"You must have been one of the Jinyiwei in your last life!"
Chen Yansen tilted his head back, giving the graceful young woman a sidelong glance. Her legs were long and well-proportioned, her skin so pale it looked like carved ivory.
She wore a pair of white canvas shoes on her slender ankles, which made her skin look even fairer.
"So, how do you plan on bribing me?"
Wang Ziyan smiled faintly and paced in front of him with small steps. Her long eyelashes fluttered, and a light pink blush bloomed on her cheeks.
"Fifty for you. Go buy some candy."
Chen Yansen forced himself to look away. With a slight smirk, he replied nonchalantly as he stuck a hand in his pocket, ready to pull out the money.
"Are you treating me like a child?!"
Wang Ziyan stomped her foot, a flash of anger on her face, her eyes filled with displeasure.
"Aren't you?"
Chen Yansen retorted with a smile.
In his last life, he had stumbled because of her more than a few times. However, the current Wang Ziyan wasn't her 'final form' yet, so Chen Yansen naturally wasn't intimidated.
"Whatever you guys are planning, you're taking me with you. Or else!"
Wang Ziyan huffed, crossing her arms and raising her head proudly.
"Huh? What are you doing here?"
Wang Zihao, carrying bottled water and ice cream bars, had just reached the door when he saw the familiar figure. His eyes went blank, and he froze on the spot, dumbfounded.
"Haozi, you deal with her."
Chen Yansen didn't want to get tangled up with her, so he passed the trouble on to Wang Zihao.
He dusted off his pants, stood up, and grabbed two bottles of water. He handed one to the delivery guy, then casually twisted open the other and started chugging it.
"You two go ahead, I'm gonna take off."
The delivery guy sensed the atmosphere was clearly off. He quickly said his thanks, grabbed his things, and made a swift exit.
"Sis, can you not tell Dad about this?"
"No."
"I'm your brother! You have the heart to watch Dad beat me to death?"
"We're cousins."
"Then what do you want?"
"Take me with you, or there's nothing to talk about."
Wang Zihao pleaded, but she remained unmoved. In the end, he could only look pitifully at Chen Yansen.
'Useless trash!'
Chen Yansen couldn't help but curse inwardly. If Wang Zihao had even one-tenth of Wang Ziyan's intelligence, he probably wouldn't have been scammed out of half his family's fortune in their last life.
"Let her come. We happen to need a maid to serve tea and water anyway."
After a moment's thought, Chen Yansen reluctantly agreed. He knew that with Wang Ziyan's perception, combined with the shipping marks on the sides of the boxes, it wouldn't be hard for her to guess what was inside.
The small, ten-something-square-meter courtyard was now piled high with goods. A rough calculation was all it took to know that Chen Yansen and Wang Zihao could never afford all this stock with just their allowance money.
From this, it was clear the two of them were definitely up to something fishy!
"Are we really letting her come?"
Wang Zihao asked blankly, clearly reluctant.
"It'd be fine if you could silence her permanently."
Chen Yansen shot him a look and said irritably.
"Brother, are you going to pay me?"
Wang Ziyan grabbed Wang Zihao's arm, acting cute and affectionate—a complete one-eighty from how she'd been moments before.
"*You're* the brother here! The big boss is over there."
Wang Zihao silently pulled his arm back and pointed at Chen Yansen.
"You can have all the ice cream bars you want. Take it or leave it!"
Chen Yansen wasn't about to spoil her, retorting bluntly.
"Haozi, there are twenty boxes of MP3 players, 100 units per box. Twelve boxes of MP4 players, 50 units per box. The rest are all headphones and data cables. Pick five from each box to inspect."
"First, check if the casings have any scratches, dings, or chipped paint. Second, check if the screens have any dead or bright pixels. Third, check if the buttons are loose or unresponsive."
"Wang Ziyan, you're in charge of functional testing. For every product your brother inspects, you need to re-test the playback, charging, and data transfer functions. We're not keeping a single product that doesn't pass the performance check."
"If there are no questions, get to work!"
Chen Yansen quickly finished assigning the tasks. When he was done, he looked at the two of them with a sharp gaze.
"I have a question!"
Wang Ziyan immediately shot her right hand up like an elementary school student eager to speak in class.
"Speak."
Chen Yansen picked up his water, took a small sip, and asked coolly.
"We all have to work. What about you?"
Wang Ziyan put on a stern face. Sensing something was off, she voiced the question on her mind.
"I'm the boss. Naturally, my job is to supervise you two."
Chen Yansen chuckled, looking extremely sly.
"In your dreams!"
The two cousins shouted in unison, dragging him over to the boxes and shoving a box cutter into his hand.
"Xiaochen, no one's slacking off!"
Wang Zihao laughed heartily.
"Alright, Haozi. It's 'Brother Sen' when you need something, and 'Xiaochen' when you don't, huh? I see how it is. Just wait 'til I dock your pay!"
"Brother Sen, don't kid around! Talking about money hurts our friendship!"
Wang Zihao hastily clasped his hands together in a pleading gesture, his face all smiles. He was counting on Chen Yansen to make him rich.
Whether his future college life would be happy or not all depended on this business deal.
Chen Yansen smiled but didn't continue the banter. The top priority right now was inspecting the goods.
Although the payment was currently held in escrow by the platform, he was still worried about running into a manufacturer who would just mess around. If they kept dragging things out, it would derail his grand plan to get rich.
There were forty to fifty boxes in total. The lighter ones weighed around thirty pounds, the heavier ones around sixty. Even though they only needed to do random spot checks, by the time they finished everything, it was already 2:30 in the afternoon.
The three of them were tired, hungry, hot, and thirsty. The bottled water they drank seemed to turn into sweat and pour from their foreheads just two minutes later.
"One of the MP3s has a scratch on the casing. Didn't find any quality issues with the MP4s. The headphones have more problems, though. Basically, one out of every ten is broken..."
Wang Zihao lay on the cool flagstones, trying to soak up some of the chill, speaking listlessly.
"That's better than I expected. We start tomorrow!"
Chen Yansen announced solemnly.
"Where are we going to sell them?"
Hearing this, Wang Zihao scrambled up and shuffled closer to ask.
"Zhongqiao Town!"
Chen Yansen said without hesitation.
Zhongqiao was to the southwest of Chunshen, only twelve kilometers away, about a twenty-minute drive. On every even-numbered day of the lunar calendar, it was the local market day, attracting a crowd of at least tens of thousands.
"How do we get the goods there?"
Wang Zihao had no objection to that and continued asking questions.
"You know Coach Huang from Da Xiang Driving School? Do you know what his other identity is?"
Chen Yansen lowered his voice, looking secretive and profound.
"Holy shit! I knew your reason for picking him as an instructor wasn't simple! Is he an under...!"
Wang Zihao's eyes lit up, and he danced with excitement.
"Under-my-ass! His other identity is an unlicensed taxi driver. Two hundred a day, including gas. I already settled it with him yesterday."
Chen Yansen narrowed his eyes, staring at him as if he were looking at an idiot.
"You son of a bitch, Chen Yansen! You're the one who misled me!"
Wang Zihao's smile vanished abruptly as he grumbled indignantly.
"Seven o'clock tomorrow morning, meet at Tongfei Gate. Remember to wear your work clothes."
Chen Yansen dusted himself off, planning to go home and take a shower. The sticky sweat covering his body was really uncomfortable.
"Do I have to wear one?"
Wang Ziyan blinked her big, watery eyes, full of anticipation for the next day's trip, and asked with a beaming smile.
Chen Yansen, who had reached the door, turned around at her words. He looked her up and down, then immediately cursed, "Wear my ass!"