54: Business opportunity discovered (3.2K, please support!)

The Three Black Stockings Club in the early morning was permeated with a strange sense of exhaustion.

When the heavy soundproof door was pushed open, a heavy air mixed with alcohol, sweat, and perfume rushed towards him.

The neon lights were still on, but they had lost the sharpness of the night, flickering limply like a radish head drained of its energy.

"Brother Feng!"

Ah Qiang, the bartender behind the bar, greeted him, forcing a smile onto his sleepy face.

"You're here so early? Sister Jasmine hasn't arrived yet."

Jiang Feng waved his hand, sat down at the bar, and placed the black suitcase between his feet.

"Give me a glass of ice water."

His gaze swept across the hall; several dancers were slumped in the booths, their makeup smudged, looking like watercolor paintings dampened by rain.

A girl in a sequined skirt was trying to mend a hole in her right stocking with a band-aid.

"Why not change into a new pair?" Jiang Feng took the ice water and gestured with his chin in that direction.

Beside the bar, a dancer with a ponytail scoffed, "It's all because of you men, always tearing them apart all day long, your fingers never behave. Damn, why don't you go become Eskimos?"

Ah Qiang curled his lip slightly from the side, "Who says we aren't Eskimos?"

"???"

"We just chased the sun from the Arctic to get here, right, Brother Feng!"

Jiang Feng shook his head helplessly and could only reply, "Are you saying that the girls are too hot, like the sun?"

Ah Qiang laughed and winked, "Brother Feng, you're being modest. As men, since the sky rarely lights up, we naturally wish we could have ten suns at once—that's what makes it satisfying, isn't it?"

"Cough, cough, cough..." Jiang Feng was in the middle of a tactical sip of water and nearly spat it out upon hearing this.

The dancers were all amused, laughing until they were doubled over. They were all "dirty queens," so how could they not understand?

"Damn! A Houyi really should come and shoot you all to death!"

The ponytail girl raised her finger, showing deep disdain. Jiang Feng helplessly raised his glass to them and received a shower of flying kisses.

"Damn! That's so unfair!" Ah Qiang sighed.

Everyone burst into laughter instantly, but only Jiang Feng remained, silently watching the dancers' stockings, lost in thought.

The girl in the sequined skirt fixed her stockings, lit a cigarette, walked over gracefully, sat down, and smiled at Jiang Feng, "Brother Feng, how long has it been since you went to the mall? A pair of ordinary black stockings costs three hundred now, and patterned ones can be scalped up to nearly two thousand..."

She tugged at the frayed fishnet stockings on the dancer's thigh beside her and sighed, "These pairs she and I have were things I bid on from a second-hand trading platform; they cost me several days' worth of tips."

Jiang Feng's fingers tapped lightly on the glass; the crisp sound of the ice cubes reminded him of the sound of an abacus he heard when he was a child.

"That is indeed quite exaggerated." He frowned, "Without black stockings, the customers won't like it, and your tips will decrease."

"With fewer tips, you can't afford black stockings, and the customers like you even less, leading to a further decline in competitiveness."

"No wonder you're Brother Feng! You hit the nail on the head..."

The girl in the sequined skirt blew a smoke ring and said indifferently, "This tariff war is endless. I heard that last week several ships of 'family planning medical auxiliary supplies' were detained at the Lunar Port and cannot be sold outside the Human Federation Free Trade Zone."

"Did you never think about going to the Moon to buy them?" Ah Qiang teased, "That customer of yours yesterday was super generous; he ordered five bottles of craft whiskey at six thousand per bottle. It's just a ticket, not that hard, right?"

"Get lost!" The girl in the sequined skirt glared with almond eyes and blew a puff of sword qi at Ah Qiang, making him choke and cough.

"That old bastard, his hands aren't clean, he's fucking disgusting!"

"After he left, I went to the bathroom and washed for a long time, just praying I wouldn't get infected. Otherwise, it would be a huge problem. Damn!"

As she spoke, she became increasingly angry and slammed her palm on the table. Especially when she thought about having to face that old bastard tonight, she couldn't smile.

"Damn! Damn! Damn!" She shouted, her eyes turning red without her realizing it.

Jiang Feng sighed silently. He knew that when the girl saw the old bastard again tonight, she would still smile brightly.

The sound of glass shattering came from the corner; a drunk fighter had knocked over a table.

Jiang Feng glanced over; it was the big guy who had looked down on him that day. The guy's face was bruised black and blue; it wasn't hard to imagine that his opponent from last night had also been battered to pieces.

However, even so, looking at his arrogant demeanor, there were still several bottles of high-end liquor in front of him.

Jiang Feng shook his head slightly. He had seen too many people who were profligate; they pursued pleasure and had no ability to withstand risks.

But could this be called wrong?

"Maybe not..."

Jiang Feng watched the security personnel walk over lazily to deal with the fighter's issue. When facing someone like the big guy, the security personnel's hands were always resting on their waists.

There were two guns there: one was a stun gun, and the other was the real deal.

"Brother Feng, if you know of any channels..."

The girl in the sequined skirt suddenly leaned in, the strong perfume making Jiang Feng lean back slightly, "Help us sisters bring in some goods? As long as it's cheaper than the black market price, we can accept anything."

She looked at the contours of Jiang Feng's cheeks, her smile becoming ambiguous, "Even if it's... paying by other means, it's fine."

