Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"That's more like it. We're civilized people!" Lin Qi took a step back and adjusted his collar. "Anything else? If not, I'll be leaving. I have a lot to do!"

Michael could not help stepping forward again, growling in a low voice, "This is between us. Leave my family out of it. You're breaking the Rules!"

"Rules?" Lin Qi looked puzzled. "I'm not in your line of work, and I've never had much to do with you. Are you sure those Rules of yours apply to me?"

He even smiled. "Of course, I'm a law-abiding citizen. I don't need you to remind me of that. If you have nothing else to say, I'll be leaving."

He looked at Michael. They faced each other for three to five seconds before Michael stepped aside. Lin Qi gave him a slight nod and brushed past him.

Watching Lin Qi's retreating back, Michael showed the badge inside his jacket, then backed his car off the sidewalk. Before long, he parked in the space outside his home.

He hurried back inside and saw his wife watching her usual afternoon soap opera. He quickly went over and hugged his startled wife. "Nothing strange happened just now, right?"

"I mean, no one knocked on the door or came into our yard, right?"

His wife was several years younger than him. That was also why so many people wanted to join the Federal Revenue Service every year: it offered the highest salaries in the government system, the best benefits, the most generous working conditions and compensation, along with all kinds of unexpected perks.

That made every Federal Revenue Service employee highly sought after on the marriage market. Whether they were men or women, they could find someone they liked.

Most men chose younger women. Wives three to five years younger, or even ten years younger, were nothing unusual.

Michael's wife was six years younger than him, and he had always cherished her dearly.

"No, no one came. I've been sitting here watching TV all afternoon. If anyone had come, I would have noticed."

The Living Room faced the front door directly. If anyone knocked or entered the yard, she could see them through the bright windows in the wall. The afternoon had been so quiet she had nearly fallen asleep.

Michael put an arm around his wife's shoulders and sat with her on the sofa. He did not know how to bring up his business trip, much less how to warn her to be careful of Lin Qi if he appeared again.

Elsewhere, after making a few rounds outside and buying some electrical supplies, Lin Qi returned to his temporary lodging. He took out his key and was opening the door when someone coming up from behind suddenly pressed close to him, a sharp object against his waist.

A voice reeking of foul breath followed by his ear. "Where's my money?"

Lin Qi paused only slightly before continuing to open the door. He pushed it open and stepped one leg inside as he said, "If you don't want anyone hurting Nai Wan Wan, you'd better come in with me. Whatever the problem is, we can settle it by talking."

In less than five seconds, Lin Qi had already identified the man behind him. Thanks to everything he had accumulated in his previous life, this twenty-year-old body, full of energy and still at its peak, gave him an indescribable thrill. Everything was under his control. He had never felt his own strength so clearly before.

The man outside hesitated, but he still followed him in. More than two thousand dollars was no small sum to him. What surprised him was that Lin Qi, this young man, was not afraid of the knife in his hand.

The room was small: a bedroom connected to the front door and an inner room for washing up. There was a faint smell of... shit in the air. Newspaper Boss raised his eyebrows. He had thought the place would be cleaner.

That night, Lin Qi had showered for a long time before finally getting rid of the filth and water that had soaked completely into his pants. Yet the smell still lingered even now. He had rinsed everything countless times and even used air freshener, but some of the stench could not be concealed.

"What happened between you and Michael has nothing to do with me. Give me back my money!" Newspaper Boss gestured with the dagger in his hand, restating his position.

After the Newspaper Boys returned, he collected the newspaper bundles from them and found only a little over two thousand dollars inside. Around twenty-six or twenty-seven hundred dollars was missing. That was no small amount. With what he earned selling newspapers, it might represent several months of income.

He would not let that money simply vanish from his world. He had gone to find Michael, but Michael said it had nothing to do with him. Now he could only come to Lin Qi. Maybe this young man would be easier to reason with.

"I just want my own money back, understand? None of this has anything to do with me!"

After tidying up briefly, Lin Qi sat on the bed. He crossed one leg over the other and rested both hands on his knee. He could tell Newspaper Boss was nervous. The man was rambling, constantly emphasizing the dagger in his hand, but he was not necessarily all that frightening.

His eyes wandered, his eyelashes trembled slightly, and most of the time his gaze was focused on the floor between them. He was afraid too. This was his first time doing something like this: holding a dagger, standing on someone else's turf, and demanding that they do something.

Lin Qi had already seen through his bluff. Smiling, he said, "You know, even if I killed you right now, the judge would not convict me of anything, because you broke into my room armed with a weapon."

Newspaper Boss suddenly raised his head and looked back at the door behind him. A thought flashed through his mind: Lin Qi had invited him inside not to avoid being seen, but to set him up.

He immediately became more agitated, and more afraid. He realized he had changed from hunter to prey. His breathing quickened until he felt as though he might suffocate.

He backed up several steps and raised the knife, trying to look vicious. He wanted to go up and teach Lin Qi a lesson, maybe slash his clothes, but he was afraid Lin Qi might have some trick to strike back afterward. For a moment, he did not know what to do.

Only when he saw the man had reached a point where he could not continue did Lin Qi point at the chair beside him. "Why not sit down and have a proper talk? Violence solves nothing!"

He sounded very sincere. Perhaps Newspaper Boss was moved by that sincerity, or perhaps Lin Qi's calm composure affected him. After thinking it over, Newspaper Boss agreed and sat down in the chair.

Only after he sat down did Lin Qi ask, "Actually, my loss is far greater than yours. I lost five thousand dollars!" Newspaper Boss's expression immediately showed obvious shock, along with a trace of so that's how it was.

"Have you ever considered that this might be a setup?" Without waiting for Newspaper Boss to react, Lin Qi pressed on. "I divided five thousand dollars among five kids. They counted it, and I counted it once in front of them. There's no way anything went wrong with that money while it was with me."

"After they left my room, did they go straight to you, or did they go somewhere else?"

"If they went straight back to you, have you considered whether those Newspaper Boys are trustworthy?"

"If they went somewhere else, could someone other than you and me have interfered?"

Lin Qi shrugged and spread his hands, looking regretful. "Michael told people he got nothing from me, but I really did lose five thousand dollars. I think that five thousand is in his hands!"

Those words quickly sent Newspaper Boss, who was not very educated, into wild speculation. To avoid exposing himself and being dragged into the matter, he had not appeared nearby at the time. He had been waiting in an alley farther away.

After the Newspaper Boys got the money, they had not gone straight back to him. Instead, they went to a room across the street to meet Michael. There had been about one or two minutes in between.

If something had happened to the money... then it could only have happened with Michael.

By then, he was already starting to believe it. The Newspaper Boys he had sent were people he trusted fairly well. They had all said they counted the money, Lin Qi counted it too, and then they watched the money be wrapped back up as before.

As he began recalling those details, Lin Qi added, "We're all afraid of certain people and don't dare speak up. I believe we aren't the only ones who don't dare tell the truth. Those kids might not dare tell the truth either."

"You came to me with a knife, but you found the wrong person. Go ask those kids again. Maybe you'll discover something new."

Uneducated people really are easy to fool! Lin Qi once again wore a caring, almost kindly expression.

To explain something, some readers asked: if half the money was deducted all at once, wouldn't the Newspaper Boys notice? I think that question should be asked of people who buy a twenty-dollar pack of cigarettes at a train station, get eighty dollars in change, put it in their pocket, then take it out later and discover there are only thirty or forty dollars left. Wouldn't they notice?

As long as the plot's intelligence is not deliberately lowered, giving the story a little convenience to keep it flowing smoothly is not a problem, in my opinion.