Tokyo Knights: The Odd Jobs X Files

"No, thank you."

Li Xin coldly refused.

"Really not? Don't you like drinking hot water the most?"

The voice said mockingly.

Li Xin was stunned for a moment, then turned his head and saw a very familiar woman sitting in the seat next to him.

With her sexy curly hair, charming features, and especially the unique beauty mark under her mouth, Li Xin was always involuntarily attracted to her every time he saw her.

"Xiao Lei?"

Li Xin stared incredulously at the suddenly appearing Lai Sheng Lei: "Little Lei, what are you doing here?"

He was only supposed to stay home for a few days this time, so he didn't tell Laishenglei how she knew he had returned to the Central Plains and followed him.

Lai Sheng Lei smiled slightly and said to Li Xin, "Yesterday someone called the coffee shop, saying that their child had run away from home and complained to me. I originally wanted to go back and visit the child on behalf of the runaway, but I ended up seeing you in the waiting area and switched seats with someone. You don't mind if I sit next to you, do you?"

Li Xin thought to himself that he had really lost his mind. He hadn't even noticed Lai Sheng Lei when he was in the waiting room! He had also forgotten that, given the village secretary's stubborn nature, he would definitely call back to confirm even after hanging up the phone.

After a series of mistakes, Li Xin was at a loss for what to do. He could only stammer, "Um, shouldn't we take care of the coffee shop's business?"

"Just say my cold got worse and that taking a few more days off won't hurt."

Lai Sheng Lei smiled and said, "What, are you worried that my coffee shop will go bankrupt due to poor management?"

Li Xin was not worried that Lai Sheng Lei's coffee shop would go out of business. With the three sisters around, Cat's Eye Coffee Shop would never go out of business.

The plane took off, and the two remained silent during the flight. However, this did not mean that the atmosphere between them was awkward; on the contrary, it seemed rather harmonious.

People you truly know don't need to keep the atmosphere warm by striking up conversations all the time.

After getting off the plane, Li Xin changed into the same simple clothes he wore when he went to Hong Kong with Lao Liu. He also took off his sunglasses. This was the first time that Lai Sheng Lei had seen Li Xin without sunglasses.

When Li Xin was unconscious before, she had the opportunity to take off his sunglasses, but out of respect for him, she didn't. Now, seeing Li Xin take off his sunglasses on his own initiative, she couldn't help but laugh and tease him, "So this is what you look like without sunglasses. I thought there was something special about your eyes."

Li Xin blushed slightly but didn't say anything. Instead, he went to the bank first.

Before Li Xin boarded the plane, Crocodile gave him a bank card. It was the card Crocodile had opened when he helped Li Xin run errands in the Central Plains last time. He had transferred more than 300,000 RMB into it. Although it wasn't much, it should be enough to make Li Xin look good.

Li Xin responded, "This is hardly enough to impress anyone. The moment I take this money back, I will be the richest man in Shibalipu Village!"

After withdrawing the money, Li Xin and Lai Shenglei got into a car together. After changing cars at least six times, the two finally arrived at the town closest to Shibali Village. By then, it was almost dark.

"Xiao Lei, the road ahead is quite long, let's buy a bicycle."

Li Xin said to the next life with tears in his eyes.

The mountain road leading to Shibali Village is rugged and cannot be driven by car; at most, bicycles can pass. Lai Shenglei originally wanted to say that she was not a pampered girl and could walk on the mountain road, but after hearing Li Xin say this, she still smiled and nodded, saying, "Okay, but buying two would be too wasteful. Let's just buy one."

Li Xin was taken aback, thinking to himself, "You still care about such a small amount of money?" But he still nodded and said, "Okay, I'll just buy one."

So, Li Xin went to a bicycle shop in town and haggled with the shopkeeper, but he couldn't get the price down to below 200. Finally, Lai Sheng Lei appeared and bought the bicycle, which originally cost 250 yuan, for 150 yuan with just a few words, plus a basket.

"Alright, let's go, or it'll really get dark!"

Lai Shenglei, holding onto his bicycle, addressed Li Xin.

