Follow with heart

"You'll have money tomorrow? You're not going to go to the bank to withdraw money tomorrow, are you? No way."

Zhang Jinling immediately thought, "There are ATMs right next to the night market. Junior, you're not going to sell your blood, are you? Let me make this clear, I don't drink human blood, and I wouldn't even accept a meal like that."

Selling blood? Zheng Jinxin hadn't even considered this.

With his small frame, even if he drained himself dry, it wouldn't be enough for this girl to eat and drink. This girl is a typical foodie, and the kind who can eat a lot.

"Selling blood is out of the question. I have some valuable coins in my house, and I plan to take them to the coin market tomorrow to exchange them for some cash."

"Coins?" Zhang Jinling knew about them; her father was a stamp collector in the past, and he also collected some coins.

"What coin? Is it the green-backed one-cent coin or the two-yuan coin with the machinist design?"

A green-backed 10-cent coin and a mason's 2-yuan coin? Zheng Jinxin doesn't even know what those two are, but they sound like they're very valuable.

He didn't dare ask what those two were, and honestly replied, "They're from the 80s version of the 50s."

Wow! Zhang Jinling knows this too; her dad is really short of it.

"Is it a straight-edged coin?"

Zheng Jinxin still doesn't understand the straight-board coin. "I don't know if it counts. It's something my dad saved when he got his salary when I was a kid. They were all brand new and had been stored in books all this time."

"I heard that each of these can be worth a thousand dollars, so I didn't bring any living expenses this time, and I brought all of these to exchange for money."

"A thousand dollars? You're dreaming."

Zhang Jinling said disdainfully, "I heard this from my dad. You can buy one for 500 on the market, but if you sell it, dealers will only buy it for 20% of the original price. That means you can only sell yours for a maximum of 400."

"That's impossible. I asked around here, and the vendors are selling them for a thousand each."

Zheng Jinxin had inquired about the price at his doorstep before he arrived.

"Who knows more about collecting, you or me? My dad started collecting stamps in the 1970s, and later he got into coins."

"Do you have any monkey stamps? A brand new one with the printing mark is worth 10,000 yuan now, but you can only buy them for around 8,000 yuan on the market..."

"Is there a Black Ten? One of those tickets is worth tens of thousands now. Do you know how the whole country is covered in red? That's hundreds of thousands..."

"Look at you, you know absolutely nothing. By the way, do you have any Yuan Shikai silver dollars? They're worth a thousand each on the market, I can buy yours for a thousand..."

Zhang Jinling said a lot, but Zheng Jinxin had basically never heard of any of them.

He knew about Yuan Shikai silver dollars, but he had never seen a real one.

Not only has he never seen one, but even his father has never seen a real one.

Hearing Zhang Jinling speak so professionally, Zheng Jinxin became a little insecure.

When Zhang Jinling saw that he was silent, she quickly pressed her advantage.

"Zheng, now that you have money, does that mean you won't let the pretty girl pay the bill?"

After saying that, she looked at him with pitiful eyes.

Zheng Jinxin declared arrogantly, "Of course! What kind of person makes money and lets a woman pay the bill? Are you a gigolo?"

"You're a real man. I, Zhang Jinling, like to associate with people like you."

Zhang Jinling smiled broadly, "Zheng, you see, I paid the bill just now. Um, when we get back later, just give me an 80s edition 50-yuan note."

Perhaps fearing that her words lacked weight, Zhang Jinling immediately offered further explanation.

"It's not that I wanted to be so clear about the money, it's just that my dad was missing this one bill. By getting him this one, I'm fulfilling one of his wishes."

Zheng Jinxin thought for a moment, "Okay! But this can't be considered payment for the meal. I'll still treat you to a meal later. Consider this a gift for your father."

"Alright!" Zhang Jinling jumped up, having achieved her goal. She even playfully punched Zheng Jinxin with her little fist.

While dancing, Zhang Jinling tilted her head and asked, "There aren't any folded edges or rough edges or anything, right?"

