“Can’t I pay half first?” Yu Zi tried to negotiate with him.

Wang Jing immediately shook his head: “This wine is in high demand, you should know better than me. If you can’t pay, then there’s no point in discussing.”

Yu Zi didn’t give an immediate response and said he would consider it and get back to him.

But as soon as he got home, he received a message from sister Lin saying that the buyer on the other side was urging for delivery.

He opened his email and found emails about the group meals they had arranged after the Chinese New Year.

Yu Zi calculated that the monthly costs were increasing, and the liquidity he had on hand was not enough. If he could earn this money, the business at the restaurant could expand further.

If he let such a good opportunity slip away, it wouldn’t be his style of doing things.

He glanced at the calendar on the wall and realized he didn’t have time to delay any longer. If he waited until the day before the loan matured, he would be even more passive.

On the second Monday of the second week, Xie Dongcheng got up early to prepare to go to the restaurant for work. He knocked on the bedroom door, but Yu Zi didn’t get up. He just told him that he wouldn’t be going to the restaurant in the morning.

Xie Dongcheng waited outside the door for a while, but Yu Zi showed no intention of coming out, so he had to leave on his own.

Half an hour after Xie Dongcheng left, Yu Zi took a taxi by himself to the low-rise building in the suburbs.

After knocking on the tightly closed wooden door, the person inside seemed to have anticipated his arrival and quickly opened the door for him.

“Have you made up your mind?” Wang Jing asked, looking up at him.

“I’ve prepared the money. I’ll pay today, and I want the goods today,” Yu Zi got straight to the point.

“Okay. As expected of the boss, very decisive,” Wang Jing smiled and led him back to the basement.

When Yu Zi entered, he saw that Wang Jing had already packed the thirty bottles of wine.

He clicked his tongue, still not completely reassured, “Open a box, let me inspect the goods.”

Wang Jing took out a utility knife from the side and cut open the box. Yu Zi carefully counted the number and checked the vintages of the wine. Indeed, there were thirty bottles, not one less.

His anxious heart finally settled halfway.

Yu Zi satisfactorily sealed the box back up and paid the money in full.

He called a car to transport all the wine back to his home and stacked it in a shaded corner, ready to deliver it tomorrow.

In the car, he contacted the buyer through Sister Lin’s side. He informed them that the delivery could be made tomorrow and asked them to prepare the payment.

The buyer readily agreed, saying they would pay immediately upon receiving the wine.

This deal would earn Yu Zi at least a small profit of two hundred thousand. This made him very happy.

After settling the wine, Yu Zi went to the restaurant and added a dessert to all the customers’ orders.

Xiao Liu looked surprised, “boss Yu, what’s gotten into you? Did you win the lottery?”

Yu Zi smiled mysteriously, “Something like that.”

After telling chef Zhao in the kitchen to make a batch of desserts, Yu Zi was suddenly stopped by chef Zhao.

“Young Master, this is for you.” chef Zhao handed him a stiff card.

“What’s this?” Yu Zi didn’t understand, so he took it and looked at it.

It was an invitation letter. The destination was a clubhouse in the western suburbs.

“I went to the western suburb villa yesterday and was stopped by the new landlord over there, asking if I knew you. Then they said this was sent to them by mistake and asked me to give it to you.”

Yu Zi carefully looked at the invitation letter, and indeed, it was meant for him.

After thinking for a while, he finally remembered. It should be a setup organized by Shang Ping’s brother, who was also his uncle, when his family hadn’t gone bankrupt last year. The setup mainly involved some acquaintances of influential figures and entrepreneurs, and Yu Zi’s name was also on the list.

But because a key guest was overseas and hadn’t returned, it had been delayed until now.

With the revival of the old setup, Yu Zi guessed that his uncle’s assistant hadn’t paid attention and hadn’t rechecked the list and mailing address, including him, the unlucky nephew, and sent him a new invitation.

It was quite amusing.

Yu Zi thought for a moment, then casually tossed the card into the pocket of his coat and didn’t bother with it further.

That night, he didn’t go to the boxing gym. He returned home alone since Yang Ke didn’t come to work that day. Xie Dongcheng and Xiao Liu stayed at the restaurant to serve the evening customers.

