Release that Man

Both Su Zheng and the middle-aged man could confirm from the picture that the person who broke into the safe was not that skillful. This meant that the chance of them being in the same circuit was low. For example, even though Su Zheng and the middle-aged man did not come from the same city, they would have heard of each other from other colleagues. Those in the same circle would be relatively familiar with one another, and each of them had their own specialties because they would not have come out to ‘work’ with half-assed skill.

If they were not in the same circuit, then this was most likely an amateur, those who had learned a thing or two and decided to earn money the illegal way, instead of doing actual business. Or perhaps they had family in the same business, so they were more familiar with safes than normal people.

Su Zheng also did not think that the Yan family could hire anyone from their circuit, so after taking them out and the people who worked the with people, the only possibility was the people who were familiar with the structure of this safe.

The man led the group into his bedroom. He opened the old model computer next to his bed. The CPU was so slow—it took so long just to log in. He opened QQ to enter a group. He clicked one of the addresses, and the man pointed at the profile information. “The best safe workshop in Shanghai is them. Even though they are not an official company, they do very good work. If anyone on the street needs something made, we go to them, and they also build furniture.”

“Hmm…” Ye Shuang was speechless. “Is it really that difficult for people with your skill to survive in this economy?”

“There’s no choice. Nowadays with our technique, we can only do small cases because if we do something big, the police will come invite us to the station.” The man sighed. “It’s a waste to lose the old techniques, but there aren’t many avenues to use them. We help each other with favors, and normally, we do not accept work from outsiders.”

Yan Si and the youth were alerted. Su Zheng touched her chin. She bent down to look at the info. “Is he the one that made the safe?”

“I’m ninety percent sure. Even if it’s not from his hands, I’m sure he has given his technical advice. Even if he hasn’t done that, with his connections, he will know who did.” The man opened the drawer to grab a pen and paper to jot down the address. He folded the paper and passed it back to them. “You should go around and ask for this person. He should know your thief.”

Su Zheng reached out to accept the note and turned to ask from Yan Si, “Money please.”

Yan Si could not believe it. “Just a few words, and you want me to pay already?”

The man pulled his arm back immediately and asked Su Zheng, “What is the meaning of this?”

“Brother Cao, I’m sorry, the boy doesn’t know the rules.” Su Zheng wiped her sweat, and she walked over to pull on Yan Si’s head. She whispered angrily, “In today’s day and age, don’t underestimate the power of information. Without his few words, you would have needed to investigate for years… Why do you think I need the money for tools? It’s to grease the palms of these people.”

Ye Shuang moved to block the man’s view of Su Zheng. She smiled naturally to pull the man’s attention away. “Brother Cao’s son is how many years old now? How are his results? Where is Mrs. Cao? You…”

Yan Si was still quite angry, and he wanted to scold the man, but before he could do anything, he was pulled back by Su Zheng. “Why didn’t you jot down the address when he showed us earlier then? Why should we pay?”

“This is not the issue of an address. If we scam the man this time, there will be no more interaction in the future…” Su Zheng sighed. “Besides, the key is not the address; the key is that we got the address from Brother Cao. It means that it is Brother Cao who made the introduction. Otherwise, what do you plan to do when you show up at the address? People might not even see us.”

Yan Si had economic difficulty from being chased out of his house, but his friend did not. Hearing that, the man thought about it and agreed. “You have a point. Looks like your circle is quite loyal and honorable.”

Then he patted Yan Si’s shoulder and opened his wallet to pay. “Never mind, I’ll pay.”

Su Zheng sighed in relief. “Based on Brother Cao’s sign earlier, he wants 10,000.”

“One…” The youth choked and pushed away the stack of bills that he was in the middle of pulling out. Instead, he pulled out his card to ask, “Do you accept card here?”

“Online transfer then.”

After paying, they got the note, and the four left. When they were inside the car, Ye Shuang asked, “Do you guys use hand signals for transaction purpose? Earlier, I did not notice the man do anything too out of place. Mind telling me?”

“When we are handing over the goods, the fingers that extend signify the price. Bigger numbers depend on where the thumb is pressed on the fingers.” Su Zheng showed her. “If you need to deal with people from my circle in the future, Sister Shuang, you should also use hand signals. If you discuss using words, then you’ll be treated as an outsider.”

