Chapter 79: Acting Alone with a Beautiful Woman

All the liquefied gas canisters were stored in the small storeroom. The group only kept four full ones for immediate use.

Jiang Yuan was already calculating in her mind: next time they came across more, she’d secretly stash a few away for herself. She had about twenty tanks stored at home already.

Lately, with all the cooking, she’d used up two of them.

Now that they were working as a team, there were many things she couldn’t quietly take for herself.

She could only watch with teary eyes as the remaining gas tanks disappeared into the distance. But luckily, they had gathered other supplies as well.

In total, the group now had over ten large woven bags of goods.

They had also collected a separate stash of tissue paper.

Their next destination was the Building Materials Market, about four kilometers away from the flower market.

Jiang Yuan was very familiar with the Building Materials and Home Furnishing Center.

She had originally wanted to open a store there, but due to various issues, the plan never materialized.

Still, she had worked with quite a few people in the area.

She had visited many times before.

This was one of the most well-known home and building material centers in the area, with a comprehensive range of goods.

The place was massive—eighteen full floors.

She still remembered hearing that the owner of the building didn’t like the sound of the number 19, so they capped it at eighteen floors.

The top floor was half office space for mall management and half food court.

This area, along with Lushan Yayuan (Lushan Elegant Garden), belonged to the same district in the eastern suburbs. Normally, it was just a short drive along the Third Ring Road—very close.

By the time they arrived, it was nearly eleven o’clock.

This area was more heavily flooded, and they had to start from the 10th floor.

Jiang Yuan deliberately led the group up the employee staircase. That way, they couldn’t see what was inside the mall from the stairwell.

If they had taken the guest elevators, they would’ve seen all the stores inside—and that would’ve complicated things for her later, especially if she needed to return for anything.

They went straight to the 18th floor—their final destination.

They carefully checked both directions and found nothing unusual.

Honestly, it made sense. Even if there had been guards before, everything had shut down during the extreme heatwave. Many official operations had been suspended.

This building materials center was known for strictly following policy. Their clients were major businesses—they didn’t care about a day or two of closure.

So, no people around—that was normal.

“How about this,” Song Yi said. “Let’s split up. Two of us go to the food court, and two clean out the office area. That way, we’ll be faster.”

“Alright,” Zhang Kaiyang quickly said. “Yuan-jie, you and Mianmian handle the office area. I’ll go with Brother Song to check out the other side.”

Zhang Kaiyang figured, as a guy, he should do more of the heavy work. Plus, the excitement of opening random “mystery boxes” of loot was too addictive to pass up.

“Alright then, let’s go, Mianmian. We’ll check inside.”

“Okay!” Ye Mianmian chirped happily.

Ye Mianmian liked being with Jiang Yuan—maybe because they were both girls, it felt more comfortable.

The office area wasn’t especially large. Outside was a big open space—probably around thirty workstations.

Not all were filled, and likely only half the staff were ever present at once.

Jiang Yuan had come here for consultations before, so she remembered: inside were a meeting room, a finance room, and two offices.

One belonged to the boss, the other to the general manager.

If nothing else, the finance room would definitely have money.

Everything here was centrally managed—money collected at the outside cashier stations would be deposited into the finance office later.

From the 10th floor upward, the mall mostly sold high-end furniture and appliances. Floors 14 to 17 were luxury furniture floors.

Just furnishing a basic room could cost a million yuan easily. The saying “No sales for half a year, one sale feeds you for six months” was absolutely true here.

“Mianmian, you check the outside. I’ll take a look at the offices.”

“Sure, Yuan-jie. Don’t worry.”

Ye Mianmian wasn’t suspicious at all—she knew Jiang Yuan could pick locks.

Many of the office doors were locked, so Jiang Yuan going in made the most sense.

With that, they split up.

Jiang Yuan went straight to the finance room. There was one accountant and two cashiers.

Three desks—the accountant’s was bigger and probably solid wood.

The other two were pushed together—likely the cashiers’.

There were three file cabinets, a safe, and a set of personal lockers in the room.

Jiang Yuan’s eyes went straight to the safe. It was clearly a temporary one.

The key was definitely with the accountant, so she started by going through that desk.

There was a company-issued calendar, a file organizer stuffed with folders, a thermos, a regular mug, and a half-used box of tissues.

Inside the drawers were personal items—lots of tea. Clearly someone older who liked tea.

There were also notebooks, official seals, and miscellaneous items.

In the bottom drawer, she found a locked compartment.

The lock was low-level. Jiang Yuan opened it easily.

Inside was a set of keys, one of which obviously belonged to the safe.

There was also a small notebook—the pocket-sized kind. If it was stored here, it was definitely important.

Curious, Jiang Yuan opened it.

Holy crap—it was full of passwords!

Everything from websites to the safe code!

Heaven must be on her side today.

Her heart pounded. Hands trembling, she opened the safe.

Sure enough—it was stacked with bundles of cash.

Money!

Overjoyed, she quickly stored it all in her space.

There were more than 20 bundles—likely business funds.

At this moment, nothing compared to cold, hard cash.

There were also documents and contracts at the bottom, but she didn’t bother reading—just left them there.

She took anything useful, especially food items, and set them aside for the group.

Stationery like paper, pens, notebooks—she kept those separately. Also the red ink pads for seals.

After thinking about it, she took the small printer next to the desk too. It didn’t take up much space and might be useful in the future.

Next, she went to the meeting room. Nothing special there—just a projector, a big screen, and some tables and chairs.

The two offices were her main targets.

She started with the general manager’s office. It wasn’t huge but beautifully decorated.

Solid wood desk, leather chair, leather sofa, and a redwood tea table.

Behind the desk was a solid wood display cabinet with glass doors—filled with expensive-looking ornaments.

There was even a small section of wine storage—mostly red wine. Jiang Yuan didn’t know much about wine, so she just took it all.

She opened all the cabinets—found even more food and drink.

There were bottles of high-end Chinese liquor, probably gifted. Also a bunch of mooncake gift boxes.

They were rock hard, but maybe still edible.

Back during the extreme heat, it had been close to the Mid-Autumn Festival—so finding these wasn’t surprising.