Chapter 24: Money Issues.
Haru looked around for a moment. The police officers were staring at him. What did I do? He thought as he looked back to the woman in front of him. "Yeah, I'm Haru." A wave of relief came over the woman's face as she smiled. "I didn't think I would find you this fast."
"You were looking for me?" Haru asked with confusion as the woman raised her hand to the police officers behind her. They looked back at Haru before carrying on with what they were doing. "Yeah. My grandpa described you perfectly. Not to mention the clothes you are wearing. Don't you have any clothes that attract less attention?" She laughed at him.
Haru saw nothing wrong with what he was wearing. He quite liked how they felt. Why was she criticizing his clothes? "Uh, I didn't get time to change before I was forced to come out and walk the dog." He made up an excuse quickly to defend himself from more criticism.
"Oh, That's right I was supposed to give you something. Where did I put it?" She began to question herself before running back over toward one of the police officers. She picked up a bag of some sort and began to rummage through it before coming back over with what looked like a credit card.
"Grandpa told me to give you this as thank you for gathering those herbs for him." She handed Haru the card. "Wait. Your grandpa? Who is your grandpa?" He knew he hadn't gathered any herbs for anyone. Had she mistaken him for someone else? She looked back confused. "My grandpa is the sect master from the black star sect… You did go there right?" She asked, doubting herself for a second.
Ohh your grandpa is the sect master?" Haru asked but he was still confused. Why was the sect master thanking him for collecting herbs? He hadn't gathered herbs in his life. "Yeah, he told me to give you this card. It has 200,000 Yuan inside the account." Haru did the math in his head and converted the money to yen. 3,000,000 Yen!? What!? Why is he giving me so much money?
Haru hadn't done anything for the sect master. The only thing he could think of was when Li Jun returned his youth back to him. "Hey, Li Jun what do you think of this?" Li Jun laughed. "He is just trying to win you over."
"Win me over? For what possible reason would he need to win me over?" The more he thought about it the more confused he became. "Well. You are a first-generation disciple. Back in the sect, a first-generation disciple holds more power than most elders do. Second only to myself." Li jun explained.
"Just take it. You're going to need money, aren't you? And the more money you have the easier things will be for you. Especially since those clothes are drawing too much attention. Haru looked around as he felt someone staring at him. There was a group of boys around his age laughing and pointing over toward him. "I guess you are right."
He looked back at the woman in front of him. "Make sure you thank the sect master for me." He said before taking the card. "Oh, I have a question for you. What did you do to that man? He was terrified. It must have been some strange organ damaging technique right?"
Haru didn't know what to say. He didn't do anything. It was Li Jun. Haru looked at him asking for help silently. But he seemed to be inspecting the woman and paid no attention to Haru's pleas for help. "Um, I guess he is just afraid of dogs… Xue is pretty big and scary right?" He did the second-best thing and made up a story so unbelievable that no one would even want to ask any more questions.
It worked. The woman gently shook her head. "Fine. If you don't want to tell me so be it. But just be careful We have two cultivator factions in Shenzhen and they keep a close eye on all of the cultivators and they even go after the ones who injure regular people. Just make sure you don't do anything too reckless." She looked back over to the three police officers as they made their way back out of the park.
Haru looked around once more seeing nearly everybody had now started staring at him. "You should probably go and buy some new clothes." Li Jun said. Haru couldn't even argue. He didn't enjoy this much attention. And it wasn't even the good type of attention. He was better off looking like everybody else. As the saying goes. The nail that sticks out will be hammered down.
Haru walked with Xue for what seemed like an eternity before finding a clothing store. As he got to the door he made eye contact with one of the employees. "No dogs inside!" He shouted rudely. Before a woman came out of the backroom.
"Xue!" She called out. Xue began to go crazy and began jumping up and down happily. "Wait that dog is Mr. Hao's dog?!" The man from earlier said as Xue pulled harder making the leash slip from Haru's hand.
She bolted toward the woman as fast as she could before Jumping up and licking her face. "Come on now stop it. I have some treats for you." The woman said to Xue, making her stop instantly.
"Wow, it seems like this dog Is quite the celebrity. Isn't she?" Li Jun said before quickly disappearing inside the ring. The man from earlier walked over to Haru. "I'm sorry young master. I didn't realise that was Xue. I'm truly blind. Are you perhaps Mr. Hao's son?"
