Chapter 18
Going to London
He was covered so tightly, he was probably some low-key movie star staying at the hotel.
He was just thinking this when he again came face to face with a young man. This security guard first looked up, this person"s mask and sungla.s.ses blocked his entire face, covered even more airtight than the previous one.
The security guard: "……”
The young man quickly walked past him with his head down. The security guard directly turned around, followed him the entire way full of suspicion, all the way until they reached the other person"s room entrance on the 21st floor when he saw that person take out a card and swipe open the door.
The young man looked back at him: "If you keep following me, I will call your boss and complain that you are hara.s.sing the hotel guests.”
The security guard: "……”
He put down his hand from the baton on his waist, saying embarra.s.sedly: "My apologies, because your outfit was very suspicious, I subconsciously followed.”
Xia Yanbin: "……”
And on the other side, Ye Wenxuan who had succeeded in determining Xing Yuan"s position felt that he had completed a huge task. He entered the elevator but did not go straight back to his room, instead heading all the way up to the top of the Huaxia hotel.
The top floor had been renovated into an open-air restaurant, the area close to the edge of the floor had been designed as an infinity swimming pool. In the dark of night, the lights shone and shimmered on the clear water, and adding on the occasional beautiful young men and women playing in the water, the diners in the restaurant were able to see all kinds of "scenery", so the atmosphere here at night was always unusually warm.
Ye Wenxuan didn"t pay much attention to the fine food nor did he admire those bikini-clad women. He found the emergency exit position and went in, avoiding the crowd all the way, and began to slowly climb down the stairs.
Even though he had already seen security guards pa.s.sing through here before, Ye Wenxuan still decided to personally walk through the stairs and reconfirm that there was nothing wrong with the stairwell.
"It feels like I"m in some sort of action blockbuster." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and talked to himself as he walked: "If I learn a few more cool kung fu and martial arts skills, I"m guaranteed to be the lead actor in a Hollywood blockbuster.”
Then Xing Yuan would probably be able to take care of the female lead"s role.
As soon as this idea popped up in his mind, Ye Wenxuan immediately slapped his hand over his mask and forcefully suppressed his smile.
Over half an hour later, Ye Wenxuan staggered out of the exit on the first floor, feeling that his sudden whim to personally explore the stairwell was simply idiotic.
This building could not be any more normal, and even though the security was not enough it was still not bad. The hotel"s entertainment areas were only open to the guests, and taking the elevator required swiping the room card, even taking the stairs also required swiping in order to open the security doors.
If someone wanted to commit a crime here, they would have to think of another way to enter the building, or check in at the hotel and obtain a room card in order to implement further action.
The doorman politely helped him open the door. Ye Wenxuan nodded at him in thanks, and then walked on the streets outside, looking up through the night sky at the building above him.
At this time it was already almost 8 pm.
This Huaxia hotel that everyone was staying in was actually not too old, the entire building was designed using pure gla.s.s walls. This was the minimalist style inspired by Mies, and at nighttime the lights would refract out from within the building, showing a hint of dazzle and wealth.
Ye Wenxuan raised his head to count his way up the floors, counting all the way to the 29th floor.
He stood at the main entrance of the hotel and could see that five rooms on the 29th floor were lit up. But because he didn"t know the layout of the luxury business suites, Ye Wenxuan couldn"t quite judge how many guests were living there.
Besides, this was only one side of the hotel.
The interior of the hotel was not the traditional rectangular design, inside there were many corridors, connecting rooms of a variety of different styles and layout. Ye Wenxuan also did not know which side Xing Yuan"s room was on, he was just casually looking a bit, and did not actually really think of being able to see anything from this.
There shouldn"t be any problems tonight.
Two room lights on the 29th floor turned off.
Ye Wenxuan simply found a bench across the street from the hotel and sat down. He pulled out his cellphone to check his mail while looking up time to time to check out the pa.s.sing vehicles and pedestrians.
Sometimes he would also take a look at the guests entering and leaving the hotel.
