or related to Mr. Fool"s awakening, yet he had encountered the team twice by chance. This indicated either an arrangement of fate or that he himself harbored something special. Observing him more at this stage might provide useful guidance at a crucial moment in the future.
For the Demonesses, this was both a conclusion from logical reasoning and a prompt from spiritual intuition.
Never mind, this is just a dream, not reality. As long as Mr. Fool believes that the Church of Steam and Machinery"s high-ranking members are good at repairing machines, then Stiano should be able to fix the car… Franca comforted herself, quietly producing ice cubes to dispel the heat invading the car.
Soon after, Stiano raised his face, with traces of light yellow beard, avoiding his oil-stained palms, and used the back of his hand to push up the plain gla.s.ses perched on the bridge of his nose. He said to Franca inside the car and Lumian outside, "It"s fixed."
Really? Don"t lie to me… Franca tried it and found that the vehicle could indeed start again, very smoothly.
Lumian took out a bottle of mineral water filled with "Hunter-Demoness" branded boiled water and provided a stream of water for Stiano to wash his hands and tools at the roadside sewer opening.
After the other party had cleaned his hands and put away his tools, Lumian expressed his thanks again and took out his phone, unlocked the screen, and said with a smile, "Let"s add each other on WeChat. If you need any help in the future, you can always find us. Haha, as long as it"s within our capabilities."
Stiano looked at Lumian seriously, then smiled and said, "Okay."
He then took out his own phone, allowing Lumian to add him as a WeChat friend by scanning the code.
After scanning, Lumian found that the other party"s nickname was "Electric Power Energy and Information Technology".
Feels weird… Lumian waved goodbye to Stiano, returned to the gray sedan, and showed this gentleman"s WeChat to Jenna and the others.
Franca glanced at it and said amusingly, "This nickname sounds like a university course.
"Check out his Moments!"
This was the first non-team member friend Lumian had added on WeChat, completely forgetting that Franca had mentioned they could look at Moments to gather information.
He quickly tapped on Stiano"s avatar and then went to his Moments:
"Today: The professor"s understanding of the concept of information is rather biased. Information is also energy, and energy also contains information. One of the essences of each existence is the aggregation of corresponding information.
"Yesterday: Found an old car, the mechanical aesthetics fascinated me.
"August 13: I created a wonderful machine.
"—Only 3 days of Moments are visible—"
"A wonderful machine?" Lumian murmured puzzledly, "How wonderful can it be? As a local in the dream city, no matter how wonderful the machine he creates, it shouldn"t be able to exceed the limitations of the dream itself."
"He does indeed seem like a high-ranking member of the Church of Steam, and also shows a state of striving to learn and think after coming into contact with more advanced civilizations. This should be the underlying logic when Mr. Fool"s subconscious wove this image," Franca casually said as she drove the car back onto the road.
In the time that followed, they observed key targets such as Peng Deng"s girlfriend Nie Zhen, Peng Deng"s roommate Grisha, Zhou Mingrui"s roommate Mobet, and others.
As it was nearing the end of the workday, they returned to the building where Peng Deng worked, patiently waiting for him to finish his day"s work.
Peng Deng appeared just after 6 p.m. and chose to take the subway back to Herun Community where he rented.
Franca drove the car with Jenna and Ludwig to wait at the destination in advance, while Lumian and Anthony followed into the subway station.
Along the way, many women cast glances at Lumian, seemingly struck by his handsomeness, even though Lumian had made himself look a bit uglier before going out.
Of course, a few men were also sneaking peeks.
Meanwhile, Peng Deng was focused on his phone, not caring at all whether there were any beautiful women around, let alone someone of the same s.e.x who was merely charming.
A normal level of handsomeness isn"t enough to be approached or attract too much attention. Unless there"s an added gimmick, it won"t become a trending search or headline… Lumian felt a bit relieved.
Anthony, beside him, was naturally ignored by those around them.
Thanks to the Hunter"s tracking skills and the Demoness"s ability to hide in shadows at any time, Lumian easily followed Peng Deng to the vicinity of Herun Community.
The latter didn"t go home immediately but turned towards Ankang North Road, walked to near New City Garden, and entered a restaurant called "Yuzhou Small Dishes".
Lumian looked left and right and saw Franca roll down the car window and wave to him and Anthony.
After they got in the car, Franca asked with concern, "Did you gain anything?"
Lumian first shook his head, then muttered puzzledly, "Now I"m more curious about what"s on his phone that he can keep looking at it constantly."
He was looking at it while riding the subway, while on the escalator, and even while walking.
"You don"t understand." Franca sighed.
