Will the plagiarism girl be a substitute for the preference for women?

Xiangzi clenched his fists, strode forward angrily, grabbed the man by the collar, and swung a heavy punch at his cheekbone!

"Cough cough..."

It was this punch that slightly restored the man's consciousness, which had been cut off from the outside world.

Otherwise, if he had taken drugs, his respiratory center, which is responsible for coughing, would have been paralyzed. Furthermore, taking drugs and drinking alcohol would cause him to vomit, and if he lay on his back, he would suffocate to death by blocking his trachea with his own vomit.

However, the man soon lost consciousness again.

"Wake up, you damned old man!!!" Xiangzi roared with all his might.

"Step aside."

Chika rushed over, stepped over the medicine box, and kicked the man hard in the back of the shoulder!

The man's body was kicked over, turning him from lying on his back to lying on his side, thus avoiding the risk of choking to death.

"I'll call an ambulance, and I'll pay for the treatment first," Qian Nai said as she quickly dialed the number.

"The treatment costs will be deducted from my salary."

Xiangzi looked up and said, but after glancing at his father's disheveled appearance, he immediately changed his mind.

"No! I request that this bastard pay off his debts by working."

"application passed."

Chika replied briefly, then used her phone's flashlight to look around for the light switch.

"No need to look anymore, the cables are all broken."

Xiangzi got up and took out a few candles from the cupboard. After lighting them, the room gained a faint light.

…………

The ambulance sped to the scene in the rain, and during the journey, China and Shoko gradually calmed down.

Paramedics glanced at the bottles and medicines on the ground, and while administering first aid to the man, they asked Xiangzi about his history of drinking and drug overdose before carrying him away on a stretcher.

After letting out a long sigh, Xiangzi slumped weakly to the ground, then looked up at Qianna and asked:

"China, you'll have to stay in the hospital again today, right?"

"No"

China took off her wet new clothes and wrung them out hard, water cascading down her body like a waterfall.

"By the way, aren't you going to the hospital to check on your dad later..."

"There's a doctor here, everything will be alright!"

Xiangzi's brows furrowed suddenly, but then slowly relaxed.

"Let's go later..."

China glanced again at the wine bottles and medicine boxes on the ground, and then looked around at the simple environment.

How did she manage to survive in such a predicament, with even the pillar of her family collapsing?

Then, she gazed deeply at Xiangzi and whispered with admiration:

Sometimes I really feel like you're a superhero... Achoo!

"Are you cold... Achoo!"

Xiangzi also sneezed and quickly took off his clothes.

The torrential rain gradually stopped, but the cold night wind was still howling, pouring in through the gaps in the flimsy windows and doors of the house.

The faint candlelight offered little warmth.

Shivering from the cold, the two huddled together in the cramped bedroom, covered by blankets.

"This is probably... the price to pay for wanting to go crazy..." China sighed.

"Then you should hurry back to the inpatient department, take a shower, and take some medicine... How can you, with your obsessive-compulsive disorder, stand not taking a shower all the time?" Xiangzi said, shivering.

"At least put on some clothes before you go... Do we have any extra clothes?"

China made a somber joke,

"I did buy a lot of clothes at the mall before, but unfortunately they're all still there."

Xiangzi glanced at the wardrobe, which was, to be precise, just a wooden box for storing clothes.

"Have……"

She took out underwear from the lower cabinet of the wooden box and handed it to China. Then, when she opened the upper cabinet, she stared blankly at the clothes inside.

"We're not really out of clothes, are we? There should be two sets of school uniforms, right..." China asked anxiously.

"I washed one of my sets at the school laundry..."

Xiangzi replied that this way she could save on water bills.

She reached her hand into the cabinet, hesitated for a moment, and then…

He handed the middle school uniform from Tsukimori to China.

Chapter 128 After the Rain, the Sky Was Not Clear

"The Forest of the Moon..."

China murmured softly, carefully holding the neatly folded school uniform in her hands, as if receiving a precious memory.

Before officially unfolding it, she tried her best to keep it as it was, for fear of disturbing its rare neatness.

Then, she gently placed the school uniform on the tatami mat and carefully unfolded it.

There were few wrinkles on it, and no dust or musty smell, so it seems to be taken out frequently for washing and drying.

However, she never wore it out again.

China thought that the memories this school uniform held would make Shoko keep it hidden deep in her trunk, unwilling to touch it.

Whenever Xiangzi sees this school uniform, his feelings are subtly different from when he sees people or things related to Crychic.

One is to remind her of her past life, where she was materially and spiritually wealthy and carefree;

The other thing reminded her more of her naive and weak self, which was even harder for her to face.

Therefore, it is precisely by taking out her school uniform time and time again, and by recalling the beauty of the past and facing the gap between reality and expectations, that she has been motivated to keep moving forward.

Just like when I occasionally pass by that old mansion where I used to live.

However, as China gently put on the school uniform, a wave of sadness still tugged at Shoko's tear ducts, causing her to raise her hand and cover her eyes.

