60: succeed

"Wait a moment, I'll go outside to talk."

Today was Saturday, and the whole family was home. Worried that they might catch on to something, Lin Hongyuan held his phone up and headed out the door to continue the conversation.

Just as he stood up, a woman in her forties on the sofa asked, seemingly casually:

"Honey, it's Saturday. Who is calling you? It wouldn't be the company asking you to work overtime again, would it?"

Lin Hongyuan shuddered in fear, then feigned a nonchalant expression: "It's a headhunter. They want to poach me for a job at another company."

"Oh." The woman didn't ask any further.

Seeing this, Lin Hongyuan breathed a sigh of relief and headed out to the stairwell.

"Why are you calling me?"

Hearing the hostility coming from the receiver, Ye Su understood what was going on.

"I heard you took a painting to an antique shop to get it appraised yesterday, right?"

"How do you know that!"

"I'm in this business too. It's not strange for me to hear wind of someone looking to sell something. After all, the circle in Yangcheng is quite small."

"I want to sell a painting, so what?"

"I want that painting."

Lin Hongyuan's pupils constricted slightly.

Sure enough, this pair of despicable lovers was trying to blackmail him, and they immediately demanded his painting worth 150,000!

"Don't think you can threaten me just because you have a video! Do you know that what you're doing is illegal!"

The next second, what came through the receiver left Lin Hongyuan stunned.

"Did you misunderstand something? I'm not trying to blackmail you with the video or get you to give me the painting for free. The shop owner offered you 150,000 when you went for an appraisal, right? I'll offer the same 150,000 to buy your painting."

"Huh?" Lin Hongyuan's brain couldn't quite process this for a moment: "You contacted me just to buy the painting?"

"What else would I contact you for?"

Lin Hongyuan asked tentatively: "I'm still hesitating because 150,000 is a bit low. If you want it, can you add a bit more to the price?"

Ye Su was speechless.

Damn it, I filmed your video and didn't use it to blackmail you; isn't that kind enough?

You bastard, you really can't tell who holds the cards. Trying to treat me like a sucker—you really deserve to die.

"I know you've asked several antique shops, and none of them offered more than 150,000. This proves your painting is only worth that much."

Ye Su hinted: "I'm offering 150,000 to buy it from you now; that's fair, isn't it?"

Lin Hongyuan understood the implication in Ye Su's words: "By the sound of it, you seem very interested in this painting. Could it be that it's worth more than 150,000, and you're bypassing the antique shops to find me because you want to score a bargain?"

"Heh." Ye Su laughed mockingly without hiding it: "You went to several antique shops, and those old hands didn't see anything special about your painting. Do you think it's possible that I, someone who hasn't even touched the real thing, could have a better eye than them?"

With a few sentences, Ye Su successfully dispelled Lin Hongyuan's unrealistic fantasies.

"Then why did you come directly to me to buy this painting?"

Having struggled in society for twenty years, Lin Hongyuan certainly wasn't that easy to fool; he couldn't see the oddity in Ye Su suddenly wanting to buy the painting from him.

"I took a liking to that painting, and I didn't want to go through an antique shop and waste money, so I came straight to you."

Ye Su's tone began to grow impatient: "One word, are you selling it or not?"

"I'm selling!"

Would Lin Hongyuan dare not sell?

Selling this painting was originally intended to resolve the situation with the female college student outside.

If he didn't sell the painting to Ye Su, Lin Hongyuan was afraid that on one hand, he'd pay the 200,000 breakup fee, and on the other, Ye Su would hold a grudge and expose his affair with the female college student. Wouldn't the 200,000 be wasted then?

Anyway, Ye Su didn't take the opportunity to lowball him and offered the market price of 150,000. Lin Hongyuan couldn't find a reason not to sell the painting to Ye Su.

"Alright, if you're free this afternoon, come to Hongtian Plaza. We'll exchange the money and the goods."

"Sure, let's make it 2:00 PM."

After setting the time and hanging up, Lin Hongyuan sneered and mocked Ye Su:

"Young people are just young people. No brains at all. He doesn't even know how to use the video to threaten me into lowering the price by a few tens of thousands. He's truly stupid to the core."

Lin Hongyuan finally understood why Chen Xinyi had scoffed at the promotion and raise he offered on Monday without even glancing at it. So she had found such a wealthy boyfriend.

Claiming to be in the antique business and being able to casually pull out 150,000 to buy a painting, Ye Su was already synonymous with "rich" in Lin Hongyuan's eyes.

"She usually acts so high and mighty, unmoved by all my hints, but in the end, she just found a rich boyfriend."

Thinking of Chen Xinyi, Lin Hongyuan gritted his teeth in hatred.

If you like money, why didn't you say so earlier? It's not like I wouldn't give it to you. Why act so high and mighty!

If she had just been upfront about wanting money from the start, he wouldn't have had to keep that female college student as a mistress and end up with this mess!

Worried about his wife getting suspicious, Lin Hongyuan didn't dare to continue cursing and turned back to go home.

As for the hundred butterflies through flowers painting, he had kept it in his car since yesterday, so he didn't have to worry about his wife discovering it at home when he took it out in the afternoon.

...

Hongtian Plaza was not far from Chen Xinyi's apartment. At 2:00 PM, Ye Su arrived at the plaza alone and, following the text message Lin Hongyuan had sent, found his car parked by the side of the road.

"Where's the painting?"

"Here it is."

Ye Su took the scroll and opened it to check for any issues.

Of course, Ye Su couldn't tell if it was real or fake, so he could only compare it point by point based on the limited description in the intelligence.

The painting was indeed the [hundred butterflies through flowers painting]. The canvas was made of silk, and the backing was also made of silk.

While pretending to inspect the painting, Ye Su ran his left hand over the scroll, but he couldn't feel the layer mentioned in the intelligence.

However, the three surface points were consistent with the intelligence. Ye Su felt it was unlikely that Lin Hongyuan could have moved so quickly to create a fake to deceive him.

Plus, with his leverage in hand, Ye Su figured he wouldn't dare to pull any tricks.

"The item is fine. I'll transfer the money to you."

"Alright."

Ye Su had determined the 150,000 scroll in such a short amount of time; the speed surprised even Lin Hongyuan.

What exactly does this boyfriend of Chen Xinyi do? He seems much wealthier than he imagined!

Ignoring Lin Hongyuan's surprised look, Ye Su stuffed the rolled-up painting back into the tube, held it, and got out of the car.

"Good grief, holding 150,000—no, it should be 270,000—walking down the main street like this... I have to say, it's actually quite thrilling!"

As he walked, Ye Su imagined a scene from a movie where a motorcycle gang would zoom by, "whoosh," and snatch the scroll from his hands.

But now there were surveillance cameras everywhere, and motorcycles were banned in Yangcheng, so the scene Ye Su imagined naturally wouldn't happen.

Returning to the apartment, Chen Xinyi, who had been waiting for a long time, immediately pulled him to the sofa:

"Quick, open it and let me see! What does a 150,000 painting look like!"