Finally, safely back home, Robin breathed a sigh of relief. She had genuinely feared Yu Lin would drag her to the bathhouse against her will, but thankfully, after seeing Robin's vehement refusal, Yu Lin didn't press the matter further.
As they parted ways, Yu Lin suddenly remarked, "Bird Sister, you look so adorable when you're shy~"
Robin fell silent. What could she possibly say to that?
Honestly, now that she thought about it, she was rather curious about what her expression had been at that moment.
Lost in thought, Robin headed straight for the bathroom.
Although the weather had been gradually cooling, her day of outdoor activities had still left her slightly sweaty, and the sticky, uncomfortable feeling of her clothes clinging to her skin was unbearable.
With practiced ease, she shed her garments one by one, her bare feet landing on the cool white tiles of the bathroom floor. Robin turned on the faucet, setting the showerhead aside to let the cold water warm up. Then she gazed at herself in the full-length mirror.
Her waist-length, shallow blue hair clung evenly to her shapely young body. Robin's gaze drifted downward. After two months of this life, she certainly wasn't going to blush at the sight of her own reflection.
Her petite navel formed a perfect "I" shape, and her clearly defined abs were firm yet supple. She pinched her side, finding not an ounce of excess fat.
Shaking her head, Robin noticed the shower water was finally hot enough to create a wisp of steam. She angled the spray toward her pale feet to test the temperature. Satisfied, she lathered up with body wash and began washing herself meticulously from head to toe, paying special attention to the few tangled strands of her long hair and her bird feathers.
Relaxing, the young girl involuntarily hummed a tune.
"♪...♫...♪...♬ˎˊ˗"
Many might consider themselves shower singers, but Robin from her past life certainly wasn't one of them. Perhaps she'd always rushed through her baths, or maybe her voice simply wasn't pleasant. Now, however, both those things had changed dramatically, and singing in the shower had gradually become a habit.
After all, there wasn't much else to do, was there?
Some time later, Robin sat wrapped in a white bath towel on a living room chair. She pulled out her phone and scrolled through the concert news that had made headlines, her slender legs swinging back and forth. "The concert's tomorrow..."
Twenty days after Robin's impulsive decision to hold a concert, the day had finally arrived.
That afternoon, a full two hours before the concert's official start, the area around Longcheng Central Gymnasium was already packed with people. Concertgoers formed orderly queues to enter.
Lü Heng, stationed at the gymnasium's entrance, gazed at the sea of faces and the seemingly endless line of people. He clicked his tongue. "This is insane. Look at this crowd."
"Yeah, it's unbelievable," Invincible Bro muttered, a cheap cigarette dangling from his lips.
Longcheng Central Stadium had four entrances, and these two were responsible for the north gate.
Invincible Bro held a device shaped like a temperature gun, scanning each person as they approached. Lü Heng monitored the data on a nearby computer. The device was similar to the identity scanners Lü Heng had used at the airport.
The difference was that this portable version wasn't checking for Evolver status, but verifying identities to ensure that each person was the actual ticket holder.
Everyone entered the venue in an orderly fashion until two foreigners appeared at the front of the line. Lü Heng vaguely recognized them—Jack and Tom, if he remembered correctly.
No wonder I can't remember their names, he thought. They're so generic.
It's worth noting that by 2045, technological advancements had made real-time translation commonplace. Now, all it took was for both parties to wear lightweight, compact earpieces to communicate seamlessly across language barriers.
Just as Invincible Bro raised his temperature gun to "aim" at the two brothers, they reacted with astonishing speed. One immediately ducked into a defensive crouch, shielding his head, while the other whirled around and bolted. Their reflexes were so sharp that even Lü Heng, an Evolver, was momentarily stunned.
His first thought was: Are they afraid of being identified? Could they really be spies?!
"Stop running!" Lü Heng shouted, instantly springing into action. He quickly realized, however, that the fleeing foreigner wasn't particularly fast—his strength lay in his reflexes, not his speed.
Catching him was effortless.
"No! Don't shoot me!" the man yelled.
"Huh?" Lü Heng froze, sensing something amiss. He grabbed the man by the collar. "Wait, who's talking about shooting you?"
"Then why did you point your guns at me earlier?"
"That was a scanner to verify your identity as the ticket holder."
"Seriously?"
"Of course. Is that why you ran?"
"What else could it be?"
After hearing their explanation, Lü Heng felt completely numb. It turned out these two had grown up in White Eagle, experienced so many gunfights that "duck and cover" and "escape from a gunfight" had become instinctive reflexes—hence their lightning-fast reactions.
Or perhaps it was simply survival of the fittest; those without such reflexes might have already been "weeded out" by nature.
After confirming their identities as legitimate ticket holders, Lü Heng finally let them in. Not because he particularly trusted them, but because even if there were spies, it couldn't possibly be these two.
They were simply too conspicuous.
Time passed, and the long queue in front of Lü Heng and Invincible Bro gradually dwindled. Naturally, there were plenty of people trying to sneak in. One sucker had bought a scalped ticket, hoping to gamble his way in. Another had even forged a realistic-looking ticket. The most outrageous attempt came from someone who showed up empty-handed and tried to sprint into Longcheng Central Stadium while Invincible Bro was checking the identity of the person ahead of them.
It was utterly ridiculous.
About an hour and a half later, after the last person had successfully entered, Lü Heng and Invincible Bro finally had a moment to relax. They chatted for a while, and when it was clear no one else was coming, Lü Heng suggested, "Why don't you head inside? I'll keep an eye on things here for a bit longer."
"Alright," Invincible Bro agreed without hesitation.
They remembered the ticket sales announcement that nearly 100,000 tickets had sold out instantly. The reason it wasn't a precise figure was that Robin had secretly reserved a significant number specifically for their group.
Nevertheless, they still had to follow protocol. Invincible Bro scanned himself with the temperature gun. Though he was the actual ticket holder, the computer at Lü Heng's station displayed his identity information:
Ling Huai, 25 years old, Evolver
Lü Heng: "?"