“This is my ID card, no cheating intended,” Liu Hongmei said as she took out her ID from a drawer, walked out of the room, and handed it to Shui Miao. Watching Shui Miao carefully examine the ID, she suddenly felt a bit uneasy. As a landlord, why was she showing her ID to a tenant? “Ahem! Oh, right, where are your ID cards? According to the rules, everyone who rents a room here must show me their ID.”
Liu Hongmei turned her hand and looked at the three of them.
“Oh, I’ll get mine for you…”
Shui Miao now felt more confident and quickly returned Liu Hongmei’s ID, then took out his own.
Chenxiang and Chen Bing also took out their IDs.
Liu Hongmei took the IDs and began to examine them carefully.
As Shui Miao watched Liu Hongmei, he felt anxious. How should he ask about his background? Back then, when Liao Jifen came to ask, Liu Hongmei not only refused to speak but also got angry. If he asked directly now, the possibility of her revealing the truth was almost zero!
“Shui Miao, Chenxiang, Chen Bing…”
“Haiwan City, and from the same village too…” Liu Hongmei didn’t notice anything suspicious and nodded as she returned the IDs. “Oh, you haven’t told me what you do yet. A small village in Northern Jiangsu, it probably isn’t very wealthy, right?” Liu Hongmei was a bit suspicious. In her mind, Northern Jiangsu was a poor area, and it was rare to see young people who could come up with a stack of cash to rent a house.
“I’m not sure if we’re rich or not, but I know people from our village have mostly gone into business in Zhonghai City and become wealthy. We came here mainly to try our luck, planning to rent a storefront and sell crabs and aquatic products.” Shui Miao put his ID away and started looking around. “Auntie Liu, which room is it?”
Shui Miao changed his excuse on the spot because this Auntie Liu seemed like someone who often went to nightclubs.
If they were exposed, it would be a problem.
“Selling aquatic products is actually a good business. With the improved living standards nowadays, people even eat crabs like they’re rice. No wonder people from your area can get rich!” Liu Hongmei walked toward the neighboring room, took out her key, and opened the door. “Where do you plan to look for a storefront? Don’t most people in this business rent stalls at the market?”
“Market competition is too fierce. We plan to open a shop in this village, targeting the general public, with low margins but high sales volume.” While working as a hotel waiter, Shui Miao often chatted with Old Huang, who was responsible for selling seafood, and learned something about this business.
When they entered the room, Shui Miao found that the rooms were actually quite nice. They were very well decorated, with air conditioners, refrigerators, kitchen utensils, beds—everything you need for immediate occupancy, which explained the high rent.
“Then… who is your sister? How does she know about me?”
Liu Hongmei was still a bit puzzled. In her memory, she didn’t know any women in the aquatic products business, and she had never rented a room to any woman in that line of work.
“My sister doesn’t work in aquatic products.” Shui Miao took a quick look around the room and walked out. As he stepped outside, he happened to see a group of sexy, scantily clad beauties chatting and laughing as they entered the courtyard below. Shui Miao had a sudden idea and sighed. “Actually, my sister works at a nightclub.”
“Uh…”
Without needing further explanation, everyone understood what kind of job that implied. Liu Hongmei immediately felt relieved. She hesitated slightly, then laughed as she opened the door to another room next door. “Oh, why the sigh? Working as a server at a nightclub isn’t anything bad. I have many girls here who work at nightclubs, from all over the country—more than a dozen of them.”
Several rooms on the third floor of this house were rented to young women who worked at nightclubs.
In fact, as Liu Hongmei said, not all the girls working at nightclubs were necessarily hostesses; it was just that outsiders didn’t understand the situation.
This room was much more comfortable than the neighboring one, although a bit smaller.
Shui Miao specifically used his yin-yang vision to check the room’s aura, and everything seemed normal. Standing in the corridor, he could see that the energy at the courtyard’s ground level was somewhat chaotic, but on the third floor, the energy was quite good. However, there was one room near the entrance of the courtyard that felt off. Looking down from above, he could see a grayish mist seeping out from under the door.
At that moment, several girls who worked at the nightclub came upstairs. They lived in the room right by the staircase.
The girls were tall, fair-skinned, and looked very young and beautiful.
They glanced at Shui Miao’s group and then entered their room.
“What do you think? Isn’t the environment here quite nice?” Liu Hongmei looked at the three of them. Chen Bing and Chenxiang both looked like naive young people who had just come from the countryside, obviously overwhelmed by everything. Only Shui Miao looked more experienced and composed, like someone who had seen the world. “So, these two rooms are 8,000 each per month. Since you’re all so young and just starting out, I’ll give you a discount if you rent both rooms. Together, it’ll be 15,000 per month.”
Two small rooms for 15,000 a month was shocking to Shui Miao and his companions.
Afraid that Shui Miao would spend too much, Chen Bing quickly said, “Brother Shui, I can stay at a relative’s place…”
Chenxiang also wanted to say it was too expensive but, considering this was for Shui Miao’s search for his origins, and compared to that, this amount of money wasn’t that significant.
“Alright, don’t go to your relative’s place. I’ll pay the rent. After all, I’m living alone.” Shui Miao raised his hand to stop Chen Bing and smiled at Auntie Liu. “Auntie, I’ll take both rooms, but please start charging from tomorrow. We won’t be staying here tonight.”
