Chapter 2

Hao Ren stared blankly at the piece of paper in front of him, which bore the address of a rather remote place on the outskirts of the city. He was all too familiar with this address: wasn't it his own home!

"What are you looking for this place for?" Hao Ren couldn't understand why a stranger he had just met would have the address of his home. To be honest, he was quite excited at this moment, but he also had a good sense of self-awareness, knowing that all his good luck with women had been used up by the time he was in the third grade, when he sat next to a girl. So he maintained a calm expression, only slightly curious as he looked at the pretty girl in front of him.

She had a good figure, a pleasant appearance, and although her height was a bit disappointing, her lively and cheerful demeanor more than made up for it...

"I'm looking for a place to live!" The pretty girl answered straightforwardly, "I've been looking for a whole day, and I couldn't find it, so I decided to ask someone—there was only you left to ask in the park."

Hao Ren felt that this girl was a bit too familiar, but his attention was quickly drawn to the three words "looking for a place" she mentioned. His drowsy mind, still groggy from his afternoon nap, suddenly became a bit clearer. He suddenly remembered something: Oh, he was a landlord, and he had just placed an ad in the city's small newspaper a few days ago, saying he had a place to rent. Was this girl looking for a place to live?

It had been a long time since he had a tenant, and today he could finally collect rent again!

Hao Ren folded the paper and handed it back to her, "Of course I know this place, I'll take you there."

The pretty girl immediately showed a delighted expression, stuffed the paper into her bag, and patted it, "Thanks! I've been looking for a long time..."

Hao Ren stood up and stretched, just about to head out of the park when a sudden realization hit him, "Wait! You said you've been looking for this address in the city center for a whole day?!"

The pretty girl nodded vigorously, looking rather innocent and cute, "Yeah, yeah! It's pretty hard to find."

"Of course it's hard to find!" Hao Ren almost couldn't control his tone. He suddenly suspected that this girl might have known him before and had a grudge, and was just here to tease him, "Didn't you notice that the address says South Suburb? South Suburb! You've been looking for a suburban address in the city center for a whole day?"

"But it says Bai Shi Lou here," the pretty girl pointed in a certain direction, and Hao Ren knew it was the location of a commercial building in the city center, "Isn't Bai Shi Lou in the city?"

Hao Ren was momentarily stunned, then he reacted, "It's Bai Shi Road in the South Suburb, not Bai Shi Building in the city center!"

He didn't say the rest: Does this girl only look at the first two characters of an address?

"Ah, right," the pretty girl quickly recalled, then showed a slightly embarrassed look, "I forgot, I'm usually a bit careless. Do you know this Bai Shi Road in the South Suburb? Can you take me there?"

Hao Ren still felt that something was off about this girl, but he was a lazy person who didn't like to think too much. Besides, she was just a tenant looking for a place to live. He had been a landlord for two years and was already used to not interfering too much in his tenants' affairs. He pointed to the park entrance, "We need to take a bus, the South Suburb is quite far. By the time we get there, it should be evening. Oh, by the way, I'm the landlord you're looking for, the place you're looking for is mine."

The pretty girl was immediately surprised, her whole demeanor changing, "Oh! Really?"

Hao Ren nodded, and the energetic girl almost jumped up, "Wow, what a coincidence! How can there be such a coincidence in the world? Landlord, we must be destined to meet!"

Hao Ren rubbed his forehead, feeling that the girl in front of him was a bit too lively. At this point, he couldn't help but say what he was thinking, "Aren't you afraid of being kidnapped? What if I'm lying to you?"

This was a rather tactful way of putting it. In fact, he really thought this girl was a bit silly... No, very silly! Not only had she spent a whole day looking for a suburban address in the city center, but she also believed a stranger after just a few words, and was about to let a stranger lead her to a desolate suburb. How could girls these days have such weak self-protection awareness? Was she just lucky, or were the human traffickers slacking off? How did this girl manage to avoid being kidnapped?

Hao Ren's mind was filled with these thoughts, but it only took a couple of seconds. The silly girl (is it okay to call her that?) also seemed to have just realized something, and she looked at Hao Ren with caution, "Kidnapped? Are you a human trafficker, planning to sell me?"

Hao Ren: "...Of course not!" He felt he should keep his distance from this girl. If it weren't for the fact that she was a "customer," he wouldn't have interacted with such a silly person for so long!

The silly girl nodded in satisfaction, "That's fine, I'm afraid of being cheated. Shall we go then?"

Hao Ren sighed weakly and left the park, suddenly feeling his steps were particularly heavy.

The two quickly boarded a bus heading from the city center to the suburbs. This ride was anything but boring: Hao Ren found that his new tenant was not only very familiar, lively, and a bit silly, but also a chatterbox! On the bus, he listened to her enthusiastically chat about everything from the current status of second-tier celebrities in and out of the country to the housing prices in various second-tier cities. Hao Ren didn't know how these topics started, but she never seemed to run out of things to say. As long as he nodded slightly, the silly girl would find the motivation to continue and keep talking... But this wasn't a big problem; listening to her talk was a good way to pass the time, and Hao Ren also took the opportunity to roughly understand his new tenant's situation, which was a necessary skill for a landlord: to know the tenant's situation as quickly as possible to prevent any troublesome issues.

The silly girl's name was Liu, and she called herself Liu Lili. She was very open and told Hao Ren to just call her "Lili." She claimed to be a traveling pet doctor and a freelance writer (he wasn't sure what a freelance writer actually did), who had just moved from another city and planned to settle here. She didn't care much about where she lived, as long as it was clean, convenient, and could protect her from the elements, since her work was flexible...

