Chapter 3 — Are You Rich? The Girl No Longer Kicked Wei Zhao in the Leg, but Leaned Against the Window, Quietly Listening to Her MP3
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 2
"Songshan Station is approaching. Passengers getting off, please prepare yourselves. This train will stop for fifteen minutes." The announcement came over the train's speakers, and Wei Zhao began gathering his luggage, preparing to disembark.
To his surprise, the girl beside him began gathering her things as well. Apparently, she was getting off at Songshan Station too.
When the girl stood up, Wei Zhao gave her a quick once-over. His estimate had been right: she was roughly a hundred and sixty-five centimeters tall.
After getting off the train, Wei Zhao stared in amazement at the station's magnificent architecture. He had visited this place once, ten years ago, but in the decade since, Songshan had undergone a complete transformation.
"Wait." A sweet female voice sounded behind him. Wei Zhao stopped and instinctively turned around.
It was the girl who had been sitting beside him on the train. She was waving as she hurried toward him.
"Is something wrong?" Wei Zhao certainly did not believe she had fallen for him at first sight. He was fairly handsome, true, but his clothes were hopelessly rustic: mustard-yellow trousers and a white undershirt, the sort of outfit worn by migrant laborers who had come to the city looking for work.
"You are not actually planning to redeem that prize, are you?" the girl asked bitterly. She was angry that Wei Zhao had ignored her warning on the train.
"Oh, you mean this?" Wei Zhao took the pull tab from his pocket and casually tossed it onto the roadside.
"What?" This time, it was the girl's turn to stare in stunned disbelief. She had never imagined that Wei Zhao would make such a move.
"You... you threw it away?" The girl pointed at Wei Zhao in astonishment, her mouth hanging open.
"Yeah. I threw it away." Wei Zhao nodded. "It was fake in the first place. There was no point keeping it."
"You knew it was fake?" The girl's mind seemed to seize up at his words. She stared at him blankly. What on earth was wrong with this man? He knew it was fake, yet he had still paid for it. Was he insane? And judging by his appearance, he did not look like some rich man with a bizarre sense of humor.
"I knew. And even if I hadn't, you warned me on the train." Wei Zhao shrugged.
"Then why did you give them the money?" The girl grew frantic. What kind of person was he?
Wei Zhao smiled, slipped his backpack from his shoulder, and unzipped it. Then he opened it wide in front of her.
The girl cast him a puzzled glance before lowering her head to look inside the backpack. The moment she saw what was there, she nearly jumped. There were seven or eight bundles of banknotes inside.
"You are rich? Even if you are, you cannot spend money so recklessly." The girl did not quite understand what Wei Zhao meant. She assumed he was showing off how wealthy he was.
"This is the money from earlier," Wei Zhao said.
"The money from earlier? What do you mean?" The girl had not understood. "Are you saying you got the money back? There were only forty-nine thousand, were there not? That looks like seventy or eighty thousand."
"The bespectacled man had another thirty thousand on him. I took that too." Wei Zhao shrugged. It had been nothing, merely a matter of lifting a finger. For him, it could not have been easier.
"Huh?" This time, the girl was completely dumbfounded. It was not that Wei Zhao had something wrong with him. He had simply been one step ahead. Not only had he recovered his own money, he had casually walked off with the bespectacled man's money as well.
"Why the look on your face? You are not thinking of reporting me for theft, are you? You have quite a strong sense of justice." Seeing her astonishment, Wei Zhao smiled and teased her.
"Of course not." The girl's face flushed, and she shook her head.
"Still, thank you for earlier. There are not many girls like you." Wei Zhao spoke sincerely. "How about I buy you a meal later?"