Otherworldly Merchant

“Ah Lai, you shouldn’t go too far.” Boss Ma sounded desperate. “It’s just one hundred thousand renminbi, isn’t it? The tips I’ve given you in the past were much more than that!”

“Tips are tips, and I deserved them. Stop playing the friendship card with me. I respected you for your money. But now, you have nothing, so you’re worth nothing. Quickly hand over the money.”

“I just said that I don’t have it right now...”

“You don’t have it? All right, then you can use this villa to repay the debt,” said Ah Lai. “I’m not a fool.”

Boss Ma’s eyes were bloodshot. “Are you trying to back me into a corner?”

“Back you into a corner? You’re lucky that I haven’t called my loan shark brothers yet!”

Then, Ah Lai took out his phone and called a gang of large men with tattoos all over their shoulders. At first glance, we all knew they were gangsters.

Ah Lai sneered. “You better seize the time and get me that one hundred thousand renminbi. Otherwise, I’ll take this villa.”

“I could tell from the beginning that you wanted my villa!” Boss Ma was so angry that his face turned purple.

Ah Lai smiled. “How can you say something so nasty? If you pay me now, I have no reason to take your villa.”

“Okay, wait a minute. I’m going to borrow some money. It’s just one hundred thousand renminbi, and I have a lot of friends.”

Then, Boss Ma made a phone call.

“Hey Little Liu, how are you doing?”

“Oh, everything’s fine. I just needed some money, and I thought of borrowing one hundred thousand renminbi from you.”

“Sigh. As you know, the market is stagnant now. My company isn’t doing too well, so I’m short of liquid funds.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it. I’m not going to be bankrupt. I’ll surely pay you back very soon.”

“Eh? What do you mean? Don’t you consider me your friend? Remember when your company was in trouble? II was the one who helped you every time…”

“Hey, hello?”

It seemed the person on the other end had hung up.

Boss Ma slumped onto the chair and blankly gazed at the phone. He looked distressed as he muttered, “How is this possible?”

Ah Lai smirked. “Boss Ma— Oh, no. Now we should call you Bankrupt Ma. To be honest, you are not the sort of person one would want to befriend. If it weren’t for your money, no one would want to be close to you.”

“Nonsense!” Boss Ma cursed. “That Little Liu is just an ungrateful bastard!”

“Birds of a feather flock together. You value money more than friendship. Of course, the people around you would do the same. Without money or other benefits, no one would be willing to be on your side.”

Boss Ma ignored Ah Lai and made another phone call.

The person on the other end and Boss Ma seemed very friendly. It was as if they were as close as blood brothers.

However, as soon as he talked about his situation and mentioned that he wanted to borrow money, the other person changed his attitude. “Boss Ma, what’s going on? Your company’s going bankrupt?”

Boss Ma said helplessly, “Yeah, that’s right. I currently have a shortage of liquid funds. I wanted to borrow one hundred thousand renminbi from you to solve this problem.”

“Boss Ma, to be honest, my company’s situation isn’t any better. Oh right, if you declare bankruptcy, the police will come to investigate. When it happens, don’t tell them about our relationship. I wish you good luck. If you say anything that links back to me, there might be consequences.”

Then, he hung up.

Boss Ma sank in despair. He made several calls to his friends, but the result was the same. No one wanted to lend him money.

Boss Ma’s time had come to an end. He couldn’t give them more benefits, so his cunning friends didn’t need him anymore. Some of them even scolded and cursed him through the phone. Eventually, he couldn’t stand it any further and vomited blood.

“Hey, what’s your plan now?” Ah Lai started to get nervous. “Don’t try to cheat me out of my money. Even if you die, I can still sell your organs!”

Then, he swiftly took out a certificate of indebtedness. He wrote some sentences, made two copies, and grabbed Boss Ma’s finger to leave a bloody fingerprint on the papers. “I’ll come back tomorrow at the same time to collect the money. If you don’t have it, this villa will belong to me! Don’t say that I didn’t treat you with respect. The fact that you’re still alive is the proof.”

Then, Ah Lai lifted the suitcase and left contentedly.

Boss Ma lay on the chair and cried. “It’s retribution! Why did I befriend such terrible people? In their eyes, there is only benefit. They should all die!”

