"Little Yunyun, what’s wrong?"
Xiao Feng turned his head, his expression slightly surprised as he looked at you.
You took the phone from Xiao Feng and asked Zhang Zhaoyuan, "Who is the owner of this red envelope group? Do you know them?"
Zhang Zhaoyuan shook his head: "Don’t know, but I’ve taken on a task from his red envelopes once."
"It was a bit strange, but after completing the task, all you need to do is take a picture or record a video to prove that the task is done, and he’ll send you the red envelope."
"Strange, how strange?"
Zhang Zhaoyuan thought for a moment and said, "The task I took was for 20 yuan, and you only find out the content of the task after you open the task card. He asked me to run to the balcony on the rooftop of a tall building and sit there for two minutes."
"Zhang Zi, you’re risking your life for a red envelope," Yang Kai said exaggeratedly.
Zhang Zhaoyuan scratched the back of his head and smiled, "It’s not as exaggerated as you think. It might be frightening in other places, but there’s an office building near my house which has an auxiliary balcony in front of the main balcony’s edge, so even sitting there wasn’t too scary. I had Gao Jie take a photo of me, and after uploading it to the group, I got a red envelope of 20 yuan."
You nodded slightly, then turned to Qi Gaojie and asked, "Did you also take on a red envelope task?"
"Yeah, seeing him get that 20 yuan task so easily, I took on one for 50 yuan," Qi Gaojie nodded.
Qi Gaojie shrugged: "Pretty simple, my red envelope task was to film a video of killing something. It was New Year’s Eve, and there were plenty of people in the residential building slaughtering chickens and ducks. I just randomly filmed a clip and got a 50 yuan red envelope."
"One person can only take on one task a week, and afterwards we went out together, so who had time for this? Now that we’re free, we thought we’d task red envelope with everyone," he explained.
"Sounds fun, Old Shu, send me the group number, I’ll take a look by joining," you said.
Soon, Yang Kai used his own phone to join the group, and as soon as he was in, without a word, he directly opened a task for a 200 yuan red envelope.
"Little Kai, you’ve got quite an appetite," Xiao Feng put an arm around Yang Kai’s shoulder and laughed as he read out the task, "Within two hours, find a chicken and pluck all its feathers, but the chicken must not die. My goodness, this task really is twisted."
"I’m not doing such a disgusting thing."
"You can’t just not do it," Qi Gaojie hurriedly said.
"Can’t not do it? Why not? Is the mysterious group owner going to send someone to chop me up or something?"
Zhang Zhaoyuan looked equally mysterious as he said to Yang Kai, "There was someone in the group who took on a task for a 1000 yuan red envelope. That person didn’t reveal the specific contents of the task, but after the task deadline, that person got their hand chopped off in their sleep."
"Really, or just a hoax?" Xiao Feng quickly asked.
"Really, it’s the absolute truth!"
"Psh, I don’t believe it. If that guy doesn’t show up, good. But if he does, I’ll make sure he wishes he hadn’t!"
Just then, your phone rang from your pocket. You pulled it out to see, incredibly, it was Xian Qianling calling.
This crazy woman always spoke so directly, clean and sharp.
"School registration is today, so where do you think I am?" you replied irritably.
"I’m asking for your exact location."
"Turn right out of the door," you replied offhandedly and hung up the phone, not really wanting to deal with this madwoman.
However, just after you finished the registration process, a black Harley roared up. Xian Qianling was still dressed in that racing suit, attracting the attention of many men and women nearby.
"Sister Ling, you look really good in that outfit. Where did you get it? I want one too," Lin Panxia said, her eyes shining at the sight of Xian Qianling’s ensemble.
Nie Ying looked Lin Panxia up and down and said with a smile, "Xiaxia, I think you should give up on that idea. If you wore that tight-fitting suit, there’s no way you’d be able to zip it up over your chest."
Xian Qianling looked at you coldly and asked, "Why did you hang up on me just now?"
"My ’aunt’s husband’ is in town, if you know what I mean. I’m not in the best mood," you blurted out a random excuse.
"Hey, hey, you lovebirds should stop fighting. Let’s talk this out nicely," Yang Kai hurriedly intervened to mediate.
"Looking for a death wish, are you? Talking nonsense!" Nie Ying yanked Yang Kai by the ear and pulled him aside amidst his yelps of pain.
You knew that if Xian Qianling had rushed over to find you , surely something serious had happened. Seeing that her eyes were slightly red, your heart softened. You approached her, and your tone was much gentler than before, "Sorry, my earlier mood might really have been because of my ’aunt.’ I was a bit harsh, and I apologize to you."
Girls needed to be coaxed. Although you sometimes disapproved of her impulsive actions, she was still your friend. To say it more profoundly, she was a rare confidante. After all, in this day and age, a girl willing to rescue you from underground, as she had, clearly showed her feelings. If she hadn’t deeply cared for you, she wouldn’t have risked her life time and again to pull you back from the brink of death.
It was the old saying; you owed her two lives.
And the reason it was only two lives was that on one particular occasion, she had snatched you back from Lord Yama’s grasp twice.
To others, Xian Qianling was a proud black swan, barely even bothering to speak an extra half-word to other men. If your image hadn’t completely filled her heart, your voice hadn’t filled her ears, and memories of being with you hadn’t filled her mind, she probably would have sped off at the first opportunity.
Yet, she was always holding back because she knew the consequences of acting on impulse were more than she could bear.
Sure enough, your seemingly nonchalant apology somehow made all the anger in Xian Qianling’s heart vanish.
Even Xian Qianling found it unbelievable, secretly cursing herself for being so cheap.
However, she didn’t realize that only those who love deeply, who love selflessly, place the other person first, completely disregarding their so-called dignity.
"You know what’s good for you," Xian Qianling said, giving you a symbolic white glare. Then she added, "Yesterday, the police station received a report from a woman. Zhang Zifeng took people to check it out. The victim was strangled to death. But at the time, the woman was working the night shift at the hospital; she’s a nurse. The man died under strange circumstances, and we’ve checked all the nearby surveillance without spotting any suspicious people."
Seeing your silence, Xian Qianling continued, "This morning, another man reported that his high school son also died last night, also strangled. At the time, the victim’s parents were at home and didn’t hear any noise."