Chapter 93

“What do you want to buy?” Qiao Laidi asked. 

“I’m actually here to sell,” Qiao Xinyi said. “Can you ask him if he wants a bicycle or an electric fan? They’re both brand new. I have connections to get them.” 

Qiao Laidi was astonished. “A bicycle and an electric fan? Those are hard-to-get items!” 

“If he wants a TV, I can get that too. Sewing machines aren’t hard either. As long as he can sell them, I can get them. But I have to be upfront—what I get isn’t secondhand or outdated goods. They’re the same quality as what you’d buy in department stores, so they’re good stuff and not cheap.” 

“I understand. I’ll ask around for you tomorrow. When I hear anything, I’ll come find you.” 

Qiao Laidi looked at Qiao Xinyi admiringly. “I’m sure he’ll want them. Xinyi, you’re really amazing.” 

Qiao Xinyi smiled. This was basically her taking advantage of the system’s marketplace deals—buying at a discount from the system’s mall and making a profit by reselling! 

By the time Qiao Laidi left, Qiao Xinyi was in a very good mood, even pedaling her bicycle with more energy. 

Last night, while the two kids were asleep at the guesthouse, she had negotiated with the system, requesting a reward for finding two small-time villains, and shamelessly asked to advance a whole year’s salary from the system. 

So now she had quite a bit of capital to work with and earn profits by exploiting the system’s mall. Unfortunately, the system was difficult to negotiate with and denied her initial request to advance ten years of salary. After she reduced it to five, then three years, finally when she asked for one year in advance, it was approved. 

It was still early after leaving Qiao Laidi’s place, so Qiao Xinyi rode her bike to the culvert near the train station, hoping to get lucky and find the thief who was stealing food. 

These days, you needed a pass or introduction to go anywhere, so there weren’t many homeless people near the train station culvert. As soon as Qiao Xinyi arrived, she saw someone sitting in the corner of the culvert eating. 

He was sitting on a burlap sack that had been cut open and spread on the ground—it was probably his bed. 

When the boy saw Qiao Xinyi approaching on her bike, he just glanced up, thinking she was passing by. But when he saw her park the bike and walk toward him, he quickly rolled up the sack and took off running. 

Qiao Xinyi immediately gave chase. 

Wow, this guy was skinny but really fast—like the wind! 

“Hey! Don’t run! I brought you food!” Qiao Xinyi shouted as she chased after him. 

That speedy thief’s legs were no joke—she couldn’t easily catch him. 

Hearing Qiao Xinyi’s words, the boy stopped far ahead and looked back warily. 

“You’re not here to catch me?” The boy was still panting, his feet ready to run again at any moment. 

“Why would I catch you?” Qiao Xinyi was out of breath from running. 

“To catch me and sell me.” The boy answered. 

“Who’d want you at your age!” Qiao Xinyi put her hands on her hips, panting. “My stuff is on the bike. Hurry back to the culvert. I’m afraid someone will steal my bike. I actually borrowed it from someone else.” 

“You go ahead, I’ll follow behind. If you trick me, I’ll run again.” The boy still didn’t drop his guard. 

Qiao Xinyi fanned herself with her hand, nodded at the boy, then turned back. After walking a few meters, she looked back and saw the boy was following her, so she relaxed. 

Just don’t trick me and run off, that’s all she hoped for. 

There was no food left on Qiao Xinyi’s bike—she had only bought a few steamed buns freshly from the system mall to bring.

“As soon as they were steamed, I rode my bike over here. I wrapped them in my bag all the way — feel it, aren’t they still warm?” Qiao Xinyi tossed the paper-wrapped buns over and shook her water bottle, asking, “Want some plain cool water?”

The boy was really suspicious. He didn’t eat the bun right away but opened the wrapper to look and smell it, then handed it back to Qiao Xinyi a few steps away.

“You eat a couple bites first, let me see. The water too, take a few sips so I can see.”

“Are you afraid I’ll poison you?” Qiao Xinyi broke off a small piece of the bun and drank a few sips of water right in front of him.

The boy waited several minutes to be sure Qiao Xinyi wasn’t collapsing, then put the paper wrapper away, took out a bowl from the sack that had a big chip in it, and held it out for her to pour water.

After he got the water, he sat back down where he was, eating a bite of bun and then drinking water, but his eyes stayed wary, watching Qiao Xinyi carefully.

Qiao Xinyi looked at his exposed arm — it was so thin you could see the bones. His hair was shoulder-length, dirty, tangled, almost covering his whole face, and its color was a withered yellow, like the weeds by the roadside.

“How old are you this year?” Qiao Xinyi, exhausted from chasing him, gestured for him to spread out the sack to make room for her to sit.

The boy seemed to consider it for a few seconds, probably because of the bun, and agreed. They sat down, each taking a corner of the sack.

Just as Qiao Xinyi sat down, she suddenly heard him speak: “I saw you at the train station a few days ago. I even snatched your eggs and pancakes.”

“You’ve got a good memory.” Qiao Xinyi was a bit surprised and asked, “How old are you?”

“I don’t remember. Maybe sixteen, maybe seventeen.”

The boy swallowed a bite of bun and asked, “Why did you bring me food?”

“What else? Because I’m kind-hearted~” Qiao Xinyi shrugged. “I really wouldn’t have guessed you’re already sixteen or seventeen. You wouldn’t be lying about your age, would you? By the way, what’s your name?”

Her useless system didn’t even know this big villain’s name or exact age.

“I’m so skinny it’s hard to tell, but I really don’t remember if I’m sixteen or seventeen.”

The boy turned his head and stared at Qiao Xinyi. “What’s your relationship with the woman selling eggs at the train station?”

Qiao Xinyi realized this was a very calculating villain. Whenever she asked a question, he asked one back. She was investigating him, and he was probing her. No wonder Fu Linzhou and Fu Zeyu treated him as their big brother and swore loyalty after meeting him.

“What’s your name?” Qiao Xinyi didn’t answer but returned the question—asking the same question he had just asked her.

The boy suddenly stopped talking. That made Qiao Xinyi sure he had deliberately ignored that question before.

She chuckled, “You wouldn’t happen to be called Dog Egg or Stinky Egg or something like that, right? Are you too embarrassed to tell me?”

“I’m not called Dog Egg or Stinky Egg.” The boy glared angrily at Qiao Xinyi. “I’ve been sold several times and been someone’s son for several families, so I have several names. I don’t know which one you want.”

Qiao Xinyi was surprised but, thinking about how the boy guessed she was chasing him to sell him, felt it wasn’t so unexpected after all.

She thought for a moment before saying, “I’m asking the name your biological parents gave you.”

Unexpectedly, the boy suddenly crushed the bun in his hand hard and stuffed it into his mouth with a vicious expression, using that to suppress some unspoken emotion.

After finishing the bun, the boy finally replied, in a stiff tone, “I don’t have a name. You can just call me Bastard. I’ve gotten used to it anyway.”

He carefully wrapped up the remaining buns and placed them beside him, then turned to look at Qiao Xinyi and asked her, “So what’s your name?”