Boss Lu urgently needed help, so Qin Junlan planned to bring more people along. Including everyone except A Dong and A Tao, who stayed behind to rotate shifts, the group had eight people.
There was no question about bringing Bai Lansheng. She had to come.
Qin Junlan placed a helmet on Bai Lansheng’s head. While Bai Lansheng was adjusting it, Qin Junlan reached under her arm and helped her onto the motorcycle, then gave her a light pat on the back.
Bai Lansheng silently shifted forward to make room.
Once she had settled into position, Qin Junlan put on her own helmet. She swung her leg over the bike and twisted the throttle. They were ready to go.
The entire process was smooth and natural, showing a wordless rhythm between them.
The eight of them took off on four motorcycles. The roar of the engines broke the quiet of the early morning. Curious residents peeked out from behind curtains, wondering what kind of mission involved so many people.
Some didn’t care. Some ignored it. Others let their imaginations run wild.
Young riders often get caught up in the thrill. Two of the bikes quickly surged ahead. Qin Junlan stayed back, riding slower but steady.
She didn’t talk much while driving. The roads were rough, and talking only meant eating dust. But since they were wearing helmets this time, it wasn’t much of an issue.
When they reached a smoother stretch, Qin Junlan said, “Now that I think about it, I’ve been doing all the driving. Want to take over for this part?”
After getting on the bike, Bai Lansheng had naturally found a comfortable position against Qin Junlan’s back. She let out a small yawn and closed her eyes. It was still early, and she was feeling drowsy.
Hearing this question, her body froze slightly.
Qin Junlan slowed down, loosened her grip on the left handlebar, and waited for Bai Lansheng to take it.
One problem with motorcycles was that there wasn’t anything for the passenger to hold on to. If they weren’t careful, they could be thrown off. Qin Junlan rested her left hand gently on Bai Lansheng’s lower abdomen for support. She was just waiting for her to grab the handle so she could let go of the throttle and switch control.
But Bai Lansheng suddenly twisted her body sharply, startling Qin Junlan into slamming the brakes and narrowly avoiding an accident.
“What happened?” she asked.
Da Hai and Tingzi, who were riding behind them, caught up and looked confused about the sudden stop.
Bai Lansheng stayed silent, her expression annoyed. What could she even say? That she had been frightened because that shameless troublemaker touched her waist?
Qin Junlan glanced at her but said nothing more. She waved to the others and continued riding.
After a while, she asked, “You don’t know how to ride, do you?”
Something about her surprised tone made Bai Lansheng even more unwilling to admit it. She chose to stay quiet.
Although she couldn’t see Bai Lansheng’s face, Qin Junlan seemed to understand what that silence meant. She let out a quiet laugh. “That explains it. I left the bike for you and wondered why you didn’t ride off. Turns out you didn’t know how.”
Bai Lansheng blushed, furious. She glanced nervously at Da Hai and the others, hoping no one had heard, only to see them looking at her with surprise.
She snapped, “Where I come from, no one rides junk like this.”
She instantly regretted her words. Her tone had been too harsh, and she worried that Qin Junlan would take offense.
But Qin Junlan wasn’t upset. She agreed calmly. “You’re right. Riding this kind of bike too often isn’t great for your skin. Once we have money, we’ll get something better. For now, though, we have to make do. Still, learning a new skill is always good. Let me teach you. It’s easy. Start by holding the left handlebar. Relax. I’ll hold you steady.”
With Qin Junlan’s patient coaching, Bai Lansheng gradually got the feel for it. She looked at the road ahead, briefly dazed.
She had walked this road many times before. But every time, it felt suffocating, weighed down by bad memories.
Today, though, the wind brushing against her face felt gentle.
She asked softly, “Aren’t you afraid I’ll ride off someday and never come back?”
Qin Junlan answered, “If that happens, then I didn’t do a good enough job making you want to stay. That would be my fault.”
“What if I leave the next time you’re away?”
Qin Junlan chuckled and looked ahead at the road as the fog began to lift. “Then I’ll come find you again.”
Bai Lansheng lowered her gaze and bit her lip hard.
She spoke like it was nothing. But what about all the suffering from her past life? Did that count for nothing?
The shadows of the trees faded behind them as the road stretched out ahead. The group finally arrived in District B.
District B was the commercial zone. Shops opened early, and the streets were already busy. Many people were out and about, and motorcycles like theirs were common.
Qin Junlan slowed down and scanned the signs along the shops, finally stopping in front of a clothing store.
She didn’t go straight to the location Boss Lu had given. Instead, she took a detour through the neighborhood. She wanted everyone to change into something more presentable.
Showing up looking dusty and rough wouldn’t do. She was going to discuss business, not start a street fight.
Except for Bai Lansheng, everyone else changed. Qin Junlan put on a suit. The others wore polo shirts and cargo pants.
