Without internet access, navigation no longer worked. After driving around in circles for most of the day, 806 finally found Honey Lake Villa halfway up the mountainside.
Looking at the detached European style villas before them, the five college girls could not stop exclaiming in admiration.
After storing the car in the space, Cheng Zhi sneakily crouched near the security booth. Only after confirming it was completely empty did she call everyone over.
Just as Cheng Zhi had said, there were barely any people in the entire villa district. They picked a villa whose garden had become overgrown with weeds and had Xiao Feiran break open the door.
Cypress trees and roses had been planted in the courtyard, and there was even a swing set nearby. It seemed the original owner had truly loved life.
The group entered the house and discovered that instead of an extravagant and complicated European design, the interior decoration followed a warm and approachable natural wood style.
Looking at the family photo of three displayed on the entryway cabinet, Huang Yiyi said, “Looks like they were a really happy family.”
Walking at the front, Cheng Zhi spotted a diagnosis report for lymphatic cancer on the table. The patient was named Lin Yici, only six years old this year. She was probably the little girl in the photograph.
Zheng Wan walked into the semi open kitchen and opened the refrigerator. Most of the food inside had already spoiled after the power outage.
Xiao Feiran sat down on the fabric sofa and looked around worriedly.
“The owners won’t suddenly come back, right?”
Chen Siyu shook her head. Back then, the three of them had secretly observed this place before. Nobody had ever come here. Unfortunately, before they could even step into the villa district, they had been scared away.
Taking a few large strides, Huang Yiyi immediately collapsed onto the carpet and sighed contentedly.
“Then we can live here peacefully!”
Cheng Zhi walked over and kicked her.
“Get up and start cleaning!”
The five of them busied themselves with work. Xiao Feiran replaced the lock on the front gate and scattered broken glass shards along the top of the walls. Cheng Zhi and Zheng Wan focused on cleaning up the kitchen.
Meanwhile, Huang Yiyi and Chen Siyu cleaned the master bedroom and guest room, both of which had become covered in dust. By the time they finished, the two of them were exhausted and collapsed onto the bay window seat.
“You really have to admit, rich people’s rooms are huge. This room’s bigger than our dorm. I’m exhausted.” Huang Yiyi could barely raise her arms anymore.
The two sat there quietly, watching the sunset descend.
After a long while, Cheng Zhi came upstairs and called them down for dinner.
The generator had already been set up, and warm lighting filled the dining room, making Zheng Wan’s face appear especially gentle and soft.
At that moment, Chen Siyu’s nose suddenly felt sour and her eyes reddened.
“I don’t know why, but my heart feels really warm.”
“What are you standing around for? Hurry and eat. Sweet and sour spare ribs won’t taste good once they get cold.” Zheng Wan spoke while serving rice.
Sweet and sour spare ribs, scallion oil chicken, blanched vegetables, and borscht covered the table. Every dish looked, smelled, and tasted wonderful, and under the warm lighting they looked even more tempting.
After working all day, everyone was starving and lowered their heads as they devoured food.
After eating and drinking their fill, Cheng Zhi suddenly wrapped an arm around Zheng Wan.
“Wan, you seriously need to open a restaurant. Not doing it would be such a waste!”
Xiao Feiran also nodded and raised her hand in agreement.
“Wan can open the restaurant. I can’t cook, but I can invest.”
Huang Yiyi jokingly nudged her with an elbow.
“You still have money?”
“Hehe, I forgot. I’m broke now.”
Everyone burst into laughter.
After sitting around a little longer and waiting until they had digested enough, the five of them decided to enter the space and see if there had been any changes.
The moment they flashed into the space, nothing seemed different at first glance.
Finally, they noticed a spiral staircase behind the sofa. Walking over, they discovered an extra floor had appeared, complete with a home theater and a game room.
“Woohoo, this is amazing!”
Huang Yiyi collapsed into a soft leather recliner.
“I downloaded a ton of movies onto my computer. Once we connect it to this giant screen, it’ll be awesome!”
The little garden outside the balcony had also expanded by another circle. There was enough room to raise five cows with space to spare.
Zheng Wan looked extremely satisfied and gestured to estimate the size.
“Next time we can bring back two dairy cows. Then we’ll finally have unlimited milk.”
After taking care of everything inside and out, it had become very late. After washing up, they pulled up the electric fence and prepared to sleep.
But right after setting up the fence, before they even turned on the electricity, the large iron gate outside the courtyard suddenly let out a loud bang.
All five girls’ expressions changed instantly.
They grabbed their weapons and rushed toward the peephole.
Then an extremely strange sight appeared before them.
Their school’s campus shuttle was parked right outside their gate.
Cheng Zhi looked utterly confused. She rubbed her eyes and looked again.
The shuttle was still there.
Huang Yiyi stared blankly.
“Isn’t that our school’s Big White? Why is it here?”
After confirming it was not a hallucination, Cheng Zhi grabbed her electric baton, opened the door in the darkness, and walked outside.
Before she even reached the gate, she heard several boys cursing loudly.
“Lu Yuan, are you blind? There was a road right there and you still crashed into the gate!”
“I’m severely nearsighted! Driving at night is risky enough already, and you guys wouldn’t let me turn on the lights. Crashing into the gate was inevitable!”
Cheng Zhi switched on her flashlight and shined it ahead.
She saw three boys drenched in sweat and looking thoroughly miserable. Just as she was about to move in and take them out, a dog bark suddenly reached her ears.
That ugly dog jumped out and squeezed its head through the iron gate while barking excitedly at Cheng Zhi and wagging its tail.
“You not only crashed into my gate, you even stole the school’s car and dog. You’re dead!”
Cheng Zhi charged forward and scared the three boys into retreating repeatedly.
But then a familiar figure suddenly entered her view.
Cheng Zhi instantly stopped her attack midway.
Since she did not know Qi Yanche’s name, she could only ask in confusion:
“835? Why are you guys here?”
Qi Yanche, who had already picked up an iron rod, froze when he heard that familiar voice.
After two seconds, he finally realized she was one of the girls from 806.
Looking at the girl in front of him, he suddenly became strangely nervous and blurted out something completely unrelated.
“My name’s Qi Yanche. These are my roommates. Our car lost control. We didn’t hit your gate on purpose.”
Qi Yanche’s bizarre introduction somehow dragged Cheng Zhi into the same confusion. She lowered the electric baton behind her back and awkwardly asked:
“It’s the middle of the night. Why did you drive the campus shuttle out here?”
Qi Yanche tossed the iron rod over to Chen Yiyi and did not bother hiding anything.
“The floodwater receded, so we wanted to go into the city and see if there was any rescue or anything. We couldn’t find anything, so we figured we’d head home and sleep first, then keep looking tomorrow.”
Cheng Zhi immediately caught the key point in his words.
This guy actually owned a house in Honey Lake Villa.
Rich family.
Before Cheng Zhi could say anything else, Shen Lingfeng’s voice suddenly rang out from the darkness.
“Number 15! Brother Yan! We found your house!”
Hearing that, Chen Yiyi and Lu Yuan immediately walked over.
Seeing that, Cheng Zhi did not say anything more. She turned around, locked the gate, and prepared to head back.
Then Qi Yanche suddenly called out behind her.
“Classmate, we used to be neighbors across the hall, and now we’re neighbors again. Can you tell me your name?”
Looking at Qi Yanche’s face and the hopeful expression in his eyes, Cheng Zhi answered almost as if possessed:
“My name is Cheng Zhi.”