"Not accepting money?"

"Yes, many people only accept barter." The soldier said, "They dare sell a pack of Dragon and Phoenix Harmony cigarettes for six thousand bucks! But if you trade goods with them, you only need half a box of instant noodles...Though I'm just making an example, the actual price depends on how you negotiate."

"Alright, got it, thanks a lot." Sun Hang retrieved two packs of cigarettes from the glove compartment and threw them to the soldiers on duty, "You've worked hard, brothers!"

These cigarettes weren't from Sun Hang, nor from Yang Qi—they both didn't smoke. But Yang Qi's car hid a lot of cigarettes, most of which she "confiscated" from the old director. Occasionally they would still be found back at the office or lab, so she simply threw them all in the car.

"No hard work! No hard work! Thank you, brother!" The soldiers who received the cigarettes were flattered and repeatedly thanked him.

Sun Hang drove away from the checkpoint, turning to head down the fork leading to Yabei District—in the navigation software, searching for places named "Internet Celebrity Night Market" in Celestial City yielded over twenty locations, but fortunately, there was only one such market in the Yabei District.

In the first week after the arrival of Eternal Night, all civilian activities were halted. But as time passed, the Celestial City Management Committee gradually relaxed the restrictions—no one knew how long Eternal Night would last. According to the Disaster Response Committee's plan, after the initial lockdown, and with the establishment of various security mechanisms, life and production in Celestial City needed to gradually return to normal.

Though there was still some time before work and school would resume, at least in these few days, there were already groups of aunts and grandmothers in cotton coats and down jackets dancing in a square under the military searchlights.

It must be said, these grandmothers are indeed not ordinary beings—even if the sky falls, as long as it doesn't crush their knock-off speakers, they will dance their square dances as usual.

The Federation Government and Disaster Response Committee enjoy seeing this kind of scene, even having official media report on these dancing grandmothers—from some perspectives, it truly showcases the courage and optimistic spirit of Celestial City's citizens facing disaster, belonging to the "positive energy" content that the Federation Government continues to promote.

Unfortunately, most who can see this positive energy content are people from outside the Shuzhou Region, while internally, the civilian communication networks in Shuzhou remain un-restored. The channels for ordinary people to obtain information, aside from neighbors and community acquaintances, are only the official broadcasts in each community and the printed handouts distributed to each home...

"Arrived at the destination."

With the sound of navigation prompts, Sun Hang stopped the car.

Not far away was the trading market. At the market entrance, there was a giant light sign, with the name "Yabei Internet Celebrity Night Market" spelled out in light tubes. However, aside from the character "北" (North), each character had part of its lights failing, turning the sign content abstract like "氵北丨工丶丶."

"This must be the place, right?" Sun Hang muttered to himself. He took several packs of cigarettes and tucked them into his pocket, locked the car, and headed towards the market.

He had walked just a few steps when he felt a peculiar aura.

This aura didn't come from bizarre creature mimetics but from human negative emotions...

Sun Hang was puzzled to find that within the market, there were jealous, greed, and anger among the negative emotions... but why was there lustful emotion as well?

Is this market for legitimate business?

Luckily, the negative emotions, though chaotic, weren't strong enough to breed mysterious creatures...The only concern might be whether it would attract Anna for a meal... Wondering if she'd fancy such a snack.

Just as Sun Hang stepped into the market, a quarrel reached his ears from not far away. He looked towards the source of the sound and saw some men pulling a bald burly man who was struggling and cursing in Shuzhou dialect—opposite him stood a skinny old man with a look of impatience, muttering, "If you can't afford it, don't buy! What are you making a scene for? Do you want to bring the Public Security Bureau here?"

"Bullshit! I wasn't planning to buy your stuff!" The burly man cursed angrily, "You old bastard, you damn stole my woman, I'm going to cut that thing off you today and feed it to the dogs!"

"Aiyo, how can you falsely accuse like this? What does it have to do with me if your woman is cheating?" The old man picked his nose with his pinky, "I'm just conducting legal trade here. If you're trying to find trouble, I could go to call the Public Security Bureau, huh? By then you'll be locked up, will you still dare to fuss?"

The men pulling the burly man were evidently related to the old man, constantly echoing his words: "Yeah, yeah, keep disturbing here, we'll really drag you to the Public Security Bureau then!"

"Go ahead! I'm not afraid of you!" The burly man yelled angrily, "Don't scare me! Ever since that woman came back from your place, she's been acting strange, looking off! I'm guessing you old geezer has some dirty secret! Isn't it possible there's a mysterious creature holed up in your house!"

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey!" The old man stood up sharply, "Dinner can be eaten randomly, words cannot be spoken randomly!! I think you've been cuckolded and lost your mind!"

"Exactly!" The people beside echoed again, "No way Mr. Chen's house has mysterious creatures! Don't speak nonsense! It's a minor issue if the sheriff comes, but if the Mysterious Creature Hunter comes...you'll regret it!"

"I wish the Mysterious Creature Hunter would come!" The burly man bellowed, "I'm not afraid of it!"

Sun Hang frowned and listened quietly for a while, before silently edging closer.

"Eh?"

He could sense that both the old man and the burly man had traces of mysterious creature aura on them, somewhat stronger on the old man and faint on the burly man...This meant, maybe what the burly man said wasn't untrue?

Could it be the old man's house actually hides a mysterious creature?

Really? My luck is this outrageous? Just casually going out and stumbling into such incidents?

Not right...

Though the old man carried a mysterious creature aura, it wasn't obvious. When saying strong, it's only relative to the burly man—and it's certain that the old man must briefly have contact with some mysterious creature but doesn't constantly deal with them.

What he encountered wasn't necessarily a mysterious creature; it could be an infected individual.

The key to the issue becomes clear—the burly man's wife.

Sun Hang didn't plan to stir things up, so instead, he handed a cigarette to someone watching the scene and asked, "What's going on, brother? Can you tell me?"

"What else, his wife came out selling herself, tried to play a scam, and accidentally got the worst of it meeting Mr. Chen...I didn't expect, her man actually dared to come here."

"Huh? Scam? Biting the bullet?" Hearing these words from the onlooker, Sun Hang felt even more confused.

"You're not from Yabei District, are you?" The man looked him up and down, "Don't know Mr. Chen?"

"I'm not...just...passing through." Sun Hang replied.

"No wonder...You probably don't know, Mr. Chen's words here are more reliable than the sheriff's."

"Is the old man the local serpent head?"

"Hey watch your words! That's called being highly respected, understand high respect? If not for the cigarette you handed, you'd be in trouble today!"

[P.S. Had a tooth implantation the day before yesterday, then got fever and headache post-surgery...still not fully recovered yet. These past days' update seems a bit weak, please bear with it.]