Embarrassed, Cheng Ye finished the rest of the egg yolk pie and said in a low voice, "I was just worried about her. She's always been so carefree. What if she gets scammed?"
"That's completely unnecessary to worry about," Xiao Feiran said with a smile. "That only happens at home, okay? Your sister is much more shrewd outside."
Cheng Ye opened the milk carton, still unable to imagine how shrewd his sister was.
On the other side, Cheng Zhi and Qi Yanche were still going down the stairs.
Cheng Zhi was almost dizzy from descending the winding staircase. "Going down the stairs wasn't as fun as I imagined."
When Qi Yanche heard her say that, he thought Cheng Zhi was tired. "If you want to rest, that's fine too."
Cheng Zhi shook her head, "Actually, it's not so bad. Let's save this time for when we go upstairs later."
The two arrived on the first floor without incident. The lobby was in complete disarray. The normally spotless floor was covered in trash, and the dark red leather sofas used for reception were tattered and worn, with one even flipped over.
As expected, the front desk was also in a mess, with almost every cabinet open.
Cheng Zhi and Qi Yanche had no choice but to rummage through the messy things one by one. After searching for a long time, they found no large bunch of keys, only some odds and ends.
The two squatted on the ground, examining each key one by one, with Cheng Zhi struggling to decipher the labels on them.
The characters were already illegible, and after being soaked in water, they became even harder to decipher.
Cheng Zhi looked at the screen and finally saw the words clearly. "This one is for the monitoring room, this one is for logistics, this one is for the staff break room, this one should be for the management office, and I really can't see the other one."
Qi Yanche saw that Cheng Zhi was about to cross her eyes and wanted to laugh, but he was afraid of upsetting her, so he just nodded and said, "Let's go then."
The two people jumped up from behind the counter, startling a passerby outside.
Qi Yanche seemed quite familiar with the place, and led Cheng Zhi into the first floor.
Cheng Zhi said softly, "There are signs at the entrance, so we don't have to wander around blindly."
Qi Yanche stopped. "I've seen it before and memorized it."
"That's very prescient," Cheng Zhi gave him a thumbs up.
The two of them made their way through the building to its depths, where the door marked "No Entry for Non-Employees" had already been opened.
Qi Yanche pushed open the small door and quickly scanned the small room. Apart from being a bit messy, there was no one in sight.
Continuing their search, they entered the management office first, but after looking around, they found nothing but a pile of paper documents and no keys.
Since being inspired by Xiao Feiran that day, Cheng Zhi's mindset has improved. She is not discouraged now, after all, she is not familiar with the property management, and if she can't find it in this room, maybe she can find it in the next one.
The two then went to the monitoring room, where they found it in complete disarray. The screens inside were smashed, and there were dark bloodstains on the floor.
Fortunately, Cheng Zhi and Qi Yanche were used to this kind of scene. They were focused on finding the item and were not affected.
"This is really strange. I think this is the most likely place to have the key. It makes perfect sense for the security guard on night duty to check the surveillance footage and patrol the building with the key," Cheng Zhi said, leaning against the door after finding nothing.
Qi Yanche violently opened the last cabinet, only to find a stack of A4 white paper and two ballpoint pens inside.
He turned his head and said, "You can't say that. The departments here are basically interconnected, so the key could be anywhere."
Finally, they found two large bunches of keys in a cabinet in the logistics department.
Every key was there from the first floor to the thirtieth floor. Cheng Zhi nodded in satisfaction. "Let's go, let's try it."
The two went to the stairwell on the first floor, inserted the key into the lock, and luckily got it right on the first try. Then they tried a second key, which was obviously wrong.
Once they had the keys, they put the other set back where it was and locked the doors.
Qi Yanche held the keys in his hand. "Should we put them back at the front desk?"
Cheng Zhi thought for a moment, "It doesn't matter, there's nothing left inside anyway."
Qi Yanche nodded, then he would take it for now.
The mission was accomplished, but Cheng Zhi and Qi Yanche were not happy because they had to climb the stairs again.
Cheng Zhi felt weak in the knees at the sight of stairs. "I will never buy a high-rise apartment again, no matter how much money I have."
Including this time, Qi Yanche has come upstairs three times today. He nodded in agreement, "I wouldn't take it even if it were given to me."
Cheng Zhi disagreed, saying, "If it's free, I'll take it. I'll resell it and use the money to buy a detached house."
Qi Yanche smiled and said nothing more.
Cheng Zhi took a deep breath, gripped the handrail, and said, "Let's start early and finish early, and rush to the 13th floor in one go!"
Qi Yanche cooperated very well and raised his voice to say "okay".
As expected, she simply didn't have the strength. Cheng Zhi was even worse off than in the morning; she couldn't manage even after reaching the 7th floor.
She and Qi Yanche both stopped. Cheng Zhi leaned against the wall with one hand on her hip to rest, while Qi Yanche also leaned slightly against the armrest.
Cheng Zhi wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt that Qi Yanche's expression had become somewhat unpleasant.
She asked with concern, "Why do I feel your lips are a little pale? Are you not feeling well?"
Qi Yanche, who was looking at the keys, paused slightly without realizing it. He smiled and shook his head to deny it, "No, I'm just a little tired."
Since they met, the two of them have actually only spoken to each other a few times.
Cheng Zhi has a bad memory, but she vaguely remembers that almost every time she speaks, Qi Yanche would look at her intently. But this time, he seemed to deliberately look away.
To verify her guess, she leaned closer and asked, "Are you really not feeling unwell?"
Although it was just a small step, Qi Yanche's evasive gaze became even more obvious.
Having gotten the answer she wanted, Cheng Zhi returned to her original spot and said very directly, "Are you lying?"
Qi Yanche immediately lowered his head, refusing to answer.
Since no one was saying anything, Cheng Zhi couldn't very well pry him open his mouth.
"Fine, fine, if you don't want to tell me, then don't. Let's go upstairs first." Cheng Zhi chose to give up for the time being; pressing too hard wouldn't get her any answers.
The two silently returned to the 13th floor and sat down on the sofa, one after the other.
The people around were stunned. Why was the atmosphere so strange?
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