5: Chapter 5 Intercepting? Is this doing a good deed?

7:30 PM.

Chen Sheng dug out the candles he had bought during a previous power outage, fixed them onto a large beverage bottle, lit them, and placed them next to a table full of delicacies. Paired with wine, if one were to turn off the lights and call this a very romantic candlelight dinner, surely no one would be able to refute it.

"Wife, wishing us the best!" Chen Sheng raised his glass to An Xiaonuan, whose eyes hadn't left the dishes since they were served, and who was practically drooling into the plates.

Come to think of it, An Xiaonuan was a standard little foodie.

As for him... Uh! He counted as one too.

Otherwise, why would the ancestors leave behind the saying that two different kinds of people can't sleep in the same bed?

The two met through food and bonded over food; this was why, despite their combined monthly income of nearly twenty thousand, they lived like paycheck-to-paycheck people. The reason for everything was one word—food.

"Hubby, you're the best!" An Xiaonuan clinked her glass against his. However, her bold gulp revealed the temperament of a Southwest Tyrannosaurus Rex. Once she set the glass down, her hand holding the chopsticks with an elegant orchid finger gesture revealed the delicate beauty of a Southern woman, completely masking her true nature.

Women are drama queens, and beautiful women are even better at lying; Zhang Wuji would have the most say on this.

An Xiaonuan picked up her chopsticks, her first target naturally being the cola chicken wings she had been eyeing for a long time. As a wing entered her mouth, her eyes immediately narrowed into crescent moons; that satisfied expression was incredibly enchanting.

However, An Xiaonuan wasn't just thinking of herself. While eating the chicken wings, she didn't forget to pick up a large helping of stir-fried chives with eggs and put it into Chen Sheng's bowl, saying indistinctly, "Hubby, you eat too, eat more."

Alright! Both were experienced veterans; they understood each other with just a glance.

So, by the end of the meal, Chen Sheng had polished off more than half a plate of stir-fried chives with eggs by himself.

After dinner, the two sat on the sofa hugging each other while watching TV. Chen Sheng brewed a cup of wolfberry tea, and he felt he was terrifyingly strong tonight.

That was certainly the case. His 28-year-old self, whose core had already aged to forty due to irregular overtime and part-time work, had changed his engine oil and was equipped with high-quality fuel today. Like all the Yanzu-like readers, he declared that he wanted to fight ten men.

Tsk tsk~ Didn't his status in the family just rise instantly?

In the morning, An Xiaonuan, her face covered in a satisfied rosy glow, used her delicate hands to gently smooth out the wrinkles on Chen Sheng's clothes. She then walked him to the door, and after Chen Sheng left, she didn't forget to add energetically, "Hubby, fight on!"

"Wife! You fight on too."

Chen Sheng took the elevator down to the basement, got into his car, and immediately opened the system panel.

host: Chen Sheng

Level: 1

Upgrade EXP: 2 / 100

Unread Intel: 2

"Not bad!" Chen Sheng was very satisfied that there were still two static pieces of unread intel today.

He tapped on the unread intel with his finger.

[Today's Intel 1: According to statistical data, the number of graduates from major universities this year has increased by 15% compared to last year, leading to a further increase in employment pressure. Relevant experts have publicly suggested renting out one's own idle housing or using one's idle vehicles to generate income.]

Chen Sheng: "..."

At this moment, he had an expletive he didn't know whether to say or not.

However, he held it back, not because he was well-mannered, but because he wanted to wait until this 'relevant expert' made a public statement so he could deliver that expletive to them then.

Chen Sheng fixed his gaze on this intel again; he could only say that the more he looked, the more his brows furrowed. A 15% increase in graduates meant 15% more worker bees would be competing with an old corporate slave like him for jobs.

He inexplicably had the urge to not go to work.

Slap~ Chen Sheng slapped himself. "I have a system now, why the hell should I go to work!"

With that slap, Chen Sheng felt his entire gaze clear up, and his whole being felt enlightened.

He turned his gaze to the second piece of intel.

[Today's Intel 2: A bouquet of purple roses was discarded in the trash can downstairs at Unit 2, Building 3, Jingjiang Donghu Garden Residential Area. Hidden in the middle of the bouquet is a gold bracelet worth 13,140 yuan. This bracelet was a surprise from a man to the goddess in his heart; to show his sincerity, he specifically hid the bracelet in the middle of the bouquet. Unfortunately, after the goddess received the bouquet, she took a cursory look, didn't find it, and threw it in the trash early this morning.]

[Note 1: This intel is valid until 8:00 on June 28th; after this time, the intel will expire.]

"WTF!" Chen Sheng, who had been lazily leaning against the car seat reading the intel, sat up abruptly.

No reason other than that the residential area he was renting in was Jingjiang Donghu Garden Residential Area.

The most critical point was that it was already 7:40.

Chen Sheng decisively picked up the mask and hat beside him and put them on. He opened the car door, went from the elevator lobby directly through the fire escape to the first floor. After running two steps out of the unit building, he turned and slipped into the architectural gap next to the trash can at the entrance of the adjacent unit building.

This gap area was the private territory of the residential area's cleaning ladies; for the convenience of their work, they usually stored brooms, trash bags, and other cleaning supplies there.

Chen Sheng easily swiped a black trash bag from inside. Then, dragging the trash bag, he consciously bypassed the security cameras all the way and ran without stopping to the downstairs of Unit 2, Building 3.

Due to the emphasis on waste sorting in recent years, there were four trash cans placed downstairs at each unit: one yellow hazardous waste bin, one green kitchen waste bin, and two gray general waste bins.

Chen Sheng, with a clear objective, came to the two gray trash cans. Ignoring the big and small trash bags inside that emitted strange odors, he reached in and started rummaging.

"Grass (it's a plant)," Chen Sheng, soon with his hand covered in soup and water, couldn't help but let out a string of profanities.

One had to say, the old ladies and old men got up so early just to scramble for those two eggs or save two dimes on groceries.

Fortunately, with the intel being accurate and the target clear, Chen Sheng quickly found the purple rose bouquet in the gray general waste bin. Without time to check, Chen Sheng scooped the bouquet out of the trash can, stuffed it into the black trash bag he had swiped, and then went directly from Building 3 through the fire escape down to the underground parking lot.

He got in the car, started it, and slipped out of the residential area. Following the navigation, he drove all the way to 98 Yongshun Street before finding a spot to park.

He picked up the trash bag he had tossed in the back seat and opened it. Leaving the bouquet inside the bag, he reached in to rummage through the flowers.

As the saying goes, with accurate intel and a clear objective, as long as the item is inside, it really couldn't be simpler to find it.

It took less than a minute for Chen Sheng to see, on the purple rose in the very center of the bouquet, a four-leaf clover bracelet tied with a colored string at the junction of the stem and the flower.

How to put it?

Judging from the symmetrical bow tied with the colored string, it was clear that the man who gave the gift had definitely put in effort.

But choosing the location at the junction of the stem and the flower was hard to accept!

Looking at the fact that the goddess in the man's heart had thrown the bouquet into the trash early in the morning, Chen Sheng saw a story of a simp through the bouquet.

Perhaps by intercepting this gift through the system today, he might have even done a good deed.

Tsk tsk~