Li Xin stared blankly at Lai Sheng Lei, and after hearing what she said, he smiled and said, "Okay!"

Lai Sheng Lei was stunned when she saw Li Xin's smile. After regaining her senses, she quickly covered her embarrassment by brushing her hair aside, and then said to Li Xin, "Ah Xin, you really should smile more often."

After thinking for a moment, Lai Sheng Lei said again, "Never mind, let's just keep it the way it is."

Seriously, there's no need to hire any more people.

Li Xin was a little confused by Lai Sheng Lei's words, but there was no time to dwell on it now. He got on his bicycle, patted the back seat, and said to Lai Sheng Lei, "Come on, Xiao Lei, sit on!"

Lai Shenglei smiled slightly, sat in the back seat, and then hugged Li Xin's waist tightly, saying, "Let's go!"

Seeing that Lai Sheng Lei was already seated, Li Xin smiled slightly, pedaled the bicycle, and flew off in a flash.

Seeing Li Xin riding his bicycle as fast as a rocket, the bicycle shop owner lifted the towel hanging around his neck to wipe his sweat and said, "Hey... no wonder you have such a beautiful girlfriend, you've got some serious drive!"

After a whirlwind of speed, Li Xin arrived at the entrance of Shibali Village on his bicycle. Inside the village, wisps of smoke rose from chimneys. Looking around, most of the houses were simple temporary housing units, but they were still habitable. Since it was already dark, there were few people on the road, presumably everyone was already at home waiting for dinner.

Li Xin stopped his bicycle, and Lai Shenglei also got off. They walked on the uneven ground in the village, filled with curiosity about this village that had just been hit by a flood.

Is this where Ashin was born and grew up?

As Li Xin passed a house, he suddenly stopped.

Unlike other prefabricated houses, this house is a two-story hut built of bricks. The walls are not even plastered or cemented, and the door is just a wooden board. I didn't see what it looked like inside, but I imagine it could only be described as "bare walls".

Lai Sheng Lei looked at Li Xin with a puzzled expression, and then heard Li Xin slowly say, "This is my home."

He thought that since he was gone, no one would care about his house. But to his surprise, a house had already been built on his original address, and it looked like it had been built for some time.

Lai Shenglei remained silent. To be fair, the house was definitely not well-built, but the problem was that, after entering Shibali Village, compared to the large number of temporary housing units, this brick house could already be considered a mansion.

"Ah-Xin, where are you going now?"

In the next life, I will ask Li Xin about his faith with tears in my eyes.

Li Xin replied, "Go to the village chief."

"Isn't it at that Secretary Wang's place?"

In the next life, I will ask Li Xin about his faith with tears in my eyes.

She remembered that the person who called yesterday was Secretary Wang.

"Um, let's go to the village chief first..."

Li Xin touched his nose. He was too afraid to see the village secretary right now, so he decided to go see the village chief first.

For Li Xin, the village chief and the village party secretary were like parents. Compared to the strict and upright village party secretary, the village chief, who was very shrewd and worldly, was more like a mother to Li Xin. When a child makes a mistake, he will definitely go to his mother first. Li Xin was the same. Rather than going to the village party secretary, he preferred to go to the village chief first, so that even if the village party secretary was angry, the village chief could persuade him.

Lai Sheng Lei was going to follow Li Xin's lead in this trip. Since Li Xin had said so, she naturally didn't say anything more and followed Li Xin towards the end of the village.

At the end of the village was a large courtyard. Of course, calling it a large courtyard was a bit of an exaggeration; it was actually just a piece of land enclosed by a bamboo fence. Inside were a few small, one-story houses. On one side of the courtyard, there were about a dozen chickens. An old man sat at a table in the middle of the courtyard, engrossed in a plate of snails. He would slurp up a few snails and then take a sip of wine, looking quite content.

Noticing someone enter the courtyard, the old man looked up, saw Li Xin and Lai Shenglei, wiped his mouth and asked, "Young man, young lady, what brings you here?"

As darkness fell, the old man could no longer see the people across from him; he could only vaguely make out that they were a man and a woman.

