My wife is the stand-in.

Amanosaki rolled his eyes at this.

Everyone in the Yushan branch knows that Amber Master only eats amber and drinks boiling water. Even when accompanying clients for tea, he always drinks hot, boiled tea.

They don't even have a sense of taste! So where does this claim of "only recognizing" come from?

Icarus poked the character card's face with annoyance: "Why is this person like this? Isn't he usually so gloomy?"

"Gloomy?" Amanosaki asked suspiciously. "Didn't Kohaku always smile during the few times we spent with him?"

Icarus nodded somewhat embarrassedly: "I actually think he's not a bad person. But yesterday, when I was still Yubaba, I used her experience to think back on everyone I've met these past few days, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this old guy is full of bad intentions and has impure thoughts."

"Hmm, if it's Tom's feeling, then it's probably true." Amanosaki pondered, scratching his chin.

“Right, right!” Icarus puffed out his chest proudly. “Yubaba is the smartest of these identities, but unfortunately I can’t grasp that feeling anymore.”

"It's okay, you're even cuter like this."

The couple's sweet talk and affectionate banter sent a nauseating chill down the spines of the other customers in the supermarket. Some single people glared at the couple, envying Amanosaki's good looks and tall stature, and feeling so jealous that he had such a sweet and lovely girlfriend as Icarus that they almost choked on their own bitterness.

Seeing that the customers were showing signs of leaving, the shop assistants couldn't sit still any longer.

A waiter quickly came over to interrupt the two who seemed oblivious to their surroundings, and said with a bright smile:

"Are you two here to choose mangoes? Our mangoes are all transported from the Flaming Mountains. The Flaming Mountains have a large temperature difference between day and night and plenty of sunshine, so the mangoes are incredibly sweet! See this chivalrous spokesperson? He's a renowned master at the branch level! This year, he's even on duty at the Yushan branch!"

"The customer has excellent taste! They immediately recognized the value of this product with such a distinguished guest! These mangoes are selling like hotcakes!"

Seeing the eloquent waiter, Amanosaki had to interrupt him, slightly embarrassed:

"Sorry, we're not here to look at mangoes, we're here to buy watermelons."

As he spoke, he turned to the side and tapped the rows of green watermelons behind him with his fingers. Seeing the lush greenery and lively scene, he couldn't help but blurt out a joke:

Are the watermelons here guaranteed to be ripe?

"What are you saying, sir!"

Upon hearing this, the waiter reacted as if his ancestors had been insulted, his face flushed, and his voice booming:

"At Kuaima Fresh, the key is freshness! Fruits from all over the country, from north to south, no matter where they are grown, will be delivered to our fresh food stores within three days."

She pointed her thumb at the curtain:

"If you don't believe me, take a look at the storage room. The fruits and vegetables here are marked with the time they arrive at the store. No matter how much stock there is, 94% of them will be sold out within 4 days. Any stock older than 6 days, no matter how fresh it is, will be juiced, flushed down the toilet, and fed to the fish and shrimp in the river. Nobody dares to sell it to anyone else!"

She poked downwards, touching the watermelon:

"And speaking of these watermelons, they all come from Caimenguan, where it never rains all year round, the sand is yellow all year round, and the climate is hot. The watermelon fields follow the afforestation efforts all the way west, so they always grow in the best sandy soil, and they rely entirely on pipelines for water!"

"Tell me! With our renowned brand, our business standards, our fruit and vegetable production areas and transportation chain, do you think I would sell you raw fruits and vegetables?!"

Good guy.

The customers, watching the enthusiastic waiter, were deeply impressed by his eloquence.

Amanosaki was secretly amused, thinking to himself that it was a waste of his talents for him to sell watermelons here; he should switch careers and become a stand-up comedian.

He not only applauded the waitress's eloquence, but also cheered that she had unintentionally stumbled upon his joke.

So he said to the waiter, "Could you open the storage room? My girlfriend wants to pick the roundest watermelon for my dad. We'll also bring a few pounds of each kind of fruit. I'll pay first, and we'll store the fruit there. I'll come back for it when I'm done, okay?"

"Yes, yes, this is perfect for you, brother!"

The waiter beamed with delight.

