Free Web NovelChapter 2: Chapter 2: Thief or Prank?
Are you kidding me?
How could a slipper end up here? Stuffed in a crack on the underside of an old chair?
What is going on?!
Under a table, maybe someone might take a look while cleaning, but even that’s a long shot.
But who the hell flips over a chair just to look underneath it?
Qin Xiaoxia "plucked" his slipper out from under the chair, then glanced around suspiciously.
Under the circumstances, he was 99.9 percent sure someone was messing with him. The other 0.1 percent was the possibility that he’d been sleepwalking.
’Who could it be? Who else has a key to my place? The previous owner? Impossible! I changed the locks ages ago!’
’Could it really be some bored thief? But can you even call them a thief if they just pull pranks instead of stealing anything?’
He mulled it over for a long time but couldn’t come up with an answer.
He didn’t have any relatives to speak of. After being adopted by the old man, he’d never seen Old Qin interact with any family. Even if he did have relatives, they’d be so distant they might as well not exist, and they certainly wouldn’t have anything to do with this.
He considered calling the police for about two seconds before dismissing the idea.
Looking out the window, he saw the sky was already starting to darken.
’It couldn’t really be...’
WHOOSH... The north wind blew in through the window, making Qin Xiaoxia, who was still sweaty, shudder violently.
"Pah, pah, pah... What a load of nonsense! Don’t let me catch you, you petty thief!"
Qin Xiaoxia shouted, his voice a brave front, then scrambled up to the second floor as fast as he could to close the door to the rooftop terrace.
He had originally planned to use the ingredients he’d bought from the supermarket to cook a rare meal, but now he’d lost all interest.
He made do with instant noodles, adding a hot dog and a fried egg.
...
After dinner and a couple of rounds of a game, Qin Xiaoxia remembered he needed to snatch up the latest model of a certain brand of smartphone, along with several types of liquor on sale and other best-selling products.
For this, he had a secret weapon: a bot program a classmate had made for him. It was his own personal cheat.
Using it on popular sale items greatly increased his chances of success.
What Qin Xiaoxia never understood was that some products, like certain liquors and small electronics, weren’t that hard to get during the initial sale. He didn’t even need to deploy his "cheat."
But after a few days or a week or two, these same items would suddenly become hot commodities, with people "eagerly buying" them at high prices.
Having been in this reselling business for a while, he couldn’t help but wonder: where were all these people earlier?
But he wasn’t one to turn down money.
He opened the relevant webpages on two laptops, set the timer and speed for his bot, and then immediately dove into his creative work.
"Creative work" was probably too generous a term. It was really just a mix of making things up, copying, pasting, and embellishing.
He was definitely one of those people who got cursed out daily as a "moron blogger, starts with a few pics, makes up the rest of the content."
The income wasn’t great, but he made up for it in volume. Every little bit counts, and it was a decent way to pass the time.
Today, for a change, he decided to be serious and write a horror story.
The title was "What Will Disappear Next."
His inspiration came from that creepily hidden slipper. He got so into writing that he gave himself goosebumps.
He typed the last word on his keyboard and posted it on a website he frequented right at the stroke of midnight.
It was time for bed. Barring any special circumstances, Qin Xiaoxia tried to maintain a normal sleep schedule.
He had already showered after his big clean-up during the day, so after a quick wash-up, Qin Xiaoxia lay down in bed.
Perhaps because the horror story he’d just written had reinforced the feeling, he was suddenly wide awake despite being exhausted moments before. Lying in bed, his mind kept replaying the image of the hidden slipper.
’It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ll forget about it by tomorrow... Just sleep, just sleep...’
This method of self-hypnosis might have the opposite effect on a normal person, but Qin Xiaoxia was actually quite good at it. In just a few minutes, he managed to shake off those thoughts and drift toward sleep.
...
In the early morning, sunlight streamed through the window and fell on his bed. At around 7:30, Qin Xiaoxia woke up naturally.
After a night of good-quality sleep, he felt just like he did on any other morning.
Yesterday’s events now seemed like just a minor hiccup in his life.
He had things to do today. After lazing in bed and playing on his phone for a bit, Qin Xiaoxia crawled out from his warm covers.
