Chapter 14: The Great Explosion in Los Angeles
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“Beneath the warm sun, I breathe in the fragrance. Whose girl could she be?”
“Sitting there at the bridgehead, you play your lute and sing of sorrow.”
“Girl, you set my heart aflutter...”
Humming a little tune and singing under his breath, Su Yi sat in a reclining chair inside a women’s clothing store, basking in the sunlight while waiting for Lolixi to finish choosing her underwear.
Suddenly, a deafening roar erupted nearby. The glass doors creaked, the clothing racks trembled, and across the street, a sign even came crashing down. The entire earth seemed to shudder.
That was one hell of a heart flutter...
Su Yi sprang from the reclining chair and immediately stepped outside, looking toward the source of the noise.
A column of thick black smoke, dozens of meters high, soared into the sky. It was so dense that flickering flames could be seen within it. Luocheng had not witnessed such a terrifying scene in decades.
The people of Great Xia could never resist the urge to watch a spectacle. Many residents came out to see what had happened, but faced with the billowing black smoke, they all fell silent, standing rooted to the spot in stunned disbelief.
“Commander, did another stronghold attack us?”
Lolixi came running to his side, gripping the dagger hidden inside her sleeve. Green light flickered in her eyes. According to the thermal imaging device, the temperature at the very center of the smoke exceeded a thousand degrees Celsius, while a massive amount of radiation was spreading outward.
Several fire engines sped down the road toward the center of the explosion, their alarm lights flashing and sirens blaring.
Su Yi shook his head gravely and nudged the silver-haired girl back toward the store.
“We don’t know yet.”
His gaze remained fixed on the site of the explosion: No. 213 Chengming Road, located in Luocheng’s industrial district on the outskirts of the city. As an old northern metropolis, Luocheng depended on its steel mills and coking plants as the lifeblood of its economy. At present, there was no way to tell whether this had been caused by human error or something else.
But the radiation levels were far too high...
Su Yi glanced at the streetlamp beside him. Drawing a deep breath, he curled his fingers around the iron post and applied the slightest pressure, easily leaving several deep fingerprints in the metal.
Nourished by the radiation released by the explosion, his strength had increased by at least thirty percent. His body had even developed a rare sense of exhilaration.
That was no good sign.
“Commander! Should we take our weapons and go investigate? The current radiation levels are just barely within operating range.”
Lolixi sounded unusually excited. A gleam flashed through her pale blue eyes, full of yearning as she waited for him to give the order.
Hearing this, Su Yi placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder, turned her body around by a hundred and eighty degrees, and pushed her back toward the store.
“What are you looking at? The Great Xia authorities will handle it. Go finish buying your clothes.”
“Yes...”
Lolixi lowered her eyes slightly and followed the saleswoman to have her measurements taken with a tape measure.
Why rush into the middle of such a major accident? Especially in broad daylight—what if someone saw him? Su Yi still wanted to maintain his identity as an ordinary high school student. There was no need to go poking his nose into things. The authorities would provide an explanation sooner or later.
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Besides, even if he did go, there was no need to bring a weapon. Sneaking over to observe the situation would be enough. If Luocheng ever forced Su Yi to use a weapon, then the city would truly have found itself in deep trouble.
“Your size is C—just short of D. I’ll pick out a larger size for you.”
The saleswoman studied the numbers on the measuring tape and placed several sets of underwear in a sweet, innocent-girl style into a shopping bag.
After their earlier conversation, she already knew that the girl was mentally impaired and that she was wearing nothing beneath her coat. It was truly pitiful.
If Su Yi had not been dressed like a young student in a school uniform, with a fresh and youthful appearance, the saleswoman might almost have reported him as a human trafficker.
“She’s so beautiful, and she’s even mixed-race, yet there’s something wrong with her mind. Is this the price she has to pay?”
The more the saleswoman thought about it, the deeper her sympathy became. She even added several pairs of socks free of charge.
“How much?”
“Six hundred and forty-eight.”
“Wait! How much?!”
Holding his little wallet, Su Yi asked in astonishment, “Have women’s clothes become this expensive?”
