104: Chapter 104 The Unreliable Intelligence Station as Always

Before anyone realized it, the time had officially reached the end of the month.

And today, two major events occurred.

First, early in the morning, Chen Sheng received a call from his mother, "Sheng, you didn't lend Liu Jun any money, did you?"

"No! Why?"

"Liu Jun owes a lot of debt outside, and yesterday, the debt collectors even called your aunt. Fortunately, I didn't lend him any money at the time…"

Clearly, Liu Jun's situation had completely exploded.

However, one had to admire his mother's imagination. Guesses like business failure, gambling, being set up, and so on, were rattled off by her, and she actually guessed one right.

Chen Sheng chuckled sheepishly, "Why bother with him? As long as it doesn't affect us, it's fine. If you receive similar calls in the future, just tell them you don't know him."

Although it seemed completely unrelated, given Xiao Cui's ruthlessness, it wasn't impossible that when they exposed the contact list, they might call his mother, or even him.

After all, Liu Jun had just called him recently.

The second major event of the day was definitely when two police cars pulled up in front of Caos Braised Duck at dusk. As soon as the vehicles stopped, several police officers pushed open the doors and rushed into Caos Braised Duck. A moment later, the officers walked out, escorting a handcuffed Cao Zan under the shocked gazes of everyone.

The arrest of Cao Zan was definitely the primary topic of conversation for the entire residential complex, and even the surrounding area, for today… no, for the next several days.

Just look, An Xiaonuan, who had just returned home from work, said anxiously, "Boss Cao by the back gate was arrested, did you know?"

Before Chen Sheng could answer, An Xiaonuan began to lament, "Boss Cao is usually such a kind person. His cooking tastes good, and his portions are generous. I never expected him to be arrested. Who knows what he did."

However, her reaction was exactly the first reaction of the vast majority of people upon hearing that Cao Zan had been arrested.

At the very least, Chen Sheng had already seen no fewer than ten people express shock and disbelief after hearing about Cao Zan's arrest.

"I also heard about Boss Cao's arrest from people in the complex when I got home. As for specifically why he was arrested, some say it's for soliciting prostitutes, some guess it's a hit-and-run, and some even say that because they saw how skillfully he wields his knife when chopping ducks, they suspect Boss Cao is a murderer. In short, there are all sorts of rumors, but nobody knows which one is true."

With the intelligence system's answers as a reference, Chen Sheng could only say that whether it was in the village or the city, those intelligence network members responsible for gathering information remained just as unreliable.

He vaguely remembered back when he was in college, the school delayed the start of the semester due to some unavoidable factors, which happened to coincide with the rice harvest. Chen Sheng had gone back to his hometown with his father to harvest rice.

This was supposed to be a good thing that proved he had grown up and could help share the family chores. However, through the word-of-mouth of the village intelligence network members, it eventually turned into him messing around outside, getting expelled from school, and now being forced to return to farm the land.

There was also one year during the Lunar New Year when he returned to his hometown to pay respects to his ancestors. Someone asked him when he planned to have children since he was already married. His answer at the time was that he was still young and wanted to enjoy a couple's life for a few more years.

As a result, through the word-of-mouth of the intelligence network members, it turned into one of them, either him or An Xiaonuan, being unable to conceive. In the end, they didn't forget to sigh and say that the Chen family line would likely end with Chen Sheng's generation.

One incident after another, he really just wanted to say that the intelligence network members were completely unreliable.

"But we don't need to guess blindly here. I believe we'll have the correct answer in a few days," Chen Sheng added.

"That's true!" An Xiaonuan replied perfunctorily, feeling a bit uninterested.

"Ahem~" Chen Sheng cleared his throat and said with a serious expression, "Wife, I need to tell you something."

An Xiaonuan glanced at Chen Sheng, her expression instantly turning serious, "Go ahead!"

"It's like this. Since I lost my job and couldn't find a suitable one for a while, when I passed by the University Town commercial street two days ago, I saw a retail store that was urgently looking for a transfer, so I took it over." By the end, Chen Sheng's voice became quieter and quieter.

However, that didn't stop An Xiaonuan from hearing the whole thing. The next second, An Xiaonuan raised an eyebrow, her tone instantly rising as she exclaimed, "What?"

"You didn't even tell me about such a big thing?" An Xiaonuan immediately used her 'soft finger pinch' on Chen Sheng, and this time, it wasn't limited to his ribs.

