27: Chapter 27 Settlement Rewards: I want to buy a house.

The car door closed. All the clamor was shut out.

Jiang Feng leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes.

"Boss, where to?" Old Chen asked.

"Home," Jiang Feng said. "I'm tired."

The black lexus slid silently out of the crowd and merged into the city's river of traffic.

The wheels rolled over a manhole cover, causing only the slightest tremor in the car body.

Jiang Feng did not open his eyes.

Half an hour later, the car stopped at the entrance of Yunding Yihao Residential Area.

In the security booth at the entrance, the duty captain of the security team poked his head out. After seeing the license plate, he stood bolt upright.

He jogged out, gave a somewhat sloppy salute toward the front of the car, and then manually pressed the button for the boom barrier.

The car slowly drove in.

Jiang Feng opened his eyes and saw the security captain's back through the car window; he was still bowing.

"Boss, that's just how people are." Old Chen's voice came from the front seat, very steady.

Jiang Feng said nothing.

The car stopped downstairs at Building 5.

Jiang Feng pushed open the car door and got out.

He walked into the elevator and pressed the button for the 5th floor.

The mirror in the elevator reflected his pale face.

Back at 502, he tossed his small folding stool and canvas bag in the entryway and locked the door from the inside.

The room was very quiet.

He didn't turn on the lights, walked straight into the bedroom, and plunged into the soft, large bed.

He took his phone out of his pocket, switched it to airplane mode, and tossed it onto the carpet.

The world was finally quiet.

Exhaustion submerged him like a tide.

Jiang Feng slept soundly, oblivious to the storm outside.

While he slept, the entire internet was going crazy over him.

Early the next morning, the front-page headlines of financial news were all dominated by the same thing.

【Starlight Media suspected of major engineering safety issues, the building has been sealed off, and Chairman Li Cheng has been criminally detained!】

【Insiders reveal that devastating cracks were found in the load-bearing column at the southwest corner of the Starlight Building, and steel reinforcement samples were substandard.】

【Affected by this, Starlight Media hit the daily limit down at the opening today, and delisting procedures have been initiated.】

An inconspicuous social news story was also quietly fermenting.

【The city's Criminal Investigation Brigade confirmed that the cause of last night's square incident stemmed from a report by a "helpful citizen."】

The images accompanying all the news stories were that viral live stream recording.

In the recording, a young man wearing an old hoodie sat on a small folding stool, calmly speaking that earth-shattering assertion to a billionaire worth billions.

"Three days. If you don't reinforce it, within three days, this building will suffer a structural collapse."

Now, everything had come true.

With a single sentence, Jiang Feng had taken down a listed company.

The nickname "Jiang the Half-Immortal" was now firmly established.

The bounty for finding Jiang Feng across the entire internet had transformed from a favor from Old Mrs. Shen into real money thrown down by countless billionaires and powerful figures.

Some offered fifty million just for one divination.

Some were willing to give up company shares just to meet him once.

The property management phone at Yunding Yihao Residential Area was nearly blown up, all with people inquiring about the tenant information for Building 5, 502.

And the central figure of all this, Jiang Feng, was sleeping soundly, completely unaware.

Who knows how much time had passed.

Jiang Feng was woken up by hunger.

He opened his eyes; the room was pitch black, making it impossible to tell day from night.

He sat up.

It felt a bit different.

He tried taking a breath.

This time, the airflow passed smoothly through his entire chest cavity, without that familiar, stifling feeling of being pressed down by a stone.

His lungs no longer felt like a broken bellows.

He could even smell the dust on the curtain fabric in the air.

The dull pain that had long been entrenched in his brain had also disappeared, replaced by a long-lost clarity.

Jiang Feng stood up, walked to the window, and yanked open the heavy blackout curtains.

It was dusk outside.

The orange-red sunlight spilled in, but it didn't bring the usual stinging sensation.

He moved his neck, and his joints made a crisp cracking sound.

Just then, that familiar mechanical voice in his mind arrived late.

