Lu Feng casually grabbed a handful of gold jewelry and tossed it onto the electronic scale, as if he were grabbing fruit from the shop, not gold.
It took some time to weigh it all. The total came to 4,702 grams. With gold recently priced at 420 yuan per gram, this jewelry could be sold to a gold shop for 1,777,356 yuan.
Even if this batch of gold, with its unknown origin and no receipts, were sold to Chen Bo at 80% of its market value, it would still fetch 1,579,872 yuan.
'My mom's vascular disease… even if it's very serious, after paying the 500,000 yuan surgery fee, the rest should be enough for her follow-up treatments.'
'I can also pay back the money my cousin and Brother Lin scraped together for me. But this is a favor I'll never forget.'
Honestly, in this day and age, if something happens to you when your family is dirt poor, and people still manage to scrape together 200,000 yuan for you, even knowing you might not be able to pay them back for a long time… you should be grateful to them for the rest of your life. Remember them forever.
If you don't believe it, try borrowing 10,000 yuan from a friend you think is very close. See if they'll lend it to you.
How many friendships have crumbled over the matter of borrowing money?
Just as Lu Feng was lost in thought, his phone chimed with a notification. He immediately picked it up and was surprised to see a bank deposit alert:
"Your account ending in XXXXXXXX... has received a cross-bank transfer of 165,000.00. Current balance: 541,476.00 yuan!"
He froze. 165,000 yuan had suddenly been deposited into his account. The money in his card was now enough for his mom's surgery.
He immediately remembered his cousin saying at the hospital that he was going to sell his car. A BMW 3 Series would sell for about that price.
'Did my cousin really move that fast and sell his car already?'
Just then, his phone rang. The number was his cousin's. He answered immediately.
The moment the call connected, Yang Ming's voice came through: "Xiaofeng, I sent 165,000 yuan to your account. Go pay for your aunt's surgery first. We'll figure out the follow-up treatment costs later."
Hearing this, Lu Feng was silent for a long time, so moved he didn't know what to say.
After a moment, he said into the phone, "Cousin, can you come to the fruit shop?"
"Yeah, wait for me there," Yang Ming said before hanging up.
Lu Feng left the back room and waited outside the fruit shop for his cousin.
Before long, Yang Ming got out of a taxi.
Seeing this, Lu Feng knew his cousin had really sold his car. He jogged forward to greet him and couldn't help but pull him into a big hug.
'With this kind of loyalty from my cousin, saying 'thank you' would be an insult. The most important thing is to remember it in my heart.'
Fortunately, it seemed he now had the ability to repay his cousin.
Yang Ming was clearly uncomfortable with this kind of affection. He immediately pushed him away and grumbled, "Two grown men hugging each other. Have you no shame?"
Lu Feng just smiled and nodded. "Cousin, come with me," he beckoned.
With that, he led Yang Ming into the fruit shop and to the back room.
When Yang Ming entered the back room, he immediately saw the bag of gold on the bed. A look of surprise crossed his face. "Xiaofeng, you have more gold?"
He had previously thought that even if his cousin had found some tomb and gotten a batch of gold, it was just a stroke of luck. After all, ever since that one big shot's story in Youcheng, countless people had picked over every tomb in the area, big and small.
'Looks like that's not the case. My cousin didn't show me everything before; he held something back.'
But he was relieved.
'When you're out in the world, you can never show anyone your full hand. At least my cousin understands this. I can rest a little easier. Now, even if someone tries to screw him over in the future, he won't get taken for everything.'
Lu Feng said at once, "Cousin, I plan to sell this gold to Chen Bo, too. This way, we'll have enough for Mom's surgery and follow-up treatments."
Yang Ming nodded and asked, "Xiaofeng, how much gold is in this batch?"
Lu Feng explained, "I weighed it—4,702 grams. We can sell it to Chen Bo for over 1.58 million."
Hearing this, Yang Ming didn't ask any more questions. He just picked up his phone and made a call. The moment it connected, he said, "Ah Lin, you and Ah Pao bring some guys over to my aunt's fruit shop."