Ye Shuang memorized it and led the topic away. “Ten percent of the 100,000 went just like that. Are you sure that we can find the clue from the man’s lips?”

Yan Si was now like a beached whale. Before he was sent overseas, even if he spent tens of thousands, he would not have frowned, but after that, he understood the virtue of saving… Of course, his thriftiness was still quite different from normal people, but now that he had been kicked out of home, that difference had also disappeared.

Therefore, once he heard Ye Shuang’s question, Yan Si turned directly to Su Zheng, afraid that she would bring more bad news.

“That’s not guaranteed.” Su Zheng’s first sentence made Yan Si’s face freeze, but thankfully, the girl explained her answer. “But we walk with honor in this circle. We are paid for the amount that we have done, and we never give fake accounts. So, if the man is of no help, and the clue ends, we will not need to pay him. At most, the payment will be for drinks and the like.”

Yan Si wanted to ask about the standard of the drinks, but the youth next to him already guessed what he was about to say. He raised his arm to grab the man and interrupted him. “Your circle is quite interesting. I heard from the man earlier about the hierarchy, does that mean scammers also belong in your circle?”

“Scammers depends on acting—those not in the circle can do it as well.” Su Zheng rolled her eyes. “Those in the circle will only do a big scams—scam the country, scam the banks, but never scam other people’s money. If you’re looking for money scammers, then you’ve got the wrong place.”

The youth leaned back to think while Ye Shuang asked, “By the way, there was some scandal about you guys before this about some drug party and attempted murder, did you plan to ask about that?”

The youth turned instinctively to look at Yan Si, and when he saw the shock on the man’s face, he knew that it was not Yan Si who told Ye Shuang. So, he turned to look back at Ye Shuang.

Ye Shuang got her answer from the man’s action. She nodded. “It’s all in the past now. I saw it on the papers. It’s common for rich families to have some scandals, and it’s rather pointless if you want to clear your name now. Just let it be.”

The youth shrugged, but he still sighed. “Then it would be letting them off.”

“If you’re really that bored, you should go do some sniffing around.” Su Zheng was interested. “After all, you should know who wants to come after you, right? Just go and check the bank history of those people… Oh, but it could be a cash transaction. After all, scamming you people won’t cost that much, just a few dozen thousand.”

I’m sorry to only be worth a few dozen thousand then.

Ye Shuang chuckled. “Why don’t you go and take a look? After all, it won’t take too much of your time. Perhaps the person really did have an online transaction history.”

“Okay, if you really want to investigate this, just pay me 10,000, and I will print out the whole account history of your target.” Su Zheng nodded.

Can you not talk about money anymore? The youth sighed. “Never mind, just like you said. It’s rather pointless to uncover the truth now. Our family doesn’t mind it that much, and Xiao Si’s family…”

Looking at Yan Si, the youth sighed yet again. “Well, with his current problem, I don’t think the scandal back then matters that much anymore.”

Su Zheng nodded and felt a bit disappointed that she had missed the extra allowance. She magically produced an iPad and started to play on her own. The youth was shocked, just like how Ye Shuang had initially been. When a normal person saw this, they would be surprised by the girl’s ability to pull stuff out of thin air. Just where was she hiding all these things…

…

At another area, when Ye Shuang’s car arrived, it was already lunch time. This was definitely not the time to visit. It was their first visit, and the person that they were looking for was at the dining table. It would be so rude to interrupt them. Other than that, there was the issue of family members. How were they going to make the wife and children leave? That would be a rude request for guests to make, but if they did not ask them to leave, how were they going to discuss the safe issue with the man?

Other than that, how Yan Si looked was also a subject of much talk.

Ye Shuang used her nose to find the restaurant that used the least amount of chemicals. She led the group into the place and sat down. “We’ll wait for a while then. We’ll go visit after lunch.”

Su Zheng grabbed the menu to study it. “Should we buy some presents? But I don’t know the family well enough to buy the kind of presents that they will like. This is so annoying.”

The lunch was not peaceful. Before the meal was served, Yan Si’s phone rang. He answered it, and it was Yan Zhu.