Lin Qi was a little moved and quickly nodded.
"My money is gone! Who stole my money!"
In the middle of the night, Lin Qi and Li Yuanchao were sleeping soundly when they were suddenly woken by a shout. Lin Qi sat up abruptly and found that the person shouting was an older brother in the same room. They had spoken together earlier, and he had said he couldn't stay in his hometown and was looking for work.
He usually dressed poorly and was frugal, so who would have thought such a thing would happen to him.
"It's over, it's all over!" The older brother was seen clutching his head and muttering in pain.
"Did you forget where you put it? Why don't you look again?" Li Yuanchao couldn't help but suggest when he saw this.
There were eight beds in the room, and since most of them were men, no one locked their doors. Everyone was casual when coming and going. Besides, this older brother was the most poorly dressed among them. If a thief wanted to target someone, they wouldn't pick him.
"I've turned everything upside down, it's not here at all."
Someone suggested, "Why don't we call the police?"
The man suddenly looked up, not knowing what to say. After hesitating, he nodded in agreement.
Soon, the police arrived. To their surprise, the man had lost over a thousand yuan!
The police officers asked a few questions about the situation and checked each bed, but found no large sums of money. They said they would inform them as soon as there was any news and then left.
For a while, everyone stood in the middle of the room, looking at each other. Lin Qi took out ten yuan from his pocket and placed it on the table: "This is for the bus fare home."
Seeing this, Li Yuanchao also took out five yuan from his person: "That's right, it's not easy for anyone when they're away from home. Let's see how much everyone can help."
Gradually, more people contributed one or two yuan, and soon the few people in the room had pooled over twenty yuan.
"Thank you, thank you everyone." Lin Guodong took the money and thanked everyone gratefully.
The next day, Lin Qi called Chen Lishu. First, he reported on the situation there, and then mentioned the electronic watch.
Chen Lishu was both surprised and delighted that he could still get such a thing.
"I'm not here either. Take whatever money you need from your savings account. As for other things, make your own decisions. If you see anything you think is good, you can stock up on it, but the prerequisite is that you must pay attention to safety. If necessary, it's better to have nothing, as long as you return safely."
Chen Lishu was very reassured by Lin Qi's handling of affairs.
"I understand, Sister Chen."
After Lin Qi hung up the phone, he and Li Yuanchao took a car to the fishing village he mentioned. Neither of them noticed a figure following them not far behind.
When they got off the car, it was already past three in the afternoon. The boat was not scheduled to dock until eleven o'clock that night. In the meantime, the two of them went to the vicinity of the shore to familiarize themselves with the terrain. After it got dark, they found a place to wait.
Around nine or ten o'clock at night, four or five more people arrived. Needless to say, they all had the same purpose. It was better to avoid trouble, so no one spoke.
As time passed, the sound of a motor engine was heard from the sea in the distance. Everyone's spirits lifted, and they stood up straight, looking into the distance.
Unfortunately, visibility was poor in the night, and the fishing boat had no lights on. They couldn't see anything.
About ten to twenty minutes later, a blurry silhouette finally appeared in their vision. Two people, unable to wait, ran towards the shore. Lin Qi and Li Yuanchao exchanged glances and followed them.
When they got closer, two people jumped off the fishing boat's deck, each carrying two large bags. Someone who didn't know the rules tried to use a flashlight, but was unceremoniously stopped by the other party.
"One by one. Mechanical watches, fifty-one yuan, anyone want them?"
"I, I do!" someone quickly responded, stepping forward to pay and collect the goods.
"Why are mechanical watches so cheap?" Lin Qi asked curiously in a low voice.
Li Yuanchao replied, "They are replicas, no comparison to the real ones."
"...Electronic watches, ten yuan each, anyone want them?"
"Yes, yes, yes." Li Yuanchao immediately pulled Lin Qi over and took out five hundred yuan from his pocket: "Give me fifty of them."
Someone else chimed in, "I want twenty."
After collecting the money, the other party looked at Lin Qi: "And you?"
"I'll take them all."
"Eighty of them, that'll be eight hundred yuan."
Lin Qi quickly paid, and the other party gave Lin Qi all the bags, including the snakeskin ones.
After Lin Qi and Li Yuanchao checked the goods and confirmed there were no problems, they didn't leave in a hurry. Afterward, Li Yuanchao also bought dozens of lipsticks. Shenzhen and Guangzhou had many beautiful women who were fashionable and loved to dress up. These items came from Hong Kong and were not hard to sell.
"...New electric curling irons. Once plugged in, you can curl your hair by wrapping it around. Convenient and easy to use. Also ten yuan each. There are only fifty in total, anyone want them?"
Lin Qi's heart stirred when he heard the introduction: "Are these safe? Will they burn people?"
"Only dozens of volts, absolutely safe and easy to use."
Although the other party said so, electric curling irons had never been used on the mainland, so no one stepped forward for a while. Besides, other items were also sought after, so it wasn't a loss to miss this one.
However, Lin Qi felt that this item would definitely be popular. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Can you make it cheaper?"
"These are all things we worked hard to get, and the price is firm."
"No one has tried this before, and I bought it at my own risk. If I can't get them for nine yuan each, I'll only take twenty."
They originally only sold in bulk, but they didn't have time to sell them one by one after getting off the ship. If they kept them, they didn't know when they could be converted to cash. The other party hesitated for a moment, then threw the snakeskin bag containing the electric curling irons at Lin Qi's feet: "Here you go."
Lin Qi took out the money and had just counted out four hundred and fifty yuan when several beams of light suddenly shone from a distance. Everyone's expression changed. The two people who had been shouting about buying and selling a moment ago reacted the fastest. They grabbed the two unsold bags and leaped onto the ship in a few steps: "Quick, start the boat!"
Everyone scattered in all directions. Li Yuanchao and Lin Qi shouldered their goods and ran towards the north slope.
During the day, they had already scouted the area. The terrain there was undulating, and the grass was tall, making it the best place to hide.
"Stop, don't run!" The suddenly appearing law enforcement officers were very fast. Before long, they reached the shore. Some people, in their panic and fear, jumped into the water with their goods and were quickly caught and brought back to shore.
Lin Qi and Li Yuanchao ran north. Just as they were about to reach the tall grass, Lin Qi suddenly had a bad feeling. He pulled Li Yuanchao to a stop: "Wait a moment."
"What's wrong?" Li Yuanchao saw him stop and reached out to pull him: "We're in a hurry, why are you hesitating? Let's hurry up and run. If those people catch us, we'll be in big trouble."
"Something's not right." Lin Qi turned his head and motioned for Li Yuanchao to look back: "Look at those people. They're only chasing in the other two directions and not towards us."