Ling Cage, pick up Lu Mingfei at the start.

Lu Mingfei followed Wulan Maiduo on the street called "Wanhuo Market".

The surroundings are filled with the noisy yet vibrant voices of people, the hustle and bustle of bargaining between stalls, and the unique aromas of various old-world creations and handcrafted goods.

While leading the way, Maido couldn't help but steal glances at the boy beside her out of the corner of her eye.

The morning light fell on his well-defined profile, outlining his straight nose and sharp jawline, making him look completely different from the disheveled and listless "loser" he had been yesterday.

This stark contrast made the girl's heart skip a beat, her cheeks flush slightly, and her curiosity grow.

"Hey, Lu Mingfei," she said, quickening her pace and turning to face him, walking backwards as she openly scrutinized his face, "Where did you come from?"

How much of this question is purely for exploration, and how much is simply to get a better look at that pleasing face—even she herself probably can't tell.

"Me? I was picked up by Boss Bai yesterday." Lu Mingfei was a little confused. Wasn't that already made clear yesterday?

"Oh, that's not what I'm asking," Maido quickly waved her hand to explain when she saw he had misunderstood. "I'm asking where you lived before Boss Bai found out."

"I...I am..." Lu Mingfei stammered, struggling internally. Should he just say he'd traveled from another world? Who would believe such a fantastical tale? It was like if someone told him that dragons existed in the world, he'd think they were crazy.

"What's wrong? Is it inconvenient to say?" Maiduo tilted her head, her big eyes filled with pure curiosity.

Looking into her pure and innocent eyes, Lu Mingfei felt an overwhelming pressure. If he really was going to live here in the future, wouldn't the villagers find out sooner or later?

He took a deep breath, as if to share a shocking secret, leaned closer to Maido, lowered his voice, and said mysteriously, "Actually... I'm from another world."

"Time travel?!" Mai Duo exclaimed in surprise, then realized her mistake and quickly covered her mouth with both hands, looking around nervously. However, her exclamation had already attracted the attention of those around her, and everyone's focus soon fell on the handsome young man beside her.

"Maiduo, where did this handsome young man come from?" People immediately gathered around to ask.

"Yes, yes, I've never seen it in the village before."

"Maido, what's his name?"

Several bolder girls even approached Maiduo directly, half-jokingly asking, "Maido, is this your boyfriend? If not, introduce him to us!"

Mai Duo's face instantly turned as red as a ripe apple. While busy explaining to everyone that Lu Mingfei was the boy Boss Bai brought back yesterday, she shyly retorted to the teasing, "Go away! What boyfriend! How old am I!"

The girls let out a good-natured laugh and continued to tease the shy Maido. The others, on the other hand, observed Lu Mingfei curiously. Some of them, who had glimpsed his disheveled appearance yesterday, rubbed their eyes in disbelief and repeatedly asked Maido to confirm that it was really the same person; others, as if conducting a census, began to question Lu Mingfei about various aspects of his life.

Lu Mingfei was at a loss with the barrage of questions and could only bite the bullet and respond to each one. At the same time, he secretly poked Mai Duo's back with his finger to send a distress signal. He was really not good at dealing with this kind of situation.

Maiduo herself couldn't handle it anymore. She felt the "distress signal" from behind and turned around to see Lu Mingfei's embarrassed look. She immediately understood.

Lu Mingfei quickly winked at her.

Mai Duo knew that if she didn't get away soon, the crowd would only grow larger. She grabbed Lu Mingfei's wrist and shouted to the crowd, "Boss Bai asked me to show him around! We can talk about any questions later!" With that, she pulled him and struggled to squeeze out of the crowd.

"Huff~ Huff~"

The two ran for a distance until they turned into a relatively quiet alley, where they leaned against the wall, panting heavily.

"Looks like being too handsome... can be quite troublesome, huh?" Mai Duo couldn't help but tease Lu Mingfei, who was still catching his breath, once his breathing had calmed down a bit.

Lu Mingfei smiled sheepishly and instinctively reached out to scratch his hair to ease the awkwardness, but Mai Duo quickly grabbed his wrist.

"Don't grab it!" Maiduo reminded her, "It would be such a waste to mess up a freshly cut hairstyle and all that effort from Sister Jiang."

Lu Mingfei awkwardly lowered his hand.

