The Great Thief

“Sure,” Lu Li promised very simply, without a hint of embarrassment that he was taking the ‘ice goddess’ to the Common District.

As the two of them left together, the rest of the room was silent. However, after a few dozen seconds, the conversations began to start up again, except at that time, everyone couldn’t help but gossip about the two that had just left.

Although most people made fun of them, there were not many people that took the idea seriously.

No matter how realistic Dawn felt, it was still a game, and the gaming circle was much worse than the entertainment circle. No matter how many people got together, there were countless couples splitting up. Moreover, most players generally felt like that ice goddess would never be won over by anyone.

Water Fairy had started her career when she met the minimum age criteria for entering a virtual game.

At first, everyone thought she was beautiful. At that point, the proportion of female players was quite low and the number of attractive female players was even lower.

She then invested a huge sum of money into the game, somewhat revealing her background. It was inevitable that such a rich and beautiful female player would become a public figure. However, with her cold temperament, no one was able to take her on.

When she created Drizzle Court and raised another super guild in Peerless City, she lost some popularity. Although everyone still thought of her as a goddess, her status began to decline.

Water Fairy took the train with Lu Li, arriving at the edge of the city.

At this time, it was raining. This was typical of Jiangnan at this time of the year and it was actually a characteristic of this town in addition to its gorgeous sunrises and blue rivers.

However, Lu Li viewed the rain quite negatively.

“It’s raining again. I used to hate this kind of weather because I couldn’t go out to work and make money,” Lu Li said, taking the lead as they set foot on the narrow road. The rocks were a little mossy, but this was an exhilarating experience for Water Fairy.

“I also used to hate rainy days. My mum left on a rainy day,” Water Fairy sighed as she looked up and felt the cool rain fall onto her skin.

When Lu Li heard her speak, it sounded like she didn’t hate it anymore.

“What about now?”

“Now I don’t hate it anymore. If I think about it, it’s like I’m with my mother when it rains.” Water Fairy didn’t seem upset. The cold war with her dad had caused the stable life that she had led over the past ten years to collapse. However, with her education and the values that had been instilled in her, she knew that this was only momentary. All she had to do was to keep striving towards a goal.

“Let’s go then. We shouldn’t stand in the rain,” Lu Li said as he opened up his umbrella and walked nearer to her.

It is said that a bomb was detonated somewhere close to this area. Not only did it level the area into a ruin, but it also polluted it for a hundred years. Even though it was later confirmed that the pollution had completely dissipated, no one wanted to live there. Those who were able to gradually moved to the other side of the city and only the poor remained, resulting in the formation of the Common District.

“If the river was managed a little better, the scenery here would actually be quite nice,” Water Fairy commented on Lu Li’s original residence.

“There are very few people here who care about the scenery. This place is a little better; at least the laws are enforced. The life I talk about frequently was lived out here,” Lu Li said, not shying away from talking about it.

“It must have been very difficult.”

Water Fairy couldn’t imagine Lu Li’s life in this area.

Lu Li continued as he talked about the time he had come to Jianghu when he was about seven or eight years old. Water Fairy was listening intently, particularly enthralled when Lu Li was talking about how he could beat up people that were a few years older than he was. She inadvertently stared at Lu Li’s somewhat thin body.

Lu Li wasn’t short, but he didn’t seem strong either.

At this time, a few other young people turned up. These people didn’t have umbrellas over their heads, but they walked with pride. Their clothes were messy and their neck and wrists were covered in tattoos. When they saw Water Fairy, their eyes widened as there were very few girls that were this pretty in the Common District.

However, they also noticed the person standing next to the girl who was carrying an umbrella and had a familiar face.

“Big… big bro Lu…”

Suddenly, all of them turned around and stared at Lu Li. It was as if Water Fairy’s charisma levels suddenly dropped past a negative number.

“Hey.”

Lu Li wanted to say hello, but he couldn’t remember what to call these people. If he counted the time before rebirth, he had left the Common District behind well in the past. He had long since forgotten these unimpressionable faces.

The three young men were dumbfounded. If Lu Li had pretended to not recognize them at all, they probably would have pulled out their knives right there and then.

After all, was there anything more humiliating than someone pretending not to know you?

However, they didn’t get angry, and the red haired one even looked apologetic. They bowed their heads and said, “Sorry, we got the wrong person. Big bro Lu, we won’t bother you. We’ll go ahead.”

