Cao Yang froze.That wasn't Li Yan's voice.
"Cao Yang, open up. It's me—Leidian."
Cao Yang hurried downstairs and opened the door.Leidian stood there with a huge backpack, completely drenched from head to toe.
"What happened to you? You went to Shenzhen yesterday. Why are you back already?"
Leidian slipped into the room. Cao Yang quickly shut the door behind him.
"What exactly happened?"
"We screwed up. A-Liang and Jiawei were caught by the coast guard. I was the only one lucky enough to escape."
He slumped onto a stool."They'll definitely give my name out. I need to hide here for a while."
Cao Yang sighed. People who often "walk by the river" eventually get wet. He just didn't expect them to fall this fast.Luckily, he hadn't gone with them.
"They'd really rat you out that quickly?"
Leidian sneered. "There's no such thing as loyalty with this job. Before we started, we already agreed—whoever gets caught will dump everything on the others. If I got caught, I'd throw their names out too."
Cao Yang was speechless.
But thinking about it again, he felt this kind of "clear rules before partnership" might be better than those people who talk loyalty every day but sell you out first chance they get.
Leidian dropped the backpack on the floor. "You have my sister's number, right? I lost my phone. Call her for me."
Cao Yang handed him a clean set of clothes and found Lei Yu's number on his new phone. It rang for a long time—no answer."Too early. She's probably still sleeping."
"No one picked up. Go upstairs and sleep a bit."
"Sleep? I can't sleep. I'm… worried about my sister."
"Why? Even if they name you, the cops will come for you, not her."
"You don't get it. I'm not afraid of the police—I'm afraid of the guy who owns the goods. I lost his shipment. If he can't find me, he might go after my sister."
"What? Even after you guys got arrested? That unreasonable?"
"This line of work is like that. High profit, high risk. If all three of us got caught, maybe it'd be fine. But I ran. So I'm the one who has to compensate."
"You could just turn yourself in."
"I thought about it… but I don't want to go to jail!"
Leidian lit a cigarette, slumping deeper with every sigh.
Cao Yang's eyes moved to the backpack."What's inside?"
Leidian unzipped it. Inside were sealed plastic containers filled with thumbnail-sized electronic chips.
Cao Yang had no idea what they were.
"If you have the goods, why not return them?"
"That was three bags total. I only have one. How do I return it?"
"So what's your plan now?"
Leidian took a deep drag."At this point, screw it. I'll sell this bag myself and take the money back home."
"Worth that much?"
"Don't know the price. But if a single trip earns me over thirty thousand, the goods must be worth at least ten times that. And we're just middlemen… maybe even lower level."
At that moment, the phone rang—Lei Yu was calling back.
Cao Yang passed him the phone and quietly went downstairs.
After a while, Leidian came down and returned the phone.
"How'd it go? What did your sister say?"
"She told me to go die," Leidian said miserably.
Cao Yang patted his shoulder. "Normal. Sisters are all like that."
BANG BANG BANG—Someone knocked hard on the door.
Leidian jumped up in panic. "Is it the cops? Or the owner of the goods?!"
Cao Yang pointed upstairs. "Hide."
He opened the door—Just Li Yan.
Figures. But just in case, it was right to hide Leidian first.
"You're up early today?" Li Yan looked energized. After hugging her money all night, she hadn't slept much.
"Cao Yang, let me tell you—those guys in Room 213 are done for. I saw tons of cops kicking their door open this morning. Heard two of them got arrested!"
Li Yan shivered."I told you to stay away from them! Good thing you didn't follow them last night, otherwise you'd be in deep trouble!"
"I always listen to Sister Yan." Cao Yang grinned honestly.
"That's better." She flicked his forehead and sat behind the counter, ready for business.
Cao Yang told her he was going upstairs to catch some sleep.
But the attic was tiny and cramped, and with Leidian hiding there, sleeping was impossible.So the two of them smoked and whispered quietly, trying not to let Li Yan hear.Not that it mattered, but the fewer complications the better.
By noon, customers started coming in.
Li Yan exchanged coin after coin, the money stack growing higher and higher, her grin stretching ear to ear.
Just when she was happiest, two men walked in.
Both had large tattoos snaking down their arms, scars like centipedes across their skin. One look and you knew they weren't the law-abiding type.
The long-haired one tapped on the glass counter."Beauty, you the boss?"
"M-me? No… I-I'm just helping out."Li Yan shrank instantly. She only dared to act tough in front of Cao Yang.
"Then call the boss out. We need to talk."
Li Yan hurried upstairs.
When she reached the loft, she spotted Cao Yang sleeping beside another man.Her jaw dropped. Did refusing him really frustrate him this much?
Looking closely, she recognized the man—one of the guys from Room 213.Police were still searching for him, and Cao Yang actually hid him here.
If she had seen this in the morning, she'd have scolded him for half an hour, but now wasn't the time.
"Cao Yang! Cao Yang!"
"What now?" Cao Yang was irritated from being woken.
"There are two guys downstairs… look like gang members. Probably here to cause trouble."
Cao Yang stood up and went down.
The two men watched him approach.The long-haired one lit a cigarette, took a deep puff, and scratched the back of his head—almost like he learned the move from gangster movies.
"You the boss?"
"Yep. What can I do for you two?"
"We'll make it short. Name's Mountain Eagle. Hunan Gang. This area is our turf. If you want to place machines here, you gotta pay us. You get it?"
Cao Yang shook his head. "Don't get it."
"That's fine. Now that you know, you understand what you should do, right?"
He smirked."Since you sound like you're from Hunan too, I'll give you a discount. Three thousand per machine per month. You've got two machines—six thousand. From now on, your place is under our protection."
Cao Yang squinted."You can protect it?"
Mountain Eagle grinned."My big brother is Tie Xiong. Ask around. There's not a single spot in this area we can't protect."