Ways to Make Money

"My account doesn't have enough money right now. Can I pay half first and give you the rest as soon as possible?" After a brief moment of thought, Hou Rui decided to try and stabilize the Wood Demon first to buy himself some time.
"Hehehe, Mr. Wild Dog, I am not a banker. I don't play the installment plan game. With me, there are only two answers: give or not give."
"But I really only have half right now. Even if you were to feed me to the piranhas, I couldn't scrape together another single penny." As Hou Rui spoke, he glanced once more at Xia Xiaoru's corpse. The red-bellied piranhas in the water tank seemed to have eaten their fill, so they drifted away from Xia Xiaoru's body, and a mass of hair gradually covered Xia Xiaoru's terrifying, mutilated face in the blood-red water.
"Mr. Wild Dog, I admire your honesty, so I've decided to give you a chance. I will give you seventy-two hours, and then you must pay me five million US dollars. If you still cannot pay this compensation by then, the other people around you will meet the same misfortune as today."
After a brief pause, figuring that the Wood Demon also believed Hou Rui genuinely could not produce such a large sum of money right now, he decided to grant Hou Rui some time to raise the funds.
"Fine! I agree. See you in three days." Hearing the Wood Demon's words, the first person that popped into Hou Rui's mind was Jin Shanshan. Therefore, after shouting his agreement, he immediately turned and left the Amphibium House.
When the silent Hou Rui climbed back into his BJ40, he gripped the steering wheel tightly, wrenching it violently as he let out a silent scream, venting just a fraction of the agony he had endured in the Amphibium House.
Without even taking the time to wipe the tears from his face, Hou Rui drove the BJ40 to a small alley a few streets away, then quietly sneaked back to the vicinity of the old zoo. He found a two-story building, climbed up onto it, and prepared to try his luck to see if he could wait out the Wood Demon's departure. If he could happen to cross paths with the Wood Demon, the Type 92 pistol in his hand would finally serve its purpose.
Unfortunately, facts proved that Hou Rui's operational skills were still far too crude. He waited until nearly dawn without seeing anyone leave the old zoo. The Wood Demon had probably planned his escape route long in advance, and by this time, he was likely sleeping soundly. Thus, dragging his disappointed and exhausted body, Hou Rui drove back to the residential complex where Jin Shanshan rented her apartment.
Seventy-two hours. Three days. Where on earth was Hou Rui supposed to conjure up two and a half million US dollars!
Using organization missions to earn the money was absolutely out of the question, and the time frame wouldn't allow it anyway! But if Hou Rui resorted to robbing a bank or an armored cash transport vehicle, that would violate the organization's principle of secrecy. Weighing both options, this was quite simply an insoluble dead end!
As he drove, Hou Rui kept racking his brains for countermeasures. When he drove past the vicinity of the Liulichang in Beijing, an idea suddenly sparked in his mind.
Two and a half million US dollars translated to roughly sixteen million yuan. If this money were in paper currency, it would probably fill the entire back seat of the BJ40. Securing such a bulky pile of cash was out of the question, and even simply transporting it would pose a major problem. He might as well try to find a way through high-value items like gold or diamonds.
Pondering the details all the way, Hou Rui quickly returned to the two-bedroom apartment rented by Jin Shanshan. When he gently opened the door and stepped inside, he saw Jin Shanshan sitting on the small living room sofa waiting for him. Although the television was on, she wasn't even glancing in that direction; her eyes were fixed firmly on the door, watching Hou Rui step inside.
"Where have you been?" Jin Shanshan's voice was still slightly hoarse, but her tone was relatively calm. She didn't immediately fly into a rage.
"I had some things to deal with at school." Hou Rui put down his keys and sat on the sofa as well. The moment he got close to Jin Shanshan, he caught a faint scent of alcohol on her.
"Did you eat dinner tonight?" Although Jin Shanshan had been drinking, her expression remained calm.
"No."
"I boiled some noodles last night. I'll go heat them up for you." With that, Jin Shanshan made to stand up and head to the kitchen, but Hou Rui couldn't bear the bland and icy indifference between them a moment longer. He grabbed her arm, saying, "Wife, wait a minute. I have something to say to you."
"Go ahead, then!"
"There really is nothing between Cheng Lin and me. Didn't you see it in the photos? She was just looking at me, and I can't control that!" Hou Rui's mind was already in complete turmoil due to the Wood Demon's appearance and the matter of the money, yet he still had to muster the patience to explain things to Jin Shanshan.
Jin Shanshan stared straight at Hou Rui without speaking.
"And something happened at school today. One of my classmates went missing. I was out searching for him half the night. The guys in my class have already agreed to search together tomorrow, and once twenty-four hours have passed, we'll go report it to the police. So for the next couple of days, I want to stay in the dorms. It will make our coordination much easier."
