*Ding ling ling, ding ling ling—*
At 6:30 the next morning, Jiang Tao was woken up by the alarm on his phone.
Just as he was about to turn off the alarm and go back to sleep, he suddenly remembered the intel that had refreshed last night.
*Whoosh!*
Jiang Tao shot up from bed, quickly throwing on clothes and shoes.
The power of money was just that strong!
Laziness didn't stand a chance against it!
In three minutes flat, he was dressed and out the door.
It was still early, and the Hongxing Secondhand Furniture Market hadn't opened yet, so there was no need to rush too much.
The thought of pocketing 29,800 yuan today made Jiang Tao's mouth water.
He couldn't help but want to treat himself to something nice to start the day.
As he passed Old Gu's Mutton Soup Shop, Jiang Tao turned in without hesitation.
He ordered a big bowl of mutton offal soup and half a piece of flatbread, costing just 23 yuan in total.
After eating his fill and warming up, Jiang Tao headed toward the village entrance.
"Little Jiang, you're living the good life, huh? Even treating yourself to mutton soup!"
He hadn't gone far when Wang Lianming, a fellow townsman, caught up from behind with his hands behind his back, teasing Jiang Tao with a grin.
Jiang Tao laughed and brushed it off. "Too lazy to cook, just grabbing a quick bite. Have you eaten, Brother Wang?"
"My wife makes millet and pumpkin porridge every morning, says it's nutritious and healthy."
"No matter how nutritious or healthy it is, you can't eat it every day! My taste buds are practically begging for mercy!"
"I'm jealous of you, man. Free as a bird, no one telling you what to do, eating whatever you want."
"At our house, my wife decides what we eat. Noodles, flatbread—stuff I like? She calls them calorie bombs."
"Eating a bowl of noodles feels like committing a crime!"
Jiang Tao chuckled. "I'm the one jealous of you, Brother Wang. You and your wife are together every day. Me and my wife? We're apart for two or three months at a time."
Life's funny like that sometimes. You always think someone else's life is better, envying them.
Little do you know, others are envying you too.
"Wanna trade lives?"
"Hahaha, Brother Wang, don't joke like that. If your wife heard you, you'd be kneeling on a washboard when you get home!"
"Kneeling on a washboard? What kind of man kneels? I'm telling you, brother…"
The two chatted and laughed as they reached the village entrance, each hopping into their own delivery trucks and heading toward the Hongxing Secondhand Furniture Market to start the day's work.
At 7:30 a.m., the market opened, and merchants began trickling in.
"Time to move!"
Jiang Tao pushed open the truck door, jumped out of the driver's seat, locked the door, and followed the merchants into the market.
"B Section, Shop 25. This is the place…"
Jiang Tao had been working around the market for five or six years and knew the layout like the back of his hand. He quickly found the entrance to Shop B25.
It was a secondhand sofa shop with a spacious store area of three to four hundred square meters.
"It's almost 8 o'clock, and they're still not open?"
Jiang Tao checked the time on his phone and glanced at the locked door of B25, feeling a twinge of anxiety.
"Stay calm, stay calm. It's just an old sofa. No one's gonna snatch it. No need to act too eager."
Reassuring himself, Jiang Tao pulled a cigarette from his pack, lit it, and took a drag to ease his nerves.
Halfway through the cigarette, a chubby woman in a burgundy long down jacket with short, curly hair stopped in front of Shop B25.
She was holding a savory pancake in one hand, taking bites as she walked, while her other hand fished keys out of a black crossbody bag to unlock the door.
"She's here!"
Jiang Tao's face lit up at the sight of her unlocking the door. *Finally, I've been waiting for you!*
The curly-haired woman undid the chain lock, pushed open the door, and officially opened for business.
Jiang Tao quickly stubbed out his cigarette on a nearby trash can and strode toward the entrance of Shop B25.
"Looking for a sofa, handsome? What kind are you after? Let me show you around."
Li Guiying had barely stepped inside when she turned and saw Jiang Tao enter. She set down her pancake and greeted him with a smile.
"Sis, you haven't finished your breakfast yet. Go ahead and eat. I'll just browse and see if anything catches my eye."
Jiang Tao gave her a friendly smile, his gaze drifting toward the northwest corner of the warehouse.
In that corner, in Jiang Tao's vision, a beam of light shot up from the floor to the ceiling.
Based on his experience buying liquor yesterday, the glowing object was likely the sofa hiding someone's secret stash of cash!
"Alright, take your time. If you see something you like, let me know. You're my first customer today, so I'll give you a discount."
"Thanks! I'll take a look, Sis. You finish eating."
Jiang Tao smiled at Li Guiying and began casually strolling through the shop.
To avoid revealing his true intentions, he didn't head straight for the glowing area. Instead, he wandered through other sections for five or six minutes, pretending to browse.
Eventually, he "casually" made his way to the sofa bathed in the beam of light.
It was a pink, double-seater sofa, looking about seventy to eighty percent new.
"Man, this color…"
As a grown man, Jiang Tao felt a wave of embarrassment wash over him at the sight of the ultra-pink sofa.
But for the sake of the secret cash hidden inside, what was a little embarrassment?
If he wasn't embarrassed, someone else would be!
"Ahem, Sis, can you come over here?"
Jiang Tao called out to Li Guiying, who was eating her pancake in a small office near the entrance.
Finishing her last bite, Li Guiying waddled over on her short, sturdy legs and asked with a grin, "Found something you like, handsome?"
"Sis, how much for this sofa?"
Jiang Tao pointed at the pink sofa, his expression tinged with slight embarrassment as he asked for the price.
"Huh? You want *that* one?"
Li Guiying glanced at the sofa Jiang Tao was pointing at and immediately pegged him as part of some "special" group.
This guy looked so masculine!
But his taste…
Jiang Tao gave an awkward smile and explained, "Ahem, my wife likes this color. How much is it?"
"Hang on, handsome. I feel like I've seen this sofa before…"
"Oh, right! I remember now! I sold this sofa in my livestream last night. The buyer said they're coming to pick it up this morning."
"Sorry, brother, take a look at something else."
Li Guiying tapped her head as she spoke, feeling like her memory always got a bit fuzzy in the winter.
"What? It's sold?"
Jiang Tao was stunned by Li Guiying's words.
He'd come so early, and someone still beat him to it?