At this very moment, a road leading from the school's back gate, after three turns and passing through an ordinary house, leads to an internet cafe that is almost empty.

In such a remote and out-of-the-way place, without even a signboard, and with a dark room and old, worn-out computers and furniture, business is booming.

The boss is shrewd; running an internet cafe is just a pretense, he's involved in all sorts of borderline businesses.

A burly man wearing a hoodie, speaking in broken Mandarin, placed a hundred-yuan bill on the counter and asked, "Boss, how many can I get for one?"

The shop owner looked up at the man; he looked familiar.

So he said, "Five."

"Last week it was one card for ten, why has the price suddenly increased so much?"

"We still have the previous version, but the quality is really not good. It can only fool old men and women who sell firewood."

The man nodded upon hearing this.

Indeed, the thousand yuan he exchanged last time was not used for eating at a food stall, and was eventually spent by elderly vendors selling vegetables and fruits on the street.

"Is the quality of this batch worth the price?" the man asked.

"See for yourself!"

The shopkeeper took out a hundred-yuan bill from the drawer and slammed it on the table, seemingly dissatisfied with the man's doubts about the quality of his goods.

The man wasn't annoyed. He picked up the banknote, shook it, and held it up to the light. He could see a clear watermark and even feel the raised texture of the Braille.

You really do get what you pay for.

"Then give me five hundred yuan's worth."

The man then took out his phone, preparing to pay the remaining four hundred yuan electronically, the kind that involves overdraft.

"Cash only." The boss raised his eyelids slightly.

Those who engage in illegal activities naturally need to accept cash, such as Alipay or WeChat, so they're bound to be caught if investigated.

The man looked displeased, but since it was the rule, he had no choice but to give up. He exchanged a real 100-dollar bill for five 100-dollar bills.

"Can I use Alipay to pay online?" the man asked again.

"Of course." The shopkeeper pointed to the QR code next to him. "One dollar and fifty cents a day, ten or twenty dollars a day, and a free pack of instant noodles."

The man then spent twenty yuan and planned to stay in the internet cafe for a while.

"Boss, do you have any in stock?"

Upon hearing this, the boss looked up and was met by three boys who looked like students.

Although he was a student, he was already a regular visitor. One of them was a student from the No. 2 Middle School across the street. He didn't know the student's name, but he knew that others called him by his nickname "Gongshuang.jian.fan".

So he asked, "Which one do you want?"

“Blue,” said the boy in the lead, Fan Jianqiang, with practiced ease.

"How many?"

In the past, if Fan Jianqiang had a little money, he would only buy one or two, since each one cost two hundred yuan. Even beating up a coward would only get him two or three hundred yuan.

But now, with this unexpected windfall in his hands, he's getting a little cocky.

"It's my treat today," Fan Jianqiang said to the two men who had ripped off Li Lechen with him. Then he said to the shopkeeper, "Give me ten! Here's two thousand."

"Ten for three thousand three."

The boss quickly corrected the error and calculated the actual total price needed.

"Didn't you pay two hundred yuan a piece last week?" Fan Jianqiang suddenly felt a little embarrassed. Because of the price increase, he didn't have enough money.

The shopkeeper scoffed, "This is today's price. By tomorrow, it might be 350 yuan a piece. And even if you have the money, you might not be able to buy it in a few more years. This stuff is banned now; we've checked several shops."

"Isn't the blue color supposed to be undetectable? It can't be detected in a urine test either!" Fan Jianqiang asked in surprise.

The shop owner was too lazy to explain, since he didn't know either: "This is the price now, do you want it or not?!"

"Yes! Of course I want it!"

Fan Jianqiang quickly took out the two thousand yuan, then tried to calculate in his mind how many he could buy at 330 yuan each.

"Here are 6 of these, enough for the three of you to have internet access."

The boss was very polite and gave away forty yuan as a gift.

"Forget it, just give me the change."

The environment around the internet cafe wasn't good; there were many food stalls. Last time, Fan Jianqiang ate this "Blue Elf" food here. After getting high, he actually fell into the leftovers bucket and slept all night on those sour leftovers. When he woke up, he couldn't eat anything for three whole days because he was nauseous.

And just thinking about it made Fan Jianqiang gag again.

So he stopped using it at the internet cafe.

The shop owner was quite polite; since he couldn't find any change for twenty yuan, he gave me a fifty-yuan note instead, which was a discount for a regular customer.

With six "Smurf" coins in his pocket, Fan Jianqiang had fifty yuan in change from the shopkeeper and two hundred yuan he had previously forced out of a guy from Class 3 after beating him up. The three of them headed straight for a disco not far from the school.

Six Smurfs, enough for three people to party for three nights straight.

......

The internet cafe owner, feeling a bit bored after Fan Jianqiang left, started counting the day's revenue. He grabbed a handful of cash, estimating it to be around ten thousand yuan, and began counting.

I counted them all; there were 99.

So I grabbed another card and put it in, then counted it again.

Suddenly I felt something was wrong.

It's not a matter of quantity, but rather the feel of counting the money; it seems a bit off.

This contains *blocked keywords*!

His years of experience selling blocked keywords told him that this 10,000 yuan package not only contained blocked keywords, but also high-quality counterfeits.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!