Blood Neon-Chapter 23

Chapter 23
Departure
By noon, the two of them still hadn’t chosen to go out. The price of that decision was finishing off the last half-bag of frozen dumplings left in the fridge.
Lin Ying wasn’t in any hurry—she had nothing pressing to do anyway. Normally around this time, if she wasn’t dazing off on the street, she’d be lying on a rooftop sunbathing, occasionally rolling over to tan the other side.
During these idle hours, she’d also spend some time pondering the abilities of her own body. But after all these days, the only real improvement had been gaining better control over her tentacles. The progress in developing her special powers didn’t even compare to what she’d achieved just in last night’s breakthrough.
Thinking of it this way, slacking off, chatting, and sudden enlightenment—somehow, it all felt a bit Zen.
After washing the dishes, Zhang Qiming, bored out of his mind, went back to his room to play video games. Lin Ying was happy to have some peace and quiet, so she grabbed a chair with a backrest and sat out on the balcony, dozing in the sunlight.
She had a few ideas, but at the earliest, she’d have to wait until tonight to put them into action.
Still, before that, she could try picking a lucky viewer from this house to experiment with…
.
The bandages on his head somewhat affected how the over-ear headphones sat, so Zhang Qiming had no choice but to hang them around his neck and use them like a small speaker.
Honestly, though he might have acted cool when taking leave from school, the way he was slacking off at home now made him feel like a total stud.
After casually banning Tiny in the game, he was once again full of spirit and couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.
Playing games during school hours—what joy, what bliss, no thoughts of class at all.
“Why does no one ban the Mammoth?”
Clearly, there hadn’t been any sound of footsteps, yet a voice suddenly spoke from behind.
Turning his head slightly, he saw the girl peeking her little head over his shoulder, spectating from behind.
Zhang Qiming sighed and pressed play again to resume the beat of his heart.
Damn it, girl, no matter how cute you are, sneaking up like this is going to scare someone to death sooner or later.
Back in the game, he realized that during the scare just now, his hand had slipped and he’d accidentally picked a sprite.
Damn.
……
For dinner, the two of them had two packs of instant noodles. After that, Lin Ying’s “going-home experience card” finally expired. Zhang Qiming stood in the living room and watched her pack up and leave.
“You’re leaving?”
“Yeah.”
The girl took her shoes from the cabinet and put them on.
“Going to wander the streets again?”
“Yeah.”
At that moment, he didn’t know what else to say. Should he wish her a good hunting?
“I mainly had some ideas today that I need to go verify.”
Straightening up, Lin Ying flipped her hair back from her face, which had fallen forward when she bent down earlier, and looked at Zhang Qiming.
“I won’t bother you again tonight, but if there’s a chance later, I’ll still come find you to hang out.”
The girl smiled as she said her goodbye.
Zhang Qiming scratched his head, only able to sigh at how this short day felt like some surreal dream that had passed in the blink of an eye.
From last night’s (being) caught in a group fight, to being suddenly rescued by a mysterious girl, to the two of them returning home together—though there were a few minor incidents, they had essentially spent the night under one roof, just the two of them, a guy and a girl. This was definitely that full anime male lead treatment. Next up should be him awakening some mysterious power, fighting alongside the heroine against an evil organization, and stepping onto the path to greatness...
...or something like that. Just kidding.
Standing beside the open door, waving his hand, Zhang Qiming thought somewhat wistfully.
.
Though there were still a few days left until the heating would be turned on, home was still noticeably warmer than the outside.
Stepping out from the relatively warm apartment into the baptism of the chilly autumn night wind, Lin Ying instinctively wrapped her arms around herself and drew in a sharp breath.
Maybe it was time she bought some clothes?
She glanced down at her bare white legs under her dress. While she was probably cold in anything she wore, this outfit in particular only made her stand out more in these temperatures—which wasn’t a good thing.
The problem was, in this era, even slightly more durable clothes came at a price. And with her current savings of just over four hundred yuan, it was still a bit hard to accept.
Might as well go to the night market stalls by the roadside and grab some cheap clothes to get by, Lin Ying sighed.
She had clearly transmigrated into a modern city, and yet somehow her lifestyle felt no different from those who ended up in medieval times. Poor enough to consider second-hand stores just to get dressed.
Of course, she had another option—wearing her spoils of war. But unless she was truly desperate, she would never do that. Asking her to wear clothes someone else had worn—especially someone who looked like they hadn’t showered in a month—was worse than slicing her up on the spot.
Walking around the edges of Pingyang Square, Lin Ying began scouting for a suitable target.
It was the time after dinner, when families brought their children out for walks, strolled around, and digested their food. Around the square had long since formed a full circle of pedestrian streets, snack streets, and small commercial strips.
However, limited by the city’s development level, as well as traffic capacity and parking availability, these various streets weren’t particularly large in scale. They could at best satisfy the local residents of the nearby old neighborhoods for a casual stroll.
