Because Shenhua gave a car to Aiden, the three of them directly drove back to the hotel they were staying in.
Just as the three of them got out of the car, the phone Balalaika gave Aiden rang. And the one calling was Balalaika, telling him that the house was already rented, and he could move in anytime.
Since the house was already rented, Aiden simply went back to his room to grab his luggage, checked out, and then the three of them rushed nonstop to the rented house.
When Aiden and the others arrived, there were quite a few people moving things into the house. Upon asking, they found out that it was workers arranged by Balalaika to deliver daily necessities.
"She really does think of everything, her arrangements are very thorough." Watching the workers busy in the room, Aiden remarked.
"After all, she's a gang boss. She thinks more than others." Roberta said expressionlessly. She felt like everyone else knew how to take care of people better than she did, and her mood suddenly turned very bad.
Aiden didn't notice Roberta's unease. He stood outside the room, lit a cigarette, and waited for the workers inside to finish.
As he was smoking, a crisp sound of footsteps suddenly echoed in the stairwell. It sounded like high heels stepping on the ground.
Aiden followed the sound and looked down the stairwell. He saw a woman wearing a loose black T-shirt, holding a paper bag full of food, walking up.
Because the woman was holding a big paper bag, Aiden couldn't see her face clearly. But her perfect figure still made him take a few extra glances. However, once she came up, he retracted his gaze and even stepped back to give her space to pass.
Aiden thought the woman would continue going upstairs. But unexpectedly, the woman stopped on that floor, then reached into her equally loose sweatpants for keys.
'A neighbor, huh…' Aiden thought.
Probably because she was holding too many things, the process of finding her keys wasn't smooth. She fumbled for quite a while before finally pulling them out.
Then the woman went to open the door. But the things in her arms blocked her vision, and after several failed attempts to insert the key into the lock, she finally angrily kicked the door.
Seeing this, Aiden couldn't help but laugh, he even laughed out loud. Roberta beside him quickly tugged at him, thinking this wasn't very polite.
Perhaps hearing his laughter, the woman suddenly turned to face him. Aiden hurriedly suppressed his smile and was just about to apologize when the woman directly handed the paper bag of food to him.
"Hold this for me." The woman said, her voice unusually cold and pleasant to the ear.
"Ah, oh, okay." Thinking of what he had just done, Aiden felt a little embarrassed and hurriedly accepted the bag.
Without the paper bag in the way, the woman smoothly unlocked the door. Hearing the sound of the door opening, Aiden immediately handed the bag back.
"Thank you." The woman took the bag, said thanks, and then went inside.
Watching the closed door, Aiden felt a little regretful. He still hadn't seen what the woman looked like.
But he quickly threw this thought to the back of his mind. After all, she was a neighbor, there would be plenty of chances in the future.
After waiting at the door a bit longer, the workers inside had already finished tidying up. Once they left, the three of them moved in just like that.
The house Aiden moved into was a standard two-bedroom, one-living room apartment. Although Balalaika had people deliver a lot of things, the arrangement inside the room wasn't much different from when Aiden had left it, which made him very satisfied.
Roberta was also very satisfied. She happily wandered around the room, then pointed at the second bedroom and said to Fabiola, "You'll sleep here from now on."
Fabiola froze for a moment and asked, "Then what about you?"
"I'll obviously be sleeping with Aiden." Roberta said as if it were only natural.
"Shouldn't we take turns, like at home?" Fabiola was a bit displeased.
Roberta patted her head and said, "We'll talk when you're a bit older."
Saying this, Roberta smiled very happily. For the foreseeable future, she would be the one sleeping beside Aiden.
———
Time quickly passed to the evening.
Receiving a phone invitation from Balalaika, Aiden, with Roberta and Fabiola in tow, prepared to head out to the Yellow Flag bar.
Whether it was a coincidence or not, just as they walked out the door, their next-door neighbor also opened her door. She was holding a bag of trash, seemingly about to take it out.
Only then did Aiden get a proper look at the other party's face, and discovered that she was an especially beautiful East Asian woman. At least in appearance, she wasn't any less attractive than the women in his own group.
But Aiden wasn't the type to fall for someone just because they were pretty. Even though she was very beautiful, he simply greeted her politely, then led Roberta and Fabiola downstairs.
However, upon seeing his face, the woman froze slightly. She quickly ran back into her bedroom with the trash bag still in hand, grabbed an elegant lady's wallet from the nightstand, opened it, and took out a stack of photos. After flipping through them a few times, she pulled out one.
It was a photo of Aiden during his time in Raccoon City, looked like it was taken from surveillance footage, so you could barely make out his face.
"A lucky encounter, huh. My luck really is good…" The woman compared the two for a while, and once sure they matched exactly, she muttered quietly.
Thinking of the friend she knew from that new organization, the woman chuckled softly, "Jill, you promised me, if I found your sweetheart, you'd treat me to a month of gourmet meals!"
———
Thinking of this, the woman pinched the photo in her hand, then pulled out a satellite phone and entered a series of numbers.
After a long time, the call finally connected. A voice full of complaints came from the other side, "Miss Choi Ji-yoon, do you know that this world has something called time zones? I don't know what time it is over there, but here it's still several hours until sunrise. Now, unless you give me a good reason, next time we meet at BSAA training, I'm going to make Chris give you a hard time."
If Aiden were here right now, he'd definitely recognize that the voice belonged to Jill, Jill Valentine, the one who had lived and fought alongside him in Raccoon City.
"Sorry, I got too excited and forgot." Though she apologized, Choi Ji-yoon was still smiling. She glanced at the photo in her hand and deliberately asked, "Jill, do you still remember that promise you made to me?"
