Chapter 3 - So You're Rich?
The girl wasn’t kicking Lin Yi anymore. Having lost interest, she leaned against the window and put her earphones back on.
“We have arrived at Songshan Station, all passengers please prepare for exit. The train will stop for fifteen minutes.” Lin Yi started getting ready as soon as the announcement ended.
He didn’t expect the girl beside him to be doing the same. This was her stop.
Lin Yi confirmed the girl’s height as soon as she stood up- he was right.
He took in his surroundings after stepping off the train. Skyscrapers filled the sky, changing the scenery into a completely different view from when he visited ten years ago.
“Wait!” A girl’s voice sounded from behind Lin Yi.
It was the girl from the train, and she was running at him.
“What is it?” Lin Yi didn’t think it was a case of love at first sight, though he did sport a pretty handsome face. His looks were simply useless with attire this shitty- a white tank top and a muddy yellow for his pants labelled him a tasteless farmer.
“You’re not planning on cashing that ticket in, are you?” The girl wasn’t very friendly when she spoke, clearly still pissed at Lin Yi for ignoring her before.
“Oh, this?” Lin Yi pulled the tab out of his pocket and littered the roadside with it.
“Wha-!?” The girl’s eyes went wide with disbelief as she pointed her finger at Lin Yi. “Y-you threw it away?”
“Yep.” Lin Yi nodded. “It was fake anyway.”
“You knew?” The girl only grew more confused. What was wrong with him, paying for something he knew was fake? Is he stupid? Is he insane? From what she could see, Lin Yi didn’t seem like someone rich enough to get scammed for fun.
“Yeah, I knew. Even if I didn’t, you warned me, didn’t you!” Lin Yi said, smiling.
“And you still paid them?” The girl was starting to panic.
Lin Yi continued to smile as he removed his bag, holding it open for the girl to see.
She looked at Lin Yi before peeking inside.
There were seven bundles of cash in there!
“So you’re rich? You shouldn’t be wasting money like that even if you’re rich, don’t you think..?” The girl didn’t understand what Lin Yi was trying to prove. To her, it just seemed like he was showing off how rich he was.
“This here is the money from before.”
“The money from before? What does that mean?” The girl still didn’t understand. “You’re saying you took the money back, but wasn’t it forty-nine thousand? You have at least seventy or eighty thousand in here!”
“Well, that professor guy had thirty thousand on him. I just took it along with my own money.” Lin Yi shrugged. To him, it was nothing more than a mere gesture, like putting clothes on, or pouring water into a glass.
“Wha…” The girl was utterly dumbfounded at this point. So Lin Yi wasn’t an idiot. Not only that, he was several levels higher than the scammers, stealing even the professor’s thirty thousand along with his own!
“What’s with that face… You’re not going to report me, are you?” Lin Yi joked as he observed the girl’s reaction.
“Of course not.” The girl shook her head with a blush.
“Jokes aside, I really wanna thank you. Girls like you are rare.” Lin Yi spoke genuinely. “Wanna get something to eat later?”
“Nah…” The girl shook her head, fidgeting. “My family’s waiting for me at the gates.”
Lin Yi simply nodded. Hitting on girls required skill, but fate played a role as well. Going against the flow too much would yield the opposite result. “Well, see you then.”
The girl watched as Lin Yi’s figure disappeared into the distance. What an interesting person. She wouldn’t mind getting to know him a little better if her mother wasn’t waiting at the gates.
Yet it didn’t mean that the girl’s taken a liking to Lin Yi- it was a different kind of attraction: Lin Yi stood out from the crowd. He had tens of thousands in his bag, instead of his bank, and there was a certain aura Lin Yi produced that even his ugly clothes failed to cover.
“Sir, interested in a hotel for the night? It’s real cheap here…”
Lin Yi was attacked by a crowd of hotel promoters the moment he left the station. Farmer-looking people like him were the ideal target for budget hotels, after all.
Those who had money wouldn’t bother with hotels like these, and the grander ones didn’t need promoters handing fliers out in the field.
Lin Yi waved his hand in response as he shoved out of the crowd, making his way to where the taxis were.
He held in his hand a piece of paper Old Man Lin gave him, detailing the address where he was expected.
He entered a taxi, and the passionate driver turned to him. “Where you headed, lad?”
“This address here.” Lin Yi handed the note to him.
The driver was a local around the train station area, and he had a sharp eye for his customers. Lin Yi, obviously, was not a local. The man speculated that Lin Yi was most likely a villager looking for a job in the city, and he planned on taking a couple of detours to boost the fare.
His face went green with one look at the note.
Songshan City, High Light Avenue, No. 36. Pengzhan Towers. 11.2 kilometers from the station. Use the Second Circle Bridge.
Even the route was planned out, along with the distance. There wasn’t any space for him to manoeuvre! Also, why would this kid want to go to Pengzhan Towers? That was where Songshan’s largest corporation was based at! A farmer looking person like him… It didn’t seem likely that he’d know anyone from the inside.
The driver sighed, putting the note aside before starting the ride.
Songshan had great traffic, and bridges were plenty. It didn’t take long before they reached the destination. Lin Yi paid the driver twenty-four kuai for the fare before getting off the taxi.
He couldn’t help but feel dizzy with a skyscraper this tall looming over him. Wasn’t this taller than that huge mountain back home? The client this time around seemed wealthy enough that it really could be his retirement mission.
Lin Yi made sure it was the right place before marching in.