Artifact Report

Chapter 46: Golden Snow Pear Grape Soda

The thing that can pull a life back from the brink of death is the most precious thing.

Even if it costs millions, there will be no shortage of money; even if it only increases the chances of survival a little bit, people will flock to it - such as that bottle of sports drink.

But erasing a person's life is very cheap.

Things that kill people are often not worth much.

Jin Xueli took another look at the purple can of soda in her hand.

In fact, if you just want to kill someone, a knife is enough. Even if you can't do it yourself, twelve thousand knives are enough to hire a desperado.

But by using human methods, Jin Xueli would naturally have to bear the risks and consequences of the human world. After all, Blackmore City was a real society with rules and laws. What if someone, taking advantage of Anthony's death or disappearance, came looking for her?
The denizens of the nest hadn't caught her, so it would be ironic if she ended up in a prison on earth.

She wanted to resolve this matter cleanly and not let herself be suspected of murder at all - she still had a lot of money and a lot of life to enjoy.

The real reason why this can of soda is expensive is not just that it can cause a person's death - to be honest, she is not even sure whether the consequences it causes can be considered death.

But she was sure of one thing: using the fake image to deal with Anthony would not leave her with any trouble.

At the moment when Jin Xueli was staring at the soda in a trance, a line of small words on the bottom of the soda just jumped from "Countdown, 6 hours and 25 minutes" to "Countdown, 6 hours and 24 minutes".

The call was only valid for eight hours, and she had already used one and a half of them; the most infuriating thing was that, except for the first few calls, she had been waiting for the rest of the time.

Was Anthony also confused, not expecting that he would contact him on his own initiative?
Just as she thought of this, she saw the disposable cell phone she had just bought on the table start to buzz. Jin Xueli glanced at the screen and immediately picked up the phone: "Anthony?"

There was silence on the other end of the line for a second or two.

Then the voice said as if nothing had happened: "Ah, it really is you."

"Of course it's me. Didn't I leave you a voice message?"

"You suddenly said you lost your phone and asked me to call you. That's suspicious." Anthony spoke slowly, but his tone and voice were like a rodent sniffing in the shadows. "...When did you lose it?"

Jin Xueli thought for a moment and said a time before he posted his phone number on pornographic websites. "The morning before yesterday."

Anthony paused.

When he spoke again, his tone was warmer: "Why did you come to see me all of a sudden? It's been so long..."

"Can we meet in person?" Jin Xueli asked directly. "In the bar where we first met?"

The reason for choosing a public place was to let Anthony feel at ease to keep the appointment; he must also be afraid that he would find someone and ask him to come out and beat him up.

"What's the matter?" The harasser was indeed quite cautious.

At that moment, Jin Xueli summoned the spirits of all the heroines in the romantic love movies she had seen in her life to herself, imitating their light and earnest voices, and said, "I... I don't like the way we ended. I think there is still room for improvement between us, and there is no need to make it like this. Whatever you want, we can have a good talk..."

Are there really such stupid women in the world?

After receiving a barrage of calls in the middle of the night, leaving countless insults and curses, and being threatened with "someone will kill you right away", would you still be stupid enough to have a good talk with the harasser?
Jin Xueli didn't think so, but Anthony seemed to think so - at least, he hoped Jin Xueli was the one.

"Now?" There was something restless in Anthony's voice, and even through the phone, it made her ears tingle. "It'll take me at least an hour to get around to it..."

Jin Xueli said through gritted teeth: "No problem. I'll wait for you."

After hanging up the phone, she placed the phone and the purple can of soda on the table in front of her and looked at them for a while.

Several male and female drinkers sitting next to me suddenly burst into loud laughter; they seemed to be colleagues who came for a drink after get off work, and they all raised their glasses and clinked them together in mid-air.

The waitress approached the table and asked with a smile, "How's it going? Is the person you're waiting for coming?"

"It'll take a while." Jin Xueli pulled a few banknotes with Franklin's portrait printed on them from her wallet and handed them to her along with a purple can of soda. "As I said just now, when he gets here, I'll be in trouble with you."

The waitress stared at the bill, obviously shocked by the amount of the tip, and asked in disbelief: "Are you sure?"

Jin Xueli slowly leaned back in her chair and smiled at her.

"……I am sure."

It was almost nine o'clock and people started to come to the bar.

The smell of alcohol in the air, mixed with perfume and the smell of tobacco that rushed in as soon as the door opened, filled the air with smoke.

When the validity period was only 3 hours and 41 minutes, Jin Xueli began to consider whether to use the backup plan, when Anthony finally pushed open the door of the bar - his eyes darted around and quickly found the target, but he did not come over immediately.

He stood at the door, first looked at all the customers in the store, then walked over slowly and sat down opposite Jin Xueli with a plop.

"You look tired," he said with concern as his first words. "Haven't you been doing well lately? Oh, I haven't been sleeping well at night either. I miss you a lot."

Jin Xueli thought she was quite knowledgeable, but when faced with such shamelessness without any self-awareness, she was still so surprised that she was speechless.

"You know," Anthony said, tapping his hand on the table, "before I came here, I called your lost phone."

Before Jin Xueli could react, he said righteously, "Just as I thought, it was picked up by someone else. If you pick up someone else's phone, how can you not return it?"

"Wait, did someone answer the phone?" Jin Xueli asked hurriedly.

"Yes, it's a man," said Anthony.

