Li Pu chose it purely for the money, as for reputation. Anyway, to Li Pu, as long as reputation didn't turn into hatred, it was fine. As long as he got money within the bounds allowed by the law and school rules, that was enough.
Reputation or whatever was fine as long as it didn't amount to hatred.
Twenty thousand was the most important thing.
St. Freya Academy's publicity was truly very efficient; the events that happened that day were already reported in the school newspaper, bulletin boards, and school website on the very day. This included the cause and origin of the matter, the whole story, and the investigation of the relevant personnel written out clearly.
"Turns out to be that guy?!"
At the school newsstand, Kiana spotted the big headshot of the commended personnel on the newly posted school newspaper at a glance, and also instantly recognized who that person was.
"This guy." Kiana said somewhat maliciously: "Couldn't it just be a coincidence when he was peeping at other female students changing clothes?"
"Kiana!" Mei, who was right beside her, immediately reprimanded: "It's not nice of you to say that."
"Doesn't the school newspaper write the matter very clearly? That person just happened to pass by."
"Wuwuwu..."
Kiana, having been slightly reprimanded by Mei, immediately became a bit unhappy and said: "It clearly feels like it, though. Why does Mei always have to defend that guy?!"
"Isn't this too much of a coincidence?" Kiana said unhappily: "Just happened to walk past, just happened to hear, just happened to have the door unlocked, just happened to be able to see something."
"With so many coincidences, how can you say this isn't a bit too bizarre?!"
"It's not like writing a novel to create drama."
"How could it be such a coincidence?!"
"But that's just how things are." Mei said: "Perhaps it really was just that much of a coincidence."
"Henghengheng~" Seeing that Mei couldn't properly refute her words, Kiana instantly narrowed her eyes, thinking she had seized the high ground of intelligence and the right to speak, and said: "How is that possible?!"
"I think the most coincidental part is that he just happened to see this scene. As for how he saw it."
"I just don't believe he happened to walk past and see it like that."
*"..."* Mei didn't pick up Kiana's thread, her brows gradually furrowing. It seemed she herself truly lacked some things to refute it with.
Although the school newspaper said so, and Mei also felt that what the school newspaper said was what happened, Mei suddenly felt that Kiana was at least right about one thing.
'Coincidence!'
Too many coincidences appearing at the same time gave off a feeling of 'premeditation'.
The scene described in this report gave Mei a somewhat déjà vu feeling. Weren't all these things too coincidental? It was just like when she picked up her wallet back then.
Mei didn't consider herself a careless person.
But occasionally she might also inadvertently drop some things.
If the matter of that day was treated as a single isolated instance, it was indeed quite plausible. There really were such coincidental things in the world: she happened to lose her wallet, someone happened to pick it up when she was in a hurry, they happened to see her anxiety and returned it, and seeing that the person wasn't bad, aside from being grateful, they happened to chat for a bit.
After chatting and learning about some situations, she naturally wanted to help out.
Originally this might have been a series of events caused by a single coincidence, but such a thing happened to happen a second time in a very short period.
Mei...
Mei also more or less felt that this matter, was it perhaps a bit like what Kiana said...
Not simple at all?
Chapter 9 A person who doesn't look like a good guy
"This guy..."
"No matter how you look at it, he doesn't look like a good guy."
In some corner of the street, Kiana was squatting there, secretly staring at the teenage boy about a few meters away from her. That teenage boy named Li Pu, who looked about the same age as her.
"I refuse to believe I can't catch this guy's tail and expose his true face."
Kiana muttered under her breath: "How could a guy like this be a good guy?"
As for Li Pu as a person, Kiana didn't particularly resent him. She could only say he was someone she had her eye on; she was willing to acknowledge Mei's judgment of Li Pu—'this person is not a bad person'. But at the same time, she was unwilling to acknowledge Mei's defense of Li Pu—'he is a good person.'
And what made Kiana the most unconvinced was that even if Li Pu truly didn't count as a bad person, and indeed helped Mei with a small favor.
At his core, he was still just an ordinary stranger, yet after helping out, he still pushed Mei down in public.
If not for her timely appearance, who knew what kind of trouble would have stirred up.
Why was Mei still defending that guy?
Kiana was unconvinced!
Super unconvinced!
After school, she waited for that guy to get off work again, and followed Li Pu with her rather clumsy tracking skills. If he wasn't a good person, he would definitely be caught by her leaving evidence behind.
Things like bullying little boys, snatching lollipops from little girls, beating dogs, or seeing fallen grandpas and grandmas and not helping.
Any single one of those could easily prove her idea.
That guy definitely hadn't done anything good, and only accidentally bumped into it while peeping! After all, human lives were at stake; as long as one's conscience wasn't truly massively corrupted, anyone would help.
"So... hurry up and let me catch something on this guy." Kiana looked at Li Pu and said somewhat impatiently in a low voice: "Don't tell me this guy is just this boring!"
Tracking him until now, Kiana hadn't seen any result she wanted to see.
This guy looked just like an ordinary office worker.
No, even worse than an ordinary office worker. After getting off work, he hopped on public transit and left, looking like he was heading to certain places, and then bought two packs of instant noodles, a ham sausage, and a tray of eggs at a convenience store.
Along the way, he bought a large bag of various snacks and several cans of fat-happy water before walking into an old residential compound.
No bullying children, no snatching lollipops or toys, and no encountering any fallen grandmas. He didn't even go to bars, nor did he go to internet cafes.
This guy...
"Is he really an adult?!" Kiana complained inwardly: "If he's an adult, shouldn't he go straight to a bar after getting off work?"
"He actually doesn't even go to bars, discos, or even movie theaters."
"How boring is this guy's usual life!"
He looked like a super uninteresting fellow. Even her teacher Himeko would go to bars, discos, or even make appointments with people to go to the cinema after getting off work.