Zheng Jinxin shook his head. "I really don't know about this. You can see for yourself later and pick any one you like."

A short while later, the two arrived at their dormitory.

Zhao Changling and Zhou Huaying were sitting and chatting properly, while Liu Zihao was snoring loudly on the bed.

Given these conditions, I don't know how these two managed to keep chatting.

Zhang Jinling glanced at Liu Zihao lying there, and blurted out, "Silver spear, candle head."

Zheng Jinxin's face darkened. "How dare you talk like that? This is my buddy! He just can't hold his liquor. If you keep insulting him like this, don't blame me for turning on you!"

"Ah! I was wrong! I was wrong, that's not enough, I'll never say it again."

Zhang Jinling quickly conceded, but then muttered under her breath, still unconvinced, "He's sleeping like a log, he can't hear me anyway."

Zheng Jinxin said one sentence and then stopped talking. He opened his suitcase and took out a book.

Before it was even opened, Zhang Jinling had already moved closer.

He handed it over casually, saying, "They're all inside, choose one yourself."

Zhang Jinling opened it and her eyes widened: These are all straight-edged phones!

She spent ages choosing, but still couldn't pick one: "There aren't a single number with the same 'leopard' pattern, how am I supposed to choose?"

"What's a 'Leopard Number'?" Zheng Jinxin asked curiously.

"It's the last three digits that are the same," Zheng Jinling explained as she held two cards and didn't know which one to choose.

"For example, 888, 666, 333, etc., the last three digits are called 'leopard numbers,' and there are also straight numbers and 'unicorn numbers.' These are all collecting terms, you wouldn't understand if I explained them too much."

"Oh!" Zheng Jinxin saw Zhang Jinling holding the two bills with great reluctance.

"What's with these two? Hurry up and choose one. Taking two at once is a bit much."

Zhang Jinling reluctantly took out a bill and put it down.

"These two are consecutive numbers, and they both happen to be 8 and 9, the numbers are good..."

"Um, you'd better keep this 9 for a while, okay? I'll redeem it when I have the money. Consecutive numbers are like a married couple; it's not good to separate them."

Zheng Jinxin: "Okay! I won't sell it unless I'm completely desperate. I'll try my best to keep it for you."

Zhang Jinling borrowed another book and carefully put the coin away.

"Are you going home this late? I have to go back."

As Zhang Jinling was about to leave, she called out to Zhou Huaying, who was still discussing studies with Zhao Changling.

"Let's go!" Zhou Huaying replied and stood up.

"Zhao, I learned a lot from our conversation today. I hope we can exchange ideas and learn from each other more often when we have time, so we can make progress together."

Zhang Jinling pulled Zhou Huaying away. They had only been out a short while when Zheng Jinxin couldn't hold back any longer.

"Changling, you're amazing! You can talk about such a boring topic all night long? You should exchange ideas and learn from each other to improve together. This girl looks so dull, it's so boring being with her."

Zhao Changling curled his lip. "What do you know? Don't you know how fickle girls are these days?"

"Let's not even talk about vanity; many girls have more tricks up their sleeves than we do."

"Drinking, karaoke, clubbing, drugs, prostitution—the list goes on. She appears like a goddess on the surface, but her actual love life is incredibly colorful; who knows what kind of people are constantly in her bed behind the scenes?"

"This girl looks like a respectable person, untouched by worldly affairs. I feel at ease marrying someone like her in the future."

Zheng Jinxin chuckled.

"I can't believe it! You've really turned out to be a bookworm since you came back this time. What, are you planning to go into scientific research in the future?"

"Are you crazy? Doing scientific research? I'm planning to enjoy life this time. Dude! The key is for you to lead us to financial freedom. I have high hopes for you."

Zhao Changling patted Zheng Jinxin on the shoulder, grinning mischievously, showing no trace of his bookish nature.

Zheng Jinxin was hit where it hurt. "Well... let's wait for Boss Chen to come. I can't do it. It's getting late, let's go to sleep. Maybe Boss Chen will come after I take a nap."

