Universe Infinite Canteen

"Zhen Ye."

"Zhen Ye? You don't look wild at all."

Zhen Ye didn't know how to respond and could only stand there awkwardly.

"Ms. Chen and Mr. Zhou are your..."

"Guardians."

"You're not yet 18, are they your parents?" Ma Lu raised his eyebrows.

"No, no, she's my aunt and and her husband, I... last month I turned 18... celebrated with friends."

"You have friends?"

"Yeah, yeah, we... form a team... to grind dungeons together."

"Oh, online friends."

Compared to the average person, Zhen Ye's reactions were a bit slow, and after Ma Lu asked a question, she typically took two or three seconds before answering, and she wasn't very articulate when she spoke.

She seemed to realize that this way of communicating was too inefficient, so she said, "Do you have QQ? Maybe we... could chat on QQ?"

"If you find that more comfortable, I don't mind."

Ma Lu took out his phone, added Zhen Ye's QQ, her QQ nickname was "Dragon Cat on the Second Floor."

Once the conversation moved online, Zhen Ye instantly relaxed a lot, typed even faster than the average person, and didn't have the same awkward pauses and strange sentence breaks as when she spoke.

It was just a bit odd that the two people, despite being under one roof, still needed to communicate by typing.

——Are you looking to rent a place?

——Yes, can I confirm that you're the owner of this storefront?

——That's right, this two-story building was bought by my parents when I was three years old, the property deed has my name on it. Originally, the first floor was a supermarket and we lived on the second floor.

——I see. May I ask why your aunt and her husband became your guardians?

——Five years ago, my parents were driving out of town to buy stock, and they were killed in a traffic accident. A coal truck overturned; its driver had fallen asleep at the wheel. Their minivan was crushed.

——I'm sorry to have brought up such a painful memory. Did you live alone after that?

——Yeah, I took a leave of absence from school and continued to live here, my aunt and her husband rented out the first floor, the rent was just enough to cover my daily expenses.

Zhen Ye paused, then continued typing.

——Actually, if you want to rent a place, you could just talk to my aunt and her husband. I'm not very good at dealing with people; they manage all that stuff.

Before Ma Lu could reply, Zhen Ye's QQ sounded again with a "di-di."

She glanced at the new message, scratched her head, and typed to Ma Lu.

——My aunt said she has already rented out the first floor.

——Rented it to the owner of a card room, didn't you stop her?

——She said the economy has been bad recently; even the previous hotpot restaurant owner didn't want to renew the lease even after a rent reduction, but this card room owner was willing to take over and even pay an extra 500 yuan.

"May I ask indiscreetly how much rent you received each month before?" Ma Lu suddenly spoke up.

"Uh..." Zhen Ye thought for a moment and typed,

——4500.

"I can offer 10000 yuan," Ma Lu said.

"How much?"

Zhen Ye shuddered, her breathing also became heavy.

"Ten thousand, and that includes two meals for you."

Ma Lu continued, "However, these are just staff meals, not the kind you sell as proper meals. Of course, even the staff meals will taste much better than these takeouts you usually order."

Zhen Ye seemed to hardly believe her own ears.

——Why are you so nice to me?

"It's not that I'm nice to you, it's that the normal rent for this place would be even higher," Ma Lu said. "If you took the time to post the rental information yourself, you could probably find a tenant who would pay more than I'm offering."

Zhen Ye shook her head, then continued typing.

——I don't want to deal with people; dealing with people is too scary. Just last night, two strangers kept knocking on my door.

After a pause, she continued typing.

——Are you serious about the ten thousand yuan?

"It's true," Ma Lu said. "If you want, we can sign the contract right now."

As the two were speaking, the sound of the doorbell suddenly rang out.

Upon hearing this, Zhen Ye ran to the window, peeked quickly outside by lifting a corner of the curtain, then immediately shrank back, saying in a panicked voice.

"It's, it's my… aunt."

"She's probably here to sign the contract with you too," Ma Lu said.

Hearing this, Zhen Ye couldn't help but hesitate again.

Ma Lu did not rush her, standing to the side and waiting quietly.

Zhen Ye was autistic but not foolish; she realized by now that her aunt and uncle had scammed her, likely skimming a good portion of the rent.

However, she didn't want to have a falling out with her aunt, not because she couldn't bear to lose that relationship. After all, since her parents died, her aunt and uncle had hardly visited her, only showing up when they needed her signature.

Zhen Ye was actually quite happy with this frequency of interaction. Compared to the relatives who would constantly check on her, dropping by every few days, those made her even more uncomfortable.

Of course, now it didn't matter whether that relationship existed or not; Zhen Ye's main concern was avoiding trouble.

She knew that with her aunt's personality, missing out on such a large sum of money would not be taken lightly, and it could mean her aunt would come by to make a scene frequently in the future.

She wasn't good at dealing with such situations; just the thought of it was enough to suffocate Zhen Ye. She figured paying some money to be left alone wasn't out of the question.

But there was no helping it; Ma Lu was offering far too much.

Ten thousand yuan was more than double what she had been getting before, which meant she could spend more in her games, buy better equipment, and challenge stronger bosses.

The doorbell kept ringing, like a silent kind of urging, and her QQ also started chiming again.

Zhen Ye looked down at the new message and typed.

——My aunt says she's already negotiated a deal for renting the first floor and that both parties have come to an agreement. They've even taken the property certificate to make copies.

——It's useless. You're the homeowner; any agreement they reach is invalid without your consent.

——But they are my guardians.

——Didn't you turn 18 last month? You have full capacity for civil conduct now; there are no guardians anymore.

Zhen Ye swallowed hard.

——Then, let's sign the contract. Do you have one?

Ma Lu nodded, "I found a standard template online before coming here. We just need to fill in the key information in the blank spaces, check it over, and if there are no issues, we can sign."

He spoke as he took out a document from the backpack behind him.

Zhen Ye took it but only skimmed through, too lazy to read the details. She moved the other two takeaway boxes from the coffee table to the floor and started filling out the contract there.

Seeing this, Ma Lu cautioned her again.

"We'll start with a three-year lease, one down payment for three months, the first month free of rent for getting the documents in order and remodeling. And if you renew the lease later on, I get the right of first refusal at the same rent. Do you find these conditions acceptable?"

Zhen Ye nodded, "Sure."

"Good, then let's sign."