Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Chapter Three: Suspicious

Rong Yue left the painting association after she was done with enquiries.

Selling your painting in their association’s exhibition room was not a problem, from what the receptionist said, the important thing was if she had the qualifications to paint something that would actually get accepted in. After all most of the people that had gotten to an accomplished stage in painting were people that were already past their fifties.

Since she already had the information that she needed, she went to the florist shop where she worked.

Luckily for her, other than having memories of the future, she still had every memory of the past intact and knew that she still had some money saved up.

At this point of her life, she didn’t have any painting equipment and all the works she had done were all done when she was visiting Tong Yang.

Knowing the sly girl, she knew those works couldn’t be retrieved. In all honestly, she didn’t even want them, after all, those were the skills she had at the age of eighteen.

With the experience of ten more years, those works would seem very amateur to her. But to someone like Tong Yang, it was already exceptional for their age group.

.....

“You are here early?” Her boss asked as she arrived, after all, she knew that she was a student and she was only supposed to leave school by this time.

Her boss, Auntie Su was a nurse for the elderly people. She worked the evening shift there and still needed someone to stay in her store which was why she had employed Rong Yue.

“Today was for filling out the college admissions forms, so we were allowed to leave as soon as we were done filling them.”

“Also, I wanted to see you for a matter so I decided to come back early.” She added immediately and the other woman paused her hands that were flying across the keyboard.

“Is anything the matter?”

Rong Yue nodded her head sideways hurriedly afraid that the woman would misunderstand. “It’s not a big matter, I just wanted to know if I could get an advance payment for this month. I happen to need some money urgently and I don’t have any.”

Auntie Su sighed in relief after hearing her.

“Okay, I’ll give it to you this evening.” She promised and then waved her over to help with the inventory of the new flowers and decorations that had come over today.

After about an hour, she handed Yong Yue a total of two thousand, an amount that was way above her normal pay.

“Since you would be starting your examination soon, you will need more money, for the next few months, you can take this pay amount and when you are done, you can pay me back as you want.” Auntie Su explained as she saw the confused look on her face.

Youg Yue felt her eyes get teary a little, she would never have imagined that her asking for money would result in this, after all, in the past life, Auntie Su had kept on giving her the normal pay she deserved.

She nodded and then thanked her repeatedly until Auntie Su left.

The reason why she wanted her salary was to get some painting materials so that she could paint and sell it for more money, after all, if she spent about five hundred on her material, she was certain that any of her work could sell for more than two hundred thousand at the very least.

Before she was captured by those people, she had started to sell her work for millions but she understood that other than painting, many people bought artwork because of the creator and since she was still some girl that no one knew, two hundred would be a fair price.

Now that she had more than she needed, she thought of getting a phone also, but since she closed in the evening, going back to the city to buy a phone would be arduous and that could wait till the next day.

“When people say the heavens doesn’t sleep, they know very well what they mean.” Yong Yue muttered as she arranged some of the flowers in a way that made them more aesthetically pleasing to the eye than the previous arrangement.

Since today was a weak day, it was quite slow but still she had gotten more than ten customers and since it was in a lonely district it was quite understandable.

After all, things like flowers for date and all was luxury and only few of the low class people would think of spending money on things like that.

Usually Auntie Su had told her she could go ahead and close the shop the moment it was 7pm but today she decided to wait a little while more.

If it was before, she wouldn’t dare do that after all, things happened when it was dark and she was also a young and attractive girl.

But after spending two years training and being trained in that base, she was certain that she could take down average men and even the average trained man.

Fortunately for her, two more customers came and one of them was a young lady. When she saw the beautiful girl that managed the store, her eyes shined brightly.

“You look like some celebrity out to do a shoot on managing flowers.” She praised and Yong Yue smiled at her gently while taking her order. Yong Yue noticed that the man that was here to buy some flowers had looked up at her when the girl commended her appearance and then went back to admiring a flower.

The girl gave her some tip after she learned that she was only managing the store for someone.

“Thank you!” She said and then returned her gaze to the other customer.

“Would you need help choosing?” She asked carefully while maintaining a safe distance from him. Although there were a lot of things she could do, she didn’t have much here and could only use her hands.

“I would be buying a lot of flowers, would your store be able to send it to an address for me tomorrow?” He asked looking up at her.

The man’s eyes shined at her appearance. Her appearance was astounding and even for a man like him that was coming from the capital, he still felt like he had never seen someone that looked this beautiful.

“As long as you pay for the order upfront, we would definitely send it out the next day. Also, we have cases that would ensure they don’t get ruined while they are being transported.” Yong Yue explained and the man nodded in satisfaction.

He took his time and picked a wide range of order while Yong Yue helped him put a tag on it so that they are easy to identify later on.

After about twenty minutes he looked at his watch and then pulled out his wallet.

“That would be all, I hope you don’t mind that I’m paying with my card?” He asked gently and Yong Yue nodded negatively.

He had spent close to thirty minutes in the store and he could already tell that she wasn’t someone that liked to talk much.

Yong Yue took his card and then swiped it over the cash device. She confirmed twice that they had been credited with the money before she returned his card, after all, her instincts told her he was up to something.

Also, it was already dark out.

“If that would be all sir, it is way beyond our closing time.” She said politely. The man looked at her with some appreciation, yet knowing the kind of work he had here today, he couldn’t allow a girl like her distract him.

He nodded and then stepped out of the florist store, Yong Yue sighed in relief, cross checked his order and packed them into boxes so that Auntie Su would just have to get the delivery man to carry them and deliver them.

It was in that moment she realized he hadn’t dropped any address at all. She removed the gloves and coat that couldn’t be worn outside and ran after him. Unfortunately, his shadow was long gone already.

Since he was gone, there was nothing more she could do than wait for him to come back for the order.

She took a pen and scribbled down a note to explain to Auntie Su. If the man came back, she could just send it back to him. She also went back to leave the boxes open so that they could still get proper ventilation before they were shipped out.

As she packed her bag, she realized the man had left her some wad of cash and even though her instincts told her to not pick it, she also felt that leaving it in Auntie Su’s store was even worse and so she pocketed the cash.

“If anything happens, we would see who is smarter, she mumbled as she locked all the doors and left the store.

Her initial plan of going to get the painting materials was already impossible since she knew that her mother would have been worried sick already.

However, her brows furrowed the next moment as she felt all her body stand at alert.