Chapter Sixteen: A Bright Future

"Xiao Qin, have those two girls left?"

Old Wei came back just then, spotting Qin Jing alone. He tossed him a cigarette and started chatting.

"Yes, they’re the main clients for this batch of goods. Uncle Wei, could you keep an eye on things for me? If everything goes smoothly, I’ll give you a little bonus."

Qin Jing grinned. He was quite familiar with Old Wei, but as a businessman, he understood well the power of incentives. Sure, he could have asked Old Wei for help without any reward, but a promised bonus would be far more effective.

"Come on now, what bonus do I need?"

Old Wei waved him off, then clicked his tongue in admiration. "Those two are no ordinary people, you know. You should have seen the spectacle earlier—police, then the National Security Bureau."

"The National Security Bureau?" Qin Jing was taken aback.

Old Wei proceeded to recount all that had happened after Qin Jing and Zheng Qiu Ying had left.

No sooner had they gone than a squad of police arrived, intent on taking Wang Keng away. But then another group rushed in, flashing their credentials, claiming to be from the National Security Bureau, trying to intercept midway.

Eventually, it was Zheng Qiu Yin who stabilized the situation. She seemed to know those people, and forcefully insisted the police take Wang Keng away.

"But judging by Wang Keng’s demeanor, he seems confident he’ll be out again soon. He even threatened Zheng Qiu Yin, saying the Phoenix Society wouldn’t let her off... Xiao Qin, you’d better be careful."

Old Wei looked at him with concern as he spoke.

"All right, I understand. Thank you, Uncle Wei."

Qin Jing kept his smile, chatted with Old Wei a while longer, then got to work.

He’d already arranged for a transport company; by now, their trucks had set out, and he needed to go to the outskirts to bring the stored waste paper over.

Besides that, Qin Jing had bought five thousand pounds of waste paper. With prices dropping across the board, it was easy work—his bulk demand even knocked the price down by twenty cents per pound.

In the past, Qin Jing would have haggled, but he had other matters on his mind now, and didn’t bother with such details.

He worked from two in the afternoon till seven at night, treating Old Wei and a few truck drivers to a meal in between. They agreed to bring the remaining goods tomorrow; then Qin Jing hailed a cab back to Erdaozi Alley.

By then, most shops were closed. Old Song’s shop was winding down too, but he was across the street in the incense shop playing cards. Seeing Qin Jing return, he hollered, "Xiao Qin, did those two girls find you today?"

"Yes."

"Heh, those are good customers. Xiao Qin, tell them if they need jewelry in the future, they can come check out my place too."

"Sure thing. But Old Song, aren’t you in antiques? How come you have jewelry?"

"Ah, my cousin opened a gold shop. I just grabbed some pieces and aged them a bit."

In a flash, Qin Jing understood. Gold items were highly valuable; after being antiqued, even if they couldn’t fetch antique prices, they carried a sense of heritage. Sold in an antique shop, they often commanded higher prices than at a gold shop.

This gave Qin Jing a sudden thought: The GDP system only appraised secondhand goods. What about Old Song’s items? They counted as secondhand too—could they be evaluated?

He pondered this but didn’t pursue it immediately. Instead, he returned to his shop, turned on the lights, locked the door. He had more pressing matters.

The news from Old Wei had shaken him. He suspected Wang Keng might make a comeback; in times like this, self-improvement was paramount.

Qin Jing hadn’t forgotten—after finishing the Mercedes-Benz recycling today, he'd received a "Bronze Treasure Chest." The circumstances hadn't allowed him to check it then; now he was determined to find it.

"The GDP system has this flaw—it’s not user-friendly. If it were an online novel system, it’d give direct prompts."

He muttered under his breath, though he knew this was precisely what he liked about the GDP ability. If a real system appeared, he'd have to worry about its motives and origins.

Seated before the mirror, he opened the hidden character panel. The familiar skill tree appeared.

At the top, "Recycling Mastery" and "Sales Mastery" were both lit. To Qin Jing’s surprise, beneath these two skills was a full row of information.

Previously, when Sales skill leveled up, Qin Jing could only see the requirements for the next upgrade. Now, while the upgrade still required 1000g, there was a row of newly locked skills below.

Under Recycling Mastery, there were two subskills: Recycling Space and Recycling Map.

Similarly, under Sales Mastery: Client List and Sales Arrangement.

Each subskill needed 300g points to unlock. After upgrading, another 400g would elevate a mastery skill to expert level, the third tier.

"Recycling Space—the name alone fires the imagination."

Qin Jing stared longingly at the first subskill under Recycling Mastery for quite a while before reluctantly looking away.

He was still far from enough g points; it was clear he needed to work harder to earn money.

Since upgrading the recycling skill, old bills were equivalent to g points for Qin Jing. Now he had only 68g, but there were plenty of things that could be converted.

After leveling up the skill at noon, he’d been left with single digits, but then spent 100,000 acquiring the Mercedes, and the 500,000 delivered by Zheng Qiu Yin was counted as sales g points by the GDP system—making 60g.

Besides, Qin Jing still had 500,000 in old bills, and another 500,000 in deposits that could be exchanged for old bills—another 100g. Plus, Zheng Qiu Ying wouldn’t let go of the beauty elixir, which brought in 150g. Altogether, if all these deals went through, he’d have enough g points to unlock a subskill.

"But I can’t just sit and wait for Zheng Qiu Ying. I need to use my resources, and ideally hit 1.5 million GDP tomorrow. Hmm, let’s work hard, Qin Jing!"

Staring at his reflection, Qin Jing clenched his fist, feeling a surge of passion: In the past, he had no resources, relying on his wits and working solo, earning only hard-fought money. Now, with GDP, resource recycling and client sales were no longer obstacles—he could finally let loose and go all out!

In fact, once the skills leveled up, he might even summon customers from mythic worlds and become extraordinary himself! If Jessieca-Tio could be summoned, other big shots could too!

Earn money, become super wealthy! Earn g points, become superhuman!

Two goals, converging on the same path.

There was no need to wait for tomorrow. With his goals set, Qin Jing started making calls at once.

"Big Beauty Li, got any bags lately? Haha, your little brother has found a new channel—guaranteed purchase price that’ll satisfy you."

"Boss Wang, still collecting waste paper? Don’t lose heart. Help me spread the word, tell everyone I’m buying luxury goods in bulk—more is better!"

After nearly an hour of calls, Qin Jing posted a message to his WeChat moments:

"Still coveting just-released luxury goods? Still hesitating over your gently used phone? Xiao Qin’s Recycling Shop celebrates its first anniversary—ninety-percent new secondhand items, recycled at a 9.9 discount! Contact: 13*********"

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Thanks to Wandering Ah Yang for the reward, much love.