Chapter 186 Chapter 181 Moving
After laughing in bed, Ji Ma got up and did not seek revenge immediately; instead, she flew to the location of her ex-girlfriend, Fang Shijun.
After all, Ji Ma didn’t even know which direction the Magic City was in.
She opened her laptop and, teaching herself, plugged in the network cable.
Ji Ma remembered her coding skills related to information retrieval, and she searched on Baidu for the distance from the Magic City to her location.
Goodness, it’s over a thousand kilometers away. Ji Ma calculated with her fingers, thinking that this might cross over half the Empire.
Suppressing her thoughts of revenge, Ji Ma became very interested in the magical internet.
She knew that the internet connected people throughout the country and even the world. But she only knew this theoretically; three centuries was far too long for her, and she had forgotten many experiences.
Ji Ma slowly typed on the keyboard with one finger:
“How to find servants to help with moving?”
“Where in Tianfu City can I rent a noble-level mansion? At least at the count level.”
Immediately, a bunch of information popped up below.
The first few lines looked reliable, but when Ji Ma hovered over them with her mouse, it triggered ancient memories, giving her a very dangerous feeling. It felt like seeing a boiling kettle and knowing not to touch it—common sense.
Ji Ma saw the words “Advertisement?” in the bottom right corner.
She scrolled down, and the screen flickered uncomfortably.
Amidst the flood of jumbled information, she couldn’t find what she wanted. Fortunately, her information retrieval skills started to recover, and she noticed that many of the text entries were problematic.
“The people who wrote these texts were definitely paid to do so; they’re even more hypocritical than me,” Ji Ma muttered as she changed keywords in the search bar with two fingers.
She then ran to a forum to search.
The information on the forum was much better than that on the web; they were all from real people, with high authenticity.
Ji Ma grew more and more skilled and found a lot of useful information.
She now wanted to find a place to settle down first, then buy some clothes; she had had enough of the cramped room—her bed was even bigger than this one.
Also, she did not want to sleep in the same room as the corpse from her previous life. Although she could easily dispose of the body using many discreet methods, she still wanted to keep it as a memento.
Ji Ma finally found a place suitable for her situation, and she was somewhat satisfied with it.
Wenhwa Hotel, a duplex private hot spring villa. The price was conveniently indicated below, and when Ji Ma saw the number 2550, she calculated that with her current savings of 14,554 yuan, she could only afford to stay for five days.
“This place is even smaller than Jenna’s manor, yet so expensive.” Ji Ma once again disliked her previous self, saying, “I earned so little money.”
Reluctantly, she had to make do with her living conditions.
Due to her limited savings, Ji Ma had to keep lowering her standards, from “at least the second floor, with a working servant” to “at least there’s a yard; it should match the place I had in Marlin City.”
At that time, did she have gold or silver?
But she couldn’t even find a place with a yard.
“Really, it feels like I’m going backward; back then I could buy a house with a yard and have Xiao Li to serve me.”
Thinking about having to cut her own vegetables in the future annoyed Ji Ma; furthermore, under the principle of “keeping a low profile while doing magic,” she couldn’t just casually coax a mortal to help her out, which made her even more frustrated.
Finally, Ji Ma lowered her standards to “at least not a coffin-sized room, but several coffin-sized rooms, and no roommates!”
That’s how she found the house.
Rent was 2300 per month, paid quarterly, for a 2-bedroom, 1-living room, and 1-bathroom place, with an area of only 87 square meters, but fortunately, it could be moved in immediately.
She used divination to check that it wasn’t a scam; it was real.
Ji Ma immediately set off, called to look at the house, and using an app on her phone (she was curious why apps could not be hosted on web pages but had to be on phones), she found a place to move.
The deposit was one month’s rent, or 2300 yuan, and a one-time payment of four months’ rent meant Ji Ma paid 9200 yuan just for the house; moving costs were quite cheap.
Ji Ma told the moving worker from Huo La La that the snake-skin bag contained her hard luggage.
The Huo La La worker was a short, dark-skinned middle-aged man, embodying the hardworking spirit of the common folk.
He tied the snake-skin bag containing the corpse from her past life to his back, took the elevator, and moved it up to the 32nd floor. Then he brought up a box filled with screens.
Throughout the process, there were no questions; despite the snake-skin bag being hard and cold, the worker found it completely normal.
Ji Ma carried only a potted ginger flower. Seeing the Huo La La worker working so hard, she couldn’t help but feel sympathy and thought about how he was similar to her previous self, both being beasts, the livestock of society, and thus gave him an extra 100 yuan for hard work.
In total, she spent over 9500 yuan.
The new home had a lot of furniture but no washing machine and no bedding.
Ji Ma had to procure those herself.
She felt more tired than if she had gone on an adventure.
Although in many ways this other world could not compare to her homeland, it shouldn’t be so tiring for her to set up a new home because she had people to command.
Ultimately, it was about her low status back in her homeland; she was just a commoner, similar to a peasant in this other world.
Ji Ma lay on the bed, thinking to herself.
Outside, it was completely dark, having been dark for a long time. But in the sky, the lights were bright, everywhere was lit; this night felt like day.
The sound of the washing machine doing laundry came from outside the door, rhythmic and steady. Ji Ma slowly closed her eyes, hugging the fiery red quilt on her bed.
The quilt was thick; when rolled up, it was soft and felt like hugging someone.
Even though summer in Tianfu City was particularly hot and her new house had no air conditioning, for Ji Ma, it didn’t matter—she wouldn’t feel hot even if the whole place caught fire.
Ji Ma’s face leaned against the quilt, which felt very soft.
This home wasn’t too bad.
But after lying down for a while, Ji Ma opened her eyes; she couldn’t sleep.
She got up, took a shower, and put on the new clothes she bought. Since there were no skirts in styles she liked, she bought two qipaos instead. They were a bit tight in the chest and hips, but the fabric was decent; she could only say it was passable.
The price was high; two red qipaos and some underwear cost Ji Ma over a thousand yuan, and she hadn’t bought a bra because there weren’t any large sizes. Moreover, the clerk suggested she was a small size while offering her a smaller bra.
Although Ji Ma wasn’t very familiar with modern sizing, she knew that a bra that couldn’t cover her whole chest was definitely a small size.
Including the newly bought washing machine, Ji Ma spent over two thousand in total.
Ji Ma checked her balance; only a little over three thousand remained.
However, Ji Ma didn’t mind; it was enough to get by, enough to last a month or two. During this time, not only did she want revenge, but she also wanted to explore this world, to determine the boundaries of her power.
After showering, with nothing else to do, Ji Ma opened her laptop, only to find it couldn’t connect to the internet. She slapped her forehead, realizing she needed to migrate the broadband.
Nonetheless, she remembered she could share her phone’s hotspot.
Once she successfully connected to the internet, she opened her favorite website from her previous life, and a pink page popped up.
Under the constantly flickering screen, little people danced; she remembered this thing was called a video.
