Chapter 197: [Gold Medal Salesperson] Kicked Out
Bai Cha didn’t return home immediately; instead, she headed to a specific address.
The address of her adoptive mother’s ex-husband.
After connecting to the internet, she had checked her chat history with him, finding a conversation that contradicted the screenshot entirely.
In the actual chat logs, Li Yun had proactively informed him of her adoptive mother’s passing, hoping he would attend the funeral since her adoptive mother had no other living relatives.
The two had originally divorced because neither could accept the death of their daughter, leading to endless bitter arguments before they ultimately went their separate ways.
Her adoptive mother’s ex-husband hadn’t remarried immediately after the split either—only forming a new family over a decade later, and they had no children.
Thus, it was entirely reasonable for Li Yun to hope he would attend the funeral.
His refusal, however, matched what was shown in the screenshot.
He then transferred a thousand yuan as burial assistance.
Which was why Bai Cha wanted to meet this man in person.
What she was particularly curious about was whether her adoptive mother was dead or alive according to him.
The address had been dug out from the chat history.
Several years ago, he mentioned that he had moved and sent her an address, saying she could look for him if an emergency arose.
Following this address, Bai Cha arrived at a residential compound.
It was an older compound as well, but the upside was that it featured an elevator.
He had likely moved to a compound like this due to his advancing age, taking his own mobility issues into consideration.
Truth be told, Li Yun had previously thought about moving her mother to a new home as well, given her advanced age and fragile health.
Regrettably, she simply lacked the funds; she was only twenty-five, after all, with merely a few years of experience in society.
In her past plans, she had held a wish to ensure her mother could move into a new home before she turned thirty-five.
Her mother would be seventy-two back then—quite a common age for elderly people in general.
Buying a bag of fruit from a supermarket at the compound entrance, she stepped inside.
Reaching the building unit listed on the address, she went up to the third floor and knocked on the door of Apartment 302.
“Who is it?”
An elderly female voice drifted from inside.
“Hold on a moment, I’ll open the door right now!”
The person seemed to set a plate or something down onto a table before hurrying over.
The door opened. Before Bai Cha even had time to offer a greeting, the other party recognized her first, her face darkening in an instant.
She slammed the door shut right then and there, only for Bai Cha to block it with swift hands.
Seeing this, the woman’s expression grew even uglier, her tone turning unceremonious.
“What are you doing? Do you think you haven’t harmed our old Zhao enough?! What are you coming to our doorstep for? Looking for a beating, are you?!”
From this lightning-fast reaction, Bai Cha quickly deduced what had previously transpired.
Though the exact details remained unknown, her adoptive mother’s ex-husband had undoubtedly suffered an accident, one triggered by her.
“I’m sorry, Auntie, I didn’t mean anything bad. I came over today just wanting to see how Uncle is doing…”
“Bah! You jinx!” The woman interrupted her outright.
“Get out! Get the hell out! Who knows if you came over to harm someone again!”
Saying this, the woman snatched up a broom resting nearby, swinging it toward Bai Cha.
While blocking the blows, Bai Cha firmly refused to step back.
“Auntie, I really didn’t do it on purpose, I truly didn’t…”
As she spoke, she shoved the fruit in her hand toward the woman.
“I won’t come inside, I won’t step in, okay? Please take these—I know it isn’t much, but it’s a token of my heart…”
“Who wants your damn stuff?!”
The woman possessed considerable strength; with a violent shove, Bai Cha tattered onto the floor alongside the bag of fruit.
Apples and oranges instantly scattered all over the ground.
Seeing this, the woman merely rolled her eyes, slamming the door shut with a loud bang.
The door wasn’t particularly soundproof; even after it slammed shut, her curses could still be heard echoing from inside.
“Shedding crocodile tears—what garbage!”
“Coming over to visit? Looks more like coming over to claim a life!”
“So damn unlucky! I need to buy some mugwort to ward off this bad luck!”
