Chapter 9: I Am the Owner of Unit 1600

Chu Lian took out her access card and swiped to open the unit building's door.

The group arrived in front of the elevator.

The elevator happened to be on the first floor; Shu Shu stepped in first, pressed the seventeenth floor button with practiced ease.

Zhang Lu exclaimed in shock and anger: "This isn't your home! Xiao Lian should be the one to press it! You're simply overstepping your bounds!"

Shu Shu nodded: "Yeah, that's right, it's not my home, but I pressed the elevator—I'm basically moving into someone else's nest, my cheek is thicker than a city wall corner, shameless, lacking morals."

Zhang Lu was left dumbfounded; she hadn't expected Shu Shu not only not to retort, but to go along with it.

She immediately snorted coldly: "Hmph, at least you have some self-awareness."

Zhang Lu didn't notice.

Beside her, Chu Lian's face stiffened for several seconds upon hearing Shu Shu's words.

For some reason, hearing that, she felt as if she were being scolded.

The elevator was spacious enough.

The group walked in, just as the doors were about to close.

"Wait a moment."

A man in a work uniform, carrying a toolbox, rushed into the elevator.

After nodding to express his thanks, he took out a card from his pocket, swiped the sensor, then pressed the sixteenth floor button.

The elevator began to ascend.

It soon reached the sixteenth floor.

The elevator doors opened, and renovation sounds could be heard; the man with the toolbox walked out.

The others also glanced over.

They saw a capable-looking woman holding blueprints, directing the workers.

Although they couldn't see the whole house behind her, they could already glimpse its luxurious refinement, and everyone's eyes lit up.

But before they could admire it for a few seconds, the elevator doors closed.

"Good heavens! What a beautiful house!"

"It's as luxurious as a palace!"

Someone couldn't help but sigh in admiration!

"Xiao Lian, isn't the sixteenth floor unoccupied?"

Zhang Lu asked doubtfully; she wasn't a first-time visitor to Yujingyuan—every time she came with Chu Lian to 1701, the sixteenth-floor button was dark, requiring a card swipe to activate.

Chu Lian said that the entire sixteenth floor had been purchased over a decade ago by a buyer, who combined it into a single unit, creating a large flat of over six hundred square meters.

The unit had remained vacant.

But over the past week, renovation workers have been coming to the sixteenth floor in dribs and drabs, bringing in furniture.

Chu Lian said: "It should be that the owner of the sixteenth floor has returned."

"That's way too extravagant!!"

"Someone that extravagant is the neighbor of Chu, the school belle!"

Thus, the looks they gave Chu Lian grew more admiring of her strength.

Chu Lian pursed her lips, accepting those gazes openly, and said gently: "Once the place is renovated, I'll personally make some peanut cakes for the downstairs neighbors as a greeting gift."

"Wow, that's great! Making it yourself shows real sincerity!"

"From now on we can visit each other often!"

"……"

"This greeting gift, we could skip—"

Amidst the chorus of praise, a dissenting voice sounded.

Shu Shu leaned against the elevator wall, arms crossed: "I'm allergic to peanuts; I can't eat peanut cake."

Everyone turned around.

Zhang Lu snapped: "What, who asked you? Xiao Lian making peanut cakes isn't for you—what business is it of yours? You're being overly sentimental!"

Shu Shu: "Wasn't it said the gift was for the owner of 1600? That's me."

Upon saying that.

The atmosphere froze for a moment.

What did they hear? Shu Shu said that the gorgeous palace-like house just now was her home?!

"Some people start dreaming before it's even dark!"

Zhang Lu mercilessly mocked: "Even now you're still pretending—you can't even get through the unit door; if you were the owner of 1600, I'd eat feces!"

Shu Shu's gaze was hard to describe for a few seconds: "Your taste is that heavy?"

"But the problem is you're not!"

At this point Chu Lian said: "Shu Shu, stop joking; lying is not a good thing."

A ding sounded.

The elevator stopped at the seventeenth floor, and the doors opened to the side.

"Alright, everyone come in first."

Chu Lian led the group to the right, walked up to a door, raised her hand, and entered the code with practiced ease.

As the door opened, the view widened.

