Bai Jiu saw that he kept following behind her, so she found a deserted spot and stopped. "Why are you following me?" she asked defensively.
Seeing her stop, the man also halted, maintaining a safe distance.
"Don’t be afraid, miss, I’m not a bad person." The man had absolutely no intention of hiding himself. Seeing her stop, he stepped out into the open. "I saw you selling things earlier, and I’d like to buy some from you," he stated his purpose.
Bai Jiu was speechless. How did he know what she was selling? Following her like this, he definitely harbored ill intentions.
"I didn’t sell anything," she denied.
"Don’t be afraid, miss, I really am not a bad person," the man said anxiously.
"A bad person wouldn’t have ’bad person’ written on their face." Regardless, she didn’t think he looked like a good guy.
Zhong Xueguang never expected that coming out in person to try his luck would get him branded as a bad guy. He really wasn’t. Looking at her defensive posture, he was at a loss for how to clear his name.
"Um, miss, please don’t be afraid. I really am not a bad person," he repeated dryly, unable to come up with anything else to say. "I just want to buy some things from you. Really, here is the money."
He pulled out a stack of cash from his jacket. It wasn’t a massive amount, but there was a neatly tied bundle of a thousand yuan.
Bai Jiu still didn’t relax at the sight of the money. Mainly, the way this man had appeared was far too startling, and she originally hadn’t planned on selling anything else today.
"I genuinely want to buy from you. I’m clumsy with words and don’t know how to express it, so how about this? I’ll give you the money, and you can get the goods for me, alright?" With that, he tossed the money right in front of her.
Bai Jiu was speechless. She wondered just how naive this guy could be.
"What do you want?" she asked after a long silence. Afraid that someone might come by, she picked up the money from the ground.
"Refined grain, meat, and cooking oil. Do you have any, miss?" He thought to himself that since she was so fair and clean, she clearly hadn’t suffered much hardship and was bound to have good stuff.
Bai Jiu, on the other hand, thought his appetite was certainly big.
"I do, but they aren’t here." She figured she might as well sell for the last time; she wouldn’t do this again in the future. "I’ll give you a location, and you can meet me there in an hour."
Having wandered around, she had managed to find a few good spots for trading. The place she named wasn’t her current location, but an intersection on the road leading to the research institute.
"I know that place." Zhong Xueguang smiled upon hearing the name.
"Then go there in an hour. I’m going to notify my people to deliver the goods now." Bai Jiu still kept a trick up her sleeve; an hour was plenty of time for her to make preparations.
"Alright."
Bai Jiu tossed the money back to him.
"Keep the money for now, and pay me after you inspect the goods. But what’s your maximum limit?" Someone who could casually pull out a thousand yuan definitely wouldn’t want just a little bit like ordinary people.
"How about a hundred thousand?" It was all the cash he had on hand right now.
Recently, more and more people were flooding into the city, driving grain prices higher and higher. The rest of his money had been spent purchasing other goods, leaving him with only this amount.
"Deal. Come pick it up in an hour and a half," Bai Jiu said, then turned and ran off.
Zhong Xueguang stared at the alley where she had vanished and touched his face. "Am I really that scary?"
A moment later, several men came running in.
"Boss, how did you run so fast?" They all breathed a sigh of relief when they saw him completely unharmed.
"Am I scary?" Zhong Xueguang turned to his brothers and asked inexplicably.
The men exchanged bewildered glances, completely clueless as to what had possessed their boss.
"Are you alright, Boss?"
Bai Jiu didn’t know how long she had been running, but she only breathed a sigh of relief when she finally saw the International Trade Mall. Whether that man was genuinely buying or faking it, she had to head over early to prepare. Since it was broad daylight, she needed to pick a good spot, and she could use this time to arrange everything perfectly.
Meanwhile, Gao Zhijun had no idea that in the time it took for his wife to make a phone call, she was once again padding their family savings. He was currently in a meeting with the logistics and political affairs departments to discuss the rumors. The culprits had also been summoned.
When Granny Ding and Lin Po arrived and saw Gao Zhijun, they immediately started complaining to him.
"Mr. Gao, you’re a leader of some standing! How could you marry such a stingy and spendthrift wife?"
"Exactly! Yesterday we went over to borrow your toilet, and she wouldn’t even let us in the door. It ended up causing the child to soil his clothes! Clothes are such precious things, and soap costs a lot of money. We used up more than half a bar yesterday."
As soon as the two women entered, they made a beeline for Gao Zhijun to air their grievances. They stopped just short of explicitly demanding that he reimburse them for the soap money.
Gao Zhijun, completely unhurried, raised his head to look at them. He was seated, while Granny Ding and Lin Po were still standing from having just walked in.
"The toilet floor hasn’t dried yet, so it couldn’t be used. Besides, my wife is neither stingy nor a spendthrift," Gao Zhijun stated, his voice low but his tone resolute.
"Not a spendthrift?" The two old women were thoroughly displeased upon hearing his words.
"Last time, she bought a whole cart full of things, including an electric fan! That thing is incredibly expensive. Who knows if she’s completely squandered your salary by now," Lin Po remarked pointedly.
Granny Ding was much more aggressive. "How could that little bit of salary be enough to spend?" she added, her expression carrying a deliberate, insinuating undertone.
If the people standing behind Gao Zhijun hadn’t been familiar with his situation, they might have actually harbored some suspicions. After all, this wasn’t an ordinary workplace; if any corruption were to happen here, the consequences would be catastrophic.
"What kind of nonsense are you sprouting?" Before Gao Zhijun could even speak, the director of the political affairs department sharply reprimanded them. "Your loose lips will eventually bring trouble to your families! Is Director Gao that kind of person? If you don’t know how to speak properly, then keep your mouths shut."
Having dealt with the family members for a long time, the director knew these people far too well. Whether they were in the right or not, they would always stir up trouble and demand unreasonable concessions. Casting doubt on the integrity of a research director was a grave offense. It might be fine if no one pursued it, but if an investigation were launched, it would be no small matter.
The director of the political affairs department was surnamed Geng, his full name being Geng Rong. He had worked here for over a decade and knew that these two old women regularly caused trouble. Just looking at them gave him a headache.
"The reason you were called here today is to ask about the rumors concerning Director Gao’s wife." Geng Rong had a fiery temper, and it was precisely this temperament that allowed him to suppress these gossiping old women. One look was enough to tell he wasn’t someone to be trifled with.
"Was it the two of you who started spreading them?" he demanded. With that, he slammed his hand heavily on the desk, letting out a loud THUD that nearly scared the two women out of their wits.
They were genuinely terrified of Geng Rong. They had seen with their own eyes how he punished others, even causing an entire family to lose their jobs and their lives. The actual truth behind those events was, of course, entirely different from what the women believed, but Geng Rong never bothered to explain himself. He needed that kind of intimidating authority.
"No, it wasn’t us!" The two hurriedly waved their hands in denial, their arrogance from a moment ago completely vanishing.
"We didn’t say anything," Lin Po stammered, clearly terrified.
Granny Ding was in a similar state. She had only been able to move in here riding on her son’s coattails, and her son wasn’t even a scientific researcher—he was just a master chef in the cafeteria. If it weren’t for his excellent cooking skills, their family wouldn’t have been allowed to live in the compound at all. This was also the main reason she always deferred to Lin Po and constantly curried favor with her; after all, Lin Po’s husband was the truly successful man.