No Pushover

Ming Jiu thought for a moment and offered a measured bit of advice.

"Then buy it. Open a little shop near the scenic area—the business shouldn't be a problem either. Work pressure really is high these days."

"If the opportunity is right, I'm planning to get another two apartments myself." She stood up. "They could become guesthouses later on. At least it'd give me something to do."

This was not a spur-of-the-moment idea for Ming Jiu. She genuinely wanted to acquire another two apartments in Yunjing Scenic Area, provided she still had enough money by then.

Once the safe base was established, she could trade those two apartments for gold or base points.

Gold could be exchanged for coins, while base points would let her and Ming Rong continue living well without having to work. No matter how she calculated it, she would not lose out.

Sister Bai escorted the Ming sisters all the way to the parking lot.

"Guesthouses over there aren't easy to run. The competition's brutal, and there are plenty of hotels too."

Sister Bai remained as matter-of-fact as ever.

"But if you really want to do it, remember to send some business my way. I guarantee I'll find you the most suitable place and get the price down as low as possible."

Ming Jiu opened the car door and got in, then could not help turning to look at Sister Bai.

"Sister Bai, is it really okay to be this honest?"

Sister Bai gave a mysterious smile. "Honesty brings customers. That's my secret to closing deals."

"Oh, right. I've more or less worked things out with the tenants in 602. They were already planning to move, and they asked for two months' rent as compensation."

"I still need to settle this year's rent for 2501 with you. Once I'm done with 602, I'll come find you to hand everything over together."

"Alright, thanks for the trouble."

Ming Jiu started the car and headed back to Dragonview Court. On the way, she had Ming Rong order takeout. At the fruit shop by the residential complex entrance, she bought several boxes of sugar mandarins, along with a few cartons of blueberries and cherry tomatoes to placate Ming Rong.

Ming Jiu drove into the complex's underground parking garage. When the elevator reached the first floor, they happened to run into their delivery rider. The timing was perfect.

After finishing lunch, Ming Jiu received calls from the workers. Half an hour later, the workers installing doors, furniture, appliances, and electronics all arrived.

The elevator carried furniture and appliances upstairs trip after trip, and Ming Jiu took the opportunity to carry sugar mandarins around and greet the neighbors upstairs and downstairs.

First, she was worried that the noise from installing furniture and appliances that afternoon might disturb them. Second, she wanted to get a preliminary understanding of her neighbors.

Of course, she could have the system investigate the neighbors directly, but that did not stop her from making contact with them herself.

No one was in 2504, Silver Horn's large unit. Ming Jiu knocked for several minutes without getting any response.

There was no one in 2503 either. Only 2502 had someone home. The door was opened by a woman in her forties, dressed in simple, comfortable light-gray loungewear. She looked quite refined.

Ming Jiu explained why she was there and offered over the sugar mandarins, but the woman shyly tried to refuse them.

"Oh, it's nothing. We're neighbors, and it's thoughtful of you. The soundproofing in this complex is pretty good. As long as you aren't tearing down walls, we usually can't hear much, so don't worry about it."

"There's no need for a gift. Take it back."

Ming Jiu directly set the mandarins on the doormat behind the woman's door.

"I should have come by to say hello anyway. Please don't be polite. Oh, right, my surname is Ming, as in understand. How should I address you?"

"My surname is Zhang. Just call me Auntie Zhang. Then I won't stand on ceremony."

Ming Jiu glanced at 2504 and 2503, then asked, "Auntie Zhang, are we the only two households on this floor? I just knocked on 04 and 03, but no one was home."

"04 has been empty for more than half a year. It's hard to sell apartments these days, so no one lives there. 03 is all tenants. They crammed four rooms into such a small space, and five or six young people live there. They're all at work at this hour."

"My family is a big one too. If you need anything, just knock on my door. Neighbors should help each other."

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Auntie Zhang finally closed the door. Ming Jiu picked up the sugar mandarins and headed downstairs.