Jenna, looking at the "Yuzhou Small Dishes" restaurant, recalled, "This is the restaurant where Mr. Fool and Peng Deng often eat. If we wait a bit longer, Mr. Fool might come too.
"Should we observe their interaction?"
Lumian glanced at the sky outside. "We can."
It wouldn"t get dark until after 8 p.m. in this dream city"s summer.
Jenna tersely acknowledged. "Then I"ll buy a roast duck for Ludwig, so he stops complaining about being hungry."
She had already found dinner for Ludwig earlier, at a "Fruit Wood Roast Duck" shop on the same side as the car, with a paper sign saying "30 yuan each".
Lumian looked at Ludwig, whose mouth was dripping with suspicious liquid, and said with a smile, "Make it two; we"ll try some too."
Time ticked by minute by minute. Lumian and the others had tried the roast duck and eaten steamed buns, but they still hadn"t seen Mr. Fool"s dream incarnation, Zhou Mingrui. Meanwhile, Peng Deng had finished his meal and was returning towards Herun Community.
"Maybe Mr. Fool wanted to try something different tonight?" Franca dipped the last piece of duck meat wrapped in pancake into sweet bean sauce and brought it towards her mouth.
Gulp!
She heard a clear swallowing sound.
Glancing at Ludwig"s face full of desire, Franca sighed and handed over the food in her hand.
Lumian withdrew his gaze from outside the window.
"He might have gone to do something else. I didn"t see him return to New City Garden."
"Should we continue tailing?" Jenna pointed at Peng Deng"s retreating figure.
Lumian shook his head. "It"s getting dark. If we keep following, something unexpected might happen."
Franca said in an agreeing tone, "The Major Arcana card holders also mentioned that one of the most likely signs of Peng Deng being problematic is that he has never met with Mr. Fool, that is, Zhou Mingrui, after dark.
"They"re childhood friends, so it"s very normal to have a late-night snack together or watch a movie. Mr. Fool has initiated invitations many times, and Peng Deng himself has also invited Mr. Fool, but they never managed to meet up in the end. Every time it was because Peng Deng had something come up—either his girlfriend wouldn"t allow it, or his girlfriend suddenly got sick, or his roommate broke the door lock and they had to wait for a locksmith to come open the door…
"But when they choose to have meals or go out during the day, they always succeed, and that girlfriend who always obstructs Peng Deng occasionally partic.i.p.ates too."
"Combined with the magic mirror"s hint to "beware of the night", these details seem very strange." Lumian nodded.
Back at the rented apartment.
Seeing Lumian staring at the increasingly dark sky outside and falling into deep thought, Franca asked curiously, "What"s on your mind?"
"I"m thinking of going out tonight, to move around like ordinary people, to see if we encounter any more anomalies or problems," Lumian said consideringly.
He wanted to test the boundaries of the "night problem" a bit before officially contacting Zhou Mingrui tomorrow afternoon.
They hadn"t gone out last night, and everything was normal.
"Like ordinary people…" Franca"s eyes twinkled slightly, and she said to Lumian and Jenna with a smile, "Let"s go watch a movie!"
Lumian and the others already knew the concept of movies and were curious about it, so Franca"s suggestion was unanimously approved.
Franca immediately smiled like a fox who had stolen a hen. "Let"s go to a different mall. We can also scratch some more lottery tickets. Then we"ll have money for tonight"s movie tickets and popcorn, right?"
We can"t go to the same place, it would attract attention!
Hearing the word "popcorn", Ludwig, who had been uninterested before, suddenly brightened up.
…
In another mall.
Franca, satisfied with winning over two thousand in prizes again, led her teammates towards the cinema on the fourth floor.
Pa.s.sing by the third floor, they saw a long queue forming at the entrance of a very artistic-looking bookstore.
"A book signing event?" Franca, who was curious about everything and interested in everything since coming to the dream city, pulled Jenna over to see which author it was.
"Romance novel queen… Salted Fish Without Dreams… author of the original Great Pirate series novels…" Franca read out the key words on the pull-up banner.
"That pen name is so strange," Jenna expressed her feelings.
Franca smiled and said, "This is only ordinarily strange. Later, I"ll help you download an app and show you how the pen names of those web novel authors are each stranger than the last!"
As she spoke, Franca tried hard to stand on tiptoe to look at the author who was signing books. Lumian walked to her side and also cast his gaze into the bookstore.
A few seconds later, as the author raised her head, Lumian and Franca"s expressions froze simultaneously.
"What"s wrong?" Jenna noticed their abnormality.
Franca answered with a strange expression, "I don"t think my eyes are playing tricks on me…
"How can she be a romance novel queen…"
"Who?" Jenna asked puzzledly.
"Madam Magician," answered Lumian in a suppressed voice.