Start with iron blocks, upgrade them into armor summoners.

open the door.

Xing Yun handed the overdue takeout to the customer.

After apologizing a few times, I went downstairs, got back on the electric scooter, and headed towards the kindergarten.

We arrived at the kindergarten gate shortly afterward.

He parked his electric bike on the side of the road, took off his helmet, and glanced at the time on his phone.

Luckily, I had studied at Mount Akina, so I wasn't particularly late.

Xing Yun walked towards the kindergarten gate. As soon as she turned the corner, she saw Yangyang squatting under a big tree inside the kindergarten, watching ants with a little girl in a floral dress.

The two little heads huddled together, occasionally letting out giggles.

"Yangyang".

Xing Yangyang looked up, saw her father, her eyes lit up, and she jumped up and ran over.

"dad!"

Xing Yun bent down and picked her up. Yangyang wrapped her arms around his neck and rubbed her little face against his shoulder.

"Were you good at kindergarten today?"

"Good girl!" Yangyang said loudly, then leaned close to his ear and whispered, "Daddy, I made a new friend today, the little girl in the skirt."

Xing Yun followed Yangyang's finger and looked in that direction.

The little girl was still squatting by the flower bed, and a young woman was standing next to her, bending down and talking to her.

The woman looked to be in her early twenties, with long, flowing hair, wearing a light blue knitted cardigan and a white ankle-length skirt.

When she straightened up, Xing Yun noticed that her profile was very soft, with a high nose bridge and long eyelashes.

Xing Yun thought about it carefully and realized that he seemed to have seen this woman when he picked Yangyang up from school.

As if sensing the gaze, she turned her head.

Eyes facing each other.

Xing Yun nodded subconsciously as a greeting.

The woman paused for a moment, then smiled politely and led the little girl over.

"Hello," she said in a clear voice, "You must be Xing Yangyang's father, right? I'm Bai Zhiqing. My daughter, Su Nian, just transferred to this kindergarten and is in the same class as Yangyang."

Xing Yun nodded and said, "Xing Yun."

"Yangyang is so cute," Bai Zhiqing said, glancing down at her daughter. "Niannian just started school today and has been talking about her new friends ever since."

The little girl named Su Nian hid behind her mother's legs, peeking out half her face, and looked timidly at Xing Yun.

Yangyang wriggled out of Xing Yun's arms, ran to Su Nian, and took her hand: "Niannian, my dad cooks noodles so well! Come to my house for noodles next time!"

Su Nian looked at her mother, then at Yangyang, and nodded slightly.

Bai Zhiqing smiled and patted her daughter's head, then looked at Xing Yun: "Do you live nearby? The two children can play together in the future."

"Sunshine Residential Complex," Xing Yun said, "Building Six."

"What a coincidence, we also live in Sunshine Community," Bai Zhiqing's eyes crinkled into a smile, "Building 3."

Xing Yun was somewhat surprised, but didn't show it, and simply nodded.

The two little girls were already running ahead hand in hand, chattering in a language that adults couldn't understand.

Xing Yun and Bai Zhiqing followed behind, remaining silent for a moment.

After walking for a while, Bai Zhiqing suddenly asked, "Are you... injured?"

Xing Yun paused in his steps.

"When you were holding Yangyang just now, your right shoulder moved a little unnaturally," Bai Zhiqing glanced at him and said casually, "I'm a doctor, it's an occupational hazard, don't mind it."

"...It's nothing," Xing Yun said, "just an old injury."

Bai Zhiqing nodded and didn't ask any further questions.

As they approached the entrance to the residential compound, Yangyang turned back and called out, "Dad, can I play with Niannian again tomorrow?"

"Ask your Aunt Bai."

Yangyang immediately turned to Bai Zhiqing, her eyes sparkling: "Aunt Bai, is it okay?"

Bai Zhiqing was amused by her expression, squatted down and pinched her little face: "Okay, Auntie is off tomorrow, I'll bring Niannian to play with you."

"yeah!"

The two little girls burst into laughter again.

