Chapter 48 "The Deliveryman" There's someone outside the window.
Is the man remembering what Xiangxiang said?
Was his male pride hurt?
Hiding under the covers, her dark eyes watched the handsome man who bought her medicine. After much deliberation, Jane made a decision that went against her ancestors' wishes.
"Ninth Brother."
“…” Zhong Yinghuai glanced over, clearly startled. He had gone out once in the early morning. His cold face with a high nose and fox-like eyes was slightly flushed. He walked over as he hung up the phone, then lowered his head and lifted a corner of the quilt.
The man's heart was filled with concern.
Why did Jian Xiaoshi, who had been listless all night, suddenly move so close to him?
He wanted to thank himself?
The next second, in a moment of madness, Jian Dieda lay on the bed and said to him like a little animal, "Ninth Brother, you look like you're very capable."
Zhong Yinghuai was taken aback, then said rather irritably, "How old are you? What right do you have to know what humanity is?"
Jane Dieda: "It's about a man's ability to make children. My mom says good things don't come true, but bad things do. You're not married yet, so don't curse yourself."
Zhong Yinghuai, “…”
The room they were in was small, with two pairs of slippers placed far apart on the floor, but the air didn't have the musty smell of a typical bachelor who hadn't showered; instead, it was filled with the masculine scent of their sweat.
Zhong Yinghuai waved his hand dismissively, unable to articulate the complex emotions swirling within him. After a long pause, he angrily told the other person to stop, telling the little one not to meddle in other people's business.
Jane Diedda: "I'm not young, nor am I a baby."
“Oh, so you’re not a baby after all,” Zhong Yinghuai didn’t openly sneer, but grabbed the ear in front of him and ordered him to look at the noodle shop’s menu more closely: “Look, that’s a meat bun.”
"That's a vegetable bun."
“Hey, there’s still an empty menu space on the wall of our shop. Whose is it?” Zhong Yinghuai nodded after a while: “It’s an eye-catching one.”
Jane Diedda: "..."
Zhong Yinghuai casually pointed a finger at Jian Dieda's head, "If you don't go to sleep, I'll sell you, Jian the Show-off."
Jane Dieda, “…”
Standing nearby, Jane Dieda caught a whiff of the man's fresh tea scent, a much better aroma than cigarettes and quite captivating.
But this person couldn't take praise. In the blink of an eye, without even saying hello, he tossed the hand towel over Jian Dieda's head.
The rag had a strange smell. Jian Dieda, the child laborer, was speechless from being abused by his boss. Zhong Yinghuai, as if he had eyes in the back of his head, gripped his belt with both hands and sneered with a mean smile: "Are you cursing your boss in your heart again? You don't want to negotiate with me about meal allowances and leave?"
Zhong Yinghuai seems to die if he doesn't laugh one day.
Zhong Yinghuai used a combination of coaxing and deception.
Jane Decker came out of the boss's room.
[Nine Brothers Noodle Shop exploration progress 25%]
[Current story progress: 21%]
[Zhong Yinghuai's favorability +30]
Please continue your investigation into the whereabouts of the body!
He had just wanted to stay and squeeze in with Brother Zhong Jiu, since he needed to stay near Fu'an Community to delve deeper into the secrets behind that unidentified corpse, and Zhong Yinghuai was one of the breakthrough points.
Unfortunately, Zhong Yinghuai wasn't buying it.
What is the reason for the simple stacking of energy?
He wasn't very good at getting close to other men, so pretending to be the weaker party was a strategy. It seemed he needed to think of other ways. He lay down thinking about all this, until he opened his eyes, still lightly asleep and sweating profusely.
Jane Dieda sensed that someone was watching him from outside the window of the shed he was in.
Unsure if there really was a shadow, Jian Dieda sat up and turned around, but the blue glimpse he had caught in his peripheral vision had vanished.
At this time, Zhong Yinghuai would be getting up in a little while, but the figure of that shadow was not someone he recognized.
Jian Dieda mostly feigned fear; now he suddenly had strange associations with the night.
Did anyone in 107 notice anything unusual after you finished delivering food yesterday?
He didn't know.
Thinking about it more carefully, in this season, the noodle shop windows are all blue to keep mosquitoes away, and the night also amplifies people's imagination, making him prone to suspicion.