After sitting for over half an hour, Ye Wenxuan felt a little bored. He stared at the grand gate at the entrance of the Huaxia Hotel, where a doorman was pulling open the doork.n.o.b and bowed, waiting for the man inside to come out.
Ye Wenxuan froze.
The man at the entrance of the hotel was wearing sungla.s.ses and a simple casual suit, getting on a black sedan with someone who looked both like an a.s.sistant and a bodyguard.
Then that car merged into the traffic, driving quite far away very quickly.
Ye Wenxuan stood up, hurriedly wrote down the license plate number, and beckoned to a taxi. In sharp English, he said to the driver: "Excuse me, please keep up with that car in front.”
Even though the other person was wearing sungla.s.ses, and he was no longer wearing his previous suit, that man"s beautiful physique and familiar small movements still allowed his personal photographer to instantly recognize the person.
The person who had just gotten on the car was most likely Xing Yuan.
Ye Wenxuan was unclear about where this person was going to go wearing sungla.s.ses at night, but seeing that he only brought a single black suited man with him, Ye Wenxuan was worried some dedicated people might take advantage of this situation.
The taxi driver was a black man with dreadlocks. He threw him a suspicious look as he started the engine: "Man, you"re not going to be doing something illegal, are you?”
Ye Wenxuan blinked and opened his mouth: "Brother, you"ve misunderstood. My brother"s wife cheated on him, and the person in front is the adulterer.”
The black man heard him and immediately revealed a face full of sympathy: "Oh, this is really terrible. Man, that person drives a very good car, he definitely is very rich.”
Ye Wenxuan: "For the sake of my brother, I must go and ask him clearly.”
"I support you, lad." The black man stepped on the throttle and drove the taxi out at the speed of a F1 racer: "Don"t worry, I will catch up with him!”
Ye Wenxuan was slammed back into his seat by the car"s thrust. He silently gripped the seat handle, coughing dryly: "Brother…it"s okay to keep a low profile, no need to try so hard.”
"Oh no no, this is really nothing." The black man laughed: "Listen to me, this is very common in London. In the past I even drove a broken-hearted girlfriend in pursuit of the man who jilted her, plainclothes criminal police tracking a drug lord, as well as a Gaia prince in disguise running away from home. Alas, these were all things back in my youth, now that I think about it, they were all very exciting ah hahaha!”
Ye Wenxuan: "……" I didn"t think that this was actually an old driver full of stories.
Seeing Xing Yuan"s car stably staying three or four cars in front, Ye Wenxuan could relax a bit, idly listening to the driver telling him his own glorious deeds. The most important thing was that this guy actually talked like he was rapping, and could even bring his own wonderful rhythm and beat, it really made him surprised.
He glanced at the middle-aged man excitedly swinging his arms next to him, and silently kept his mouth shut.
By the time the black sedan they were tracking arrived at its destination, Ye Wenxuan had already listened to an entire earful of this black man"s rap, his brain crammed full of this old driver"s "extraordinary past.”
Paying the bill and getting out, he hooked his mask back up, watching the figure enter a high-cla.s.s clubhouse.
This clubhouse was decorated with a very stylish facade, from the front it seemed like it should cover quite a large area, but the entrance was actually very small. It seemed to pay great attention to mystery and exclusivity, and even the clubhouse signs were embedded in the door using small lettering.
Ye Wenxuan walked closer to read it clearly, that row of words said "Red Rose Clubhouse.”
He pondered for half a day, then still walked over to try to enter the clubhouse from the main entrance.
As expected, he was stopped by two tall white men at the door.
Only members could enter "Red Rose".
Ye Wenxuan: "Can I become a member now?”
The white man impatiently said: "Kid, we only receive wealthy adults here, get out of here." It was clear that the racial characteristics of Asians made this white person mistakenly think that he was only a teenager.
Ye Wenxuan: "I am an adult, and I have money.”
White man: "Do you have 5 million?”
Ye Wenxuan: "I…”
White man: "Pounds.”
Ye Wenxuan: "…”
"Kid, there"s plenty of bars across the street, they love little rats with no hair like you, go over there to play." The white man waved him away and turned back and laughed with his companion for half a day, and then didn"t care about him again.