"Don't be silly! Mr. Hao doesn't have children. This is his nephew who he was so excited yesterday about him coming to live with him. " The woman said whilst handing some treats to Xue. "Ah, I see. I'm sorry miss." The man said in submission as the woman called out.
"You're Haru, right? What can I help you with today?" The woman asked as Haru entered the store. "Yes, I need to buy some new clothes that draw less attention than these." The woman began to laugh. "Are you going to some kind of fancy dress party? Those look ridiculous. No wonder you want some new clothes." She stopped herself. "Ah, Sorry I get passionate about fashion sometime's I didn't mean to offend."
"It's okay. I do look ridiculous. So can you help me?" Haru asked as he looked around at the clothes that were hung around the shop. That was when he realised. This was one of those designer clothing stores. He had just gotten money but he didn't want to spend it all at once. Just as he was about to leave the woman spoke up. "Come on follow me. I have a great idea of what would look good on you." Xue looked back at Haru as she followed the shop keeper further into the store. Fine. I can always get more money.
Haru walked to the back of the store behind the woman. "Here try these on. She handed him an outfit she had seemed to have picked out already. He went into the changing room and tried them on. They seemed to fit perfectly. He was wearing black slim jeans, A pair of low cut boots, a white t-shirt with a swan printed on the front of it and a black leather jacket.
He walked back out to look in the mirror. I look good! Wow, I look like one of those models on TV. "It fits better than I thought it would!" The woman looked over to a large pile of clothes in the corner of the room. She saw Haru looking at them and then stepped in front of them suspiciously. "What are you doing?"
"Um, Nothing you are imagining things." She tried to play dumb as she broke eye contact and looked up toward the ceiling. This woman was really bad at lying. "Then what are all those clothes that you just stepped in front of?"
"Fine, you got me! Your uncle already came to us for some clothes. He said you were moving in with him and you wouldn't be bringing any clothes with you. Can you pretend you didn't see anything please?" She asked. "Okay fine. How much do I owe you for these?" The shopkeeper looked at Haru like he was stupid. "Didn't I just say that your uncle already came by? They have already been paid for."
"Oh. He already paid for them? You didn't say that." Haru found this woman quite interesting. It was like she wasn't quite here on earth. She was in her own little world. "Well if they are paid for I will be heading home now. Thank you." Haru said before taking Xue's leash and wrapping it around his wrist. "Now you won't be able to pull the leash out of my hands." Xue looked up and barked at him.
Haru walked all the way back to the gate with Xue following sluggishly behind. She was panting from the long walk. I should have brought some water with me. Haru thought as he scanned the keycard against the gate. The gate slowly opened and he walked through.
He looked over to the security office and the man from before waved to him. Haru walked over to the window. "Can I help you?" The man asked with a gentle smile. "I'm just here to return this to you," Haru said as he handed the keycard to the man through the window.
"Did you not take any water with you?" The man asked seeing the Xue was panting. "No. I didn't think the park would be so far away. I will be better prepared next time." The man laughed at Haru's mistake. "Here come on in." The man pressed a button on his keyboard and the door to the office crept open. Xue pulled ahead as she went inside.
"Mr. Hao always forgets to take water with him too so I made sure to always keep a bowl for Xue when she gets back." He said whilst pouring water into a small bowl and placing it on the ground. Xue wasted no time and began to drink the water like she had been stuck in a desert for weeks. "Here you must be pretty tired too." He then handed a water bottle to Haru.
"Are you always this nice? I don't know how to repay your kindness." Haru said. This man seemed to be one of the nicest people he had ever met. He didn't need to do any of this but he was going up and above the needs of his job.
"To be honest, I'm just fond of your uncle. He is a good man. I have been working here for twenty years and I remember when he first moved here he must have been around your age. I watched him grow up whilst working here. I would say he is basically like a second son to me. Plus my granddaughter absolutely loves Xue here.
Haru began to feel something vibrate in his pocket. He reached down and pulled out his cell phone. This was his first phone call. He wondered who it could be before he looked down and read the name. "Mom" He answered the call and placed the phone to his ear. "Where are you? You have been out for so long!? You better get back here soon!" She demanded and then hung up.
"Uh, Sorry my mom just called me to come back. I had better get going." Haru explained to the man. "That's okay and I will send your keycard to your uncle's house in the morning."
"Bye, And thank you," Haru shouted as he ran back home with Xue pulling him. He reached the front door and slowly opened it. "Where have you been!"