I smiled mysteriously. “Boss Ma, don’t be so pessimistic. People are social animals, so it’s impossible not to have a single true friend. Just try to make a few more calls.”

Boss Ma’s hands shook. He checked his address book, which had several hundred phone numbers on it. However, he couldn’t find a single person worthy of his trust.

He forced a smile. “I understand now. In this world, money talks. I should have known it earlier.”

“That’s not true,” I said. “San Bao and Li Mazi didn’t befriend Qin Yu for the sake of benefits.”

“Haha.” Boss Ma laughed pitifully. “I suddenly envy that Qin Yu. I’ve truly lost in this aspect.”

Boss Ma sat idle on his chair for the whole morning. Many people had come to collect debts, but Boss Ma said nothing and didn’t even move. I guessed he was feeling so desperate that he wanted to kill himself.

At night, the silence in the villa was broken by someone banging on the door. Boss Ma said in distress, “It seems someone’s come to collect the debt again…”

The door sprang open, and a lanky man with a gloomy face walked in. He looked at Boss Ma and said, “Boss.”

Boss Ma looked at him and waved his hand in dismissal. “Secretary Zhang, are you here for your salary? I’ll give you my car. It should cover your expenses for a few months.”

“It’s not that, Sir,” said Secretary Zhang. “I heard that your company is in trouble and that you need around one hundred thousand renminbi. Here are all of my savings. You should use this money to get rid of the debt.”

Boss Ma was dumbstruck. He looked at his secretary in shock. “Little Zhang, you…”

“Sir, just take it. I don’t need the money right now.” Secretary Zhang lifted the snakeskin bag and placed it in front of Boss Ma. “If it’s not enough, I can help you sell the car. In the meantime, you can take this portion.”

“Little Zhang…” His numb heart was warm once again. Boss Ma was so touched that tears rolled down his face. “Why are you doing this?”

“It’s what I should do,” said Secretary Zhang. “When I came here from the countryside, I didn’t have a single penny and couldn’t even fill my stomach. You provided me with shelter and gave me a job. If it weren’t for you, I would have become a criminal. Since you are now in trouble, I have to help you.”

Boss Ma took a deep breath then cried. “Little Zhang, I’m sorry that I couldn’t appreciate you enough. I looked down on you because you were a country boy, and I didn’t give you a good job. Never would I have thought that you’d be the one to help me. Little Zhang, don’t worry. I’m a capable man. One day, I will rise again. When that time comes and I have rice to eat, I’ll make sure that you eat with me.”

Secretary Zhang smile. “Boss Ma, I want to go home and do some farming. I miss my friends back there. No matter what problem I encountered, they have always helped me. But here, I can’t find a true friend…”

Boss Ma sighed reluctantly. “You should go home then! Take the car, too.”

Secretary Zhang didn’t want it. However, Boss Ma was persistent and shoved the key in his hands.

After Secretary Zhang left, Boss Ma’s mood finally improved.

I said, “Now, do you believe that there is true friendship in this world? Do you understand how worried we were about Qin Yu?”

Boss Ma nodded. “I want to thank you. You’ve given me a very important lesson. My ‘friends’ are probably looking forward to buying my company’s shares. They weren’t my friends, after all, just competitors.”

I smiled. “Our objective wasn’t to back you into a corner, so we've left you an escape route. Since you’ve donated a large part of your assets, you’ve become a big donor, and your name now comes with great reputation. Every word of yours matters and an affect society, so your ‘friends’ won’t dare to treat you too harshly.”

Boss Ma forced a smile. “It’s fine. My life was ultimately ruined by those ‘friends’ of mine. I’ll give you the item; you should handle it as you see fit.”

Then, Boss Ma went to his bedroom and took out a green jade belt from his safe.

It should be the jade belt Qin Yu kept talking about.

I carefully held the belt. It was really heavy, around three or four kilograms, and it had an ancient flavor.

The fine leather had strips of ancient jades embedded into it. Under the light, the jade reflected beams in a beautiful green color. There also seemed to be streaks of blood on the leather.

The jade belt was beautiful. However, it wasn’t perfect as several jade strips were broken. I wondered what had happened to them.

I immediately asked, “Boss Ma, do you know the origin of this jade belt?”

Boss Ma blankly stared at the jade belt for several minutes. Then, he slowly told us the story.