As they parted ways at the entrance of the residential complex, Bai Zhiqing nodded to Xing Yun: "See you another day."

"Um."

Xing Yun led Yangyang towards Building 6. When they got home, Yangyang watched cartoons by himself while Xing Yun went into the kitchen to prepare dinner.

After finishing his meal and waiting for Yangyang to fall asleep in bed, Xing Yun returned to his room, sat on the edge of the bed, and took out the business card from his pocket.

It's black, feels slightly heavy, and has a metallic feel.

There is only one line of text above:

S City Abnormal Affairs Administration Bureau

周海

Telephone: 138****0521

Below is a line of smaller print: This business card is protected by an energy imprint; please do not lend it to others.

Xing Yun looked at the phone number several times before saving it to her phone and then casually placed the business card on the bedside table.

Finally, he picked up the summoner, looked at it for a few moments, and then lay down to sleep.

Inside the summoner, Lu Zhuo was staring blankly at the "Compatibility: 4/10" on the panel.

"It's 4 o'clock..." he muttered to himself, "Shouldn't I unlock something? Nothing's changed?"

Lu Zhuo could sense that his connection with Xing Yun had changed, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. After racking his brains without success, he stopped worrying about it.

"Forget it, I'll just lie down and wait for the summoner to unleash their power and carry me."

Lu Zhuo rolled over, shifting to a more comfortable position to continue lying flat.

……

the next day.

Xing Yun got up and first completed her daily task of taking Yangyang to kindergarten.

He then stood by the roadside waiting for Li Pengfei to pick him up and take him to the factory to collect his money.

To be honest, he didn't want to ride in Li Pengfei's beat-up secondhand van.

But I delivered food all afternoon yesterday, and my electric scooter ran out of power and I forgot to charge it, so I had no choice but to resort to this.

Li Pengfei's bread truck appeared at the intersection on time, and Xing Yun could hear the engine's weak groaning from a distance.

As the car door opened, a mixture of smells of smoke and cheap perfume wafted out.

"Hey, Lao Xing, you look great today." Li Pengfei said, a cigarette dangling from his lips, one hand resting on the steering wheel.

"Stop talking nonsense and drive carefully." Xing Yun sat in the passenger seat, fastened his seatbelt, and gripped the handle on the roof.

"Don't worry, I, Li Pengfei, am the racing legend of S City." He started the car and blew a smoke ring out the window.

"I heard the new boss personally handed out the money this time. I reckon it wasn't much. The factory manager could run away, do you think the new boss is being kind?"

Xing Yun didn't reply, looking out the window at the receding street scene.

"Hey, have you heard?" Li Pengfei lowered his voice, "There's been another incident in Dongcheng. Yesterday afternoon, a residential building exploded. They say it was due to a gas leak."

"This isn't the first or second time this has happened." Xing Yun rolled the car window down to its lowest position to dispel the smell of smoke inside the car.

"I have a feeling that these kinds of things are starting to happen more often lately," Li Pengfei said, flicking his finger to flick the cigarette butt out the window.

The bread truck wound its way through a series of turns before entering an old industrial area.

The gates of the ironworks were wide open, and several trucks were hauling out scrap metal.

The collapsed part of the factory building has been cleared, but the charred marks on the walls are still there.

The workers gathered in twos and threes in the open space; some squatted down to smoke, while others leaned against the wall playing on their phones.

Xing Yun saw several familiar faces; they were all veteran workers who had been there for several years.

"Xing Yun! Over here!" Someone waved to him.

Xing Yun and Li Pengfei walked over, and in the middle of the crowd was a folding table. A middle-aged man in a suit sat behind it, with a stack of envelopes in front of him.

The man wore gold-rimmed glasses, his hair was neatly combed, and he held a fountain pen in his hand, slowly writing something in a notebook.

"Line up, line up, those whose names are called, come and get yours," a man in a security guard uniform shouted at the top of his lungs.

Xing Yun joined the end of the line, and Li Pengfei followed, muttering, "Who is this new boss? He doesn't look like someone who runs a real business."

"have no idea."