"Exactly, exactly, we'll all go together and let Brother Feng enjoy ten suns for once!"

The dancers egged him on and crowded around, their tired eyes suddenly seeming to have light in them.

Jiang Feng saw the various mended stockings on their legs—some painted with nail polish, some drawn with markers, and there was even a girl who had cut a window screen into strips and wrapped it around her legs.

It actually had a unique charm.

"I'll look into it." Jiang Feng put down the glass, water droplets leaving a ring on the bar.

The girls laughed as if celebrating, some of them taking the opportunity to scream, venting the humiliation they had suffered last night.

Jiang Feng smiled. He had always understood that in this city, the hardest currency was not credit points, but "channels."

Channels for obtaining information, channels for distributing goods.

These channels at the forefront of supply and demand were the gold mines themselves, and at this moment, he was standing at the entrance of a gold mine.

"Stockings... I know what I should buy when I go to the Moon."

"Parts will be checked, but moving stockings is much simpler. And I'm not heartless—five percent lower than the black market price is still twice the original price. One in, one out—this is no less than bulk trade."

"This job, it's doable!"

As he was thinking this, one after another, many fighters finished their shifts completely.

He glanced up; eight out of ten were injured, and two were limping.

"They're all new faces; they were really worn out last night."

"I think these guys have fought too many dark matches at outside venues. They only know how to fight with their lives, without ever learning what defense and evasion are. Even the rookies here managed to secure a five-game winning streak yesterday."

A girl introduced, and Jiang Feng found her familiar. A moment later, he remembered she was the card girl at the boxing ring.

Jiang Feng nodded. He picked up the black suitcase, went behind the bar, and took a metal storage tag; that was the number he had agreed upon with Ghost Protocol.

There were no cameras near the bar, so other than asking people, there was no second way to track his identity.

Ah Qiang was busy wiping glasses and definitely wouldn't see which number he took.

Walking towards the locker room, Jiang Feng saw a woman who was quite interesting—messy short hair, eyes narrowed as if she hadn't woken up, long trench coat, high boots—arguing with a man on her wristband.

"Relax, Xiao Qiang, aren't I fine?"

"You're running around alone. If something happens, I won't be able to find you."

"Oh, it's because I'm out of money. If I don't have money, how can I pay your salary? Honestly, I just took a job, is it really that big a deal?"

"I've already reached Sector 03. Where are you..."

Jiang Feng carried the suitcase past her, and Gold-Wrapped Silver tilted its head to look at her.

Su Wen also saw Gold-Wrapped Silver. At this sight, her eyes were almost glued to it. It wasn't until she watched Jiang Feng's back disappear into the entrance of the locker room that she hurriedly shouted into her wristband.

"Three Black Stockings Club, I'm hanging up."

She stood up and was about to follow, but was stopped by security, "This is the men's locker room."

"I'm a man, can't you tell?" Su Wen tried to sophistically argue.

The security guard sneered and looked at her chest—such a vast ocean, who are you trying to fool?

He stared fixedly, and after a few seconds, he said righteously, "We don't do that kind of thing here!"

"Hmph, if you won't let me in, fine. What's there to be so cocky about?"

Su Wen curled her lip and peeked through the door crack, just in time to see Jiang Feng's side profile as he turned the corner.

"Carrying such a well-crafted Robot Dog means he's not short on money, or perhaps even very wealthy."

"Caring about the dancers' stockings means he's good at gathering information and getting along with the underclass. And everyone respects him, calling him Brother Feng, which means this person's credibility and character are decent."

Su Wen analyzed quickly in her mind; the images she had previously caught in her peripheral vision were, as if artistically processed, rendered into precise, high-definition scenes.

"He treasures his black suitcase, which means that suitcase contains something very important to him."

"Combining these points, this person is definitely not simple. He's likely an information broker. It's normal for everyone to respect him so much and tell him secret intelligence. Asking him might yield miraculous results."

Thinking of this, she hesitated again, "But that Robot Dog, I'm really not confident I can handle it."

"Maybe I should just wait for Xiao Qiang to come; he's the best at handling these things."

She thought of Han Zhaobang again and couldn't help but wrinkle her nose, "I quoted nine million, and he didn't even blink. That doesn't look like he intends to pay. I'm afraid even if I conscience-lessly find that couple, I'll be silenced and killed by him."

"It's over. If I don't get this money, my detective agency will go bankrupt! And I don't have any money to run away anymore..."

Su Wen's face stiffened, and the more she thought about it, the worse she felt, "Why didn't I use my brain when taking the case... Sigh!"

She sat down gloomily, flicked her coat hem, and her mind involuntarily wandered. She thought of Gold-Wrapped Silver's blue eyes again, as well as Jiang Feng's side profile, and she pondered in silence.

In the locker room, there was a sour smell of sweat.

Jiang Feng pushed open the locker in the corner; a pitch-black metal suitcase lay there quietly, inconspicuous.

He lifted the handle; it was heavier than expected. No wonder it had wheels.

Jiang Feng thought to himself, "Ghost Protocol, let me see how your craftsmanship is and whether it's worth paying the final installment."

There was a biometric lock on the side of the case, glowing with a faint green light, seemingly waiting for a command.

He didn't rush to unlock it, but instead pulled out the handle, dragged the suitcase, and headed straight for the parking lot through the back door.