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Right now, Xü Beijin has no idea Mu Jiashi is going to come persuade him, as he’s looking at what Buzzcut and Ye Lan are doing.
The two Missiontakers took off early and went to the nearest residential block. Soon enough, they’re right back at the restaurant where they first heard about the arguing couple.
“Hello, laoban,” Buzzcut says, greeting the lone owner of the restaurant.
The owner looks at him with murky eyes, when a long time passes and he suddenly snaps ‘awake’ to ask, “hello, there. Would you like a breakfast?”
He’s about to lift the cover off his steamer.
“Oh, no, no, thanks,” Buzzcut stops him immediately, and says, “I came to ask something.”
The owner stops, and looks rather disappointed, then asks, “what is it?”
Then he looks Buzzcut over to add, “you don’t look like you’re from here, are you?”
Buzzcut then says, “it’s the first time we’re here in Cangcheng.”
“First time? You’ll find lots of places to go to,” the owner immediately suggests, “we’ve got lots of great food and fun around.”
Buzzcut thinks, yeah, lots, lots of madmen everywhere.
He vagues his way out of t he conversation before finally getting to his question, “laoban, I want to ask, was there a couple arguing here last night?”
The owner of the restaurant seems surprised.
Buzzcut immediately produces an excuse, “we’re a couple here, and we think we like the city, so we’re thinking about moving here. But we heard there were all these arguments…”
“All these?” The owner quickly denies the claim, “there’s only the one last night. The couple was always lovey-dovey, and it was just last night when who-knows-what happened, and made them argue loud enough the whole community could hear.
But eh, this is a good place to live. Don’t believe in those rumours. They’re fake.
Our neighbourhood may be old but it’s close to the city centre. We also all know each other here, so it’s really safe!”
Buzzcut nods nonchalantly, while analysing what the owner said.
Always lovey-dovey, except last night?
This clue doesn’t isolate their candidates any.
So he asks, “do you know why they argued, then?”
“You know the news, they said something is falling from the sky and our world is gonna end… You know those experts. Anyway, there are always gonna be people who buy it and people who don’t.”
Buzzcut is slightly surprised that it seems like the ‘experts’ aren’t exactly seen in a good light around here.
Though perhaps, after the madness spread throughout humanity, people became increasingly paranoid and distrustful of others. They’re probably much less accepting of others’ opinions.
What might the ‘experts’ have written on the third floor of the library… Buzzcut’s thoughts digress for a moment.
Meanwhile, the owner of the restaurant is still speaking, “the girlfriend believed in the experts, and thinks the Apocalypse is coming. The boyfriend didn’t, so they argued.”
Buzzcut is furrowing his brows. It’s the exact information as the last run.
Xü Xiaoli and Zhang Minglian didn’t fit this description, and instead, Ke Zhu and Xie Ji would fit.
So Buzzcut asks, “do you know who they are? We would like to get to know them.”
The restaurant owner gives them an odd look. It’s kind of strange how persistent they are in asking about the couple, but he couldn’t help either way, saying, “I have no idea. I merely heard about it from my wife.”
Wife?
Buzzcut is almost reflexively going to look at the steamer, but he stops himself in time.
But wait, does this mean, that the wife of this owner, has been alive up to last night, or even until this morning?
Buzzcut wonders if there is an implication to be found.
Like the owner of the restaurant has only gone insane this morning?
Well… More importantly, the owner himself didn’t actually hear the argument?
He’s relaying what others said? What about the other residents he asked the last run, were it also all hearsay?
Buzzcut suddenly realised, that just as the owner said, this is an old neighbourhood. Everyone knows everyone, and so, in the space of one morning, everyone would have heard about the ‘great argument’ last night.
And the exaggerated way the owner put it, that they argued loud enough for everyone here to hear… That’s unlikely. No modern human is this curious about others anyway.
Unless they’re the age of this old owner here, where they might gossip about it during their idle chatter.
And in this neighbourhood, as expected, most people are the middle-aged and elderly.
The only young people he’s seen has only been Xü Xiaoli and Zhang Minglian, the latter being a teacher at the kindergarten. They might not even live here.
In other words, perhaps the rumours became distorted as it went through what was basically a game of ‘telephone.’ The subtle things changed.
Finally, Buzzcut realises, that they don’t actually need to waste time here. They could probably get a more concrete answer directly from Xü Xiaoli and Zhang Minglian.
He’s a bit frustrated thinking so.
He should have realised that as soon as he learned that this neighbourhood has such a demographic.
Gossips and rumours would make up the bulk of chatter here, and information flows quickly and inaccurately.
While thinking about it, the owner continues speaking, “I couldn’t care less about people arguing anyway. What couple would you be if you never argued, am I right? They’ve probably made up by now, too.
So that’s why, I say, if you really feel like settling down here, you can’t look at exceptions like last night.
You have to look around, and talk to people, and see it for yourself. You’ll find our community here really has a great spirit.”
Buzzcut is forcing a smile while listening to the owner drone on.
Then, when the owner had a pause, he immediately seized the opportunity to say goodbye and leave. After leaving, he shares his thoughts with Ye Lan, who agrees in principle.
After that, they quickly head to the kindergarten.
The viewers of the stream are also excited to see them go there.
XĂź Beijin is also watching closely.
Though that is when Mu Jiashi suddenly arrives at the reception in the library, smiling and telling Xü Beijin, “hello, long time no see.”
XĂź Beijin, hearing that, quickly snaps back to reality and, before he can even greet him, Lin Qin, who is sitting next to him, suddenly shoots up, glaring at Mu Jiashi.
He doesn’t say anything, but merely expressionlessly stands straight up right there, like he’s trying to look imposing or something.
Xü Beijin “…”
Looking at such a Lin Qin, Xü Beijin can’t help but sigh.