Stating the Facts

Stating the Facts Mr. Fox had some reputation on this street. He was the kind of man with "connections," willing to help the poor by lending them money to get through hard times.

Of course, he was not purely charitable. He also needed the poor to repay his kindness with generous returns, perhaps even more than the principal.

But overall, he was a good man. Maybe. Perhaps. Probably.

In an underground office, Lin Qi met Mr. Fox, a gentleman who looked somewhere between thirty-six, seven, eight, nine, and around forty.

He wore this year's most fashionable dark gray suit with red and blue dots, with a red-and-blue silk scarf tied around his collar. It was somewhat informal, yet elegant.

Before Lin Qi arrived, Mr. Fox had already heard from his men about the boy's unusual behavior, including the things he had said earlier. It made him curious.

"You aren't afraid of me?" He had his men press Lin Qi into a chair across from his desk. "Very few people on this street aren't afraid of me."

Lin Qi showed no trace of fear. To him, this was nothing much. He shrugged and asked in return, "Mr. Fox, would you hurt me?"

The question caught Mr. Fox off guard. He gave it some serious thought, then shook his head. "I generally do not take the initiative to hurt anyone. But if you do something unfriendly first..."

Hurting someone for no reason was a foolish thing for anyone to do. First, it damaged one's image; second, such purposeless actions could draw the attention of the Bureau of Investigation.

Most people were looking for money, not trouble. Mr. Fox was no different.

"Exactly. So why should I be afraid?" The composure and smile on Lin Qi's face gave Mr. Fox a momentary flicker of doubt.

He glanced at the assistant beside him, then shifted his gaze back to Lin Qi's face. "But my men say you've been watching me these past few days. Perhaps you could tell me why. Are you with the Bureau of Investigation?"

Before bringing him here, they had searched Lin Qi and found nothing that could prove his identity. And judging by his clothes, he looked nothing like the sort of people from the Bureau of Investigation. Fox did not believe he was an agent.

That was what made him curious. For some time now, the boy had been watching his business, that laundromat. He had also learned the boy's identity. Out of curiosity and caution, this meeting had been arranged.

He very much wanted to know what Lin Qi was doing.

He picked up the notebook from Lin Qi's pocket and flipped through several pages. It was full of things he could not understand. He asked the university-graduate assistant beside him, but even the assistant had no idea what the writing meant.

The warmth of Lin Qi's smile made Mr. Fox feel... slightly uncomfortable. The feeling was like... he did not know how to describe it. Like being cared for.

"It's like this, Mr. Fox. I noticed the laundromat's business, as well as some of your minor troubles. And I believe you have already investigated me and know the problem I'm facing now..."

Mr. Fox nodded and stressed one word. "Poverty!"

Lin Qi pointed at the ceiling, using the small gesture to draw Mr. Fox's attention and reclaim the conversation. "You're right. So I need to get out of this financial crisis as soon as possible. I want to do a little business with you."

In an instant, everyone in the office burst out laughing. Mr. Fox, his assistant, and the two burly men who looked like trouble all laughed loudly.

Lin Qi looked at Mr. Fox without embarrassment. After they had laughed for roughly thirty-one, two, three, four, five seconds and finally stopped, he asked, "This isn't a joke."

Mr. Fox began laughing again. As he laughed, he asked, "But I don't see what business there could be between us..." His laughter naturally faded as he spoke, and he frowned. "You want to borrow money?"

Lin Qi shook his head. "No. Business, Mr. Fox!"

Mr. Fox had laughed enough. Humanity's innate curiosity and desire for knowledge made him continue the conversation. At least until he learned the answer or lost interest, he would not end this interesting exchange.

"So what business do you want to do with me?"

Lin Qi's usual confident, sunny smile made people instinctively like him. "I can provide more Small Change: five-cent, ten-cent, twenty-five-cent, and fifty-cent coins. Both new and old..."

Mr. Fox's expression changed sharply. Something chilling showed through his slightly narrowed eyes. If that look had to be interpreted, it was undoubtedly killing intent.

"You know what I do?" He could not help pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. "You have a lot of nerve!"

Lin Qi was completely unmoved. "I'm not even afraid of being poor. Why would I be afraid of anything else?"

The two stared at each other for a moment. This man named Lin Qi did seem to be bold, and his words had made Mr. Fox genuinely interested.

Some industries had gray areas. For example, the Finance Company he operated was not entirely legal. Not only was the Bureau of Investigation watching him, but the Federal Revenue Service was watching him as well.

He needed to use certain channels to pay taxes on the money in his hands legally and reasonably, without attracting too much attention. The laundromat was an excellent channel.

No one cared where every coin came from, nor could they figure out where those coins had come from. Across the entire Bayer Federation, nearly all laundromats were controlled by people like them.

But they had a problem as well: it was too slow!

The Middle Class and the Upper Class had their own washing machines. They did not need to bring their clothes out to the street to be washed. Only the poor did that.

But the poor usually saved up a week's worth of clothes before coming to wash them, and when they came, they washed everything at once.

For this reason, people like Mr. Fox had even created a new pricing standard: charging by the pound. Yet it was still a drop in the bucket.

They could not exactly force everyone to wash clothes every day, could they? That would only draw the attention of the Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Revenue Service. This was Mr. Fox's greatest frustration.

The safe was clearly stuffed full of money, yet he could not take it out and spend it. The feeling was simply awful!

Now this bastard in front of him said he could solve that problem, and Mr. Fox immediately became interested. "How do you plan to do it?"

Lin Qi laid out his method without concealing anything. He could not hide it anyway. Given his current status and position, he had no way to stop Mr. Fox from getting to the bottom of it. Better to state it directly and show his sincerity.

"I'll collect large amounts of coins and resell them to you in exchange for a fee. My income will be that difference."

Mr. Fox glanced at his assistant again. The assistant whispered in his ear for a while before he finally asked with a frown, "How much do you want?"

Lin Qi's warm smile once again made Mr. Fox feel that inexplicable illusion of being cared for. "Ten percent!"

"Are you crazy?" Mr. Fox could not help shouting. "I'd rather wait slowly!"

He could not accept a ten-percent price at all. When the amount of a transaction was One Sol, it was only ten cents.

But when the transaction amount was One Hundred Thousand or One Million, it became a figure painful enough to make one's heart ache.

Lin Qi did not immediately bargain with him. Instead, he raised a new question. "Mr. Fox, do you have a copy of Transaction Newspaper here?"

Transaction Newspaper was one of the most widely circulated newspapers in the Bayer Federation. It covered all seventeen states and every region of the Bayer Federation. Its content mainly concerned national and international financial and economic trends, as well as local financial and economic changes.

During the string of "confrontations," Mr. Fox gradually lost the initiative. He glanced at his assistant, who nodded to indicate that they had it.

Though their business was not entirely proper, their work was indeed closely tied to finance.

"Give me an early issue and the latest one. I'll make you understand who the real winner in our deal will be!"

Lin Qi's firm, powerful voice and confident expression made Mr. Fox begin to believe him faintly. It was just like when Lin Qi had once stood before a crowd with a microphone and delivered a speech.

People looked at him, believed every word he said, then stuffed money into his pocket and thanked him!