Chapter 5: Got Blocked

Zhenzhen: [Bro, what are you doing? Shivering.jpg]

Brother Xie: [Didn’t you say you could barely support yourself? I’m giving you money—just take it. Your brother’s got money.]

Barely support herself?

Shi Zhen rummaged through her memories. When did she say something like that?

Was it on Little Green Book, when she was journaling her daily mood?

Her face turned beet red in an instant. She thought Brother Xie would never respond again after disappearing, so she’d been freely venting whatever came to mind.

Did she say anything inappropriate?

Her face wrinkled like a bitter melon.

Zhenzhen: [Bro, you’re suddenly transferring so much money—I’m really scared to accept it. This makes you look… like some kind of internet trafficker.]

Luring a freshly graduated, innocent young girl down a dark path with money over the internet.

Shi Zhen now believed Brother Xie was really rich, but she truly didn’t dare take the money.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him—she didn’t trust herself. What if he threw the money in her face and said, “Babe, come with me and you’ll be living the high life”?

She knew she’d totally fall for it, running off after the money with stars in her eyes.

She had to nip this wicked temptation in the bud!

For the first time, Xie Qian experienced the frustration of having money he couldn’t spend. It was like a hook scratching at his insides—not painful, but maddeningly itchy.

He clicked the transfer button again, trying to send another 200,000.

But just as he hit “send,” a pop-up appeared:
“Daily transfer and receiving limit of 200,000 reached.”

Xie Qian: …

What the hell? What’s this nonsense? Why is it so hard just to give someone money!

Brother Xie: [Sis, I’m not some trafficker. Just take the money, quickly and cleanly. Or I can send you food instead. What do you want to eat?]

He never expected the reply this time to be a blaring red alert—Shi Zhen had deleted him!

She actually deleted him!

If earlier he’d only felt a slight itch, now his fighting spirit was ignited.

A fire called “must spend money on Shi Zhen” blazed through his brain.

Xie Qian went back to Little Green Book and sent Shi Zhen another message.

This time, he got a red spinning arrow—blocked, 360 degrees counterclockwise.

Alright. Very good.

Xie Qian laughed out of sheer anger. This money? He would spend it no matter what.

Shi Zhen, little sis, you really think just blocking me will stop me from finding you?

Xie Qian scrolled up their chat history in Little Green Book and found the photos Shi Zhen had sent him on the first day.

The photo showed a large tree with branches weighed down by snow.

It had been taken from inside a residential building—the rusted burglar bars on the window clearly visible.

Two of the photos were close-ups of snow-covered branches, but one was a wide shot, showing not just the tree but also half of a pavilion on the left side.

Xie Qian saved the pictures and sent them to Wei Lin, then immediately called him.

The call connected quickly, and Wei Lin answered in a lazy tone, “President Xie, what can I do for you this late at night?”

“Help me find an address. I’ve sent you the photos—the location is in Xiaoshan. I need the exact house number.”

Wei Lin opened WeChat and started examining the photos his boss had sent.

A big tree, a window, a pavilion—location: Xiaoshan.

Not impossible to find, but still quite a hassle.

Wei Lin’s drowsiness was mostly gone. He asked, “When do you need this by, President Xie?”

Xie Qian: “As soon as possible. Ten thousand bonus if done by year’s end.”

Wei Lin was instantly wide awake, grinning. “Got it, sir. Consider it done!”

He hung up and immediately threw himself into the glorious task of address hunting.

Xiaoshan was a fifth-tier city in the northeast—not a big place. Judging by the rusted burglar bars, this had to be an old residential area.

There were plenty of old communities in Xiaoshan, but only a few that had both an old tree and a pavilion. Narrowing it down by matching pavilion and tree positions across communities, comparing them to the pictures—

Found it: Sunshine Community, Old Street District, Xiaoshan City.

To pinpoint the exact spot, Wei Lin pulled up the community’s layout map, satellite 3D views, and compared the big tree’s position.

Confirmed: Building 28, Unit 2.

Next, he used the developer’s published building height data to estimate the tree’s height and compared it to the tree visible from the window in the photos—result: 5th floor.