“Xiao Xiang…” Qian Nai approached Xiang Zi’s side and whispered worriedly.

"It's nothing, it's just that my hair was wet and then it got windy, so I have a bit of a headache," Xiangzi explained.

China also felt a pain in her head, and her head was also a little dizzy due to the fever.

She placed the back of her hand on Xiangzi's forehead, and then on her own, without feeling a significant temperature difference, indicating that their fevers were about the same.

"Anyway, we need to find a place to take a hot shower and dry our hair first. Either we can come to my house, or Xiao Xiang can stay in the hospital ward for the night?"

Xiao Xiang rubbed his temples with his hand covering his eyes, barely managing to say, "It's just a fever, no need to be hospitalized... Besides, there's a public bathhouse nearby."

"Then I'll take a shower at the nearby bathhouse as soon as possible," China said.

"No, you should go to the inpatient ward to wash... Never mind, you'll see when you come along."

Xiangzi staggered to her feet, and Qiannai tried to steady her, but when she stood up as well, she felt a wave of dizziness and almost fell herself.

In the end, the two of them helped each other out of the room.

…………

Not long ago, when it was pouring rain, China was riding her electric bike through the area in a hurry. The rain made it difficult for her to see or pay attention to her surroundings.

As she walked slowly out of the house, she noticed how old the surrounding buildings were, befitting the title of the cheapest residential area in Ikebukuro.

It's unclear when the power lines will be repaired, and more than half of the houses are without lights. Occasionally, a few dim candlelight flickers behind the windows, casting the shadows of people sitting or lying listlessly in their homes onto the windows.

Some windows weren't even fully closed, and after the downpour, puddles of muddy water had already formed inside. The people inside remained submerged, unconscious. Empty medicine boxes scattered on the tables and floors silently spoke volumes.

It's full of people, yet it feels deserted, as if no one were there.

The only thing that could bring a little life to this desolate slum night was a middle-aged man with a stubble beard and a thin build.

He sat with his eyes closed at his front door, monotonously strumming the strings of his worn-out wooden guitar, accompanied by nonsensical shouting.

This melody may not even qualify as a melody.

But the middle-aged man playing the guitar and singing was already immersed in the world of drugs. There, in the middle of the huge square, he was playing wonderful music with his old teammates, and tens of thousands of audience members stood up from their seats to scream and cheer for them.

"I have no idea how my bastard father and these guys got their hands on these prescription drugs."

Xiangzi looked around indignantly, but quickly recalled that a few days ago, he had been provoked by two women in a drugstore, and Qianna happened to be passing by and saved him.

At that time, Chika bought the prescription drug from the landmine woman at a high price, thus resolving the crisis.

"On the day you ran into them at the drugstore, you asked those two scoundrels for the drug dealers' contact information so you could report them, right?" Xiangzi recalled.

"Okay." China opened the Line group chat.

The original drug dealer group was banned after she reported it, though she wasn't sure if her report had actually made a difference.

However, the woman who caused her trouble at the drugstore earlier invited her into a new group chat.

This time, China was hesitant to make any rash moves.

Because she had never bought anything from the group, and the group was reported shortly after she joined it, she was afraid that if she continued to join groups, they would be reported and she would be targeted.

Moreover, shutting down these drug dealers should only be a minor inconvenience, not a major problem.

Just like in the slums where she now lives, drug dealers can still easily rip off these poor people by charging several times the price of their drugs.

"What I've done is still insignificant."

China looked at the desolate and dilapidated residential area with a sense of bewilderment.

Then, she looked at Xiangzi.

"Tell me, once I'm famous enough and have access to a lot of resources, what can I change?"

As a family member of a drug overdose user, Xiangzi pondered for a long time before finally shaking his head.

"You can stop drug dealers, but you can't stop people from willingly falling into depravity."

Then, she held China's arm with great concern and reminded her.

"Don't put yourself in danger! We don't have enough capability yet."

“Yes, I know.” China looked at Shoko seriously.

They slowly arrived at the entrance of the public bathhouse.

China looked up and felt that the building didn't seem out of place among the other residences—it was just as old and unrepaired.

She glanced around the room almost as if she were conducting an investigation.

Rusty water pipes with painted exteriors, hair on the drain outlets, and coarse black gaps between the square tiles—those gaps should have been just thin lines, but they were filled with grime that was difficult to remove with water.

She immediately lost the idea of ​​taking a bath there.

Including Xiangzi, she no longer wanted to force herself to save a penny.

"I actually shower in the school's swimming club's bathroom, which is kept spotless every day."

Xiangzi turned his body towards the door.

"Never mind, I'll just go with you to the inpatient ward to shower."

Just as the two stepped out the door, China's bell rang.

It is from the ancient world.

"...Hello?" China replied, sensing something was wrong.

An urgent, worried voice came from the other end of the phone.

"China, are you alright? Aine said she upset you and hasn't dared to talk to you, so she asked me to call you!"

China suddenly realized that the problems caused by her actions during the attack would take some time to fix.