Chapter 94: Rescue

In Chen Meng’s heart, though, he was already thinking something entirely different. If Zhang Hao had not been standing right beside him, he would have taken out his phone and looked up just how large a company Kaiyuan Real Estate actually was.

This time, it took less than half an hour before Chen Meng was home.

Hm. Saved thirty yuan on the taxi fare, at least.

“Brother Meng, you live here?” Zhang Hao stared at the residential complex where Chen Meng lived, disbelieving. This place looked far too shabby, and from the name of the developer on the gate, it was obvious some second-rate little firm from who-knows-where had built it.

Chen Meng did not think much of it. “Where you live isn’t important. Staying unnoticed is what matters.”

Seeing Chen Meng’s mysterious demeanor, Zhang Hao immediately understood.

A hidden identity. This was clearly all about hiding one’s identity.

Who could have imagined that in such an ordinary-looking complex, there would be such a terrifying existence living inside? At the very least, he never would have guessed it.

“I’ve learned something. I really have,” Zhang Hao said with some excitement. From now on, he too would keep a low profile like this.

Chen Meng was a little bewildered. Learned what? What a strange fellow.

“I’m off.”

Chen Meng waved and headed home. There was no way he would make it to tutoring class today anyway. In truth, he had already arranged with Yan Ruoxi that from now on she would tutor him full-time, and he no longer needed to go to the cram school every evening.

On the way back, Chen Meng took out his phone and checked his account.

The ten thousand yuan had indeed arrived.

Chen Meng also knew that for a family like Tang Wenjing’s, ten thousand yuan was nothing at all—perhaps not even as much as their driver’s daily wage.

“Hmm?”

A flicker of danger suddenly stirred in Chen Meng’s mind. He quickly scanned his surroundings, and then saw a potted plant falling from a balcony on a floor more than ten stories up for some unknown reason.

He immediately moved to step back and avoid it, but at that very moment he saw a six- or seven-year-old boy riding a small children’s bicycle coming this way.

“No good!”

Chen Meng quickly estimated that there was a very high chance the falling plant would strike the boy.

At that instant, he did not have time to think about anything else. Power burst through his entire body, and he shot forward like a bolt of lightning toward the child. The boy was still wondering what Chen Meng was doing when Chen Meng had already scooped him up and, with a powerful leap, thrown himself into the flowerbeds beside the path.

Bang!

The potted plant came crashing down exactly where Chen Meng had been standing, landing less than twenty centimeters from his heels. Fragments of the shattered clay pot even splashed onto his body.

“Waaah!”

The little boy burst into tears. The sound had drawn many people nearby, and they all hurried over at once. Two security guards on patrol also arrived quickly.

Chen Meng stood up and lifted the boy as well. By then the boy’s mother had arrived, and she looked so shaken she was on the verge of tears.

“Thank you, thank you!”

As she spoke, she took the boy into her arms.

“Which family upstairs was that? Keeping such a huge plant on the outside of the balcony—if it had fallen and this young man hadn’t reacted so quickly, someone would have died today.”

“So irresponsible. Throwing things from such a height is a crime.”

“Where’s property management? They absolutely have to find out who did this. Who knows whether they’ll drop something again in the future?”

...

The two security guards did not fail to realize how serious this was. They immediately reported the incident over their radios and then began checking the households one by one.

Chen Meng had no intention of dealing with what came after. It was not his concern.

“No need to thank me. The child was frightened; take him home and comfort him properly.”

“Yes, I will. Still, thank you.”

The boy’s mother was not very good with words. In the end, she even insisted on inviting Chen Meng to dinner, but he refused. Only after repeatedly asking which building and which unit Chen Meng lived in did she finally let him go.

Back home, Chen Meng lay on his bed and drew a long breath.

“The moment I saw that boy about to be hit, I rushed over without even thinking. And with such a large flowerpot falling from more than ten stories up, even if it did not necessarily kill me, there was still a good chance I’d be left bedridden for life. If it hit my head, I would not be able to withstand it either; most likely my skull would be smashed and I’d lose my life. Yet in truth, I only needed to take a single step back, or even just not move forward, and I would have been completely safe. But in that moment, I still instinctively chose to save him.”

Chen Meng murmured to himself, somewhat surprised by his own behavior. What was this, then? Was he a good person?

Even he seemed unable to accept that answer.

...

His mother was still cooking. He planned to practice extreme yoga for a while first, and just then he noticed his own data.

Knowledge Points: 503

Pages: College Runes (0/1998), Primordial Tongue (10/698, 68%)

Analysis Progress: Ghost Step Lotus (8.369%)

Digestion Progress: Pale Potion (20.165%)

Chen Meng froze. Somehow, without his knowing when, his digestion progress had actually risen to more than twenty percent. Before this, after three days of practicing extreme yoga movements, his digestion progress had only been 19.965 percent. In other words, it had increased by a full 0.2 percent—more than everything he had gained from three days of extreme yoga practice.

Not only that, even Ghost Step Lotus had increased by 0.3 percent.

“Could it be that just now, when I saved that little boy...” Chen Meng thought of a possibility.

In that instant, he had no other thoughts at all. He only wanted to save the boy. His speed in that moment had absolutely surpassed his limits, and his whole body had been in a state of extreme excitement.

An extreme limit?

Could that also count as a kind of extreme state?

Chen Meng drew a long breath. He felt that what he had experienced in that instant was, in fact, the limit between life and death—a fierce, wholehearted desire born from his own mind. That was why, in that moment, the potion within him had accelerated its digestion, raising it by a full 0.2 percent.

“If I could maintain that state five times, or if the duration could be extended fivefold, then I could break through my current bottleneck in potion digestion all at once. But such things are only encountered by chance, not sought at will. Then again, that’s not quite right either. Such terror between life and death—who would ever willingly want to experience that?” Chen Meng murmured. “And I’ve heard that the further one advances in the cultivation of divine bodies, the harder potion digestion becomes. The main reason is that all other methods eventually lose their effect, and only through trials between life and death can the potion be digested. If that’s true, then it’s not hard to understand why those with divine bodies always seem to be courting death.”

After sorting all that out, he heard his mother calling him to eat.

But just as their family was having dinner, the boy’s family came over. The boy’s father was carrying two boxes of things, and the moment he entered he made the child kowtow to Chen Meng three times.

Chen Meng looked at the boy’s father and could tell from the dust on his clothes that the work he did was not easy at all.

In the end, when his mother saw them out, she still forcibly stuffed the gifts back into their hands. Chen Meng was in agreement with that.

“My son did a good deed today. He saved someone,” his mother said after closing the door, her face blooming with delight. His father was the same, and afterward the two of them condemned that family for throwing things from above as well.

...

In the blink of an eye, it was Monday again.

On Sunday, Chen Meng had gone to the shooting range, and when he returned, they had settled his previous wages there and paid him in full. Altogether, it came to six thousand four hundred yuan.

Only then did Chen Meng learn the shooting range’s rule: when you go there for a part-time shift, they settle the pay from the previous time.

Today, Chen Meng was going to try every move with Yan Ruoxi. Another blissful day.