Rebirth: My college entrance exam score was stolen? I turned the tables and made a billion.

Wang Gui's spittle almost landed on Liu Guangming's face.

Faced with this politically charged accusation of "loss of state-owned assets," an ordinary unemployed youth would have been terrified and fled the scene long ago.

In a small county town in the early 1990s, this charge could indeed be devastating.

But Liu Guangming wasn't annoyed at all.

He didn't even move an inch.

He wiped the spittle that had splashed on his face and slowly took off the canvas bag he was carrying.

With a soft "thud," the canvas bag was placed on the desk.

The zipper was pulled open with a "zip".

Liangzi stood to the side, swallowing hard. He had seen what was in the bag, and now he just wanted to see how Wang Gui would make a fool of himself.

Liu Guangming reached into his bag and pulled out two bundles of banknotes tightly bound with white paper strips.

The ten-yuan note symbolizes great unity.

Brand new, consecutively numbered, the tickets exude the distinctive smell of ink.

"Snapped!"

Then, Liu Guangming slammed the two bundles of banknotes heavily onto the desk.

"This is two thousand yuan."

Liu Guangming tapped the two thick stacks of money twice with his long, slender fingers.

"That is, the sales revenue of me, a self-employed individual without a formal employment contract, yesterday."

The office fell silent instantly.

It was so quiet that the only sounds could be faint shouts and curses coming from the street outside.

Wang Gui, who had just been pointing at the hand outside the door, froze in mid-air.

Several fingers began to tremble uncontrollably, and I couldn't put them down.

Two thousand yuan!

Wang Gui worked as the store manager of the once-prosperous Hongxing Grocery Store. His monthly salary, plus various miscellaneous subsidies, amounted to a total of 102.5 yuan.

The two stacks of cash on the table are worth almost two years' worth of his work!

Instantly, his previous arrogant and condescending attitude as an employee of the system was shattered by the two stacks of real gold and silver.

"Manager Wang, who did you just say got shot?"

Liangzi sneered from the side, crossed his arms, and took a big step forward.

"Your secure job is practically starving your whole family, and you're still putting on airs like a government official?"

Wang Gui's face turned bright red. He struggled for a long time, his mouth agape, but he couldn't utter a single word in rebuttal.

Liu Guangming leaned against the edge of his desk, casually grabbed a newspaper from the side, and covered the two thousand yuan with it.

"Manager Wang, open your eyes and see the world."

Liu Guangming continued.

"In Shenzhen, to the south, people with 10,000 yuan a month are already everywhere."

"What good will you gain by clinging to this empty shell of a state-owned enterprise that can't even pay salaries? You'll just starve to death along with it."

"What those veteran employees outside recognize is real money, not your title as a cadre in the Commerce Bureau."

"They can't come up with the money, so look what tricks they've pulled!"

Wang Gui's legs went weak, and he fell back onto the sofa with a thud.

He clutched his thinning hair in anguish, his whole being utterly defeated.

He was convinced.

Not only were they stunned by the two thousand yuan in cash, but they were also completely shocked by the confidence that Liu Guangming exuded, far beyond his years.

"What...what exactly do you want to do?"

Wang Gui raised his head, his voice filled with a deep sense of powerlessness.

"That's a hole worth a full five thousand dollars outside. Are you really willing to pay to patch it up for me?"

Liu Guangming nodded: "My meaning should be very clear."

Upon hearing this, Wang Gui gave a bitter laugh, his face crinkling with wrinkles, looking even worse than if he were crying.

He reached out and vigorously rubbed his dust-covered cheeks.

"Young brother, I, Wang Gui, am indebted to you today."

"Your shout outside just now really saved my old life."

"I can see you're quite capable, so let me tell you something from the bottom of my heart."

Wang Gui pointed to the yellowish ceiling above his head and poured out the bitterness that had been bottled up in his heart for months.

"It's not that I'm intentionally stopping you from this subcontracting; it's just that my word doesn't count!"

"What am I? I'm just a pushover from the logistics department, sent here to take the fall!"

"The shop's operating regulations, official seal, and land deed are all locked up at the county's Bureau of Commerce!"

Liu Guangming frowned slightly: "Since this store has been losing money year after year and has long been a burden on the bureau, now that someone is willing to take it over and balance the books, do you think the Commerce Bureau will refuse to let go?"

"It's not as simple as you think!"

Wang Gui slapped his thigh and sighed repeatedly.

"Our Hongxing Grocery Store is perfectly situated on the central axis of the Jiefang Road intersection! That's a prime location!"

"Those leaders in the bureau are all as cunning as monkeys! The shop can lose money every day, and the employees can cause trouble every day, but this land must be firmly held in the hands of the government!"

At this point, Wang Gui suddenly lowered his voice.

He glanced around, and even though there were only the three of them in the room, he was still extremely cautious, as if afraid that someone might be overheard.

"The final approval authority for this store rests with Director Zhang of our Commerce Bureau."

"Director Zhang is a very old-fashioned person."

"He had already declared that he would never allow individual businesses to take advantage of public resources, saying that was a crooked path of capitalism!"

Upon hearing this, Liangzi immediately became enraged and began to curse loudly:

"So you'd rather have your subordinates hang themselves than let someone else revitalize the business? What kind of fucking illogical logic is that!"

Wang Gui was so frightened that he trembled and waved his hands repeatedly, signaling Liangzi to shut up.

"Keep your voice down! Don't swear! Director Zhang is not someone you can mess with."

"He's been working in our county for almost twenty years; his seniority is terrifying."

"Most importantly, he was a trusted confidant whom the former county party secretary had personally promoted!"

"In the Commerce Bureau's little territory, if you're just a self-employed individual with no connections, trying to snatch this lucrative piece of meat from Director Zhang's hands? That's harder than climbing to heaven!"