Against the Fate

Chapter 21: New Housing

One month later, North Luna stood on the second floor of the office and watched as Evelyn’s car drove up to the office. Cui Ming and Evelyn got off. The two spoke and shook hands. Evelyn returned to the driver’s seat and lifted her sun hat to acknowledge North Luna. However North Luna ignored the gesture and watched Evelyn drive away. Then she said, “Add one more condition to the contract, while the contact is in effect the signer cannot apply to join the Aura Alliance by himself.”

Ding Ze blew a kiss towards Evelyn and replied, “I don’t think Cui Ming will sign a contract with Dawn City.”

“Oh? You know him that well?”

Ding Ze laughed, “I’m not interested in men. I just think he’s not stupid and won’t be convinced by Evelyn.”

“How is his progress?”

“He mastered all the basic.”

North Luna said, “The payment from the Classical Exploration Company has arrived.”

“How much are we missing?”

“The gap in money is insignificant, but the gap in personnel is still relatively large.”

The two waited for the meeting. Cui Ming came up and stood in front of North Luna and Ding Ze. He bowed his head slightly and said: “Good morning Boss. Good morning Ding Ze.”

“Skip the courtesy, I think Ding Ze has made it clear to you that our relationship is that of an employer and employee.” North Luna looked at Cui Ming, “We can talk in my office.”

When they walked towards the office to begin the meeting, they encountered with a supervisor, the two sides did not say hello as they passed each other. After entering the room, Ding Ze closed the door. Cui Ming saw a new desk. North Luna said: “Our company only has three people including you. We are all free people. We accept commissions to get paid. Money is very important, even in the world of cultivators. For example, we applied to join the Aura Alliance. The enrollment fee was one hundred thousand per person. How much do you think your salary should be?”

Cui Ming said, “I can accept any amount.”

North Luna sighed, “I hasn’t been decided yet, I don’t know how much to pay you.”

Cui Ming looked at Ding Ze, “How much is your salary?”

Ding Ze sat in a chair and replied, “I don’t know what a salary is.”

North Luna never thought about salary. She and Ding Ze lived in a small villa and kept hundreds of thousands of RMB in cash inside the safe of their villa. Whoever needed money, took from the safe by themselves. Cui Ming thought for a long time, “What about me?”

North Luna did not anticipate this situation. According to her principles, since it had been determined that they were a team, they should stay together in the villa. Although she felt that Cui Ming was too strange to live with, she thought that if she rejected him, he might think he was being abandoned.

Cui Ming was a specialist in fraud, he could read the embarrassment on North Luna’s face. As an outwardly cold individual, the rare appearance of expression on her face could easily be read by others because she did not know how to cover up her expressions. Cui Ming immediately replied, “Boss, if I make five thousand a month, it should be enough to take care of myself. Is that fine with you?” People’s mentality was very strange, although Cui Ming answered very directly, in his heart he did not want North Luna to agree.

North Luna thought for a while and said, “Our goal is to join the Aura Alliance and it will benefit all of us. We are all teammates and we should be familiar with each other. You should live with us. But… there are some rules you don’t need me to say to understand.”

Cui Ming understood, smiled, and nodded, “Boss, I’m not a kid.”

North Luna turned around, “Ding Ze, take Cui Ming home and help him pick a room. After you finished, go to the market and purchase some clothes and daily necessities.”

Ding Ze nodded, stood up, and sighed lightly, to lament about going out. He took the car keys thrown by North Luna and said, “Let’s go.”

Cui Ming nodded to North Luna and left with Ding Ze. On the car, Ding Ze asked, “Can you drive?”

“No.”

“Well…” Ding Ze said: “You must learn.”

“Yep.”

“Can you cook?”

“Yep.”

“Good enough to cook a meal?”

“Yep.”

Ding Ze was very satisfied with Cui Ming and said, “I am very happy to live with you.”

……

The villa was not inside Dawn City, but in the suburban area 10 kilometers away from Dawn City. However, because North Luna Office is on that side of the city, it did not take long to get there from work.

It was a two-storey villa, built in an unified design like all other villas here. There were more than fifty villas, which were lined up and quite eye-catching. The area was small, each small villa covered an area of ​​only 200 square meters. The car stopped at the roadside, and the two entered the door. Ding Ze began to introduce the various rooms, “This is the living room. To the left are the kitchen and the laundry rooms. There are three rooms in the right side. I live in the first room. You can choose one from the other two. North Luna lives on the second floor, the rule is not to go up to the second floor. This is the safe, the password is sixty and forty. Turn left to forty, turn right to forty, then turn left to forty… after you repeat that six times, you can open it. Take as much as you need. Try it.”

This safe could be opened without a password. Cui Ming smoothly opened the safe. Ding Ze lay on the sofa in the living room and said with his eyes closed, “Get the money, there’s a bus stop at the entrance, and one bus into the city each hour.”

300,000-310,000 RMB in cash, Cui Ming approximated the amount with a glance. He stretched out his left hand, and accurately took 5,000 RMB with one swift motion. He closed the safe. and turned back to speak with Ding Ze, but Ding Ze was already asleep. Cui Ming frustratedly went out alone. Unfortunately, the bus just left…

Cui Ming put his left index finger in his mouth and wet it, then he stretched out his hand to feel the wind. A white car came from the distance. When it was approaching, Cui Ming let go and a dozen of his notes flew out of his hand. Cui Ming chased them and the car stopped. Cui Ming raised her hands and apologized. A middle-aged man in a suit bent down and picked up a few notes which landed at the side of the car.

Ding Ze leaned against the window in the living room and saw Cui Ming catch a ride. He picked up the phone in the living room and called, “This kid is very smart.” The bus departed in time, exactly according to Ding Ze’s calculations, thus Cui Ming was unable to take the bus. He did not think of Cui Ming would  hitch a ride.

A middle-aged man would not stop for a young man. Cui Ming knew that, so he closed the distance between the two in a grateful way. Then he praised the middle-aged man for his morality, after that how could the man could refuse to let him take a ride? This move had a failure rate, but the success rate was relatively high. The amazing thing was that among the twenty notes that Cui Ming threw out, there were 7-8 notes stuck on the wheels near the driver’s position. This made it easy for the middle-aged man to help save the money. If the banknotes flew to the back of the car, the middle-aged man would not stop the car. If the middle-aged man didn’t help pick up the banknotes, the success rate of Cui Ming’s trick would drop. Therefore, Cui Ming’s seemingly ordinary behavior of taking a ride, in fact, including many considerations.

North Luna asked: “What about his character?”

“I do not know.”

“The first time we met in jail, he kept staring at my chest.”

“It will take a long time to see the true face of people.”

“Well… Didn’t you take him to buy clothes? Did he know the road?”

Ding Ze replied, “He said he wanted to go alone, he naturally enjoyed a good bus ride…sort of. Even though I strongly suggested that I drive him…”

North Luna interrupted, “Then you will go to the Lincoln Manor again.”

“…” Ding Ze had already laid down on the sofa, but now he helplessly stood up and replied, “OK.”