After AFK for five years, I returned to be number one in the entire server.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the sun in Changshui Town was still quite hot.

She changed into a durable long-sleeved jacket, ready to go to the garment factory.

The town's garment factory was built next to a piece of wasteland two kilometers to the south. Apart from large trucks and workers going to and from get off work, few people usually went that way.

She had asked the factory manager beforehand, and they said they didn't hire temporary workers for a few days, but she could go in and help her mother. The factory paid by piecework, so if she did more work, her mother's burden would be lessened.

Once outside the town, the asphalt road turned into a bumpy dirt road.

On both sides are harvested farmland, leaving only withered yellow straw. When the wind blows, it raises a fine cloud of dust.

Shen Yi walked along the roadside, head down, her gaze falling on her slightly faded canvas shoes.

The roadside weeds were tall, and the surroundings were so quiet that only the sound of the wind and her own footsteps could be heard.

After walking for a while, Shen Yi suddenly stopped.

She didn't turn around, but she could feel a slight rustling sound behind her.

That sound was different from the sound of the wind blowing through dry grass; the rhythm was very deep.

She took a deep breath, turned around, and stared coldly at a clump of reeds a dozen meters behind her.

"come out."

The reeds swayed slightly, but then remained still.

Shen Yi's eyes remained unchanged, but her voice rose slightly: "I know you're there, come out."

A few seconds later, a man wearing a yellowish-black T-shirt emerged from behind the reeds, breaking off a dead branch under his foot.

Zhang Qingqi.

In Shen Yi's memory, the other person was just a vague shadow from high school.

His hair was always messy, and he liked to hang out with the idle hooligans in town.

"Why are you following me?" Shen Yi asked him from a distance.

"I happened to be going that way, and I saw you walking this way alone, so I was worried about your safety."

"I'm safe now, you don't need to follow me anymore."

Shen Yi turned around and prepared to continue on her way.

Zhang Qingqi quickly caught up and blocked her way.

"I heard what those people in town were saying. They said you went to the big city with an old man."

Shen Yi frowned.

"Shen Yi, I've liked you for a long time, since junior high school. You may have forgotten, but you lent me an eraser back then, and I still keep it to this day."

"I know your family isn't well-off. If you stay with me, I'll support your education, and I can rent a shop in town to start a business. I'll treat you a million times better than those rich people outside."

Shen Yi interrupted him: "Zhang Qingqi, I really don't remember any eraser. If I borrowed it, it was just because I happened to have an extra one. Don't overthink it. I've never liked you. Whether those rumors outside are true or false, it has nothing to do with you."

She stepped aside: "Don't follow me anymore."

"What are you pretending to be so high and mighty for? You're just a worthless slut who sells herself for money. You can spread your legs and let those old men who are about to die sleep with you outside, but I, Zhang Qingqi, can't touch you?" Zhang Qingqi gritted his teeth.

Shen Yi sensed the danger and retreated, trying to run back the way she came.

Zhang Qingqi strode forward, grabbed her wrist, and pulled hard.

Shen Yi felt a sharp pain in her arm, lost her balance, and fell heavily onto the dirt roadside covered with withered grass.

"Go ahead and run! There's not a soul on this road today, let's see where you run to!"

With red eyes, Zhang Qingqi pounced on him like a mad dog.

The other person's ugly face magnified in Shen Yi's eyes. Zhang Qingqi's eyes were alarmingly red, with bloodshot whites. The muscles on his face twitched slightly with excitement, and his dry, chapped lips stretched to the sides, revealing his menacing teeth.

There are no security cameras here, not a soul in sight, and even if you shout your lungs out, only the wind can hear you.

An overwhelming sense of despair, like icy water, instantly engulfed Shen Yi's mouth and nose.

She thought she was clear-headed enough, and that as long as she put on a mask of indifference and swallowed all the gossip, she could get through it.

In just a few more days, she will be able to return to Ningchuan and leave Changshui Town behind.

The nauseating, sour smell was almost in front of him when suddenly, Zhang Qingqi was flung away like a kite with a broken string.

His body arced through the air before crashing heavily into a ditch seven or eight meters away.

Shen Yi's mind went blank for a moment. She hurriedly got up from the ground and reached into her coat to touch her phone.

There was nothing there.

Shen Yi dared not turn around to search for Zhang Qingqi near the ditch where he had fallen, nor did she dare linger on this deserted dirt road for even a second longer.

When she arrived at the gate of the garment factory, her back was already soaked with cold sweat.

She approached her mother with a normal expression.

In the evening, the garment factory closed for the day.

Shen Yi and her mother walked out of the factory and embarked on their journey back to the town.

The neighbors gathered in twos and threes, and when they saw Shen Yi coming over, they immediately lowered their voices, but the undisguised contempt they showed was like a knife scraping against her.

Just as they were passing a shop, a person came into Shen Yi's view.

The other person looked nonchalant, calmly observing the passersby.

"What are you doing here?" Shen Yi stopped and asked Lin Ye, who was standing in front of her.

"Tourism," Lin replied.

He called Shen Yi aside and stuffed something into her hand—her lost cell phone.

"Wang Xuan stole it."

Shen Yi was stunned, then immediately understood. Wang Xuan deliberately stole her phone to create a blind spot in west Wangmu's surveillance, and then Zhang Qingqi ambushed her on the way. It was all part of their plan.

At this moment, Shen's mother walked over and looked at Lin Ye somewhat reservedly: "Yiyi, is this your college classmate?"

"Hello, Auntie." Lin nodded politely.

"Hello, hello, why didn't you tell me you were coming here to play?" said Shen's mother.

Lin also looked at Shen Yi: "I can't find anywhere to stay in town, can I stay at your house?"

Shen's mother was stunned for a moment, clearly not expecting the other party to make this request. Her family's conditions were too poor, how could she possibly entertain her daughter's classmates whom she met outside?

"Can."

Finally, Shen Yi agreed, her tone indifferent, simply nodding slightly without any further objection.

Shen's mother felt that her family's conditions were really not presentable, but she couldn't very well kick her daughter's classmate out, so she kept saying that the house was too shabby and asked Lin not to look down on it.

The three walked along the road and arrived at their house. Shen's mother brought out an old wooden chair and placed it in the yard: "The house is messy, please sit wherever you like."

Lin also said thank you and sat down.

Shen's mother hurriedly went into the kitchen next door, turned off the light, and soon the sounds of pots and pans clattering came from inside.

She seemed flustered. Usually, the mother and daughter's dinners were very simple, mostly boiled cabbage or pickled vegetables.

Now that she has a classmate from the city, she's eager to turn her house upside down to find something to entertain the guest.