Chapter 34
Going to London
Far from the bustling city center, basically every city has some old districts that don"t match the glitz of the rest of the city.
Here the security is relatively chaotic, and robberies and fights happen from time to time. The environment looks very bleak. Apart from the locals who have become accustomed to living here, generally no tourists would like to come here.
Ye Wenxuan was now standing outside a grocery store. He looked down to glance at his phone screen from time to time, and for a moment he was somewhat uncertain.
Until someone patted the doorframe behind him, Ye Wenxuan turned his head. The bearded boss of the grocery store was holding a cigarette and looking at him: "Boy, are you coming in to buy something?”
Ye Wenxuan looked at the messy little shop behind him: "Not buying.”
Boss: "If you"re not buying then roll, don"t stand in front of lao zi"s shop blocking the door! Annoying!”
Ye Wenxuan thought for a moment: "Then I"ll buy something ba.”
The boss sprayed him with a mouthful of smoke: "What are you buying, hurry up.”
Ye Wenxuan looked around and casually pointed at a cla.s.sic umbrella: "Just this.”
After paying, he took the umbrella in one hand and said to the big man in front of him: "Big brother, I have a question.”
The boss swore in response: "What else?”
"Trouble you to help me look at this, this location on the map, where exactly is it?" Ye Wenxuan showed him the screen. "I"m not familiar with this area.”
After the boss looked at it, he casually pointed in a direction.
After he left the grocery store and turned into the narrow street nearby, Ye Wenxuan slowed down and lightly flicked a finger.
With a bang, the lights in the ceiling of the grocery store burst.
The shop owner started loudly cursing, and Ye Wenxuan snorted coldly. He bowed his head and looked at his cell phone, finally still following the direction pointed out by the boss, slowly pacing over.
This street was dimly lit, and several street girls were standing next to the street lights and giggling. When they saw someone coming they fixed their long hair and threw the visitor charming glances.
"Little brother, would you like to come try? Guarantee that you"ll be comfortable for a night oh~”
"Physique is pretty good ah, hehe…Play with me ma, I"ll give you a discount…”
Ye Wenxuan was still wearing his sungla.s.ses, and his hat was pressed down very low. Now he casually slid that umbrella on the ground, just walking past as if he was deaf.
The girls looked at each other: "This…blind?”
An umbrella was made into a walking stick by him, those street girls were all somewhat upset. Seeing him head straight to the other side of the street, they no longer entangled him.
After walking over a hundred more meters, he finally stopped in front of a youth hostel with a "Matt Hotel" sign.
The grocery store owner, though a little grumpy, had still reluctantly pointed him in the right direction.
The surrounding area wasn"t particularly dilapidated, but the construction was a bit old. Along with the aging of the surrounding facilities, it could not keep up with the speed of urban development, and this old district gradually declined.
But even so, if you walked slowly down the path, you could still feel that every house here was full of the rich cla.s.sical Georgian architecture style.
This un.o.btrusive Matt Hotel in front of him looked no different from the surrounding houses. It had red brick outside, a sloped top, and the main door and window frames were painted white. Looking at it there was still some hints of elegance.
As long as you didn"t look closely at the paint falling off the walls, the not very clean gla.s.s windows, and the rusty doors.
Ye Wenxuan speculated that most of the visitors here should be backpackers who liked cheap travel, as well as some temporary tenants who worked nearby.
The location coordinates on his phone showed that Xing Yuan was in this hotel.
He took a deep breath, placed that umbrella tip back on the ground, and walked in.
On the right after entering the door was a long front desk. A smokey-eyed brown-haired sister was texting with her head down. Hearing someone come in, she raised her voice: "Ten person room 4.6 pounds, eight person room 6.9 pounds, three person room 9.2 pounds, there"s still one single left, the rest are full.”
Ye Wenxuan fumbled to the front desk. That woman glanced at him: "Eyes aren"t good?”
"En." Ye Wenxuan smiled at her: "Beauty, I would like to ask for your help.”
His voice was low and sounded good. Even when wearing sungla.s.ses and pretending to be blind, his temperament was still very attractive. That front desk sister threw her phone aside and got up and leaned on the counter. She approached him and said: "Aren"t your eyes not good, how do you know whether or not I"m a beauty?”