2404—no one. 2403—no one. 2402 was empty as well. The double-happiness character on the front door had curled up slightly at the edges, so Ming Jiu guessed it was probably a couple who had not been married long.

Only 2401, directly below Ming Jiu's unit, opened its door. Out came a curly-haired auntie in her fifties, wearing a purplish-red turtleneck thermal top with bright-red long johns. Her drooping triangular eyes sized Ming Jiu up from head to toe.

Only after Ming Jiu explained her purpose and brought out the sugar mandarins did a smile appear on the auntie's face.

"Oh my, so that's why it's been so noisy upstairs. You young people are quite sensible. Want to come in and sit for a while?"

Ming Jiu naturally declined, while mentally marking this downstairs neighbor as someone to watch—this auntie was definitely no pushover.

The auntie set the sugar mandarins on the shoe cabinet, her eyes fixed on the two unopened boxes of mandarins at Ming Jiu's feet.

Ming Jiu understood and casually said, "I originally wanted to greet all the neighbors, but several households aren't home."

The auntie immediately became extremely enthusiastic, rattling off information about the other households without pause.

"Of course not. Everyone's at work at this hour. That household is just a young couple, newly married, not locals. It hasn't been easy for them. Both sets of parents emptied their savings to help them buy this apartment."

"Everyone in 03 works. They're something else—all teachers. The man is supposed to retire this year, but the school hired him back. He's a star teacher, and he puts on airs."

"Their daughter is already in her thirties and still unmarried. Young people these days..."

"04 is like your place—they just bought the apartment. A few days ago, their renovations were unbearable, knocking down walls and making a racket. Even now, they're still at it every night, with people constantly coming and going and the elevator running trip after trip. So annoying..."

"Miss, you aren't from City B, are you? What do you do? Who all is in your family?"

"If it's inconvenient for you, just leave the things with me. I'll help deliver them after they get off work."

Ming Jiu had gotten the information she wanted and did not respond to the bait.

"That would be too much trouble for you. I'll make another trip tonight. It isn't much effort."

After saying that, she picked up the mandarins and headed for the stairwell before the auntie could say anything else.

"Auntie, I won't disturb you any longer. I'm heading back first."

She no longer intended to give out the mandarins. If no one was home, then there was naturally no issue of disturbing them. Keeping them to eat herself was better.

And she certainly could not give any to the downstairs auntie. Even if she did, the woman would only think Ming Jiu was easy to manipulate, which would make things even more troublesome later.

Back in 2501, Ming Jiu took out her phone and made a brief note about the neighbors in her memo app. She also checked the residential complex group chat and the building's neighborhood grid group.

Other than notices from property management and the grid officer, there was nothing else. The profile pictures were all over the place and rather bizarre.

Overall, it was not bad. More young people meant fewer issues instead.

After Ming Jiu finished asking around about the neighbors, the workers had also basically moved everything upstairs, filling the living room and dining room.

Those unorthodox tricks she had found online really were useful. During the installation, the workers communicated directly with one another, leaving Ming Jiu with almost nothing to do. Only occasionally did they call her over to explain usage precautions or have her check the installation placement.

Ming Jiu took out the accordion file she had prepared beforehand and stored away all the appliance manuals and warranty cards.

The warranty cards were not the important part. The manuals were. She had to keep those safe, just in case something broke and she could try fixing it herself.

Of course, she could also hand it over to the all-powerful System Sis, but System Sis charged a fee.

Eight or nine workers bustled around Ming Jiu's home all afternoon, clanging and hammering away. During that time, Ming Jiu also squeezed in enough time to finish her online shopping tasks.

By a little after six, as the sky gradually darkened, the workers took the cardboard packaging and the old furniture and appliances Ming Jiu no longer wanted downstairs with them. At last, the apartment began to feel somewhat like a home.

Ming Rong wandered around the rooms while writing and drawing on her tablet, carefully listing the little items they still needed to buy and earnestly carrying out the task her sister had assigned her.

Ming Jiu was not idle either. She turned on the air purifier, booked a post-renovation cleaning service, then curled up on the sofa, took a deep breath, and began making calls.