Seeing the strange look in my eyes, Li Qing instinctively took two steps back and folded her arms across her chest. “What are you trying to do?” she demanded fiercely.
But then she seemed to remember something and inexplicably relaxed. The disdain in her eyes was unmistakable. “Zhang Yang, you’re not thinking of sleeping with me, are you? Hmph, Li Ya told me all about it. You’re completely impotent!”
That wretched woman had even told her about something like that.
I cursed inwardly and said with a dark expression, “Sis, I’m not interested in you. But if you want me to keep your secret, you’d better agree to my terms.”
“What exactly are you trying to do?” Li Qing asked.
“Help me find proof that Li Ya’s cheating. You’d better give it to me before eight tonight. If you can do that, I’ll keep your liking women a secret. Otherwise, don’t blame me for spreading it around.” I threatened her.
“Xiao Ya is cheating?” Li Qing clearly didn’t believe me. “Don’t talk nonsense.”
“I don’t care.” I waved a hand to cut her off. “I’ve said my piece. I’ll be waiting for your call before eight tonight.”
After saying that, I ignored Li Qing and turned to leave.
Before I’d even reached the office, I got a phone call.
When I saw the number, I quickly composed myself, forced a smile, and instinctively straightened my posture.
The caller was Liu Ruyan, a client I’d been looking after for several months.
She was a wealthy woman, reportedly worth over a billion.
The properties she bought were all worth hundreds of millions.
If I could close a deal on even one, the commission alone would probably be over a million.
So, to me, Liu Ruyan was a goddess of fortune.
“Sister Liu, what can I do for you?” I answered, my tone utterly respectful.
Liu Ruyan didn’t sound particularly upbeat. “Are you free right now?”
“Yes, yes, I’m free. Sister Liu, just tell me what you need.”
“I’m at my place in the Purple Imperial Residence. I’m getting ready to sell it, and there are some odds and ends inside that need sorting out. If you’re free, come over and help me tidy up,” Liu Ruyan said.
“Of course.” I hurriedly agreed. “I’ll be there within twenty minutes.”
The Purple Imperial Residence was a luxury development in Tianzhou. Even the cheapest homes there cost tens of millions.
Liu Ruyan had mentioned before that she planned to sell her place in the Purple Imperial Residence and trade up to a bigger one.
Property exchanges were what brokers like us loved most.
Because selling one place and buying another often meant earning two commissions.
As long as I could land Liu Ruyan as a client, what did it matter if I had to do a little work?
It was perfectly normal for our female coworkers to sleep with male clients to sell them a house.
I parked the shared bicycle, hailed a cab, and quickly made my way to the Purple Imperial Residence.
After explaining why I was there and signing in with the guard, I went to the door of Apartment 302.
I straightened my suit and did my best to force a smile.
I knocked.
The door opened.
“Sister Liu…” I was about to greet her when I looked up and froze.
Liu Ruyan was in her early thirties. Though she was a few years older than me, perhaps because she took such meticulous care of herself, her skin was so soft it looked like you could squeeze water from it.
If I hadn’t known her age for certain, I could’ve told someone she was eighteen and they’d have believed me.
Liu Ruyan was wearing a loose bathrobe. From where I stood, it looked as though she had nothing on underneath.
I swallowed and quickly smiled. “Sister Liu, just tell me what you need me to do.”
Liu Ruyan glanced at me, opened the door, and stepped aside. Her tone was cool. “The place is about to be sold anyway, so you don’t need to change your shoes.”
She pointed toward one of the rooms. “There are some odds and ends in there. Go sort them out and throw them away for me.”
After that, Liu Ruyan went to the living room, sat down on the sofa, and started playing with her phone.
She’d told me not to change my shoes, but I couldn’t leave her with a bad impression.
I quickly pulled out the shoe covers I’d brought and put them on, then slipped on a pair of disposable gloves and went into the storage room.
It was full of things, piled up in a complete mess.
I grabbed a garbage bag and started tidying up quickly.
But I accidentally cut my hand on a broken porcelain bottle.
I yelped, hurriedly took off my glove, and blood dripped onto a battered iron basin about the size of my palm.
I hadn’t paid the basin any attention at first, but the drop of blood was absorbed by it in an instant.
To my astonishment, two lines of text seemed to appear faintly on the basin’s formerly rust-covered surface.
“What is this?”
I knew Liu Ruyan’s family dealt in antiques.
But if this really was an antique, how could it have been casually tossed into the storage room?
Suppressing my curiosity, I quickly picked up the iron basin and looked it over.
The moment I saw it, my breathing grew unsteady.
Could this iron basin be a treasure?
“What’s wrong?”
Liu Ruyan seemed to have heard me yelp and called out a question.
“Huh? Oh, Sister Liu, I accidentally cut my hand. It’s nothing.”
“How could you be so careless?” Liu Ruyan scolded, but still fetched the first-aid kit and hurried over to me.
Seeing that my hand was bleeding, Liu Ruyan’s brows knitted slightly. “Give me your hand. I’ll disinfect and bandage it.”
“It’s fine, just a little cut. It’ll heal soon.” I hurriedly tried to refuse. How could I really let her bandage it for me?
“Enough with the excuses!” Liu Ruyan said firmly, grabbing my hand.
In an instant,
I felt something soft against my skin.
Liu Ruyan’s hands were delicate.
And because we were so close, I could even smell the faint fragrance coming from her.
My heart began to race.
My gaze drifted involuntarily toward her chest.
There, I could make out two faint outlines that would drive any man wild.
Liu Ruyan was carefully disinfecting and bandaging my hand, completely unaware of where I was looking.
Afraid I’d upset her, I quickly looked away. With my other hand, I picked up the iron basin and asked casually, “Sister Liu, are you throwing this basin away too?”
Liu Ruyan glanced at it. “Yes. I used to feed the cat with it, but the cat’s dead now. Just throw it away for me.”
“All right.” I quickly agreed and tossed the basin into the garbage bag.
After bandaging my hand, Liu Ruyan told me to be careful, then returned to the sofa.
Once I’d packed up all the odds and ends, I went over to Liu Ruyan. “Sister Liu, I’ve finished tidying everything up. I’ll take it to the trash now. Is there anything else you need?”
Liu Ruyan looked at the beads of sweat on my face and the shirt underneath, which was clinging tightly to my body from the perspiration.
I might have been lacking in that department, but I had a good physique, especially with the well-defined muscles across my body.
Liu Ruyan glanced at me, and for some inexplicable reason, her cheeks turned red.
A flicker of desire passed through her eyes. Then she suddenly asked a question that stirred me up: “Xiao Zhang, do you think I’m pretty?”