She had originally intended for them all to wear suits, hoping the clothing would tone down their street thug appearance. But they felt too awkward in them. So she switched to outfits that allowed better movement.
After they changed, they dropped off their bikes at a car wash. Qin Junlan went to a copy shop to personally design and print business cards. By the time the cards were ready, the bikes were clean, and the group hit the road again.
For lunch, they bought meat buns from a street vendor. One person accidentally got grease on his shirt and looked devastated.
Qin Junlan said, “If it’s dirty, we’ll just buy a new one.”
“That would be a waste of money.”
Qin Junlan had been covering all the expenses so far. The cost of things in District B was higher than in District D. With so many of them, it was adding up quickly. But everyone noticed and appreciated it.
She said, “Don’t worry. This is an investment. What we spend now will come back many times over.”
Her words calmed the group.
Binbin asked, “So what exactly are we going to do?”
Qin Junlan replied, “At first it might be tiring. Are you afraid of hard work?”
Binbin puffed up his chest. “I’m not even afraid of pain. What’s hard work? Right, everyone?”
The group nodded.
“So seriously, what are we doing?”
Qin Junlan said, “Selling our bodies.”
Everyone fell silent.
Even Bai Lansheng, who had been quietly listening, paused.
After a moment, Binbin said hesitantly, “Actually… pain kind of scares me.”
Everyone burst out laughing.
Bai Lansheng didn’t look back, but she could hear their laughter clearly. The low sound drifted past her ears, and for a moment, the world around her felt unreal.
Qin Junlan had placed high expectations on a group of gangsters from the bottom of society.
But instead of resisting, they followed her lead step by step. They weren’t afraid of change. They were only afraid they might not be able to meet her expectations.
The address Boss Lu provided was in a warehouse area in District B. Qin Junlan could see the sheet metal roof from behind the iron gate.
But there was no security guard at the entrance. After waiting for two minutes, they decided to ride straight in.
The warehouse was over five meters tall, with a three-meter-wide front entrance, and covered more than one hundred square meters of land.
Qin Junlan could see workers moving around inside the warehouse. Among them was someone wearing a security uniform.
So that was where the security guard had gone. Clearly, they were short-staffed.
She made a quick assessment. The people she brought might come in handy.
While she was observing the warehouse, Boss Lu noticed their arrival.
He walked over with heavy steps and asked in a gruff voice, “Who are you people? What do you want?”
Qin Junlan had just started introducing herself when he cut her off.
“As you can see, I’m very busy. I don’t have time for small talk.”
She skipped the formalities and got straight to the point. “My people can help.”
Boss Lu glanced up at her. She was dressed neatly, leaving a good first impression, but her slender frame made him question what she could actually do.
Qin Junlan signaled. Da Hai nodded and led the others forward to start helping.
“Hey, don’t get in the way!”
Boss Lu was clearly uneasy when he saw Da Hai approach. But once he saw them working fairly efficiently, his expression softened a little. At least they weren’t making things worse.
Qin Junlan knew how to choose the right moment. She offered him a cigarette while casually asking what had happened.
Boss Lu didn’t feel like smoking. He tucked the cigarette behind his ear and looked over at Da Hai and the others to confirm they were indeed helping. Only then did he finally speak, looking troubled.
He explained that the batch of glazed mushrooms he had shipped in had been intended for a potential distributor. But due to poor storage, the goods had gotten damp and moldy. The deal had fallen through.
Now he was in a rush to sort out the spoiled ones from the usable ones, hoping to salvage what he could and take the rest to the exhibition to find new buyers.
The mushrooms were packed in sealed boxes. To sort them, they had to be opened and rechecked one by one. This unpacking and repacking required time and manpower, both of which were in short supply.
Boss Lu said, “If I lose this whole shipment, not only will I be bankrupt, I’ll have wasted half a year of effort. I won’t even be able to pay my workers. Normally around this time, I’d be sitting in my office drinking tea, not out here sweating like this. So, Xiao Qin, it’s not that I don’t want to help you, but I really don’t have the time. As for the tickets…”
It was clear he intended to decline.
She could see right through his calculations. Her people were helping, but now he wanted to turn her away without delivering on his promise.
Still, Qin Junlan kept her smile.
“Boss Lu, if this were only for me, I honestly wouldn’t mind whether I got into the exhibition or not. But it was my wife who mentioned it, and that’s why I shamelessly came to ask for help.
How about this? You’re a registered exhibitor, and every exhibitor gets a booth. That means you’re allowed to bring a few staff inside. Just bring us in with you. I’ll be your employee for two days. So will my wife. We promise not to cause any trouble.
Besides, I’ve participated in quite a few expos. I’ve got some experience with setting up booths. Maybe I can help make your display stand out and attract more buyers.”
She handed him a business card as she spoke, introducing the types of work she did. Her tone was confident and just the right amount of humble.
