古董下山 (ENGLISH: Old Fogey Goes Down The Mountain)

Chapter 15 - Good Days Are Over Part 3

T/N Sorry this took so long to get out everyone! We've both been buuuuried in work orz *sigh Happy holidays!!!

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After Zhao Liang finished sending the picture to his friend circle, he flipped several times through the book WeiXi gave him, front to back, in disbelief on the walk home. It was indeed 《Basic Principles of Marxism》, no mistake. There was nothing stuck between the pages and couldn't be more normal. There were even highlighted notes for the important parts. By all appearances, this was study material that WeiXi had once used.

Zhao Liang stared at the cover of the book in deep contemplation and moments later, a thought emerged. Could he have been scammed?

He spent almost four thousand just to get this book?

Even though this speculation floated in his mind, it was shaky. After all, the conclusion that WeiXi just calculated for him was so unbelievably accurate. Each time he recounted those words, his hair stood up and he found it hard to calm down. What kind of espionage could have been at his side to find out about his sickness and about his father passing away. Even digging up old history like the accident when he was five, just to scam a few thousand dollars? This person can't be a fool.

Zhao Liang couldn't make heads or tails out of this and, in desperation, put that inexplicable book back in his bag and moved to carry on with his business.

As an entrepreneur, his work typically already overwhelmed him in quantity, not to mention that he just spent half a month in a sickbed. Meanwhile, his work continued to pile up. By the time he was done with the last commercial hospitality meeting, the moon already hung high in the night sky.

His business partners escorted him out of the restaurant when they saw his driver was absent, and asked him why. Zhao Liang laughed and waved at a taxi: "Well, it is Golden Week and little Liu wanted to accompany his girlfriend so I let him take off early."

It's been many years since he last went anywhere alone like this. The taxi dropped him off at the entrance of his community and he looked up at the gloomy overcast sky, thinking that walking the rest of the way in the evening breeze wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Not to mention the evening breeze tonight felt especially chilly, not at all like an old wives' summer.

(T/N: 'Autumn Tiger' also translates as an old wives' summer or indian summer, which describes a period of summer-like weather in the fall. Cabbage has now written summer so many times that it has lost all meaning. Summer summer summer.)

No stars can be seen in the black sky above and it looked like it could rain at any moment. Zhao Liang gathered his suit jacket and walked down the familiar road to his house. His villa is located on the south side of the 2nd ring where the land is worth its price in gold. The area is meticulously developed and densely greenscaped, which made this type of property particularly rare. This is why he chose to buy his house here.

The night wind rustled through the trees around him. He casually looked up at the branches and leaves underneath the street lights while walking and walking, and then suddenly something felt wrong.

Isn't this road a little too long?

His villa is not far from the community gate. Typically when he drove the car in, even at a speed of 10-something km per hour, it'd take no more than a minute or two. But he's been walking for over ten minutes and he still sees no sign of his familiar door.

(T/N: 15 kmph = just under 10 mph.)

Zhao Liang turned around and looked. The security guard booth he passed is already nowhere to be found. He pulled out his phone and the time displayed was 11:35pm.