......

Meanwhile, on their way to the girls' dormitory, Zhang Jinling took out her phone and made a call.

"Daddy! You're still awake, aren't you? Hehe..."

"Guess what goodies your little darling got you today? Hehe, I knew you wouldn't guess..."

"Let me tell you, it's the 80 version 50, a straight-edged phone, and the last four digits are still 8..."

"Who would buy from the coin market? You'd only find counterfeit money there. This was a gift from a classmate who just started school; it's brand new bills his dad saved from his paycheck back then, absolutely genuine..."

"Huh? What do you mean by 'dating'? It's just a gift between friends, nothing romantic involved..."

"Lying to people? Dad! How can you talk like that? Do you think your daughter is that kind of person? Just tell me straight, do you want it or not? If you don't want it, I'll send it back..."

"I hate your indecisiveness the most. You clearly want it yourself, but you act like it's my idea. All those collectibles of yours will take up too much space for me in the future..."

"Exactly, why don't you just say you want it? Why go through all that trouble? Aren't you tired?"

"Okay! I'll bring it to you tomorrow night, and my mom will cook something delicious for me. It's just a piece of paper, why are you acting like you're meeting your new bride? Alright, I need to rest now, bye! Goodnight, Daddy..."

Seeing Zhang Jinling happily putting away her phone, Zhou Huaying couldn't help but offer some advice.

"Lingzi, you're not getting any younger. You should start paying more attention to your image. You always look like a thug; what guy will want to date you?"

Zhang Jinling clutched her head in exasperation. "Ugh! You're lecturing me again! I can't stand your Tang Monk-like manner. Master! Please forgive your disciple! Wait, something's not right..."

Zhang Jinling suddenly remembered something, "You seemed to be having a lively chat with that bookworm today. Could it be that you're starting to have feelings for him?"

Zhou Huaying gave a reproachful look. "What do you mean by 'falling in love'? That's disgusting. We're just learning and exchanging ideas right now, getting to know each other. We're a long way from being officially friends."

"Oh, right, Lingzi! I'm just letting you know in advance. Zhao Changling was born in the first half of 88, and the rest of them seem to be born around the same month, so they're all older than us."

"I didn't dare say that my birthday is at the end of the year. Don't let it slip, so they can keep calling me 'senior' for a while longer."

"Mmm-hmm!" Zhang Jinling covered her mouth, squinted her eyes, and nodded with a smile. This was such a good deal, it was so much fun.

......

The next morning, Liu Zihao, still hungover, was shaken awake by the two guys.

"Get up quickly! We got our seats and books in the classroom today, and we still need to exchange money this afternoon."

"This wine is really too much to drink, it's too damn painful."

Liu Zihao sat up, rubbing his temples. "How did you settle the bill last night? I remember giving you your wallet, why didn't you take it?"

"What the hell? We spent over four hundred on food, what good is two hundred?"

Zheng Jinxin said irritably, "That foodie beauty paid the bill."

"So easy to talk to?" Liu Zihao suddenly sobered up. "Looks like he's got plenty of money."

"Money is no object, I sold myself for a good price. Get up, we're going to be late."

"You sold yourself?" Liu Zihao started gossiping while still dressed.

"Wow! You can sell something as dark as yours for over four hundred? This lady has quite the taste."

"Nonsense! I'm an artist, not a prostitute. Forget about this beauty; with that level of drinking, your legs will be shaking the next time you see her. I'm not going to argue with you anymore, I'm leaving."

Zheng Jinxin went out first.

Thinking of the domineering way the beautiful woman drank, Liu Zihao couldn't help but shudder. He buttoned up his clothes and followed her out.

The morning's activities were simple: assigning seats and distributing books. Classes will officially begin next Monday, so everyone can prepare in the next couple of days.

In the afternoon, the three of them went to the stamp and coin market in Nanjing.

After inquiring at several places, they decided to sell their coins at a fixed stall.

The price agreed upon with the stall owner was 800 yuan per ticket. After careful consideration, Zheng Jinxin decided to keep two tickets.