Balloon shooting, ring toss, grilled sausages, grilled squid, stir-fried cold jelly, toy car race tracks for kids, helium balloons floating in the air, strange glowing devices that spun 360 degrees when strapped to your leg, and a full spread of all kinds of toys laid out on the ground…
The grills had long been blackened by smoke, and the balloon shooting boards were covered with remnants of burst balloons that hadn’t been cleared away.
Lin Ying took a deep breath, letting the fragrant smells fill her lungs, then slowly stepped into the noisy, crowded street.
Every few meters, there were street vendors with clothes racks set up at the roadside. Various popular online store styles hung from them—the kind you'd see repeatedly across stalls, with a product repetition rate probably hitting 90%. Still, there were always a few people crouched in front browsing, or standing beside the racks examining clothes. Hard to tell how many were real customers and how many were just shills.
Lin Ying picked a stall that looked acceptable and went straight over to negotiate with the vendor.
A pair of jeans, a sweatshirt, and a T-shirt to wear underneath—this was her shopping list.
Good thing she had once learned the correct and magical way to use adhesive bandages. At the time, she thought it was knowledge she’d never need in her life. Who could’ve guessed that, in the end, she really didn’t need it in her first life—but she did in her second.
Thanks to those two little bandage heroes, she was spared the trouble of buying a bra. Honestly, with her size... she didn’t have to worry about sagging or bouncing. As long as the bulge was covered, that was good enough. Otherwise, the rubbing would actually hurt quite a bit.
What was the point of overthinking it? As long as it worked, that was enough. She really didn’t want to waste energy on these kinds of annoying matters.
Thankfully, panties weren’t as particular as bras. As long as they were roughly the right size and plain enough, she could just buy a few to wear—it’d be fine. After all, even though in eroge characters often went commando, she really didn’t want to be genuinely commando while wearing a skirt…
…
After a simple round of negotiation, selection, and trying on, Lin Ying left the night market carrying two bags filled with clothes.
Women’s jeans marked at thirty yuan, a white sweatshirt at forty, and a black T-shirt at twenty—after some haggling, she got the whole set for seventy yuan total.
Lin Ying was pretty satisfied with the outcome, even if she knew that the combined production cost of those clothes probably didn’t even reach thirty yuan.
After a second of contemplation in the cold night breeze, she decided it’d be best to change into the new outfit before starting her nighttime activities. So she took a long walk and returned to her small base set up in the ruins of a village-in-the-city district.
She took off the white dress she’d been wearing for quite a while. The girl's pale, flawless, slender figure was exposed under the moonlight—its faint, cold glow casting her with a slightly seductive air.
Her true body had an interesting trait: it could only consume living beings.
Normally, once she devoured prey and ground them up, her body would “extract” their clothing from within the shadows. The clothes would emerge still shaped as though someone were wearing them, along with wallets, phones, and all kinds of miscellaneous items—floating up out of the shadows all together. The scene could be quite disturbing.
In short, it was like a high-level version of eating grapes and spitting out only the skin.
Thanks to this ability, Lin Ying often pulled off some unusual tricks. For instance, if she washed her clothes and tossed them into the shadows, her body could grind them up and spit them back out clean—completely free of water stains. In that sense, it was even more useful than a washing machine.
Because of this, Lin Ying had managed to wear the same outfit for days without changing.
Of course, in the beginning, before she figured out this trick, she had no choice but to wear her dirty clothes all the time—grimy and disheveled.
On the rare occasion she found a usable water source, she’d wash the clothes and, while waiting for them to dry, sit naked in the ruins, drawing circles in frustration. It honestly felt more post-apocalyptic than any actual doomsday survival scenario.
Sitting on a cardboard sheet on the ground, Lin Ying struggled to put on the jeans while reminiscing about those tough times.
.
At night, nine o’clock, the darkness thickened.
In a world without evening self-study classes, most students were already home by now. Though there were still plenty of pedestrians on the streets, the number of people aimlessly wandering about was starting to decline.
Good kids should all be heading home.
Lin Ying, now dressed in her newly purchased clothes, wandered near the alley not far from where Zhang Qiming had been beaten up, quietly drinking in the chill wind of the northwest.
The alley wasn’t lined with tall buildings—at most, a few scattered six-story old residential blocks belonging to small local units. The narrow roads, neglected for years, were riddled with potholes. And thanks to the nearly dysfunctional drainage system, the place turned into a flood zone every time it rained heavily.
This area was located just behind the school, but the surroundings were a mixed bag of all sorts—ranging from old KTV joints and noisy underground bars to cheap street-side spicy hotpot carts, always-empty but never-closed hardware stores, packed barbecue stalls, and inconspicuous little motels.
The likes of that Brother Liu character and the rest of those shady types would definitely love this place.
Disreputable adults mixed with underage students, throwing their weight around and basking in undeserved respect—or trying to flirt with rebellious schoolgirls trying to stand out, yet still too naive about the ways of the world.
…Or perhaps, some were hiding in blind spots with no surveillance, waiting to strike at passing prey?
Lin Ying wandered among them, looking forward to her next harvest.