【Ding! "Starlight Square" mission rating: Perfect.】

【Detected that the host's actions have caused a huge positive impact on society, saving thousands of potential casualties, triggering extra rewards.】

【Calculating rewards...】

【Congratulations to the host, brain cancer cell activity reduced by 15%, remaining lifespan increased by 90 days!】

【Congratulations to the host, received a cash reward of 5 million!】

A warm current, stronger than any previous time, rose from the base of his spine, washing through his limbs and bones.

Jiang Feng let out a hum of comfort.

He walked to the living room, picked up his phone from the floor, and turned off airplane mode.

The phone started vibrating like crazy.

Hundreds of missed calls, thousands of text messages and app notifications.

Jiang Feng didn't look; he just cleared them all.

He only wanted to do one thing now.

He changed into a clean T-shirt and jeans, put on a baseball cap and a mask, and walked out the door.

Half an hour later.

At the entrance of a popular internet-famous milk tea shop in the city center.

Jiang Feng held a cup of "full sugar, no ice, large boba milk tea" and took a big, hard sip.

The sweet liquid and chewy pearls slid down his throat.

It was fucking delicious.

Since getting sick, even drinking water made him nauseous, let alone this kind of high-calorie junk happiness water.

He leaned against the railing on the side of the road, watching the crowds coming and going, sipping his milk tea leisurely.

This feeling was more comfortable than earning millions.

After finishing the cup of milk tea, Jiang Feng felt much better.

He took a taxi back to Yunding Yihao Residential Area.

Just as he got out of the car, his phone rang.

It was an unknown number.

Jiang Feng swiped to answer.

"Hello? Is this Master Jiang? Mr. Jiang?" A voice filled with extreme sycophancy came from the other end of the line.

"Who is this?"

"Oh! Master Jiang! I'm your landlord! My surname is Huang, I'm the landlord of this house!"

"Something up?" Jiang Feng walked into the elevator.

"No, no! I just wanted to tell you, you can live in this house as long as you want! As long as you like! Don't you dare mention rent to me!"

The landlord's voice was filled with fawning, "Think of this house as my tribute to you! Let me know when you're free, I'll bring the property deed over to you, and we can go straight to transfer the title!"

Giving away a luxury mansion worth tens of millions?

Jiang Feng pressed the door-close button with an expressionless face.

"No need."

"Don't say that, Master! I don't want your money! It's just... I've been having some trouble in my business recently, and I wanted to beg you for a few words of guidance! Just two words!"

"No time," Jiang Feng said. "Also, I'm not renting this place anymore. You don't need to return the deposit; I'll move out by the end of the month."

"No, no, no! Master! Don't move! You living here is my good fortune! I beg you..."

Jiang Feng hung up the phone directly.

He walked out of the elevator and looked at the door of his apartment at the end of the hallway.

This place was no longer safe.

From the security guards to the landlord, everyone knew he lived here.

From now on, he'd probably get cornered even just going downstairs to take out the trash.

He needed a place where no one knew him and no one could disturb him.

Jiang Feng went back inside and opened a real estate app on his phone.

He skipped all apartments and townhouses, setting only one filter condition: detached villa, with a large yard, top-tier security.

A property located in the western suburbs of the city, named "Longhu Mountain Villa," popped up.

The ad copy read: One household, one mountain forest; one residence, one world.

Jiang Feng clicked on an aerial view.

Every villa there was nestled among the mountain forests, far apart from each other, with excellent privacy.

He dialed the sales number left on the page.

"Hello, I want to view a property."

"Alright, sir. May I ask how to address you? And what is your approximate budget..."

"I want to see it now." Jiang Feng walked to the window, looking at the few sneaky figures that had already appeared downstairs, "I'm coming over immediately."

...

Before leaving, Jiang Feng casually picked up a small mirror on the table.

The person in the mirror had a much better complexion, no longer that lifeless grayish-white.

But he looked at the space between his eyebrows in the mirror.

There, in the system's vision, it was no longer completely clear.

A faint, yet incredibly clear black line, like a crack, had quietly emerged.

This wasn't sickness, nor was it baleful energy.

It was an indescribable omen.

Jiang Feng tugged at the corner of his mouth, revealing a bitter smile.

As expected.

The life given by the system wasn't given for free.

It's just like renting a house; the longer you live there, the more expensive the rent becomes.

The next mission probably won't be so easy to muddle through.