Meanwhile, that night, the mysterious corpse spoke again, issuing a hint as per the rulebook's nightly provision of clues.
The corpse is talking.
【Corpse Lord】
"Delivery driver, a pair of eyes are watching you."
"They are nearby."
who?
With a playful, childlike attitude, Jane said to the window, "If I call you son, will you dare to answer?"
No one answered this time either.
Another day began amidst the meows of cats.
Zhong Yinghuai seemed not to take the repeated reports seriously after a night's rest; to the average person, it would be unimaginable that a murder case existed in the vicinity.
At six o'clock, the noodle shop's regular NPCs, Master Zhou and Master Liu, arrived.
They sat down and ordered noodles. The two middle-aged men rubbed their teeth and began their usual chatter.
Jian Dieda could tell from the conversation that Master Zhou was an experienced decorator.
Half of the residents in Fu'an Community have hired him for renovations.
Mr. Zhou said that he had actually encountered a ghost in the Fu'an residential area.
Contrary to popular belief, ghosts are white and have physical forms.
Master Liu sneered, "You didn't see someone draped in a bed sheet and pretending to be a ghost, did you? Or were you drunk that day?"
Master Zhou said, "I have no intention of lying. It's better to believe it than not to believe it."
Then he beckoned: "Little Blackie, come here, I have something to tell you."
Jian Dieda, who was eavesdropping intently, guessed that Master Zhou would be asking for credit again this time.
He watched the two of them slurping down their food. They should have paid the bill long ago, but Master Zhou dragged his feet, trying to take advantage of the situation.
Before Zhong Yinghuai could even open his mouth to be generous, Jian Dieda started collecting money.
Jian Dieda stepped forward, picking up Zhong Yinghuai's slippers. Her small apron made her face look more energetic: "Uncle, it's twenty-four in total."
Mr. Liu pretended to feel his bag, and there was a red five-yuan note in his pocket: "Oh, I only have a hundred yuan here, you can't make change, can you?"
He grabbed a fifty-yuan note, three ten-yuan notes, and a one-yuan coin, and put all the loose change on his person to deal with the situation: "Give me one hundred and five, that's just right."
Zhong Yinghuai in the kitchen started pretending to be blind and remained silent.
Since everyone knew each other, we couldn't make a big fuss over a small matter. After Jian Dieda collected the money, the two drivers pretended to be clueless and chuckled. They wiped their oily lips with tissues before settling the bill.
Jane easily helped him resolve a difficult social issue.
Zhong Yinghuai once again looked at Xiao Heipi with new eyes.
After finishing his work as the housekeeper, Jian Dieda quietly sat back down.
He continued to stare intently at the cash register and the landline phone used for ordering food in the neighborhood, with the same gaze he had as the Black Cat Sheriff.
Little did he know that his boss's eyes clearly wanted to fire him when he came out.
"Jian Xiaoshi, are you going home today?"
Zhong Yinghuai felt inexplicably comfortable and brought up the matter of Jian Dieda taking a break.
Jane Diedda: "Yes."
He glanced at Zhong Yinghuai's bag. The man had been carrying a plastic bag in the store since he got up. Inside were the business license, an official seal with a chip, and a pack of cigarettes. Zhong Yinghuai, who was in a hurry to make arrangements, didn't even look at Jian Xiaoshi and got into the black Passat parked outside.
Jian Dieda thought he could sneak out and investigate the case of the hidden corpse in the neighboring community.
To everyone's surprise, after a chaotic series of beeps from the horn dozens of times, Jian Dieda finally peeked out.
Boss Zhong, who hadn't left yet, had already poked his head out to look for him, and the man's eyebrows, which had been ignored, were raised again this time.
"Wait, come back here." Boss Zhong, who was out on business, called to Jian Dieda from outside.
Jane did as she was told and went over.
Zhong Yinghuai raised his arm and remotely opened the car door.
Zhong Yinghuai looked at the young apprentice with disdain: "I'm talking to you. Did you forget to take your ears? Come here and talk to you."
Jian Dieda, afraid of being scolded, went over.
A long, bony hand reached out to grab his ear, but he dodged it. Zhong Yinghuai was furious but couldn't catch Jian Xiaoshi, so he threw a large, dark green backpack with crisscross straps and a hundred yuan from the passenger seat of his car.
