At exactly 3:00 PM, Wu Zhong had already received the program that Niguang sent him.
There was no icon—just a gray, murky mobile app.
According to Niguang, this thing was foolproof: open it, click activate, and that was it.
To avoid exposure, you could use a phone without a SIM card and connect to some public WiFi.
Originally Niguang wanted to do it himself, because by his reasoning, anyone could trigger this bug; there was no need to send the app to Wu Zhong—sending it was redundant.
But Wu Zhong knew there was no social engineering, no insider in the company.
This had to be triggered by him personally; only by activating the backdoor software himself would the bug be opened.
It was like pressing an elevator button—doing so locked the corresponding “door.”
So Wu Zhong said there was a time window for this; if he told Niguang to wait for his message to activate it, delays might ruin everything.
Niguang didn’t doubt him and quietly prepared the money and several accounts.
“Ready yet? When do we start? I’ve got the money ready, just waiting on you,” Niguang urged repeatedly.
Wu Zhong answered calmly, “I’m waiting on a loan. I borrowed thirty thousand yuan.”
“Pfft… thirty thousand? For such a big opportunity, your principal is only thirty thousand?” Niguang was astonished.
Wu Zhong said, “I only need a little over thirty thousand.”
Niguang sounded incredulous: “Are you kidding me? Thirty thousand? And you had to take out a loan?”
Wu Zhong curled his lip: “You think I’m rich?”
Niguang commented, “I could easily transfer you one hundred and fifty thousand, you transfer it back to me, and you’d pocket thirty thousand.”
Hearing that, Wu Zhong was tempted—of course he knew a bigger principal meant more profit.
Niguang continued, “I thought you prepared a big stake to play hard, but you’re planning to play small with thirty thousand and repeat?”
“No, do not do that!”
“Ning—Wu, this bug’s trigger is extremely covert. My program won’t be traceable; at most it can pinpoint the public IP you used.”
“So the platform either accepts the loss or it has to investigate every beneficiary.”
“But beneficiaries are spread across the whole country. There are so many people; everyone who spent money during the bug window would trigger a 20% instant discount.”
“Everyone appears to be making normal purchases—who knows who started it? Even if the platform traces and finds a security insider who can’t fix the bug quickly, they still can’t catch you or me.”
“You can say this opportunity is very safe.”
“But if you keep recycling thirty thousand and exploit the bug repeatedly, you’ll draw attention.”
Wu Zhong said, “But I don’t have the principal.”
Niguang asked, “That insider friend of yours didn’t actually give you money to help you farm with, did he?”
“Looks like he didn’t really trust you—just used you.”
“All right. This is a rare opportunity. You help me get rich, I’ll help you get rich.”
“Once it starts, I’ll transfer one million to you!”
When he heard that, Wu Zhong was greatly shaken.
“Really? Aren’t you afraid I’ll take the money and not pay you back?”
After all, although the two had known each other for many years and were close online, they were still internet friends who had never met in real life.
He hadn’t expected Niguang to dare transfer one million into his account.
Niguang protested loudly: “You dare! I know where you live—if you don’t pay me back, I’ll come to Xunyang City and cut you down. That’s my entire savings…”
Wu Zhong was moved: “Don’t worry, I’m not that kind of person.”
Niguang quickly added Wu Zhong’s Huashengbao account. He took a deep breath and pulled out another phone—the old phone that belonged to his grandfather, long since without a SIM card.
Wu Zhong connected to the hospital WiFi and quickly used the software to open the backdoor and activate the bug.
“Is it started? When does it start?” Niguang sent messages urging him from time to time.
Wu Zhong didn’t hurry to answer. Although the reasoning seemed solid, it was still the first time.
He wasn’t completely certain it would work.
He decided he should test the waters first since his principal was small.
He went to the payment window, used the loaned thirty thousand yuan to pay his grandfather’s surgery fee.
Ding—the money was paid.
Transaction successful!
-24,019.2 yuan.
Order total 30,024 yuan, government subsidy -6,004.8 yuan.
Wu Zhong was ecstatic—it had worked!
It actually worked: the expenditure was instantly reduced by 20%!
To the hospital it looked like they received slightly over thirty thousand, but for him he only paid twenty-four thousand, leaving over six thousand in his account.
“All right, Niguang, it started!”
He immediately called Niguang by voice; the other side was ecstatic.
After a little while came, “I’m on it! I’ve transferred it.”
Wu Zhong waited a long time but the money didn’t arrive; his face changed and he panicked.
“Um… I didn’t receive it, I really didn’t get it.”
He explained urgently—was something wrong? Had Huashengbao’s backend been shut down?
But when he clicked the app everything seemed normal.
Niguang was calm: “Of course you didn’t get it instantly. Even though I’m a Wealth Black Card level three, instant transfers have limits. One million is large; it’ll take over two hours.”
Wu Zhong blinked—he had indeed overlooked that. After all, he rarely transferred large sums.
He didn’t even know what a Wealth Black Card was.
“Huashengbao has tiers?”
Niguang said, “Yeah. A daily average of 300,000 is Black Card level one, 500,000 is level two, one million is level three.”
