Blackstone Code

Chapter 10:

After tidying up the room, Lin Qi had new visitors. His residence was a four-story building facing the street. The first and second floors housed a small bar, while the third and fourth floors were for regular tenants.

Many bars or pubs had rooms for short-term rent on the second floor, available for three to five days or a week, sometimes even accepting temporary leases for a day, resembling more of a guesthouse or hotel.

This pattern was initially discovered from intoxicated individuals: bar owners would provide them with a bed and then charge them extra. Soon, most bars began doing the same. No one would complain about taking money from drunkards.

Alcohol is a very peculiar thing. It can make some people unconscious and be thrown into a 'luxury' room to sleep for a night by paying extra. It can also make some people become straightforward. That's why every bar or pub needed some rooms.

This predetermined that Lin Qi's current residence wouldn't be too remote, devoid of people. There was constant pedestrian traffic here, during both day and night.

The police claimed no witnesses were found. Perhaps the culprit was an experienced criminal. But in truth, it was impossible not to have any witnesses, whether residents on the second floor, the bartender behind the bar on the first floor, or the sparse customersthey couldn't possibly be completely oblivious.

However, they wouldn't speak up. Firstly, Lin Qi had no direct interest or relation to them. Secondly, it wasn't necessary to attract the attention of the federal tax bureau or any unwanted trouble for a stranger they didn't know.

But this silence inadvertently led the police to misunderstand certain things and granted Lin Qi room to maneuver later.

Just as he finished tidying the messy room, someone knocked on the door. It was a few newspaper boys.

They slung bulging leather satchels diagonally, looking strained. Their faces flushed, partly due to the heavy leather bags and partly due to excitement.

News Head promised them that if they delivered this money and memorized some details in the room, they'd receive an additional reward this month, not less than fifty bucks per person.

This sum was significant for kids their age. In two or three years, they'd be living independently. They needed to save some money to face society before then. Opportunities were scarce, even if it was just fifty bucks.

Before closing the door, Lin Qi glanced outside. This small bar where he resided was right on the main road. Outside the door was a corridor; beyond the railing of the corridor was the road. Standing here, most things outside could be easily seen.

Nothing seemed amiss, but his mind was in motion. With years of experience dealing with... events, these kids' arrival seemed suspicious.

These past days, only these newspaper boys had transactions here, but News Heads also came occasionally. They just didn't enter the room, mostly staying outside in the corridor.

Given the large sums handed to these kids, they naturally needed to keep an eye on them, protecting their assets while intimidating them. But today, the News Head of those kids wasn't outside in the corridor.

What did that signify?

Any abnormality implied deeper problems. The News Head's absence had two possible meanings: either he didn't want any direct association with Lin Qi and the place he was staying in, or he knew the place he was staying in was dangerous. So much so that even if he cared about the money, he didn't want to show up. However, he probably had a way to ensure his money's safety.

This was an obvious conclusion. Otherwise, he wouldn't have let these newspaper boys bring such a large sum of change to exchange for bills.

Combined with what Lin Qi had encountered earlier, he already knew roughly what was about to happen next.

He wasn't afraid. Instead, a hint of excitement, a desire to take action, swelled in his heart!

"How much is here?" He fetched a small wooden box from the side and placed it on the cart, instructing the newspaper boys to pour the money inside.

As the boys poured, they said, "Five thousand in total, sir."

"Five thousand?" Lin Qi chuckled. His eyes glanced at the satchels of the newspaper boys. "That's a surprisingly large number. I thought it would be less."

This sum was excessive, enough to incriminate him directly. It further solidified his thoughts: someone was setting a trap, and he was in the middle of it.

If later, officials from the tax bureau or investigative bureau barged in, and he couldn't explain the origin of this money or why it was in his room, he might face serious charges.

At that point, if they mentioned a "deal," he wouldn't escape their clutches and would have to comply with their demands unless he wished to spend a long time behind bars.