“Oh my, you’re such a polite young man, calling me Auntie and all. That’s quite endearing. Well, I won’t charge you for the days you move in, and I’ll start counting three days from now. But you’ll need to pay the rent for three months upfront, otherwise someone else might come and rent them.” Auntie Liu looked at Shui Miao’s pocket with some uncertainty. “Of course, if you can’t stay for three months, just let me know a few days in advance, and I’ll refund you. The reason I ask for three months upfront is kind of like a deposit. After you’ve stayed here for three months, we’ll switch to monthly payments, and no more deposit will be needed.”
“Auntie, how about the water and electricity fees?” Shui Miao decided to pay. Three months should be enough time to figure out the secrets of his origins.
Auntie Liu looked around suspiciously and then whispered to Shui Miao, “You young people probably won’t use much water or electricity. I’ll waive the fees for you, but don’t tell anyone else. If others find out and ask me to waive their fees too, I won’t be able to survive.”
Auntie Liu’s secretive manner made it seem like she was very familiar with Shui Miao.
“Thank you, Auntie. I’ll pay the rent now. Could you also give me a receipt?” Shui Miao turned to Chenxiang and said, “Little sister, get the money out. Now that we have a place to live, other worries can wait. Don’t worry, I won’t let you suffer.”
“Okay!”
Chenxiang fully understood Shui Miao and immediately took out the money.
Chen Bing, however, watched in pain. He thought Shui Miao was going out of his way. Wasn’t this just to ask a question? If they grabbed Auntie Liu and beat her up, she would surely talk. If that didn’t work, they could report her for baby trafficking and let the police investigate. Spending so much money now was such a waste.
Auntie Liu gave Shui Miao a receipt and brought out a rental contract for him to review and sign.
The contract had no issues, so Shui Miao signed it and paid without hesitation.
Auntie Liu handed Shui Miao the keys to the rooms and went back to change clothes before heading out for her night activities.
Shui Miao and his companions returned to the hotel.
“Brother Shui, spending so much money on renting a place is such a waste. We could have just paid a few thousand yuan to hire some hooligans to grab that old woman and surely get the truth out. Now look, over 40,000 yuan is gone. With that much money, we could have rented a storefront and started a business.” As soon as they entered the hotel room, Chen Bing couldn’t help but complain. He felt Shui Miao’s approach this time was completely different from before. This method was too agonizing and too disadvantageous.
Seeing Chen Bing’s reaction, Shui Miao just shook his head and smiled. He turned to Chenxiang. “Little sister, what do you think?”
If it had been a week earlier, Shui Miao would have agreed with Chen Bing, hiring some hooligans to grab Auntie Liu and force her to tell the truth. But now, Shui Miao had changed. He had learned a lot from his grandfather, realizing that sometimes things couldn’t be rushed and that wisdom was needed. He couldn’t ignore Chenxiang’s feelings or do anything illegal.
Shui Miao secretly felt relieved that his godfather, Wang Yong, had given him ten thousand yuan, otherwise his little sister wouldn’t even have money for living expenses.
Chenxiang looked at Shui Miao, thought for a moment, and then shook her head. “I don’t know what to say. But I know that Brother Shui must have his own reasons. Since this matter is so important to you, if you think this is the right way to go, then go ahead. At the very least, we now have a good place to live. What do you think, Brother Chen?”
Compared to Chen Bing, Chenxiang was more considerate of Shui Miao and more composed.
Chen Bing, on the other hand, was a bit hasty, impulsive, and selfish. How could Shui Miao not investigate his own background? Moreover, he was using his own money. As a good friend, how could he only think about himself? Starting a business might be great, but a person should have their own goals in life, right?
After hearing Chenxiang’s words, Chen Bing suddenly realized he might have been a bit selfish.
“Yeah, you’re right. Still, I won’t move in. That place is too far from where we work. I’ll just stay in the staff dormitory.” Chen Bing was being honest. This house was in Buduo District, while the hotel where they worked was in Zhabei District, more than ten miles away. Commuting twice a day would be torture. Besides, even though the conditions in the hotel staff dormitory were a bit worse, at least it was free housing provided by the hotel.
Shui Miao thought for a moment and then patted Chen Bing’s shoulder. “You go ahead tomorrow. Help me tell the manager I’ll start work the day after tomorrow. And don’t tell anyone about renting the house.” His salary would be paid in ten days, and these days off were accumulated from previous leave. Since everything required money, Shui Miao decided to work a few more days, collect his salary, and then quit.
“No problem, that’s easy.”
Chen Bing laughed and started packing his clothes, preparing to take a shower and go to bed.
Seeing this, Chenxiang said goodnight and went to her own room to take a shower and sleep.
Shui Miao let Chen Bing go first and took out his phone to send messages to his grandfather and godfather, Wang Yong, telling them he had arrived in Zhonghai City. Unexpectedly, not long after, Wang Yong sent a message asking where Shui Miao was staying.
Shui Miao was puzzled. Why would his godfather ask that?
Wanting to get to the bottom of things, Shui Miao quickly called Wang Yong…
What Shui Miao couldn’t have imagined was that at this very moment, Wang Yong was being interrogated at the police station. His home had been sealed off, and the person who sent the message asking for Shui Miao’s address wasn’t Wang Yong, but rather the beautiful police officer from Haiwan City, Chu Miaoyi.
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