Chapter 76: Dashed Hopes
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Lin Fan was earning an insane amount of money daily. He was in the high-income tier of Shanghai. He flipped through the house rental catalog. As he didn"t want to move too far away, a particular house caught his eye.
Three bedrooms with one living room and it was just about 1km away from Cloud Street. The monthly rental was $6000 and he had to deposit a month"s rent and pay three months in advance. The environment was pretty good and there were no agents involved in the deal.
Lin Fan made a call.
"Hi, is this house still available for rental?"
"Alright, I"ll go take a look now."
He hung up the phone. Then, he left the shop as he said, "Fraud, please look after the shop. I"m going to look at a house."
Fraud Tian agreed and went back to playing with his mobile phone. Recently, he had made a Weibo account. Lin Fan helped him to boost his popularity and he had a fanbase of over six thousand people now.
At Xiang Hui Park.
It was a high rise building with a pretty good interior. The apartment that Lin Fan was looking at was on the eighth floor. It was ready for him to move in. Hence, it was very convenient.
Lin Fan stood at the door and waited for the owner to be back.
After a while, a middle-aged man drove over and met Lin Fan. They had some small talk and went into the building.
The owner was 43 years old. Because of work, he had to go overseas for a few years and it was a waste to leave the house just like that. Hence, he decided to rent it out.
They took the lift, went to the eighth level and into the house. Lin Fan nodded his head as he was satisfied with what he saw. "The interior decoration is pretty good and the environment is nice."
The owner said, "I spent over two hundred thousand dollars on the renovation works, it"s considered quite cheap. That"s why the rent is pretty low. I have a request though, to keep the interior decoration just as it is."
He was charging only six thousand dollars a month, which was really cheap. If there was an agent involved, it would have increased to more than seven thousand dollars per month. In Shanghai, to get a unit with three bedrooms and a living room for just a few thousand was considered really cheap already. Furthermore, it was close to Cloud Street, which was sort of a business district. He felt a little heartache when he realized that he would have to fork out a year"s worth of earnings and it was going to cost him a bomb. But he had to move into a new environment. The place he was living in was not really in a good shape.
Lin Fan signed the contract and left his number. Everything was settled perfectly.
When Lin Fan received the keys, he went to the shops nearby to buy a blanket and some daily necessities. There was nothing much to bring over from his previous home, just some clothes.
A few days later.
Lin Fan was living in the new house and he had withdrawn the rental fees for the previous house.
Some of the neighbors couldn"t bear to see Lin Fan leave. Elder w.a.n.g, who lived beside Lin Fan, bought some firecrackers to celebrate but ended up injuring his hand.
Lin Fan also saw through the collaboration plans between the scallion pancake fans and the fans of his fortune-telling abilities. He was impressed by how intelligent they were to think of such plans.
In the shop.
Lin Fan sat there in boredom. After he set new ground rules, he wasn"t as busy anymore. He was full of energy and life. He scrolled through Weibo and looked at the news.
"Hey!" A particular article talking about a gourmet show had caught his attention.
"Gourmet Kang Wei Fan recommends the heavenly taste of scallion pancakes"
The show was quite popular. It was known as "China"s Best Foods" which was well received by many.
Lin Fan went to turn on his TV.
Kang Wei Fan was being interviewed by a reporter and he was talking non-stop. "Today, I want to recommend a delicious food to everyone. The best of the best comes from this stall based in Shanghai. It has such a wonderful flavor. After you eat it, you"ll never forget it for the rest of your life. You might even find it difficult to eat other delicious foods after you eat this...and the food I"m talking about is none other than scallion pancakes."
Lin Fan was laughing. Kang Wei Fan was actually advertising for him in the show.
Then, Lin Fan"s expression changed a little. If that was to happen, wouldn"t things become very troublesome? He would become extremely busy again in future. But as he thought about it, he realized that it was still beneficial to him after all. In future, the Encyclopedic Points would increase by a lot.
He looked at some of the comments and saw mixed opinions. Some were not so friendly while others gave good reviews.
"Divine scallion pancakes? Simply ridiculous."
