In the hospital room.
After Yang Qingxue left, Yang Ming couldn't help but praise her. "Xiaofeng, Qingxue is a good girl. You're lucky to have found someone like her. You'd better treat her right from now on!"
"Cousin, I know." Lu Feng's voice held a hint of pride.
Finding a girl like that was a once-in-a-lifetime stroke of luck; it was impossible not to feel a little smug.
"Oh, right, cousin, take this back for now!" Lu Feng said, pulling out the 200,000-yuan bank card Yang Ming had given him. He then added, "Please do me a favor and return the money to Brother Lin and the others. Also, please pass on my thanks. I'll remember their kindness. As for your car, cousin, I'll buy you a new one later."
"Xiaofeng, just focus on getting your aunt's treatment sorted out first. Who knows how much more money you'll need?" Yang Ming said, stunned for a moment as he held the bank card.
He had been worried sick about his cousin. His aunt suddenly contracting this kind of vascular disease was the sort of thing that could crush a person.
He just never expected the money for her treatment to be resolved in such an unforeseen way.
Lu Feng thought for a moment and said, "Cousin, don't worry about the money. The Gold I sold before wasn't all of it. Besides, there might be other things later on—food, supplies, or who knows what else."
He decided to reveal a little something to his cousin.
After all, the Department Store was at least thirty stories tall. There had to be plenty of things inside, and Gold probably wasn't the only valuable item.
The only problem was that these items would all be of questionable origin. Selling them would definitely require going through gray-market channels, and those channels easily attract unwanted attention. He'd need to have some power of his own to deter prying eyes.
"Food, supplies?" Yang Ming was clearly taken aback. He then asked subconsciously, "Xiaofeng, you didn't find some kind of tomb, did you?"
"Huh?" Lu Feng was also stunned.
'A tomb?'
He realized his cousin had misunderstood. He'd also heard that story about the gang boss who got his start by finding gold in a tomb. He quickly explained, "Cousin, I've come across a special channel. I'll be getting a lot of items like this, without any papers. All I can guarantee is that they aren't tied to any criminal cases. As for the specifics, I can't really explain."
Hearing this, Yang Ming glanced instinctively toward the hospital room door before saying, "Xiaofeng, if you can't explain, then don't. We can talk about the rest some other time, after your aunt's surgery."
Now, the way he looked at Lu Feng was a little different. There was a hint of anticipation in his eyes.
He felt he was an incompetent boss. He hadn't managed to make his brothers any real money, and they often had to endure scornful looks. Their families were all worried about them.
But what could he do? When you were in this life, it was hard to make money if you tried to maintain a bottom line. Yet, he didn't want to see his brothers go to prison for a dozen years just for some fast cash. After all, there were countless examples of that happening.
It's just that legitimate ways to make money weren't easy to find in this society, and most of the channels available to people like them were written into the criminal code.
Now, if his cousin had a channel like this—and one that was rich in resources—he wouldn't care where it came from. He'd be willing to lead his brothers to work under his cousin.
Take this Gold, for instance. If they weren't in such a rush, he could have negotiated with Chen Bo and made him give a better price. If that didn't work, he could find other channels himself. He hadn't been in this game for so long for nothing; it just would have taken more time.
There was no need to just hand that kind of profit over to someone else.
He decided he should probably talk to Chen Bo at the bar tonight first.
At this thought, he glanced at Lu Feng again and sighed silently. 'So my cousin has started down this path too,' he thought. 'But then again, in his situation, with a shady channel like this right in front of him, what other choice did he have?'
Obviously, he had once again completely misread the situation.
...
「Night fell.」
Because of his mom's condition, Lu Feng had to stay at the hospital overnight to look after her.
His mom's surgery was tomorrow, so he would have to hire a caregiver. After all, taking care of her post-surgery would be even more difficult, and there were some things that would be inconvenient for him to handle. He couldn't rely on Yang Qingxue forever.
She would get tired too.
A caregiver would make things much easier.
Lu Feng called over the person in charge and hired two caregivers—one for the day shift and one for the night shift—to take turns watching his mother.
Naturally, the night shift caregiver cost 150 yuan more than the day shift one.
Both caregivers were women in their forties and looked quite kind.
That evening, the night shift caregiver began her work.
Although Lu Feng was also staying over, with the caregiver present, there wasn't much for him to do. He sat down on the reclining chair he had prepared earlier and began to check on the game world in his mind.
There was clearly a time difference between the game world and the real world. In the game world, it had just gotten dark.
Through his limited field of vision, he saw that while there were no lights in the gold shop, the hallways of the Department Store were all lit up. It seemed the main power supply hadn't been destroyed yet.
Then, he shifted his gaze to the gold shop across the way, which was within his visible range.
The Gold jewelry from the first shop had sold for over 1.7 million, which should be enough for his mom's surgery and follow-up treatments. However, he also planned to buy his cousin a new car, buy a car and a house for himself, and marry Yang Qingxue in grand style.
All of that would require money.
As he continued to observe, Lu Feng made a surprising discovery. When it got late at night in the game, he saw that the zombies were lying on the ground, as if they were asleep.
'Zombies can sleep?'
But on second thought, it seemed that in many American TV shows, like *The Walking Dead*, zombies did indeed sleep.
Looking at the sleeping zombies, Lu Feng was suddenly eager to try something. This was his chance to clear them all out.
He said a quick word to the night shift caregiver, went to the hospital's public restroom, found a stall, and locked the door. Then, with a single thought, he entered the game.
Reappearing in the game, Lu Feng put on the military camouflage and protective gear he had stored there. He then picked up his steel knife and tiptoed out into the hallway.
Soon, he came to a sleeping zombie and viciously stabbed the steel knife into its head.
A crisp cracking sound rang out, and Lu Feng immediately received a notification:
[Congratulations, you have killed a zombie and gained 5 EXP!]
Seeing this, Lu Feng immediately stabbed his steel knife toward a second zombie!
[Congratulations, you have killed a zombie and gained 5 EXP!]
...
[Congratulations, you have killed a zombie and gained 5 EXP!]
In the hallway, Lu Feng silently cleared the zombies one by one, a single stab for each.
He had originally been wondering how he was going to clear the zombies in the hallway, since there were far more of them than in the gold shop. He never expected it to be this easy.
As he finished clearing the area in front of the gold shop across the way, another notification rang out:
[Congratulations, you have enough experience to meet the upgrade requirement. Level up!]
That familiar warm current and wonderful sensation appeared once again.
Lu Feng immediately looked at the glowing screen in his mind. Five experience points per zombie meant that by the time he reached the gold shop, he had just cleared out forty zombies.
Character: Lu Feng
Gender: Male
Level: 3
Strength: 7 (Average Person: 5)
Agility: 7 (Average Person: 5)
Stamina: 7 (Average Person: 5)
Spiritual Power: 0
EXP: 0/400
Sure enough, the stats had changed again. After leveling up, his Strength, Agility, and Stamina had each increased by another 0.5.
He tried swinging the steel knife in his hand. He now had a full point more Strength than before, and he could clearly feel the increased power in his swing.
After leveling up, the experience needed for the next level had become 400, doubling again.
Lu Feng then turned his attention to the gold shop in front of him. Its floor space was clearly larger than the previous one.