Just as Yu Zi arrived home, he received a courier delivery of a purchase contract from the buyer in the same city. The other party had already signed and stamped it, waiting for him to put his fingerprint on it to make it effective.

Yu Zi rummaged through his belongings and found a block of red ink. He tried it with his thumb, fortunately, it hadn’t completely dried out.

The two boxes of wine were quietly placed in the corner, ready to be delivered to the buyer tomorrow. Yu Zi felt a bit reluctant.

He thought for a moment, then cut open one of the boxes and gently opened a carton from inside, taking out a bottle.

Yu Zi ran his fingers over the slightly cold bottle and sighed. He didn’t know if he would have the chance to drink this kind of wine again in his lifetime.

As a result of being too engrossed, he accidentally smeared the red ink from his thumb onto the packaging of the bottle, leaving a deep red fingerprint.

Oops. Yu Zi quickly found a clean tissue and tried to wipe it off.

But as soon as he wiped it, he suddenly noticed something wrong.

He had tasted and touched wine from this winery before, and the spelling of the vineyard on the bottle should have a gold-edged dark red color, very textured.

But the gold edge on the one in his hand was slightly dim, as if it had been manually stamped on. Most people might not notice the difference, as the discrepancy was very subtle. But after handling so much wine over the years, Yu Zi felt more and more that something was wrong.

His heart started pounding, and a terrible idea came to his mind.

He turned the bottle around and examined it carefully.

Yu Zi’s fingers were trembling, and with each touch, his suspicions became more and more real.

He hurriedly used a utility knife to open both boxes and checked each bottle one by one. With every bottle he checked, his heart sank a little further.

No, something’s wrong. Yu Zi couldn’t believe his eyes. He remembered that the bottle he first saw in Wang Jing’s warehouse should be genuine. The touch was still fresh in his memory, definitely an authentic product.

Now there was only one possibility: Wang Jing used that genuine bottle as bait and sold him thirty fake ones.

Yu Zi slapped himself hard on the cheek. When delivering, he counted the quantity, checked the vintages, but forgot to confirm the details of each bottle. He was blinded by the beauty of that genuine bottle.

Yu Zi’s hands were shaking like a sieve. He picked up his phone from the coffee table and called Wang Jing.

The phone rang several times, but no one answered, until a gentle mechanical voice reminded him that the number he dialed couldn’t be reached temporarily.

He quickly ran downstairs, called a taxi, and together with the driver, carried the two boxes of wine into the trunk.

As the taxi sped through the dark night, halfway there, rain suddenly started pouring from the sky. The rain grew heavier, pounding on the car windows until it was nearly impossible to see ahead.

The driver had to turn on the wipers to the maximum, and the two rubber strips on the glass frantically moved back and forth to clear a path.

Yu Zi sat in the back seat, feeling anxious.

After twenty minutes of driving through the downpour, the driver skidded to a stop in front of the low-rise building. Yu Zi quickly paid the fare and then, struggling, dragged the two boxes of wine to the tightly closed wooden door.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

In the stormy night, Yu Zi stood at the door and knocked hard several times. There was no response from inside.

“Wang Jing!”

“Wang Jing! Where the hell are you?!”

Yu Zi kicked the door twice with force, but still, no one answered.

He lost his composure, shouting loudly in the hallway. However, this seemed to be an abandoned apartment building, with no neighbors around. His echoing cries were the only sound in the entire corridor.

Yu Zi didn’t give up. He ran in the rain, relying on his memory, to the entrance of the underground.

The stairwell was dark in the middle of the night, and he was soaked by the rain, wearing damp clothes, feeling along the wall down the stairs, leaving a trail of watermarks on the steps.

Halfway down, he slipped on a step and almost fell. He struggled to slow his breathing and steady his steps, finally reaching the iron door of the basement.

The once cold fluorescent lamp was inexplicably extinguished, and this small space was pitch black, terrifying.

He took out his phone, turned on the flashlight, only to see that the iron door was locked with a thicker iron chain. No matter how hard he pulled, he couldn’t open it.

The pitch-black iron door was firmly shut, completely airtight.

Rumble…

The terrifying thunder came from the small window above.

Yu Zi’s limbs went numb, his legs went weak, and he fell to the ground with a thud.