"Is what you just said about time travel true or false?" The shock from the word "time travel" hadn't faded, and Maido couldn't believe it.

"I...I don't know what happened...I just opened my eyes and closed them and I was in this world." After the sprint, Lu Mingfei was still weak and hadn't recovered.

"This, this is unbelievable, there's actually such a thing!" Maido exclaimed.

"I find it unbelievable that you guys have this so-called Source Awakening, it's practically a superpower," Lu Mingfei retorted.

Mai Duo smiled and asked Lu Mingfei many more questions about his world.

Lu Mingfei tried to answer only the questions he could answer.

"It sounds just like the old world in the book," Mydo murmured, resting her chin on her hand after listening.

Although I wanted to ask more questions, I had my boss's tasks to attend to, and I would ask them later.

Maiduo suppressed her curiosity for the time being and waited for Lu Mingfei to rest.

"Are you rested? If you are, let's continue shopping," Maido suggested when she saw that his breathing had calmed down.

"Okay." Lu Mingfei nodded in agreement and continued to follow Mai Duo's footsteps.

Before long, they arrived at the busiest core area of ​​the market.

Lu Mingfei's gaze was drawn to a shop with a rather "impressive" sign—"Imperial Domain Sound Room." The name… his lips twitched slightly. He turned to Mai Duo and asked, "What kind of place is that?"

Maido looked in the direction he pointed and said, "Oh, that's 'Imperial Sound Room,' a store that specializes in selling old-world CDs. They have lots of movie and music discs."

"I see." Lu Mingfei suddenly realized. Just then, he noticed an old man behaving somewhat suspiciously, huddled at the entrance of "Imperial Domain Sound Room," whispering something to the shop owner.

Maiduo saw it too and immediately pulled Lu Mingfei over.

"Uncle Xia, what nice things are you buying?" Mai Duo suddenly patted the old man on the shoulder from behind.

Xia Tianlai, who was mentally figuring out how to tactfully tell the shop owner Jin Nuo that she wanted to watch "action movies," was startled by the sudden slap. Turning around, she saw Mai Duo and complained irritably, "You little brat! Don't you know Uncle Xia is old and easily frightened? You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry, Uncle Xia," Mydo stuck out her tongue and quickly apologized, but her curiosity remained. "What are you buying?"

"I'll buy...I..." Xia Tianlai blushed, stammering and unable to get the words out. Quickly, he had a flash of inspiration, his gaze falling on Lu Mingfei behind Mai Duo, and immediately changed the subject: "Who's this kid? He looks quite dashing! Tsk tsk, he's got half the charm of an old man in his youth!"

"Uncle Xia, you're really shameless!" Mai Duo was amused and then explained, "This is Lu Mingfei, whom Boss Bai brought back yesterday."

"Oh—it's this kid." Xia Tianlai had obviously heard the name before; Xu Tong had mentioned it to him quite a bit yesterday.

But... he scrutinized Lu Mingfei closely, and he just couldn't reconcile the handsome young man in front of him with the "loser" that Xu Tong had described.

Could it be that Xu Tong himself was disfigured and was jealous of others? The old man shook his head, thinking that although Xu Tong was lively, he wouldn't be so petty.

"Surprised, aren't you?" Mai Duo noticed his confusion. "He wasn't like this yesterday. This morning, Boss Bai took him to Sister Jiang's for a haircut, and now he looks like this!"

Xia Tianlai nodded in sudden realization, his gaze sweeping over Lu Mingfei again. Although his appearance had changed drastically, the subtle evasiveness in his eyes and the hint of "misfortune" emanating from his bones matched Xu Tong's description.

What a pity, such a handsome face... Xia Tianlai sighed inwardly and unconsciously shook his head.

"No, old man, what's with that disappointed look in your eyes?!" Lu Mingfei keenly caught Xia Tianlai's emotional shift from amazement to regret, and couldn't help but complain inwardly.

"Alright, alright, you young people can go have some fun by yourselves. Don't bother this old man while I'm doing important business." Xia Tianlai, mindful of his "important business," quickly dismissed them.

"Okay, I won't bother you any longer!" Mai Duo replied with a smile, and then left with Lu Mingfei again.

They continued walking through the market.

Not far along, Lu Mingfei spotted Xia Dou, who had been with Mai Duo the day before. She was standing in front of a "secondhand goods consignment shop," holding something in her arms, her face full of hesitation.

