The bell rang for a while, but Annie didn't come to open the door. Zhang Yuanqing walked out of the bedroom and opened the security door himself.
Standing outside the door was a seven or eight-year-old boy with big eyes and delicate features, a rather adorable child.
This was the landlord's child.
He held a food container in his right hand and an aluminum can in his left. The can had the words "Tieguanyin" written on it.
"Hello, Uncle!" the little boy said politely.
"It's 'brother,' not 'uncle.' Say it again," Zhang Yuanqing corrected.
"Hello, Brother!" Zhang Yuanqing appreciated the little boy's pragmatism. He nodded with satisfaction and asked:
"What is it?"
The little boy glanced down at the food container and said crisply, "Afternoon tea. Mom asked me to bring it, along with some tea."
Zhang Yuanqing stepped aside. "Come in."
He led the little boy inside, took the food container, and placed it on the coffee table. Opening the lid, he saw two layers: one with a plate of pastries, and the other with a plate of dark red glutinous rice balls.
"Tangyuan?"
"No, it's Tang Bu Shuai."
What is Tang Bu Shuai? Zhang Yuanqing took out the pastries and Tang Bu Shuai while asking, "What's your name?"
"My name is Cao Chao, and my English name is Robin," the little boy said.
Zhang Yuanqing paused for a moment, then blurted out, "Good name. Well, I mean the Chinese name. Who named you?"
"Dad."
"Does your dad like to watch Romance of the Three Kingdoms?"
"How did you know?" Cao Chao's little face was filled with surprise.
I also know that your dad must really like Cao Cao. Hopefully, he admires Cao Cao's ambition and strategy, not... Zhang Yuanqing picked up a "tangyuan" with his chopsticks and tasted it. It was smooth, fragrant, and not too sweet. The sweet taste of brown sugar and the aroma of glutinous rice lingered on his taste buds.
Unexpectedly delicious.
He also opened the aluminum can and smelled it. The tea fragrance was strong. The Tieguanyin was of good quality.
This should be the landlord's wife's return gift. After all, the new tenant had paid so readily, directly paying half a year's rent plus three months' deposit, a full 50,000 Federal dollars.
At this moment, Zhang Yuanqing noticed the little boy named "Cao Chao" staring at the expensive snacks in the glass plate, quietly swallowing his saliva.
The snacks were bought by Annie in the supermarket.
"Take whatever you want to eat," Zhang Yuanqing said.
"Mom doesn't let me eat snacks. I'll get beaten," Cao Chao shook his head with longing.
"Oh, then don't eat them." Zhang Yuanqing wasn't one to force others.
"I'm not really afraid of Mom's beatings," the little boy followed his heart's desire and grabbed a handful of snacks.
He stood by the coffee table, sticking out his little belly, and ate with great concentration. Zhang Yuanqing took the opportunity to inquire about the landlord's family.
Cao Chao's father was called Cao Qing, from Baotang Province. He immigrated to the Free Federation with his parents when he was young and started a small restaurant. After decades of operation by two generations, he now owns six chain restaurants and two snack shops in Chinatown. He also owns six apartments.
The landlord's wife was called Yang Xiujuan. When she married Cao Qing, the family only had two restaurants. In those years, the security in Chinatown wasn't good. They often encountered people who ate without paying,
Law enforcement personnel who demanded bribes, and harassment from local Chinese gangs.
The complex and chaotic security environment made Yang Xiujuan develop an extremely irritable temper. She couldn't survive without being fierce.
"Every time Dad and Mom argue, Dad will scold Mom for being a tigress, and then Mom will beat him. My sister sometimes calls Mom a tigress, and Mom spoils her. Only I never call Mom a tigress, because I'm afraid of getting beaten." Cao Chao sold his family's information for some snacks.
"But you just said 'tigress' three times," Zhang Yuanqing pointed out sharply.
The little boy's face changed, and the snacks in his mouth suddenly didn't taste as good.
"I won't tell your mom. Tell me about your sister," Zhang Yuanqing said.