Ye Wenxuan looked at the two of them and didn"t say anything, turning around to leave.
When he had gone quite far away, he turned into a small alley next to the clubhouse, and a cry of pain came from behind him.
That sound was somewhat miserable, attracting countless people to go up to watch. A crowd of pedestrians going up to see what was going on asked each other for a long time before finding out that the person lying on the ground seemed to have been stung by static electricity at some key parts, and at this time was clutching his thighs and twitching on the ground in pain.
The onlookers didn"t believe it, and one person laughed: "Static stung his d.i.c.k? Hahaha I really haven"t seen this kind of accident before, brother, what"s it like to be electrocuted, does it feel good?”
The white man"s partner also didn"t believe him, and even kicked him with a foot: "Jill, quickly get up for me, this is too humiliating!”
Jill, who had fallen to the ground, covered his crotch with his legs, and would occasionally let out a sob, with an appearance of someone who had lost his soul.
Dozens of meters away from the crowd in a small alley, Ye Wenxuan rubbed his fingers together and gently huffed to himself, before lifting his feet and continuing to walk down the alley.
On his left side was the outer wall of the clubhouse, as he went farther down, he could see a few closed windows on both sides, as well as a rusted narrow door.
"Meow~”
Ye Wenxuan stood still, his eyes fixed on the garbage bin on the right side of the alley.
A big ginger yellow cat lay on the lid of the garbage bin, and upon seeing a stranger, it immediately screeched at him in warning.
Ye Wenxuan locked gazes with it for a few seconds, then the big cat turned and jumped off the garbage bin, disappearing after a few thuds.
Creak——
A small door opened from the inside in front of him, and a thin and small figure came out.
Ye Wenxuan"s face was covered by the mask, watching the little man wearing what was obviously the uniform of the clubhouse staff carry two garbage bags silently walking over.
It"s an Asian kid.
All sorts of thoughts flew through his mind, and the person finally found there was another man standing in the small dark alley. He reflexively opened his mouth wide, Ye Wenxuan did whatever he wanted and quickly went up and reached out to stab him a bit.
The man"s two eyes rolled up, and he directly pa.s.sed out from the electricity without letting out a sound.
The author has something to say: Just came to London for the first day, there are no big matters, just looking around, he won"t be fighting.
## Zhang Zhen"s Broken Translation ##
Zhang Zhen: "My first time going abroad, I feel like foreign countries are not quite the same as I had thought.”
Ye Wenxuan: "Where are they different?”
Zhang Zhen: "They don"t really talk like they do on TV.”
Ye Wenxuan: "TV?”
Zhang Zhen gave him a parody: "Oh my G.o.d, my old man! For G.o.d"s sake, why don"t we sit down and have a cup of coffee?”
Ye Wenxuan: "…”
Zhang Zhen, very invested in his parody: "Hey, you said he divorced Mrs. Iverson? You people! Watch out, I will kick your b.u.t.ts using my boots! I swear I"m really going to do it!”
Ye Wenxuan: "……”
He rubbed his forehead: "How many old movies did you watch before coming here? Can you not see something without broken translations?”
Zhang Zhen: "They were pretty good ah (⊙▽⊙)”
Translator Notes:
[1] Mies – 密斯, American-German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the pioneers of modernist architecture
[2] Gaia – supposedly this is a country? though in English this directly translates into a G.o.ddess, so idk really
[3] exciting – 热血沸腾, idiom, means to be fired up, to have his blood racing
[4] in pain – 生不如死, means that living is worse than dying but there was no clean way to write it
[5] Jill – 吉尔, ironic that this name translates to Jill which is a female name
[6] broken translation – 翻译腔, basically means translation that is influenced by biased sources for their translations
[7] my old man – 老伙计, I"m actually not sure what he means here
Random Notes:
Took about 1.5 hours: 2 pm – 2:45 pm, 3 pm – 3:45 pm, for 3.2k characters to 2.4k words. Looks like I"ll probably just be always catching up on this one with 1 chapter a week.