He could never tell Jin Shanshan the cruel truth, so Hou Rui had to fabricate a temporary excuse. One could easily imagine how hectic the next three days would be for Hou Rui. After all, this matter involved many people's lives, and he could not treat it carelessly, yet he must not let Jin Shanshan sense anything amiss.
"Hou Rui, are you hiding something from me lately?" Jin Shanshan was, after all, an elite student majoring in criminal investigation at the Police University. Trying to deceive her was no easy feat, but at this moment, Jin Shanshan was wrong about the specific matter Hou Rui was hiding; she assumed all of Hou Rui's recent abnormal behavior was because of Cheng Lin.
"It's nothing. You know the missing classmate too—it's Ma Siyuan, the guy who keeps pestering Chen Xiangyu." This lie of Hou Rui's probably wouldn't be exposed, because Ma Siyuan had already become food for that water python. The mere thought of it made Hou Rui's heart wrench in spasms once more.
Seeing Hou Rui's expression turn ghastly, Jin Shanshan chose not to press further. Nodding in reluctant agreement, she said, "Then you can go back and live in the dorm. I'll terminate the lease on this apartment next month and move back to school too." With that, Jin Shanshan returned to her bedroom.
Hou Rui understood how much energy and cost Jin Shanshan had poured into decorating this cozy little nest. However, with the massive threat of the Wood Demon looming over him, Hou Rui had no way to live a sweet domestic life with Jin Shanshan, so he could only watch her retreat into her room without stopping her.
At 7:00 AM the next day, Hou Rui drove the BJ40 to drop Jin Shanshan off at school first, then hurried back to the Communication University. However, eager to leave, Hou Rui failed to notice that as soon as his BJ40 drove away, Jin Shanshan emerged from the school gates again, hailed a taxi, and quietly tailed his vehicle.
When Hou Rui arrived at school, it was already the time of the second morning lecture. He slipped into the classroom and had just taken a seat when the class monitor, Chen Lei, immediately leaned over.
"Monkey, did Ma Siyuan go out with you yesterday?"
"No." Recalling Ma Siyuan's pale face in the water tank, a dull ache started up in Hou Rui's heart again.
"Well, strange. Where on earth did that punk run off to? He actually missed French class last night. Did he go around acting like a hoodlum and get picked up by campus security, hehehe."
Unable to force a smile, Hou Rui could only use a textbook to shield his face.
Throughout the entire morning, Hou Rui kept browsing information about high-end jewelry stores in Beijing on his phone. If he wanted to acquire sixteen million yuan worth of goods in a short period, abandoning paintings and antiques meant his only choices were gold and diamonds.
After selecting three large jewelry stores near Liulichang in Beijing, Hou Rui quietly slipped out of class, returned to the dorm to grab his camera, and then dashed over to the Xidan area to change into high-end casual wear paired with large sunglasses. Only then did he approach Liulichang looking every bit the tourist.
Along this street, which was barely eight to nine hundred meters long, both sides were lined entirely with traditionally decorated shops. Countless people speaking with accents from all over had gathered here to peddle ancient books and curios, but Hou Rui knew that ninety-nine percent of the items here were counterfeits. Even if there were rare genuine articles, with his amateur discernment, he would never spot them. Thus, his ultimate targets were the jewelry shops on West Liulichang Street, because at the very least, Hou Rui could still tell the difference between real and fake gold, and gauge the size of diamonds.
Walking and taking photographs all the way, Hou Rui meticulously captured the security cameras, patrol police cars, and elderly volunteers wearing red armbands in the vicinity through his camera lens.
Just as Hou Rui stepped into a jewelry store named Chunmei Jewelry, he raised his head—before he even had time to check where the store's security cameras were located—and unexpectedly caught sight of Cheng Lin. Today, Cheng Lin was wearing a long bohemian-style dress and holding up a ring, staring just as blankly at Hou Rui who had walked into the shop.
"Miss, this is a 0.5-carat diamond ring. Look at the craftsmanship of the setting. Priced at twenty thousand, it is absolute value for money. Miss? Miss!" The salesperson standing nearby, trying hard to make a sale, finally noticed that Cheng Lin was spacing out while holding the ring. Smiling helplessly, she softly called out to Cheng Lin and waved her hand in front of her face.
"Ah! What did you say?" Cheng Lin finally snapped back to reality.
"Miss, I was asking if you like this ring."
"Excuse me, give me a moment." No longer in the mood to entertain the salesperson, Cheng Lin hurried over to Hou Rui in a few steps, her face blooming with a surprised and joyous smile.
"Hou Rui! What are you doing here? Did you come specifically to look for me? No, you shouldn't have known I'd be out shopping today! Then we must have run into each other by chance. We really do have fate on our side. How—how have you been lately?" Cheng Lin looked at Hou Rui with a blissful expression, firing off questions like a machine gun.