"Hiss~ I was wrong! I was really wrong!" Chen Sheng begged for mercy repeatedly.

However, this time, begging for mercy was clearly fruitless. It wasn't until An Xiaonuan had completely vented the sudden burst of anger in her heart that she ended it by slamming a throw pillow hard onto Chen Sheng.

An Xiaonuan sat angrily on one side of the single sofa, arms crossed over her chest, striking a queen-like pose. She stared straight at Chen Sheng with a gaze like a knife, her voice like a low murmur from the abyss, "Where were you wrong?"

Chen Sheng held the pillow against his chest, his eyes darting away, and said with little confidence, "I was wrong for not telling you beforehand. But the situation was urgent. The location of that shop was really good, and the owner was in a rush to transfer it. There were several competitors at the time, so I just forgot…"

"Is it really that good?" An Xiaonuan's gaze toward Chen Sheng was full of suspicion.

"I'm really not bragging. You know that location on the commercial street yourself," Chen Sheng quickly assured her. "I've checked the turnover; the net income after deducting various expenses is about 10,000 per month."

"That much?" An Xiaonuan asked thoughtfully. "Being able to clear about 10,000 a month after deducting expenses is indeed quite good. With such a good location, the transfer price must not have been cheap."

"You're telling me!" Chen Sheng complained. "The whole shop cost 100,000 to take over, not counting the miscellaneous expenses like the transfer of ownership. A shop of the same size in other places could be completely settled for at most 70,000 or 80,000."

"Is that so?" An Xiaonuan sneered, and immediately initiated her 'soft finger pinch' with zero-frame startup time, heading straight for Chen Sheng's ribs.

"Hiss~ Why are you pinching me again?" Chen Sheng felt innocent and pathetic.

"Heh~ Why am I pinching you? You have the nerve to ask me why I'm pinching you? 100,000! You did it without a sound. You're telling me about this today—are you planning to discuss it with me? Or are you just notifying me?"

"I… Hiss~~"

Chen Sheng just wanted to explain, but in the next second, An Xiaonuan's fingers pressing into his waist applied force again, and all that was left in his mouth was a sharp intake of breath.

At this moment, An Xiaonuan's eerie voice sounded again, "And the most important point: didn't you use all your money to buy stocks? Where did you get the 100,000?"

Chen Sheng looked up and just as he met An Xiaonuan's gaze, he couldn't help but shiver. He instinctively raised his hands to promise, "Wife, this is definitely not my secret stash."

An Xiaonuan raised an eyebrow, signaling Chen Sheng to continue.

Chen Sheng quickly explained, "It's like this. A few days ago, I picked up a passenger who was going to a second-hand clothing recycling shop to sell old clothes. It just so happened that the shop was processing old clothes at the time, and a Staff Member found a USB drive inside one of the old garments."

"The USB drive was one of those old ones. The Staff Member estimated that the USB drive was probably broken, so they didn't pay any attention to it and just tossed it aside. At that moment, it suddenly crossed my mind that I had heard someone say that some old USB drives might contain some strange data, so on a whim, I picked it up."

"As it turned out, when I got back and tested it, not only was the USB drive working, but there was also a strange folder inside. When I opened the folder, there was a string of symbols that looked like garbled text."

"I was curious!" Saying this, Chen Sheng vividly made a curious expression and continued, "So I searched for information online."

"Hey! You wouldn't know until you checked, and once you checked, it was a shock. Guess what I found? Hiss~~"

An Xiaonuan's 'soft finger pinch' pressing against Chen Sheng's ribs suddenly applied force, and her eerie voice followed immediately, "I guess you're going to tell me."

Chen Sheng grimaced, "I discovered that the string of symbols that looked like garbled text was actually a Bitcoin private key. When I entered the key, I actually found two Bitcoins inside."

"Do you know what the current price of Bitcoin is?" This time Chen Sheng learned his lesson and immediately answered his own question, "Nearly $8,000, which converts to 50,000 ¥. Two of them make 100,000."

"Then I sold the Bitcoins, and that was just enough for the shop takeover." Chen Sheng held up two fingers toward the ceiling, "I swear, I was originally planning to tell you about this the first chance I got, but then I suddenly encountered a shop in a hurry to transfer, and I just got busy and forgot."

An Xiaonuan looked Chen Sheng up and down several times, then asked suspiciously, "Are you telling a story?"