After returning to Stronghold 61, the first thing Ren Xiaosu did was to return to his house to clear up the burglars that had been killed by the Potato Shooters. However, he discovered the yard to be totally empty. There was nothing there at all.
It looked like the refugees in town had finally wised up. When they knew no one could come out alive from this yard, they did not dare to come here anymore.
This was a situation Ren Xiaosu was a little unaccustomed to.
When Ren Xiaosu saw a bunch of wildflowers in the backyard, he immediately understood this was likely the sign Xiaolu had left for him. They had agreed that if the woman wearing the black cap left town, Xiaolu would let him know about it.
Ren Xiaosu was relieved when he found out the woman had finally left. For some reason, he always felt a sense of oppression whenever that woman was at the tavern.
After Zhou Yingxue entered the yard, she quickly wet a cloth and started cleaning off the dust on the furniture. Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows and said, “When did you become so hard-working?”
“Master, how long have you been away from here? It’s so dirty! I’ll itch all over when I sleep here at night,” Zhou Yingxue said with a frown.
“Who says that you can stay here?” Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, “Since the houses in town are not expensive, you should get your own place to live. How can we live together when there’s only one bedroom in my house?”
Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue had stayed in the same hotel room due to the limited availability of rooms. But now that Zhou Yingxue was so rich, Ren Xiaosu would definitely not be willing to share a room with her anymore. It wouldn’t be nice if word of this got out later since it would easily cause a misunderstanding.
Zhou Yingxue asked, “Then how much does a house cost in town, Master?”
“You can buy an identical brick house like mine for just 30,000 yuan,” Ren Xiaosu said.
When Zhou Yingxue heard that she would have to spend 30,000 yuan, her miserly character kicked in again. “Master, I can sleep on the floor at your place! I can wash your clothes and massage your legs!”
Ren Xiaosu’s face darkened. “Didn’t I give you a share of the money already? You have at least ten million yuan by now, yet you’re still trying to save this bit of money? Go and get your own house. I also don’t know how long we’ll be staying here.”
“Oh.” Zhou Yingxue reluctantly left.
Very soon, Ren Xiaosu heard Zhou Yingxue’s voice in the yard next door. “What? 60,000 yuan? Have the prices of the houses gone up so quickly? This is highway robbery!”
The homeowner next door said, “This is my ancestral home where all my childhood memories are…. So how much are you willing to offer? Why don’t you make a counteroffer? I might just agree to it.”
Since the yard next door was only five or six meters away from Ren Xiaosu’s house, he could hear them very clearly. Actually, the homeowner was very eager to sell the place as the recent haunting had affected him badly. But when he saw Zhou Yingxue fully accessorized with jewels, he thought he might as well fleece as much out of her as he could. Moreover, Zhou Yingxue had to have some other motives for buying his house even though she was dressed in such an expensive outfit. Who knew if his house might suddenly rise in value in another few days?
Zhou Yingxue thought for a moment and said, “Since you want me to make a counteroffer, I’ll say 3,000 yuan!”
The homeowner said impatiently, “3,000 yuan?! Are you trolling me? You should be offering at least 30,000 yuan!”
Zhou Yingxue’s eyes widened. “Then wouldn’t I have to troll you ten times at least? No, I’m only willing to troll you three times at most!”
Ren Xiaosu shook his head and continued with his housekeeping. The chatter of the haggling next door lasted from morning until evening. In the end, the homeowner got so frustrated his scalp went numb. Thus, he sold off the house to Zhou Yingxue for the price of 19,000 yuan.
When Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue went to the tavern to have lamb stew in the evening, the storyteller was relating the cave-in at East Lake to the audience. When he heard Ren Xiaosu’s footsteps, his expression changed greatly as though he were welcoming a formidable foe.
The storyteller could already recognize Ren Xiaosu by his footsteps!
When Xiaolu saw that Ren Xiaosu had come, she ran over excitedly. But when she saw Zhou Yingxue standing behind him, she turned glum before heading back to the kitchen.
Ren Xiaosu said to Zhou Yingxue, “The lamb stew here is really good. You should try it.”
With that, he waved at the waiter and placed his order. While waiting for the lamb stew to be served, he listened to the storyteller talking about the cave-in at East Lake. As expected, Ren Xiaosu was involved in the story again.
Or to be precise, the protagonist of this story was actually “Old Xu.”
After the two bowls of lamb stew were served, Zhou Yingxue looked at her bowl and realized there wasn’t any meat in it. Then she looked at Ren Xiaosu’s bowl that was full of meat. “Master, did you bring me here just so that you could eat two portions of meat?”
Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. This was definitely Xiaolu’s doing. When he looked up, he saw her sitting next to the storyteller and seething with anger.
When Zhou Yingxue followed Ren Xiaosu’s gaze towards Xiaolu, she realized what was going on. Then she glanced nonchalantly at her master and wondered why he was so popular with the women. He had only just shaken off Li Ran, but here came another girl throwing herself at him!
After the tavern closed, Xiaolu, who was feeling down, followed the storyteller back home. When she entered the house, she began to tear up the paper cranes that she had folded. The storyteller was elated when he heard the tearing. “Yes, tear them all up! There are indeed no good men in the world!”
But before the storyteller could be happy for long, Xiaolu started folding paper cranes again. The storyteller wondered, “Didn’t you just tear up a pile of paper cranes? Why are you folding them again?”
Xiaolu stubbornly said, “I like him! It’s not his fault!”
The storyteller started to feel an ache in his heart. “Where did you learn that from?”
Ren Xiaosu returned to his courtyard house alone. But to his surprise, there were potatoes smashed and scattered everywhere next to the Potato Shooters in the backyard.
Ren Xiaosu was stunned by what he saw. It was obvious someone had been attacked by the Potato Shooters after leaping into the backyard. But where did that person go? Did they run away after getting battered?
Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment. “The intruder’s probably a supernatural being.” Only a supernatural being could escape unscathed after such a heavy beating. But didn’t the woman wearing the black cap leave? Could it be that there were other supernatural beings at Stronghold 61?
This made Ren Xiaosu even warier. Someone was spying on him, and for something like this to happen on the very first day of his return, it could not be uncomplicated.
Could it be Wang Fugui and the others? No, Ren Xiaosu felt that even if Wang Fugui had read the newspaper, they couldn’t get here so quickly. Moreover, they definitely couldn’t take the Potato Shooters’ attack. Besides, there was no need for them to leap into the backyard either.
Two days later, Ren Xiaosu met Qin Sheng at the tavern. His face was all bruised and swollen…
Ren Xiaosu sized Qin Sheng up before asking, “Were you the one who went into my backyard two days ago?”
The bruised and bloodied Qin Sheng smiled in embarrassment and said, “Hahahahaha, what are you talking about? I only just arrived.”
Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “Normally, people use laughter to cover up for something when they’re embarrassed. The more embarrassed they are, the more ‘hahas’ there will be….”
