My wife and I are both time travelers.

Chapter 130 Dealing with
Cheng Jiandong waved for Afen and Liangzai Jun to leave first. After they left the room with their respective money, only Cheng Jiandong and Zhou Jiye remained.

"Aye!"

"Brother Dong..."

"Give!"

As he spoke, Cheng Jiandong grabbed a stack of banknotes from the coffee table and threw it toward Zhou Jiye. Zhou Jiye was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly tried to catch it.

"Brother Dong, what's wrong...?" Zhou Jiye asked, his face full of confusion and excitement.

Holding this stack of banknotes in his hand, that's a full ten thousand dollars! Although Hong Kong banknotes do have large denominations, besides the five hundred dollar "Bull" note, there's also the one-thousand dollar "Golden Bull" note. But these two types of banknotes are rarely used in daily life; they're generally used for large transactions, and ordinary people basically never use them.

The banknotes that Cheng Jiandong and Uncle Lin exchanged were all ordinary circulating currency in denominations of one hundred yuan. This kind of currency is the most common in the market and is convenient to use. Although Da Niu and Jin Niu are convenient, Cheng Jiandong knows that they are also more likely to cause trouble. Therefore, the stack of banknotes he handed to Zhou Jiye were all one hundred yuan bills.

Why would Cheng Jiandong suddenly give him money out of the blue?

"According to the rules of the trade, everyone who sees it gets a share. You've contributed to today's deal, so this money is for you," Cheng Jiandong said generously.

"This...isn't this inappropriate?" Zhou Jiye asked hesitantly, his expression showing a hint of excitement, while his hand gripping the banknotes even tighter.

“There’s nothing wrong with it, just take it.” Cheng Jiandong waved his hand and said, “This is just a drop in the bucket. Besides, you can’t come to Hong Kong without money. Even if it’s just me taking special care of you, Brother Dong.”

"Thank you, Brother Dong, hehe, thank you, Brother Dong..." Zhou Jiye's face instantly lit up with a smile, and he hurriedly stuffed the banknotes into his pocket while thanking him repeatedly. Seeing his appearance, Cheng Jiandong was very satisfied, lit a cigarette and asked with a smile, "Hey, Jiye, do you want to make a lot of money?"

"Yes! Of course I want to!" Zhou Jiye answered without hesitation, nodding his head like a chicken pecking at rice, his eyes shining as he looked at the dozens of stacks of banknotes that Cheng Jiandong had not yet put away.

"Hahaha!" Cheng Jiandong laughed loudly, patted the seat next to him, and beckoned Zhou Jiye to come and sit down.

Zhou Jiye sat down next to Cheng Jiandong, who affectionately put his arm around Zhou Jiye's shoulder and pointed to the banknotes on the coffee table, saying to him, "See? Making big money in Hong Kong is actually very easy. As long as you're bold and willing to take risks, there's money everywhere here. Work hard with Brother Dong, and I guarantee you'll have money to spend. After you pull off a few big heists, you'll have more than just this much money!"

"I'll listen to Brother Dong! I'll do whatever you tell me to do, Brother Dong." Zhou Jiye's face was flushed, his head was nodding, and he looked at the money with undisguised greed. He even subconsciously licked his dry lips.

"Hahaha! Good! I knew I hadn't misjudged you." Cheng Jiandong was very satisfied and patted Zhou Jiye's shoulder hard: "Take a good rest these few days. In a few days, Brother Dong will take you to do a job. Once this job is done, you'll be a true brother. At that time, it won't just be money, but also women. Hong Kong has everything, you can have whatever you want."

"Hehehe..." Zhou Jiye nodded with a big smile. Seeing this, Cheng Jiandong smiled and got up, put the money on the coffee table back into his bag, and then left the room. After Cheng Jiandong left, the crisp sound of the door closing came. The smile on Zhou Jiye's face instantly disappeared, his brows furrowed, and his expression became worried.

