"July 20th, Lonely City Express News reports that Huang Kong Seventh Bank was robbed, with approximately ten million Feather Coins lost. The robbery is suspected to be perpetrated by the city's emerging street entertainment group—Deception Group..." In the living room, the evening news was playing on the TV.
"Ruo Jie, dinner is ready." In the simple kitchen decorated in cool tones, Jiang Shu dumped the pork ribs from the frying pan onto a plate and called out sideways.
He carried the plate toward the living room and arranged it, dinner was a simple two dishes and one soup.
"Ruo Jie?" He called again, still with no response, then he went upstairs.
Ruo Jie's bedroom was uniquely organized: the trash bin was empty, all the trash was on the floor; the wardrobe was devoid of clothes, clothes piled on the bed unclear whether clean or dirty; there was no one and no quilt on the bed, though one could faintly make out something on the lazy boy chair in front of the desk, a mixture of Ruo Jie and a quilt.
"Didn't I just help you clean up the room a couple of days ago?" Jiang Shu sighed, it looked like he needed to clean the room every day.
Helpless, he walked over to the mixture, reaching out to pull the quilt, but hesitated for a while and only turned to open the curtains, as he wasn't sure what state Ruo Jie under the quilt might be.
It was already dark outside, and looking through the window, he could see a large river running between two worlds, with swirling tides reflecting the towering buildings and colorful lights of the opposite shore.
On the other side of the river were tall buildings, neon lights, and huge billboards, their noise and lights creating a frivolous world of prosperity. On this side, in the low-rise villa wealthy area, lay the rare tranquility of the city.
This was a Cyberpunk world, and three months ago, he appeared at a street corner in this city, not soul-transferred.
He was lucky, before he could suffer hunger, Ruo Jie—Liu Tingruo had picked him up and brought him home, and she decided over one dinner to take on the responsibility of raising him.
"Bring the food in." A moment later, a distinctive cool female voice came from within the quilt, sounding a bit groggy and more languidly coquettish than usual as it was probably just after waking.
"Eat at the table." Jiang Shu commanded and directly left the bedroom.
After a while, amid a dissatisfied grumble, a hand extended from the quilt, casually grabbing a few pieces of clothing from the bed.
"Just a housekeeper..."
Soon, a woman wearing an oversized men's T-shirt appeared at the top of the upstairs staircase. She yawned, rubbed her eyes, and clomped down the stairs on her long white legs.
Liu Tingruo squinted at the steaming two dishes and one soup, then leaned in to sniff, "Not bad."
"Why are you wearing my clothes?" Jiang Shu glanced at her and handed her the prepared plate.
"Mine are dirty." She took the bowl, glanced at Jiang Shu, and said in a tone of "I was wrong, I dare next time," "Too lazy to wash."
"..." Jiang Shu just watched her.
"Let's do this, dinner is on me tonight, so in return, wash my clothes for me." She extended her spoon towards the ribs, lazily speaking.
"... Fine." Jiang Shu helplessly agreed, then clasped his hands together, his face earnest as he prayed before eating, "Thanks to my virtuous Ruo Jie, for blessing me with this delicious dinner, relieving me of shopping, washing, chopping, cooking, plating, serving, and washing dishes."
"You're welcome." Liu Tingruo took the time to reply amidst her busy eating.
"Come with me to Entertainment C Zone later, the custom playing cards are ready." Jiang Shu looked at her.
"Oh, just go yourself." She casually replied, "Or have them delivered."
"..." Jiang Shu watched her helplessly, "I don't have a Character Card, I can't go to C Zone."
A Character Card was this world's identity card, every citizen could obtain one at the Central Zone when they turned eighteen, which determines the profession they will contribute to for life, effectively the role they would "play" in Lonely City.
Clearly, he didn't have such a thing.
Without a Character Card, half of the city's zones were off-limits to him, and critically, without a Character Card, he couldn't work, which meant he would have to be supported by Ruo Jie continuously.
Although that wasn't too bad considering Ruo Jie was a talented and wealthy Hacker.
"No." Liu Tingruo looked down, her expression still placid, yet she seemed to glance at him, a hint of cunning in her eyes, "Make garlic chicken wings tomorrow, and I'll go with you."
"Again with that, how do you not get tired of it?" Jiang Shu sighed and agreed, "Okay, will buy some chicken wings later."
After finishing the last rib, she sucked on her greasy fingers, wiped her hands and then entered the bedroom.
Moments later, dressed casually, Liu Tingruo came out. She opened the door and remembered something, then beckoned towards the two little red and blue balls on the induction charger, saying, "Little Eight, Little Five, come."
The red and blue balls lit up in response, then grew round eyes and tiny cat ears, and flew towards Liu Tingruo, following her steps.
Like all other districts, Seventh District in Lonely City couldn't escape the coexistence of decay and blooming prosperity, but it at least managed to segregate the two at different ends of the district.