Besides its strict product quality control, Kuaima Fresh sells service. The same watermelon can sell for more than 5 yuan per kilogram in a Kuaima Fresh store!

You should know that those watermelons that are piled up on the back of small trucks on the street, and that are used to evade the city management officers, only cost 1.7 or 1.8 yuan per kilogram.

It's currently peak season for watermelons, and when grain is plentiful, prices are low, which hurts farmers. Watermelons are actually quite cheap during peak season!

Based on this price comparison, Amanosaki's needs for today have already exceeded a thousand dollars.

"Even if Li Junzi can eat a lot, there are only three of us. Can we finish it all?"

Amanosaki shrugged: "We weren't planning on feeding just the three of us. Don't forget we have a bunch of friends on board who fought alongside us. Alright, let's go pick out some watermelons."

So Icarus happily began his journey to select the second generation of Watermelon.

As an all-powerful war angel, she doesn't need to pay attention to each one individually. Just a quick glance around the storage room and supermarket is enough for her to identify the roundest watermelon.

About a minute later, Amanosaki saw a girl with blue hair staring at the delightful sphere as she walked out, her steps unsteady. Beneath her sharp, light red eyeshadow, a pair of bright, black and white beads narrowed into crescent moons.

Those long, shapely legs clad in stockings were initially tempting, but as soon as Amanosaki saw Icarus's innocent smile, all desire vanished.

He just wanted to look at her, to look at her a little longer.

But some people just don't know any better and always manage to cause trouble.

A man reeking of sourness, wearing a leather jacket, with unkempt hair and beard, stumbled in. He held up a square box, his bloodshot eyes filled with madness, staring unblinkingly at Amanosaki, revealing a set of white teeth that were anything but those of a beggar, and grinned maliciously.

"Amanosaki, the master asked me to convey a message to you."

The disheveled man watched Amanosaki move with lightning speed, and his throat tightened:

"Die!!!"

A great fire broke out!

The spacious and bright Kuaima Fresh Food store, which exuded a faint fruity fragrance, was instantly engulfed by thick smoke and raging fire!

Chapter 86: The Date That Was Forced to Be Interrupted

Bright sunlight streamed into the residential area, where elderly people sat by the flowerbeds, basking in the sun. Their faces, adorned like chrysanthemums, smiled as they watched the children swarming about, chatting amongst themselves.

The car drove smoothly, and even when children crossed the road, most drivers tolerated their recklessness and did not honk their horns.

With such bright and sunny weather, and a cool breeze blowing along the road, it was truly a scene of clear skies, gentle breezes, and pleasant weather.

It makes one wish that heaven and earth could stand still at this moment.

Then, a deafening explosion erupted in the shops on the street.

The bright red flames, with their orange tongues lolling out, slashed at everything flammable like a ravenous beast.

The mushroom-shaped plume of smoke was propelled across the street by the shockwave, covering the old man's face before bursting into sparks.

The cement road surface is cracked, and gravel is rolling around everywhere.

The children screamed, covering their ears in agony, but the adults around them were in a whirring, death metal cacophony, unable to hear anything, and even struggling to stand due to the shockwave.

Vehicles on the street braked suddenly, swerving and crashing into sidewalks and road signs; rear-end collisions were commonplace.

"What happened?" someone asked, their eyes still filled with thick smoke.

No one answered his words; everyone was in a daze.

Some people felt a wet, sticky sensation under their feet, and when they lifted their feet, they found that their bodies were covered in fruit paste, scalded by the high temperature, and then covered in a layer of ash.

A sharp-eyed person noticed some shiny little things in the fruit pulp. He bent down, picked them up, and examined them, thinking they looked a bit like some kind of... mineral crystals?

A sudden gust of wind swept across the explosion site, and the violent updrafts stirred up countless specks of dust. Even adults could barely stand and could only crawl on the ground, inch by inch, to their children, where they held their little ones in their arms and cried helplessly.

The fresh food store was a chaotic mix of red and black, with flames and black ash swirling around. A community policeman, pulling out a gun he hadn't used in ages, rushed over, staring in horror at the store, too afraid to take a step closer, only shouting at the top of his lungs:

"Go quickly! Go quickly!"

