Chapter Forty-Five: Entangled

After an exhausting day spent on the train, Li Fang was already worn out. The incident at the bar only made things worse, and she had little appetite for dinner. In the end, the two of them found a random noodle shop and decided to make do with a simple meal.

As for Lin Lei’s earlier intention to treat her to some local specialties of Yangcheng, that would have to wait for another day.

“So, what are you planning to do next?” Lin Lei asked as he ate his noodles.

“I don’t know,” Li Fang replied, her face full of confusion.

She had originally planned everything out before coming: she would go straight to the interview, get hired, and the electronics factory would provide food and lodging. That was why she hadn’t brought much money with her. Now, her plans were in complete disarray. Without a single acquaintance in this city, Li Fang was at a total loss.

“How about this? Let’s find a hotel for the night so you can get some proper rest. Take the time to consider whether you want to stay or leave,” Lin Lei suggested.

He couldn’t make decisions for Li Fang, nor would he try. Life’s path is one that everyone must walk for themselves. The only thing he could do was support and encourage her once she made her choice.

After dinner, Lin Lei found a modest hotel nearby and booked two single rooms. There was no other option—surrounded as they were by factory districts, neither of them knew the area, and there were no high-end hotels or star-rated establishments to be found.

As for those situations often depicted on TV, where the hotel has plenty of vacant rooms but the receptionist claims there’s only one left—such things almost never happen in real life. No one runs a business just to do good deeds, unless their luck is truly extraordinary.

Clearly, Lin Lei wasn’t that lucky.

Once in his room, Lin Lei quickly took a shower and lay on his bed, pondering his own path forward.

It might seem that with a system in hand, able to exchange for any known existing materials, making money would be a breeze. But was it really that easy?

First of all, the system could only exchange finished products, not production techniques or design blueprints. This meant that in order to mass-produce anything, tremendous funds and time would be required to reverse-engineer the products.

If he had that kind of time and resources, would he even need to worry about making money in the real world?

So, with that in mind, high-tech items were immediately ruled out due to their low profit margins.

Finished pharmaceuticals, on the other hand, and precious stones or jade offered tantalizing profits.

As for medicine, that went without saying. No one is unafraid of death; people would sell everything they owned for a chance to survive.

Unfortunately, Lin Lei had no medical license and no connections in that field. If he tried to peddle his so-called “exclusive remedies,” he would only be seen as a charlatan.

Jewelry and jade were a different story. The system could provide jade rough in tons. While one might suspect it to be synthetic, only Lin Lei knew the truth. No matter what kind of technological tests others might use, the results would always show it was natural jade.

The recycling price for jade was the same as for ordinary stone: one ton could be exchanged for 0.01 contribution points, while the redemption price was two contribution points per ton. The system took a two-hundredfold margin, but that was still a trivial profit.

If there were no restrictions on exchanges in the real world, Lin Lei could easily become the world’s richest man by trading ordinary stones for jade.

After all, the jade provided by the system wasn’t the kind of rough stone sold in gambling dens, but true jade that could even have its grade adjusted according to Lin Lei’s wishes. The only flaw was that the jade came in a single piece, requiring him to cut it by hand and then find artisans to craft finished products.

“I’d better hurry and find a shop to turn these stones into cash,” Lin Lei murmured to himself as he lay on his bed, toying with a chunk of jade in his hand.

To him, this jade was nothing more than a rock.

He had already exchanged two tons of jade rough—one ton of Hetian-like jade, which he’d cut into fist-sized pieces with a laser tool, planning to have them carved into small ornaments as his main products.

The other ton was glassy jadeite, which Lin Lei hadn’t yet cut. He wanted to wait until he’d found a master carver to create some treasures to grace his shop.

Just as Lin Lei was mapping out his future path to wealth, someone knocked on his door.

He quickly stowed the “stone” back in the system space and opened the door to find Li Fang standing outside.

“Do you need something?” Lin Lei asked.

“My... the water heater in my room isn’t working. Could I...?” Li Fang’s cheeks were flushed with embarrassment.

“Oh, I’ve already had my shower. How about we swap rooms?” Lin Lei replied, starting to pack his things.

“No need for all that trouble. I just wanted to use your water heater for a quick shower,” Li Fang said.

“It’s no trouble. See, I’m already packed,” Lin Lei insisted.

His suitcase was only a prop, containing just a few changes of clothes, so packing was easy.

“All right, then,” Li Fang replied, leaving in low spirits to pack her own things.

Soon, they swapped rooms, and Li Fang didn’t come looking for Lin Lei again that night.

The night passed without incident. The next morning, as Lin Lei got up to wash, he discovered that the water heater in his room was working just fine.

“It’s clearly working—why did Li Fang say it was broken? Could it be... Damn, I turned down an opportunity handed to me on a silver platter!” Lin Lei cursed his own obliviousness.

But after a moment’s thought, he let it go. “Lin Lei, you already have a girlfriend. If you can’t give someone a commitment, you shouldn’t lead them on.”

In truth, Lin Lei was a man of strong principles. Having already chosen Yang Xueli, he wouldn’t subconsciously pursue other women.

Though he and Li Fang had chatted warmly and he’d stepped in to help her, that was all out of the camaraderie of old classmates, without a hint of romantic intention.

Just as he finished washing up, Li Fang knocked on his door, inviting him to breakfast.

Meeting again, Lin Lei felt a little awkward, but Li Fang seemed perfectly at ease—more than that, she actually seemed in high spirits.

“I’ve decided to stay in Yangcheng!” Li Fang announced, starting the conversation.

“Oh... that’s great. I hope your job hunt goes well,” Lin Lei replied distractedly.

“But I don’t know anyone here except you. You’re my only acquaintance, and we’re old classmates. You won’t refuse to help me, will you?” Li Fang pressed.

“Huh? Help you? How?” Lin Lei was puzzled.

“With Zhou Jing and her gang around, I definitely can’t stay in Fuyuan District. And I don’t have much money left, so for now, I’ll have to rely on you. Wherever you go, I’ll go! Don’t worry, once I find a job and earn some money, I’ll pay you back,” Li Fang explained her plan.

She’d spent the whole night thinking it through before making up her mind.

She had no intention of letting go of someone like Lin Lei so easily.

At first, she’d simply felt a sense of fate between them. Later, Lin Lei’s act of rescuing her had moved her deeply. The excuse about the broken water heater had been, more than anything, a test of Lin Lei’s character.

If he had failed that test, Li Fang would have unhesitatingly boarded the train home that very day.