Chapter 2: First Haul at the Street Stall

The air in the master bedroom late at night was so thick it could be wrung out in your hand. Su Ling knelt on the cold hardwood, a dull ache throbbing in her kneecaps, but she didn’t move an inch. Outside, muted thunder rolled across the sky; the rain hadn’t let up, and the rumbles masked the faint sounds inside the room. She tilted her head slightly, nostrils flaring. Two completely different scents hung in the air.

One was the inescapable, rotting greed of Liu Lan, reeking like mold that had been sitting for decades. The other trailed behind her, a mix of cheap cologne and the sour tang of anxiety—that was Su Hao. He was hiding in the shadow of the doorframe, eyes darting, caught between fearing his mother’s pressure and barely hiding his contempt for his little sister.

Su Ling kept her lashes lowered, looking meek and obedient. But using the thunder as cover, her fingers quietly felt around under her knees, her fingertips brushing against a speck of dust in the gap between the floorboards. Using this brief visual blind spot, she adjusted her breathing and swallowed the question that was sitting on the tip of her tongue. She knew that any resistance right now would invite a far more deadly reckoning.

Liu Lan stood at the doorway, her fingers rubbing the spine of a paper knife, her gaze like a blade sweeping over Su Ling’s bowed head, scrutinizing her like a flawed prototype. Su Hao muttered from outside the room. His voice was quiet, but Su Ling’s sharp sense of smell caught it; the scent radiating from him was fluctuating wildly, betraying extreme unease.

Su Ling suppressed a cold laugh. So the mother-son duo had already formed an alliance, viewing her as a lamb waiting for the slaughter. Another crash of thunder shook the windowpanes until they hummed. Taking advantage of the ruckus, Su Ling slowly lifted her knees. The movement was stiff and mechanical, as if her joints were rusted shut.

She stood up, brushed the dust from her skirt, and let her eyes go wide and empty, perfectly playing the part of an overwrought, frightened girl. Liu Lan’s brow furrowed; she clearly wasn’t pleased with the lack of emotional reaction. She turned and left, her footsteps heavy and hurried.

Su Hao followed right after her. As he passed Su Ling, he didn’t even glance at her; he just wrinkled his nose in disgust, as if she were coated in filth.

"Brother, what are you doing down there?" Su Hao stopped at the doorway, his voice whispering like a ghost.

"Brother, my legs went weak." Su Ling trembled, her eyes perfectly still beneath the surface.

"Hmph. Just you wait and see." Su Hao turned and disappeared into the shadows.

Su Ling remained standing there. Only when the heavy thud of the front door locking completely faded into silence did she shed the facade, a flash of sly, cold light shooting through her eyes. In the dead stillness, she caught the faint, cool fragrance on her own skin—a mark recognizable only to Gu Tingzhou’s secretary. She raised her hand, fingertips tracing her cheek. The skin was ice-cold. The game had just begun, and this night would be one of no sleep.

Morning sunlight squeezed through the gap in the curtains. Liu Lan’s voice drifted up from the floor below, sharp like metal scraping against stone. Su Ling sat on the edge of her bed, fingers idly twirling a strand of hair, while her mind raced through the route to the night market.

She recalled the phone call from Gu Tingzhou’s secretary last night. The man had been all business, dropping only one line about the Chairman Gu paying attention to asset fluctuations before hanging up. But Su Ling heard the subtext: the top-tier capital was doing its first probe of her rough gem.

She realized she was no longer just a parasitic vine clinging to the Su Family. She was prey, locked onto by eyes looking down from far higher up. Liu Lan pushed the door open, holding a stack of ledgers, her face dark as storm clouds. She pointed at the books, her gaze vicious. Su Ling stood up, her posture limp, as if she might collapse at any second.

"Explain these holes." Liu Lan slammed the ledgers onto the nightstand with a crack.

"Mom, I'm sorry." Su Ling kept her head down, her voice barely a thread.

"Get out on the balcony and reflect. Don't let me see you." Liu Lan turned and left.

Su Ling lowered her head, her voice hoarse and weak. She obediently accepted the order, but as she turned, a spark of light flashed in her eyes, quickly buried under a mask of cowardice. She was planning how to tear a hole in this seemingly airtight surveillance net, leading toward the heart of the night market where opportunities and danger mixed.

When Gu Tingzhou’s secretary called, Su Ling was standing by the window. She answered, pressing the phone to her ear, her voice soft with almost no inflection. The secretary’s voice came through the receiver, polite but distant, laced with that bureaucratic stiffness. The fingers gripping the phone tightened slightly, leaving white marks on the smooth casing.

She listened to the suggestive hints in the conversation, a cold laugh forming in her mind. Gu Tingzhou. A serpent smarter than any fox, seeing through the painted skin she wore in a single glance. She knew that every move she made, even every breath she took, could be recorded in some cold file somewhere. She gave noncommittal, obedient replies.

After hanging up, she took a deep breath. The air held the scent of morning dew and a faint whiff of coffee. She had to speed things up. Before Liu Lan could cast her net, she needed to secure the first chunk of capital big enough to change her fate.

In the afternoon, Su Hao sat bored in the living room, flicking a lighter in his hand. Su Ling descended the stairs wearing a plain dress, a harmless smile plastered on her face. Su Hao let out a scoff, his tone dripping with disdain.

"Oh, look at the little wretch, here to beg again?" Su Hao laughed mockingly, his eyes full of contempt.

"Brother, please let me come out with you," Su Ling said, biting her lip, her eyes glistening.