The little boy was immediately relieved, and the snacks in his mouth became tasty again. He gnawed on the chocolate-covered
nuts like a hamster and talked about his sister who loved to fight.
In Cao Chao's eyes, his sister was an absolute devil, moody, snatching his snacks and toys, and liked to beat him up, just because she didn't like him.
Beat your younger brother early, your sister has awareness... Zhang Yuanqing finally understood why this child had such a strong desire to survive at such a young age. With a grumpy mother and a sister who liked to hit people, he would have died young if his desire to survive wasn't strong enough.
"My sister also has magic, so I don't dare to resist her," Cao Chao said with lingering fear.
"Magic?" Zhang Yuanqing's heart stirred, and he deliberately said, "That's all just to fool kids."
"No!" The little boy frowned slightly, loudly saying, "She showed me. She can release electricity, like Pikachu."
As he spoke, he clenched his fists, strained like he was pooping, and shouted, "Ten thousand volts!"
Zhang Yuanqing sensed Cao Chao's emotions. He wasn't lying. He was telling the truth.
In other words, that little girl named Cao Qianxi is a Lightning Mage? Uh, no wonder she's irritable and loves to fight. I remember that the characteristics of a Lightning Mage are irritability, anger, and justice, well, relatively just. Therefore, Lightning Mages in the Heavenly Restriction control the duties of prosecutors... Zhang Yuanqing's thoughts raced, and he asked again:
"When your mom and dad fight, does she release ten thousand volts?"
The little boy shook his head.
Indeed, the probability of the whole family being The Way of the Extraordinary is extremely small. It's impossible to be so coincidental, or maybe not. If this family are all The Way of the Extraordinary, it would be easy to understand how they earned this fortune... Zhang Yuanqing thought for a moment and asked again:
"Are your parents away from home for a few days every month?"
"How did you know?" the little boy asked in surprise.
This brother is really amazing. He not only knows that Dad loves to watch Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but also knows that Mom and Dad are often away from home.
He was a little scared, suspecting that he also knew about him wetting the bed last night.
Zhang Yuanqing grabbed a handful of snacks and stuffed them into the little boy's pocket. "I guessed randomly. Don't tell anyone what I said today. If you do, you can come to my house and eat snacks whenever you want. Go home now. I'll return the box and dishes when I'm done."
"Okay!" Cao Chao nodded happily and rushed out of the bedroom.
Watching the little boy leave, Zhang Yuanqing ate two more Tang Bu Shuai before Annie came out of the bathroom, wrapped in a bath towel, her head wrapped in a towel, a few strands of golden hair falling down, showing a mature and lazy charm.
The bath towel wrapped her heavy chest, the snowy cleavage bottomless. The hem of the bath towel reached her thighs, her two beautiful legs long and straight, round and well-proportioned, as white as solidified milk.
"Ah, Leader, what are you eating? Does Annie get a share?" The blonde beauty came over happily, looking like she was attracted by the food and didn't have time to change her clothes.
Zhang Yuanqing handed her the chopsticks.
Annie clumsily used the chopsticks to pick up a "tangyuan" and put it in her small mouth. The sweet and soft taste made her eyes light up:
"What is this?"
"Just think of it as tangyuan."
"What's tangyuan?"
"Never mind, just eat it..." Zhang Yuanqing picked up a piece of pastry and ate it. "I just found out that the landlord's family are all The Way of the Extraordinary. Isn't that a coincidence?"
Annie, chewing on the glutinous rice ball, widened her beautiful eyes in surprise, then her face darkened: "They may be people from the authorities, or informants for the authorities, or they may be members of a scattered cultivator organization. Should we move?"
Zhang Yuanqing pondered for a moment and shook his head. "No, just pretend we don't know. Let's observe first and try to gain the landlord's family's favor. We might need them in the future."
Annie said "Oh" and picked up another Tang Bu Shuai. She accidentally didn't hold it steady, and with a thud, the ball fell into the deep cleavage of her chest.
