Chapter 52

Chapter 52

I pulled out my phone and gave Old Zhao Seven a call.

But as expected, he didn’t pick up. I figured he’d already blacklisted me.

“Don’t bother. He won’t answer.”

Song Xiaotian climbed onto the top bunk and let out a yawn. “The guy was playing you from the start. Just accept the loss.”

I couldn’t let it go and tried several more times, but still, no answer.

Finally, I tried calling from Song Xiaotian’s phone. The call went through, but Old Zhao Seven must have known it was me because he hung up immediately.

Now I had to face reality.

That old bastard, Old Zhao Seven, really had lied to me and Meng Yifan!

I felt genuinely hurt.

I’d been out in the workforce for years and had spent two of them in sales. I’d dealt with all sorts of people and considered myself a pretty smart guy, someone who wouldn’t easily be scammed.

And yet, I’d been played by an Old Man.

I felt like my intelligence had been insulted.

I just couldn’t wrap my head around one thing: if Old Zhao Seven had been working with Du Ruhai from the beginning, why did he have me take those two Ashes Urns away?

Furthermore, Old Zhao Seven was introduced to us by Brother Liu. Could Brother Liu be one of Du Ruhai’s people as well?

I originally wanted to discuss this with Song Xiaotian, but he was already asleep.

We had gone to Qindao yesterday and only just returned today. The long journey had been exhausting.

I didn’t want to disturb his rest further, so I turned off the lights and prepared to sleep too.

But tonight, sleep eluded me.

The thought of becoming a fugitive kept me tossing and turning.

After agonizing in bed for an hour, the discomfort became unbearable. I quietly climbed out of bed and left the dormitory.

The moment I stepped out, the cacophony of the bar hit me.

This was a high-energy club, the kind of place meant for dancing and partying.

I wasn’t a fan of noisy environments, but I didn’t dare leave the bar altogether. Instead, I went down to the first floor and ordered a drink, hoping it would help me fall asleep.

Just as I was about to pay, one of the bouncers walked over.

He wouldn’t let me pay.

“Mr. Chen, you’re a friend of Brother Tian. Brother Tian gave orders that your food and drinks are on the house.”

He added, “Also, what you’re drinking is the cheap, fake stuff… Let me have someone open a bottle of the real stuff for you.”

I quickly stopped him, saying it wasn’t necessary.

The real stuff cost thousands. I couldn’t just take advantage of Song Xiaotian like that just because we were acquaintances.

Fake was fine. I was mostly in a bad mood and wanted to drown my sorrows; the fake stuff would get me drunk faster anyway.

“Alright. If you need anything else, just let the servers know.”

“Okay, thank you.”

I thought to myself that Song Xiaotian really was something else, doing so well for himself here. No wonder he didn’t want to be a cop anymore.

I took my knock-off liquor to a booth and drank alone in silence.

Watching the men and women in the bar, seeing them lose themselves in the music and pleasure, and then thinking about my own recent experiences… it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

I was so unlucky. Truly, cursedly unlucky.

Not only could I not save Meng Yifan now, but I might end up in prison myself.

The thought of it brought tears to my eyes.

Looking back over the years, it felt like nothing had ever gone smoothly for me.

Back when I took the college entrance exams, my grades had been excellent. I had been fully confident that I’d get into a top-tier university.

But then I failed. Not only did I fail to get in, but my score was inexplicably low.

After that, I didn’t have the courage or the willpower to repeat a year. Eventually, I ended up at the same university as Meng Yifan, and we spent our college years messing around together.

For three whole years, the two of us lived it up, working part-time jobs and using the money to travel.

After graduation, Meng Yifan’s family had some money, so he went to learn how to do business from a relative.
My family didn’t have much money, so I had no choice but to go out and work. I didn’t make any money, and with my short temper, I was always arguing with my bosses. I went through over a dozen jobs in just a few years.

Later, Meng Yifan started a real estate agency-those two storefronts.

He didn’t forget his brother. He gave me a hand and brought me into his shop to work.

From then on, my life changed. I had money, I became the shop’s Second-in-Command, and I even bought a car. Life was finally looking up.

But now, the good times were over. I was staring down the barrel of a prison sentence.

It was as if the Heavenly God couldn’t stand to see me living well and just had to screw with me.

Thinking about all this, I couldn’t stop the tears from falling again.

I quickly finished my glass of fake booze and prepared to go for a refill.

Right then, a woman in the crowd caught my attention.

At a time like this, I wasn’t in the mood to check out beauties, but that woman… she was wearing a long black dress and red high heels.

More importantly, I would recognize that face even if she were turned to ash!

I froze on the spot, wondering if I’d had too much of the fake booze and was hallucinating.

I rubbed my eyes and looked again. The woman was still there.

And… she seemed to have already spotted me.

The glass in my hand slipped, hitting the floor and shattering into pieces.

The bouncer from before came over to ask what was wrong, but I didn’t even bother to answer. I turned tail and fled, scrambling upstairs as fast as I could.

I ran and shouted at the same time, bursting into the dorm and shaking Song Xiaotian awake.

“Brother Tian! Wake up! Get up right now!”

“Du Yuwei is here!”

Song Xiaotian was annoyed at being woken up and grumbled, “Who…? Your wife…? Isn’t your wife my sister…?”

After saying that, he flopped back down.

I panicked. “It’s Du Yuwei! Du Ruhai’s adopted daughter! The ghost!”

“What!” Song Xiaotian bolted upright, staring at me in terror. “Du-Du-Du… isn’t she dead?!”

“Exactly! I just saw her downstairs!”

“Holy shit!”

Song Xiaotian was so spooked that he scrambled down from the top bunk, slipped, and fell flat on the floor.

He didn’t even have time to put on clothes before he scrambled up and grabbed me, ready to go down and check.

But when we reached the stairwell, he suddenly lost his nerve.

“I’m a little scared… how about we just go to the security room and check the monitors?”

We quickly arrived at the security room.

There were two henchmen inside who immediately greeted him when they saw him. “Brother Tian.”

“You two get out. Don’t come back in until I call you.”

After kicking the guys out, the two of us immediately started checking the footage.

We pulled the feed back a few minutes. The bar was crowded, making it hard to identify people, so I hurriedly gave him the number of the booth where I’d been sitting. Song Xiaotian soon found me on the screen.

Once he found me, it was easy to locate where Du Yuwei had been standing.

Sure enough, we saw her on the monitor.

That outfit of hers never changed, and I was all too familiar with that face.

Seeing it confirmed on the monitor made my face go pale with fright.

She had actually followed me all the way to the bar.

Was it because I took those two Ashes Urns and hadn’t returned them? Was she angry?

Song Xiaotian nearly lost his footing. He leaned against a chair, staring at me in horror. “This ghost… she followed me to my bar?”

My mind was a total blank; I didn’t know how to answer him.

That night when Meng Yifan and I were sleeping in that house, Du Yuwei had come knocking. Meng Yifan had opened the door for her, but when we checked the surveillance the next day, the camera hadn’t captured her at all.

Why did the bar’s security camera manage to catch her?