Chapter 98: How Much for Coffee? Milk Tea? Stir-Fried Noodles?

Two hours before the appointed time, the car Yue Yiyue had booked stopped in front of her.

The car looked somewhat familiar. From the moment she got in, she kept feeling like she might have taken this ride before.

But when she saw the sign up front—black letters on a white background reading “Please do not open the windows”—that concern vanished.

After buckling her seatbelt, Yue Yiyue took out her phone to report her whereabouts. “Mom, I’m heading out for something. Take care of yourself over there.”

She had so much she wanted to say to her mom but didn’t know where to start. In the end, she just hit send on that short message.

After sending it, Yue Yiyue stared at the green message bubble on the screen and fiddled with her phone.

Something outside seemed to scrape against the car window with a piercing screech. The faint noise drew her attention, and she looked out the window uneasily.

The trees on both sides clawed toward her menacingly, occasionally making horrifying gestures. The birds up top eyed the people inside the car with predatory glares.

So that’s what it meant. Yue Yiyue disinterestedly returned to her phone, pondering how to say a proper goodbye to her mom.

She couldn’t bear to leave. She really couldn’t.

She didn’t even know if she could come back safely.

But she couldn’t dump everything on Yu An either.

She agonized over her notes app, typing and deleting for a while.

The driver suddenly tsked. “The trees these days really have no tree virtue.”

“A few days ago, I tripped over a tree branch, and then a pigeon came along.”

She ruffled her slightly frizzy hair in annoyance. “That thing carries a virus. Once you’re infected, you turn into a Dove Head monster. You should be careful too. The one in front of you—press it. There’s a hat inside. Wearing it is better than nothing.”

Yue Yiyue curiously tilted her head as she listened. “Huh? It’s that bad? Well, Driver, you’re pretty lucky then. Thanks, but I probably don’t need it.”

Turning into a monster might actually be a decent option.

Dove Heads were pretty strong before, and her own resentment was plentiful. Turning into a monster might make her even more powerful.

Yue Yiyue thought darkly.

“You bet.” The driver interrupted her thoughts. She tapped the steering wheel absently with her pinky. “What are you going there for?”

“That’s Zhou Family territory. They’re really into making gods right now.”

Yue Yiyue froze for a moment. She recalled what Wu Zhen had said before—making gods…

Was it that Greed?

“It started with the Wu Family, but they weren’t up to the task.” The driver seemed a bit drowsy from the long drive.

She yawned. “Now it’s the Zhou Family’s turn. Who knows how long they’ll last.”

Yue Yiyue, who had been lounging lazily, sat up straight at this information. She turned to look at the driver beside her, dressed in a tight black sweater with sleeves rolled up to her wrists. “You… how do you know all this?”

“Huh?” The driver’s pale hand pointed to the radio nearby. The broadcast came on, reporting on the Zhou Family situation.

“You’d know if you watched TV or read the news.” The driver yawned again. “I listen to this channel a lot. Sometimes they play love songs.”

Yue Yiyue listened as the broadcast reported how Zhou Qingyi had returned to A City from school and swiftly taken control of the entire Zhou Group from her sister, swallowing up the Wu Family within a week.

At this point, Yue Yiyue realized who this netizen was.

Ye Qiu… she might know a bit about their family affairs.

Her profession was related, after all, to some extent…

But if she told Ye Qiu, Gu Nanqiu would definitely find out once she woke up.

Yue Yiyue hesitated as she looked at her phone. She needed more information.

“Listening so intently?” The driver slowed down considerably. Yue Yiyue then noticed that something had happened up ahead—they were stuck in traffic.

What should have taken thirty minutes now stretched to an hour.

Good thing she had left an hour and a half early.

Yue Yiyue felt relieved about her habit of departing ahead of time.

“Does that Zhou Group have some lover of yours?” The driver tapped the steering wheel again, asking with a half-smile. “Going at this hour—you two must be pretty close.”

“No, nothing like that.” This driver was getting too nosy, Yue Yiyue thought irritably. Did everything have to be about romance?

Okay, fine, she was going for Gu Nanqiu’s sake, so in a way, it was romantic.

“I have this netizen whose sister has her under control, so she can only message me.” Yue Yiyue tried to downplay it, make it sound less heavy. “We get along pretty well, and I happened to have time, so I figured I’d help out.”

“At first, I thought it was just a simple family spat, but it sounds like I’ve accidentally gotten dragged into the Zhou Family mess.”

The driver nodded as she listened. “I see. You’re a good person then—willing to wade into this mess for a stranger online. You’re a real one. Women are all so loyal like that.”

Then the driver changed tack. “But that Big Boss Zhou is said to be really smart and wise. Who knows, maybe it’ll turn into a beautiful romance—”

“In your eyes, do I have to end up with that Big Boss Zhou or something?” Yue Yiyue couldn’t quite follow this unfamiliar driver’s train of thought. Every three sentences, it circled back to relationships.

