Chapter 180: Please, Sister Xia~
Xia Qingrou held Shen Mochen's hand, her eyes bright, "It's okay, I don't mind. Being with me, I guarantee you'll have so much fun you'll forget all about her!"
Shen Mochen quickly waved his hands, "I do mind! I still can't get over her emotionally, I'm really sorry..."
"Eh... is that so, what a pity." Xia Qingrou glanced at the cross on Shen Mochen's neck. She surprisingly didn't press the issue further and turned away, "Then when you do forget about her, you must come looking for me first, okay?"
"Oh... sure." Shen Mochen was slightly surprised at how understanding Xia Qingrou was and, without giving it much thought, nodded subconsciously.
"Come on out first, I'll give you a tour around here."
Shen Mochen followed her out as Xia Qingrou began to formally introduce the house.
The bungalow had a total of five bedrooms on the left and right. Shen Mochen's bedroom was on the left, opposite Liu Chaoyan's, and next to Xiao Xingshuang's. On the right side were the two bedrooms of Xia Qingrou and Han Muxue.
Learning that his bedroom was far from Xia Qingrou's, Shen Mochen took a long breath of relief, feeling a bit safer at last.
Next, Xia Qingrou pointed out the bathroom and the laundry room to Shen Mochen before leading him out of the front door to the back.
Behind the house was a carport with three motorcycles, a motor tricycle, and a pickup truck parked inside.
Next to the carport was the kitchen. Although it was also possible to cook inside the house, the smell of cooking oil could be overpowering, so food was usually prepared in this kitchen.
"Do you know how to cook?" Xia Qingrou asked.
"...Not really," Shen Mochen hesitated and then replied.
"Ah... You can't either!" Xia Qingrou sighed.
"What's wrong, none of you can cook?" Shen Mochen asked.
Xia Qingrou scratched her head, frowning, "It's not that we can't cook, it's just not very tasty... Before, it was mostly Yuncui who cooked. After she left, most of the time everyone eats self-heating rice and self-heating hot pot, but that stuff isn't healthy if eaten too often. Yanyan, our captain, and I have recently been trying to learn to cook."
Shen Mochen said indifferently, "I see, I'm sorry I can't be of any help with cooking... But I can help clean."
"It's okay, with brother Chenchen being so pretty, I feel full just looking at you without needing to eat!"
"No, no, no, it's Senior Xia who's the feast for the eyes!"
Hearing this, Xia Qingrou covered her face, "Oh my, even though that's true, you don't need to be so blunt, I'm getting embarrassed!"
You really know how to climb up the pole! Shen Mochen thought to himself, albeit Xia Qingrou was a nice person, she was indeed a bit odd.
"By the way, what did you just call me?" Xia Qingrou asked.
"Xia... Senior, you are a senior member of Buque!" Shen Mochen replied. He also thought the title was a bit strange, but at the moment it seemed there was no better one to use, or rather, he preferred not to use any other.
"That's way too formal!" Xia Qingrou's face showed dissatisfaction, "From now on, just call me Senior Sister!"
"...Senior Sister?"
Shen Mochen was taken aback.
"Yes, yes, yes!" Xia Qingrou excitedly grabbed Shen Mochen's hands, "Oh~ This takes me back to the sweet days of school romance! Damn Buque, my prime youth is wasting away!"
Shen Mochen was taken aback, "This... this isn't so great, I think I'll stick with calling you Xia Sister."
"You call Yuncui 'Cai Sister', so calling me 'Xia Sister' works too!" Xia Qingrou sent a flirty glance and swallowed, shaking Shen Mochen's hand vigorously, "Please, call me sister, okay? I really crave a little brother!"
Which little brother are you craving, you're scaring me here!
"Cough cough, right, Xia Sister, may I ask..."
"Call me Xia Sister!"
"Xia Sister, I wanted to ask..."
"Call me Xia Sister!"
Under Xia Qingrou's shameless onslaught, Shen Mochen hung his head in surrender and pointed to the flashing meter beside them, "Xia Sister, what's this thing?"
Xia Qingrou glanced at it and said, "That's the electricity meter. We have a quota for electricity usage each month, and we have to pay for any excess."
"You guys at Buque have a quota for electricity usage?"
Shen Mochen was stunned, considering the installed cables below, just how much electricity could five people use? And yet, the organization was so stingy! Don't they know that when autumn comes on the eighth of September...
"It's 'our' Buque," Xia Qingrou corrected, "It used to be unlimited electricity usage, but then some genius team started mining cryptocurrency at the station... Oh, you know, virtual currency mining. You should understand. They say they amassed over a thousand graphics cards, running them non-stop, twenty-four hours a day... Then at year-end, some big shot discovered that a Buque Station in one state was using ten times more electricity than stations in other states, and they were found out. I heard that when the higher-ups went to investigate and saw over a thousand mining rigs, one of them fainted on the spot. Not only was the whole team penalized severely, but they also imposed an electricity quota for all teams thereafter."
"That's kind of extreme..."
Shen Mochen listened, dumbfounded. True to form, these monster-fighting warriors were brutal even when it came to exploiting public resources!
Although Shen Mochen felt that taking advantage of public resources wasn't inherently bad, this was overdoing it – one team managed to increase the whole state's Buque Team's total electricity consumption by tenfold!
"Exactly, it was too much!" Xia Qingrou said indignantly, "This is what happens when you hog it all for yourself! The reason why the higher-ups noticed was because their electricity usage stood out so much compared to other states. If they had shared this money-making method with everyone and we all mined together, maybe we could have fooled them for a few more years!"
So that's what you're concerned about! Shen Mochen deeply felt that he still had a lot to learn from his seniors.
Xia Qingrou patted Shen Mochen's shoulder, seemingly consoling him, "But don't worry, even though there's a quota, we usually never use it all up each month."
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"..." Shen Mochen held his tongue, unsure of what to say, and simply nodded.
"Let's go back inside, they'll probably be a while longer!" Xia Qingrou took Shen Mochen by the hand.
"They, are they out fighting monsters?" Shen Mochen casually copied Xia Qingrou's superpower.
"Yes, off fighting monsters. You picked an unfortunate time to arrive. We were about to throw you a welcome party, but just before you arrived, a fissure suddenly appeared!"
"Could I go and take a look?"
"It's too dark now, and it's quite dangerous if you're inexperienced!"
Shen Mochen held Xia Qingrou's hand, his eyes pitiful like a little puppy, his clear gazes looking up, "Please, Xia Sister."
Xia Qingrou clutched her chest as if struck by an arrow, suddenly filled with boundless heroism, "Alright, I'll take you to see. Don't worry, sister will definitely protect you!"