Chapter 34: How Did You Do It?

Families who lost their children?

Officer Braden frowned, “So you’re thinking…”

“Give them a child—healthy, handsome, well-mannered—and willing to take two hundred dollars!”

“Of course, they must keep their mouths shut about those two hundred dollars.”

Lans did not hide his thoughts, because he would still need Officer Braden’s help in the end.

Yet his approach made Officer Braden’s eyes light up, “That’s a solid exclusive business—you shouldn’t have told me so easily.”

Lans leaned forward slightly, “This is my sincerity, Officer Braden. And I believe the profits from our future cooperation will far exceed this…”

He smirked, looking uninterested.

But Officer Braden was very interested, “I’ll keep an eye out for you. Over the years, countless children have gone missing in Jingang City.”

“There are plenty of suitable ages too. I have to say, you’ve opened a whole new market!”

Braden slipped the envelope into his pocket, “Same time tomorrow, same place. I’ll give you an answer!”

He downed his coffee in one gulp, whistling as he walked past the counter, “That kid pays!”

He and his partner left the restaurant and returned to the car.

He told his partner what had just happened; his partner immediately became interested, “How much money can we make from this?”

Braden turned the key while watching the rearview mirror, “Unclear. Depends on how much he can negotiate with others. We can set a standard.”

“What’s the most common thing in Jingang City? Know what it is?” Braden’s voice trembled slightly—he had discovered a massive treasure, one that could grant him instant financial freedom!

Before his partner could answer, he slammed the accelerator to the floor, shouting, “Illegal immigrants!”

“We’ve hit the jackpot!”

Watching the police car speed away with astonishing speed, Lans smirked and continued savoring his coffee and waffle.

The restaurant’s waffle was a bit of a mishmash—topped with maple syrup and jam, some chocolate chips, and finally a dusting of powdered sugar.

Still, the classic Lianbang style: sweet enough to make you question life itself. But paired with unsweetened coffee, it was slightly more bearable.

Lans ate about a third of it before he simply couldn’t go on—each bite made his teeth scream.

When he paid, the price was so low he wondered if the bill had been miscalculated—the owner charged him only one dollar.

The two coffees totaled thirty-five cents; the waffle and burger cost sixty-five cents. Mr. Anderson really ought to come see these prices—he’s the one with the truly black heart.

He knew Officer Braden would take this seriously, because the business looked huge!

To prevent Lans from going to others and leaking this profitable opportunity, Braden would definitely help him—and try to bind him with “friendship” to keep him quiet.

In reality, this business wasn’t easy at all.

How many illegal immigrants in Jingang City today could save a few hundred dollars?

Like Elvin and his group, who worked at the docks—they could barely save three or five dollars a month, even after cutting every possible corner.

Even if they saved five dollars every month, that’s only sixty dollars a year—it would take five years to save three hundred!

In truth, people who could save that much did exist, but they were extremely rare—perhaps one in a thousand.

So this business looked promising on the surface, but in reality, it was like selling real estate to homeless people.

If they had money to buy a house, they wouldn’t be homeless.

And since they were homeless, it meant they had no money at all!

Saturday morning was when Lianbang citizens gathered outside Saint Naye Cathedral. This time, Lans arrived even earlier than before; after greeting some adults, he went to the side.

The young people immediately greeted him warmly when they saw him.

Don’t underestimate the importance of five dollars to these youths at this time.

At Fat Boss’s place, a regular meal cost twenty cents; at Mr. Anderson’s restaurant, where meals cost a dollar or two, even thirty or more, those were rare exceptions.

Five dollars was enough for these youths to enjoy themselves for a good while—especially since they’d experienced a fancy restaurant and gotten two dollars’ worth of free food. Every one of them now felt warmly toward Lans!

Geral was also delighted—people liking Lans was like people liking him.

Of course, not everyone was good or positive; someone asked Lans a question he found hard to answer—

“Lans, I’m curious—how much did you make from this deal?”

Greed and envy—always the inescapable original sins. Someone had calculated that in one day, Lans had spent over a hundred dollars on them.

He spent so much in a single day—didn’t that mean he was making even more from it?

Plus, over the past two days, they’d all heard rumors about Mr. Anderson’s restaurant. What they were most curious about was how much Lans had profited from it.

This was a hard question to answer. Geral stepped forward immediately to rebuke it: “What’s it to you?”

The man grinned, “I’m just curious—I don’t mean to offend Lans. After all, I made money too, so I’m just curious.”

Others spoke up in Lans’s defense: “You don’t have to answer, Lans. We’re all grateful you thought of us back then.”

But Lans surprised them by answering: “All together, about a thousand dollars.”

The surrounding youths all sucked in a breath. Even Geral stared at him, dumbfounded, blurting out, “That much?!”

The youth who’d asked first glared with jealous, bloodshot eyes: “A thousand dollars? My god—I’ve never seen that much money in my life!”

Lans, however, looked utterly unimpressed: “If you knew the person who gave me this job made at least two thousand from it, wouldn’t you be even more shocked?”

Sure enough, they all gasped again—they couldn’t imagine what it felt like to earn so much at once.

“Lans, will there be more opportunities like this?” Enio couldn’t help asking the question everyone wanted to ask—if earning five dollars was this easy, who wouldn’t want it?

All eyes turned to him. Enio looked embarrassed: “Uh, I mean—if you need help, I think I could do something for you.”

The youths quickly chimed in—even once a month would be a great extra income.

“I can help too!”

The youths’ voices grew louder. It proved that whenever money was involved, people unleashed unimaginable enthusiasm!

Mr. Jobaf heard the noise from the front and turned curiously toward the youths—he saw nearly all of them clustered around Lans, which puzzled him.

Remember, this was only Lans’s second time attending the Empire gathering—he probably didn’t even know everyone’s names—but he’d already won their admiration. It was strange!

He’d formed a good first impression of Lans. Most Empire youths who came to the Lianbang discovered the gap between them—

It wasn’t as bad as some claimed, yet it clearly showed superior qualities compared to the Empire. This left these young Empire arrivals feeling inferior, paralyzed, unable to embrace their new life.

He’d seen many new Empire youths—hesitant, timid, even afraid to greet others properly.

But Lans showed none of that. He seemed cheerful, outgoing, mature. Saying he was from the Empire felt less plausible than saying he was a native Lianbang citizen.

Mr. Jobaf sent an assistant to inquire. Soon the assistant returned, looking strangely disturbed: “You won’t believe what I found out, Mr. Jobaf.”

“You don’t have to tell me—just like I can dock your pay,” Mr. Jobaf disliked this obvious stalling.

His assistant hurried to say, “He took the kids out and made over a hundred dollars—and he himself said he earned a thousand from the last job!”

Even the assistant looked stunned. Though he earned more than an average worker, a thousand dollars was still an enormous sum!

After hearing this, Mr. Jobaf grew even more curious: “How did he do it?”