"Boring! Get lost!" Su Hao tossed the lighter onto the coffee table.

Su Ling didn’t argue. She just blinked, her voice soft as a mosquito’s buzz. Su Hao was riled up by her act, flicking the lighter again. Su Ling seized the chance to suggest going shopping with him, using it as an excuse to get out of the house. Su Hao wasn’t interested at first, but at the mention of shopping, that bit of the spoiled rich kid in him woke up, and he agreed to let her tag along.

Su Ling followed him out the front door and into the bustling streets. Her nostrils flared slightly. The air was thick with a cocktail of smells: sweat, car exhaust, the char of fried food, and the varying concentrations of Wealth Flow radiating from different people.

Following the pull of high-concentration Wealth Flow, her steps looked casual but were precisely calculated, navigating around every security blind spot and moving toward the night market.

As night fell, neon lights flickered on, dyeing the streets in a kaleidoscope of color. Su Ling wove through the crowd, sniffing the air, hunting for that unique scent of copper rust. The roar of voices, the calls of vendors, and the chaotic mix of odors slammed against her olfactory nerves. She frowned slightly, filtering the noise in her mind.

Suddenly, a faint but distinct whiff drifted into her nose. It was a mix of earth aged a thousand years and oxidized copper rust. She stopped, following the trail through the noisy crowd until her gaze locked onto an unassuming corner. There, a rickety wooden table was piled with items the rest of the world deemed junk.

The stall owner was a kind-looking old woman, head down, repairing a broken kite string. Su Ling took a deep breath; the scent grew stronger, like a whisper from the depths of the earth. She knew she had found her target.

Su Ling approached the stall, her gaze sweeping over the rusted objects. Her finger lightly brushed an ancient coin. The rough surface grated against her skin, and instantly, a system notification echoed in her mind, red-highlighted data floating into her vision. She tilted her head, pretending to be confused.

"Grandma, does this copper plate have a story?" Su Ling asked, her eyes wide and innocent.

"Just an old thing. Not worth much." The old woman didn’t look up, her fingers moving without stopping.

The old woman raised her head, a sharp glint flashing in her cloudy eyes, sizing Su Ling up from head to toe. Su Ling pressed on, her tone sweet and naive.

"Really? The green patina on it looks so special." Su Ling leaned in close, faking curiosity.

"Girl, do you know what you're looking at?" The old woman set down the kite, her gaze piercing.

The old woman didn't answer directly; instead, she asked a counter-question, trying to test Su Ling’s depths. Su Ling deliberately let a look of blank confusion cross her face and shook her head. While maintaining the absolute advantage of an information gap, pretending to be clueless, she had already pinpointed the true value of the artifact.

Su Ling pulled some crumpled cash from her bag and placed it on the table. The old woman picked it up, counted it, and her eyebrows shot up in surprise. She set the money down, her expression complex. Su Ling kept her head down, not meeting her eyes.

"That's it? Girl, if you want the real stuff, you gotta buy real." The old woman raised an eyebrow, smiling without much warmth.

"This is all I have," Su Ling answered timidly.

The old woman stared at her for a long time, then suddenly sighed. She opened a box under her stall and fished an old jade comb out from a pile of rags. She placed the comb in Su Ling’s palm. The moment Su Ling’s fingers touched it, a rich, powdery jade scent flooded her nose, and the visual system in her mind flashed violently, indicating a price beyond compare.

Her heart soared with joy, but her face stayed firmly in place, wearing an expression of gratitude. She looked up, her voice soft.

"Grandma, what is this..." Su Ling’s eyes reddened, her voice catching in her throat.

"Take it. Saves you from all that nosing around." The old woman waved her hand, a tender smile in her cloudy eyes.

Su Ling gripped the jade comb tightly, feeling the warm yet cool texture in her palm, completing a low-cost, high-return jackpot.

On the ride back to the Su Family estate, Su Ling leaned against the back seat of the taxi, clutching the jade comb. Through the window, the city’s night lights blurred into streaks. In her mind, she was reviewing the profit margins of this transaction. The gap between the ancient coin’s market price and its actual value, plus the potential premium on the jade comb, was enough to push her capital to a whole new level.

With a larger capital base, her sense of smell—its radius and precision—was about to level up. The path from street-stall arbitrage to the antique market, and eventually to physical commercial districts, was crystal clear. A cold arc tugged at the corner of her mouth. In this game, she had finally seized the initiative. Outside the window, the lights dimmed, reflecting the fleeting ambition in her eyes.

Inside the Su Family mansion, the atmosphere was suffocating. Liu Lan sat in the center of the living room, her face so dark it could rain. Su Hao stood to the side, head down, too scared to speak. Liu Lan smashed a teacup on the floor, shards scattering everywhere. She pointed at Su Hao, her voice razor-sharp.

"Out till the middle of the night again?" Liu Lan jabbed a finger at Su Hao, furious.

"Mom, I was just... I was thinking." Su Hao mumbled, trying to argue.

"Shut up! Go kneel in the ancestral hall!" Liu Lan let out a cold laugh, cutting off all his escape routes.

She picked up her phone, dialed Su Hao’s number, her tone icy and non-negotiable. Su Hao answered. When he heard his mother’s orders, his face drained of color. He glanced around, quickly packed his things. Liu Lan hung up, her eyes radiating a ruthlessness that wouldn’t stop until the job was done.

Su Hao paused in the hallway, catching the scent of cheap perfume on him that couldn't hide his tension. Su Ling, observing from the shadows, coldly noted that the layout was already in place.