Chapter 7 Wu County Map Kangcheng Community

  "Oh," I said, "so this family is quite good, generally wealthy people are very stingy. This family has a villa here, they must be particularly rich, and can be so generous to you, it's not easy. What does the owner of this house look like? Is he kind and benevolent?"

  Aunt thought for a moment and said that she hadn't seen the master of the house many times, and he was usually not at home. He's a wealthy boss, very thin, with dark skin, over 50 years old. Judging from his accent, he seems to be from Zhejiang Province. She didn't ask around either.

  "How about this house, are there many guests usually? Will Auntie be very tired?"

  Auntie heard this sentence, suddenly stopped in her tracks, sighed, and tears welled up in her eyes. I quickly asked what was wrong?

  Auntie told me that her son is in their old home in Northern Jiangsu, running a small street stall. He was beaten by the city management recently and is still in the hospital now. His daughter-in-law is working at someone else's house and has no time to take care of her son. Auntie's husband is paralyzed in bed, so she needs to take care of him as well as raise their grandson. They are poor and can't afford kindergarten, so their grandson didn't attend kindergarten, but now that he's reached school age, they're having trouble getting him into school due to household registration issues.

  I felt a pang of guilt, secretly regretting my earlier actions of stealing the bike and scaring her half to death. If someone else had stolen the bike, Auntie would probably have to walk to work under the scorching sun every day, and cut back on expenses for a while before she could afford another bicycle. Suddenly I remembered the electric shock anti-theft device that Mingying had installed on her e-bike, and I thought of installing one for Auntie too, setting it to the highest voltage so that any bike thief would be electrocuted on the spot. But then Auntie would have to live with the guilt of being responsible for someone's death, and as for the bike thief... who says a bike thief doesn't have a family, or people who care about him? Wouldn't someone cry for him if he died?

  No way out. In this alienated society where the underprivileged can only rely on themselves, money has become the only pass, and human relationships are just a seasoning that adds flavor. With these two things, one can naturally rise to power, but without them, one can only kneel in front of gods and pray. However, even gods require payment.

  A god in heaven who has no desires or demands, will he help you with your affairs just because you gave him a few more scraps of paper from the mortal world? If that's really how it works, then this god is quite undignified, isn't he?

  I watched as Auntie wiped away tears, and I had an overwhelming urge to pull out some money to give her. But I restrained myself. For someone like Auntie who relies on her own hard work to exchange for a happy life, such charity would undoubtedly be an insult, not only would it not make her happy, but it would also hurt her self-esteem.

  But this rhythm makes it difficult for me to continue inquiring about the residents of this villa.

  Auntie wiped away her tears and said, "I'm sorry to make you laugh," I said it's okay, everyone has their own share of troubles, and it feels better to talk about them. Auntie nodded and said she didn't expect to share these things with someone she didn't know well. I smiled and asked Auntie if she didn't chat with the family members when she worked at this villa? What kind of people are they inside? I'm quite curious about how rich people live their lives.

  Auntie smiled and said, "Young man, don't be curious. The lives of rich people are actually like this. The dishes they eat are still bought from the same market as my family's. This house is big, but there aren't many people at home usually. The master of the house is often away, and the mistress is a bit eccentric, with many jade stones and antiques displayed at home, and a Buddha statue being worshipped, but she eats meat like a beast. Their son is already grown up, but he hasn't gone to school, just eating idly every day. Anyway, they have money at home, so they can afford it. And there's also a little daughter, born in old age, spoiled like anything, now attending elementary school."

  I said, isn't that blue car at the entrance his son's?

  Auntie shook her head and said it wasn't, that young man was driving a strange-looking car, red and very short, sitting inside would be uncomfortable, can't stretch his legs.

  "Is there a sign on the front of the car?" I asked.

  Aunt thought for a moment and said, "Yes, there is one, it looks like a horse."

  Ferrari. He's really rich. I swallowed my saliva. If this guy drives this car to fetch the painting, the taxi will definitely not be able to catch up. Also asked: "Isn't that blue car theirs?"

  "It's their family, their family security guard."

  Wow, the security guard drives a Mazda 6? This family is really rich. So, it turns out that the person who came to pick up the painting today was neither Big Shot Chen Ziqi nor his son, but their security guard?