They had only bought two ordinary white tracksuits, a small pair of shoes, some assorted underwear, and a few pairs of socks, yet the total had come to more than six hundred. Su Yi felt as though he had been cheated.
“Women’s clothes cost more than gold by the inch, especially underwear. These are all made from high-quality materials.”
The saleswoman gave him a crafty smile. Sympathy was one thing, but she still had to make money. Su Yi clearly cared a great deal about the girl, and after spending so long choosing everything, he would probably pay for the sake of saving face.
Youth was the age of impulsiveness.
Yet Su Yi turned around without hesitation, bent down, and whispered into Lolixi’s ear:
“It’s too expensive. That’s enough to buy you two hundred bottles of the No. 37 motor oil you drank last night, or more than a dozen cases of instant noodles... Let’s go somewhere else.”
The moment Lolixi heard that the clothes were worth two hundred bottles of motor oil, she hurriedly nodded and turned to leave.
“Commander, let’s go. We’ve run into someone trying to fleece us.”
Damn it! Girls who didn’t know how to act coy never got anything good!
Realizing she had pushed things too far, the saleswoman hurriedly reached out toward the two people stepping outside.
“Wait! We can negotiate!”
Only then did Su Yi turn back. He lowered his head and pondered for a moment. He would start with a ruthless cut, then bargain down slowly. Gritting his teeth, he shouted:
“Three hundred and twenty-eight!”
“Fine. Deal!”
Su Yi blinked, momentarily stunned. Her answer had come far too quickly, making him feel that he had not cut the price nearly enough. It was as though he had suffered a huge loss.
He shook his head and lowered the price again.
“One hundred and fifty?”
The saleswoman hesitated briefly, looking him up and down several times. It seemed the student truly did not have much money, but she could still make a profit. She handed him the package.
“That’ll do.”
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Who would have thought Su Yi still had the shamelessness to haggle further?
“How about fifty?”
“Get lost!”
...
Inside the apartment.
That afternoon, Su Yi sat on the sofa with his newly purchased Huawei nova 11 in hand, scrolling through his phone while watching television with Lolixi. The sudden explosion had disrupted their original plans.
He had intended to use the day off to familiarize the girl with the environment of Blue Star—at the very least, to teach her where to get food and how to interact with people. Now, those matters would have to be postponed. Lolixi’s face was simply too conspicuous. Although few people would connect the explosion to a little girl, it was better to determine the cause before doing anything else.
What exactly had happened?
Su Yi’s fingers moved constantly across the screen. Sure enough, the massive explosion quickly became the lead story on the Huaxia News Network.
It also shot to the top of the trending searches on every forum and news app, ranking second only to the divorce of a currently popular celebrity couple.
As luck would have it, the Luocheng television channel had begun reporting on the incident as well.
“Good afternoon, respected residents of Luocheng. I’m sure you have already heard or seen reports of this unprecedented explosion on Chengming Road in Luocheng. I am reporter Yu Wenzhou.”
“We are currently at the very site of the explosion. The blast occurred at 1:23 p.m., and the fire has yet to be extinguished. According to information released by the police, the incident may have originated at an improperly regulated gasoline depot. We will now switch to live footage from the scene.”
On the screen, the entire factory complex had been burned into a mottled black ruin. The scorched traces looked like punishment from Satan himself. Flames still raged at the center while more than a dozen fire engines continually sprayed water over the site, gradually bringing the blaze under control.
“A gasoline explosion? How could the radiation levels possibly be this high?”
Su Yi sensed that the police were concealing something. Chengming Road would probably be sealed off soon, barring anyone from approaching. The report had not mentioned any casualties. No one knew how many people had died, but the number was unlikely to be small. Someone’s official career was certainly about to come to an end.
Still, an excessive amount of radiation in the wasteland could be both a disaster and a blessing for Blue Star.
The disaster was obvious: people would die, and many people at that.
As for the blessing...
The radiation of the wasteland was rather special.
Su Yi’s hand stopped moving across his phone. He glanced out the window.
“With radiation levels like these, surely no one is going to awaken a supernatural ability...”