As for the exact door number—this old community was on the edge of town, built over a decade ago. Back then, the trend was one household per floor, like today’s single-unit elevators. So the apartment should be: 501.

At 3 a.m., Wei Lin sent a message to his boss:

[Sunshine Community, Old Street District, Xiaoshan City, Building 28, Unit 2, Apartment 501.]

---

It was terrifying.

Even after a night had passed, Shi Zhen was still shaken.

She hadn’t even returned the 5,000 yet, and nearly got stuck with an even bigger hot potato.

Thankfully, she acted fast and blocked him immediately.

Out of sight, out of mind. Finally, no one was throwing money at her anymore.

Turns out she just wasn’t cut out to be some rich man’s pampered little canary from a novel. She couldn’t even quote a price, and if someone gave her too much, she’d feel too guilty to take it.

To accept money guilt-free really took a strong mind.

“Shi Zhen, what are you daydreaming about? We’ve got a surge of orders again. If you don’t hurry up, you’ll be off an hour late.”

Zhang Meiren’s voice rang out suddenly, snapping Shi Zhen back to reality. She immediately picked up the pace, assembling bubble tea orders.

Late again. Always late. But who could possibly be later than you, huh?!

Shi Zhen glanced at the receipt printer—it was still spitting out labels like a machine gun.

Oh my god. Mother in heaven!

She sped up her water-pouring and ingredient-adding, catching in her peripheral vision Zhang Meiren casually scrolling on her phone while slowly adding ice cubes.

Meanwhile, a crowd of delivery guys had gathered outside the shop, yellow vests mixed with blue, each with a look of growing impatience.

Shi Zhen only had two hands—no matter how fast she worked, she couldn’t possibly make so many drinks all at once.

“Can you hurry up? My order’s already overdue.”

“Yeah, I’ve got other deliveries too! You guys are always this slow!”

“Screw it, I’ll just grab someone else’s order first.”

The delivery drivers finally couldn’t hold back anymore, shouting complaints.

Shi Zhen’s heart sank—she suddenly felt really ashamed.

Although it wasn’t her fault, standing in the shop with so many resentful eyes staring at her made it impossible for her to stay uninvolved.

Zhang Meiren was scrolling through short videos, completely tuning out the delivery guy’s voice. After all, her sister-in-law wouldn’t fire her, and no one dared to criticize her anyway.

The next second, Shi Zhen watched as Zhang Meiren, after adding ice cubes, accidentally dropped the cleaning rag into the freezer. That rag had wiped the floor, the tables—basically everything.

Shi Zhen had even seen Zhang Meiren use that rag to wipe her leather shoes before. If someone ended up drinking that, there would definitely be a problem.

Taking a deep breath and summoning her courage, Shi Zhen said, “Sister Zhang, the delivery guys are in a hurry. Could you be a little quicker?”

Then she pointed to the rag inside the freezer. “Also, shouldn’t we categorize our cleaning cloths? Use different ones for different things? And maybe change out those ice cubes too? If someone drinks that, they could get sick.”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Meiren rolled her eyes dramatically, then deliberately scooped a spoonful of ice from the freezer and dumped it into a cup. “No one else is saying anything—just you being fussy. If you want to work, work. If you don’t, pay your bill and leave.”

“The rag fell in, so we replace the ice? Are you going to pay for it? Go check out how other shops do things—can they even make money like that?”

All the words Shi Zhen had wanted to say got stuck in her throat. Could she afford to quit?

No—she was broke. She couldn’t.

Alright then. You’re bullying the easiest person in the world to bully. Go ahead and squeeze this soft persimmon—she won’t even squeak.

Just wait until I rant about you online!

Shi Zhen silently continued working and didn’t say another word until the end of her shift.

She turned into a grumpy Squidward, drooping at the corners of her mouth, finishing her work, and going straight home.

Just as she returned to her apartment complex and hadn’t even made it upstairs yet, she overheard two old ladies chatting downstairs.

“Oh my, sis, there were so many people coming upstairs today. Tons of footsteps all day long.”

“What’s going on? Someone renovating?”

“Nope. I peeked through the peephole—it was all that delivery guy.”