He nodded without expressing any opinion, and after the box was filled with five thousand coins, he pushed the cart inside and said, "I need to go to the bathroom; so please wait here for a moment."

Five thousand bucks worth of coins were incredibly heavy. The five-cent coin was the lightest, at 3.7 grams, while the fifty-cent coin was the heaviest, at 6.1 grams. With the ten-cent and twenty-five-cent coins, the average weight of each coin was over four grams.

In total, it amounted to about a hundred and thirty pounds. Each newspaper boy carried over twenty pounds of coins in their satchels. No wonder their faces were redder than usual; just climbing the stairs made them noticeably strained.

Once inside the room, Lin Qi didn't rush back out. He dragged the box full of money into the bathroom and retrieved a sturdier piece of cloth from the freshly washed clothes on the cart.

He tied both trouser legs tightly, stuffed handfuls of coins into the pant legs, and when the box lightened a bit, poured the coins directly into the trouser.

Both trouser legs were filled with coins, secured by a belt. He straightened them to resemble a stick and stuffed them into the crude toilet's drainage hole.

These aged buildings hadn't been designed with modern, user-friendly bends in the pipes.

Not to mention bends, even horizontal pipes would cause sewage from upper floors to overflow directly. Hence, the drainage system was designed with a straight main pipeline, each floor connecting through a downward-sloping pipe directly to the main pipeline, with a one-way valve at the junction with the septic tank.

This design prevented backflow, sparing lower-floor residents from witnessing toilets spewing waste. However, it would occasionally lead to odd smells at home, unless an exhaust fan was installed.

He hung a soapbox, a simple wooden box, on the belt to ensure the belt wouldn't sink into the sewage. With this method, when retrieving it at night, he wouldn't need to plunge into the cesspool to search for it.

After a faint sound of sinking and the wooden one-way valve rebounding against the pipe echoed, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Before long, Lin Qi returned to the room clutching several bundles of cash. The newspaper boys had become somewhat impatient by now. Their undivided attention fixated entirely on Lin Qi's hands, specifically on that thick stack of banknotes!

Sitting on the edge of the bed, he casually picked up a few newspapers and unfolded the bundled bills tied with rubber bands, handing them out to different kids. "Count them first, and then I'll do it again."

This was his rule, and people willingly abided by it. This mutual counting method established an essential trust channel between Lin Qi and these traders.

The children weren't counting swiftly. When the first one finished counting a stack of ten-buck bills, he handed the money over to Lin Qi while stating the final number. Lin Qi counted again in front of him, then wrapped it in a newspaper and handed it to the child. This was his usual practice.

Originally, according to Lin Qi, the least conspicuous thing in the newspaper boys' satchels was anything related to newspapers, which would prevent them from drawing attention from certain individuals.

This saying gained the approval of the newspaper boys. Since then, whenever the money exceeded fifty bucks, Lin Qi would wrap it in newspapers and hand it over to them. It had become a habit they adapted to.

Counting one sum after another, Lin Qi wrapped each bundle in newspaper and secured it with a rubber band. After escorting the children out, he swiftly returned to the room and pulled out handfuls of cash from his pockets.

He played a little trick, withholding a significant portion of the money that should have been given to those children. This was actually a simple sleight of hand: while counting money, using the ring finger to lift a portion of the bills over the middle finger, then at the moment of finishing the count, retracting the middle finger and securing the bills in the palm, out of sight.

At this point, the children, who had just finished counting the money placed on the newspaper by Lin Qi, had their attention fully focused on it. This allowed Lin Qi to effortlessly slip the hand holding the withheld money back into his pocket where he needed to retrieve a rubber band.

Then, both the newspaper boy and Lin Qi would watch the money being wrapped in the newspaper and secured with a rubber band. From Lin Qi's action to the money disappearing from sight, it took less than two seconds.

Coupled with these kids, being younger, not daring to offend Lin Qi, they wouldn't suggest recounting. Hence, Lin Qi smoothly reclaimed the money.

If they had the courage to resist, they wouldn't merely be newspaper boys now.

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