Chapter 11: You Must Have Been a Jinyiwei Guard in Your Past Life

"You must have been a Jinyiwei guard in your past life!"

Chen Yansen tilted his head back, squinting sidelong at the slender girl standing gracefully; her legs were shapely and long, her skin very fair, as if carved from ivory.

At her slender ankles she wore a pair of white canvas shoes, making her complexion look even fairer.

"Then how do you plan to buy me off?"

Wang Ziyan gave a faint smile, pacing with small steps in front of him; her long lashes trembled slightly, and a pale pink blush bloomed on each cheek.

"I'll give you fifty, go buy some candy."

Chen Yansen dragged his gaze away with great effort, the corner of his mouth lifting as he answered casually, while slipping his hand into his pocket, ready to pull out the money.

"You think I'm a kid?!"

Wang Ziyan stamped her foot, a flash of displeasure rising to her face, her eyes full of unhappiness.

"Aren't you?"

Chen Yansen asked with a smile.

In his previous life, he had stumbled at her hands more than once, but the current Wang Ziyan was not yet in her final form, so naturally Chen Yansen was not afraid.

"No matter what you two are up to, take me along, or else!"

Wang Ziyan snorted coldly, folded her arms, and lifted her chin with a tsundere air.

"Huh? How come you're here?"

Wang Zihao, carrying bottled water and ice cream, had just reached the doorway when he spotted a familiar figure; his eyes instantly went blank and he froze on the spot.

"Haozi, you're in charge of dealing with her."

Chen Yansen didn't want to get too tangled up with her, so he tossed the trouble to Wang Zihao.

He patted his backside, got up and fetched two bottles of mineral water, handed one to the delivery guy, then casually twisted open the other and drank in big gulps.

"You two brothers go ahead, I'll be off first."

Sensing the atmosphere was clearly off, the delivery guy quickly thanked them, grabbed his stuff, and vanished in a flash.

"Little sis, can you not tell our dad?"

"No."

"I'm your brother! Can you really bear to watch our dad beat me to death?"

"Cousin."

"Then what exactly do you want?"

"Take me along, or the deal's off."

Wang Zihao begged piteously, but the other side was unmoved; in the end he could only look pitifully at Chen Yansen.

"Useless good-for-nothing!"

Chen Yansen couldn't help secretly roasting Wang Zihao's IQ—if he had even one-tenth of Wang Ziyan's, he probably wouldn't have been swindled out of half his fortune in his past life.

"Let her come along; we're just short of a maid to serve tea and pour water."

After a moment's thought, Chen Yansen agreed helplessly; he knew clearly that, given Wang Ziyan's powers of observation, combined with the shipping marks on both sides of the crates, it wouldn't be hard to guess what was inside.

The courtyard of a dozen square meters was now piled full; a rough calculation showed that, relying only on Chen Yansen and Wang Zihao's pocket money, they couldn't possibly have afforded all this goods.

From this it was evident the two of them were definitely up to something shady!

"You're really letting her come along?"

Wang Zihao asked blankly, clearly unwilling.

"If you can silence her, that works too."

Chen Yansen shot him a look and said irritably.

"Bro, are you going to pay me wages?"

Wang Ziyan tugged at Wang Zihao's arm, acting coquettishly with him in an intimate way—utterly unlike the girl from a moment ago.

"You're my brother! The big boss is over there."

Wang Zihao silently pulled his arm back and pointed at Chen Yansen nearby.

"All the ice cream you can eat—take the job or leave it!"

Chen Yansen wasn't about to indulge her and fired back bluntly.

"Haozi, the MP3s are twenty crates in total, one hundred per crate; the MP4s are twelve crates, fifty per crate; the rest are all earphones and data cables—pick five from each crate for inspection."

"First, check the casing for scratches, dents, or chipped paint; second, check the screen for dead or bright pixels; third, check the buttons for looseness or malfunction."

"Wang Ziyan, you're in charge of functional testing—every product your brother has checked must be re-tested for playback, charging, and data transfer; any product that fails performance, not a single one is to be kept."

