Chapter 59: Profound Meaning

"Lai Dingwen is not a simple man," Wu Dahai said.

"How can you tell?" I asked.

"I can't quite put my finger on it. If you call him a swindler, he actually has some real skills; if you call him a master, he is openly a swindler. When he talks and does things, he comes across as straightforward, yet there's also an unfathomable depth to him," Wu Dahai laughed with a chuckle.

"Could he mix so effortlessly in the upper circles without a few tricks up his sleeve? Fortune-tellers, physiognomists, and feng shui practitioners belonged to the Gold Guild in the old society, and their arts were largely the same—nothing more than sharp questioning and seasoned psychological profiling. The methods are identical, but how many people could rise to his level? I don't know how much genuine ability he has, but he definitely possesses his own unique techniques. That's how the underbelly of the jianghu works. We looked like we were hitting it off, but there's no way he would bare his heart to us upon a first meeting. Even when he generously and straightforwardly handed over tens of thousands of yuan, there was actually a deeper meaning behind it," I said.

"What deeper meaning?" Wu Dahai asked.

"He was paying for peace of mind, and also testing our intentions. By accepting the money, we actually put his mind more at ease; if we had refused it, he would have suspected we had ulterior motives. Dahai-ge, you might not fully understand what I mean. Let me ask you this: what does Lai Dingwen need to blend into the upper circles and make the rich and powerful treat him as an honored guest?" I asked.

"He needs high-level skills," Wu Dahai answered directly.

"Yes, what sounds like high-level skill is actually just manipulation. He needs to spend time and effort orchestrating things, using various methods to build his reputation. He even has to research the hobbies and needs of the wealthy around him, and combine that with the Gold Guild's mastery of reading expressions and psychological tactics to ensure he can speak with conviction and make people trust him implicitly. Lai Dingwen might have only become famous here over the last three years, but he probably started setting the stage five years ago. I used to be so naive, thinking that people from the jianghu encountering fellow guild members was a joyous occasion. That's why, back at the Awang Restaurant, I was so smugly trading underworld slang with the secret marker in the gambling den. I thought meeting a fellow insider was like heroes of the jianghu meeting—extraordinarily warm, drinking heavily, eating meat, and even finding a soulmate. I turned out to be wrong. The day I was beaten and driven out of Awang Restaurant later on was entirely due to my own missteps," I said.

"Wasn't it a happy occasion for insiders to meet? Finding a kindred spirit far from home when meeting one of your own," Wu Dahai said.

"Lai Dingwen is most terrified of being exposed. His tricks can fool outsiders, but they can't fool another insider. The appearance of an insider is the greatest threat to him, potentially ruining years of hard work in an instant. In the third-floor casino of Awang Restaurant, whether they were cheating or running a fixed game, what they feared most were professional card sharps! Our appearance certainly brought hostility to Lai Dingwen, especially since we held leverage over him. That is why handing over those tens of thousands of yuan was meant to buy peace, not an act of casual generosity. When I insisted on giving him an IOU, I was offering him a promise—not a promise to repay the money, but a reassurance that I had no interest in his affairs and was willing to leave my name to dispel his hostility. I even deliberately told him what we were plotting, feeding him information and handing him leverage on purpose. Only by doing this could he truly feel at ease with us," I said.

"Now that I think about it, that really makes sense. This jianghu is quite different from the one I imagined. A-cheng, your brain is really something else. If it were me, I'd probably be sold by someone and still happily help them count the money," Wu Dahai laughed.

"A fall into the pit, a gain in your wit. After being beaten in the restaurant's backyard that day, Awang and Cheng Yi both followed me all the way to my rented room. If they hadn't eventually realized I was just a naive amateur with no malicious intent, I probably would have been dumped into the Guqiao River to feed the fish and shrimp by now," I smiled bitterly.

"That won't happen again," Wu Dahai said softly.

I pulled out the stack of money Lai Dingwen had given me, found a quiet spot, and counted it.

Exactly forty-seven thousand yuan.

Holding that stack of cash, a wave of excitement was still hard to suppress.