Sitting on the floor, Bai Cha lowered her head with a dazed, forlorn look, staring at the fruit scattered across the ground.
Only after a long while did she silently begin picking up the fruit.
A few apples had rolled rather far away, forcing Bai Cha to bend down and walk over to retrieve them.
Raising her head once more, she discovered a dog belonging to an unknown household sitting right there.
It was a small black dog, though its belly and paws were white.
It looked somewhat like a black bear—one couldn’t help wondering if it would grow up to steal a monk’s cassock.
Bai Cha hesitated briefly, holding an apple out toward it.
The little dog tilted its head.
It got up and trotted over, sniffed at it, and turned its head aside.
Evidently, it held zero interest in apples.
Bai Cha retracted the apple, placed it back into her bag, and stood up.
Before leaving, she cast a somewhat disappointed look at the door of 302.
Carrying the act through to the end was her consistent rule.
Feeling downcast, she pressed the elevator button.
While waiting for the elevator to descend, the small black dog sat down right beside her.
Bai Cha looked down, let out a sigh, and felt no mood to pay it any mind.
The elevator opened, and Bai Cha stepped inside.
The small black dog followed her right in as well.
Bai Cha hesitated, “Aren’t you going back to your home? Which apartment is yours?”
Even though she knew a dog might not understand.
Blocking the elevator door, she crouched down and pointed outside.
“Out you go.”
The small black dog possessed a pair of light-brown eyes. It looked at Bai Cha, then silently retracted its gaze, sitting inside the elevator without budging an inch.
Bai Cha stopped caring, let out another sigh, and allowed the elevator door to close, descending to the first floor.
The small dog wasn’t following her either; upon stepping out on the first floor, it walked straight outside without turning its head back once.
Bai Cha cast a few extra glances at it, feeling as though that dog seemed remarkably full of its own thoughts.
It was her first time seeing a small animal inside an instance.
Carrying the bag of fruit, Bai Cha walked outside with a forlorn expression, her mind contemplating the woman’s attitude just now.
What had Li Yun done that caused an accident to befall Zhao Qun?
Perhaps she had come over and said something?
Ultimately, she still needed to meet Zhao Qun in person.
Thus, she sent a message over to Zhao Qun.
Li Yun: Uncle, I went to your place today. I know I’m not welcome there, and I didn’t mean anything bad either. Please tell Auntie not to be angry—I just wanted to know how you’re doing right now?
After sending the message, no reply came from Zhao Qun’s end.
Tucking her phone away, Bai Cha departed the residential compound.
After a moment’s thought, she headed back to the police station in her neighborhood.
One reason was to inquire about her electric scooter, while the other was to have them take a look at the pair of eyes in the joint photo with her mother.
Accidentally discovering a pair of eyes beneath the bed in a photo made reporting it to the police entirely reasonable, didn’t it?
Whether the police could help wasn’t important; what mattered was that they ought to be able to pass along some information to her.
Sure enough, upon catching sight of that pair of eyes in her photo, the police officers’ expressions turned grave.
A situation like this was genuinely horrifying, truth be told.
An extra person lurking inside one’s house, spying on them—especially in an old residential compound like that, coupled with what Bai Cha had encountered last night—was indeed unsafe.
“Please wait here for a moment. We’ll go question the man we arrested last night.”
If it turned out to be him, that would be for the best, as the perpetrator was already in custody.
Bai Cha nodded nervously, sitting there somewhat stiffly, incessantly rubbing the plastic bag in her hands.
“It’s fine—at least we discovered it now.” A female officer poured her a glass of water, offering words of comfort.
Bai Cha nodded, forcing a faint, strained smile.
The officer patted her shoulder, thought it over, and said, “Don’t worry too much. A similar incident happened before: a girl around your age came in to report a case, saying she found a pair of eyes in her photo. After we investigated, we discovered it was actually a reflection inside the room.”
Bai Cha froze.
“A reflection?”