At the entrance stood a woman in her thirties or forties wearing an apron; she bowed to Chu Lian: "Miss, you're back."

Chu Lian introduced: "This is our maid, Wu Ma."

Shu Shu: "?"

Shu Lingchen wasn't saying that Chu Lian's family were all in debt and being chased for money? Where did the money come from to hire a servant?

Shu Shu couldn't help but take a close look at that servant.

Then she made an astonishing discovery: the servant's eyebrows and eyes actually resembled Chu Lian's somewhat.

OMG……

This couldn't be Chu Lian's mother, whose health isn't great, could it?

Chu Lian said: "Because my parents are often away doing business, they're not at ease with me, so they hired someone to look after me."

After saying that, she instructed the servant: "Wu Ma, pour water for everyone, cut fruit, and prepare snacks."

"Yes, Eldest Young Lady."

"Wu Ma" bowed slightly, turned, and went into the kitchen.

The classmates who came over today were all from ordinary families; they had never experienced being served, so it was quite novel.

"Heavens, I've only seen such a scene on TV."

"Chu, the campus belle, truly lives up to being a rich young lady!"

Shu Shu shook her head directly: "Filial piety."

Everyone puzzled, turned their heads, and asked her: "What are you laughing at?"

Shu Shu: "I'm saying filial piety to death."

Using her own mother as a servant to pose as a rich young lady's persona.

Does that little idiot Shu Lingchen know about this?

Everyone didn't understand.

But after Shu Shu's earlier "raving remarks," they all unanimously thought this new transfer student might have a fantasy disorder, always spouting nonsense, so they simply ignored her and began touring the house.

"Wow, an old-game console controller and game cartridges! They've long been out of print! Chu Lian classmate, can I play with it?!"

A male student excitedly walked up to a glass cabinet, turned his head, and asked.

Chu Lian paused: "This one can't be played; it's actually broken—I just keep it as a display inside."

Shu Shu glanced at the glass cabinet.

The game console isn't broken at all.

It's just that she locked it up back then, fearing four-year-old Shu Lingchen would sneakily play her game console.

It's a password lock, and only she knows the password.

Moreover, the cabinet's quality is safe-level; unless you smash the glass and the contents inside together, you can't pry it open.

Hearing Chu Lian's answer, the male student's expression showed some regret: "Oh oh, okay."

At that moment, another female student walked over to a nearby cabinet.

"Wow, so many collector's edition figures!"

She pointed her phone at the cabinet and took a photo, asking: "Chu Lian classmate, could you take them out so I can get a close-up shot?"

Shu Shu glanced again.

Hmm.

Still, you need a password to open it.

Thus, unsurprisingly,

Seeing Chu Lian, Shu Shu, as if accustomed to handling this many times, spoke fluently: "No, these figures are my father's most beloved; even I'm not allowed to touch them, so…"

The female student responded with a nervous laugh: "I understand, I understand!"

Chu Lian smiled lightly and said: "You can take photos through the glass as well."

"... Okay, okay."

The female student, who had been about to lower her phone, halted upon hearing that, and sheepishly raised her phone again to snap a few pictures of the figures through the glass.

"Let's go check out the Moutai Wall! The photos in that sunlight just shocked me!"

So a group of people, one after another, took photos with the Moutai Wall.

"Heavens, the door glass outside the Moutai Wall is actually all fingerprint locks—so high-end!"

"Chu Lian classmate, could you open it to show us?"

"——No."

Before Chu Lian could voice her refusal, Shu Shu had already anticipated and spoken for her; everyone looked over, and she said in a lazy tone:

"Because this fingerprint is definitely recorded as Chu Lian classmate's father's fingerprint; only her father can open it, and she cannot."

Shu Shu looked at Chu Lian, tilted her head, and said: "Chu Lian classmate, I guess you wanted to say that, right?"

Chu Lian stared blankly: "... Right, that's exactly it."

Shu Shu laughed.

Her laugh made Chu Lian feel creepy inside.

Because that laugh seemed to carry a scrutinizing gaze that saw through everything, making her instinctively feel guilty.

For some reason, she had a premonition, a premonition that inviting Shu Shu to tour the house was a mistaken decision.