But in the next sentence, she took a turn: “However, I still have to charge a fee, after all, this is an office.”
“Ah, I’m sorry, please speak, but I may not…” Kaibisi had subconsciously started using honorifics for Lin Yilin, who was much younger than her.
“Please don’t worry, I at least won’t overcharge. And since you are a client Aunt Chen brought, you will get a discount. Considering your current situation, installment payments are allowed,” Lin Yilin spoke eloquently.
Finally, Lin Yilin proposed a moderate price, which Kaibisi, after some hesitation, chose to accept.
Payment would be made based on the level of completion of the commission; if it completely failed and yielded no results, the deposit would be refunded.
It was already a very reasonable contract.
Although Zheng Fan was still a bit surprised by the amount Lin Yilin proposed, it was higher than he expected, easily over ten thousand, and could multiply several times if the entire project was perfectly completed.
After the discussion, Lin Yilin bid farewell to Kaibisi, then returned to her desk, sat down, opened her computer, and started typing rapidly.
“I thought you would continue to waive fees for such a pitiful victim,” Zheng Fan poked his head through the door, looked at Kaibisi’s hurried departing back, then withdrew and said.
“A pitiful victim and charging a commission fee are not in conflict. The previous knocking incident was partly to make the client lower their guard, and partly due to considering the client’s financial situation. Besides, although I eventually said I wouldn’t charge, Mr. Chen Wen still sent some compensation, there are good people in Dadu too.”
“Her family is dirt poor, can she really afford the amount you mentioned?”
“It’s difficult, but not impossible. She can still take care of two children, and she must still have some emergency savings. Although she is a very traditional and conservative wife, she is not foolish,” Lin Yilin commented.
As he spoke, Zheng Fan leaned close to her: “What are you doing?”
“I’m setting up a commission on the Processing Bureau’s official website. Commissions completed after certification can become part of my achievements on the official website. Every bit of accumulation is very important.”
Lin Yilin quickly finished, then she stood up and said: “Illusion, let’s go, it’s time to work.”
“Okay, Toast, you watch the house.”
Before leaving, Zheng Fan turned back and called out to Toast in the house.
In a basin of flour, the struggling, regenerating Toast weakly responded, then fell silent.
Lin Yilin completely ignored Toast; the girl was still mad at Toast.
After her adoptive father passed away, Lin Yilin herself updated the office, but the single sofa remained a memorial to her adoptive father. In the past, her adoptive father, just like her now, would sit on that sofa and listen to clients’ stories whenever they came.
Toast had undoubtedly stepped on a landmine.
The destination was a bit far, so Lin Yilin chose to go to the nearest subway station.
“First, let’s go to Ms. Kaibisi’s home. The location is the Closed Community on Xixikeke Street, which is already at the other end of Xixikeke Street.”
“What if we run into her husband directly?”
“That would be the best situation,” Lin Yilin said frankly, raising her small fist. “Illusion, go up and deal with him, and the commission will be complete.”
Zheng Fan was speechless but had to admit: “Indeed.”
Lin Yilin had a general understanding of Zheng Fan’s current level of violence in Dadu; his upper limit was unknown, but his known lower limit was already beyond imagination.
Her assessment was that he could basically walk sideways; truly serious troubles would not usually be encountered.
For minor encounters like this, direct confrontation with overwhelming force was undoubtedly the simplest.
“What if we don’t run into him?”
“Then it will be a bit more troublesome to find him, but there are a few points about this matter that I’m curious about. After all, I still need to restore the general truth for Kaibisi, so an investigation is necessary.”
Zheng Fan thought for a moment and said: “This matter might have behind-the-scenes guidance.”
A simple point: the “first pot of gold” Kaibisi’s husband brought home initially was real. Excluding the unlikely possibility that Kaibisi was also possessed by an Illusion at the time, that first pot of gold must have been given to him by someone.
Lin Yilin nodded: “Indeed, on that point, and some others… But before that, there are these annoying things.”
