Page Eighteen
Recollection!
Sister Léiluó successfully obtained funds from Miss Far Moon, and we took the elevator straight up to the fifth floor, where the Peach Cat Maid Café was just a short distance away from the elevator lobby.
Just as we were about to enter the café, Sister Shān grabbed my wrist and Léiluó’s.
“Hold on! Are we really going in like this?”
I asked in confusion, “What else do we need to do?”
She dragged us to sit in the middle of the hallway on a long bench, then looked at us with her three white eyes and said, “Think about it first. What is our purpose here?”
“It’s obviously to investigate Lín Yùhuáng through Lín Zǐyè… Ah!”
I understood what Sister Shān meant—if Lín Zǐyè, our target, wasn’t in the café, there would be no point in us going in.
“We can just ask if he’s there, right?”
Sister Shān shook her head.
“Intentional inquiries can raise suspicions. If he isn’t there, do we wait for him?”
Léiluó added, “Besides, he and your senior student are the same age. Even if he’s the son of a big corporation’s chairman, he still needs to go to school.”
I exclaimed, “So we have to wait until after school?”
Sister Shān reminded me again, “Even if they do come, it’s not guaranteed.”
Even as the café owner, Lín Zǐyè wouldn’t visit every day. As the future owner of the commercial district, he surely had other things to do during his free time.
“Is there really no other way?”
“How could you drag us out without any ideas?”
Sister Shān scratched her bangs and said, “Why don’t you ask that friend of yours who has good information?”
“If you’re talking about Miss Queen, that won’t work. She charges for her services, and she’s currently close to Ling Shàojié. It’s better to keep them in the dark for now.”
Just as I was pondering this, an unexpected person appeared before me.
It was a girl with sharp, long hair that fell like a knife-cut, wearing a thick leather jacket casually open, slim jeans, and only a thin white shirt inside, with two buttons undone and a crooked tie around her neck, exuding a rough vibe.
She held a color-printed flyer in her hand.
“Xiàlù? Why is she here?”
She should be in school too.
The leader of the “Rakshasa Ghost” gang, Irritable Younger Sister, considers herself the invisible guardian of the Balance Commercial District. After the police cleaned up the gray areas, she went to work as a maid at the “Kamehameha.” Initially reluctant, she now seems to enjoy it… Wait, something was connected.
“Right, Xiàlù is Lín Zǐyè’s fiancée!”
I slapped my forehead and said.
Back when we followed Lín Zǐyè to track Senior Chāngpú, and later to find suitable maids for his café, she and Little Sister Jīng were kidnapped.
Sister Shān nodded with her chin resting on her hand.
“Yes, that’s true.”
When we tracked Senior Chāngpú, I had asked Sister Shān (then known as Lǚ) for help, so she remembered some of it.
I summarized, “So we’ve met Lín Zǐyè before, just not clearly enough to remember.”
Seeing Xiàlù holding the flyer and entering the café, Sister Shān also recalled, “She’s quite smooth, I don’t recall much about her appearance, didn’t pay much attention.”
Isn’t that how I remember it?
“I thought you had a great memory, Sister Shān.”
“I can remember if I focus, but this is trivial. I’m not at the level of remembering everything at a glance.”
Sister Shān scratched her bangs again and said, “Although it’s a bit roundabout, I found a way to locate Lín Zǐyè.”
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About twenty minutes later
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The delinquent girl sighed and walked out of the Peach Cat Maid Café. We immediately surrounded her.
“You must be Sister Xiàna! Just as Sister Xiǎo Lěi described, you’re so cool!”
I said this somewhat flatteringly, but fortunately, Xiàlù seemed to appreciate it. The dejected look on her face when she exited the café vanished, and she regained her spark. She replied, “Call me Sister Xiàlù outside. So, you’re the kids that the idiot mentioned?”
Directly calling someone an idiot, Xiàlù showed no respect towards her elder, Sister Xiǎo Lěi.
I introduced myself, “I’m Mò Lǐshā, and these are my classmates, Sister Léiluó and Sister Léishān.”
“Hmm? Are you sisters?”
Sister Shān nodded while holding Léiluó, who remained silent, implying agreement.
With an adoptive father like hers, Léiluó had lost most of her dignity.
I continued, “Sister Xiǎo Lěi said we can follow you until school ends!”
“Fine, since I’ve been asked, I’ll go along with you, but behave. I don’t like children!”
She hadn’t realized that everyone, including me, was older than her, let alone that Sister Shān would be entering her third year next year…
Perhaps feeling cold, Xiàlù rubbed her neck.
“Do you mean you want to do a social survey about the café?”
“That’s right.”