This guy actually didn't go anywhere and went straight home.
"And it's even this kind of old residential compound..."
Taking a look at this residential area, it was that very old kind of compound. It looked like it was built in the sixties or seventies, and had been renovated again by now. Whether it was the outer walls or the neighborhood environment, it didn't seem to match the current era very well.
Walking in gave one the feeling of being on a film set telling stories about the sixties and seventies.
The person guarding the gate was still an old grandpa, sitting in the security room. That grandpa was wearing that very old clothes that looked like the Type 65 green military uniform, holding a newspaper in his hand, wearing a pair of gold-rimmed presbyopic glasses, with an enamel mug printed with a big red flower placed on the table. And taking a glance over.
There was almost no sense of modern decoration inside here.
Smoothed cement floors, the walls behind were just plastered smooth with white lime, and on the coat hook on the wall hung a cross-body bag printed with the administrator's portrait and 'Serve the People'.
"Grandpa~"
Kiana sidled up to the grandpa, her hands clawing at the windowsill like a little kitten clinging to the edge of a table, revealing a somewhat ingratiating smile as she asked: "Um, Grandpa~ Which unit does Li Pu live in? Which apartment is it?"
Having entered the residential compound, it was a bit hard for Kiana to keep tracking.
This was an old compound, lacking any greenery. Even with clumsy skills, Kiana knew that following too closely in a place like this made it easy to expose herself.
She could only wait until Li Pu left her field of vision before walking in.
Anyway, since he lived here, the monk could run, but the temple couldn't run away.
"You are..." The grandpa pushed his gold-rimmed presbyopic glasses and looked at Kiana. He carefully sized her up for a moment and said: "Li Pu... who is that?"
"It's the one who just went in." Kiana said with a hint of anxiousness: "Um, looks pretty young, holding a big bag of snacks and everything."
'I always feel like this guy's character isn't that great; he doesn't even know the security guard.'
"Oh..." The grandpa seemed to have figured out who it was, but didn't immediately tell Kiana.
He still carefully sized Kiana up, his gaze sweeping past Kiana's head of white hair and rather stylish star-shaped hairpin, as well as her blue eyes which were suspected of wearing colored contact lenses.
Then...
The grandpa seemed to have a tiny bit of displeasure or disgust.
Yet he didn't say anything directly either.
"You mean that little soldier boy, right?" The grandpa unfolded the newspaper in his hand, shook it, and said: "The one who just went in?"
"Mm-hmm, that's him." Kiana didn't know why the grandpa suddenly seemed a bit disgusted with her, but it looked like he should know who she was talking about, so she immediately asked excitedly: "Little soldier boy? Why do you call him that?"
Instead of calling him by his full name, he used such a strange nickname, and looking at the grandpa's disgusted expression.
This meant it should be about the same as what she had imagined, and that guy really wasn't a good person!
"Isn't he just a little soldier boy?" The grandpa seemed to put on some proud airs as he said: "People who have been soldiers always have something different about them."
'Old man me can recognize it at a glance.'
'Oh... so he just used to be a soldier...' Kiana was instantly a bit disappointed.
She had thought she could dig up some dirt from this old man.
"Then~ then where does he live." Kiana still perked up and asked: "Do you know?"
"I don't know." The grandpa shook the newspaper and said: "Old man me only knows he lives here, as for specifically where he lives, old man me doesn't know where he lives."
"Eh? Really?!" Seeing the grandpa say this, Kiana instantly became a bit anxious and said: "This..."
How could this be possible?!
Kiana still stubbornly pressed on, saying: "How could you possibly not know?"
"Even if I, your grandpa, know." The old grandpa didn't look at Kiana squarely at all, glancing sideways at the newspaper twice and then at Kiana twice as he said: "Why should I tell you?"
"What relation are you to that little soldier boy?" The old grandpa asked: "Are you his partner?"
"If you're his partner, how come you don't know where your own partner lives?"
'This girl doesn't look like a good girl at all, just by looking at her.'
The old grandpa thought to himself, but aloud he said: "Old man I am not in the intelligence-gathering business."
"And even if I knew, why should old man I tell you?"
Chapter 10 How to be a good Bed King
Having just returned home and preparing to cook some noodles, Li Pu was called out by a phone call from the gate guard.
Today he was prepared to be extravagant.
The higher-ups had issued a bonus of twenty thousand, though it hadn't arrived in his account yet. The finance department said they would wait to officially issue it along with his first month's salary.
Still, Li Pu felt he could afford a slight extravagance.
Having advanced a bit of his salary, he still had a small capital to splurge with.
Aside from buying a few more snacks, he dared to add an extra ham sausage and two eggs to his instant noodles.
Only, this extravagance hadn't even begun before he was called out by a single phone call from the gate guard downstairs.
"Grandpa Li."
As soon as he stepped into the security booth at the entrance, Li Pu immediately put on a smiling face, looking exceptionally enthusiastic—enthusiastic to the point of bordering on flattering—as he asked: "What did you call me down here for?!"
If it were any other security guard, Li Pu wouldn't even give them the time of day.
Well, that was of course a bit exaggerated, but at least he wouldn't be this proactive.
Yet this security guard was different; this old grandpa was no ordinary person! From the perspective of direct vested interests, this old grandpa was his landlord!
The house-renting process didn't have anything special about it, having been introduced through a real estate agency.
Aside from the initial contract signed through the agency, subsequent lease renewals bypassed the agency altogether. For one thing, the grandpa also had a military career, and he could tell at a glance that Li Pu had also been a soldier, which counted as taking care of the younger generation. For another, he felt Li Pu was a good person with a quite high level of trustworthiness.
Thus, by bypassing the agency, the rent naturally went down a bit.
Before you continue