That much gold was a sum large enough to stir up greed in anyone. Especially when selling it to Chen Bo, whose teahouse was frequented by all sorts of shady characters.
You can't be too careful about some things. It was better to be safe.
Yang Ming hung up, had Lu Feng zip up the duffel bag, and they carried it out of the fruit shop to wait.
A few minutes later, three ordinary-looking sedans pulled up in front of the shop. Several men got out of each car and all greeted Yang Ming.
"Brother Ming, what's the situation?"
"Yeah, who pissed you off, Brother Ming?"
"..."
A few of them greeted Lu Feng as well.
"Xiaofeng!"
"Don't be too stressed. Your aunt will be fine."
"..."
Lu Feng nodded in acknowledgment.
He knew most of these guys. Back when his dad used to mess around, these men, just starting out in the world, had often trailed behind him. At the time, his dad thought it made him look impressive.
The most familiar face was, of course, Brother Lin. There was also a man with a scar on his cheek; he was the Ah Pao his cousin had mentioned.
Once, when he was getting bullied at school by a self-proclaimed "school tough," this was the guy who went and scared the bully. The kid ended up bursting into tears and would take a detour just to avoid him.
"We're going to Chen Bo's teahouse," Yang Ming announced once everyone had arrived. He then motioned for Lu Feng to get into one of the cars.
The others piled into the cars as well, and the convoy headed for Qingshui Street.
After parking, Yang Ming led Lu Feng back to Chen Bo's teahouse.
The teahouse's main hall was still filled with people brewing tea. Most of them had tattoos and carried themselves like hooligans.
'Both times I've been here, I haven't seen a single normal customer.'
A teahouse frequented by these types of people all day wouldn't attract regular patrons. It would be hard to do any real business.
However, for someone like Chen Bo, making money wasn't the point of opening a teahouse. The reason he opened one was to give his "brothers" a place to hang out and drink tea.
His underlings would buy a box of tea to keep there, and whenever they were free, they would bring friends over to drink. These friends, whether they were involved in the streets or not—a whole motley crew—would slowly gather and form a network of influence and connections.
These people would get used to coming here for tea, maintaining their relationships with one another.
And the person who ran the teahouse would naturally be the one with the most say within this network of power and connections.
So, it didn't matter if it made money or not, as long as it could break even.
Usually, people from the same area tended to flock together, just like his cousin and Brother Lin's crew. They were all from the same town.
If a younger guy from their hometown got bullied, he'd go to them for help, and then he'd naturally start messing around and following them.
It was surely the same with Chen Bo, the teahouse owner, and the people in his establishment.
'Only, Chen Bo is clearly doing better for himself. After all, he has fewer principles, doesn't he?'
The ones with the most prestige were probably the guys from Xianlin Town. He'd heard that people from Xianlin Town ran three such teahouses, and they also owned bars, KTVs, and discos.
His cousin's crew ran purely on loyalty, which naturally made things harder. They could only afford to rent an office for everyone to drink tea in, losing a lot of prestige right from the start.
Seeing Yang Ming enter with a group of people, the men in the teahouse subconsciously stood up.
Two of them who recognized him immediately came forward.
"Brother Ming, got some time for tea?"
"Brother Lin, Brother Pao, it's been a while."
"..."
"Mhm," Yang Ming nodded at the two men, then instructed, "Ah Lin, Ah Pao, grab a box of tea and have some with everyone."
Hearing this, the two men breathed a sigh of relief, realizing they weren't there to cause trouble. They quickly spoke up:
"You're kidding, Brother Ming! Why would you need to buy tea to drink here?"
"That's right, we have tea. If we let you buy your own, it'd make us look like bad hosts, wouldn't it?"
As they spoke, the two men pulled Ah Lin and Ah Pao over to a tea table to sit down. Seeing this, the others followed.
Yang Ming, however, gestured to Lu Feng, and the two of them headed upstairs again to Chen Bo's office.