At midnight, Xu Qian finished her routine stream. Upon wishing her fans good dreams, she quit the streaming platform and yawned. She did not get up in a hurry, going instead to check the credits she made today.
Since her live stream viewers had been declining recently, the gifts that she received had also reduced. Hence, her income didn’t look too good. As compared to in her primetime, her income had been reduced by at least half. However, Xu Qian saw the two sweet text messages her boyfriend sent her a few hours ago. He told her to rest early, and he also told her that there would be surprises for her tomorrow.
Her mood improved a lot, and she began to feel that it wasn’t too bad of an idea to quit her job and get married to her boyfriend. So she walked out of her studio and went to the refrigerator to get a bottle of beer. When she turned around, she saw Zhang Heng playing with his building blocks on the sofa.
“You are back. How did it go? Did you find anything?” she asked while opening the bottle.
“Well. I just ruled out two people on the list that you gave me. But…”
Xu Qian waved her hand and interrupted Zhang Heng, “I don’t care why you ruled them out. You just need to do your job well and show me the results.”
After she took two sips of beer, her irritability seemed to tone down a little. So, she took the initiative to apologize. “Sorry. I talked a lot on my stream just now. I am really not in the mood to talk anymore.”
“Understandable.” Zhang Heng nodded.
After that, the two stopped talking. Xu Qian turned on the projection and watched the hottest series on the Internet. However, she did not watch it for too long. After she drank all the beer in the can, she got up and went to the bathroom. After another half an hour, the washroom’s door was unlocked.
Xu Qian walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her, and her hair had just been blown dry. “I’m going to bed first. Don’t sleep too late. I’m going out to buy some clothes tomorrow morning.”
“Okay, see you in the morning.”
“See you in the morning.”
Xu Qian turned around and walked into her room.
After Xu Qian left, Zhang Heng tried the sofa mentioned by Xu Qian earlier. It was indeed more comfortable than a normal bed. Although Zhang Heng had no requirements for his living environment, he would not complain if he could sleep comfortably. He placed his blade at his side, and soon he fell asleep on the pillow.
…
Early the next morning, Xu Qian ordered two takeout breakfasts, which were delivered by the drones. Zhang Heng had also noticed that although there was a small kitchen in Xu Qian’s apartment, it seemed like she had never used it before. In fact, by 2077, there were very few people who still insisted on cooking their food. That was because all the restaurants used drones to deliver food to their customers. The drones were incredibly convenient, and the restaurants had to abide by strict sanitation and health standards. Other than that, the price of the food was reasonable and affordable.
The vast majority of people would opt to take out three meals a day so they would have more time to do other things. With its absolute necessity diminished, cooking became more like a hobby. Most of the stock of vegetables and meat would be supplied to the restaurants. Of course, people could still buy them from the supermarkets; they came at way higher prices now. Besides, most people did not have a kitchen in their homes. The apartment unit that Xu Qian rented had a kitchen because the original owner was a cooking enthusiast. Xu Qian now used it as a utility room.
Zhang Heng wanted to pay for breakfast, but Xu Qian refused his money.
“Although the agreement didn’t mention anything about living with me or providing you meals, I have to eat every day anyway. So I don’t mind paying for your meals since it doesn’t cost much.”
Xu Qian shared half of her meal with Zhang Heng as she spoke. Although there were various technological methods to help with weight loss, maintaining a balanced diet was still the better method to keep in shape. Fans nowadays were not stupid. The moment they found out that their streamers used the help of some kind of technological method to slim down, the streamers would start losing many fans.
In the end, Zhang Heng did not insist on paying for his meals. He did not have many credits, to begin with. It was always a good thing to be able to save more credits.
The Lego building blocks that he had with him were rented from the old man.
Yes. He was renting it, not buying.
Although the old man was willing to let him exchange service for shellac records, he still insisted on Zhang Heng paying 800 credits for the Lego bricks. And he was not willing to lower the price. So, Zhang Heng suggested to the old man about renting it temporarily. However, it was different from the shellac records. He would only get to use the Lego bricks in this quest. He could not bring it with him after the quest was over.
So, in the end, Zhang Heng obtained the right to lease this set of Lego bricks at the price of ten credits per month. Both parties were very satisfied with the deal. In addition, Zhang Heng paid half a year’s rent to the old man, costing him a total of 60 credits to get the Lego bricks that he wanted.
…
After breakfast, Xu Qian called a taxi and went to the largest department store on the third level with Zhang Heng. Across the roads, Zhang Heng could see the dynamic advertisements on the outer wall of the mall. A wide variety of products were being advertised, including clothes, cosmetics, various technological gadgets, and a newly released game.
Xu Qian saw a young girl promoting sports earphones in the advertisements, and she was envied of her.
“That’s Qiu Wei, the top-streamer of the company I work for. She is two years younger than me, and she worked in this industry for only a year and a half. However, her annual income has reached eight figures. So many companies want her to endorse their products. I have to say that she is the company’s well-deserved cash cow. Now, she lives on the fourth level of this city. When she celebrated her birthday this year, the company invited about one hundred streamers to join her birthday party. I was there, and I received a limited-edition lipstick when I walked in. It costs about 6,000 to 7,000 credits. There were drinks, male escorts, and other forms of entertainment. It was said that the cost of the birthday party exceeded one million credits.”
“Yeah.” Zhang Heng sat in the co-pilot seat and responded to Xu Qian. However, he was focusing on paying attention to his surroundings. He did not forget his bodyguard’s duties.
The department store area was the most prosperous place on the third level. Stores lined the entire street, while throngs of people entered and left the place. It was indeed very lively. As a former assassin, Zhang Heng knew that this was also the place where something bad was most likely to happen. No matter who the perpetrator was, they could easily make themselves disappear into the crowd.
This time, Zhang Heng did not bring his Pestilence Bone Bow and Shrouded Sheath with him. The reason why he dressed like a normal person was that he wanted to draw the stalker out. Xu Qian was not concerned about whether she could find the person who stalked her. She just wanted to sleep peacefully at night. Then, when her boyfriend returned to her, she would not need to worry about her safety anymore. And perhaps, she could even take advantage of this matter and move to the fourth level, living the life of the rich wife in advance.
On the other hand, Zhang Heng placed a lot of importance on his first job. If he could catch the stalker, he would be able to solve Xu Qian’s troubles once and for all. After all, the title of this quest was Bodyguard. Of course, Zhang Heng could do his job minimally to complete the task, but his instinct told him that this matter was not as simple as it seemed.
From the information he gathered so far, Xu Qian was indeed a very ordinary streamer. She was good-looking, and she had a small reputation. However, she could be materialistic at times, and she had a bad temper too. The good thing was she would admit her mistakes. All she could ever think of was to marry a wealthy man and live a better life. And she did not interact with too many people in real life. It was difficult to imagine that someone like her would get involved in something serious.
