Chapter 96

Chapter 96

On the second day of Cheng Jing's mission, Jiang Nian kept his shop open as usual, and it happened that Li Liang was on morning duty.

The commercial street grew livelier by the day, and Li Liang would regularly patrol part of the street near his post.

When business was slow, he’d chat with Jiang Nian to kill time, which also attracted many colleagues to shop there. Jiang Nian generously gave discounts to familiar faces.

Running a business was naturally about making money—it just depended on how much.

Making a little less money to befriend the security personnel managing the commercial street was definitely worth it.

By noon, when Li Liang got off work, he grabbed two lunches from the cafeteria and brought them to the shop to eat with Jiang Nian. With some extra seasoning and tweaks, the simple meals became a much heartier meal.

To eat undisturbed, Jiang Nian would temporarily close the glass door of his grocery store at noon.

This was his habit—even when eating alone—mainly because he found it awkward to help customers with a bowl in hand.

Especially since his bowl was always loaded with meat.

In the backroom dining area, Li Liang took a sip of iced tea and glanced outside.

"Brother Nian, my afternoon’s pretty free. I can stay in the shop to write my report and submit it after my shift ends. If you want to go out, I can mind the shop for you."

Jiang Nian thought for a moment.

"Actually, Brother Li Cheng said he’d take me to check on Jiang Wenwen’s old dorm assignment. After that, I’ll head over to the farm. If you’re cool with watching the shop, feel free to eat or take anything you need from here—help yourself."

It was the first day of construction at the farm, and though he trusted the workers, he still wanted to check on things.

With Li Liang looking after the shop, he wasn’t worried.

The Li family had put plenty of credits into his account as thanks, and they always shared good things with him.

Li Cheng was the same—unless it was confidential, he’d pass along insider information without hesitation. They were solid folks.

These were the friends he had chosen for himself.

"Got it, Brother Nian. I won’t hold back, haha…"

Li Liang had grown accustomed to their straightforward way of communicating—no beating around the bush.

"…"

As they ate and chatted, Li Liang suddenly remembered something else and said cheerfully,

"Oh, right, Brother Nian. We didn’t mention it last night with Liang Xiaoyan around, but Xiaohui scored a blender and juicer for credits during her lunch break yesterday."

"Since I’m on the afternoon shift tomorrow, I’ll have someone rewire them for a generator in the morning and bring them over. Once we have more fruits and vegetables, we can make juice."

Jiang Nian’s eyes lit up at the news.

"That’s fantastic! When Sister Qian gets back, we’ll get her to grow more fruit. Then we can have fresh juice—maybe even sell iced versions if we have extra."

With his stockpile of seeds, purified soil, and Sister Qian’s abilities, fruit and vegetable juices would be a breeze.

If they weren’t sweet enough, no problem—he had sugar, honey, milk, xylitol, and all kinds of sweet beverages. This was gonna be great.

"Can’t wait."

Li Liang chuckled; since he worked nearby, he never missed out on the shop’s best dishes.

After lunch, Li Cheng called Jiang Nian to set up a meet at the admin office. Jiang Nian left the grocery store, leaving Li Liang as the fill-in shopkeeper.

...

‘Outer Zone, Dorm 1120. The registered occupant, Jiang Wenwen, did not officially check out. According to regulations, in such cases, the management office will wait ten days before taking it back, cleaning up, and putting it back up for grabs.’

This was the result Jiang Nian and Li Cheng found when they checked at the dormitory management office.

Additionally, the management office informed them that Xia Weiwei had also come by a couple of days ago to inquire about her sister’s whereabouts, even throwing around wild accusations that the office was hiding her.

Later, Li Cheng used his authority to search the departure records at the base’s exit checkpoint:

There was no record of Jiang Wenwen leaving the base, and, just like before them, Xia Weiwei had already looked up the logs as Jiang Wenwen’s relative.

In other words, while Jiang Wenwen hadn’t voluntarily abandoned her dormitory before disappearing, it didn’t seem like Xia Weiwei had anything to do with it—she was also searching for Jiang Wenwen.

However, from what he knew of her, his gut said Jiang Nian didn’t believe she was truly uninvolved.

After leaving the exit checkpoint, Jiang Nian and Li Cheng headed to Dorm 1120.

As they approached, Jiang Nian recalled the awkward encounter he’d had the day before and couldn’t shake a bad feeling.

Fortunately, when they arrived, Dorm 1121’s door was wide open:

A woman wearing a low-cut, champagne-colored silk slip dress was flirting with a beefy, bearded guy with full sleeves at the doorway.

The man wore gray work pants and a fitted white undershirt, his muscular arms and neck covered in fresh scratches.

The woman was all smiles, her face still flushed with leftover lust, her neck and collarbone covered in suggestive marks.

Any grown-up could guess what just went down.

Noticing their approach, the tattooed man gave the woman’s waist a teasing squeeze before turning to leave, brushing past Jiang Nian and Li Cheng.

He didn’t stop walking, but his eyes automatically darted toward the half-open door of Dorm 1120.

Meanwhile, the woman froze for a moment when she caught sight of Jiang Nian. She had been about to roll her eyes but, noticing Li Cheng in uniform beside him, grudgingly went to shut the door instead.

Li Cheng, already gripping the doorknob of No. 1120, spoke first:

“Hold on. We’ve got some questions for you.”

Seeing his serious expression, the woman tried to smooth down her messy hair slightly, her gaze skittering around before he even asked.

“If this is about the chick next door, I don’t know anything. All I know is she left late at night four days ago—she was yelling at someone on the phone before she took off… and slamming stuff around.”

Li Cheng nodded.

“You saw her. Was she with anyone when she left, or—”

“I didn’t catch that…”

The woman waved her hands dismissively.

“He’s the one who saw. We’d just… wrapped up, and he heard the noise from next door, so he went out…”

Li Cheng’s eyes tracked the big guy as he walked off.

"Go call your guy back to ask..."

"It's not him, it's another..."

The woman denied it again, then caught herself mid-sentence and corrected:

"My ex-boyfriend, we've broken up now..."

She ducked her head, pretending to be embarrassed.

Jiang Nian was impressed: Damn!

Talk about 'men being like clothes'—swapped out real fast.

"..."

Li Cheng had nothing to say but didn’t call her out, just waved them off to show he got it before entering 1120 with Jiang Nian.

She slammed the door behind them.

After a while, she reappeared, a lit cigarette dangling between her fingers, her earlier panic gone, even freshened up with perfume.

She leaned against the doorframe of 1120, all coy and flirty, and told them:

"Oh right, a bunch of people came by asking for her after she left—both men and women. One good-looking woman said she was her sister... But none came today, maybe they found her. Might wanna check around."

"..."