Li Xin looked at the village chief, swallowed hard, and then said, "Village chief..."

The village chief couldn't see Li Xin's face clearly, but he was very familiar with Li Xin's voice. Upon hearing "Village Chief," he stood up abruptly, walked up to Li Xin, jumped up, and gave Li Xin a hard whack on the head: "You brat, you still know how to come back!"

Li Xin has been gone for almost three months without any news. In this era when transportation and communication were not as convenient as they are in later years, many people who went out to work often lost contact. Moreover, Li Xin went with Lao Liu from the next village. So many young men went to Hong Kong to work with Lao Liu before, but none of them came back. How could the village chief not worry about Li Xin?

Li Xin was hit on the head, but he didn't dare to utter a sound. He just stood with his legs together, like a child who had done something wrong, without making a sound.

"Uncle, please don't make things difficult for Ashin. Ashin has been missing you all these days."

Laisheng Lei's voice naturally has a strong persuasive power over men. As soon as the village chief heard Laisheng Lei's voice, he immediately let Li Xin go and turned to look at Laisheng Lei.

The village chief hadn't seen Lai Shenglei clearly before because of the poor lighting, but now that he was closer, he was immediately amazed by her beauty and exclaimed, "Young lady, you are so beautiful, even more beautiful than those big stars on TV!"

Lai Sheng Lei smiled slightly and said to the village chief, "Uncle, you flatter me. I am A Xin's friend. I came back with him. We have been traveling for a long time. Won't you let us sit down?"

The village chief nodded eagerly, "Yes, yes, yes!"

Then, he glared at Li Xin and said to him, "Get inside!"

Li Xin felt as if he had been granted a pardon and hurriedly went inside.

There were hardly any people or furniture in the village chief's house, except for a bed and a few stools.

That's normal. There was a flood just now. Although no one was hurt, their houses and belongings were gone. Now they're lucky to have a place to shelter from the wind and rain and a place to lie down or sit.

The village chief greeted Lai Shenglei with a smile and wiped the stool clean for her, inviting the fair-skinned young woman to sit down. Li Xin also wanted to sit, but the village chief glared at him, and Li Xin immediately stood up straight.

After inviting Laishenglei to sit down, the village chief reached into his breast pocket for a cigarette, but upon seeing Laishenglei, he finally suppressed his craving and said to Li Xin, "Tell me, where have you been?"

Of course, Li Xin didn't dare tell the village chief the whole truth. He could only tell the village chief that he went to Hong Kong with Lao Liu from the next village, then discovered the truth about Lao Liu's lie about going to Hong Kong, so he beat him up. Then, by chance, he met a friend and went to Japan to work with him.

"Japan? The land of those little devils? What would we do in that godforsaken place?"

The village chief frowned.

To be honest, Shibalipu Village has a history of feuds with Japan.

Unlike other villages in the surrounding area, which have only a few surnames or even just one surname, the surnames in Shibalipu Village are very diverse. The village chief's surname is Lu, Li Xin's surname is Li, the village party secretary's surname is Wang, and others include Zhao, Qian, Sun, Zhou, Wu, Zheng, and even compound surnames. This is because Shibalipu Village was established by a group of refugees who gathered together to escape the war during the Japanese invasion.

Crocodile Lao said that Shibalipu Village was a godforsaken place, and that was absolutely true. Back then, fearing being caught up in the war, the ancestors of Shibalipu Village specifically chose such a godforsaken place. Only in such a place could the Japanese, soldiers, and bandits not find them or bother to look for them, thus giving them a place to rest for the night.

And how could the village chief possibly have a pleasant expression towards the culprit who caused them to live in this godforsaken place for over sixty years?

"Uh, I'm earning foreign exchange for the country..."

Li Xin whispered.

"Come on, you might say that to Old Wang, but you're talking nonsense to me!"

The village chief curled his lip and impatiently dismissed Li Xin.

"The Japanese are foolish and rich."

Li Xin gave a different answer.

The village chief then laughed: "That's more like it."

