Ways to Make Money
Click! Click!
The front door opened and closed.
The moment Shen Heng entered, he saw Shen Shuning sitting on the sofa.
Shen Shuning also turned her head, looking straight at Shen Heng as though she were looking at a stranger.
"Did you clean this?" Shen Shuning asked, her tone so flat that no emotion could be heard in it.
"If there's nobody else in this home, then it was me!" Shen Heng replied.
Shen Shuning stared at Shen Heng, expressionless. Only after a long while did she coldly toss out a question. "Did you lose everything gambling and think you could get me to borrow money for you this way?"
She could hardly be blamed for thinking that. This had happened before; she had simply kept refusing him.
"..." Shen Heng gave Shen Shuning a helpless look and explained calmly, "Nothing of the sort. You're overthinking it. I just thought the place was too dirty and couldn't stand looking at it anymore, so I tidied it up. That's all."
Shen Shuning gave Shen Heng a long look and said coldly, "That had better be the case!"
With that, she got straight up and walked toward her room.
Bang!
The door slammed shut, immediately followed by the crisp click of the lock.
Shen Heng glanced helplessly at the tightly shut door, then turned and walked into the kitchen with the groceries he had just bought.
His years of working in his previous life had given him fairly decent cooking skills. Perhaps he could not compare to a professional chef, but the dishes he cooked often tasted reasonably good!
Washing vegetables, chopping them, lighting the stove, heating the wok, pouring in oil-the sequence flowed like drifting clouds and running water, completed in one smooth sweep.
A while later, an exceedingly faint sound of a door opening came from behind him. The previously shut door quietly opened a narrow crack.
Through the gap, Shen Shuning silently watched the figure busy in the kitchen.
A moment later, the door gently closed again.
Half an hour later, Shen Heng brought the dishes he had prepared to the table in the living room, one by one.
The home was small and had no separate dining room, so the family usually ate in the living room.
Once everything was ready, Shen Heng went to Shen Shuning's door and knocked lightly a few times.
Before long, that cool face appeared before Shen Heng again.
"What is it? Do you need something?" Shen Shuning asked coolly.
"Time to eat!"
"No need. I'll go out to eat myself!" Shen Shuning refused.
The original owner's mother worked practically every day. After receiving her wages each month, she would give a portion to Shen Shuning as living expenses for the following month.
Yes, Shen Heng's living expenses were also given to Shen Shuning. After all, if the money went directly to the original owner, it probably would not have stayed in his hands for more than a few days.
It was not much money, either-roughly 600 yuan per person per month.
After all, even working two jobs, their mother could only earn so much on her own. She also had to cover rent, utilities, household necessities, Shen Heng's debts, and a whole series of other expenses. She really could not squeeze out any more money for the two of them.
Fortunately, food at school was relatively cheap, so it was just barely enough for one meat dish and one vegetable dish at every meal.
Shen Heng glanced at Shen Shuning. He was not surprised by her answer, but he also had a way to deal with it.
"I've already cooked your share. It's fine if you don't eat it. I'll just throw away whatever's left over afterward!" Shen Heng said calmly. Then, without waiting for Shen Shuning's reply, he turned and walked toward the living room.
Watching Shen Heng's retreating figure, Shen Shuning frowned slightly. She hesitated, but ultimately closed her door slowly and walked over to the dining table.
She lowered her head to look at the dishes on the table: braised pork, stir-fried greens, and old hen soup.
"What, do you want me to get you some rice?" Shen Heng asked, looking at Shen Shuning as she stood motionless to one side.
"No."
Shen Shuning gave Shen Heng a cold look, picked up a bowl from the table, and walked over to the rice cooker to fill it.
Then she raised her eyes to glance at Shen Heng, who was sitting on the large sofa, before turning and sitting on the small sofa on the other side.
Shen Heng glanced at his older sister sitting opposite him, but paid it no mind. He picked up his bowl and chopsticks and began eating in large mouthfuls.
Ever since transmigrating last night, he had not eaten a single grain of rice. He had long since become so hungry that his belly felt plastered to his backbone.
Before long, he emptied his bowl and went to get a second helping.
"No matter how well you behave, I won't borrow money for you!" Shen Shuning's cool voice rang out again.
Shen Heng's hand paused briefly as he scooped rice, and he gave Shen Shuning a helpless look.
Just how many times had the original owner pestered her to borrow money to make her this guarded?
"Don't worry. I'll handle my own affairs!"
Shen Heng gave that brief reply, then filled his bowl with a heaping mound of steaming rice, sat back down, and continued wolfing down his food.
Shen Shuning gave Shen Heng a long look as he ate in large mouthfuls. Without saying anything more, she turned back to her own meal.
Neither of them spoke again during the meal.
As soon as Shen Shuning finished eating, she went straight back to her room, as though she did not want to spend even another moment in the same space as Shen Heng.
Shen Heng glanced over, paid it no mind, and continued eating.
A while later, after finishing his third bowl of rice, Shen Heng finally stopped.
He leaned back against the wooden sofa, felt the fullness in his stomach, and let out a satisfied burp.
"Next, I need to think about what to do from here on. The most urgent thing right now is figuring out how to deal with the sixty thousand I owe Huang Shaohua in early May."
"Speaking of debts, aside from Huang Shaohua, how much else did that guy leave me owing?"
With something of a headache, Shen Heng took out his phone and began checking through the apps one by one.
Money to Spend: 65,000 yuan owed;
Installment Smile: 80,000 yuan owed;
Money Comes on Its Own: 78,000 yuan owed;
80,000 + 65,000 + 78,000... = 482,000
"He borrowed 482,000 yuan from online platforms?"
"That's not too bad. It looks like a lot, but it's actually all overdue already. And any lender that dared to lend to a minor isn't legitimate. I can drag it out a little longer and just repay the principal later!"
"As for the loan sharks..."
"Fortunately, he only borrowed sixty thousand from Huang Shaohua's casino, but even so..."
"Sixty thousand, sixty thousand... I need to scrape together sixty thousand in a month!"
Shen Heng raised a hand and rubbed his temple, considering ways to make money.
Profit from an information gap?
No. These weren't even the same world, and this world had no COVID. Its development was entirely different. If he wanted to make money using information from his previous life, he would at least need to spend some time carefully investigating first.
Find a job? Then ask for an advance on his wages?
Leaving aside whether anyone would agree to advance his wages just one month after he started, with this high schooler's body, he couldn't even find work if he wanted to!
Then make money using his ability?
What could good hearing do? Become a private detective? Then help people steal trade secrets?
After thinking for a long time, Shen Heng discovered that he actually had no particularly good options.
No-or rather, for someone with no resources whatsoever, whose status also imposed certain restrictions on what he could do in society, earning sixty thousand within a month was unlikely in the first place.
At this point, his best option actually turned out to be joining the Supervision Bureau.
After all, even their support staff earned ten thousand a month. Their combat personnel had to make at least thirty to fifty thousand, right?
But it took no thought to know that once he entered a place like that, it would be very difficult to leave. Was he going to throw his life away for a little money?
His head aching somewhat, Shen Heng raised a hand and rubbed his temple.
"In the end, it seems becoming a private detective really is the only viable path!"