"Listening to your voice, I can paint a picture of your appearance in my mind. En…You must have reddish brown curls, very pretty." Ye Wenxuan sized her up: "And, your perfume smells very nice.”
Sure enough, these words made the other person very happy, and the woman laughed: "You must be very good with women. Okay, what do you want me to help you with?" She leaned her upper body across most of the counter: "Kissing is also okay oh.”
Ye Wenxuan pretended he didn"t hear that: "My eyes are not very good, so I want to find a room with Chinese roommates. Living next door is also okay, at least he can look after me a bit. En…I don"t know if this is possible?”
The front desk little sister glanced at the computer: "We don"t have too many Chinese visitors here recently. Well, there are two in the ten person room and this afternoon another one living in a single room. Handsome, if you are afraid of being unsafe with more people, you should still live in the single. We still have one left, and the neighbor is also a Chinese person." As she said this, she giggled: "He"s also a handsome brother, he will definitely be happy to help you.”
If Xing Yuan was really staying here, Ye Wenxuan could not in any case imagine the picture of him crowding together with other people in a ten person room. Instead the person who took the single room happened to have just gotten in this afternoon, this sounded much more like Xing Yuan.
So he nodded: "Thank you very much. Please check me in, I"ll live in that single room.”
The lady swiped at his chin: "I"ll give you a discount, 10 pounds a day, if you live longer it"ll be 8 pounds oh.”
"Then 10 pounds ba." He moved subtly to the side, pulling out his wallet and paying for a day.
"Oh, okay. This is your door key, the room is the innermost room on the left side of the third floor. If you can"t find it, come back and find me. I can help you open the door." The front desk little sister put the key in his hand and couldn"t help sc.r.a.ping it slightly: "My name is Sasha. If you have anything you need, you can come find me.”
Ye Wenxuan retracted his hand: "Thank you, Sasha." He then turned around and walked away, completely not giving the other side the chance to continue flirting with him.
"The little girls here are really too open." He spoke to himself as he went upstairs. Flipping out the key, the key fob was engraved with the number of the door, 312.
To the left of the stairs, there were several people walking in the corridor. Ye Wenxuan simply used that umbrella as a walking stick again, pretending to blindly grope past.
A young man came over to ask him if he needed help, and Ye Wenxuan took out the key: "Oh, yes. I can"t see too clearly…that girl at the door said that my room is furthest inside.”
The young fellow glanced at it and helped him forward: "I"ll help you open the door ba, why did you come out and stay in a hotel alone? This area is really not very safe, if you can"t see, it"s very easy for you to be robbed.”
They had already reached the place, that man plugged in the key and turned it: "Here you go, you can go in yourself. Don"t forget to keep the key safe.”
"Oh good, thank you." Ye Wenxuan looked at him through his sungla.s.ses and casually said, "I heard that there is a Chinese person like me living next door, but just moved in today. Have you seen him?”
"Ah, I go to work during the day, so I"m not sure." That man scratched his head: "The rooms here are not very soundproofed, I didn"t hear any movement this evening. Maybe he went out?”
After the locator had been locked on this location, it had not moved. Xing Yuan was probably still in the room, or, his gla.s.ses were still in the room.
Without getting any useful information, Ye Wenxuan politely expressed his grat.i.tude, and then "sent" the kind man out the room.
Closing the door, he took off his sungla.s.ses and threw the umbrella and backpack onto the bed. He found a chair and then sat down, slowly letting out a deep breath.
Pulling out his cell phone he confirmed again that the dot still didn"t move. Ye Wenxuan thought for a bit and went out, turning right, and touching the door next to him.
He lightly knocked on the door and waiting for about two minutes, but still didn"t hear any movement coming from inside.
There wouldn"t really be no one ba.
"h.e.l.lo, is there anyone inside?" He placed his palm on the door, and after a while, he knocked gently again. "Is there…anyone?”
After waiting for a while, Ye Wenxuan finally gave up.
He took advantage of the people in the other rooms still not noticing himself and smoothly took his hand back and walked back to his room, locking the door.
This hotel"s single rooms had their own bathrooms. Because it was built quite a few years ago, the walls and furniture were all filled with an old and musty smell.
Ye Wenxuan stood at the entrance and looked around. To the left side was the bathroom, and another few steps in, there was a single bed along the left wall. To the right was a cabinet for clothes, as well as a not very big table.