Did she have some KPI for matchmaking?

Yue Yiyue didn’t get it, but her good manners made her explain again. “Sorry, I already have someone I like. Please don’t speculate wildly. I’m just going to help a friend, purely.”

The car braked sharply, and the sky suddenly darkened. Yue Yiyue was startled when she heard faint thunder rumbling outside.

She felt an inexplicable pang of panic—a feeling she’d never had before.

She tried her best to ignore it and finished what she wanted to say. “She’s sleeping at home waiting for me. I haven’t confessed yet, so I can only say I have a crush on her.”

Yue Yiyue fiddled with her phone and emphasized, “Don’t think there’s any gossip. I really have no ulterior motives toward her.”

The thunder outside gradually faded. Up ahead, someone in a traffic cop uniform was directing the clogged lanes.

As they got closer—hey, the Traffic Light was out there directing traffic.

Yue Yiyue rubbed her eyes. This world was mad, but she was starting to get it.

It wasn’t a bad setup.

“That’s a mutated traffic cop,” the driver said excitedly. “He got passed over for promotion, got drunk, and tried to harass someone. The Traffic Light smashed him flat and now makes him atone here.”

“Pretty interesting.”

“How do you know so much?” Yue Yiyue looked at her curiously. This driver really loved to chat. Had she picked up all this from other passengers on the road?

Noticing this, Yue Yiyue suddenly realized she could ask the driver.

Fellow drivers had told her before that being a driver was more fun than delivery—gossip, chats with people from all over, sometimes even tips.

“Do you know the current situation with the Zhou Family?” Yue Yiyue pressed. “How much do you know about them? Heard anything else?”

“I have money. Name a price, and I’ll transfer it.”

The driver raised an eyebrow. “No need for that.”

“We’re just five minutes from the destination anyway, and…”

“There’s no parking over there either…”

“Keep driving, circle around nearby. No rush.” Yue Yiyue understood—the driver wanted to take a detour or change the drop-off. “Drive back and forth, or I can book another ride.”

“Anyway, it’s not safe to let a driver change the destination or end the trip early. Too many risks involved.”

“There’s a coffee shop over there that looks nice. Got time to sit with me and chat?”

————

Yue Yiyue looked at the prices: 520 for a coffee, 999 for milk tea, 1314 for a bowl of stir-fried noodles.

She checked her balance—no problem—and generously handed the menu over, willingly “buying” the information.

The driver pulled out her phone, fiddled with it for a moment, then passed it to her. “Order yourself.”

She shifted into a comfy position and glanced at the time. One hour until this esteemed customer’s appointed time.

Propping her chin on her hand, she said, “A few days ago, I had a Zhou Family passenger—some nanny type.”

“She said Big Boss Zhou had been acting crazy lately, ranting that the world wasn’t like this. Little Boss Zhou couldn’t bear it and called in some highly skilled doctor to treat her.”

The waitress nearby brought over the milk tea and set it on the table. “Please enjoy.”

Then she left with her head down.

Once the waitress was gone, the driver continued. “Later, a bodyguard got in my car on a call. I overheard some stuff—something about needing someone’s blood.”

She took a sip of her milk tea, which tasted the same as Yue Yiyue’s. “They were looking for someone surnamed Gu, on Little Boss Zhou’s orders.”

“They’ve put out a wanted notice in the shady districts. The bodyguard thought Little Boss Zhou was going too far and wanted to leak the info somehow.”

The driver sighed. “Sometimes I’m really glad I’m a woman. She was like you—worried about a total stranger’s safety.”

At this, Yue Yiyue’s heart skipped a beat. Her hand trembled—half regret, half confusion.

Zhou Qingyi had seemed perfectly normal when they met recently.

The information from the driver was already quite complete. Over the New Year, Zhou Qingyi had undergone some bizarre change.

Whose handiwork was this?

But from what the driver said, Yue Yiyue could roughly guess what Zhou Qingyi planned to do next.

Good news: Zhou Qingyi probably didn’t know where Gu Nanqiu lived.

Bad news: School records would make it easy to pinpoint Gu Nanqiu’s exact location.

What if she went to Zhou Qingyi, Gu Nanqiu didn’t show, and Zhou Qingyi snapped and used extreme measures to hunt her down?

Yue Yiyue abruptly stood, nearly knocking over the milk tea in front of her.

She steadied the cup awkwardly. “Thanks, but I just remembered something. I need to make arrangements.”

She immediately pulled out her phone and urgently messaged the coroner and Yu An. Feeling it wasn’t enough, she sent new messages to Ye Qiu, Gu Nanqiu, and Curator Qiu separately.

Still not safe enough. Yue Yiyue headed outside. “Sorry, I need to step out and make a call.”