Deng Minghao wasn’t one to be intimidated easily: “So you’re threatening me, boss?”
The black market boss withdrew his hand and leisurely took a sip of tea: “Why would I threaten you? I’m just giving you a friendly reminder.”
After a moment’s thought, Deng Minghao nodded: “Fine, consider it making friends with you, boss. We’ll go with that price. In a bit, your men can come with me to haul the goods.
But for the things you just took, you’ll have to pay me the full price first. I need to bring the money back so my brothers can see it too.”
The black market boss immediately broke into a smile: ”I like dealing with straightforward people like you. Wait here, I’ll go get the money.”
With that, the black market boss stood up and went into the inner room. Before long, he came out with thirty yuan.
This time, Deng Minghao had brought two hundred jin of flour again, along with a basket each of chicken eggs, duck eggs, and goose eggs. All of this should have sold for at least forty or fifty yuan.
Looking at the three big “Great Unity” bills in the black market boss’s hand, Deng Minghao said nothing, just took them and pocketed them.
“Since that’s settled, let’s go. My goods are stashed in those run-down houses in the south of the city. It’s not safe to leave them there too long.” Deng Minghao said as he stood up.
The black market boss nodded, then shot a few glances at his trusted lieutenant, his eyes full of menace.
The lieutenant nodded almost imperceptibly, gathered a few of the men, surrounded Deng Minghao in the middle, and they left the courtyard together.
Deng Minghao led the group toward the south of the city, walking from dawn until dusk. Just as everyone was getting impatient, he finally pointed at a row of buildings ahead.
“My goods are stored right there. This area may be sparsely populated, but it’s not empty, so be careful and follow me slowly.”
Hearing this, the black market men all fell in behind Deng Minghao and moved forward slowly.
After turning a corner, Deng Minghao took off running without a word, dashing into a small alley.
The men behind him froze, but the lieutenant was the quickest to react: “Damn it! What the hell are you all standing around for? Chase him! If he gets away, the boss will skin you all alive!”
They hurried after him, but after only a few steps, they all stopped dead—because Deng Minghao had run into a dead-end alley.
But even though it was a dead end, Deng Minghao had vanished.
Staring at the high courtyard wall, the lieutenant’s face grew even uglier: “He’s a trained fighter too. This was deliberate. Spread out and search—see if you can still find him.”
The men immediately scattered and began searching the south of the city for any trace of Deng Minghao.
The moment they left, Deng Minghao emerged from his Dimensional Space, avoided the searchers, and quietly made his way back to the black market boss’s courtyard.
Seeing no one around, he climbed over the wall. Whenever he heard footsteps, he would quickly retreat into the Dimensional Space to hide, then come back out once the coast was clear.
Moving bit by bit like this, Deng Minghao finally made it into the room where the black market boss had gotten the money earlier.
Listening to the deafening snoring, Deng Minghao sneered. Sleeping soundly, huh? Let’s see if you can still sleep in a little while.
Deng Minghao stayed in the room, examining the furnishings in the dim light, thinking about where the black market boss would keep his money.
He looked carefully to see if there were any holes in the walls or hidden compartments.
After who knows how long, noisy footsteps and the glow of firelight came from outside. It seemed the group searching for him had returned.
Deng Minghao slipped back into the Dimensional Space.
Li Ruolan finally saw Deng Minghao return and finally relaxed.
“What happened to you? Why did it take so long? Did something go wrong?” Li Ruolan asked him.
Deng Minghao didn’t hide anything and told her about what had happened that afternoon.
“Right now I’m hiding in the black market boss’s room. That man is crooked at heart—he’s surely harmed plenty of people. So I’ve decided to rob the rich to help the poor.”
The rich one was obviously the black market boss. As for the poor—that was them. They were very poor right now.
From inside the Dimensional Space, one could see what was happening outside. Deng Minghao watched as the black market boss was woken up, then left, dressing with an angry look on his face.
He told Li Ruolan, then immediately slipped out of the space. While listening to the black market boss’s cursing outside, he began rummaging through the room.
The black market boss’s room had a kang instead of a bed, and on the kang sat several large chests. Deng Minghao collected the chests straight into the space.
Li Ruolan and Deng Minghao had a certain rapport—she immediately began opening the chests to see what was inside.
The men’s clothing she set aside, and beneath the clothes were several brand-new thick quilts, bright red—apparently freshly made and never used.
Two thick quilts and two thin ones—Li Ruolan collected them all.
On top of another chest were more clothes, and underneath were three military-style overcoats, which Li Ruolan also collected.
In the chests after that, Li Ruolan found several bolts of cloth. Anything usable, she collected it all.
What remained were only some worn-out old clothes, and Deng Minghao put the chests back exactly as they had been.
While Li Ruolan was going through the chests, Deng Minghao found quite a bit of money and ration coupons in the cabinets. He didn’t count it, just collected everything into the space.
Then, from various nooks and crannies, he dug out some small boxes hidden away very carefully, and Deng Minghao sent them all into the space.
When Li Ruolan opened them, she found the small boxes held small and large goldfish ornaments, as well as gold bars.
These things weren’t worth much now and couldn’t be spent, but this was gold—absolutely something that held its value. Li Ruolan’s eyes turned into stars as she collected everything.
Deng Minghao put the empty boxes back exactly as before.
That was everything in the room, but Deng Minghao didn’t believe there could be only this much, so he went around tapping and knocking, and finally discovered a hollow-sounding section of bluestone slab under the floor.
The discussion outside was still going on, so Deng Minghao took a sickle out of the space and pried open the bluestone slab.
Sure enough, beneath the slab was a rectangular wooden box. There was no time to look at it—Deng Minghao collected the box right away.
Just as he set the bluestone slab back down, Deng Minghao heard footsteps getting closer and closer. He quickly hid behind the door, then slipped into the space.
Inside the space, Li Ruolan was staring open-mouthed at the contents of the rectangular wooden box. Deng Minghao leaned over to take a look too.
So much money—several thick stacks, all bound with string. If each bundle was a hundred bills, there was probably five to six thousand yuan here.
Besides the money, there were all kinds of ration coupons, mostly national ones—sewing machine coupons, bicycle coupons, radio coupons, watch coupons, and so on, all of them extremely rare.
Beneath the money and coupons, several watches were laid out, both men’s and women’s styles.