Wen Ning sat on the steps outside the door for another full twenty minutes.
Only then did he manage to suppress the urge to curse up a storm.
He tucked the golden register back inside his clothes and took a deep breath.
"All right, then."
He brushed the dust off his trousers, stood up, stretched his stiff neck, and gave a self-deprecating chuckle.
"Even the Jade Emperor's reincarnation has to go home. Nothing in this world matters more than sleep."
When he pushed open the shop door, Wen Ning instinctively softened his movements.
Zhang Siyu should have finished work long ago at this hour. The shop was pitch-black, with only the little night-light in the corner still glowing.
He had barely closed the door and had yet to change his shoes when he heard footsteps upstairs.
Zhang Siyu poked her head out of the little room above, holding a cup of instant noodles. Her eyes lit up when she saw Wen Ning.
"Boss, you're back? I thought you wouldn't get here until midnight."
Wen Ning froze for a moment.
"You're still awake?"
"Yep, I'm reading a novel. Lately I've been hooked on one called I Passed the Heavenly Court Civil Service Exam, and My Godfather Is the Thunder Patriarch. It's so good."
Zhang Siyu came out with her noodles and sat down on the sofa, then suddenly seemed to remember something.
She put the noodles down, pulled a slip of notepaper from the folder at the front desk, and waved it at him.
"Oh, right, boss. Someone came by this afternoon and said he wanted us to help him sell his apartment."
Wen Ning was changing into his slippers. At those words, he suddenly stopped.
With one foot pressing down on a shoe's heel and the other already in a