40: Want to be famous? I'll help you.

"That's my son! Why shouldn't I want him! Give my son back to me!"

Upon hearing Ye Su tell them to relinquish ownership of the Schnauzer, the woman immediately shrieked at the top of her lungs again.

This made Ye Su wonder for a moment if the woman was suffering from some kind of manic disorder.

"Fine, we'll pay!"

After some back-and-forth, Ye Su's stance was very clear: either pay the money or give up the dog.

Although this purebred Schnauzer cost four thousand to buy, and raising it to this size had already cost more than twenty thousand, the man was actually quite reluctant to pay this amount.

However, since the couple didn't have children, his wife treated the dog as her own flesh and blood.

If he dared to suggest today that he didn't want the dog anymore, his wife would be the first to not let him off the hook, and there would definitely be no peace in the house from then on!

Just thinking about that scenario sent a chill down his spine.

Agreeing to give Ye Su this twenty thousand yuan, besides wanting to get the dog back, was also the man's attempt to buy some peace for his household!

If they had just been honest from the start, it would have been fine; they just had to wait until they were at death's door to shed tears.

"Since that's the case, then with these two Comrades as witnesses, why don't you just transfer the money now?"

After confirming what software they used, Ye Su opened his payment QR code and handed it over: "Don't forget to note that this money is for the reward."

"Fine!" The man gritted his teeth in hatred, but he had no choice but to comply.

After completing the entire process and receiving the twenty thousand yuan, Ye Su finally returned the dog to them.

"Son! Where did you run off to!" The woman couldn't wait to take the puppy, hugging it to her chest with snot and tears streaming down her face: "You had Mommy so worried!"

Ye Su ignored this display of "mother-son affection" and turned to thank the two police officers: "Thank you, Comrades, for the trouble."

"You're welcome, as long as the matter is resolved satisfactorily."

While shaking hands, the police officer also quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

This farce was finally over!

Are young people nowadays this capable? The way he handled things and his demeanor just now were so much better than the parties involved in the cases they had mediated before!

When the young policewoman shook hands with Ye Su, her beautiful eyes kept sizing him up:

Being good-looking and having a kind heart was one thing, but to be able to remain composed and clearly express his demands in a situation like that—he was just too handsome!

If the occasion hadn't been inappropriate, she would have wanted to add Ye Su as a friend, just to get to know him.

Ye Su, however, didn't have so many thoughts. After thanking the two police officers, he ignored the couple entirely, left the police station on his own, and rode his e-bike back to his rental.

...

With twenty thousand yuan in his account, Ye Su returned home, picked up his phone, and curled up comfortably on the sofa.

"People can be shameless, but how can they be this shameless?"

Just as he opened the short video app, the platform pushed a new video from that couple.

[Some people are truly shameless. After finding my son, they actually dared to threaten us for twenty thousand yuan, using the reward amount from the "Lost Dog Notice." People like this deserve to be poor their whole lives!]

In the video, the woman was holding the Schnauzer, accompanied by some inexplicable background music.

[Contemporary Schrödinger's Reward: Before someone helps you find your dog, the reward both exists and doesn't exist. Only when the dog is found do the two situations collapse into a single result.]

[Are you saying that after you posted the "Lost Dog Notice," someone helped you find your dog, and as a result, they actually expected you to fulfill your promise?]

[I can tell you're definitely holding your "son."]

[Ahhhhhh, lost dogs are the hardest to find, ahhhhhh!!!]

Fortunately, netizens nowadays have increasingly upright values; the era of [whoever posts the video is right] is long gone. The dozen or so comments under the video were basically all mocking the couple's actions.

The woman also realized that the discourse in the comment section was the complete opposite of what she had envisioned. She was currently bickering with netizens, trying her best to smear Ye Su in order to find some emotional solace for herself.

"Since you want to go viral so badly, do you want me to help you?"

Having just taken twenty thousand yuan from them, he had to give them a return gift, one way or another.

Ye Su waved his hand, used his account's first-order discount, and spent thirty yuan on a Dou+ boost for this video.

Watching the chaos without fear of it getting too big, after adding some heat to the other party's video, Ye Su remembered that he needed to report this good news to his family.

He sent the twenty thousand yuan transfer record to the family group chat, and as expected, the group chat exploded.

[Brother: Where did you get so much money from again?]

[Sister: Did you go rob a bank?]

[I found a dog when I went out today. It turned out someone had posted a "Lost Dog Notice," and to thank me, they transferred twenty thousand yuan to me.]

Ye Su also sent the screenshot of the "Lost Dog Notice" and the selfie he took holding the dog at the police station to the group, only omitting the actual process at the police station.

In just one month, he had won the lottery, won an e-bike, and now he had even found a dog and gotten someone to transfer him a twenty thousand yuan reward. His luck was so good that even his family members were starting to suspect Ye Su.

However, seeing the photo of Ye Su holding the dog at the police station, they had no choice but to believe it. Even Su Wan dispelled her worries about [whether Ye Su was doing something illegal outside to make money].

[Mom: Heaven has eyes after all; good people get good rewards.]

[Brother: People in Yangcheng really have money. A twenty-thousand-yuan reward for just finding a dog? I work myself to the bone for a month, worrying about whether my shop's traffic is dropping, and I still might not even make that twenty thousand.]

[Sister: You know how people are outside these days; they treat dogs better than their own relatives. I've even seen someone chew food up and feed it to their dog mouth-to-mouth; it almost made me throw up.]

[Mom: No way, how unhygienic is that?]

[Exactly. That couple from just now was the same; I kept hearing them call that dog "son" every other word.]

gold futures had already risen by more than two points, and with thirty thousand yuan in hand, even if gold dropped by ten points next Monday, Ye Su would still have enough money to cover the margin.

Taking advantage of this good excuse of [helping someone find their dog], after chatting with his family for a bit, Ye Su transferred the twenty thousand yuan to Su Wan.

The reason he didn't transfer it directly to Ye Jianguo was simply because Ye Su wanted to maintain his dignity as the head of the family.

Having been a proud man his whole life, Ye Jianguo certainly wouldn't want to push the difficulties he encountered onto his children, especially not his youngest son.

By transferring the money to Su Wan, he believed Ye Jianguo would feel a bit better.

[Mom: Didn't someone just give you this money? Why are you transferring it to me again?]

[Mom: You already transferred ten thousand yuan to me last time; you should keep this money for yourself.]

[I have money. A senior previously took on a bigger project, and after the three of us finished it, we each got over ten thousand yuan.]

[I don't need this twenty thousand yuan that someone gave me for saving the dog, so I just transferred it to you.]

[Alright then, I'll accept it.]

Unable to argue with Ye Su, Su Wan finally accepted the twenty thousand yuan.

Seeing that the transfer had been accepted by Su Wan, Ye Su, on his end of the phone, finally smiled.