"I believe in Teacher Kang, his recommendations are never wrong."
...
This show had been out for a few days and the impact was quite good; it wasn"t too great but wasn"t too small either.
Lin Fan opened his Weibo app and saw that it was being flooded with comments.
Bad Ice: "Master Lin"s scallion pancakes are on the culinary delicacy program! Gourmet Kang is advertising Master Lin"s scallion pancakes."
Best Pine Tree: "Are the scallion pancakes made by Master Lin really that delicious? Will I regret it for the rest of my life if I don"t eat them?"
Disciple of the n.o.ble Gate: "To the one above, I"ve eaten the scallion pancakes. The feeling was simply indescribable. If you don"t taste it, you"ll never understand how it feels."
However, some of the comments left Lin Fan helpless. Autumn Sword Fish Killer was a maniac. Lin Fan scrolled through as he furrowed his brows. In the end, he just sighed.
Autumn Sword Fish Killer: "Heavenly scallion pancakes?"
Autumn Sword Fish Killer: "Divine Master Lin?"
Autumn Sword Fish Killer: "He"s a big liar, a fraud."
Bad Ice: "Guys, run! The Flame War Emperor is back!"
Egg Pocketer: "The Flame War Emperor has already invaded Master Lin"s Weibo. We are in deep sh*t. Someone, please save us!"
In a certain dark house.
Autumn Sword Fish Killer thought that Master Lin was a liar and when he saw a gourmet strongly recommending his scallion pancakes, he was infuriated. He didn"t even understand the why he always wanted to flame Master Lin. It was as if Master Lin had done something horrendous to him in their past lives. No matter how he looked at him, he just became angry.
Autumn Sword Fish Killer felt like it was just him against the world. But he wasn"t afraid because he had something to rely on.
Meng Meng: "Brother Autumn Sword, you"re my biggest hero."
Meng Meng: "Brother Autumn Sword, I love you so much."
He read these conversations and every time he looked at them, he felt invigorated. It was his motivation to carry on.
Autumn Sword"s ten fat fingers typed on the keyboard, with a face full of eagerness and excitement.
"Cutie, Brother Autumn Sword wants to see you."
A video call came. Autumn Sword Fish Killer was exhilarated. He quickly opened it.
In the video…
He saw the cutie. On the computer screen, a young girl was looking at him. She was wearing cute clothes and had a sweet smile.
"Brother Autumn Sword, why is your screen black?"
"Cutie, my camera"s spoilt." Autumn Sword explained.
On the other end, the person behind "Meng Meng" had used a voice changer to make it sound like he was a cute girl. With that visual image of a cute girl, it was sufficient to make Autumn Sword believe in everything.
Autumn Sword Fish Killer felt so relieved when he saw the girl on the screen and heard her voice. Autumn Sword didn"t say anything. He listened to her voice closely and stuck his fat face onto the computer screen as he smiled happily.
He was so close to the girl. To Autumn Sword Fish Killer, the girl was like an irreplaceable angel.
Autumn Sword Fish Killer pouted his lips and wanted to kiss the screen. Suddenly, his face changed. The girl on the screen had disappeared and was replaced by a fat man picking at his toes. There was mucus flowing down from his nose as he began to talk to the camera.
"Brother Autumn Sword…"
"I love you so much…" The sudden change frightened Autumn Sword Fish Killer so much that he became pale. Then, he screamed as if he had seen a ghost.
Ah!
His fat body collapsed heavily onto the ground as he leaned backward. The 300lbs weight shook the earth.
Autumn Sword Fish Killer was panting heavily and his chest in pain. He couldn"t catch his breath.
The scene that he had just witnessed was too much to handle. Obviously, the virtual "girl" behind the screen didn"t realize that something was wrong as he still continued to speak sweetly.
Then, the voice changer got deactivated. The rough, unpleasant and lecherous voice of the man could be heard.
Autumn Sword Fish Killer felt like his heart was entangled. Two streams of tears flowed down his face. Autumn Sword sobbed miserably.
Just as he was about to faint, he heard some voices.
"His heart is tightening. He requires immediate attention."
"Please send some help, this patient is too heavy."
...