Chapter 89: Destiny Meets the Green‑Hair Offender (Revised)

Ah—! Don't come! Get out! Everyone get out!

A scream suddenly rang out from deep within the alley, making one's scalp tingle.

The owner of that voice sported a flaming red rocket‑style hair, rolling and crawling as he fled wildly into a corner.

His pupils were dilated, eyes blood‑shot, his face smeared with tears and snot, the riveted leather pants' knees torn and bleeding, the sight painful to behold.

He is barber Aqiang, the owner and chief stylist of a barbershop on the edge of Slum District 3, and can be considered a "personage".

Thanks to his bold aesthetic and operating hours that only accept "special clients" after midnight, he has achieved modest fame.

Yet at this moment, the usually flamboyantly confident "artist" seemed to have run into a ghost in broad daylight...

No, this is even scarier than hitting a ghost!

In his eyes, the world has already twisted and warped.

An inexplicable cold mist clung to him, enveloping the whole space, its bone‑chilling cold seeming able to freeze his soul.

Within that fog, countless twisted, snarling shadows flickered in and out, emitting sour‑tinged whispers and faint, intermittent sobs.

The hairstyle posters on the wall showed models whose faces were all contorted into monsters, eyes rolling, staring at him, leaving streaks of blood and tears.

On the floor, scissors and combs seemed to sprout legs, wriggling toward his feet...

This was no longer the barbershop he knew; he felt as if he had fallen into an endless nightmare, surrounded and pursued by countless vengeful spirits.

"Help! I was wrong! I'll never recommend green hair to a client again! I'll never use a hair dryer as an Aberrant Species repeller again! Have mercy! Please have mercy!"

He shouted incoherently, hands flailing in the air, trying to drive away the things only he could see.

And in the real world—

The barbershop's lights were off; aside from a slightly messy arrangement, nothing else was abnormal.

No cold mist, no ghostly silhouettes, the scissors lay peacefully on the table.

Only a teenager sat quietly in the barber's chair, legs crossed, looking almost leisurely.

He appeared young, with neat light‑brown short hair, dressed in casual, movement‑friendly attire; his coat was a thin khaki trench coat, looking like an ordinary person who had inadvertently wandered in.

Or, one could say, an unprofessional detective.

He stared calmly at the nearly terrified Tuoni before him, his face expressionless.

The shop's temperature seemed a shade cooler than outside, a faint, barely perceptible chill hanging in the air.

"And then?" Min Tianyou asked, his tone flat.

"After obtaining that ore, where did you place it?"

Aqiang's body jolted, his gaze vacant, cold sweat covering his back, his lips trembling for a long moment before he managed a few words.

"I‑I originally… I wanted to keep it to study myself, but…"

He spoke with great effort, each word scraped hard from his throat.

"That day… a kid suddenly showed up at the door…"

He stopped mid‑sentence.

It wasn't that Aqiang didn't want to speak; the frosted, graffiti‑covered glass door was being knocked from outside.

Knock, knock, knock.

A clear series of knocks, followed by a steady male voice.

"Is anyone there? Open up, routine inspection."

Min Tianyou, hearing the crucial part, instinctively furrowed his brows, a flash of surprise and irritation at being disturbed crossing his eyes.

He hadn't expected anyone to come at this hour.

Routine inspection?

He didn't recall the Supervision Bureau's routine inspection being scheduled for today.

He glanced at the trembling Shamate before him, knowing this investigation could only be halted for now.

Without lingering further, Min Tianyou's figure dispersed like smoke blown by wind, or like a reflection cast into still water, becoming hazy and transparent.

Ultimately he vanished completely into the air, as if he had never existed.

Only the still‑shaken Shamate Aqiang remained, trapped in the inner ice mist, futilely evading the unseen specters.

Outside, Su Jingchuan frowned slightly, a glowing "eye‑catching pendant" hanging by his side.

They waited a moment outside, their brows furrowing tighter.

According to Slum norms, such a small shop is usually front‑store, back‑home; even if closed during the day, there's always some activity inside.

A place with not even a single retort was truly abnormal.

Could something have happened?

His gaze darkened, his right hand lifted slightly, contemplating whether to employ some Unconventional Method to go in and see.

"What's all the noise! Not open in broad daylight! Do you understand the rules? Get away!"

A sudden burst of curses erupted from the shop, the voice hollow, tinged with impatience and lingering panic.

Immediately followed by barber Aqiang muttering to himself, his voice full of confusion and lingering fear.

"Sss… a ghost! How did I just collapse onto the floor and fall asleep? And that awful dream… my bones feel like they're about to fall apart…"

Though he cursed fiercely, his voice always carried a barely perceptible tremor, and his quick attempts to excuse the abnormality revealed his inner panic.

Anyone who can run a shop in the Slum isn't a fool; he vaguely guessed that what happened wasn't merely "falling asleep".

Someone could silently knock him down and let him gasp for breath; either they spared him out of mercy or had another motive.

He now just wants to drive the unknown guy outside away quickly, then calm himself down.

Su Jingchuan, hearing the reply, temporarily shelved the thought of forcing entry, but his doubts remained.

He spoke again, repeating his previous words.

"Open the door, routine inspection, I need you to answer a few questions."

Aqiang inside the door heard the two words "inspection", and his heart skipped a beat.

Why did they suddenly come looking for him? Could it be related to that person earlier...?

He dared not delay any longer, suppressing the palpitations and body aches from the nightmare, he cautiously opened the door a crack, one eye warily peering through the gap to see exactly who had come.

Aqiang warily sized up Su Jingchuan through the crack; the latter's demeanor was cold and hard, obviously not someone to mess with.

He hesitated, but ultimately his will to live prevailed, and he cautiously widened the gap a bit more.

However, just as the gap widened, a swatch of Ying Guang Lu he knew all too well—so familiar it had left a deep psychological scar—flashed into his view.

It was as if the nightmare had intruded into reality!

"Holy shit!!!"

The barber Aqiang instantly resembled a cat whose tail had been stepped on, letting out a shrill scream and about to slam the door shut without a second thought.

He just knew! He and green were destined to clash! This green-haired guy is nothing but a disaster!

Su Jingchuan had been prepared, his reaction extremely fast; before the door could close fully, he had already jammed a foot into the gap, and with his arms braced, he steadied the door panel.

Aqiang's meager strength was nothing before Su Jingchuan.

Seeing that closing the door was hopeless, Aqiang's face filled with panic.

At this point he could no longer attend to Su Jingchuan; he shouted desperately through the crack at the swatch of Ying Guang Lu outside, his voice changing tone.

"It's you, kid! Damn it! Back then you insisted on dyeing your head this color no matter what! We agreed that if anything happened, it had nothing to do with me! What do you mean bringing people to find me now?! Trying to push the blame?! I tell you, no way!"