Chapter 24: Taking Ran to Buy a Car

"Oh, young master, look! Another person has appeared here. It looks like the Duke of Cao!"

Hearing this, Chen Lin grabbed a rolling pin and rushed out of the kitchen. With a swift leap like a roc spreading its wings, he pounced on the still-bewildered Li Wenzhong and struck him with the rolling pin!

"Hey, hey, hey! Who are you?!"

Li Wenzhong stared in horror at the rolling pin, which seemed to be enlarging in slow motion before his eyes, and then...

Thud!

Li Wenzhong obediently closed his eyes as a large bump sprouted on his forehead.

"Don't just stand there, help me tie him up!"

"Oh, right, right..."

With both of them working together, it took five minutes to finally bind Li Wenzhong securely to the bed. Since the rope wasn't long enough, they used bedsheets, stockings, and transparent adhesive tape—anything they could find—to ensure he was bound tightly.

One had to remember that Li Wenzhong was a legendary fierce and intelligent general, often called the Zhao Zilong of the Ming Dynasty. Now that his physical functions were fully restored after his resurrection, if he weren't tied up properly, he might break the ropes with a single burst of strength.

"Young master, he’s bound securely enough now!"

Chen Lin looked around, finding nothing else to use for binding, but then...

"The fire hose!"

With that thought, he quickly opened the door, ran to the fire cabinet in the hallway, pulled out the fire hose, and sprinted back. He wrapped the hose tightly around Li Wenzhong, bed and all.

Once finished, he wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead. "There, he definitely can't break free now!"

Perhaps because it was tied too tightly, Li Wenzhong slowly regained consciousness, looking around in confusion.

"Who on earth are you? I am the Duke of Cao! Kidnapping a Duke of the imperial court is a capital offense—mmph, mmph..."

Chen Lin took a smelly sock he had hidden in his shoe and stuffed it into his mouth. "Go ahead, keep shouting! Even if you scream until your throat breaks, no one is coming to save you."

*Ding-dong!*

"What the hell!"

Chen Lin was nearly scared out of his wits. Who could be ringing the doorbell at a time like this?!

"Who is it?!"

"It’s me, your landlady, Miss Huang!"

Chen Lin quickly pushed Chen Xiaolan into the bathroom, covered the bedridden Li Wenzhong with a quilt, caught his breath, and ran to open the door.

"Sister, what wind blew you here?"

Standing at the door was a middle-aged beauty wearing a yellow floral dress—a very curvaceous woman.

"Little brother, it’s time to pay the rent. I messaged you on WeChat, but you didn't reply, so I had to come in person."

"Oh, this Hanfu looks pretty good, and the wig is quite realistic too. Where did you buy it?"

Miss Huang looked Chen Lin up and down, her eyes gleaming with interest.

Chen Lin hurriedly searched for his phone. He pulled it out, and damn it, the screen had shattered when he was being pummeled by Zhu Yuanzhang earlier.

"Short on cash? Why don't you take a step back, stop insisting on that so-called 'masculine pride,' and face reality?"

Just as Chen Lin was panicking, muffled noises came from Li Wenzhong inside.

"Are you hiding someone in your room?"

"Didn't we agree that only one person is allowed to live here?"

"Move aside, I'm going in to check!"

Just then, Chen Xiaolan, who had been eavesdropping on the situation, walked out. "What kind of shrew is this, daring to trespass in a private home!"

Miss Huang didn't understand Chen Xiaolan's Ming dynasty court dialect, assuming it was just some obscure local accent.

"Fine, so there are two people living here! Pay more, you must pay more!"

Chen Lin was still struggling with his phone. Although the screen was shattered, it was still functional, even if it was hard to see. Finally, after some effort and entering his password, he transferred ten thousand yuan to the landlady via WeChat!

"It’s sent. I transferred ten thousand directly; that should cover half a year's rent."

Miss Huang checked her phone, glanced at the two of them, and then turned around, her high heels clicking as she walked away.

Chen Lin quickly shut the door and began punching and kicking Li Wenzhong on the bed.

"Making noise like that! You cost me several thousand extra! I'll beat you to death!"

"Please stop, young master! He is the Duke of Cao!"

*Mmph, mmph, mmph...*

"Hmph, I'm hitting the Duke of Cao precisely to make him realize his place."

Chen Lin gave him one final kick before stopping.

"Come on, let's go view some properties."

"View properties?"

"Young master, where are we exactly? Didn't you just kill your servant?"

Chen Lin looked Xiaolan up and down. Traditional costume is just traditional costume; after all, young people nowadays play with Hanfu all the time, so no one should notice anything.

"I'll explain on the way..."

As they walked through the residential complex, Chen Xiaolan looked around in wonder, listening to her young master tell stories about this world.

After leaving the complex, Chen Lin bought a triple-folding phone at the nearest telecom store—the kind that looked prestigious no matter how you folded it. Then, they took a taxi to the nearest Great Wall Motor dealership.

Chen Xiaolan pressed her face against the window, staring in amazement at the skyscrapers on both sides of the road, shouting in excitement.

"Young master, look! There’s a strange thing flying over there!"

"That's a drone..."

"And there's a carriage that sprays water!"

"That's a street sprinkler..."

"What is that? It's so cute!"

"That's Mixue Bingcheng..."

The taxi driver looked at the two in the back seat through the rearview mirror with a strange expression.

What era is this? How are there still such country bumpkins who have never been to the city? Still, the mountain girl is quite pretty; she looks really good in that Hanfu.

*Swoosh...*

"Hey, hey, hey! Just focus on driving, don't look around."

The driver gave an awkward smile. "Sorry, sorry."

Before long, the car arrived at the Great Wall Motor dealership. Chen Lin checked the countdown: 38 minutes remaining.

"System, give me another hour."

[60 minutes have been credited. 600,000 deducted from the host's balance...]

Just then, a beautiful saleswoman at the dealership approached them. "What model are you looking for, sir?"

Chen Lin took out his phone. "I want this pure electric Great Wall Cannon pickup truck, the top trim. Do you have any in stock?"

"Yes, would you like to take it for a test drive first?"

"No need. Let's get the contract ready. I don't haggle, but I need the car quickly. I'm in a hurry."

The saleswoman's eyes lit up. Isn't this a big spender? Perfect, my sales target for this month is done.

"Certainly, sir, please follow me."

Ten minutes later, Chen Lin drove the brand-new pure electric Great Wall Cannon out of the dealership, even without license plates yet. But Chen Lin didn't care; the temporary plate provided by the dealership was enough. It wasn't as if there were traffic police in the Ming Dynasty!

"Young master, where are we going now? Are we not returning to the Ming Dynasty?" Chen Xiaolan asked from the passenger seat.

"Didn't I say we were going to look at property? We're heading to the real estate agency now."

Throughout the whole process, Chen Xiaolan was completely bewildered. They didn't pay cash for the ride, nor did they pay cash for the car—they just used that little box called a "mobile phone" and made a "beep" sound.

Could it be that when they bought the house later, they could just "beep" and not have to pay? The future world was so convenient; how wonderful it would be if she could live here forever...

Chen Lin didn't know what Chen Xiaolan was thinking. He was busy considering how to explain a villa suddenly disappearing into thin air. The most troublesome part was that the system required items to belong to him to be brought back to the Ming Dynasty, but buying a house involved title transfers, which would leave a paper trail. If the relevant authorities investigated, his secret would be exposed.

After all, he eventually had to return to modern life, so he had to find a way to tie up these loose ends properly...