I took out five thousand yuan and handed it to Wu Dahai. "Dahai-ge, take this to cover your recent expenses first. We'll talk if it's not enough."

Wu Dahai refused firmly, saying that the three hundred thousand already constituted an immense favor, more than enough for Niuniu's surgery, and that he didn't lack money living by himself here right now.

In the end, I still shoved two thousand into his hand, tucked the rest of the money away, and said, "Let's go, to the cell phone store!"

Right now, we had six sticks of incense burning in our furnace—our newly formed crew of six.

Except for Wang He, everyone else was broke, and keeping in touch was extremely inconvenient. Equipping ourselves with mobile phones was an absolute necessity.

We found a large mobile phone shop on the street and walked in. It was around eight o'clock in the evening, and there were quite a few people inside. However, no one greeted us as we entered. I walked over to the glass counter to take a look, but before I could even gaze for two seconds, I noticed two security guards at the entrance walking over with an air of vigilance. Without a word, they stood right behind the two of us, watching us warily as if they suspected we were there to rob the place, both of their hands resting on their batons.

I pointed at a display model inside the counter and asked, "Is anyone here? Could you take this phone out and let me see it?"

No one paid any attention to us.

My voice involuntarily grew a little louder, and a female sales assistant finally noticed me. She cast a sidelong glance at me and said, "What are you yelling for? Can't you see everyone is busy? Just look at it through the glass counter, isn't that enough?"

I smiled bitterly and said, "I'm here to buy a phone. Can't I even hold it and take a look?"

"No, you don't look like you can afford it!" The beauty rolled her eyes at me, then continued explaining the features of a phone to a man wearing a necktie, saying, "This phone of ours has text messaging and voicemail. The brand is Motorola, a major international name..."

The man in the necktie laughed and said, "Lili, why don't you just take it out and let him look? What if he actually buys it?"

"Big brother, just look at how the two of them are dressed—that impoverished aura all over them. Where do they look like they can pull out three thousand yuan? They probably can't even afford a charger. I see people like this all the time; they touch it, look at it, and finally walk away saying it's too expensive. Buy it, big brother, and if you do, I'll go with you to that cinema tonight," Lili said, batting her eyelashes with a seductive look.

"How are you talking, little girl? How do you know we can't afford it?" Wu Dahai demanded angrily.

Before the one called Lili could reply, a security guard reached out a hand and said, "Hey, you two, don't go looking for trouble!"

The moment his hand shot out, Wu Dahai grabbed it, pulled it forward with one hand, and shook it downward. The guard let out a cry of agony. Seeing this, the other guard drew his baton and shouted, "Let go! Do you believe I'll mess you up?"

Wu Dahai lifted his leg and kicked that guard straight toward the entrance with a single blow, cursing, "Don't look for trouble for yourselves! Which eye of yours saw us looking for trouble?"

This sudden turn of events left the mobile phone shop utterly silent. Most striking was Wu Dahai's clean, swift combat skill, which left everyone dumbfounded. Yet, after the brief quiet, I suddenly heard a voice of surprise crying out, "Ah! It's you!"

I followed the voice and looked over.

I saw a girl wearing a mobile phone store uniform.

At first glance, she looked very familiar. Before I could even figure out where I had seen her, she had already trotted over. She said to the two security guards, "Brother Song, Brother Zhang, this is my friend. I'm really sorry."

Then she looked at me and said, "You couldn't possibly have forgotten who I am, right? On the bus, the other day I was carrying a backpack, and you helped me chase away the pickpocket."

I noticed the light freckles on her face and finally remembered she was the girl who had been pestered by the petty thief. "You work here," I said.

Her face flushed as she nodded. "Yeah. You... why didn't you page me?"

At that moment, a young man slammed his hand heavily on a table and shouted, "Damn it! You know how to fight, so what? Li Mengge, get over here!"

She turned back to another girl and said, "Sister Hong, please help take care of Mr. Lin for a moment. I ran into a good friend."

"What use is a good friend? You're on the clock, and you're a phone salesperson! Can a good friend afford a mobile phone? Offend Young Master Lin, and you can just wait to be fired!" Lili declared from the beginning.