Chapter 001: Unexpected Wealth

  Liang Zi was drunk again. When I received the call, it was already 2 o'clock in the second half of the night. He mumbled unclearly with a thick tongue and mentioned a location before hanging up.

  I reluctantly got up and dressed, went downstairs and rode an electric bike to the address he told me.

  This is the third time this month, every time he gets drunk and asks me to pick him up in the middle of the night. I really don't know what's wrong with this kid. He just got out less than half a year ago and his old habits are back again.

  There were hardly any people on the way, and it was dark to an absurd degree. I guess it's going to rain again, probably because the rainy season has arrived, and it hasn't stopped for half a month now.

  I arrived at the location mentioned by Liangzi and found that it was a small practice room for singing. I shook my head in dismay, smiled wryly, locked up my electric bike and walked in.

  It was just the right time when the business of the song house was booming, and immediately two girls in revealing clothes came up to me and said: "Welcome, brother, how many are you?"

  I said I was looking for someone, and the two girls didn't even give me a second glance before sitting back down to chat.

  Liang Zi is easy to recognize, the characteristic is that he has a large build and a mouthful of dirty words. The waiter brought me to the door of a private room, I pushed the door in and immediately complained, the private room was filled with smoke, a pile of empty beer bottles on the table, Liang Zi had his arm around a girl, with a big tongue and a red face, blowing hard.

  I walked forward to pull up the two girls, took out my wallet and gave each of them 100 yuan to send them away. The two girls seemed to think it was not enough, saw that I had no intention of giving more, so they pouted and left the room with an unhappy face.

  Liangzi saw this and stood up, shouting: "Ah ah don't go, I haven't finished speaking yet?" I raised my hand and pressed him onto the sofa, saying: "You little guy is getting more and more capable, you even called two people by yourself?"

  "Hey Qiu Ye, don't you know me? I called these two sisters for you. Since you're not here yet, I couldn't just ignore them, so I'm chatting with them first. Come on, good brother, let's have a drink."

  I saw him not even bothering to argue, snatched the beer from his hand and took a sip, saying: "I'm warning you, this is the last time. If you don't want to be good in the future, play however you want, but don't expect me to come pick you up again."

  Li Ang might have seen me really getting angry, so he stuck to my side with a silly grin and said: "Aren't you happy today? There's good news, we're going to get rich!"

  "What's good about you, which girl did you take a liking to, or did you get a good phone at a low price?" I was too lazy to care about him, and continued drinking beer with the dried fruit on the table.

  He looked at me with disdain and said, "You see, I'm not that incompetent. Getting a cell phone is nothing, this time we're going to get the real deal."

  Liang Zidagreatly named Cheng Dongliang, his family has been military for generations. His grandfather gave him such a promising name, hoping he would make something of himself. But this kid is completely unrelated to the three words "having a future", according to him, "Cheng Dongliang is not as good as entering a bridal chamber".

  A few years ago, his family's old man arranged a job for him. He went there for only a few days when his leader came to find his father with big and small bags, saying "You'd better do us a favor and transfer your son to another place!"

  Later, he also became lazy and didn't like being managed, so he sold discs and fake local specialties. After that, he was sent to labor camp for selling banned drugs, but was released less than half a year ago. Now, he's doing nothing and just set up a stall on the street to collect and sell second-hand mobile phones.

  I ate and drank for a while, then asked him what was the good thing or treasure. He sat down on the table with a plop, spitting out star-shaped saliva as he told me the whole story.

  There was a person named Lao Lu who collected scrap metal on the same street as Liangzi, over 50 years old and also without family or occupation. This Lao Lu and Liangzi had a similar smell, when there was no business they would gather together to boast and brag.

  However, later on, Lao Lu didn't show up at his stall for several days. When Liang Zi saw him again, the old man had transformed into a "big gold chain and small wristwatch", with an appearance of a nouveau riche. Later, when the two went drinking together, Lao Lu said he no longer accepted mobile phones as payment, and instead started going to Lu Garden to collect antiques.

  Liángzi asked him what was going on. Lǎo lù actually didn't understand antiques at all, he said that one time when he had nothing to do, he went to Lǔ yuán (Shenyang Lu Xun Park, which has an antique market inside) to take a stroll, and saw an old man holding something like an ashtray trying to sell it, but nobody was paying attention to him after half a day. Lǎo lù asked how much it cost, the old man said 200 yuan, later Lǎo lù spent 100 yuan to buy it, anyway it wasn't expensive, and he planned to use it as an ashtray when he got home.

  But after the old man walked away with the money, Lao Lu sat on the ground smoking towards the new 'ashtray' he had just bought. A short old man wearing a Tang suit came to his front, picked up the ashtray and looked at it for half a day before asking him how much he wanted to sell it for?

  Lao Lu saw this majestic person and didn't bother to care, casually said "20,000" and was about to finish his cigarette and go home. Unexpectedly, the man in Tang suit took a closer look at the ashtray, threw down 20,000 yuan and a business card, then turned around and left.

  Lao Lu was stunned on the spot, sucking on a cigarette, and only reacted when his mouth got burned. He got up to chase after them, but they were already gone. Later, Lao Lu thought that he must have misseen the "Tang suit", and fearing that they would come back to ask for a refund, he took the money and prepared to run away.

