Chapter Forty-Six: Renting a Home

“Following me? Aren’t you afraid I’ll sell you off?” Lin Lei was at a loss for words.

What kind of situation was this? Doing a good deed, yet somehow getting himself involved?

He knew very well what Li Fang was after, but he hadn’t expected her to be so persistent. Boys really did need to learn to protect themselves when out in the world.

“Would you?” Li Fang countered.

Unable to answer directly, Lin Lei could only divert the topic. “And why do you think I’d help you?”

“We’re old classmates—you can’t just watch me drown, can you?” Li Fang replied, eyes pleading.

“It’s not as serious as you make it out to be. Why don’t you just go back home?” Lin Lei scoffed.

“Going home right after coming out—what would my family think? Besides, I’m neighbors with Zhou Jing. If word gets out in the village about what happened to her, not only her family, but mine too would face gossip and condemnation. So I can’t go back. Not this year, at least,” Li Fang said stubbornly.

She refused to let herself be looked down upon, nor did she want to bring trouble to her family. Unless she had absolutely no other choice, going home now was not an option.

And Lin Lei was her last hope—the reason for her determination to stay.

“Actually, I have a girlfriend.” At this point, Lin Lei could only be honest.

After what had happened the previous night, he’d already guessed at Li Fang’s intentions. If she only wanted his help, he wouldn’t refuse—but he had to nip any other thoughts in the bud.

His sudden confession caught Li Fang off guard. After a long moment, she finally said, “What does you having a girlfriend have to do with helping an old classmate? Are you afraid your girlfriend will get jealous, or that I’ll cling to you?”

Though her heart ached, Li Fang forced herself to speak calmly. She had her pride—she couldn’t just slink back home now just because Lin Lei had a girlfriend. Wouldn’t that make her look guilty?

“Sorry, I was overthinking it. Since you’re not planning to go home, then come help me out. I came here planning to open my own shop, and I just happen to need a manager,” Lin Lei said.

Earlier, during their chat on the train, Lin Lei hadn’t revealed his intentions. After all, it was their first meeting in years, and she’d already mentioned looking for factory work. If he’d said he was coming to Yang City to open a jewelry shop, wouldn’t that have sounded like he was showing off?

“Manager? What kind of shop are you opening? I’ll say this up front—I have no experience at all, and I probably wouldn’t make a good manager. You’d better just give me a sales position,” Li Fang refused without hesitation.

Even with connections, she knew her own limitations.

“I’m the boss—if I say you can do it, then you can. Besides, it’s a jewelry shop, with big transactions. I need someone I can trust,” Lin Lei replied.

He had his reasons. The jewelry shop was only one avenue for making money—he couldn’t be there all the time. He needed someone trustworthy to help manage things, and for now, Li Fang was the ideal choice.

With her worries relieved, they quickly finished breakfast, checked out, and left Fuyuan District.

Tianqing City, a wealthy neighborhood in Yang City, was close to the university area where Lin Lei had once studied. In his memory, the cost of living here was sky-high—even the cheapest plate of fried rice noodles was fifteen yuan.

Of course, high spending power meant strong purchasing power. Every few shops, there was a luxury boutique—a prime location for opening a store.

Lin Lei found an agent to ask about housing and shop rentals.

Housing was easy enough to find, but shops were trickier. Business was good here, and vacant retail spaces were rare. Most were already rented out, and even when someone wanted to transfer a lease, they simply posted a notice on the door instead of going through an agent, to avoid paying extra fees.

So Lin Lei settled on taking care of housing first, planning to look for shop spaces himself later.

With no car, Lin Lei had to pick a place close to the shopping district, which also meant higher rent.

He’d thought about renting two apartments—one for each of them—but unfortunately, every place they viewed was too far apart.

“Why not just share a larger place?” suggested the agent, sensing an opportunity, and recommended a three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment.

Though two small apartments would bring a higher commission, those smaller units were never short on tenants. Larger units were harder to rent out, especially to a single tenant, and landlords often hesitated to allow shared leases. Seeing that the two seemed familiar—and that their price range was mid-to-high—the agent decided to give them a push.

“What do you think?” Lin Lei asked Li Fang.

He didn’t mind. With three bedrooms and two living rooms, the distance between them would be greater than staying in separate hotel rooms.

“It’s not necessary. Once the shop opens, I’ll just move into the staff dormitory,” Li Fang interjected. Seeing the rental prices, she was even less inclined to have Lin Lei rent a place just for her.

After all, they’d already discussed that once they found a store, they’d rent a staff dormitory nearby.

“I see. I’ll rent this place for now—you can just treat it as staying with me for a few days. Once your dorm is ready, you can move in,” Lin Lei said, realizing she was right. No more hesitation—he turned to the agent. “We’ll take this one. Show us the place, and if it’s suitable, we’ll sign.”

The apartment was on the sixth floor of an eighteen-story building—neither too high nor too low, with decent sunlight. Though the furniture wasn’t high-end, it was complete and relatively new, suggesting few previous tenants.

Lin Lei was satisfied and decided to sign immediately.

The landlord, Mr. He, was a pot-bellied, middle-aged man wearing a yellowed white undershirt, dark cropped trousers, and flip-flops—he looked every bit the vagrant, a reminder that appearances can be deceiving.

The rent was seven thousand a month, with one month’s deposit and three months paid in advance. The landlord only allowed full-unit rentals, but didn’t care how many people moved in—perhaps to avoid the hassle of collecting rent from multiple tenants.

With the contract signed, payment made, and keys in hand, the landlord and agent took their leave. Lin Lei then took Li Fang downstairs to the nearby department store to buy daily necessities. At last, he was settled in Yang City.

After lunch at a restaurant downstairs, Li Fang went back upstairs to continue organizing the apartment. Lin Lei handed her two thousand in cash, telling her to buy whatever else the place might lack.

As for himself, he set out to explore, looking for a suitable storefront.

In truth, Lin Lei had no experience with this sort of thing—location, foot traffic, all of it was a mystery to him. Fortunately, since it wasn’t a restaurant, he didn’t need to worry too much about those external factors.

His only requirement was that the shop could be quickly refurbished and opened for business—ideally, it would already have been a jewelry store.

For Lin Lei, time was money—time was everything.