"Damn it, this is going to be tough!" Zhou Jiye cursed inwardly. He had seen Cheng Jiandong's actions clearly and knew exactly what he was up to.

On the surface, Cheng Jiandong recruited Zhou Jiye into the gang to "repay a debt of gratitude," but in reality, Cheng Jiandong did not trust him at all. Since falling into Cheng Jiandong's hands, Zhou Jiye has lost his freedom. Not to mention going out, even going to the toilet is watched by someone outside.

To Cheng Jiandong's gang members, Zhou Jiye was a complete outsider. If it weren't for the fact that Zhou Jiye had saved Cheng Jiandong in Fengdong, he would probably have been killed immediately. Although he spared Zhou Jiye's life and even recruited him into the gang, judging from Cheng Jiandong's attitude, he didn't truly trust Zhou Jiye. Zhou Jiye had known this for a long time; he had seen it clearly these past few days, yet he was helpless to do anything about it.

Circumstances dictate that Zhou Jiye was powerless to change his situation. If Zhou Jiye showed any dissatisfaction or even attempted to escape, Cheng Jiandong and his men would certainly not let him off the hook. Moreover, in the past few days, Cheng Jiandong hadn't mentioned helping him resolve his identity issue, keeping him by his side under constant surveillance – wasn't this precisely because he feared Zhou Jiye was an unpredictable factor?
Today, during their transaction, they could have left Zhou Jiye in the car to wait, but Cheng Jiandong insisted that Zhou Jiye bring the stolen goods along for the transaction. How could Zhou Jiye not know the purpose of doing so?
Now that the transaction was complete, Cheng Jiandong generously gave Zhou Jiye 10,000 yuan in cash. He then said something else, the intention of which Zhou Jiye understood perfectly. Despite Zhou Jiye's act of being completely oblivious to money and appearing mindlessly greedy, it was all a facade.

Ten thousand Hong Kong dollars is a considerable sum. An ordinary person might be blinded by Cheng Jiandong's actions and willingly risk their life for him, thus being dragged into his schemes. But who is Zhou Jiye? He's no stranger to money. Putting aside the fact that he traveled from decades in the future to this era, making money in this golden age wouldn't be difficult for him. Even in his time, ten thousand Hong Kong dollars was only a month's salary for an average person in Shanghai. A delivery driver or ride-hailing driver, even with hard work, could earn more than that in a month. Even more money wouldn't tempt the worldly-wise Zhou Jiye.

Even now, given Zhou Jiye's net worth, he would absolutely not be interested in 10,000 Hong Kong dollars. The exchange rate of Hong Kong dollars is not high these days, and it is about 1 to 0.25 RMB. On the black market, it can be exchanged for 1 to 0.35 RMB, and at most 0.4 RMB.

From this perspective, HKD 10,000 is worth at most RMB 4,000, and even at a lower estimate, it's only RMB 2,500. To expect Zhou Jiye to risk his life for such a small sum is simply a pipe dream.

By accepting the money and behaving this way, Zhou Jiye was simply trying to lower Cheng Jiandong's guard against him.

Among Cheng Jiandong's four-man gang, Afen is Cheng Jiandong's woman and is devoted to him. As for Liangzai Jun, he is not only Afen's cousin but also Cheng Jiandong's most loyal subordinate. Moreover, after getting to know him over the past few days, Zhou Jiye could tell that although Liangzai Jun seemed easy to talk to and appeared to be polite, he was actually very cunning. Of the three, Cheng Jiandong trusted Liangzai Jun the most, not Peng Ge.

Despite being old friends with Cheng Jiandong, and seemingly inseparable, Peng Ge isn't actually Cheng Jiandong's true subordinate. Their relationship is more of a collaboration. Furthermore, Peng Ge's straightforward personality and lack of restraint in his speech mean Cheng Jiandong trusts him far less than he trusts Liangzai Jun and Afen.

