"I wish you success in your divorce soon, brother, and escape from the sea of suffering." Zhang Guichen was truly someone special. After hearing about how Chen Yiyang dealt with Sun Xingguo, he immediately wished Chen Yiyang success in his divorce.
"There's nothing wrong with the stuff. It's ninety percent new and well-maintained. It looks like you used to be into photography, my friend."
Wang and Liu finished checking the camera and confirmed that the classic FM2 was in good shape.
Initially, the deal was for three thousand yuan. But Zhang Guichen added five hundred from his own pocket as a divorce celebration red envelope for Chen Yiyang.
Chen Yiyang was not one to be coy and accepted the money directly.
"By the way, Brother Zhang, you mentioned a local digital product trade group in Jin City. Can you add me to the group?"
"Adding you is no problem," Zhang Guichen hesitated for a moment and then continued,
"but let me say this upfront. People in the group are quite mixed; some do business well, but there are also some who scam and cheat from time to time. So, we have a few rules in the group.
The first rule is no political discussions. The second rule is no links of any kind. The third rule is you can post what you want to sell or buy, but details must be discussed privately. If you're scammed, don't stir up trouble in the group; report to the police or handle it offline, but don't talk about it in the group."
"Understood, understood," Chen Yiyang nodded.
Seeing Chen Yiyang nod, Zhang Guichen added him to a WeChat group named Jin City Electronic Product Exchange Group.
The group had over two hundred people, and after joining, Chen Yiyang found that there were few business talks in the messages. Most were sharing videos and photos of bathhouses, foot massages, and massage parlors.
After watching several extremely exciting videos, Chen Yiyang realized he joined the right group.
"Not a bad addition, right?" Zhang Guichen saw Chen Yiyang scrolling through several videos and understood they were of the same ilk. So he said,
"The folks here won't tell you otherwise; they definitely recommend only quality places at the right price."
"Thanks for adding me, mate." Chen Yiyang immediately gave a thumbs-up to express his gratitude.
Having nothing else to do, Chen Yiyang stayed at Zhang Guichen's store to drink tea.
By evening, when Zhang Guichen was closing the store, Chen Yiyang left Guihui Digital and then found a place to message Sun Xingguo.
"Brother Sun, have you found a suitable place yet?"
"I looked at a place, one bedroom, one living room, 78 square meters, 1,600 yuan a month in rent. But it's at the edge of an urban village, what do you think?"
Sun Xingguo sent a bunch of photos to Chen Yiyang.
Chen Yiyang took a look; the apartment was well decorated. The living room was empty, but the kitchen and bathroom were clean, with a washing machine, stove, and heater.
It was one of those ready-to-move-in apartments.
"I found out that this apartment was previously rented by some people involved in a pyramid scheme. They were caught, so it's vacant now. The rent requires a deposit plus three months upfront, with a minimum of a one-year lease. It's close to the subway, but the only downside is that a few steps outside the community leads to the urban village. So the security might not be great."
Urban villages are usually quite chaotic, and they tend to lower the surrounding area's security as well.
Of course, severe crimes like assault or arson are rare, but petty theft is common.
However, Chen Yiyang was quite satisfied with the place.
Because it was cheap.
If it weren't so close to the urban village, elsewhere such a place would cost at least over two thousand yuan a month.
"This place will do. Introduce the agent's WeChat to me, and I'll talk to them. Then, Brother Sun, please help me buy some daily necessities and bedding. I'll give you two thousand; keep the rest as your reward."
After finishing talking, Chen Yiyang transferred two thousand yuan to Sun Xingguo and then added the agent on WeChat.
By seven or eight at night, he had successfully gotten the apartment keys.
Then Sun Xingguo brought over the purchased items.
"How about staying over at my place tonight?" Chen Yiyang tried to keep Sun Xingguo for the night.
"No need," Sun Xingguo shook his head and said, "I found a place too. A small room in an urban village for only three hundred a month, and no deposit required. I've already rented one, I'll sleep there tonight."
"All right." Seeing this, Chen Yiyang did not insist further.
Over the past two days of interaction, Chen Yiyang found that Sun Xingguo truly was the type to build from scratch. There was none of the depression typical of a middle-aged man with nothing, but rather he remained full of vigor.
Even if he couldn't win the divorce case, he could still make a comeback with this energy.
Sun Xingguo helped Chen Yiyang do some cleaning in the apartment, laid down the bedding, and then they went downstairs for some barbecue.
"Brother, from now on, you are my brother," a slightly tipsy Sun Xingguo raised his glass to Chen Yiyang and said, "If something comes up, just one call and I'll go through fire and water."
"Then we'll never forget each other in times of plenty and wealth." The two clinked their glasses.