Based on this information, Hao Ren judged that his new tenant was a very adventurous person, currently without a stable job, but unlikely to cause him any trouble. He was quite satisfied with this. After all, a young girl like this couldn't cause much trouble, even if her personality was a bit silly... but that was her own problem, right? Hao Ren just needed to be a good landlord.

As expected, by the time the long bus ride ended and they stopped at a small station in the South Suburb, it was already almost completely dark outside.

Hao Ren led Lili off the bus, and before he could catch his breath, he heard her exclaim, "This is Bai Shi Road?"

"The sign says it's the South Suburb station! Bai Shi Road is an old street, and you have to take a small road. Have you ever seen a bus drive into an alley?"

"Oh... ha ha, I tend to get things mixed up, landlord, please bear with me," Lili laughed awkwardly. After talking non-stop on the bus, she seemed to have become even more familiar with Hao Ren. She looked around, her brow slightly furrowed, "This place is pretty quiet."

The bus stop was on a street that looked quite old, with buildings from the 1980s and 1990s. The road was bumpy, the shops along the street were small and closed, and behind them were old, cramped five-story apartment buildings. All these details highlighted how desolate and outdated the area was. This street and its surroundings were the only "city" part of the South Suburb. Sometimes Hao Ren himself would wonder if this area had been completely forgotten by modern society, but every month, he would regain confidence: Don't worry, the water company won't forget you, the power company won't forget you, the gas company won't forget you, and even the telecommunications company and insurance sellers won't forget you. With so many people remembering you, what's there to be unhappy about...

"Let's go," Hao Ren gestured for Lili to follow, "The city's security is good, but this place is remote. It's late, and there might be drunkards wandering around. Let's get you settled at my place first. By the way, I should remind you, try not to wander around at night. It's safer for both of us."

Technically, he shouldn't have said this. As a landlord, saying this could easily scare off or make the tenant suspicious, but Hao Ren was always honest. Although he hated trouble, he disliked lying or taking advantage of others even more, so he explained the situation clearly. This was one of the reasons his house had been hard to rent out recently: two people had come to look at the place, but they were both scared off.

But the petite Lili didn't take it seriously at all, "Don't worry, landlord, I'm good at fighting."

Hao Ren felt he had definitely met an abnormal person today, "I'm not talking about that... Let me be blunt, aren't you afraid of encountering bad people?"

As a half-stranger who had only known her for a day, Hao Ren knew he shouldn't meddle too much, but this was the first time he had met such a strange girl, who was so lively, familiar, and almost silly. As a good person, he couldn't help but say something.

But Lili just laughed and waved her hand, "Landlord, you're such a good person, but I'm not afraid of bad people. I'm very strong, and I'm good at fighting. I've chased away all the bad people I've encountered before."

Hao Ren couldn't help but mutter, "You've really encountered bad people... Is that why you're so carefree and lack caution now?"

Lili, seeing that Hao Ren wasn't saying anything, smiled to herself and reached out to pull her oversized suitcase, but it made two "thud" sounds, and the two rubber wheels fell off and rolled away.

"Ha ha, looks like it's a bit heavy," Lili scratched her head awkwardly.

"No, the road is a bit bumpy..." Hao Ren's eyebrows twitched, looking at the broken road and sighing, feeling he should do something as a man, "Here, let me help you with the suitcase... What on earth did you put in there?!"

As soon as he tried to lift the suitcase, he felt that something was very wrong. The weight was like it was filled with cement, and even a big, strong man like him couldn't lift it!

But Lili didn't notice Hao Ren's strange expression. She just laughed and easily lifted the large suitcase onto her shoulder, as if it were a bag of cotton.

Hao Ren watched the petite girl, who was a head shorter than him, carry a suitcase that weighed at least a hundred pounds and walk briskly, almost doubting his own worldview. It wasn't until Lili called out to him to hurry up that he snapped out of it, muttering to himself as they walked: It's fine, she's just naturally strong, I see it on TV all the time...

The two walked, one chatting non-stop and the other a bit preoccupied, and soon left the relatively wide road, turning into a dark, narrow alley. At the end of this alley was "Bai Shi Road," where Hao Ren's family house was located.

It was already dark, and one of the two streetlights on the side of the alley was broken, making the atmosphere even more eerie and scary. The old, dilapidated houses around added to the gloom. If it weren't for the nearly full moon in the sky, even Hao Ren, who was familiar with the area, would have felt uneasy. He couldn't help but glance at Lili, who was still walking beside him without any caution and seemed to be in a good mood.

The dark night, the desolate alley, the unfamiliar environment, and the unknown man beside her—any one of these would make a normal girl cautious, but this "Liu Lili" showed no signs of tension. Was she really lacking in common sense?

"Flap, flap—"

Just as Hao Ren was worrying and overthinking for a stranger, a strange flapping sound suddenly came from above.

The sudden noise in the quiet surroundings startled him. He immediately looked up and saw a strange black shadow quickly pass through the narrow night sky between the high walls.

The black shadow seemed to be a bat, but its size... didn't seem right?

"Huh... What's that at night?" Hao Ren didn't want to lose face in front of a girl, so he loudly said he wasn't scared, then looked at Lili, expecting to see her scared. However...

At that moment, he saw a pair of wolf-like ears suddenly appear on Lili's head!

(New book uploaded, everyone, please promote it. Also, I can't ask for subscriptions or votes yet, so please recommend and collect it!)

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