bodyguard against fate

Chapter 37 Incompetent Teammates

Wu Renxing only thought about it briefly, but quickly dismissed the idea. First of all, Lao Zheng was mentally ill, and his words could not be trusted. Secondly, Feng Weida was also mentally ill, and his relayed words could not be trusted either. I must be crazy for money.

Unable to get any answers, Wu Renxing returned to his office. As he passed the finance office, a flash of golden light suddenly appeared before his eyes, blinding him.

"Leaving such bright lights on in broad daylight, don't they know how to save electricity?"

Wu Renxing entered the house in a bad mood and immediately gave Wu Meng a lecture.

"These security guards are really something, letting just anyone in. Do they think this is a vegetable market? Bro, you've come at the right time, deduct their wages this month!" Wu Meng complained.

Wu Renxing then realized that the room was dark, and the glittering light came from Wu Meng's table. Sunlight refracted through the window and onto a bright orange gold bar, almost blinding his titanium alloy eyes!

"What is this? Where did it come from?"

Wu Renxing picked up the gold bar and examined it carefully.

"It was given to me by Chen Ergou."

"Chen Ergou? Where did he get the gold bars?"

In Wu Renxing's memory, Chen Ergou's poverty was second only to that of a beggar on the street. When did he become so generous?

"Does it look real?" Wu Meng said. "If it were real, it would be worth at least 600,000 yuan on the market, enough to buy an apartment in the city!"

Wu Renxing was also somewhat suspicious. He had seen online that some artificial gold looked even more real than real gold, and the human eye couldn't tell the difference without professional tools.

"How do you know it's fake?" Wu Renxing asked.

"I was just taking a nap here when Chen Ergou came over. Didn't I tell Feng Weida that if he wanted to pursue me, it would cost a million? Chen Ergou remembered that. He said he'd give me a 500,000 deposit first, which is this gold bar. Do you think your sister is that easy to fool? I thought to myself, where did he get this gold bar? Could he have stolen it? I was about to call the police on the spot. When he saw that I was serious, he had no choice but to confess. He said he found it under the window of Feng Weida's house. Do you think I don't know how poor Feng Weida is? If he found it at his house, do you think it could be real? Besides, Chen Ergou is so stingy, would he really give it to me?" Wu Meng finished speaking in one breath.

Old Zheng, Huangjin, Renmin Road;

Gold bars, Feng Weida, Chen Ergou...

After hearing Wu Meng's words, all the information quickly connected in Wu Renxing's mind. Could it be that what Feng Weida said was true, that there really was gold? Wasn't this a bright gold bar right in front of him?

"Xiao Meng, do you remember what the road around our factory used to be called?" Wu Renxing asked.

"Isn't it always called Jiefang Road? What's wrong?" Wu Meng asked, puzzled. How did we end up here?

"No, it wasn't called Jiefang Road twenty years ago. Do you still have any photos of the two of us taken at the factory gate?"

"The garment factory had just been built then, wait a minute!"

Wu Meng was thinking of something when she pulled out an old photo from under the table. It was a photo of her and Wu Renxing taken on the street twenty years ago. The background was the gate of a garment factory, and the street sign behind them clearly read "Renmin Road".

"Chen Ergou said he really took it from Feng Weida's house?" Wu Renxing was already getting a little too excited.

"Yeah, what's wrong, brother? Are you alright?" Wu Meng also sensed Wu Renxing's unusual behavior.

It matches up! It matches up perfectly!

Old Zheng couldn't get out of the mental hospital, so he asked Feng Weida to help him find some gold. They agreed to split it in half. Feng Weida lied to me; he definitely found the gold, otherwise where would the gold bars come from? But despite his careful planning, he never expected to have such a useless teammate—Chen Ergou. Chen Ergou, in his pursuit of Wu Meng, took advantage of Feng Weida's absence to deliver the gold bars. Well done, Feng Weida! I really misjudged you; you were the one who hid the deepest secret! Pretending to apply for a driver's job here, you were actually sneaking around looking for gold bars!

"This is obviously fake. Look at the font, it's not even regular. And the color is too bright. Real gold isn't this yellow—" Wu Renxing pretended to be an expert and spoke eloquently. Although Wu Meng was in finance, she had never seen a whole gold bar before and was completely fooled by Wu Renxing.

"I'll have someone help you get it appraised," Wu Renxing said.

The gold bar had the words "Bank of China" written on it and indicated its weight in grams. It was easy to tell if it was real or fake by having a bank employee examine it. Wu Meng hadn't thought of that. Since Wu Renxing said so, she let him take it and have a look. Wu Meng didn't have much hope. How could someone as cunning as Chen Ergou possibly give her a whole piece of real gold?

The bank's appraisal results astonished Wu Renxing. The gold bar was genuine, meaning it was worth approximately 700,000 yuan on the market! It was like a huge gold nugget falling from the sky and hitting him squarely in the face! No wonder the fortune teller said I had a gold destiny... wait, Feng Weida has an earth destiny, and earth generates gold, so logically he should have generated me, right?

But we can't worry about that now. Although this operation failed again, it's a blessing in disguise! Wu Renxing thought to himself.

Wu Renxing turned to Wu Meng and told her that the gold bars were fake and had been confiscated by the bank. He said he had pleaded with them before they agreed not to pursue the matter. Upon hearing this, Wu Meng hated Chen Ergou even more. "So, he really did try to cheat me with fake gold bars! I knew it! How could a dog say anything good?" Wu Meng then posted a note on the office door: "Chen Ergou and dogs are not allowed inside!"

"Sada, where did you get that gold bar? Get me another one."

After receiving the gold bars, Chen Ergou began to doubt their authenticity. He went to a professional gold recycler to have them verified, but the gold recycler, Da Congming, quickly and decisively told him they were fake—South African tin, worthless—and would only accept 200 yuan for them. This further convinced Chen Ergou that Feng Weida's family was a pigsty, and he couldn't believe they could produce anything of value. Since they were worthless, he figured he might as well do Wu Meng a favor; what if she believed him? He gave the gatekeeper 20 yuan and a pack of cigarettes, then sneaked into the garment factory, which led to the scene where he gave Wu Meng the gold bars.

But he regretted it after giving it away. A gold bar can only be given away once. If he had turned it into a large gold chain or a gold bracelet, he could have given it away many times. Alas, he miscalculated. So he thought, if he could get Feng Weida to get another one, he would have a reason to get close to Wu Meng.

"What gold bars?"

Feng Weida had never seen it before and had no idea what it was talking about.

"It's that one under your window, this big, bright orange, a gold bar!" Chen Ergou gestured.

"Ergou, are you dreaming? My family doesn't have any gold bars." Feng Weida suspected that Chen Ergou was dreaming about it.

"How could that be? I saw it myself, and it was even given to Wu Meng. It's absolutely true!"

Feng Weida went to ask Wu Meng, so Wu Meng added Feng Weida's name to a note on the door: "Chen Ergou and Feng Weida are not allowed to enter (dogs are allowed)!"