It was only then that the people noticed that the wood and plastic burning in the fresh food store were lighting up and dimming in a regular pattern.

It was as if some enormous creature was lurking in the smoke-filled fire, each breath stirring up a massive amount of oxygen.

Just as everyone was crying in fear, thinking that evil spirits had invaded, a pair of pure white wings, which were completely out of place with the surrounding filth and chaos and were filled with holy light, pierced through the mist and fanned away the dust.

The sacred transcends the mundane world, thus appearing all the more noble.

Icarus raised her hands, supporting the collapsing building like a giant holding up the sky. Her well-fitting clothes were mostly burned in the fire, making her look like a goddess reborn from the flames.

Her eyes were indifferent, conveying an egalitarian attitude that treated everyone in front of her as if they were nothing.

Beside Icarus, a huge tri-colored crystal wall formed a semi-circle and landed on the ground. A handsome man wearing a shirt, whose muscles were clearly defined, raised his arm and pressed it against the crystal wall. His body was covered with bright, semiconductor-like lines that had a mechanical and aesthetic feel.

A man's coat was draped over a woman who was squatting down, and the woman was holding him tightly, with only the tiny head of a baby showing.

The man who withstood half of the explosion's shockwave, like an impenetrable fortress, was none other than Amanosaki.

He touched his ear with his finger, and the bright red blood stained his finger.

“Eardrum perforation,” Amanosaki muttered softly, while gently brushing his left hand across the outside of his right arm, which was acting as a support.

A burning, throbbing pain coursed through the nerves of his entire arm. The dermis on the outer side of his right arm had been burned away, and a bright red stain spread across his arm, with blisters swelling at a visible rate.

It is at least a second-degree burn.

Amanosaki was quite surprised that he had only suffered such minor injuries.

He wasn't Icarus; he didn't possess an invincible physique. Two seconds before the explosion, Amanosaki received a warning from Icarus. The thought flashed through his mind, and without a word, the two quickly divided their tasks: Icarus was responsible for gathering everyone around Amanosaki.

Amanosaki then took out a handful of gems and used gem magic without regard to cost to create a thick crystalline wall.

But magic takes time to perform, and the crystal wall was still missing a gap, so Amanosaki had to prepare himself mentally for the possibility of being crippled and use his hands to plug it.

From the moment he stepped out of the training ground, he was mentally prepared to get injured and bleed.

Now, it's just a prophecy coming true.

But the flames and shockwaves from the explosion that destroyed the entire fresh food store only resulted in second-degree burns.

Amano Sakichi clasped his right hand together, feeling a slight pain in his bones, but it wasn't intense; it felt like he'd just been hit hard with a wooden stick.

'Are those medicinal baths really that effective?' Amanosaki saw the blisters on his arm swell to the size of broad beans, then burst with a pop, oozing clear tissue fluid, and the entire burned skin was rapidly scabbing over.

In just a few breaths, the second-degree burns on my skin looked as if they had been treated and cared for in the hospital for a week.

Icarus's inner thoughts clarified things for Amanosaki: 'I don't know about the highest-grade medicinal baths at the bathhouse, but last night, Nozaki, you took a bath in one used to bathe the river gods of some of Japan's most famous rivers. The allusion in Liu Yuxi's poem, "Returning to my hometown, I feel like a woodcutter who has rotted away," refers to a mortal woodcutter who survived a hundred years after eating a peach from a deity.'

'Your body is now comparable to metal and stone; your self-healing abilities and resilience are on a completely different level.'

Amanosaki flexed his wrists, watching the dead skin peel off and the tender new skin grow back, and let out a heavy sigh of relief.

Is that person still alive?

"He's already dead. The explosion blew through the load-bearing wall. I'm holding it up right now; if I let go, the second floor will collapse. There's no time to save his life," Icarus replied. Without the [Universal Card], she was the purest weapon of war.

They only care about killing; they never consider saving lives.

Without a word, Amanosaki smashed the crystal wall and canceled the magic. The proliferating magical crystals quickly dissipated. Amanosaki stepped out from the escaping crystal dust, carrying two children whose legs had gone limp from fright, on a wooden plank emitting black smoke.