It was lunchtime at school. I told Xiàlù through Sister Xiǎo Lěi that she should claim she has relatives and classmates doing social practice in the Balance Commercial District. Since she was already hanging around the commercial area, she agreed to keep an eye on them.
“We want to go to that café. Can we go in, Sister Xiàlù?”
Seeing me point to the Peach Cat café behind her, she made a displeased smile.
“Haha… Can you go somewhere else?”
“No, this unique sky corridor, we must see it!”
Seeing my determination, Xiàlù frowned and advised, “It’s very expensive inside. Do you have money?”
“I do!”
Léiluó raised her phone, showing the balance in her digital wallet, and proudly said, “I’ll cover today’s expenses!”
“Kids these days have so much pocket money… Wait, I remember you! You’re Sister Miāomiāo’s sister, aren’t you?!”
Xiàlù suddenly got excited. She picked up Léiluó from the ground.
“What are you doing, put me down!”
Léiluó, caught off guard, exclaimed. Xiàlù happily said, “I saw you in the school magazine. You’re both Sister Miāomiāo’s sisters, right? The surname Lei isn’t common, I should have guessed earlier!”
This delinquent girl was also a fervent fan of Sister Miāomiāo. Her sound shop always promoted Sister Miāomiāo, making her part of the fan club.
“Let me go… It hurts, put me down…”
“Oh, sorry, did I hurt you?”
Léiluó’s feet touched the ground again. She sighed in relief and hid behind her adoptive daughter, wary of Xiàlù’s actions.
Léiluó had lost all her authority.
I asked, “Excuse me, what did you mean by the school magazine?”
“Hmm? Aren’t you students of Bìyáng Girls’ School?”
“Of course not, Bìyáng doesn’t have a primary school.”
“…Well, I’ll show you.”
She took out a rolled-up sixteen-page magazine from her leather jacket’s inner pocket, carefully handed it to me after checking both sides.
She treated the magazine like a treasure, but it was indeed the Bìyáng school magazine, a special issue for the sports meet.
Sister Shān and Léiluó, who hadn’t seen the school magazine before, gathered behind me, urging me to flip through it.
“They actually captured us?!”
As family of a school idol, even the group led by Miss Far Moon were caught on camera by Sister Ling Shàojié, with their identities noted.
“Sister Xiǎo Wēi and Sister Qínglán are also there.”
Even my mother and Sister Qínglán were captured. Does she think tourists are fair game just because they’re pretty?
But Xiàlù didn’t notice that the fox-eared woman in the elegant dress was a regular customer at their café.
After the middle pages, my flipping became stiff, and Sister Shān quickly noticed the problem.
“The rest are all Little Lingmèng’s benefit photoshoots? These legs are really long. She doesn’t exercise much, yet she has no fat at all?”
Don’t say such things in front of me! Is this intentional?
And I’m a man, isn’t having long legs normal?
“Though not as extreme as ‘Hua Hua 〇 Zi,’ it’s similar to ‘Nan 〇 Zhuang.’ This photographer’s candid shots are impressive.”
Léiluó was impressed too. What magazines did she buy from Sister Far Moon?
When we reached the last page, Xiàlù returned the magazine.
“Since it’s a school magazine, the print run is small and distributed within the campus. There’s little circulation outside. Plus, Little Lingmèng’s photo collection… It’s highly sought after, with limited availability.”
Does this mean there are already pirated copies?
I shrugged, feeling embarrassed.
“A school magazine, is this really necessary?”
Xiàlù replied, “Despite her bad attitude, Little Lingmèng is the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen. Her limited edition photo collection might be worth this price.”
What? Where am I being rude?!
Moreover, Xiàlù fell into Ling Shàojié’s marketing trap—rare due to it being a school magazine?
She’s manipulating the market!
Limited releases at high prices, once the hype dies down, she can reprint with clearer content and higher volume, making a second wave of sales and profits…
I cautiously asked, “Sister Xiàlù, how much did this magazine cost you?”
She patted her chest and said, “When I bought it last week, it hadn’t become popular yet, so it was just over a hundred. But now, it’s definitely over a thousand, considering the market has expanded nationwide.”
Great, the whole country’s perverts want to see my photo collection?
Then Ling Shàojié earned so much, but only gave me twenty thousand yuan?
No, those twenty thousand haven’t been given to me yet!
This isn’t cheap, I’m practically giving it away!
I muttered to myself, “…It seems I’ve lost out.”
“Hmm? What did you lose, Lǐshā?”
Realizing my mistake, I corrected myself, “…Actually, I had this school magazine before, but I gave it away.”
“Then you did lose out.”
I must get something from Ling Shàojié.
