Chapter 10 A Key
Looking at the WeChat message, Fang Xiaocao blinked.
"Attic?"
"Secret compartment?"
Fang Xiaocao repeated these two words to herself.
Checking the time, it would still be a while before Liu Feifei returned with the contract. Biting her lip, Fang Xiaocao directly closed the villa's main door.
Picking up the key Liu Feifei had left behind, she headed straight upstairs.
Villa number 5 had four and a half floors.
One basement level and three and a half above ground.
The half was the attic.
Fang Xiaocao climbed the stairs to the third floor.
In a small room at the end of the corridor, she found the ladder to the attic.
She opened the attic entrance and climbed up.
The attic was empty, nothing there at all.
But it was also spotlessly clean; evidently the cleaners hadn't slacked off, and the attic was regularly cleaned.
There were four windows in the attic for natural light, one large window on each side of the entrance and one small window both in front and behind the entrance. It was quite bright during the day.
Fang Xiaocao glanced at the WeChat message and couldn't help rolling her eyes, muttering, "Where should I start counting? Which window counts as the first window?"
Fang Xiaocao felt that her future self was clearly playing games with her.
The goddamn second window, she still had to check each window one by one.
Fang Xiaocao started with the big window on the left, squatting on the ground, tapping the wall beneath each window sill, looking for the secret compartment mentioned in the WeChat message.
From the first brick on the window sill to the one tightly against the floor, nothing!
Fang Xiaocao moved to the window directly in front to continue tapping.
Still no secret compartment!
Switching positions, she moved to the large window on the right.
"Damn it, playing tricks on me, huh!"
Fang Xiaocao cursed quietly, furiously walking towards the small window facing away from the attic entrance.
The large window on the right also had no secret compartment.
"Damn it, definitely on purpose!"
Fang Xiaocao grumbled angrily.
But she forgot that she was scolding herself too.
Arriving at the small window, Fang Xiaocao sat on the floor and started tapping.
Finally, a hollow sound, "thud," came from the second to last brick in the corner near the floor.
"Found it!"
Fang Xiaocao exclaimed excitedly.
She tried pressing it, and with a "click," the secret compartment automatically popped open.
This secret compartment was the size of a small drawer, as big as a brick.
Inside the compartment lay a strangely shaped key.
Aside from this key, there was nothing else inside the compartment.
Fang Xiaocao blinked, picking up the key.
She played with it for a while but couldn't see anything special about it.
Pocketing the key, Fang Xiaocao picked up her phone, opened WeChat, and sent a message to Hot Noodles, asking about the key's purpose, "What does this key unlock?"
[Contact does not exist!]
"Huh?"
Looking at the chat interface and the "Contact does not exist" notification, Fang Xiaocao was so angry she almost threw her phone.
Being led by the nose like this really felt terrible and made Fang Xiaocao very angry.
[Ding Dong!]
Just then, the phone's notification sound rang out.
The sudden ringtone startled Fang Xiaocao, and the phone slipped from her hand, falling directly onto the floor.
"Damn it, who the hell..."
Fang Xiaocao cursed quietly, picking up the phone.
Fortunately, since Fang Xiaocao was sitting on the floor, the phone wasn't damaged.
She unlocked the screen, revealing another message on WeChat.
Fang Xiaocao rolled her eyes and opened WeChat.
She had a premonition it must be Hot Noodles.
[Hot Noodles: Before you curse me next time, think about our relationship, okay?]
Just as Fang Xiaocao expected.
However, the content of the message made Fang Xiaocao so mad she almost smashed her phone.
"Definitely on purpose, it has to be!"
Fang Xiaocao muttered, scrunching up her nose.
"What is the key for?"
Fang Xiaocao sent a message asking.
[Hot Noodles: Take the ladder to the basement, on the upper half of one wall, there's a hidden door with a lock on it.]
"Here we go again, here it comes again..."
"She definitely did it on purpose!"
Fang Xiaocao roared, looking at the message content.
"Which wall is it?"
Fang Xiaocao asked angrily.
[Contact does not exist!]
Fang Xiaocao: ...
"Come out, come out!"
"I'm going to go down with you!"
Fang Xiaocao sent a voice message right away.
[Contact does not exist!]
Fang Xiaocao was utterly speechless.
After closing the secret compartment, she descended from the attic.
She closed the attic door and jumped down the ladder.
Carrying a ladder taller than herself, she walked towards the living room on the first floor.
She placed the ladder at the entrance to the basement and then checked the time on her phone.
Before she knew it, half an hour had passed.
"Feifei should be almost back," she murmured and abandoned the idea of immediately entering the basement to explore.
Taking the keys, she opened the basement door, carried the ladder inside, and then ran out.
The basement was a bit dark and somewhat spooky.
Xiaocao didn't look at anything; she just ran out.
At the basement door, she searched the LCD control panel for a while before finding the switch for the basement light.
She tried pressing the switch and then opened the basement door.
Hey~
The light turned on!
"Not bad for a luxury villa, even the light switch is upscale," she muttered.
"Ding-dong, ding-dong~"
At the same time, the villa's doorbell rang.
Fang Xiaocao closed the basement door and ran to the front door, opening the video doorbell.
Outside was Liu Feifei!
Fang Xiaocao opened the villa's door.
"Sis, you're back," she said cheerily.
"How is it, Xiaocao?"
"Being on your own here, you weren't scared, were you?" Liu Feifei walked into the villa, asking with a smile.
"Not at all, I wasn't scared even a bit," Xiaocao replied with a grin.
She was too busy treasure hunting to feel scared.
"That's good, let's sign the contract then," Liu Feifei said cheerfully.
As she spoke, Liu Feifei sat on the sofa and placed the printed contract on the coffee table.
Fang Xiaocao picked up the contract and flipped through it.
Seeing no issues, she picked up a pen and signed her name on the contract.
Liu Feifei collected the contract, took out a POS machine from her bag, and placed it on the coffee table.
"Swipe your card!"
"Once you've paid, the villa is yours," Liu Feifei said, smiling.
"Hmm~"
Fang Xiaocao responded and took out her card.
Liu Feifei took the POS machine, inserted Xiaocao's card into the slot, and operated it for a moment.
"Just enter your payment password, and you're all set," Liu Feifei said as she handed the POS machine to Fang Xiaocao.
Fang Xiaocao nodded, took the POS machine,
and entered her payment password on the keypad.
She clicked confirm, and the transaction was completed!
A message tone sounded on Fang Xiaocao's phone.
She glanced at it; it was a debit notification.
"All set~"
Fang Xiaocao handed the POS machine back to Liu Feifei.
"There you go, the villa is yours now," Liu Feifei said with a smile.
"I'll go handle the paperwork for you," Liu Feifei said as she packed up the POS machine and stood up.
"If you want to stay overnight, I can call the cleaning service to thoroughly clean everything from inside out, so you don't have to do it yourself."
Before leaving, Liu Feifei added with a smile,
"It's free of charge~"
Liu Feifei clarified.