Annie quickly looked at Zhang Yuanqing, aggrieved, "It, it fell in..."
Zhang Yuanqing glanced at the brown sugar staining her white chest and said unhappily, "Why are you telling me? Do you want me to help you take it out?"
"... I'll go wash it off right away." Annie got up hastily and walked towards the bathroom, pouting when she turned her back to Zhang Yuanqing.
Hmph, she seems to have forgotten that I'm an Illusionist. She deliberately threw the ball into her chest to seduce me. How ridiculous. Am I that easy to seduce...? Zhang Yuanqing looked at Annie's round buttocks and struggled to look away.
The Desire Profession's "perfect figure" and "charm" are fatally attractive to an adult male, like a mouse seeing rice or a cigarette meeting a match.
Cao Chao returned to the room next door empty-handed and yelled, "Mom, I'm going to my room. The brother next door said he'll return the bowl when he's done."
He ran to his room.
The landlord's wife strode after him, grabbing her youngest son's collar: "What's stuffed in your pocket?"
"Nothing!" Cao Chao quickly protected it with his little hands.
"It's stuffed so full, does your old lady look blind?" The landlord's wife said without another word, bending down to grab her son's ankle, lifting him upside down and shaking him.
The chocolates, milk candies, candied fruit, and cookies in his pockets fell out with a clatter.
"The brother forced them on me. I said I didn't want them." Cao Chao passed the buck with a strong desire to survive.
"He's quite rich." The landlord's wife glanced at them and gathered the snacks. "Confiscated."
Cao Chao forced a smile: "Okay, all for Mom to eat."
Then he gave his dad, who was enjoying afternoon tea at the dining table, a weak, helpless, and pitiful expression.
Cao Qing was an average-height middle-aged man, slightly overweight, with a small belly, and regular features. At first glance, he looked very calm and dignified, but occasionally revealed shrewdness and slyness in his eyes.
His hairline wasn't high, but his hair was a bit sparse. He wore a slicked-back hairstyle popular in the 80s and 90s. His clothes were also very ordinary: gray pants, a black t-shirt, and a pair of flip-flops. He didn't look like the owner of a chain restaurant at all.
Cao Qing ignored his son's help and said while drinking tea:
"My daughter said the new tenants are a couple, and the woman is a foreigner? What do you think? Are they reliable? They paid half a year's rent and three months' deposit upfront. No one is that stupid, right? Don't let them trick us and turn from helping us for half a year to being squatters."
"I'm better at judging people than you!" The landlord's wife retorted and said, "The little boy graduated from Songhai University, and the foreign girl is a foreign language teacher. I think their education is good. How about we have them tutor our daughter? Hiring a tutor is too expensive."
Cao Qing scoffed and shook his head. "Let's see."
The next morning.
Zhang Yuanqing got up and washed, sitting at the dining table eating Annie's carefully prepared loving breakfast: toast, milk, fried eggs, bacon, and sausage.
All high-calorie foods.
Zhang Yuanqing actually wanted to eat soup dumplings, youtiao, and soy milk more, but considering that Annie had gotten up early and worked hard, he didn't want to pour cold water on her.
After breakfast, Zhang Yuanqing took a taxi to Chen Shu's company.
Chen Shu had worked in a large company in her early years. After accumulating some experience, she resigned, went abroad, found a few partners, and started a foreign trade business, becoming her own boss.
That foreign trade company was in New York Port, very close to the Statue of Liberty.
New York Port is the largest port in the Free Federation. Half a century ago, its throughput reached hundreds of millions of tons. In recent years, its freight volume has continued to break records.
It was New York Port and Manhattan's Financial Street that made New York County the world-class metropolis it is today.
The two took a ferry across the sea and set foot on the headquarters of the Neptune Church – New York Port.
Chen Shu's company was called "Lianhua Trading." Zhang Yuanqing and Annie followed the navigation and found the company in an old office building.
The receptionist was a delicately made-up, but at most pretty, Chinese woman.
Zhang Yuanqing went straight up and said in Chinese, "Hello, I'm looking for Chen Shu, the general manager here."
