At night, the liveliest place in Luo City should be North Street.
Traditional Chinese-style buildings lined up both sides of the road. Strings of festive red lanterns hung above the flagstone path.
On the street spanning about one kilometer long, there were stalls selling chicken wings, roasted skewers, and various other things. The rows upon rows of carts were tightly packed southward.
When the red light lit up at night, the flagstone road would be bustling with people, forming a lively crowd.
In an alley just south of North Street, there was a signboard placed at the entrance of a small shop. It read: We offer high prices for Moutai Liquor, Cordyceps, Ginseng, Gold…
With a cloth in his hand, the old man from the shop dragged out a long bench to the entrance, stepping on it to wipe off the dust on the red lantern.
"What's the price of gold today?"
A hoarse voice came from behind the old man. He turned around and exclaimed in joy, "Boy, it's you again!"
Qing Chen had his hood pulled up, with both hands inside the front pockets of his jacket. If you didn't look closely, it would be hard to make out what he looked like.
But the old man's memory of him was still fresh; after all, he profited a lot from him last time. That was why he could recognize him just with a glance.
Qing Chen calmly spoke, "I've asked other people, even without an invoice, you still have to pay me the standard price. That's how the pawnshops charge."
Without feeling ashamed, the old man smiled and said, "Who told you to hide your identity? Pawnshops have security cameras, and they're registered at the police station, so it's easy for them to track you down. Stolen goods have their own price, I'm also taking a risk, you see."
"400 grams," Qing Chen didn't want to beat around the bush, "I suggest you think about it properly before giving me a price. If you lowball me, I'll leave."
The old man happily said, "Don't rush, don't rush, today's rate for gold is 390, I'll give you 300, okay?"
Seeing Qing Chen walk away, the old man immediately jumped down from the bench to hold him back. "Why are you young people so impatient!? 320, that's the most I can give!"
"Okay," Qing Chen went straight into the shop. "I want cash."
The old man followed behind him. "I don't have that much cash, if you really only accept cash, I can only give you a hundred thousand."
Qing Chen snorted, "A place specializing in buying stolen goods doesn't have more than a hundred thousand cash? I don't believe it. Old man, if you keep playing tricks to lower the price, let's just call off the trade."
"Fine." The old man mentally remarked that this boy wasn't easy to fool. "Let me see the goods."
Qing Chen gave him the gold bars, and the old man checked the density by putting them into water. Once he confirmed there was no problem, he took ¥128000 cash money from the safe and put it inside a black plastic bag.
"Don't tell me you're going to check it one by one again?" asked the old man.
Then he watched helplessly as Qing Chen inspected each and every bill against the light, finally setting aside five notes. "Change them for me, thanks."
The old man hissed — he had just called him impatient, but he was now shocked by the extent of Qing Chen's patience.
He reluctantly changed the five notes and clapped them onto Qing Chen's palm. "I've really got to hand it to you, it's my first time meeting someone as careful as you."
Qing Chen replied expressionlessly, "I've also never met an old man as slippery as you."
After saying that, he left the shop without the least hesitation.
This time, he would give all the money to Jiang Xue and ask her to gradually transfer a small part to his WeChat through mobile payment.
If someone asked, Jiang Xue could say it was the tuition fee she gave Qing Chen for tutoring Li Tongyun.
The rest of the money would be saved in her newly opened bank account for Qing Chen to use and carry along.
Jiang Xue's wealth wouldn't arouse people's suspicion because everyone knew she was a time traveler, but it wasn't the case for him. If his bank account suddenly received a large amount of deposit from an unknown origin, just a simple check was enough for any observant person to discover something off with him.
Before the owner of the Devil Post Stamp began to take action, he had to be very cautious.
When he arrived home, Li Tongyun was watching TV in his newly rented unit. Upon seeing Qing Chen return, she excitedly chattered, "Brother Qing Chen, all the curtains in this house are motorized, you can use your phone as a remote control for the lamps, and even the toilet seat is electric! There's a one-year VIP membership for cable TV and it has so many cartoon shows!"
Qing Chen didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Despite how mature she usually was, the little girl was after all still a little girl, so the thing that attracted her the most was the one-year cable TV membership…
At this time, Jiang Xue was cleaning up the house, and replacing all the bedding inside with new ones.
Li Tongyun jumped down from the sofa and pleadingly hugged her mother's waist, "Mom, let's sleep here tonight, let's stay together with Brother Qing Chen."
Jiang Xue scolded her, "This is Brother Qing Chen's newly rented place, you think you can stay here just like that?"
"Mom," Li Tongyun suddenly interjected, "You've already laid out the bedding in both bedrooms."
"Ah!" Jiang Xue instantly blushed, somewhat ashamed at having been seen through.
Although they had no blood relation to Qing Chen, both sides were actually already like a family. The relationship between them was based on clean, pure affection, free from the tangles of fame, fortune, and desire.
Whether it was Jiang Xue, Li Tongyun, or Qing Chen, all of them used to be unfortunate people in this world.
Their fates were intertwined due to the unforeseen occurrence of transmigration.
Jiang Xue had also gone through dangers, but she was originally just a frail woman so that she would feel afraid and insecure.
In the process of tidying up Qing Chen's new place, she cleaned his old place and her own house as well, secretly thinking in her heart that she could bring Li Tongyun to stay over whenever they were scared.
But this plan was exposed by Li Tongyun in an instant.
Qing Chen quickly said, "Aunt Jiang Xue, the layout of this place is bigger than our units, it'll be a waste for me to live in a two-bedroom apartment by myself, so I'll leave the master bedroom for the two of you. You guys can come over whenever you like."
Li Tongyun looked at Jiang Xue, "See, even Brother Qing Chen said so!"
"Alright, but for now, we'll just stay for one night. You cannot pester him again tomorrow," replied Jiang Xue.
The next afternoon, Qing Chen returned home early after school and waited for the agent and Qing Guozhong to arrive.
At four o'clock, there was a ruckus outside the house.
Qing Guozhong's impatient voice resounded through the door, "Didn't I tell you? The house is mine, if I say I'm selling it, then it's on sale. Just ask your client to come, as long as the price is suitable, I'll go through the transfer procedures immediately."
The agent grumbled, "Even if you transfer the ownership, it'll still be troublesome for us if your son isn't willing to move. The buyer will complain that our company is not a reliable agent."
"I'll settle this matter today, so you don't need to worry about it!" claimed Qing Guozhong confidently. In his impression, his son had always resigned himself to his oppression, so there was no way he would oppose him.
Qing Chen silently listened to everything, only opening his door after they had gone inside the house.
He was about to make a clean break today, so he didn't want Qing Guozhong to know where he would be staying in the future.
Otherwise, the man would come looking for him when he piled up another gambling debt.