The window opened facing the door. Ye Wenxuan glanced through and saw that the building opposite him was also lit.
The bed and bedding were a little yellow. The floor was wooden, and when walking on it there would be slight creaking noises. Some of the corners were sticking up, probably from a previous guest accidentally spilling water.
Ye Wenxuan first drew the curtains, unb.u.t.toned his shirt, and went into the bathroom. He splashed his face with cold water to wash away the fatigue of the day.
Putting his hand on the bathroom counter, Ye Wenxuan looked at himself in the mirror, focusing on those two shining eyes.
"How long will I need to finally take full control of you?" He said to himself.
Ten minutes later, after a combat shower, he changed into clean clothes. Ye Wenxuan rubbed his hair with a towel and leaned against the wall on the single bed, no longer wanting to move.
Picking up the phone to look at the time, it was 11 pm.
The red dot never moved.
Ye Wenxuan somewhat irritably wrapped his whole head in the towel. After a long time, he loosened a corner and revealed his nose, sucking in two breaths.
He held his phone in front of his face and swiped out the latest news.
[The Xing group president, Xing Yuan, disappeared in the UK and is suspected to have been involved in a series of terrorist attacks.]
[Yan Jianming has once again come out of the mountains to lead the Xing group. Is the Xing family on the verge of collapse?!]
[British police said: It is still too early to say that Xing Yuan is dead.]
Ye Wenxuan quickly skimmed over these news. The more he looked the more irritable he became, so he closed the news and opened a small game to play some matching.
He played with unlimited levels, no time limit, and even had unlimited small props. Even those with bad eyes could still win for three days and three nights. He lay down sideways on the soft bed, turned off all the game sound, and started to win one round after another.
The soundproofing of the hotel was just as good as the young man had said. The sound of doors closing in the hallway, the squeaks of people walking on the floor in the hallway, and in the single room across the hallway, a boy gently playing his guitar.
It was half past eleven.
Ye Wenxuan buried half his face in the pillow. He was really sleepy, but was still struggling to keep awake. He kept clicking on the screen, eliminating those pairs of animal icons one by one.
The sound of light footsteps entered his ears.
Someone turned on the shower, the water squirted out of the shower head. The shalala sound of the shower was very clear in the night.
Ye Wenxuan stopped clicking on the icons.
He placed a palm on the wall and leaned his entire body on it. Listening for a while, he slowly raised the corners of his mouth.
There was no room on the right side of 312, and 310 was next to him to the left, the one where he had knocked on the door for half a day.
The red dot moved slightly and then went still again.
Ye Wenxuan stared at that round dot for half a day and lightly said: "It turns out that you actually did not throw it away ah.”
Soon, a simple message was sent, to the "cannibal flower" still far away in Westminster.
Mage: [I found him.]
Cannibal flower: [Stay low key, do not abuse the ability.]
the author has something to say: the current main battleground is not in the country. ye wenxuan said: what is secretly tracking, of course choose to do it directly ah!
## the orders from the special affairs department ##
Zheng Xingguo: "When going abroad, other than as a last resort, do not thunder.”
Ye Wenxuan: "Okay.”
Then Ye Wenxuan brought down lightning from the sky in Westminster.
Cannibal flower: [Don"t use wide-ranged abilities!]
Ye Wenxuan: [Received.]
Then Ye Wenxuan killed a bunch of snipers in the lecture building.
Cannibal flower: [Stay by the target, do not thunder! Do not thunder! Do not thunder!]
Ye Wenxuan: [Okay!]
Special affairs department: No, we don"t believe it, you will definitely thunder again.
(Already with no credibility) Ye Wenxuan: "…”
Translator Notes:
[1] swore – 骂骂咧咧, basically foul mouthed
[2] come out of the mountains – 出山, basically to come out of obscurity, in this case probably retirement
[3] matching – guessing like candy crush or the like
Random Notes:
A little over an hour: 7:30 am – 9 am, for 3.8k characters to 2.6k words. Guys, as of last week, the Microsoft translate extension for Safari has been phased out. This is sad news for me, since I use it so much. Not only for translating, but since it automatically MTL"d entire pages, it made MTLing novels so much easier. Guess I"ll just have to use the Bing translate webpage instead. pepehands