"Which one?" Jill clearly hadn't fully woken up, she yawned long and loud, her face full of confusion.
"The one where you'd treat me to a month of good food! You didn't forget, did you?" Choi Ji-yoon reminded her, suddenly nervous inside, afraid the big meal would vanish.
"Of course I didn't forget. But that's for when you find hi... wait…" Jill's voice grew quieter and quieter. Then suddenly she jolted awake, completely alert, and practically screamed, "You found him!?"
Choi Ji-yoon rubbed her ear, stung by Jill's shout, and said crossly, "Otherwise why would I call you? Geez, you almost deafened me."
Jill ignored that and rapidly asked, "Where is he now, no, wait, where are you now?"
"Roanapur." Choi Ji-yoon answered with a smile, "Not sure if it's luck or coincidence, but he's living right next door to me. And he's even got two women in maid outfits with him. Hey Jill, he doesn't look easy to deal with…"
"Roanapur, huh…" Jill was already tuning out the rest of her words. She mumbled to herself, "I need to check if there are any flights to Southeast Asia in the next few days…"
"Hey Jill, can you hear me?" Choi Ji-yoon asked, puzzled by the muttering on the other end. "Don't forget what you promised me. A whole month! Not one day less."
But what responded was a "beep", the call had been hung up.
Holding the satellite phone in frustration, Choi Ji-yoon suddenly shook her head, sighing inwardly about how strange love was, how it could turn a battlefield valkyrie even her enemies praised into this.
She casually tossed the satellite phone aside, sprawled face-down on the bed, and muttered, "Judging by what Jill said, she's probably coming to Roanapur now. Hope she doesn't forget about me once she sees her prince. Sigh… that feast, that feast… actually, I'm fine with anything, just as long as it's not kimchi…"
———
Aiden naturally didn't know that the woman he ran into was actually Choi Ji-yoon. Although he really didn't know Soi or remember the Blue Legion, that didn't mean he didn't know Choi Ji-yoon. As a long-time CSOL player, his old account had every single outfit of Choi Ji-yoon.
But CSOL was an old game, with outdated graphics. And he didn't really stare at her carefully back then either. That's probably why he hadn't recognized her at first glance.
What he didn't expect even more was that Choi Ji-yoon actually knew Jill. But that also made sense. Just like how he never would've believed that Ada would know Koko, too unbelievable.
At this moment, completely unaware of any of this, Aiden was being surrounded and aggressively forced to drink. Revy and Shenhua especially looked like they wouldn't stop until he was drunk.
If Dutch hadn't finally stepped in to stop them, the two of them might've already shoved the bottles down his throat.
Even so, Aiden still downed five or six glasses in a row. If not for his exceptionally strong physical condition, he might've already collapsed under the table.
Roberta gently wiped off the spilled wine from his clothes with a tissue, and coldly glared at Revy, who was trying to pour him another drink, "That's enough. This is not the way to drink."
Revy was one of the few people close to Roberta, but to be honest, she was still a little intimidated by her. The image of Roberta holding a shotgun single-handedly and wreaking havoc in a bar had left a deep impression. So under her glare, Revy immediately backed away with her glass.
Seeing this, Rock and Benny, who were always bullied by Revy, really wanted to make fun of her. But it was like she read their minds and shot them a look, which instantly shut them up.
Aiden took the ice water that Roberta especially got for him, but didn't drink it. He just held the glass in both hands, letting the cold slowly bring down the heat from all the alcohol.
Then he looked at Soi, who was sitting next to Balalaika, and asked Balalaika, "You're bringing her to a place like this in the open, aren't you afraid of a sudden attack?"
Balalaika held her wine glass with two fingers, gently swirling it. Her gaze swept quickly across everyone in the bar, finally stopping at a group of strong men who had been watching them since they entered.
She chuckled lightly and said, "This is Roanapur. Wherever I am, that's the safest place."
"So badass. So confident." Aiden couldn't help but give her a thumbs-up over his chest.
Balalaika just smiled at Aiden's praise. Her confidence didn't only come from her strength, but also from how well she had managed Roanapur recently.
Ever since the last big war, nearly all of the major gangs in Roanapur had been wrecked. With her and Zhang Weixin's powerful backers, they quickly split up the territory. And far from weakening, they had actually grown stronger with HQ support.
Nowadays, unless someone sends an army, it's basically impossible to drive them out of Roanapur.
Of course, she wouldn't go that far. There were still elite forces in this world who could pose a threat to them. It's just that, normally, they wouldn't focus their attention here.
But that's "normally." Right now, it was different. Aiden also noticed that group calling themselves the Blue Legion kept glancing over, especially at Soi. It looked like they really had come for her.
But for now, all they did was watch. They didn't make any moves. Maybe, just like Balalaika said, so long as she was here, this place was safe.
As Aiden occasionally glanced toward the Blue Legion members, just then, another group walked into the bar from outside. And at the lead, was that cold, short-haired beauty… Irina.
"This woman… looks familiar. I think I've seen her before." Seeing Irina, Dutch frowned slowly. As the liaison officer of the Black Lagoon office, he had dealt with countless people. The moment he saw this woman, she felt familiar, but he couldn't recall from where just yet.
Everyone turned to look at him. Aiden even asked curiously, "Dutch, when did you meet such a beautiful woman? Keeping it hidden, huh?"
"Not 'met.' Just 'seen.'" Dutch waved his hand.
At that moment, Irina shook off the Blue Legion men beside her and sat alone at a table, one very close to Aiden and the others. Close enough to clearly see her face and hear her voice.
[🎉 Shoutout to Surge1301, Killgod_YT & Ashley for joining patreon. Thank you very much.🤗]
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through Patreon.
https://discord.gg/bYAfGyp98y