The simple card had a faint, elegant scent. Boss Lu had seen plenty of business cards in his life, but this one stood out. It had a certain charm that made him take a second look. His expression softened.
Qin Junlan didn’t forget to casually mention Plastique, the local powerhouse. She let a few hints slip. Finally, Boss Lu agreed to bring the two of them into the exhibition.
Having achieved her goal, Qin Junlan didn’t press further. She smoothly shifted the topic toward family matters.
When the subject turned to loved ones, she told a fabricated story about how she and Bai Lansheng were a star-crossed couple, facing opposition from their families. She added that Bai Lansheng had a bad temper only because of poor health and that it was better for her to sit quietly and rest.
She didn’t expect Bai Lansheng to help with the labor. This excuse was made to allow her to stay out of the way without raising suspicion.
Surprisingly, Boss Lu related to the story. He nodded with deep understanding. “Your wife is the fiery type too, huh?”
Qin Junlan glanced at Bai Lansheng and replied with a playful smile, “She’s fierce. She even scratches when she’s mad.”
Boss Lu sighed. “Same with mine. She even went and got her nails done. Long claws and all. Can you believe that? But at least mine looks pretty good. Yours isn’t as attractive as mine, I’d say.”
Since Bai Lansheng’s face was disguised, she did look rather plain. Of course, that couldn’t be explained openly. Qin Junlan narrowed her eyes in amusement and said with affection, “She’s good enough. The lights are off at night anyway.”
Boss Lu chuckled, clearly amused by the idea. Whatever he imagined, he laughed with satisfaction.
Qin Junlan smiled politely but stayed sharp inside.
This was her deliberate strategy. Bai Lansheng was an Omega and quite beautiful. In a place like this, that made her a target. The best way to protect her was to keep her hidden. That was why she disguised her looks when they went out.
But disguise wasn’t always enough. People might still see through it. So Qin Junlan wanted to send another message: that Bai Lansheng was already taken. If others saw her as spoken for, they might stop being curious.
It seemed to be working. Qin Junlan reminded herself to keep up the act.
Just then, Bai Lansheng cut in sharply. “There’s nothing between us.”
She was clearly annoyed. Were these people really going to talk behind her back right in front of her?
Boss Lu looked uncertain and turned to Qin Junlan.
Qin Junlan shook her head, looking helpless. “You see? She’s being moody again. When she’s mad, she always says the opposite of what she means.”
She pulled out another business card and handed it to Boss Lu.
After reading it, Boss Lu no longer doubted their relationship. If anything, he gained a deeper understanding of Bai Lansheng’s temper. He thought of his own feisty wife and suddenly felt a sense of camaraderie. They were both henpecked men in the same boat.
He even offered some advice, speaking like an older brother, on how to deal with difficult wives. Bai Lansheng listened, nearly choking on her frustration.
Qin Junlan acted like she was enjoying the conversation, but after a while, she smoothly shifted the topic again.
When the discussion ended, she brought Bai Lansheng a cup of hot water and set a chair next to her. Then she took off her jacket and draped it over her shoulders.
“It’s damp here. Keep the jacket on. Don’t touch anything around you. If the air feels stuffy, step outside for a bit, but don’t wander too far. I don’t know this area well, and I wouldn’t be able to find you if you got lost. Be good.”
Bai Lansheng pressed her lips together, looking uncomfortable.
Was she being treated like a child?
The jacket was warm, still holding Qin Junlan’s body heat. That made her even more uneasy.
She shifted her shoulders to shrug it off. The jacket slid down and landed in a puddle. Feeling guilty, she glanced over at its owner.
Qin Junlan was already rolling up her sleeves, joining the workers. The fabric bunched up around her pale arms.
Bai Lansheng looked away and picked up the jacket.
A few business cards had fallen from the pocket.
She picked them up one by one. One of them had her name on it. She glanced at it and immediately flushed with shame and anger.
The card had two lines:
Bai Lansheng
Wife of Qin Sisi
If she remembered correctly, this was the same card the troublemaker had given to Boss Lu.
The thought of that card being handed out so publicly made her furious. In a fit of anger, she tore it into pieces.
It felt good for a second, but then she realized it was pointless. She had only destroyed one. There was a whole stack on the motorcycle.
Fuming, she looked toward the culprit. But then she noticed others in the warehouse were also looking in that direction.
Qin Junlan was lifting boxes. She wore a crisp white V-neck blouse with the sleeves rolled up and the hem tucked neatly into her black trousers. The contrast of white and black emphasized her long legs and clean, professional look.
Bai Lansheng scowled. From her angle, Qin Junlan looked calm and capable, probably even pretending to be busy.
When Qin Junlan reached for a box placed higher up, her shirt lifted slightly, revealing the smooth curve from shoulder to waist. The fitted fabric followed her movements, outlining her form.
