Chapter 12: What? Someone Hijacked It? (Please Keep Reading!)

Ring, ring, ring—

At six-thirty the next morning, Jiang Tao was awakened by the alarm on his phone.

Just as he was about to turn it off and catch a few more minutes of sleep, a piece of information he had come across last night suddenly flashed through his mind.

With a swift motion, Jiang Tao sat up in bed and quickly began dressing and putting on his shoes.

The power of money is simply overwhelming!

Laziness stood no chance against it!

In three minutes, fully dressed, Jiang Tao stepped out and headed downstairs.

It was still early; the Red Star Secondhand Furniture Market hadn’t opened yet, so there was no need to rush.

Just thinking about earning another 29,800 yuan today made Jiang Tao consider treating himself to something nice, to reward himself first.

Reaching the old Gu Lamb Soup shop, Jiang Tao turned in without hesitation.

He ordered a large bowl of lamb offal soup and half a flatbread, spending only 23 yuan in total.

After eating to his fill and warming himself up, Jiang Tao finally stepped outside and walked toward the village entrance.

“Xiao Jiang, you’re living the good life, huh? Even drinking lamb soup now,” teased Wang Lianming, an old fellow villager, catching up with him from behind with hands clasped behind his back.

Jiang Tao smiled and replied casually, “Too lazy to cook for myself, just making do. Have you eaten yet, Brother Wang?”

“My wife makes millet pumpkin porridge every morning, says it’s nutritious and healthy.”

“No matter how nutritious or healthy, you can’t eat it every day. I’m about to go bland in the mouth!”

“Honestly, I envy you. Out here, far from anyone’s reach, free to do whatever you want, eat whatever you like.”

“At my place, whatever we eat is decided by my wife. Things I like, like noodles or flatbread, she calls calorie bombs.”

“Eating a bowl of noodles feels like committing some huge crime!”

Jiang Tao laughed, “I’m actually envious of you and your wife being together every day. My wife and I are apart for two or three months at a stretch.”

Life is often like this—always thinking others have it easier, envying them.

Unaware that others are envying you in return.

“Shall we switch lives for a while?”

“Hahaha, Brother Wang, you can’t joke about that. If your wife heard you, you’d be on your knees scrubbing the washboard when you get home!”

“Kneeling to scrub the washboard? As a man, when would I ever kneel? I’m not kidding with you...”

The two laughed as they reached the village entrance, each climbed into their trucks, and together they headed toward the Red Star Secondhand Furniture Market to start the day’s work.

At seven-thirty in the morning, the market opened, and the merchants began slowly arriving.

“Let’s get to work!”

Jiang Tao opened his truck door, jumped down from the cab, closed the door behind him, and entered the market with the other merchants.

“Shop B25, that’s the place…”

Having worked here for five or six years, Jiang Tao knew the layout well and quickly found the entrance to shop B25.

It was a secondhand sofa dealer, occupying three to four hundred square meters, with a spacious interior.

“Almost eight o’clock, and they’re still not open.”

Jiang Tao checked his phone, then glanced at the locked door of B25, feeling a bit anxious.

“Calm down, calm down. It’s just an old sofa, no one’s going to snatch it. Don’t look too eager.”

He reassured himself, pulled out a cigarette from the pack, lit it, and took a drag to ease his nerves.

Halfway through the cigarette, a plump woman in a maroon long down jacket with curly hair appeared at the door of B25.

She held a pancake roll in one hand, occasionally taking bites, while the other hand fished out keys from a black crossbody bag to unlock the door.

“She’s here!”

Jiang Tao’s face brightened at the sight of her unlocking the door; he had been waiting for quite some time!

The curly-haired woman unlatched the chain lock and pushed open the door, officially opening for business.

Jiang Tao quickly stubbed out his cigarette in a nearby trash can and strode toward the entrance of shop B25.

“Handsome, looking to buy a sofa? What kind do you want? I’ll show you around,” greeted Li Guiying as she saw Jiang Tao step in, setting down her pancake roll with a smile.

“Sis, you haven’t finished your breakfast yet. You eat on; I’ll look around myself and see if anything catches my eye.”

Jiang Tao replied cheerfully, his eyes drifting toward a corner in the northwest of the storage area.

A beam of light shot straight from the floor to the ceiling in that corner.

From yesterday’s experience buying liquor, the glowing object was likely the sofa hiding someone’s secret stash of money!

“Alright, I’ll just look around then. If you find something you like, just tell me. You’re my first customer today; I’ll give you a discount.”

“Great! Enjoy your meal, Sis. I’ll take a look around.”

Jiang Tao smiled and said this to Li Guiying, then began a cursory tour.

To conceal his true purpose, he didn’t head directly to the glowing spot but wandered through other areas for five or six minutes.

Eventually, pretending to stumble upon it by accident, he approached the sofa bathed in the beam of light.

It was a soft, delicate pink two-seater sofa, about seventy to eighty percent new.

“Wow, this color…”

Jiang Tao, a manly man, felt a moment of awkwardness seeing such a pastel pink.

But for the money hidden inside the sofa, what was a bit of embarrassment?

As long as he wasn’t embarrassed, anyone else should be!

“Ahem, Sis, could you come here for a moment?”

Jiang Tao called out to Li Guiying, who was eating her pancake roll inside a makeshift office near the door.

She finished the last bite, waddled over on her short legs, and asked with a smile,

“Which one caught your eye, handsome?”

“Sis, how much is this sofa?”

Jiang Tao pointed awkwardly at the pink sofa, asking the price.

“Huh? You want this one?”

Li Guiying looked at the sofa he indicated and immediately thought he must be from some special group.

This guy seemed quite manly, but this taste…

Jiang Tao laughed awkwardly and explained, “Ahem, my wife likes this color. How much is this sofa?”

“Hold on, handsome, I think I recognize this sofa…”

“Oh right! I just remembered—I sold this sofa in a livestream last night. The buyer said they’d come pick it up this morning.”

“Brother, you might want to look at something else.”

Li Guiying patted her head and said, “My memory tends to fade a bit in winter.”

“Sold already?”

Jiang Tao was stunned by her words.

He had come so early, only to be cut off!