The laughter subsided, and the village chief looked at Laishenglei: "This young lady, you said you're Ah Xin's colleague, so you're from Japan?"

Lai Sheng Lei was incredibly shrewd. From the conversation just now, she could tell that the village chief didn't like the Japanese. However, her identity as a Japanese person couldn't be erased, and she didn't want to lie when she first met Li Xin's elder. So, she could only bite the bullet and say, "Yes."

To everyone's surprise, the village chief didn't show any anger at all. Instead, he smiled and nodded, saying, "Oh, good, good."

Even Li Xin was very surprised by the village chief's reaction. He thought that the village chief would show disgust towards Lai Sheng Rui after learning that she was a Japanese. But instead of getting angry, the village chief laughed. What was going on?

The village chief sensed Li Xin's questioning gaze. He had watched Li Xin grow up, so he knew what Li Xin was thinking. He waved his hand and said, "I only dislike the men of Japan, not the women. As long as this young lady doesn't have any bad intentions towards us, why would I dislike her?"

Li Xin paused for a moment, then nodded and said, "Village Chief, you're right."

"Besides, the Japanese devils abused so many women in our Central Plains back then, we have to get our revenge. Of course, we're not animals, we don't do things that require coercion, so it still has to be consensual, right, Ashin?"

The village chief continued.

Li Xin: "..."

Village chief, what the hell am I supposed to say to this?!

Chapter 89 A Kneeling Between High and Low

Tears welled up in her eyes, but at this moment, as clever as she was, she could only pretend that she hadn't understood anything.

The village chief glanced at Lai Shenglei, then remembered there was a Japanese person here. He chuckled and said, "Haha, I was just joking with A-Xin!"

It is best.

Li Xin thought to himself, but then felt that it might not be true.

More than ten years ago, after the village chief's wife couldn't stand the poverty of Shibalipu Village and ran away to who-knows-where, the already shrewd village chief became even more glib and slippery.

However, Li Xin couldn't say anything to the village chief. After thinking for a moment, he opened the package he was carrying, revealing dozens of bundles of hundred-yuan bills inside, and said, "Village chief, this is the money I've earned from working these past few days. Please accept it."

The village chief was dazzled by the amount of money, but his first reaction wasn't excitement. Instead, he nervously grabbed Li Xin's hand and asked, "Xin, what have you been doing? Did you rob a bank?"

The village chief was well aware of Li Xin's abilities and knew that if Li Xin hadn't been dragged down by Shibali Village, he could have had a much better future. So the village chief wasn't surprised that Li Xin was able to make money back. But the problem was that there was too much money, far beyond the village chief's expectations. In the village chief's mind, only banks probably had that much money.

"No, I'm just doing normal work."

Li Xin said to the village chief.

Although he wasn't doing a regular job, it's certainly possible to earn that much money through a regular job in Japan.

This is over 300,000 RMB, which is about 3 million yen at the current exchange rate. People like Tie Tou and his fellow illegal workers do dirty, messy, and dangerous jobs in Japan that Japanese people are unwilling to do. They can earn about 8,000 yen a day, which is equivalent to 800 RMB. This is already higher than the monthly salary of a worker in the city.

Of course, since it's illegal work, whether they can receive all the money and whether their safety is guaranteed are all issues. But this is enough to show that Japan is a goldmine for China, which is currently economically underdeveloped.

If it's just three million yen, with Li Xin's abilities, even without engaging in illegal activities, he could easily earn that amount in three months with a little effort.

"Can you really earn this much money by working a regular job?"

The village chief scratched his head, looking puzzled.

"The Japanese are foolish and rich."

Li Xin could only repeat what he had just said.

Well, the village chief could only assume that the Japanese were truly foolish and rich. After all, he also thought that Li Xin, given his character, would never rob a bank. How could he not know the nature of the child he raised? It's just that other things were hard to say.

At this moment, Lai Shenglei added, "Axin is now our company's bodyguard. He performed exceptionally well on a previous job, and the employer was very satisfied, so they gave him a high bonus. After receiving the bonus, Axin immediately brought it back to you as a token of their appreciation."