Ten tickets were sold, bringing in 8000 yuan.

Zheng Jinxin gave the two brothers two thousand each, and kept two thousand for Chen Hongjun as a reserve.

After distributing the money, Zhao Changling went to a market stall and bought a bunch of philosophy books.

That evening, Zheng Jinxin planned to invite Zhang Jinling to dinner, but after calling her, he learned that it was Friday and Zhang Jinling had gone home. He said it wouldn't be too late to make plans another time when she had time.

Weekend evenings are so boring! Liu Zihao ran off to do who-knows-where, while Zhao Changling lay in bed engrossed in reading philosophy books.

"You've changed your ways? You've gotten into philosophy now? Is that something you can even understand?"

Bored, Zheng Jinxin started making fun of Zhao Changling.

"Do you think I want to? I have no choice!"

Zhao Changling, whose head was throbbing from reading, threw down his copy of Schopenhauer.

"When you talk about Zhou Huaying, the scope is too broad, and her ideas are all over the place."

"I could manage the subjects we were studying, but she still talked to me about philosophers like Hegel, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer."

"But apart from Hegel, I don't know any of the others. I didn't dare to say anything last time, so I'm quickly digging out these guys to do some pre-exam preparation."

Zheng Jinxin was speechless.

"You're so boring. Living like this is exhausting! It's better to live naturally. All this pretense now will eventually be exposed when you're actually together."

"You don't understand!" Zhao Changling wisely lectured.

"Women are just random creatures."

"Don't be fooled by her studying philosophy, painting, and art in school. Once she gets married, has kids, and settles into everyday life, all she'll care about are the mundane things like groceries and household chores. Philosophy? Humph! She'll forget about it faster than I do."

"Women are like that; you have to stroke them the right way and let them have their way for now. Once you've got them, you can slowly change them all."

"Okay! Take your time to change, I'll support you in spirit. I'll go outside and catch a female fly in a bit, and you can help it change its habit of rubbing its hands before eating poop, so that it puts on a scarf first and uses a knife and fork to eat it."

"I dare not change this; it's your patent."

Sigh! Two grown men are bored at home, so they can only bicker to pass the time.

Fortunately, this boring period only lasted one day. Zhang Jinling returned on Saturday night and immediately went to find Zheng Jinxin.

As soon as Zhang Jinling entered, her eyes crinkled with a smile. "Zheng, we meet again!"

Can we not meet? You've been blocking our dorm room.

Zheng Jinxin inwardly scoffed, but outwardly said in a friendly tone, "Yeah! What a coincidence! How about we grab a beer together?"

"You sold the coins?" Zhang Jinling reacted immediately, her regret evident in her expression.

"Hmm! They sell for eight hundred yuan a piece." Zheng Jinxin looked at Zhang Jinling with amusement. He had emphasized the words "eight hundred yuan" when he said them.

"I didn't mean to lie to you. I heard it from my dad a few years ago that it was 500 yuan a piece. I don't play this game, so I wouldn't be paying attention to the price fluctuations all the time."

Zhang Jinling's voice grew softer and softer. She looked up at Zheng Jinxin, and for some reason, she felt no fear when she looked at him.

She perked up and her tone became more assertive, "Besides, you were supposed to treat us and it would have cost over four hundred, right? Look, I didn't let you treat, so I ended up spending over four hundred myself. That makes a total of over eight hundred, so it's not like I'm ripping you off, is it?"

Perhaps afraid that Zheng Jinxin would realize what was happening, she quickly said.

"How about I treat you next time, and we drink until we drop? Um?"

Zhang Jinling leaned closer, "You didn't sell all your coins, did you?"

"I didn't sell them all, I kept two." Zheng Jinxin kindly handed over the book where the coins were kept.

Zhang Jinling couldn't wait to open the book and start reading.

"Not bad! You still kept that consecutive number ending in 9, and this one ending in 6 is also good. You're good at keeping them."

After offering a word of praise, Zhang Jinling closed the book.