Bai Lansheng’s gaze landed on Qin Junlan’s slender waist.
The damp sensation in her palm snapped her back to her senses. She looked down and realized that somehow, she was now holding the stem of a glazed mushroom. The cap was long gone, and her hand was covered in fine mushroom debris.
Bai Lansheng didn’t say anything.
She tossed the broken mushroom back into the crate and brushed the residue off her fingers. Looking around, she saw that crates were stacked all around her. The mushroom she broke had come from one of them.
She had eaten glazed mushrooms before, but only in upscale restaurants. This was her first time seeing them raw. Compared to the ones she had tasted, these were much smaller. In fact, in her world, these wouldn’t even qualify to make it onto a menu.
Her mentor had once studied this type of fungi. She recalled the description: glazed mushrooms had hemispherical caps, long stems, and a translucent texture that earned them their elegant name.
They were not only beautiful, but their flavor was also exquisite and known to boost physical health. That made them very popular, although they required very specific growing conditions and could only be cultivated on a few planets. Other regions had to rely on imports.
Because they were so delicate, crates couldn’t be packed too full during shipping. Still, the books never mentioned that they were prone to moisture damage.
Bai Lansheng looked down at the water stains on the ground. This level of dampness shouldn’t have been enough to damage the mushrooms, especially since they were sealed and packed with moisture-absorbing wood shavings inside.
She picked up her water cup and poured a little onto one of the mushrooms, watching closely. Her expression slowly turned strange.
Just as she suspected. The rot in these mushrooms had nothing to do with moisture.
Her eyes drifted to Qin Junlan, who was still hard at work. A quiet sense of satisfaction rose in her chest.
She had discovered a secret.
A secret only she had noticed.
Should she tell her?
Bai Lansheng couldn’t help but smile.
No. She would not say a word. She wanted to watch Qin Junlan work so hard, only to hit a wall. That expression would be priceless.
Qin Junlan tugged at her collar. Dress shirts looked good, but they were awful for physical work.
One crate of mushrooms weighed around twenty-five kilos. Three crates came to seventy-five. Back in her previous life, she could manage it, but it would have been exhausting.
She gave the load a try. It felt like she could carry three more crates without a problem. This strength increase clearly wasn’t just from daily training. It had to do with how her body was adapting.
If her physical strength could increase, could her mental strength improve too?
She decided to experiment, using her mental energy to ease the weight. Remembering what happened last time, she was cautious and stopped at the slightest sign of instability.
C-grade mental energy was fragile and depleted quickly. Before long, she was dripping with sweat. She alternated between using her body and her mind, slowly becoming familiar with the energy’s rhythm and how it worked.
It was a bit risky, but it meant she didn’t need a separate time or place to train. She could strengthen her mental energy while working.
After finishing one section, she moved to the southwest part of the warehouse. There, the damage was noticeably worse.
She looked up at the roof. There was a hole in the iron sheeting. The crates underneath had already been moved. A bucket now sat below, catching water. Boss Lu had said that the mushrooms were damaged by rainwater leaking from that hole.
But something didn’t seem right.
Qin Junlan called over her team and asked them to report the damage rates in their assigned areas.
Before arriving, she had taught them a simple method to track inventory. She wanted to estimate the total quantity and value of the goods. Now that data was finally useful.
After they finished reporting, she did a quick calculation and frowned slightly.
Da Hai said, “Boss, take a look at this crate. I sorted it half an hour ago. Only one corner was bad back then. Now almost half of it is rotten. I thought maybe glazed mushrooms just spoil quickly, but now something feels wrong.”
Qin Junlan nodded. “You’re right. The spoilage rate is increasing.”
Even within their areas, the rates varied significantly. The northwest section had the highest rate, but the hole in the roof was not located there.
Da Hai looked concerned. “Boss Lu is going to take a huge loss. What if he changes his mind?”
The others nodded as well. They all knew how much Qin Junlan wanted to attend the exhibition. But if Boss Lu faced serious losses, he might back out of his promise.
Qin Junlan replied, “Keep working and don’t say a word. Don’t let anyone notice. I’ll handle it.”
Da Hai lowered his voice. “You think it’s…”
“Quiet,” Qin Junlan said softly, making a gesture to stay silent. “Just do your job.”
Her team understood. They went back to work while pretending to complain. When the warehouse workers asked what they were discussing, they made up some wild stories to cover their tracks.
Qin Junlan looked up more information on glazed mushrooms. After thinking for a moment, she went to find Boss Lu.
His face had turned grim. He now had a clearer idea of the losses, and they were worse than he had feared. Wiping his face, he looked visibly distressed.
Qin Junlan said, “I noticed there are cameras on the walls. Could I take a look at the surveillance footage?”
Boss Lu immediately turned to her. His eyes lit up like searchlights.
“What do you mean by that?”