They thought that Lu Li was on a date with the girl, so they pretended not to know him.

After they finished speaking, the small group of people fled to the other side of the road.

“They…” Water Fairy was really amused; she thought that those guys should become comedic actors. They had clearly said Lu Li’s name, but they still tried to pretend like they didn’t know him.

“I might have known them in the past, but I don’t remember them anymore,” Lu Li said as he sighed in his heart. To get to this point, he had given up so much. He always thought about what would have happened if he had stayed in the Common District. Would he have been able to save his sister’s life?

Regardless, what was done was done and even if he wanted to go back now, it was too late.

“I now believe you when you say that you can fight. I can stroll freely through this area because I know you’ll protect me from any difficult characters,” Water Fairy laughed mischievously.

“That’s fine as long as you don’t mind the dirtiness here. This is my house. I don’t know if it’s occupied by someone else right now,” Lu Li said as he moved the umbrella closer towards Water Fairy so that her shoulder wouldn’t get wet.

As they walked into the quiet alley, everything still felt quite familiar to Lu Li.

“Hey, isn’t this Lu boy?” an old man asked as he came out with a pot of dirty water and saw Lu Li.

“Zhao Bo, nice seeing you again,” Lu Li nodded and greeted him.

“I just got back from Dongxiang and got covered in mud there,” Zhao Bo said as he came closer to find that the person standing next to Lu Li was not Lu Xin, then continued, “You’re not taking your sister out for a walk? Who is this? Have you found a wife already?”

He had recognized Lu Li because they were close, but after seeing Water Fairy, he realized that this girl was very attractive.

“Don’t joke about that Zhao Bo. This is just my friend.”

Lu Li looked at Water Fairy, who was just smiling without a hint of anger.

“So she’s not your wife…what a pity,” Zhao Bo muttered, then turned and poured the water from the pot into the sewer. He then seemed to remember Lu Li again and said, “Lu boy, you can’t come back here to live. Your house has been occupied by a lame old man and a ten-year-old boy.”

Lu Li paused and shook his head.

“I haven’t come back to live here. I just wanted to see if it was occupied. I’m just here to have a look.”

It seemed like it would be impossible to bring Water Fairy into his former home. When he and Lu Xin left, they left this place without an owner. In the Common District, this meant that anyone who needed to live there could do so. This lame old man and the child now had a place to live.

“This rain is getting heavier. Come and sit down.”

Zhao Bo went into his house first and didn’t ask if Lu Li wanted to. Lu Li was obviously used to this and went in. He was followed by Water Fairy who didn’t hesitate either. She was very curious about what people were like here.

Zhao Bo’s house was actually a little bigger than where Lu Li used to live, but not by much. There were two rooms – one small one for cooking and another for living. This meant that the living room wasn’t too messy. The living room was filled with all sorts of items, which were things that Zhao Bo had taken with him to sell.

He took out two plastic stools and gave them to Lu Li and his partner to sit on.

The old man and the Lu siblings were very close as he had taken care of them. It was just he had grown a little senile and he had a bit of a weird temper.

After talking about Lu Li’s current situation, Lu Li had indicated that he was doing well.

“Unfortunately, this isn’t your wife,” Zhao Bo said once again, seemingly quite sad about it. “You look like you would make a good couple.”

Water Fairy was actually a bit stunned. She wondered how the old man considered her and Lu Li to be a match. Even though Water Fairy didn’t care, she had still heard what the players said about the two of them, especially the female players that she had a good relationship with in Drizzle Court.

One of them had off-the-charts levels of attractiveness, and the other one was very ordinary.

One of them had come from a rich family, and the other had just started doing well.

“Cough, Zhao Bo, has Buggy come back? Have you heard from him recently?” Lu Li asked, changing the topic as he didn’t want to talk about that right now, especially in these circumstances.

“Yeah, Buggy came back and even gave me some money for me to fix the house. He is a good kid. Seems like most of the people in your generation aren’t too bad. Unfortunately, the older I am, the more I am unable to relax. I’m worried that one day I’ll go to sleep and I won’t wake up.”

“It should get better in the future.”

Lu Li grew up in the Common District, but he didn’t like it.

Buggy and the others couldn’t bear being here either, but they weren’t able to find a steady income stream in the game, unlike some other people who were able to use it to generate even more wealth.

The three that they had met previously were all people who relied on Buggy to survive. Naturally, after what Lu Li had done, Buggy and the others would be more afraid of them.