31: Chapter 31 Do you have any good ideas?

"Ningning, I'll take you to sleep. My parents said they still need to work overtime for a while," Song Yunqing said, pulling Xu Wanning, who had just returned from a stroll, to go to sleep.

It was her first time sleeping in a yurt, and she was so excited that she tossed and turned, unable to sleep. It was such a novel experience.

After thinking for a while, she took out her phone and posted a Moments update visible only to Lu Chengyue, featuring a picture of the yurt with the caption 'Insomnia.'

Lu Chengyue didn't 'like' it, but he sent a message: [Still not asleep?]

[Yeah.] In the dead of night, her thoughts were different from during the day. During the day, she thought about holding on for three months, but at night, she felt so pitiful, not wanting to pursue it anymore, feeling so aggrieved.

[What time is it and you're still not asleep? Staying up late is bad for your health.]

Lu Chengyue lay in bed with the lights off, afraid of disturbing Jiang Yishen's rest. He had to cover himself with the blanket to look at his phone. He knew it wasn't right, but he couldn't help it.

[You're not asleep either.] Xu Wanning pouted angrily. Why does he get to tell me what to do? He's not anyone to me.

[I just got back from a mission and just laid down.] It was his first day back at the Fire Station, and an incident had already occurred—an air conditioner's external unit at a residential building had caught fire.

[You've worked hard. Are you hurt?] She had just been angry at Lu Chengyue, but hearing that he had returned from a mission, her mood immediately turned to worry. A Firefighter's life hung by a thread every day; it was very dangerous.

Seeing the three words 'You've worked hard,' Lu Chengyue's heart felt warm. How long had it been since someone said those words to him?

On today's mission, by the time they arrived, the external unit had already set the curtains on fire. The owner of the house was making a huge scene, screaming about why they had arrived so late. He threatened that if his valuables were burned, he would die, and that they were murderers!

They were truly helpless at the time. It wasn't the first or second time they had experienced such things, but it was still painful every single time.

Wanning's simple 'You've worked hard' made it seem as if today's grievances had been seen by someone, and they didn't feel so aggrieved anymore.

After three minutes, Lu Chengyue replied, [No, get some sleep. You have to catch a flight tomorrow.]

[I can't sleep.] Xu Wanning replied helplessly. It wasn't that she didn't want to sleep; she genuinely couldn't.

Lu Chengyue turned over. What should one do when they can't sleep? He didn't have much experience, but after a while, he still sent the most traditional method: [Count sheep.]

Xu Wanning couldn't help but laugh, [Tried it, it's useless. Do you have any good ideas?]

After waiting for a while without receiving a reply, she figured he must have fallen asleep, so she held her phone and gradually drifted off to sleep.

However, when she woke up the next morning, she was surprised to find that Lu Chengyue had sent her a message at 00:02—a voice message.

She tapped it open, and his low voice, carrying the hoarseness from staying up late, came through: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5..." He counted up to 100.

There were two pauses in the middle, and each pause was accompanied by a very, very soft sigh, likely as he hesitated whether to continue counting. This behavior was truly a bit silly.

However, he still finished counting.

Xu Wanning clicked 'save,' thinking she would listen to it whenever she had insomnia in the future. She casually replied, [Thank you, I slept very well.]

Lu Chengyue didn't reply; he must have gone for morning exercise. He wouldn't be able to check his phone until the evening.

After breakfast, Song Shouyi and Liu Meilan took her to collect the chicken and duck meat that had been processed yesterday. It was piled up in several large boxes, all portioned out so they could just grab what they needed when eating.

Song Shouyi blinked as he looked at the empty cold storage. "Girl, I plan to go to my older brother's place in a while and have him help me process things too. The sheep and pigs should be ready by tomorrow afternoon. Why don't you stay for two more days?"

Xu Wanning agreed directly, "Sure, I'm not in a hurry."

Song Yunqing happily took Xu Wanning around to explore Meng City, treating it like a vacation. She took a ton of photos, planning to print them out when she had time, just in case mobile phones couldn't be used later and they couldn't be saved.

On the morning of the fourth day in Meng City, Xu Wanning took a flight back to her hometown. She didn't tell her dad, thinking she would just head back to avoid bothering them.

As it turned out, just as she arrived at the entrance of the villa complex by taxi, she happened to see her aunt's family getting out of another private car, about to go in.

She waited for a while before getting out and followed them inside. Since she wasn't a resident of the villa complex, the taxi couldn't drive in.

She was wearing a hat and a mask, so when Lin Wandong and her family glanced back, they didn't recognize her.

Lin Wandong spoke with some reluctance, "Are we really going to spend that much money to buy this house?"

Zheng Cheng interrupted impatiently, "Didn't we already talk about this? Once we get the property deed, we can resell it and make millions. Only an idiot wouldn't buy it."

"If it weren't for your sister and brother-in-law planning to go to Jing City, we wouldn't have such a good opportunity. It makes all those years we were so good to their family worth it."

Lin Wandong couldn't help but feel happy, "True, it's just waiting three months to move in; a few days doesn't matter. Let's secure it first. Once the title is transferred, the house will be ours. We shouldn't let them get anxious for money and sell it to someone else."

"Right, right, right, we need to hurry." Zheng Cheng grabbed Lin Wandong and quickened their pace toward the Xu family's villa.

Xu Wanning curled her lips into a smile. Coming today was a good idea; she hadn't expected to catch this good show. She hoped that when the country announced that The Apocalypse was coming, their family wouldn't cry.

She didn't go through the front door but went in through the back door instead, hiding beside the living room window to eavesdrop. She didn't want to have any contact with them or listen to their hypocritical pleasantries.

As soon as Lin Wandong entered, she put on a hypocritical smile, "Oh my, brother-in-law, look, we've prepared the money. When can we go to transfer the title? You can continue living here for another three months; Zheng Cheng and I have no problem with that."

Xu Jingan put on an expression of 'You've come at an inconvenient time,' "The title transfer isn't urgent. Your sister thought you wouldn't be able to scrape together the money so quickly, so she was taken to Jing City by Ningning to have some fun and check out houses there."

"Our house's property deed is in your sister's name, so the title transfer requires the person involved to be present. They said they would be gone for about a month, so why don't we wait until your sister comes back to do the transfer?"

Lin Wandong's smile stiffened, "Then, then we'll take the money back for now and come back in a month. You must save this house for us."

Xu Jingan waved his hand, "That won't do. If you don't give me the money, how can I save the house for you? We are in a rush for money to buy a house in Jing City for Ningning; otherwise, we wouldn't have sold the house for such a low price."

"You give me the money first. The house is right here and can't be moved. Are you afraid I'd cheat you out of your money?"

"Or, I'll sell it to someone else. There have been quite a few people asking about it these past few days, and they are all willing to give me the money first, then put down a 100,000 yuan deposit, and pay the rest when the title is transferred."

Xu Wanning covered her mouth. She hadn't expected her dad's acting skills to be this good; he could be an actor.

Hearing that others were willing, Lin Wandong and Zheng Cheng panicked immediately, "Don't do that, brother-in-law. How about this: you take the money, and we'll keep 100,000 yuan, to be given to you when the title is transferred."

Lin Wandong thought that when the day of the transfer actually arrived, her sister and brother-in-law might be too embarrassed to ask for that 100,000 yuan, and they could save a sum of money.