Entertainment C Zone was the junction of both, mixed
Jiang Shu tugged at Liu Tingruo's clothes, and she belatedly stepped forward to swipe her card and pay. She looked at the cheerful Jiang Shu and asked, puzzled, "What are these cards for?"
"Just bored," Jiang Shu replied, touching the deck of cards in his pocket, "Just for fun."
In his previous life, he was a magician, a profession where boredom wasn't an option, a profession where boredom meant starving.
There was no magic in this world.
During these three months here, he was utterly bored, dealing with nothing but household chores. He suspected if he applied for a Character Card, AI would match him as a nanny or butler.
"Bored?" Liu Tingruo frowned. "Is this fun?"
"It's somewhat fun." Jiang Shu took out a freshly opened deck from his pocket, the backs of the cards facing up, casually flipped the first card—a three of hearts—and then said, "Here, sign your name."
"Okay." Liu Tingruo took out the pen she carried with her and swiftly signed her name on the card he held.
"Now, this is a three of hearts that's unique in the whole world." Jiang Shu flipped the card back, with the back facing up, and then handed it to her, "Bite it in your mouth."
"What?"
"Bite it in your mouth."
Liu Tingruo nodded, slightly opened her cherry lips, and bit into the card, then looking at the distracted Jiang Shu, she mumbled unclearly, "What is it?"
"Nothing much." Jiang Shu steadied his slightly fluttered spirit; Liu Tingruo's enchanting pose reminded him of a famous scene from a past Cyberpunk film.
"Now, flip a card." He flipped the first card of the deck, a three of spades, then signed his name on it, again with the back facing up, and continued, "I'll also bite this card."
"What?" Liu Tingruo tilted her head, not understanding what he was doing.
"Now, write your name on the palm of my hand with your finger." Jiang Shu spoke clearly even though biting into the card.
"Okay." Liu Tingruo did as instructed, her slender fingers tracing her name in his palm.
Liu, Ting, Ruo.
"Good, my turn." Jiang Shu naturally took her hand and wrote his own name on her palm, "Sometimes, writing doesn't need ink and paper, just transferring the markings..."
He flipped the card he was biting. Remarkably, it had Liu Tingruo's signature on it. As she looked on in surprise, Jiang Shu continued, "To where it needs to go."
"Eh?" Liu Tingruo blinked rapidly, then opened the card she was biting, and indeed it bore Jiang Shu's signature. After a brief moment of reflection, she took a step back, pointing at him warily, "Do you... do magic?!"
"..." Jiang Shu pushed her finger back into her fist, helplessly saying, "This is just a magic trick; you can think of it as sleight of hand or an illusion."
"I see." Liu Tingruo nodded thoughtfully. "How did you do it? Can you tell me?"
"Um... sure." After a brief consideration, Jiang Shu agreed.
"It's just a simple technique called Double Lift." He took out the deck. "Double Lift, simply put, means when I flip the top card, I'm actually flipping two cards. The three of hearts you saw was the second card."
"So what?"
"So after you signed and I covered the cards back, I gave you not the second card, the three of hearts, but the first card, the three of spades I had already signed." Jiang Shu shrugged. "Then I did another Double Lift, signing my name on the second three of spades."
"So you're saying there are two three of spades with your signature?" Liu Tingruo tapped her hand, understanding, "You just switched the cards."
"What else? If I could control the ink freely, I'd be copying homework for students and making a fortune every day." Jiang Shu laughed.
"Unambitious." Liu Tingruo pursed her lips; if one could perfectly copy handwriting, wouldn't it be more profitable to forge contracts or checks?
"But interesting." Unlike many who lost interest upon learning the truth about magic, Liu Tingruo became even more intrigued, "So, what exactly is magic?"
"A simple truth, a complex process, a bit of performance skill," Jiang Shu squinted, as if recalling something, "But I think what's more important is that a complete magic trick tells a story with its effects."
"A story?" Liu Tingruo softly repeated, then suddenly remembered something and looked up to ask, "Do you know about Deception? It's that new thing that appeared these two months."
"Deception?"
"Yes, it's very similar to what you described as magic," Liu Tingruo explained thoughtfully, her eyes deep in thought. "A newly emerging team, specializing in street performances of Deception, always wearing masks, very mysterious."
"Moreover, a robbery happened yesterday, and the suspects... are their members." She slowly said.
Two months, Deception, a bank robbery...
"It's him, he just performed a Deception trick!" At that moment, a loud shout interrupted Jiang Shu's thoughts, and he turned to see a group of people not far away, one of whom was pointing at him.
Before he could recover, a burly man dressed in a black Lonely City police uniform lunged at him, wrestled him down, and handcuffed him with shiny silver handcuffs.
"I am Wolf, active-duty Second Level Police Chief, badge number TC12138. I suspect you are involved with the Huang Kong bank robbery, come with me."