No place to go

Song Yue finished serving her last customer for the night and wiped the sweat off her forehead.

It was a cool and breezy night, but standing in front of the hot oil still made her a bit sweaty.

It didn't matter though. Today had been a good day.

Song Yue couldn't help but swallow her saliva as she remembered the reason for her good day, the impeccably handsome man.

His presence for a mere few seconds had brought so much attention to her shop that her fried food sold like hot cakes for the rest of the evening and the night.

Song Yue excitedly counted her earnings for the day and revealed a bright smile.

Her life might look terrible for a stranger, but she still loved it very much.

She was cooking to her heart's content. She was independent and didn't have to answer anyone. And she was even saving up to pay all her loans little by little.

With a content smile dancing on her lips, the young woman quickly packed up her belongings and closed the shop for the night.

"Bye old Lu. Good night." She greeted the old man who was manning the stall next to hers and hurried over to her apartment.

The grumpy old man looked at the young woman skipping away and shook his head. "Silly child. Why is she so cheerful living this life?"

However, all the happiness and the glee disappeared from her face just as Song Yue reached her shabby apartment complex.

The landlord was unusually waiting for her right in front of her doorstep.

A couple of bulky men seemed to be standing with her stuff littered all over the corridor.

She didn't have much to begin with, but whatever she owned was nastily broked down, smashed to pieces, and strewn around without any consideration.

As Song Yue was staring dumbfounded at the scene in front of her, her friend Shen Zi came running towards her, heaving and panting with her chubby figure.

"Yue'er don't go up yet. Huff. Huff." She shouted in a low voice and appeared out of thin air in front of the frozen Song Yue.

"Yue. Wait, come here." Shen Zi quickly dragged Song Yue into the shadows, away from the apartment complex.

Luckily the men upstairs hadn't seen them yet.

"What is happening?" Song Yue asked with tears brimming in her eyes.

Wasn't everything going well? Why were these people throwing her things out all of a sudden? She couldn't understand what was going on at all.

She felt like her whole world was collapsing.

Shen Zi looked around. It was already well past midnight and everything around them was shrouded in pitch-black darkness.

She hurriedly murmured in hushed voices, "Did you speak to the landlord tonight or offend him in some way maybe?"

Song Yue nodded her head with a blank expression. She hadn't spoken to the landlord for months.

She had even promptly paid every month's rent on time. There was absolutely no possibility for that to happen.

"Did you offend anyone else? Someone powerful?" Shen Zi asked with a confused expression. Even she couldn't make heads or tails out of what was happening.

Song Yue pondered and a glimpse of a perfect impeccable face faintly flashed in her mind.

No, it couldn't be him. He just wanted to help me. She brushed her thoughts aside.

"OK forgot about all of that. Listen. Do you have anywhere else to stay tonight?" Shen Zi hurriedly asked with her voice breaking due to worry and concern.

"Why?"

Shen Zi took a peek upstairs and noticed that the situation was still the same with the sturdy men standing guard in front of Song Yue's apartment.

The men upstairs even seemed as if they were getting restless.

"You should get out of here. Tonight. Go somewhere. I don't think the men upstairs are that simple."

"Something tells me that someone is out to get you. They seem to have some sort of ulterior motive."

Shen Zi slowly enunciated her thoughts on the situation. She was a clever girl who knew how this world worked.

Song Yue as well agreed with her. What her friend said definitely made sense!

If they simply wanted to make her vacate the apartment, they could have thrown her things out, locked the door, and stuck a notice.

Instead, why would the landlord and the men standing near him wait for her? That too for so long and in the middle of the night?

"Oh! One more thing. Don't go back to the night market stall." Shen Zi quickly reminded Song Yue before she could forget that important detail.

"I think they will send their men there as well. I heard the landlord loudly chatting about it and that's what tipped me off."

"I felt that something definitely felt fishy and quickly ran downstairs to warn you. It is already a miracle that they didn't get to you yet."

Song Yue's eyes immediately zoned out and her breath quickened. She was having a panic attack.

The frail young woman who had always been cheerful and strong suddenly felt weak in the knees.