  As soon as he left Lu Garden, he saw the old man who sold him the 'ashtray' waiting for the bus. Lao Lu felt that this money should have been someone else's, and he had some guilt in his heart, but since the money was already in his pocket, it was impossible to return it. However, inviting the person to dinner was still possible.

  He went up and got familiar with the person, saying that it was fate to meet and wanted to invite him to dinner. The old man might have been hungry too, and after chatting for a few more sentences, he was cheated by Lao Lu and followed him.

  This old man is really stingy, making so much money but asking the other old man to eat "four seasons noodles", that old man doesn't care either, two people because of their similar age slowly started drinking and chatting, after a few bottles of wine the old man started talking nonsense.

  The old man said he was a villager from a small village near Gongzhuling, Jilin. A while ago, there was heavy rain in the mountains and later the river also flooded. Some villagers found a large tobacco pipe in the water, and the old man thought it was quite unusual, so he went to take a look too.

  Unexpectedly, when he arrived at the riverbank, he saw that everyone in the village was digging wildly in the muddy water. He spent an afternoon and dug out a broken 'ashtray' but didn't think much of it and took it back home. Later, he came to Shenyang to visit his son who was studying here, after visiting, he prepared to return.

  When I was strolling around, I arrived at Lu Garden and remembered that I still had a broken 'ashtray' with me. I thought of taking it out to see if it's an antique and selling it, but no one paid attention to it for half a day. In the end, Lao Lu bought it from me for 100 yuan.

  Lao Lu felt that his fortune had arrived when he heard this, and he thought to himself that since treasures could be found in the river, there must be ancient tombs or something similar in the mountains. So he accompanied the old man for a while longer before sending him off, leaving behind an address as he deceived the old man into thinking he was an antique dealer, telling him to go back and take another look at the river to see if there were any other treasures, and that he would come to their village to make some purchases when he had time.

  As he said this, Liangzi became more and more excited, grabbed a bottle of wine and drank it all in one gulp.

  Then, with a red face, he said to me: "That old guy is just a good-for-nothing, can't do anything big. He wants to go to that village to see for himself but is afraid of paying the road fee, so he thought of asking me to accompany him, saying we'll split the treasure equally between us two. I thought this was a great opportunity, so I told him I'd take care of the road fee, but it's not just the two of us going, I also need to bring my two brothers, and we'll split the loot four ways. Ha! That old guy must have been blinded by greed, thinking he can get something for nothing, anything is better than collecting trash. In the end, he agreed with me."

  After listening to him, I also had doubts in my heart. If that old road didn't cheat him, it means that there might be something good in the mountain after all. Anyway, my broken job doesn't have much future, so why not follow him and take a look, just consider it as a relaxing trip.

  The two of us were studying what to do next, when the door was opened again and Liu Bao walked in. He saw Liangzi and without saying a word, pulled out his belt and started whipping him fiercely.

  Liang Zi ran around the room while shouting: "Wait a minute, wait a minute, something good is happening, damn it's really good!"

  This stunned me, and then I pulled Liu Bao to ask him what was going on. Liu Bao said that Liang Zi called him to pick someone up, and when I heard this, I couldn't help but laugh, it turned out we were thinking the same thing.

  I smiled and told Liu Bao to stop fighting, feeling that it was getting late, called the two out of the room, then Liu Bao angrily settled the bill, and the three people walked out of this practice room.

  I saw Liubao's Great Wall off-road vehicle parked at the entrance, and we all got on one after another.

  Liu Bao, also known as Han Liu Bao, was originally considered a "second-generation official", but after his old man got into trouble and went in, most of the family's property was confiscated. However, a dead camel is bigger than a horse, so Liu Bao sold his previous Range Rover and opened a restaurant, which did pretty well, except that his ride became a Great Wall.

  Liu Bao drove, I sat in the passenger seat. As soon as the car started, Liangzi shouted from behind: "Ah, it's still more comfortable to sit in a Range Rover! This car is clearly not worthy of my status, but let's make do with it for now. Liu Bao, you little brat, if you want to hang out with me, I'll make sure you get to drive a new Range Rover."

  Right after that, I felt a sudden brake. Liubao turned around and started hitting me, cursing: "Get out of the way, you son of a bitch! You're lucky to have a seat, now get the hell off!"

  Liang Zishuang covered his face with both hands and smiled at me: "Qiu Ye, look, this kid still doesn't believe it."

  I saw these two people meet and start fighting, it's inevitable. Liangzi always brings up the past, so I pulled Six Treasures back to continue driving. On the way, I briefly told him what had happened.

  Liubao also felt surprised after hearing it, but when he turned back to look at Liangzi's deadpan expression, his face was full of disbelief. I said to him, let's just pretend we're going on a trip together, if we can really get something good, our lives will be better too, otherwise, spending your money all day is not a big deal either.

  When I got home, the sky was already bright. This evening has been exhausting enough. Tomorrow, I still have to go and pick up my electric scooter, but thinking about it, maybe I'll really get rich, so I jumped into bed with joy and fell asleep.

  I slept until the afternoon of that day, when I was woken up by a knock on the door. In my daze, I thought to myself "which 'dad' is it this time?" When I opened the door, I saw Liangzi standing outside with an old man who had a full beard and looked very sly. At first, I didn't know what was going on, but then I immediately recognized that "big gold chain little wristwatch".