“You don’t even have level one?”
Wu Zhong scoffed: “No, I’ve never had three hundred thousand.”
Niguang chuckled: “It’s my first time doing such a large transfer too. We’ll just wait. By the way, how long can you guarantee this bug will last on your side?”
Wu Zhong said, “It can last a while, but the faster the better.”
He hesitated—how long it lasted wasn’t wholly up to him. If he didn’t touch it, someone else might not be able to fix it either.
But he also had to guard against the platform shutting it down directly.
Niguang said, “No problem. Worst case it’s still profitable. To be honest, before transferring to you, I tested it with over a hundred thousand and made a small profit.”
“But if it ends now, your two hundred thousand won’t be realized.”
Wu Zhong fell silent. So that was it—Niguang wasn’t naive; he tested first before daring to transfer one million.
Once the bug was proven effective and sustained, Niguang felt confident it was real and not a joke.
Only then did he dare send the million.
Time ticked by and Wu Zhong stared at his phone; he waited more than two hours.
Ding! Clatter!
The sound of money arriving rang in his phone.
Wu Zhong opened his account: one million had arrived!
He jumped up excitedly, bounding up and down the stairwell.
“Done! I got it!”
He immediately prepared to transfer the money back to Niguang.
But this time it was even slower—two days to process!
“It says it will take two days to arrive…”
Niguang was cool: “Normal. You’re just an ordinary member—one million is at least next-day arrival, and two days at the slowest.”
Wu Zhong panicked: “Do you mean this bug has to last two whole days? The platform will surely shut down the service eventually.”
Niguang said, “Relax. Once you transfer the money to me, it’ll be mine sooner or later.”
“Now is the time to earn more during this window.”
Wu Zhong jolted: “What?”
Niguang’s messages came fast: “I found an upgraded exploitation of this bug—paying off credit cards can also trigger the instant reduction.”
“My account has many credit cards bound to it. The highest limit is one million, many others are three hundred thousand.”
Wu Zhong was horrified: “Ah? What are you planning to do?”
Niguang said, “Credit card payments are very fast. Huashengbao credit card repayments are also fast, and putting money from a bank account into Huashengbao is even faster!”
Wu Zhong knew this: withdrawing from Huashengbao to a card is slow, but topping Huashengbao from a bank is quick.
If the mobile bank transfer limit is high enough, it’s basically instant.
Niguang continued, “I contacted a friend who uses his jewelry store’s machine to run the credit cards… his store has huge turnover and can directly transfer cash to my card.”
“I then top up Huashengbao to repay the credit card, repeat the loop—each time money moves out of Huashengbao it’s a 20% windfall!”
“Finally I’ll convert the account’s money into gold.”
Wu Zhong felt his tone was fanatical.
This guy was high on it.
“Calm down. Credit card cash-out is illegal…”
Niguang laughed: “What are you saying? Maliciously exploiting a payment platform bug is also a crime.”
“Either way, it’s over three years, what’s there to fuss about?”
“And I said, even if an insider is caught, they won’t be able to implicate us unless they name you.”
“From what I see, whoever created this must be doing bigger operations through other channels. Compared to that, what I’m doing is small fries.”
Wu Zhong pulled at his hair: “Weren’t you the one telling me not to repeatedly farm—just make a single profit and stop? You even warned me earlier not to attract attention, and now you’re playing big yourself?”
Niguang was feverish: “You only had thirty thousand; recycling it doesn’t make sense.”
“But I’m different. I have over a million available, plus credit cards. A few more rounds and I’ll be financially free…”
“You have no idea how awful my job is—diabetes, heart and liver issues, I’m in my thirties and can’t dare to get married. Soon they might lay me off…”
“Screw it. I’ll take the money and run.”
“I have to consider whether this is my once-in-a-lifetime chance!”
Wu Zhong was shocked and helpless to persuade him.
This whole thing had started with him—he was the desperate one planning to exploit the bug.
Niguang had tried to dissuade him at first, but once the windfall arrived, Niguang became uncontrollable—he got high faster than anyone.
“Don’t get carried away. My grandfather taught me moderation—don’t overdo it. Greed is the greatest demon in people’s hearts.”
“This bug won’t last long; it’ll be fixed soon.”
Wu Zhong tried to cold-water him, saying he would close the backdoor on his end soon.
But Niguang wouldn’t listen. He replied intermittently in bursts.
“I’ve already started. I’m earning tens of thousands each minute.”
“You can’t do what I’m doing, but I can. This is the opportunity; I must seize it!”
“Brother, don’t try to stop me. I already quit my job and booked the flight.”
Wu Zhong was floored: “Holy—dude, you…”
He was stunned by Niguang’s decisiveness. One moment Niguang was cautioning him; the next he’d cut his ties and prepared to run—no hesitation.
“You really think you can get away? With such sums, the platform will trace everything back and retrieve our money,” Wu Zhong said.
Niguang laughed: “You’re overthinking. This isn’t such a massive sum. I expect to be done in at most half an hour.”