She didn't return the book to Zheng Jinxin, but looked at him pitifully.

"Zheng, could you please not sell these two? Keep them for me, and I'll buy them when I have the money. I don't have enough money right now."

That last sentence was so sweet! Liu Zihao and Zhao Changling, who were inside the room, exchanged a glance and made a teasing gesture as if they were shivering.

These two are really boring, turning their backs to Zhang Jinling and Zheng Jinxin to do something naughty.

Zheng Jinxin ignored it and asked Zhang Jinling with a puzzled look.

"These stamps and coins are readily available in the market, but I insisted on not selling these two. Even when the dealer offered an extra 200 yuan for them, I still refused." This was the truth Zheng Jinxin was telling.

Zhang Jinling didn't care about the money.

"This isn't about the money. Do you know why the 80 edition of the 50 edition was withdrawn from circulation after only a few years?"

"Why?" Zheng Jinxin was genuinely curious.

The 80 edition of the Renminbi was probably the shortest-lived circulating currency; there must have been a reason for its withdrawal in such a short time.

"Let me tell you a story," Zhang Jinling said, perking up.

"In the mid-to-late 1980s in our country, the Ministry of Public Security invited several numismatic experts from the People's Bank of China to help identify a batch of confiscated coins, all of which were 1980 edition 50-yuan notes."

"After examination by several authoritative numismatic experts, they unanimously concluded that the banknotes they examined were genuine and not counterfeit. However, the public security department determined that the entire batch of banknotes was counterfeit, for a simple reason: the serial numbers on all of them were identical."

"Do you know the serial number? It's the number on this bill."

Zhang Jinling pointed to the number on a banknote.

Zheng Jinxin understands this; every RMB note has a unique serial number.

The fact that all the serial numbers match indicates that these are counterfeit bills.

Zhang Jinling continued, "This incident shocked the senior management of the Bank of China. Although the fourth set of RMB banknotes has advanced anti-counterfeiting technology, it is only designed for the general public."

"The main sources of this counterfeit currency were Taiwan and another country. Counterfeit currency produced by a single country can easily reach the level of the fourth series of RMB banknotes."

"Therefore, our country promptly withdrew the high-denomination banknotes of the fourth set of RMB and began issuing the 90 edition of the fifth set of RMB, while also strengthening anti-counterfeiting technology."

Zhang Jinling looked at Zheng Jinxin.

"Back then, there were many counterfeit 80 edition 50-yuan banknotes on the market. Now, this banknote is being speculated on at a very high price, and even in the stamp and coin market, it's easy to buy counterfeit ones. So, even though my dad wanted this one, he didn't dare to buy it from the market. Do you understand now?"

Zheng Jinxin: "I understand! But I've already given you one."

Zhang Jinling said with trembling hands, "The problem is that one isn't enough! This bill, together with the others, makes a complete set. My dad has collected seven or eight of the others, but we're missing this one to complete the set."

"It's like stamp collecting. Once you've collected them all, it's a set. If you haven't, it's like an incomplete family. You wouldn't have the heart to leave my dad with seven or eight incomplete sets, so these two of yours can at least make up two complete sets, right?"

Zheng Jinxin stroked his chin. "Giving it to you isn't out of the question."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Jinling's pitiful eyes immediately curved into a smile.

She clutched the book containing the money tightly, not even intending to return it to Zheng Jinxin.

Zheng Jinxin pretended to be very embarrassed. "But these valuable things are what I'm saving for my living expenses later."

"That's easy!" Zhang Jinling exclaimed, her eyes wide.

"This month—no, this semester—I'll support you. As long as I have food and drink, you won't go hungry, okay?"

Zheng Jinxin pretended to hesitate for a moment, then raised his head and said firmly.

"Alright! Since you like this so much, senior, I'll do you a favor."

After saying that, he even gave a silly grin.

Yay! Dad's mission is finally complete.

Zhang Jinling held the book, her eyes crinkling with a smile.

She's determined to get a beautiful bag from her dad this time.