Universe Infinite Canteen
Chapter 91: Chapter 91 Doorbell

After leaving the firepot restaurant, Old Wang thought Ma Lu would head straight home, but to his surprise, after cycling less than 20 meters, he stopped again at a street stall.

The stall owner, an auntie, saw another tricycle coming and thought it was competition for business. She braced herself for a confrontation, but then she heard Ma Lu say, "One serving of stir-fried rice noodles, please!"

The auntie breathed a sigh of relief, "Do you want it with or without meat? The one with meat is 12 yuan, and the vegetarian one is 8 yuan."

"With meat, and add another 5 yuan worth of meat," Ma Lu said, pulling out his phone to scan the code.

The auntie couldn't resist striking up a conversation with this generous customer, who was also in the same line of work, "Young man, are you setting up or closing down your stall today?"

"Closing down."

"So early? Then you must have had good sales today."

"Not bad, I made over twenty thousand."

Upon hearing this, the auntie laughed, "My old man couldn't boast that much even after drinking two jins of Er Guo Tou liquor! Well, you'll definitely be able to replace a wife in the future."

"Hahaha, thanks for the auspicious words," Ma Lu chuckled.

The auntie chatted with Ma Lu and deftly continued cooking, tossing various ingredients into the pan.

Not only did she add the extra 5 yuan worth of meat, but she also threw in an extra egg for free.

As Ma Lu crouched by the roadside eating his deluxe stir-fried rice noodles, he bumped into Ms. Chen and Mr. Zhou leaving in a white GLC.

Ms. Chen in the car must have seen Ma Lu and Old Wang on the roadside, but she just curled her lip and drove away without greeting.

Director Zhang had left earlier than anyone else because he had made plans with friends to go for a foot massage.

Ma Lu finished his hefty serving of stir-fried rice noodles unhurriedly and returned to the tricycle where Old Wang opened his eyes.

"Ready to go?"

"No, I want to take another look."

"Look at what?"

"To see if I can replace the real owner of this place," said Ma Lu, who hadn't found any napkins, wiping his mouth with an oily paper bag used for meat sandwiches.

"What do you mean? Aren't the owners of that shop the couple we met earlier?" Old Wang asked, puzzled.

"At first I thought so too. But don't you replace it strange that there are tenants living above the firepot restaurant?

"There are three residential complexes nearby. You could easily replace a ton of rental listings just by looking around. And yet, those tenants chose not to rent elsewhere but instead reside in a commercial-residential property where the rent and utilities are more expensive and it's noisier.

"Moreover, when I suggested evicting the tenants upstairs and renting the second floor to Director Zhang, who was willing to pay more to turn it into a card room, Ms. Chen and Mr. Zhou, who are astute businesspeople, hesitated and didn't immediately agree."

"Maybe it's because the contract for the upstairs hasn't expired yet," Old Wang suggested.

Ma Lu shook his head, "That couple doesn't strike me as the type to stick to a contract. The previous firepot restaurant was doing well, and when the lease was up, they didn't renew it. The stories about family issues were just Ms. Chen's one-sided claims, with no one knowing what really happened."

Ma Lu then gestured around at the surrounding streets.

"These mixed-use commercial-residential buildings on the street may be cheap to buy, but they're not easy to rent out. People are generally lazy; climbing stairs is no different than scaling Mount Everest for them.

"Not to mention, in an area with such low pedestrian traffic, many businesses use the second level for personal living space. It saves them commuting time and allows them to rest better."

"Besides, you might not know this being from another universe, but many cities have a type of job called sub-lessor."

Ma Lu shrugged, "Of course, all this is just my speculation, but we can wait for the tenants on the second floor to come back to verify."

However, they waited until almost 9 p.m., and the windows of the second floor were still pitch black, not looking like anyone was living there.

"Could it be they're out traveling, or maybe they're salary slaves working at a big factory?"

Ma Lu yawned, feeling a wave of sleepiness overtake him.

He had been out collecting ingredients since yesterday afternoon and had also rushed to a beast tide on the other side, toiling for over a dozen hours.

After returning, he hadn't really rested much and immediately made a round in the hardware store owned by the werewolf; he had set up a stall at Aerospace University until dark, then hastened over to check on the store.

It was about time to rest.

"How about we come back tomorrow morning?" Old Wang suggested.

"Sure." Ma Lu was also feeling exhausted, but before leaving, he had a spark of inspiration and decided to go up and knock on the door.

This was Ma Lu's style of doing things, even if it seemed hopeless, as long as it didn't cost much, he would still give it a shot.

But now the problem arose, how to get up there?

Looking at the massage clinic next door, there was a staircase to the second floor on the first level, but when Ma Lu had looked around the hot pot restaurant earlier, he hadn't seen any staircase.

It was probably removed, allowing for a few extra square meters of space on the first floor, naturally commanding a higher rent, but it's impossible for the people living above not to come down.

Taking into account that there were shops on both sides of the hot pot restaurant, that left only one possibility.

"Let's go, into the residential area." Ma Lu said to Old Wang.

The two men followed an elderly couple walking their dog and smoothly got through the access control of the residential area, making their way behind the hot pot restaurant, and indeed, they found a back door there.

Ma Lu walked up and knocked on the door, but there was no response from inside, and looking up from there, the window on the second floor was also dark.

Could it really be that no one was there?

Ma Lu felt a bit disappointed and was ready to leave when he thought of something else.

No, that's not right. The iron gate is on the first floor, but the person above lives on the second floor. A normal knock probably wouldn't be heard, right?

How would they receive deliveries or order takeout then?

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Ma Lu turned on the flashlight mode on his phone, shining it around, and finally, he found an inconspicuous black doorbell in the bottom right corner of the iron gate.

"......"

Why would anyone install a doorbell in such an obscure place?!

Ma Lu pressed it twice, but after waiting for half a minute, still no one came down.

So he pressed it again twice and then looked up. In the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something flash behind the window, but when he looked again, there was nothing there.

Ma Lu was unsure if his eyes were deceiving him and turned to ask Old Wang.

"Did you see that just now?"

"I saw it." Old Wang nodded, stating with certainty.

"What did you see?"

"I'll send the recording directly to you."

After Old Wang spoke, a golden metallic wire stealthily stretched out from beneath his jacket and plugged into Ma Lu's bracelet.

Once the transfer was complete, a 2.4-second long video appeared in the Traveler's Bracelet.

Ma Lu didn't rush to view the video but instead exclaimed.

"Wow, you have a recording function as well?"

"Yes, my eyes can be used as a high-definition camera."

"Then we won't need a dash cam anymore in the future."

Ma Lu joked, but he soon stopped laughing.

"Wait a minute, does that mean you've recorded me in my boxers at home?"

"I regularly clear out such irrelevant data."