“Who ordered that much delivery?”

The old lady lowered her voice. “All for someone on the fifth floor. That guy brought so much—there must’ve been dozens of orders. He didn’t stop the entire day.”

The other old lady, wearing a red hat, responded, “Oh my, the fifth floor must be loaded, ordering that much!”

…

Shi Zhen recognized the speaking granny—she lived just below her.

Fifth floor? Delivery?

If she remembered correctly, she lived on the fifth floor.

And didn’t she see something yesterday… someone said they’d send her delivery?

Ah—Brother Xie!

How did he know her address?

Could he be some hacker god, crawling over through the internet cable?

Shi Zhen bolted upstairs, stopping at the landing between the fourth and fifth floors to look up.

Her eyes went from confused to shocked, and then to horrified.

One, two, three, four, five… she couldn’t even count how many delivery orders were neatly stacked at her door.

She hurried upstairs and picked up one of the receipts to check. In the remarks column, it read: “Little sis, if you won’t take the money, why did you block me too?”

Shi Zhen gasped—it really was Brother Xie.

She picked up another one. This note said: “Eat this for dinner—it’s low calorie.”

The next one read: “This KFC is for lunch. My little niece can eat over 600 yuan’s worth—so I got you 700+ yuan’s worth. Don’t starve yourself.”

Another one said: “Dessert after meals. Young girls like sweets. This one’s chocolate—I’ll get you mango next time.”

And another: “Got you some snacks. Should last two days, right?”

Shi Zhen lifted a delivery bag almost the size of a small suitcase. This was called “a few orders”?

This could last her more than two days—it would take her half a month to finish.

Shi Zhen was on the verge of tears. Had she met a God of Wealth?

Struggling to unlock the door, she started moving the deliveries inside one by one.

In the process, she accidentally kicked something, and a bag of snacks rolled down the stairs.

“You’re back, young lady?” It was the voice of the old lady from downstairs. “Something fell. Granny will bring it up for you.”

“No need, Granny! Just leave it there—I’ll come get it myself!”

Shi Zhen rushed downstairs. The old woman was already elderly—just climbing stairs was tough for her, let alone carrying something this heavy. That would be too much for her aging limbs.

She took the snack bag from the old lady’s hands and was about to turn to go back up when the old lady grabbed her wrist.

Her wrinkled hand held onto Shi Zhen’s wrist, and a curious smile spread across her face. “Young lady, can you really finish all this food yourself? Who ordered it for you? Your boyfriend?”

Shi Zhen didn’t know how to answer. Explaining it would take the whole afternoon.

She neither admitted nor denied it, just gave an awkward chuckle, took the snack bag naturally, and said, “Thanks, Granny. I’ll carry it up myself. It’s cold out—you should go back inside.”

Shi Zhen quickened her steps and went back upstairs. As soon as she entered, she shut the door tight.

With the sound of the door closing, she heard the old lady’s strong, booming voice from downstairs: “Why is the young girl so shy? Her boyfriend’s not bad—willing to spend on her. That’s the kind of man you should find!”

After calming herself down, Shi Zhen began to worry.

There was no way she could finish all this food on her own. Shi Tingwan was off traveling somewhere—she couldn’t count on her either.

Maybe she could take the food back home to share with her parents?

But she had lied to them, saying she was working and studying at Jinhe. If she brought all this food back, wouldn’t that blow her cover?

After thinking it over, Shi Zhen decided to set the food aside for now—clearing things up with Brother Xie was more important.

She took out her phone, opened WeChat, and released Brother Xie from her blocked list.

After much deliberation, she typed out a message:

[Brother, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have blocked you. But you really ordered too much food—I can’t finish it and it’d just go to waste. Brother, I really can’t accept your money. I’ve never seen so much money in my life. I was wrong. You’re not a scammer or a human trafficker. You’re the God of Food sent by the heavens to save the masses. Someday I’ll make a banner and send it to you.]

She hit send.

[Message was sent, but the recipient has refused to receive it.]

Shi Zhen: ……

The tables had turned.

Now she was the one locked in the little black room by Brother Xie.