As she spoke, she stopped. The crowd in front of them parted, revealing a tall man with medium-length hair wearing a large black suit, accompanied by several thugs whose attire wasn't uniform but whose aura was on a completely different level from roadside hoodlums.
They all wore armbands with the Banmu Office logo.
“Qingye Heshi, I didn’t expect to run into you here,” the man stopped in front of Lin Yilin, his gaze sweeping over her from head to toe, his cold stare like an X-ray penetrating her body.
“Qingye Heshi, are you sure you’re not here to block me?” Lin Yilin asked back with a calm expression.
“Wow~, a reunion of childhood rivals,” Zheng Fan watched the scene unfolding beside them.
That’s right, this person, Qingye Heshi, who seemed to hold a high position in Banmu Office, was Japanese. He was a bit older than Lin Yilin, but he and Lin Yilin had been active in the nearby Rafael School District and Xixikeke Street since childhood, so they were quite familiar with each other.
However, due to the differing stances of their offices, their relationship was very distant, though it might have been Lin Yilin’s unilateral distancing from him.
At the same time, Qingye Heshi was the “Big Brother” mentioned by the Banmu Office thugs earlier.
“I just happened to be passing by to pick up the stray dogs you threw at the subway station this morning,” Qingye Heshi glanced at the two disheveled thugs behind him.
“Hmm? What happened to you on the subway?” Zheng Fan asked.
“Control your dog,” Lin Yilin’s reply to Qingye Heshi was concise.
“You can’t maintain the office by yourself. You are very capable, but you are not like Uncle Edman. You are too rigid, and your thinking is abnormal, otherwise you wouldn’t have almost been advised to withdraw from university despite your excellent grades,” Qingye Heshi said coldly.
“None of your business.”
“I’m protecting you. You have the ability to be a powerful sharp knife, but only under the control and protection of others. If you continue to persevere alone, Banmu will not spare your office. It’s not my one-man show there yet.”
Upon hearing this, Lin Yilin tilted her head slightly and asked, puzzled: “Are we very close?”
The person opposite her froze.
After speaking, Lin Yilin quickened her steps and brushed past him.
Zheng Fan lagged far behind, as he was repeatedly admiring Qingye Heshi’s expression in a 360-degree, roundabout way. The constipated face of the cold, handsome guy was endlessly amusing.
The vibe of this brother gave Zheng Fan the feeling that he had wandered into a Japanese drama, or at a lower level, some domestic romance dramas.
“Promise me, brother, don’t be a simp. Someone like Binary Little Sister is too far removed from ‘normal people’ like you,” Zheng Fan pretended to pat Qingye Heshi’s shoulder. Of course, he couldn’t actually touch him, but he could make the gesture.
He made a goofy face, then skipped away gleefully. As he passed a thug, he leaped up, his butt overlapping with the thug’s face for a moment, pretending to make someone eat farts, then he scurried to catch up with Lin Yilin like a child.
Lin Yilin looked back, her eye twitching slightly.
Many things in the world were transparent to her, she just didn’t bother to care.
Only Illusion, with his abstract personality and wondrous existence, was truly unfathomable.
…
Qingye Heshi gently pressed his wrist: “How is it?”
“No feeling…” Only he could hear the voice, sounding in his ear like an auditory Illusion.
“None?” Qingye Heshi frowned slightly.
The recent reports from his subordinates about Lin Yilin’s abnormal behavior had led him to make certain conjectures, and some self-serving subordinates were truly more trouble than they were worth, which was also the drawback of Banmu’s gang-like management.
He had come to see for himself this time, but the answer he received contradicted his conjecture.
A testing method even more accurate than the Processing Bureau’s Illusion testing equipment was naturally to use an Illusion to test an Illusion.
This absolutely could not be wrong.
Unless…
The voice continued slowly and leisurely in Qingye Heshi’s ear: “Unless… that ‘kindred spirit’ is even deeper than me, much deeper…”
Shallow Illusions could not observe deeper Illusions.
And the difference in depth had to be very significant.