  Auntie said that the family's cars are all in the warehouse, and today it was their security guard who drove, bringing back a very large painting. As soon as I entered the house, I saw the young man and the security guard looking at the painting, and when they saw me enter, they took the painting into the inner room. I took a glance, and the painting looked like it should be an antique, definitely worth a lot of money. Tsk tsk.

  I thought of using one-tenth of the money from selling this painting to give to Auntie, and she would be able to accomplish a lot.

  "But," said Aunt, "isn't it strange that such an old painting depicts things of the present?"

  I heard this and sensed something was amiss, so I hastily asked what's going on.

  "Isn't there a big residential area called Shanghai Kangcheng in Minhang District? I have a relative who still lives there, and I've heard that the house is not bad, very stylish. However, I haven't been in touch with him. He probably looks down on us poor relatives."

  "Auntie, are you saying that very old painting is of Kangcheng Xiaoqu in Minhang District?"

  "Yes, I heard the young people in that family and the security guard talking about it. It's quite scary, you know? People back then were incredibly capable, fortune-telling and divination, they could calculate with great accuracy. Otherwise, how could they have drawn the current Kangcheng?"

  I nodded and said that ancient people were much more powerful than modern people, for example, Zhuge Liang.

  Auntie said yes, that Three Kingdoms TV series shown on TV before, the one acted by Tang Guoqiang, was so good to watch. Those old actors were very dedicated and put their heart into acting. Nowadays' TV dramas are all a mess, really terrible. A group of young people without any skills, just flirting around, making it impossible for kids to study well, even in school they're talking about romance.

  I laughed and said that Chen Daoming, Tang Guoqiang and other powerful actors are indeed very impressive. At that time, there were no special effects like today's TV dramas, they all relied on their acting skills to perform solidly. The young idol actors nowadays have poor acting skills, the key is whether they can afford to undergo extreme plastic surgery. TV dramas are full of special effects, making them look flashy and tacky.

  I chatted with Auntie for a bit, and then sent her home. She insisted on buying me a bottle of cold drink, but I remembered how I had just scared her so badly, and felt guilty about it, so I quickly said goodbye and left.

  Kangcheng? This is the most useful information I got today.

  Shanghai Kangcheng is located in Minhang District, it's a super large community, I heard that 100,000 people live here (by today, this number has been updated to 150,000), inside there are hospitals and schools, everything is available. It's also because of the scale problem, internal supply exceeds demand, plus the property management inside is quite chaotic, the phenomenon of group renting is serious, leading to house prices that have not risen. However, this community was only launched in 1999, how could it appear in a very old painting? Even if that painting is a fake, it shouldn't be painting the current community...

  And yet, isn't this painting called "Map of Wu Prefecture"? Isn't it a painting of the entire Wu Prefecture? How did it become Kangcheng? I took out my phone to take a closer look, but the characters were very blurry and couldn't be made out. However, I believe that Chen Ziqi, this powerful and influential figure in the Jianghu world, must have had his reasons for buying this painting.

  Suddenly, a text message popped up on my phone, sent by Hao Ling, asking if anything had happened to me last night. She scolded me for a while and asked if I was angry. I smiled and replied that everything was fine, you scolded me, how could I be angry? A moment later, she replied back saying it's good that I'm not angry, she's going to grab something to eat before heading to work.

  Going to work. These two words sound so casual, I find it hard to imagine what they mean in her heart. All I can do is reply, eat well and be careful. She sends over a smiling face O (∩_∩) O, I put my phone into my pocket, suddenly remembering the woman from last night.

  No matter how coldly she spoke, she still left a phone number for me, should I call her?

  This woman is not simple, intelligent, cold and extremely rational. At such a young age, she actually became the administrator of the Taiping Lane, and dared to investigate a gloomy warehouse in the middle of the night, all for the sake of seeking justice for her friend Su Chu Jun.

  Why didn't she call the police? Or does she have some hidden reason that prevents her from calling the police? What is this organization she mentioned? If I continue to investigate, will this organization eventually find me too? Is it a friend or foe? I know nothing.

  This matter is getting more and more complicated. The gloom in my heart is like today's weather, solidified and heavy.