Morando's voice was deeper than that of an average woman, which led him to misunderstand her; however, the fact that she was able to answer the phone meant that Morando and the others had also returned to Blackmore City.

"I asked him, how much money do you want in exchange for returning the phone to my girlfriend?"

At this moment, Jin Xueli felt as if she was visiting a socialite's home, and after taking off her shoes, she found that she was wearing a pair of socks with exposed toes.

"She...what did he say?" She wiped her face vigorously and asked. She had clearly come here to kill someone, but now she wished she could hang herself from the beam first.

"You can't imagine how big his appetite is!" Anthony was indignant. "He said, 'Twelve thousand, and I'll give it back to her.' Can you believe it? I was furious at the time and wanted to threaten him a little to scare him..."

"……Then what?"

The man laughed and hung up the phone. Anthony leaned in closer and said soothingly, "Don't worry. If you need me, I'll continue to call and get your phone back."

Jin Xueli lowered her head, paused for a few seconds, and then sat up straight again.

Before answering, she raised her hand to signal the waitress, then lowered her eyes to Anthony's face.

She looked at Anthony as if examining a newly discovered insect and whispered, "Well, making harassing phone calls is definitely something you're good at."

If Anthony would argue back and get angry, it would at least show that he had some sense of shame.

He was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "I knew you would hold a grudge. I admit that I did go a little too far... because I have never cared so much about someone before."

The waitress came over with a tray and placed a glass filled with ice in front of each of them.

With a "swish", she opened the pull ring of the soda can and poured half of it into the cup in front of Jin Xueli. Thick white foam floated on the purple liquid.

Just as she was about to pour Anthony some more, he reached out and covered his own cup.

"You bought some soda?" Anthony looked at the purple can on the tray and motioned for the waitress to put it down. He picked it up and examined it for a few moments before saying to Jin Xueli, "I've never seen this brand before... You always have some weird things."

Although he was reluctant to admit it, Anthony had an intuition - it was based on that intuition that he picked out Jin Xueli from the crowd of people in the bar.

"Imported," Jin Xueli said, unwilling to let the fake image remain in his hand for too long. She held out her hand and said to him, "It's quite delicious. Would you like to try it?"

"No, you drink it." Anthony pushed the soda can in front of her and turned to the waitress and said, "A glass of gin and tonic."

Jin Xueli remained calm and pushed the soda can aside as if it was unimportant.

After the gin and tonic was served, Anthony spoke again: "You asked me to come here today..."

"I have a few words to tell you."

Anthony took a sip of his wine and didn't rush to ask what she wanted to say. He glanced at the soda and said, "Drink it. Don't you like it?"

Jin Xueli lowered her eyes to look at the soda and brought it close to her lips.

Anthony also held the cup, his eyes looking at her over the rim of the cup; she opened her mouth and let the cold liquid slide down her throat and fall into her stomach.

Anthony seemed relieved when he heard the swallowing sound. He looked at the dwindling soda and said with a smile, "I'll try it later. I've never seen it before. What do you want to say?"

Jin Xueli put down the cup and said slowly: "You have mental problems."

Anthony's face suddenly turned cold.

"I don't know if you were born with a genetic defect, or if your environment has made you a pervert. No one may have told you these words before, but I have to tell you today: you are a scum.

"You feel like the world, especially women, owes you something, that you're being unfair, that someone else has taken away what's rightfully yours, right? Why am I rich and you aren't? Why shouldn't I be with you? For someone as narcissistic as you, rejection is a profound insult... You're trying to harass and retaliate against me with all your might, but you're so cowardly you only dare to post my phone number on your website."

Anthony was startled and his face flushed.

Jin Xueli smiled, picked up the cup, and drank the soda in one gulp. "What you get today is what you deserve."

"What?" he asked blankly.

"I'm leaving," Jin Xueli stood up and moved away from the table.

"Wait a minute," Anthony jumped up and reached out to grab her arm. "What are you saying—"

The moment he approached, Jin Xueli blew gently on his face.

A strong smell of grapes filled the air between the two of them.

"Others are watching, what are you going to do?" she asked softly.

Anthony reluctantly let go of her hand. His eyes flicked to Jin Xueli's seat, where he saw the handbag left. A smile twitched across his cheek muscles, and he sat back down.

He misunderstood, Jin Xueli just went to the bathroom.

She stood by the sink, neither going to the toilet nor washing her hands, which attracted the attention of a blonde woman. The blonde woman, a little drunk, looked at her and suddenly asked with a smile, "Why are you wearing rain boots?"

Jin Xueli was in a good mood. She tapped the toes of her shoes on the ground a few times, like she was tap dancing, and replied with a smile, "The weather forecast says it's going to rain."

When she felt the time was about right, she went out again and came to her table. The chairs beside the table were empty, no one was there.

The chair was wet, and a large pool of purple liquid was dripping onto the floor. A puddle had formed on the floor, as if someone had accidentally knocked over a can of soda—or two.

Jin Xueli stepped into the liquid, splashing water on her shoes. She bent down to pick up her bag and picked up the soda can on the table.

On the way out, she said hello to the waitress.

"My friend has already left," she said with an apologetic smile, "I just accidentally knocked over the drink..."

"No problem, don't worry!" the waitress said enthusiastically, "I'll go and clean it up right away."

　My proudest part of yesterday's chapter, besides the name Morando, was the word "gate-raid"... Has anyone figured out its human cousin? It's Gatorade!
　　Hey, we’re missing a supporting actor.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)