After spending twenty minutes washing up and getting clean,
On a very rare occasion, he pulled a suit out of his closet and spent nearly half an hour carefully getting himself dressed and groomed.
He couldn’t tie a tie, but he even took care to style his hair.
As the saying goes, clothes make the man. Qin Xiaoxia wasn’t bad-looking to begin with, and after getting all dressed up and striking a few flashy poses in the mirror, he had to admit he looked quite dapper.
"Tsk, tsk. I might not be handsome, but I sure do look sharp when I clean up!"
Qin Xiaoxia muttered narcissistically.
He then grabbed his phone and a ham bread he’d bought yesterday and headed out the door.
Normally, when a person dresses this formally, it’s for one of two reasons: a blind date or a job interview. ƒrēewebnovel.com
But not Qin Xiaoxia. He was dressed up to be a "temp."
There was indeed a job fair later, and Qin Xiaoxia did want to find a stable job soon. However, today he was going to be moonlighting as a recruiter.
His next-door neighbor, Brother Gou, whose full name was Gou Junbao, was the only neighbor Qin Xiaoxia knew relatively well. The guy was nearly forty and still single. He’d been to matchmaking agencies no fewer than twenty times and had even been scammed out of 20,000 yuan, but he still hadn’t found a wife.
In contrast to his personal life, his professional life was going quite smoothly. He had already become an HR manager at a product company.
To Qin Xiaoxia, it was rather baffling how a guy like that couldn’t find a wife.
Today’s weekend job fair was being held in Yue City, an event Gou Junbao had been preparing for quite some time.
But one of the three girls he was chatting with on his phone suddenly wanted to meet up with him.
Gou Junbao had been on countless blind dates. Though none were successful, he had gained a wealth of experience. For a girl to suggest this meant she was very likely genuinely interested in him.
So, no matter the time, Gou Junbao was a hundred percent on board.
Brother Gou’s standards for a partner had dropped significantly from his initial long list of requirements. Besides, this girl’s circumstances were pretty good in all respects.
At this moment, between his job and his personal happiness, Gou Junbao decisively chose the latter.
"Little brother, help me out here. I have a feeling the happiness of the rest of my life depends on this one!"
That was the first thing Gou Junbao said when he came knocking on Qin Xiaoxia’s door. Well, to be honest, Brother Gou had said something similar at least four times before.
’I hope it works out for him this time,’
With that resigned thought, Qin Xiaoxia agreed to cover for Gou Junbao. Since the small company was only sending one person to the job fair, he didn’t have to worry about any other hassles.
Getting paid 500 for a single shift was a pretty good deal, so Qin Xiaoxia was more than happy to help.
But was he up to the task of recruiting?
There was no need to worry about that. In Brother Gou’s words, all Qin Xiaoxia had to do was sit there, ask one question, and say one sentence to everyone who submitted a resume.
First: "Why did you apply to our company?"
Second: "Go home and wait for our call for an interview."
What they answered didn’t matter at all.
And don’t be fooled by Qin Xiaoxia’s homebody nature; he wasn’t the type to get stage fright. Due to certain aspects of his upbringing, he was actually quite good at reading people and was a smooth talker.
The situation at the job fair that afternoon was about what he expected. The hall was packed with graduating college students, all sweating buckets and looking extremely nervous.
It’s a strange psychological phenomenon: when others are incredibly nervous in front of you, you tend to feel more relaxed yourself.
A little after four o’clock, Qin Xiaoxia dragged his weary body home, carrying a stack of resumes. Gou Junbao still wasn’t back. It seemed there was more hope this time than before.
As he walked in the door, Qin Xiaoxia deliberately glanced at the shoe rack.
Yup, his slippers were there. Yup, none of his other shoes were missing either.
’Time to take out the ingredients I bought yesterday and cook!’
In this relaxed mood, Qin Xiaoxia temporarily transformed into Chef Qin, ready to show off his skills.
By the way, his cooking skills were actually not bad. Back when Old Qin was still around, Qin Xiaoxia had always been in charge of the kitchen at home.
The only reason he often ate takeout and instant noodles was because he hated the hassle.
But not long after he got to the kitchen, his good mood took a nosedive.
’Where the hell did my two spatulas go?’
Almost instantly, he connected this to yesterday’s "slipper thief."
