He let out a long sigh of relief. Now that he knew everything he'd gotten was legal, there was nothing to worry about.
However, a thought suddenly struck Fang Chenyi. 'Even though everything is legal, wouldn't a poor slob like me suddenly becoming so rich make people suspicious?'
[Please rest assured, Master. The System has already re-edited your identity. You are now an incredibly low-profile tycoon. Should anyone investigate, aside from your current assets, they will only find that you are extremely discreet, along with two pieces of information: one, that you began dabbling in the Wall Street financial market at sixteen, and two, that you like to pick up junk.]
'Damn! That's badass?'
'Well, whatever. Low-profile, high-profile, who cares? As long as nobody can find any holes in my story, I'm good.'
With that thought, Fang Chenyi stopped dwelling on it. He stepped on the gas and soon arrived at the gate of Villa No. 1 in Century Garden.
He opened the door, got out of the car, and stared at the long row of luxury villas before him, completely blown away. According to the System's prompt, Villas 1 through 10 were all his. And to think, Century Garden only had twelve of these villas in total!
He reached into his woven bag and rummaged around for a moment, quickly pulling out a large ring of keys.
"This one's for number eight, this one's for five, this is three, this is ten... Dammit, having so many houses is a pain in the ass. Just finding the right key takes forever."
As he spoke, he finally found the key to Villa No. 1.
He tossed the remaining keys back into the woven bag, then strode toward the villa's main gate, key in hand.
CREAK...
As the outer gate swung open, the first thing that appeared before Fang Chenyi was a massive outdoor swimming pool.
"Holy shit, this pool is huge! How much water does this thing even hold?!"
After his exclamation, Fang Chenyi didn't dwell on the question of how much water it would take. Instead, he strode toward the three-story grand villa before him. 'After all, I'm filthy rich now. Why would I care about the water bill?'
It was magnificent, yet tinged with a quiet elegance, while also incorporating a simple, modern, and youthful style.
That was Fang Chenyi's first impression upon entering the villa.
"Damn, you can really tell this is a thirty-million-yuan villa. It's gorgeous! A hundred, a thousand times better than the village chief's house back home!"
Standing in the doorway and taking in the decor, Fang Chenyi sighed with heartfelt admiration.
However, when his gaze fell on a painting on the living room wall, he was suddenly at a loss for words.
Hanging on one of the living room walls was, of all things, an oil painting of the Mona Lisa.
'Of course, I don't even need to get closer to know this is a fake. There's no doubt about it. Why? Because the real Mona Lisa is sitting in my woven bag right now.'
He walked over and gently took it down. After examining it for a moment, he couldn't help but feel that this fake looked even better than the real one in his bag.
He shook his head helplessly. 'I really don't get it. Why are all these good-looking modern paintings not as valuable as the old ones that aren't even that great?'
Fang Chenyi reached out and tossed the painting straight into his woven bag.
[Congratulations, Master, for picking up one old oil painting. A special system bonus has been triggered. Reward: one world-class authentic oil painting, the *Mona Lisa*. The reward has been placed in your woven bag. Please check to receive it.]
[Reward distribution failed. Due to the Master's two previous instances of cheating, this reward has been automatically cancelled.]
'The Mona Lisa again??'
Hearing the prompt in his mind, Fang Chenyi nearly coughed up blood. 'A world-class Mona Lisa, cancelled just like that? That was a mountain of cash!!'
'Forget everything else, just the "world-class" title alone means it's worth at least tens of millions!'
'But why another Mona Lisa? Don't I already have the authentic one?'
[Ding! Answering the Master's question: There were two authentic versions of the *Mona Lisa*. Both were destroyed during wartime. Note: The version in the ** Museum's collection is a forgery.]
'They can even pull a stunt like that?'
Of course, he was shocked and his heart ached for the lost money, but Fang Chenyi wasn't overly broken up about it.
'In the time I've had this junk-picking system, it's already triggered special rewards several times. Judging by that, they aren't too hard to come by. That means there will definitely be more opportunities in the future. Who knows, maybe I'll pick up another one then.'
Once he'd wrapped his head around it, Fang Chenyi stopped dwelling on the matter. He reached into his woven bag, pulled out the authentic *Mona Lisa*, and moved to hang it on the wall.
However, as he went to hang the authentic *Mona Lisa*, Fang Chenyi discovered a problem. The frame of the fake painting had a small hanger for a nail, but his authentic version lacked such a feature.
He stared at the lone nail on the wall, feeling a bit exasperated. For a moment, he considered just not hanging the painting at all, but the nail sticking out was just too ugly.
He held the painting up against the wall, sizing it up, and considered whether he could install a hanger on the frame.
But as Fang Chenyi rested the painting on the nail and tilted his head back to inspect it, his attention wandered for a moment. He heard a soft sound of something tearing.
Stunned, he stared at the *Mona Lisa* in his hands, now with a hole punched through it by the nail. Only then did Fang Chenyi realize the surface of this authentic painting wasn't covered by glass; it was just the bare canvas. Besides the frame, there was only a piece of cardboard backing it.
"Holy shit! My world-class oil painting!"
Seeing this, Fang Chenyi felt his heart bleed. 'Wasn't I just asking for trouble? I just threw away a fortune like that.'
After stewing in his regret for a while, he shook his head helplessly.
"Sigh... oh well. What's done is done. Since it's already punctured, I might as well just hang it like this."
Muttering to himself, Fang Chenyi rubbed the little hole in the *Mona Lisa's* canvas with his finger a couple of times. Seeing it was beyond repair, he gave up, lifted his hands, and firmly hung the painting on the wall.
He shook his head in resignation. "Good thing the nail went through near the top. If it had been right in the middle, I'd really be crying right now."
Of course, if any art experts heard Fang Chenyi's words, they'd probably have an aneurysm. A hole is a hole, no matter where it is! How could you hang such a priceless painting, let alone poke a hole in the canvas? This is an outrageous desecration of a masterpiece!!
'Of course, Fang Chenyi genuinely couldn't appreciate this world-class oil painting. To be honest, in his eyes, apart from being expensive, the painting wasn't even as nice to look at as the pin-up calendars his family used to hang up every year. At least the bombshells on those calendars were genuinely gorgeous...'
After securing the painting, Fang Chenyi didn't stand around. He took a full tour of the villa, inside and out.
Fang Chenyi absolutely fell in love with the grand villa and its strong modern vibe.
The villa was already fully furnished, so Fang Chenyi decided to move in immediately. After all, now that he had this huge villa, there was no way he was going back to his cramped little rental.
After resting for a bit, Fang Chenyi got up and walked out the front door. The villa was decorated down to the last detail, but it was missing one thing: bedding.
To move in, Fang Chenyi would either have to go buy some new bedding or go back to his rental to grab his own things.
Just as he stepped out of the villa, however, he saw a young man in a sharp suit loitering in front of his row of villas.
[To be continued...]
PS: This. Is. A. Robbery! I don't want your money, just your votes!! Hehe, come on, bros, smash Xiao Youzi with all those free votes!