The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

Chapter 152

152 Two Innocent Girls

Emma and Rachel glanced at each other and sighed quietly. Those men really.. Perhaps, if they could, they would charge money to the employees who wished to breathe within the territory of the Chingsu District.

Finally, Emma pulled two dollars out of her wallet and gave them to the damn man. Then, the two men stepped in front of them before gesturing to follow.

The girls stared at each other as they walked behind the two tall men.

“I don’t know where else to look for money. I’ve tried to borrow to everyone I know, but no one gave it,” Rachel said a bit loud then winked at Emma.

Emma could read Rachel’s sudden plan. It was an opportunity for them to find the Creeper’s headquarters in Chingsu District. Knowing how strong the group was and what its weaknesses were.

“Have you applied to a loan company?” Emma asked.

“Yes, but it was rejected. Actually, I don’t understand how to properly borrow money from a bank or loan company. Do you?” Rachel asked.

“Ah.. Too bad. I don’t know either. Huft.. I think this is the disadvantage of the person who was growing up in a remote village like us. Due to lack of knowledge, we have a hard time moving to the city.” Emma said in a rather loud voice.

It seemed that the two girls’ plan had worked, because they made the two guard men hear their conversation clearly. The two men looked at each other and nodded once before stopping, then turning around. The girls who were following them were also stopped with confused eyes.

.....

“So.. you two are looking for a loan, huh?” The thick brows man asked.

Emma and Rachel nodded innocently. Inside, they were cheering for joy because it seemed that their plan was starting to work.

“I am. I’m having a hard time finding a loan. Do you think you know where I can borrow money?” Rachel asked in a sad tone. She acted like an innocent girl from a village, making the guard men think that she innocently trusted them for real.

But Emma leaned forward slightly, “Pardon, but could you gentlemen help my friend? Incidentally, I don’t have any money left to pay for that information.” she said, hoping to be pitied. Of course, Emma still had a lot of money in her pocket. It was just a trick to look poor for real.

As Jonas once said, ‘In disguise, the slightest thing will be very important and must be considered.’

The two men smiled behind the masks that covered their noses and mouths. The blonde nodded, “Okay. For this, we won’t charge you any penny. There’s indeed a good place to borrow money. And actually, it’s still in this area.”

Finally, Emma and Rachel asked the two men to take them to a place to borrow money. They pretended to be holding their hunger with the excuse of being ‘In desperate need of money’. They skillfully pretended to be innocent and rather stupid girls. It seemed the two men didn’t suspect them at all.

With that, they changed the flow of the plan. They no longer need to use the elderly employees to search the Creeper’s headquarters, because it was the members themselves who invited the intruder in.

Coincidentally, their location wasn’t too far from a white, three-floor building. The building was not too big and maybe the size was just like an ordinary small office building. But beside it was another building that was even bigger with five floors high. From just a glance, Emma already knew that the tall building with many balconies was a dormitory, which was probably where the Creeper members stayed. If that was true, then the white building they were aiming for now, was the headquarters of the group.

The two girls were led into the glass main door of the building. The cold air outside immediately turned into warm air, because the building’s lobby even used heating.

“You two just wait there. I’ll call the salesman to explain the loans.” The blonde said by pointing to a large black sofa set on the right side of the room. Then, he left and disappeared behind a bulkhead into the deeper part of the building.

Not long after, the man came back to them. “Wait here. Our sales will get you soon. We’ll leave you here.” he said.

Emma and Rachel immediately stood up and nodded, “Thank you very much, Sir.” they said in unison, though they felt disgusted inside.

The two men just raised their eyebrows briefly and headed out of the building to go back on patrol. Emma and Rachel looked at each other and sat down. Both of their eyes could not stay still, kept screening around. They were looking for the spots of the CCTV cameras which turned out to be in the two corners of the small lobby. There was a receptionist’s desk guarded by a uniformed man and a girl with pulled hair on the left side of the main door.