After sending off Sun Xingguo, Chen Yiyang, back at his place, found himself with nothing to do.
Previously at the eSports hotel, there was a computer to play on. Now living in the rental, although there was wifi, there was no computer.
He thought about going to an internet café in an urban village, but the alcohol made him lazy, so he lay on the bed watching videos of fixing cow's hooves on his phone, while waiting for the midnight vintage product push.
Then.
When Chen Yiyang woke up again, it was already six in the morning the next day.
He opened his phone to find that the new push notification had been sent a while ago.
Today's intel: Who found the little gold cache? Ning'an District, Fushui Village Road, Xingsheng District, Building 9, Room 502, in the bedhead cabinet of the bedroom, there's some property. Take it out, and you can successfully get a bargain.
How did today's insider tip lead to breaking into someone's house?
Isn't that just stealing rather than a smart find?
Seeing today's intelligence report, Chen Yiyang immediately frowned.
But as his brain, which had been resting overnight, gradually regained its thinking ability,
he suddenly remembered that Unit 502 in Building 9 of the Xingsheng District was the apartment he had just rented!
So he immediately got out of bed and started checking the bedside table.
Sure enough, the top board of this bedside table was more than twice as thick as a normal board. Chen Yiyang found a pair of scissors and poked it until it broke, then completely removed it.
Instantly, three packages wrapped tightly in plastic film fell down.
Chen Yiyang slowly unwrapped the plastic film from these three items.
One package contained 20,000 yuan in cash rolled up.
One package had two gold bars sealed with certificates.
One package contained a notebook.
Setting the gold bars and cash aside, Chen Yiyang curiously began to look at the hidden notebook.
Originally, he wondered if the notebook might contain the original owner's criminal records for these items.
After all, Sun Xingguo had previously discovered that this apartment was rented by a bunch of pyramid scheme operators.
Now, those people were probably behind bars, working the sewing machines for months.
January 6th. Today, buying groceries cost 230.50 yuan.
January 7th. Someone got sick, spent 78 yuan on medicine. Asked the others, they didn't have health insurance cards, so they had to pay out of pocket.
January 8th. An idiot broke a foot basin while washing his feet, had to buy a new one, cost 8 yuan.
January 9th, the weather's getting colder, bought an electric heater for 230 yuan.
January 15th, electricity bills are too high, considering having everyone sleep together at night to keep warm.
February 5th, a big eater arrived, couldn't pull in any business, just knew how to eat without producing results, ate for a month, costing five or six times more on food than others, might as well kick him out.
February 16th, the toilet broke, no one knows how to fix it, had to fix it myself. How did I end up tricking such a bunch of freeloaders?
March 1st, a handsome little guy came. Maybe brainwashing him could trick many silly girls into giving me money.
April 6th, that handsome guy ran off with three of our women. Damn, no more handsome ones in the future.
Alright.
After flipping through the entire notebook, Chen Yiyang discovered it was just a diary, recording expenses or venting about others.
Even if handed to the police, it probably couldn't serve as evidence.
Forget it, considering the guy who's now working the sewing machines left these behind for me, I'll help him deal with it later.
But on that note, how long is a typical pyramid scheme sentence?
If the guy gets out and comes back for his stuff, will he bump into me?
Not safe.
Chen Yiyang thought it over and decided to stay here for no more than three months.
After three months, he would forfeit the deposit and move elsewhere to avoid the convict coming after him once released.
After pocketing the cash and gold bars, Chen Yiyang went downstairs to have a bowl of beef noodles.
First, find a place to deposit 10,000 yuan into his own account, then with the other 10,000 and the two gold bars, he took a bus to the Guihui Digital store.
"Here for tea again today?" Zhang Guichen was quite pleased to see Chen Yiyang.
These guys had nothing to do in the store when business was slow, having someone to drink tea with was quite enjoyable.
"Mainly here to buy two laptops, Brother Zhang, any store recommendations?" Chen Yiyang plopped down on a chair in the store.
Zhang Guichen poured a cup of tea for Chen Yiyang and then asked, "Young people like you buying laptops shouldn't you do it online? Why come to me?"
"Buying second-hand, to save money." Chen Yiyang stated his needs, "Buying two, one for work, portable, performance doesn't matter. The other for gaming, at least it should handle AAA games."
"Let's go, I'll take you to a store."
After finishing their tea, Zhang Guichen got up and took Chen Yiyang with him.
"No one staying at the store?"
"The counters are filled with trash merchandise, all the good stuff I've locked away."
Without even locking the store door, Zhang Guichen led Chen Yiyang to the second floor of the mall, finding a shop named Monkey Electronic Repairs.
"Monkey, we got customers!" Zhang Guichen shouted as he entered.