Perhaps for this reason, Cheng Jiandong specifically recruited Zhou Jiye into the gang. On one hand, he wanted to add another person to strengthen the group's power; on the other hand, he also planned to cultivate Zhou Jiye as a force to suppress Brother Peng. Brother Peng was probably well aware of this, so he usually treated Zhou Jiye indifferently and rarely spoke to him. On the contrary, Liangzai Jun was more familiar with Zhou Jiye.

But in Zhou Jiye's view, he was far less wary of Peng Ge than of Liangzai Jun. Peng Ge was simple-minded and less cunning, making him easier to deal with. On the contrary, Liangzai Jun was a pawn that Cheng Jiandong had deliberately placed beside him to monitor him, and Zhou Jiye had been secretly on guard against him all along.

"Does this mean I really have to become a ruthless bandit?" The thought made Zhou Jiye's head spin. Cheng Jiandong had made his point so clear. Did Zhou Jiye not understand the other party's intention?

Why would I do this out of the blue? Zhou Jiye felt a little guilty and subconsciously resisted, but the reality did not allow him to refuse. He knew very well what the consequences would be if Cheng Jiandong discovered that he had ulterior motives. Who knew how Cheng Jiandong would deal with him?

Helpless, Zhou Jiye could only feign compliance and stall Cheng Jiandong, hoping to find a chance to escape. However, Cheng Jiandong kept a close watch on him, and Zhou Jiye couldn't find any opportunity at all. Thinking of this, Zhou Jiye became even more worried.

In the days that followed, Zhou Jiye stayed there and had no chance to go out. Every day, either Liangzai Jun was with him or Afen was watching over him. When he was bored, he could only watch TV to pass the time, or he would keep thinking about how to break the deadlock.

After much thought, Zhou Jiye couldn't come up with a way to break the deadlock; it was practically an unsolvable situation. If he showed any intention to escape, Liangzai Jun and Afen would definitely not show any mercy, not to mention Cheng Jiandong, who was ruthless and Zhou Jiye didn't dare to gamble on him.

Time is like a wild donkey; once it starts running, it never stops.

More than half a month has passed in the blink of an eye. During this time, Peng Ge has come back twice. Each time he comes back looking radiant. It seems that he is doing well outside because he has money in his hands. He not only smells of alcohol, but also a strong scent of perfume and cosmetics.

Cheng Jiandong, on the other hand, still left early and returned late, rarely seen. He would often be out all day, and a few days ago he hadn't been seen for five days after leaving home. Zhou Jiye wondered where Cheng Jiandong had gone, but dared not ask too much. He could only pretend not to know and continue to get through the days as usual.

That morning, Zhou Jiye was having breakfast with Afen and Liangzai Jun when there was a knock on the door. Afen and Liangzai Jun were startled and quickly pulled out their weapons from their waists. After listening carefully to the rhythm of the knocking, Afen happily said, "Brother Dong is back!" and hurried to open the door.

Sure enough, it was Cheng Jiandong who entered the room, whom he hadn't shown up for several days. He looked travel-worn and was carrying an Oxford canvas bag. Upon entering, Cheng Jiandong didn't hesitate to hug Afen warmly, then greeted Liangzai Jun and Zhou Jiye with a smile. He then sat down at the table, and Afen handed him a pair of chopsticks. Cheng Jiandong began to eat heartily, quickly finishing the char siu buns Afen had bought and drinking a bowl of fish porridge.

Wiping his mouth with a tissue, Cheng Jiandong went straight to the point: "Jun, go find Peng and tell him it's time to get to work. Fen, check the car and fill up the tank so we don't run into any problems." Then, Cheng Jiandong chuckled at Zhou Jiye, "And you, Jiye, you've been waiting anxiously these past few days, haven't you? Brother Dong is taking you out for a big meal tomorrow—a chance to make big money! Hahaha!"

(End of this chapter)