97: Where did you go wrong?

Along the way, Chen Xinyi was itching with curiosity, wanting nothing more than to find out the price of the toy as soon as possible. However, knowing it wasn't appropriate to discuss this in front of the driver, she had no choice but to hold it in.

She wanted to look up the price online herself, but other than knowing that the toy they bought was an optimus prime, Chen Xinyi knew absolutely nothing about it and had no idea where to even start searching. She could only stare resentfully at Ye Su, who was holding the toy in his arms.

Ye Su, on the other hand, kept holding back his laughter, turning his head toward the car window and pretending not to notice Chen Xinyi's expression.

After returning to the apartment, Ye Su placed the transformer on the table and unhurriedly went to the sink to wash his hands.

Once he dried his hands and sat back down on the sofa, Chen Xinyi finally lost her patience and suddenly straddled Ye Su.

"Out with it! How much can this toy actually sell for?"

"You want to know?"

"Duh!"

Ye Su looked at Chen Xinyi with a mischievous grin. "Then tell me, do you admit you were wrong?"

"You!"

Chen Xinyi took a deep breath, forced a smile, and squeezed out a few words through her teeth, "I was wrong..."

"What did you do wrong?"

"Everything."

"Then give me a kiss."

*Smooch—*

As if to vent her frustration, Chen Xinyi planted a hard kiss on Ye Su's left cheek. "Is that enough?!"

"Yes, but you'd better get off me first. Otherwise, I can't guarantee what might happen next."

Feeling a certain familiar change, Chen Xinyi immediately rolled off and sat back down beside Ye Su.

"Can't you think about anything else?"

After how it was last night, he was still like this today. Chen Xinyi really suspected that Ye Su was an absolute beast.

"I am thinking about something else right now." Ye Su gestured with his chin toward the transformer.

"You're killing me with suspense! Hurry up and tell me, how much is this toy worth?"

"Take a guess first. There's a prize if you get it right."

"A prize?" Chen Xinyi immediately began to calculate in her head.

Before they went out, Ye Su had used three thousand yuan and a twenty percent cut to bait her, which meant a twenty percent cut had to be worth more than three thousand yuan.

"Twenty thousand?" Chen Xinyi tentatively guessed a price.

"Wrong."

"Thirty thousand?"

"Forty thousand?"

Ye Su still shook his head. "Can't you be a bit more ambitious? Be bolder with your guess."

"Big brother, please spare some thought for the self-esteem of a working-class person like me! Forty thousand yuan for a box of toys is already incredibly high, okay?!"

Only then did Ye Su realize that forty thousand yuan was indeed not a lot of money to him now. He even had a fifty thousand yuan lottery ticket tucked inside his phone case.

But to ordinary people, forty thousand yuan was indeed a substantial sum.

"I won't tease you anymore. This optimus prime has all its parts complete with no wear and tear. It can probably sell for around one hundred and twenty thousand yuan on the secondhand market."

"One hundred and twenty thousand?!"

Ye Su said he wasn't teasing her.

But hearing "one hundred and twenty thousand," Chen Xinyi still felt like Ye Su was pulling her leg:

"Are you saying this bit of plastic, tin, and some paper can sell for one hundred and twenty thousand?!"

Her monthly salary was only nine thousand yuan, with a year-end bonus equivalent to two months' salary.

Even without deducting social security and housing fund, she wouldn't be able to buy this pile of plastic and stickers on the table even if she didn't eat or drink for a whole year.

As a working-class person, thinking of this made Chen Xinyi feel utterly defeated.

"Can this little thing really sell for one hundred and twenty thousand?" Still unable to believe it, Chen Xinyi confirmed the price with Ye Su once again.

"Don't believe me?" Ye Su glanced at Chen Xinyi. "Then let's count it as forty thousand. Your twenty percent cut is eight thousand yuan. I'll transfer the money to you right now."

"No, no, no!" Chen Xinyi hastily pressed down on Ye Su's hand. "I believe you!"

Realizing that she had just earned more than two months' salary from a single trip to a junkyard, Chen Xinyi began to giggle foolishly.

She didn't feel there was anything wrong with only getting a twenty percent cut, even though she was the one who bought the transformer back from the junkyard.

The information was given by Ye Su, and he was the one who led her to make the money. Being able to get twenty-four thousand yuan already made Chen Xinyi extremely happy.

"Huh?"

Once her excitement died down, Chen Xinyi also realized that something seemed off.

Last time with the painting with the hidden layer, Ye Su had said his friend just happened to run into Lin Hongyuan selling the painting at an antique shop, which was how he discovered something was amiss.

But what about this toy? How did he find out it had been sold to a junkyard?

"How did you know that junkyard bought this toy?"

"I just happened to come across it while scrolling on my phone." Ye Su had already made up an excuse.

"You know how people are nowadays. If they see a dog pooping on the street, they can't wait to film a video and post it online.

So when I have nothing to do, I scroll through local videos to see if anyone has filmed something valuable that no one else has noticed.

Last night, I happened to come across a video filmed by the junkyard owner himself. The optimus prime happened to be in the shot, so I just followed his location to get there."

"Then how did you end up holding a grudge against the junkyard owner? Logically speaking, the two of you shouldn't have had any connection at all, right?"

"At the end of last semester, that bastard came to our school to collect books that students wanted to throw away. It turned out his scale was so rigged that it didn't even register seven-tenths of a catty. When I called him out, he started babbling and trash-talking. If my classmates hadn't held me back, I would've almost gotten into a fight with him. That's why he left such a deep impression on me."

Ye Su realized that ever since he bound with the system, he had become increasingly adept at spinning lies.

If he kept training like this, even if he accidentally got dragged off to Northern Myanmar one day, he wouldn't have to worry about getting hit with electric batons.

"Oh, I see..."

Chen Xinyi thought it was a coincidence, but since she couldn't find any loopholes, she believed Ye Su's words.

"Then how are we going to sell this toy? Are we putting it on a secondhand platform?"

"Just go straight to Wan Yuanliang and have him buy it."

"Isn't his family in the antique business? Do they buy toys too?"

"They'll buy anything that can make a profit. Besides, this thing is much easier to resell than the antiques they usually deal in."

The 1984 first edition G1 Optimus Prime has currently been hyped to sky-high prices. Unopened or special editions can easily fetch tens or even hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of yuan at auction.

Even at such prices, it is a seller's market with high demand and low supply, so there is absolutely no need to worry about being unable to sell it.

On top of that, every time a new movie in the "transformer" franchise is released, these collectible models enjoy a surge in price.

Ye Su couldn't think of any reason why Wan Yuanliang would refuse to accept such a hard currency.

"Then what are you waiting for? Hurry up and contact Wan Yuanliang!"

"Alright, calm down."

"That's one hundred and twenty thousand yuan! I can't be calm at all!"

Urged repeatedly by Chen Xinyi, Ye Su had no choice but to take a few photos and send them to Wan Yuanliang.

[Bro, do you buy G1 Optimus Primes?]

[It's been opened, but all the accessories and the instruction manual are there, and the stickers haven't been applied yet.]

[Wan Yuanliang: Holy crap, a 1984 US edition G1 Optimus Prime!]

[Wan Yuanliang: You can even get your hands on this!]

[Wan Yuanliang: Is it authentic? Don't tell me you bought a reissue!]

Receiving several messages in a row, Ye Su could easily imagine Wan Yuanliang's excited face through the screen.

[According to my preliminary appraisal, the item is authentic.]

[If you want to buy it, I can find some time to bring it over for you to do a secondary appraisal.]