"If there are no questions, get to work!"

Chen Yansen swiftly finished assigning the tasks, and as he spoke, his gaze burned as he looked at the two of them.

"I have a question!"

Wang Ziyan immediately raised her right hand high, like an eager elementary schooler answering in class.

"Speak."

Chen Yansen picked up his water, took a small sip, and asked lightly.

"We both have to work—what about you?"

Wang Ziyan pulled a long face, sensing something was off, and directly voiced the doubt in her heart.

"I'm the boss, of course I'm in charge of supervising you two."

Chen Yansen let out a sly chuckle, utterly cunning.

"Dream on!"

The brother and sister spoke in unison, dragged him bodily to the crates, and the next moment a utility knife appeared in his hand.

"Xiao Chen, no one is allowed to slack off!"

Wang Zihao laughed heartily.

"Fine, then, Haozi—come find Brother Sen when you need something, call him Little Chen when you don't, right? You've got nerve, just wait till your wages get docked!"

Chen Yansen said to Wang Zihao, his face full of mischief as he teased him.

"Brother Sen, cut it out, talking money hurts the friendship!"

Wang Zihao cupped his hands in a rapid flurry of bows, a smile plastered all over his face, pointing at Chen Yansen, saying Chen Yansen was going to make him rich.

Whether his future college life would be happy or not all depended on this deal.

Chen Yansen smiled and didn't keep the banter going—the top priority right now was still inspecting the goods.

Although the payment was temporarily held by the platform, he was also afraid of running into manufacturers who muddied the waters; once they kept dragging their feet, wouldn't that delay his grand money-making plan?

Altogether forty or fifty boxes of goods, the lighter ones twenty or thirty jin, the heavier ones fifty or sixty jin; although they only had to do random spot-checks, by the time they had finished everything, it was already half past two in the afternoon.

The three of them were exhausted and hungry, hot and thirsty; the mineral water they drank came streaming down from their foreheads within two minutes.

"There's one MP3 case with a scratch, the MP4s didn't turn up any quality issues, but the earphones had quite a lot of problems—basically one out of every ten was broken…"

Wang Zihao lay on the bluestone slabs, soaking up a bit of coolness, and said weakly.

"Better than I expected, we start work tomorrow!"

Chen Yansen announced solemnly.

"Where are we going to sell them?"

Hearing him say that, Wang Zihao hurriedly scrambled up, leaned in close, and asked.

"Chongqiao Town!"

Chen Yansen answered without hesitation.

Chongqiao lay to the southwest of Chunshen, only twelve kilometers away, about a twenty-minute drive; every even-numbered day on the lunar calendar was the local market day, with at least tens of thousands of people flowing through.

"How do we get the goods over there?"

Wang Zihao had no objections to this and continued asking.

"Do you know Coach Huang from Huang Daxiang Driving School? Do you know what his other identity is?"

Chen Yansen lowered his voice, looking as though he were letting on a deep secret.

"Holy crap! I just knew it, the reason you picked him as your instructor wasn't simple—could he be an under…!"

Wang Zihao's eyes lit up, and he excitedly waved his arms and danced about.

"Under your ass! His other identity is an unlicensed cab driver—two hundred a day, gas included. I already worked it out with him yesterday."

Chen Yansen squinted his eyes, staring at him as if looking at an idiot.

"Damn you, Chen Yansen, and it wasn't you who led me on!"

Wang Zihao's smile cut off short, and he said indignantly.

"Seven o'clock tomorrow, Tongfei Gate assembly point—remember to wear your work clothes."

Chen Yansen brushed the dust off himself, planning to go home and take a shower; otherwise, the sticky sweat all over his body was truly uncomfortable.

"Do I have to wear one?"

Wang Ziyan blinked her dewy eyes, full of anticipation for tomorrow's trip, and asked with a bright smile.

Chen Yansen, who had reached the doorway, turned around at the words, looked her up and down, then promptly opened his mouth to scold: "Like hell you're wearing one!"

(End of chapter)