Ninth Brother spoke.
"What are you looking at? It's a rare opportunity to come home, so have a nice meal with your parents."
"But don't rush off work. Go inside and wash the dishes. Xiangxiang will take over for you tonight, so you don't need to come back."
Jian Dieda, focused only on money, ran straight back to the noodle shop in his shorts to play on his phone. Zhong Yinghuai, a man with a sharp tongue, yelled at him like he was his son, and then he left.
When the pork chops at the restaurant stall were almost sold out, Xiangxiang arrived with a pot of fresh toppings. As soon as she arrived, she greeted Jian Dieda like a good older sister, telling him to hurry home from get off work.
Jane didn't want to go home.
In the end, he could only secretly go to see Zhang Mei.
Before leaving, he told Xiangxiang about the shop being reported, saying, "Sis, if you need anything at night, contact me on QQ. I'll be online invisibly."
Xiangxiang: "Okay, I'll wake you up and have you help me harvest the vegetables."
Jian Dieda, who was working odd jobs, embarked on his journey home.
Having been away from home for several days, he imitated the original owner's behavior, standing at the door to eavesdrop for a while, and like a thief, spying on the happy life of a normal family.
It was clear that without him in the way, the family was unusually harmonious, with their conversation coming out intermittently.
My older sister, who's in high school, said, "Did you know that a girl from our school went missing on her way home from school?"
The stepfather asked indifferently, "What's wrong? You've gone astray at such a young age and run off with a man. Don't you dare follow him. I can't bear the shame of that."
Sister: "I would never do that! The main thing is that the girl passed between Fu'an Community and the moat. Did Jian Xiaoshi go there to work during this period?"
The stepfather coughed, and the man rubbed the container in his hand, the liquor glass clinking together.
His attitude toward his stepson has always been ambiguous.
Sister: "Are you really going to expel him from school? Without a degree, he has no future."
No one could guess what the couple planned to do with the child they brought along, but with a new life on the way, Zhang Mei revealed her true feelings: "He can take care of himself, girl, we can just eat our own food."
Before the older sister could say anything more, her stepfather said, "This is an adult matter; the child shouldn't concern himself with it."
Jian Dieda remained hidden under the door the whole time, not disturbing the warm dinner until his mother finished cleaning up the kitchen utensils, at which point he cautiously knocked on the door.
Zhang Mei opened the door for him, and neither she nor her son said much.
It seems the stray cat-like boy is destined never to receive the candy Zhang Mei gave him.
That evening, while watching the episodes of Princess Pearl and Fragrant Concubine Meng Dan alone, the narrator appeared. The theme song had just ended, and the mechanical voice told him.
"Host, something has happened."
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On this side, after humming a couple of lines from SHE, Xiangxiang, who was staying at the shop, closed the door to take a shower. During the day, the waitress didn't take what Jian Xiaoshi said seriously.
But that night she stumbled upon a dangerous path.
Same location.
As soon as she unhooked her bra and looked up, she was terrified – someone was peeping at her from outside the shared bathroom.
Someone was watching her from outside the window.
Xiangxiang's face was deathly pale; her face beneath her long, straight, bleached hair had turned white.
To make matters worse, she was so frightened by the darkness that she didn't scream at the first sign of danger.
The head that was staring intently without moving was probably someone from the store. It was impossible to tell his age from his build and height, except that he had a rather large head and was a slightly overweight man wearing blue overalls.
"Ahhh—" Xiangxiang screamed at the top of her lungs, trying to scare people away, "Help!! You pervert! Get out! My boyfriend... is at home!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the plunger smashed against the window.
A woman's floral pajamas were reflected on the window.
Xiangxiang was afraid of being seen naked, so she turned off the light.
The bathroom suddenly became even darker.
If it were a bad guy, he would definitely be scared away by a single woman standing tall and saying just one sentence.
Xiangxiang thought so too, but after shouting, she looked at the dark window that was only slightly ajar, and a large amount of cold air rushed into the soles of her feet. It turned out that the person had not left. He was staring at her through the window and smiling at her.
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A note from the author:
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2023-10-30 21:35:50 and 2023-11-02 14:58:14!
Thank you to the little angel who watered the nutrient solution: Lin Zhi (1 bottle);
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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