Chapter 234: Late at night, Fang Xiao and Lao Gou on the construction site
Blue-haired Jiang Ran fiddled with his flowing blue locks:
"Right, I made my appearance back then and easily dealt with that young white man with the chainsaw."
"Then I wanted to go out for some fresh air, since it had been so long since I last emerged."
"But as soon as I stepped out, I ran into this old man."
"What's up? Why are you suddenly asking about something like that?"
Smoky Makeup Jiang Ran shook his head: "Nothing, just asking casually."
Blue-haired Jiang Ran glanced at him, then turned his head away.
"If it's nothing then I'm a ghost. You asking this kind of question definitely means you're scheming something again," he thought to himself.
Blue-haired Jiang Ran was one of the earliest alternate personalities to emerge among the secondary consciousnesses.
Therefore, he was familiar with almost all of the alternate personalities. Like this Smoky Makeup Jiang Ran before him.
He was absolutely one of the most dangerous among all the alternate personalities.
And among those most dangerous ones, he was the most cunning.
So whatever this guy said absolutely shouldn't be trusted - you had to use your brain and think carefully about it.
Returning to reality.
After Jiang Ran returned from using the bathroom, another hour passed.
The time reached 9:00 PM.
At this hour, Jiang Ran suddenly realized something felt off.
What felt off?
It was that Old Man from Room 301 - he had gone out at 8:00 PM, and Jiang Ran had been keeping mental note.
Whether he had returned or not.
But now, a full hour had passed, and he still hadn't returned.
What could an old man like that, with his back hunched over like that, be doing out so late at night?
Right at that moment, his phone suddenly rang.
Jiang Ran saw it was Manager Xiao Zhang calling, so he answered.
After answering, he heard Manager Xiao Zhang on the other end say: "By the way, Jiang Ran, there's one more thing I forgot to tell you."
"Recently, hasn't our Alice Apartment been doing construction work?"
"Because of this, there have been quite a few thieves lately, frequently visiting the construction sites at night to steal iron and such."
"Although Alice Apartment has security guards doing regular patrols, we're short-handed, so managers need to participate in patrols too."
"Of course, since we're managers, not security guards, we don't need to patrol that frequently."
"Just one patrol at 9:00 PM, another at 10:00 PM, and one more at 11:00 PM. That's enough, three times a day."
"If you discover or catch a thief, there's a reward! One thousand yuan for discovering one! Five thousand yuan for catching one!"
Manager Xiao Zhang seemed very busy - after saying all this in one breath without waiting for Jiang Ran to respond, he hung up.
Jiang Ran was speechless. How did he suddenly get assigned this task?
He hoped he wouldn't be working for just a few days before other sudden tasks popped up.
Checking the time, it was exactly 9:05 PM now.
No choice - he had to go out on patrol since he couldn't just not do the work.
Although he was going to patrol, Jiang Ran only planned to make a round through the various construction sites.
As for discovering thieves or catching them...
Discovering was fine, but catching them? Forget it - he wasn't going to do anything risky.
If he ended up getting killed by a thief instead, that would be quite the story.
Just like that Lightning Delivery delivery guy who broke his window at night and came in.
He ended up getting killed by Jiang Ran instead. Of course, that guy was too strong - he could still get up and successfully escape after falling from the third floor.
Finding a flashlight in the management office cabinet, Jiang Ran headed out of the apartment building with his phone in his left hand and flashlight in his right, beginning his inspection of the construction sites.
Tonight's visibility was fairly good.
The moonlight was quite bright.
Plus, the tall street lamps around the apartment were all emitting light, with ambient glow scattering around.
Of course, without the flashlight it would still be pitch black.
Jiang Ran proceeded to patrol the various construction sites with his flashlight.
At this moment, the surroundings were completely silent and dark.
Only Jiang Ran's breathing and footsteps could be heard.
As if there were no signs of other living creatures.
Many people fear walking at night.
Why?
Because it's too dark. Dark places, unseen areas, represent the unknown.
Human fear of the unknown is etched into our bones.
We dread some danger suddenly emerging from the darkness to descend upon us.
Jiang Ran was okay - he wasn't particularly afraid of walking at night.
Of course, if you placed him deep in remote mountains and forests, his nighttime walking definitely wouldn't be as smooth as it was now.
"Even if thieves came to steal rebar from the construction sites, they wouldn't come to steal at this hour."
After patrolling several sites without seeing any suspicious figures, Jiang Ran thought that thieves would come to steal at midnight at the earliest.
At that time, most people would be asleep.
So who would come to steal at 9:00 PM?
Just as he was thinking this, his footsteps suddenly halted.
He seemed to have spotted something. Looking more carefully, about 10 meters away, there was a dark shadow squatting motionless.
"An animal?" was Jiang Ran's first thought.
So he directed his flashlight beam straight toward it.
Manager Xiao Zhang's flashlight was quite powerful.
The light reached far and was very bright.
When the beam hit the dark shadow, the figure clearly turned around.
Facing toward Jiang Ran's direction.
Because of the strong light, it could only squint.
It was through this turning movement that Jiang Ran recognized who the figure was.
It was none other than the Old Man from Room 301, who had been out for an hour without returning.
"Old man? Why are you squatting here?" Jiang Ran asked curiously as he slowly approached.
When the Old Man from Room 301 saw it was Jiang Ran, he initially wanted to leave, but whether because he'd been squatting too long or for some other reason, he ultimately stayed.
Instead, he extended his hand, pointing toward a certain direction ahead.
Jiang Ran followed the direction he was pointing.
Not far ahead was a construction site.
At that site, the lighting was quite bright.
There were figures standing there.
"Thieves?" Jiang Ran was startled.
The Old Man from Room 301 said: "Look more carefully."
Jiang Ran took a few steps forward.
He realized he had misseen.
In the open area of the construction site ahead, it was definitely not thieves - instead, they were residents of Alice Apartment.
On one side was Fang Xiao.
The current Fang Xiao seemed to be holding something like a large cleaver in his hand.
On the other side, after looking carefully for quite a while, Jiang Ran finally recalled:
Wasn't this that dog breeder, Old Dog?
And Old Dog wasn't alone - around him at his feet were over ten fierce large dogs circling him.
Probably all raised by him.
Jiang Ran immediately squatted down beside the Old Man from Room 301, using the obstacles in front of them to conceal their figures, afraid of being discovered.
He asked immediately: "Old man, how long have you been squatting here?"
The Old Man from Room 301 said: "Over half an hour."
Jiang Ran was surprised: "Wait, what are you squatting here for?"
The Old Man from Room 301 said: "Good question, young man. Then why are you squatting here?"
Jiang Ran: "I saw you squatting here, so I squatted here too."
The Old Man from Room 301: "Then I'll stop squatting. If I leave, will you leave too?"
Jiang Ran shook his head: "No can do. I'm a manager now, I need to care about the apartment residents."
"Especially those two up ahead."
Based on the current situation, the killing intent between Fang Xiao and Old Dog under the construction site lights ahead was intense.
The air over there seemed to have condensed into blades, spears, swords, and halberds, continuously clashing together, emitting intense sounds inaudible to human ears.