4: Chapter 4 Crossroads of Fate

It was already past two in the afternoon when he returned to school.

Li Xin said goodbye to Uncle Wang and returned to the dormitory with his bag on his back. There was no one in the dormitory; Luo Maifa and Yang Hong must have gone to class.

He locked the door, sat on the bed, and took a deep breath.

"System, open the space."

The image in his mind changed, and he saw that 10,000-cubic-meter space. It was gray and hazy, like a giant warehouse shrouded in mist. In the center of the space, something golden was floating.

That was the refined pure gold. 9.2 kilograms, melted into a rough gold block, its surface as smooth as a mirror, shining with a dazzling light.

In his previous life, the most valuable thing he had seen on the construction site was the twenty-gram gold chain on the foreman's wrist.

Now, he had 9.2 kilograms.

But he couldn't take it out.

At least not yet.

He needed to find a safe channel to cash it out. Dubai was the best choice, but the problem was—he couldn't even afford the airfare to Dubai.

His entire net worth was only a few dozen yuan; it wasn't even enough for the visa fee.

He needed some startup capital. A few hundred yuan would suffice.

But how to get those few hundred yuan?

He thought of the skills the system had given him. Mastery of Medicine—could he work as a temp helping people with medical issues? No, he didn't have a medical license. Mastery of Martial Arts—work as a bodyguard? He had no connections. Mastery of Disguise—go scam people? Too risky.

He thought for a long time and finally decided—to go find Luo Maifa to borrow money.

In his previous life, he had borrowed from everyone and ended up losing both his money and his social standing. He didn't want to owe anyone any favors again. But now, he had no other choice.

He took out his phone and sent a message to Luo Maifa: "Maifa, do you have any money on hand? Lend me five hundred yuan."

Less than ten seconds after the message was sent, a call came through.

"Li Xin, what's wrong? Did something happen?" Luo Maifa's voice was urgent.

"Nothing major, just a bit tight on cash and wanted to borrow some money for an emergency."

"Is five hundred enough? I have two thousand here; take it all if you need it."

"Five hundred is enough."

"Alright, are you in the dorm? I'll bring it to you after class."

"Okay."

After hanging up, Li Xin leaned against the bed and let out a long sigh.

Luo Maifa, this guy, was like this in his previous life too. No matter how difficult things were for him, as long as a brother asked, he never said no. A person like this was worth befriending for a lifetime.

Half an hour later, Luo Maifa ran into the dormitory, panting. He took a stack of money out of his pocket, counted out five red bills, and handed them to him.

"Here, no need to pay it back."

"I will pay it back." Li Xin took them.

"Why are you being so polite with me?" Luo Maifa sat down opposite him and looked him up and down. "What exactly are you trying to do? Are you hiding something from me?"

"No, I just want to go out and travel a bit."

"Travel? Where to?"

"Dubai."

Luo Maifa was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter: "Are you kidding me? You haven't even left Shenzhen, and you want to go to Dubai?"

"I'm serious."

Seeing his serious expression, Luo Maifa's laughter slowly stopped, and his brows furrowed: "You really want to go to Dubai? What are you going there for?"

"To make money."

"Make what money? You're just a student—"

"Maifa." Li Xin interrupted him, looking straight into his eyes. "Do you trust me?"

Luo Maifa looked at him for a few seconds, then nodded: "I do."

"Then don't ask. When I get back, I'll treat you to a meal."

Luo Maifa opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but finally just patted his shoulder: "Alright, then be careful. Send me a message when you arrive."

"Okay."

That evening, Li Xin looked up flight and visa information for Dubai online.

Flight tickets: From Shenzhen to Dubai, the cheapest round trip was over six thousand yuan. A one-way ticket was over three thousand.

Visa: Chinese citizens can get a visa on arrival in the United Arab Emirates, but they need to provide round-trip flight tickets and hotel booking information.

He only had five hundred yuan on hand.

It was far from enough.

He needed more money.

He turned his gaze to the gold in his system space. 9.2 kilograms of pure gold, worth over two million. But he couldn't just take it out and sell it directly. He needed a safe way to cash out a small portion of the gold to use as travel expenses for Dubai.

He thought of jewelry stores.

There were many jewelry stores in Shenzhen, and some small shop owners were not strict about checking the source. As long as the gold was real, they would accept it. But he couldn't take too much; taking too much would arouse suspicion. One or two small gold bars would be enough.

The problem was that the gold in his space was a single 9.2-kilogram gold ingot. He needed to cut it into smaller pieces.

He thought of a gold melting furnace.

In his previous life on the construction site, he had seen coworkers use a simple gold melting furnace to melt gold rings into gold bars. That kind of furnace was very small, used propane gas as fuel, and could reach temperatures of over a thousand degrees, enough to melt gold.

Early the next morning, he went to the second-hand market.

After walking around, he found an old gold melting furnace at a stall selling second-hand tools.

"Boss, how much for this?"

The boss was a middle-aged man in his fifties. He glanced at him: "That furnace? Two hundred."

"One hundred fifty."

"One hundred eighty."

"One hundred sixty."

"Fine, take it."

Li Xin paid the money and bought a set of small molds at a nearby stall that could cast small gold bars of 10 grams, 20 grams, and 50 grams. It cost about two hundred yuan in total.

He carried these things back to the dorm with a calm expression, though his heart was uncontrollably excited. He quietly observed his surroundings, and after confirming no one was there, he quickly and gently locked the door, afraid of being discovered by others, feeling a bit like a thief with a guilty conscience.

Then he took out the 9.2-kilogram gold ingot from the system space. It was heavy, and the cold metallic touch made his heart race. He carefully cut the gold ingot with an engineer shovel, his heart beating fast, afraid of making any loud noises. Finally, he cut the gold ingot into several pieces, picked one that was about 1 kilogram, and put it into the gold melting furnace.

He lit the fire.