Maiduo saw it too, and immediately crouched down and tiptoed behind Xiadou.

"Watching video games again? Xia Dou still has money?" Mai Duo suddenly spoke up, teasing her with a laugh.

"Go away!" Xia Dou was startled, and seeing it was Mai Duo, she waved her hand dismissively. She was struggling with whether or not to spend her hard-earned allowance to buy the game console she wanted.

"Little Bean, this is already the lowest price," Aunt Nur said with a smile from behind the counter.

Xia Dou looked at the game console in her hand, then weighed her purse in her hand. Seeing that there was really no room for bargaining, she finally gritted her teeth and placed a bag of jingling coins on the counter: "Auntie, I'll take this game console!"

There are even game consoles here?!

Upon hearing that it was a game console, Lu Mingfei immediately perked up and approached with great interest.

"They sell game consoles here too?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah, there's more here... Hey! Who are you?!" Xia Dou turned around at the sound of the voice, and an overly handsome face suddenly came into view. Moreover, the other person was staring intently at the game console she had just bought.

Maido immediately jumped between the two, showing off like she was displaying a treasure: "Ta-da! Can't recognize us? We just met!"

"Have we met before?" Xia Dou looked confused, trying hard to recall when she had ever met such a handsome man. She keenly caught the word "just" in Mai Duo's words, and a flash of inspiration struck her. She suddenly remembered the person that Boss Bai had brought back yesterday.

She circled Lu Mingfei in disbelief, scrutinizing him closely. The voice and figure did match, but his face... compared to yesterday, it was like night and day!

"The change is too drastic! It's just a haircut?" Xia Dou exclaimed, the effect is comparable to plastic surgery!

"I never expected that a haircut would cause such a big change," Lu Mingfei replied sincerely.

"You're interested in games too?" Xia Dou's eyes lit up as if she had found her people. There weren't many people in the village who liked playing games; apart from Boss Bai and a few children, she rarely found anyone who shared her interests.

Lu Mingfei nodded: "Yeah, I've played quite a few."

"Really? What games have you played?" Xia Dou immediately became excited, instantly forgetting about Lu Mingfei's good looks, and couldn't wait to exchange game experiences.

"Uh..." Lu Mingfei was momentarily speechless. Firstly, he had played far too many games, although his main focus was StarCraft; secondly, he wasn't sure if the games in this world were the same as those in his original world.

"Alright, alright, you two!" Seeing this, Mai Duo quickly pulled Lu Mingfei away from Xia Dou. "It's like a teenage internet addict meeting a teenage internet addict; once they start talking, it never ends. Boss Bai even gave us a task!"

"What mission?" Xia Dou asked curiously.

"Boss Bai asked me to show him around the village and familiarize him with the environment, and then we would meet her at 'Rice is Steel' at noon," Mai Duo explained.

"Then I'll go with you guys!" Xia Dou immediately grabbed her newly bought game console and skipped along. It was rare for her to meet someone who not only played a lot of games but was also handsome, and for some reason, she didn't feel any distance between them.

"Sure, let's go together!" Maido readily agreed. She explained everything along the way, and her mouth was almost dry from talking so much.

So the three of them walked together through the market streets. The handsome man and beautiful woman were quite eye-catching, attracting frequent glances from passersby.

Wherever they went, Maiduo and Xiadou took turns introducing Lu Mingfei to the local shops and introducing him to many unique shops and villagers.

Time slips away unnoticed.

"Oh no! It's almost eleven o'clock!" Maido exclaimed, noticing the clock on a shop wall. "We have to go to 'Food is Steel'!"

Finally, it's time to eat!

Lu Mingfei breathed a sigh of relief. He was already exhausted from walking and starving. But the two girls seemed to have endless energy, shopping without ever getting tired. He wanted to suggest taking a break several times along the way, but he was too embarrassed to say it.

Driven by a craving for food, Lu Mingfei followed Maiduo and Xiadou toward the "Rice is Steel" restaurant.

When we arrived at the restaurant, it was nearly 11:20.

Bai Yuekui was already seated by the window inside the shop, and she spotted the three people arriving together from afar. When they reached the door, she gestured for them to come over.

"Xia Dou is here too. How was your shopping?" She put down her teacup, glanced at the three of them, and finally her gaze landed on Lu Mingfei, who looked a little tired but had a newfound curiosity in his eyes.