“And did you think when the bug appeared last time the platform didn’t try to recover losses because they were merciful? No—they simply couldn’t.”
“You really think capital would allow us to siphon off this small gain? It’s about the number of people involved and how the funds have circulated multiple times across the country.”
“To trace and freeze everyone one by one, ignoring public opinion costs more than the losses recovered!”
Wu Zhong was stunned. So the platform didn’t recover funds last time not out of kindness, but because they couldn’t pull it off.
That eased his mind.
Still, if Niguang kept farming at such a pace, he would surely attract investigation. Other users during the same time window, including Wu Zhong, would probably be fine, but Niguang might be singled out.
But judging by Niguang’s attitude, he didn’t care—he was going all in.
“This…”
Wu Zhong felt speechless. Who had superpowers here?
He was being cautious while this guy took his ride and gambled everything.
“Niguang, enough. How much did you pull? Run now.”
Wu Zhong urged; he didn’t want his friend caught.
Niguang answered, “Not much, not much… Oh, by the way, you don’t need to pay that one million back—cancel the transfer, I’ll give it to you.”
“…” Wu Zhong’s mouth twitched.
Not much? He’d just gifted a million like that.
He’d said he’d cut him down if he didn’t pay back; apparently in a short time Niguang had gone mad with profit.
His attitude had shifted; a million was now pocket change.
Wu Zhong decided this couldn’t continue; he would decisively end the bug.
The operation was simple: he just had to touch the software and think about stopping the effect.
Let the platform’s security staff handle the rest; they would naturally close it.
Sure enough, after a while Niguang’s message came through.
“The bug’s fixed. Too bad—looks like that guy farmed enough.”
Wu Zhong rolled his eyes and thought: I was the one scared you wouldn’t farm enough!
Niguang still believed an insider existed within the company.
Wu Zhong didn’t bother explaining and repeatedly pressed him: “Better to cash out and secure it! How much did you farm? Will you be discovered?”
Niguang replied after a long pause: “Huh? Oh, there’s a high chance of being held accountable. I’m already at the airport.”
“But don’t worry—you weren’t the only one doing it at the same time.”
Wu Zhong’s thoughts stirred and he realized.
Right—definitely not only Niguang was farming.
This bug had surfaced twice. The first time few people noticed or people were afraid of being chased for refunds, so nobody farmed much.
After the news came out that time, everyone knew about it and the platform didn’t recover funds.
Now with a second occurrence, opportunists everywhere would think: again? A 20% instant discount again? This can’t be missed.
No doubt countless people nationwide took the chance to quietly profit.
Niguang said, “Even if they catch me, it’ll be for illegal cash-out—just a violation.”
“As for who activated the bug, no one will know if we don’t say. Someone will be scapegoated, but it won’t be us.”
“But you should worry about the person who told you. Don’t finger me if they get caught.”
Wu Zhong thought: right—the activation and the opportunistic farming are two different things.
Niguang at most would be investigated for cashing out illegally, which many people did simultaneously.
As for activating the bug, it’s almost untraceable; at best they could find the hospital’s IP.
Niguang worried about an insider being exposed; Wu Zhong didn’t because there was no insider—only superpowers.
“Tsk! You make me want to farm again,” Wu Zhong said with a shrug.
Niguang chuckled: “You were the one who told me about the opportunity. I couldn’t dissuade you then, so you have the guts but no greed.”
“Don’t worry, take that one million. It’s all my savings from the past decade—taxes paid and everything.”
Wu Zhong asked, “What about you? How much did you earn?”
Niguang still didn’t answer. He only said, “I made enough. I’m going to delete you as a friend now. Wu, see you if fate allows.”
“Delete friend?” When Wu Zhong asked again, the call had ended.
He checked—good grief, the friend was deleted and all records wiped.
He realized Niguang was protecting them both.
If Niguang got caught, they could only pursue him for malicious farming. Chat records might hint that he activated the bug.
So he deleted records and even removed friends.
In fact, the only evidence was a voice call record; the app wouldn’t store voice content. To be safe, though, Niguang went maybe a step further than necessary.
Even if he got caught, no one would think Niguang was the mastermind.
“Sigh…” Wu Zhong sat on the hospital bench in a daze, feeling a bit lost.
He’d lost a good friend. He didn’t have many real-life friends—most were online. Now the connection was severed, and he’d never see him in person again.
However, when Wu Zhong flipped to Huashengbao and saw the one million, his mood lifted.
He had money—a full one million, more than he’d ever had in his life.
This was all Niguang’s savings. He hadn’t expected that while he planned to use his superpower to make money, he’d hardly make anything, yet this friend achieved financial freedom and gifted him a sum.
Thinking it over, the bug program came from Niguang, the principal came from Niguang, the farming was executed by Niguang, and the one who took the risk and ran was Niguang too.
Wu Zhong scratched his head—he seemed to have done nothing.
Just by triggering his ability once, he received one million.
He had been annoyed that his ability seemed useless before, but upon reflection, possessing such an ability was the greatest value. Gold will always shine.
When everyone in the world is ordinary, possessing any ability others lack is enough to shatter an ordinary fate.