Chapter 188
Chapter 188
I knew Anning definitely hadn’t been doing well, but I never imagined it would be this bad.
No wonder I hadn’t been able to find her anywhere lately. Turns out she’d been picked up by the police and had only just been released.
“Wait, what right did your landlord have to throw out your stuff?”
Song Xiaotian frowned. “Aren’t you going to make him compensate you?”
Anning said, “I owed him rent and didn’t have the money to pay him back. If he threw it out, then he threw it out…”
She lowered her head and fiddled with the hem of her skirt. The sight of her like that really made a person feel sorry for her.
If Du Yuwei knew she was living like this, her heart would break.
Meng Yifan probably felt she was pitiful too. With a sigh, he said, “How about this? In a bit, I’ll have Chen Mo take you to buy a couple outfits. We’ll deduct the cost from your wages. How does that sound?”
“Thank you, boss.” Anning blushed. “I’m sorry for all the trouble I caused you before. It was my fault…”
“Forget it. What’s the point of bringing up the past? We’re not the police,” Meng Yifan said. “From now on, just work hard. A good life still has to be built with our own two hands.”
Next came the onboarding paperwork.
Our little shop didn’t have any complicated procedures. It was just signing an employment contract.
Anning definitely couldn’t start work today. I had to take her to buy clothes, and I also had to help her rent a place. She didn’t even have anywhere to live anymore.
When we left the shop, I told her to wait for me in the car first.
After she went out, I pulled Meng Yifan aside and thanked him. “Thanks, Boss Meng. As for the extra base salary she’s getting, just deduct it from my pay later.”
Meng Yifan looked at me with a half smile. “Why? You interested in her or something?”
I said, “What could I possibly be interested in? It’s just that Du Yuwei and I have that connection. I see Du Yuwei as my little sister, so of course I have to take good care of her only family.”
“Enough. Deduct what? It’s only a thousand yuan. Tao Xiaoyu can blow that much on two meals out.”
Meng Yifan grew serious. “Those two sisters may have done their fair share of rotten things, but they never actually hurt us. And when you and I were attacked, the two of them saved our lives. I’ll just consider this paying them back.”
I gave him a thumbs-up. “All right, Boss Meng, you’re a righteous man. May you get rich, hehe!”
After leaving the agency, I helped Anning rent a place first.
For the sake of saving time, I didn’t go looking anywhere else. I contacted my previous landlord directly.
The place I used to rent was a one-bedroom apartment. I’d lived there for over a year, and I’d only moved out to Meng Yifan’s place a few days ago.
The apartment still hadn’t been rented out, so I simply rented it again and paid the landlord six months’ rent up front.
It was a decent place. The rent was around fifteen hundred a month, the neighborhood was nice, and it came fully furnished with appliances. The interior was in good condition too.
When I brought Anning inside, she looked very restrained, even a little disbelieving.
It was as if she thought there was no way she could live in such a nice place.
The apartment wasn’t exactly amazing, but in her eyes, it was already the best.
I guessed the place she used to live in must have been awful.
“This apartment… is for employees?” she asked, looking at me.
I nodded. “That’s right. Our shop provides meals and lodging. You don’t need to pay rent. Just cover the utilities each month.”
Actually, it didn’t.
These days, what sales job still provided meals and lodging? The base salary was barely anything to begin with.
“But… you’ve lived in this apartment before, and you’re the one who paid the rent for me, aren’t you?” she asked, looking at me again.
I was a little stunned. “How did you know I used to live in this apartment?”
She said, “My sister and I came here before to scare you. Did you forget?”
I froze for a moment, then quickly remembered.
Back before I knew Du Yuwei, she used to knock on my door every night to frighten me.
Later, after I moved back home, she even came and knocked on my family’s door. That night, she hadn’t just been knocking-she had also appeared downstairs at the same time, looking up at me from below.
Back then, I hadn’t known she had a twin sister. I had thought that even if she was a ghost, there was no way she could be knocking on the door and appearing somewhere else at the same time.
“Oh, I get it now!”
Realization dawned on me. “You were the one downstairs scaring me that night!”
She was surprisingly honest. She nodded. “Yes. I was the one who scared you. After we were done scaring you, we went to scare the boss too.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“I didn’t rent this place. It’s just the employee dorm.”
I told her, “I’ve already moved in with Meng Yifan, so this place is empty now. You can stay here without worrying.”
She nodded and said nothing else.
After getting the apartment settled, I took her to a nearby mall and bought her several sets of clothes.
When it came time to pay, I sent her away first. Altogether, the clothes cost over eight thousand yuan: two business outfits and two sets of everyday clothes.
She asked me how much I had spent. I said two thousand. She said she’d pay me back once she got her salary.
By the time we finished buying clothes, it was already dark, so I took her to a nearby restaurant for dinner.
We went to a small street-side place. It wasn’t that I was being stingy or unwilling to take her somewhere nicer. It was just that if I took her to one of those restaurants right now, she would only feel uncomfortable.
“Thank you…”
After all the dishes had been served, she didn’t start eating right away. Instead, she thanked me first.
I smiled. “What are you thanking me for?”
She looked at me and said, “I know I did some things before that weren’t good. If it weren’t for you, your friend probably wouldn’t have kept me on.”
I answered her seriously, “You’re overthinking it. Meng Yifan is actually a very good person. He isn’t that petty. Do you know what he said when we left the shop?”
“He said that back when he and I were attacked, you and your sister saved him. So the good deed you did back then left you a way out for today.”
She lowered her head, shoveled a couple bites of rice into her mouth, and said, “In this life, I guess I really haven’t done many good things. But I never wanted to hurt anyone either. I just wanted to help my sister. She was my only family…”
I nodded. “What happened before is in the past. We won’t hold it against you.”
The atmosphere was a little awkward, so I changed the subject and asked, “Didn’t you have a motorcycle before? How come I haven’t seen you riding it?”
Anning said, “I sold it…”
“Sold it?” My eyes widened. “That bike was pretty cool. A Haojue, right? Almost thirty thousand yuan. Why did you sell it?”
If she had sold it, how could she not have money for rent?
“I didn’t have money to buy my sister an urn. I didn’t even have enough for the cremation.”
Anning sighed, sounding somewhat helpless. “So I sold it. I got ten thousand for it. I still didn’t have enough to buy a grave, so I placed her in the columbarium.”
Hearing that left a bitter taste in my mouth.
She had sold the most valuable thing she owned just to handle Du Yuwei’s funeral arrangements.
The key thing was… Du Yuwei’s soul and Po had already scattered into nothingness. All that remained was a body.
Maybe in Anning’s heart, she just wanted to leave her sister with one last bit of dignity.