Not long after, a man with glasses and black hair neatly arranged, showed up from behind a wall partition that led to the inside. He approached the two women who were sitting on the sofa waiting.

“Good day, ladies.” The man greeted.

Emma and Rachel immediately stood up to greet the man with a friendly face who always seemed to smile.

“Hello, my name is Rayn Elskar. I am the marketing service for lending money at this company.” He looked at the two girls in front of him in turn, “So.. who is planning to apply for a loan?”

“Oh.. It’s me,” Rachel said, holding out her hand, “My name is Jessi Moon. And she is my friend.” she turned to Emma slightly.

Emma also shook hands with the man named Rayn, “I’m Rossa Swan. I’m just accompanying her here.”

“Alright. Please follow me inside to continue,” Rayn led his guests to follow him. They headed behind a bulkhead wall that revealed a passage with several doors on its right and left. Then, he opened one of them which was a rather small room with an office desk and two chairs facing it. Rayn motioned for the ladies to sit down, while he sat on his own chair.

“So, how much do you want to apply for?” Rayn asked the girl he knew named Jessi.

“If I could, I’d like it to be about a hundred dollars,” Rachel answered.

“A hundred? All right, all right,” Rayn said after thinking for a second. That’s a pretty small amount. It seemed she was really struggling with money that she just wanted to borrow only a hundred dollars. “We can give it today as well. But as you know, every loan requires collateral.”

Rachel nodded, “I see. I’m sorry, but I actually have nothing here. I came from the village to work in the city. Therefore, I have nothing.”

Rayn nodded, “It’s not a problem. You are lucky because our services are specifically for people who work in companies within the Chingsu District. If you really don’t have valuable assets for collateral, then you can use your employment contract at the company you work for. We enforce this condition to make it easier for workers to get loans, because we know the difficulty of borrowing money from the bank and how hard to apply for a nominal that is not commensurate with the collateral.” he explained.

“Oh.. Good to hear that,” Rachel said as she sighed in relief.

“Anyways, you ladies can take off your masks here. We use air filters inside this building, so there’s no factory pollution from outside.” Rayn said.

“Thank you. But actually, both of us are having a bit of a cold since we came from the village, so our company management requested us to always wear these masks while we are in the Chingsu District area so as not to infect others.” Emma answered.

“Is that so? Yes, indeed the flu is on the rise lately because of the cold.” Rayn nodded slightly.

“By the way, Rayn. Before you prepare the file, may I ask about this loan service? I.. just wanted to make sure that this service is safe,” Rachel said in a rather embarrassed manner.

Rayn chuckled. His face and gesture still looked like that of a friendly nice man who was full of smiles, “You don’t have to feel shy to ask reasonable questions like this, Miss Jessi. So, our service company is called Loyal Loan. We collaborate with Creeper and all companies in Chingsu District to provide financial support to the workers, especially to those who don’t know about bank lending. The agreement we will make later is also related to the law. Therefore, you don’t need to worry.” he explained.

“Pardon me for interfering,” Emma interrupted quietly, “Actually, what worries us is that the Creeper’s name sounds a bit...”

“Hahaha..” Rayn laughed, then wiped the corners of his teary eyes while nodding in understanding, “Oh my.. Honestly, I’m a little tired of hearing about this misunderstanding. So many people have doubts because they hear the name Creeper is scary. It seems that from the start, the leader made a name too hastily. Here, The Creeper name actually stands for Care Expert (CaRE ExPERt). I don’t know why they shortened it to be grim like that. But, you don’t have to worry, because basically, Loyal Loan is a stand-alone company. We just signed a contract partnered for several years with the Creeper for going to rent parts of their building for our office here.”

“God.. I see now. Ah.. I’m so sorry if I hesitated a little earlier,” Rachel said with an awkward chuckle.

Emma also nodded, “Thank goodness there is such an excellent service company like yours.” She said, but maybe she would wash her mouth with laundry detergent after this.