The receptionist's face had just started to smile when she heard this and was suddenly stunned: "I'm sorry, sir, our general manager is not called Chen Shu."
Not called Chen Shu? Zhang Yuanqing frowned: "Then maybe the position has changed. I'm looking for Chen Shu, one of the shareholders of your company. Can you help me check?"
The receptionist shook her head: "I'm very sorry, if you know one of the shareholders of our company, you can call her..."
Before she could finish, Zhang Yuanqing said impatiently: "Check for me!"
His dark brown pupils became transparent, and his words seemed to contain the magic of making people obey.
The receptionist showed fear and obedience, stammering: "You, you wait a moment..."
She bent down and typed on the keyboard. After a moment, she raised her head, her expression fearful and helpless:
"Sorry, we don't have that person in our company."
Don't have that person, I'm so angry... Zhang Yuanqing gritted his teeth, thinking that he was really blinded by lard, actually believing Chen Shu. Not a single word from that old woman's mouth was true.
The two had no choice but to return the way they came. On the ferry, Zhang Yuanqing said in a low voice:
"Annie, when you were Mr. Bill's assistant, did you ever see my mom?"
Mr. Bill and Annie knew his real name and even knew that Chen Shu was his mom.
Annie shook her head: "I was Mr. Bill's assistant at the end of last year. He's a good boss, not interested in women. I just need to do my job."
Zhang Yuanqing took a deep breath, "Call Mr. Bill and ask... Never mind, don't ask. Bill and my mom are partners. They're in the same gang."
He needed to observe Chen Shu in secret.
This time coming to New York County, he would definitely make that riddle mom take off her disguise and reveal her true form.
Returning to Manhattan by ferry, Zhang Yuanqing went to "Rainbow Flag Bank" in front of him and deposited 500,000 Federal dollars into the bank card issued by the Hunter Guild.
Then he opened Bounty Hunter, entered the background, and selected a bounty mission:
#Collection of Demon Lord's Lovers in the Free Federation#
Mission Details: The buyer hopes to provide basic information on the Demon Lord's lovers, including but not limited to family background, position, organization, level, photos, and detailed accounts of their relationship with the Demon Lord.
Bounty hunters need to be assessed, earn points, and have a certain level to accept missions, but bounty missions have no restrictions. These days, customers who send money are always kings, and who would set thresholds for kings?
Zhang Yuanqing's other purpose in coming to the Free Federation was: to find the Demon Lord's beloved lovers and collect map fragments.
He hoped that the Demon Lord's lovers didn't include that Chief Executive Officer of the Heavenly Restriction, otherwise, he would have to give up collecting fragments and kneel down to the Demon Lord, sincerely calling out: 6.
Zhang Yuanqing prayed in his heart.
The two took a taxi back to Chinatown. Annie was craving street food and dragged Zhang Yuanqing to buy a basket of soup dumplings.
On the way home, they happened to see the landlord's youngest son, Cao Chao, playing with a basketball on the side of the road.
Just then, the roar of an engine came. Four motorcycles sped through the crowded street. One of the motorcycles approached Cao Chao purposefully, suddenly slowed down, and the rider on the motorcycle kicked the little boy to the ground.
The riders all laughed and sped away.
The basketball rolled and rolled, rolling to the center of the road.
Cao Chao was anxious and quickly got up to pick it up.
Zhang Yuanqing frowned. He sensed that the rider had done it on purpose, with emotions mixed with revenge, pleasure, and naked malice.
"Beep beep~" A black car drove up quickly. The sudden appearance of the child caught the driver off guard, and he honked the horn frantically.
Cao Chao trembled and was frozen in place.
In the distance, in front of the snack stall, a long-haired girl screamed, "Cao Chao, come back..."
She dropped the food in her hand and rushed forward like crazy, but the distance was too far, and there was no time to save him.
Just as she was despairing, she suddenly saw a figure dart past, actually grabbing Cao Chao before the black car and quickly retreating.
The speeding car brushed past him.