They had just picked up their wine glasses when they heard Li Wei’s words. They exchanged a very calm look and then grinned.

"Brother Li, looks like your relationship with this friend isn’t that good either. You don’t even have the other party’s key."

Glancing at them, Li Wei started bullshitting, "I did have the key originally, but she got mad recently and changed the lock. I want to sneak in and give her a surprise. I think something like this shouldn’t be hard for you guys, right?"

They exchanged another look, but this time they didn’t rush to respond...

This kind of thing really wasn’t difficult for them...

But they didn’t want to respond so directly, because they knew things definitely weren’t as simple as Li Wei made them sound.

And if they agreed too easily, they wouldn’t be able to maximize their profit.

So they habitually chose to keep silent for now.

...

"Looks like I still need to pave the way with money!"

Seeing their weird silence, Li Wei narrowed his eyes and muttered to himself.

After muttering, he spoke lightly, "I know this is a bit troublesome for you, so I won’t make you help for nothing. As long as you help me get it done, I’ll give you one hundred thousand yuan. How about it?"

Hearing this price, their hearts stirred...

Just to pop a lock and they’d earn one hundred thousand yuan; that was a pretty good deal.

They looked at each other again, and after seeing the eagerness in each other’s eyes, they stopped staying silent and spoke up quickly.

"Brother Li, what money are you talking about? We’re friends. It’s only right for us to help you out, so you don’t need to pay us."

Hearing them say they didn’t want money, Li Wei sneered inwardly, but on the surface his expression stayed calm. "It’s exactly because you’re my friends that I can’t shortchange you. So don’t say anything more, just carry out my instructions."

"Alright!"

They agreed quickly, then looked at Li Wei and asked a bit hesitantly, "Brother Li, let us ask one more thing. This friend you’re going to this time isn’t someone with some super powerful background, right?"

All these years, the reason they’d been able to muddle along so steadily was because they knew where the lines were.

The kind of people they couldn’t afford to offend, they absolutely would not offend...

Hearing their very serious question, Li Wei knew exactly what they were thinking!

He looked at them deeply, then said lightly, "Relax. This friend of mine doesn’t have any terrifying background, so you can completely put your minds at ease."

"If that’s the case, then we’re reassured!"

With a light laugh, they asked a bit warmly, "When are we doing it?"

After thinking for a moment, Li Wei said directly, "It’s getting a bit late today. Let’s do it tomorrow night, how about that?"

"Okay, Brother Li, as long as you tell us the exact time and place, we’ll definitely be there."

Knowing they were still fairly reliable, Li Wei smiled. "Mm, for now let’s just drink properly. Everything tonight is on me."

"Thanks, Brother Li."

...

"Huh? You’re not leaving with me now?"

Xiaobei looked at Cao Lingbing and the others, his face full of surprise.

Earlier, Xiaobei had told them he was leaving and said he wanted to take them with him, but they had different ideas.

Cao Lingbing glanced at Xiaobei, then gave a faint smile and said calmly, "Xiaobei-ge, of course we want to leave with you. We all want to go see the place where you live, but our health isn’t great right now, so we should recover first and then come find you."

"This..."

Xiaobei frowned...

He was just about to say something when he heard Cao Lingbing continue, "Xiaobei-ge, we’ve all talked it over. We all hope we can leave here in our best state, so don’t try to talk us out of it."

"If that’s how it is, then alright."

Xiaobei knew they’d already made up their minds, so he didn’t say anything more...

"Mm, once we’ve recovered, we’ll go look for you!"

"Then it’s a deal. If you don’t come by then, I’ll be angry!"

"Mm!"

...

After finishing their farewell meal, Xiaobei left first...

Only after watching Xiaobei disappear did they reluctantly pull their gazes back...

The frailest of them, Yao Ling, glanced at the others and teased softly, "Aiya, if you want to go with him that badly, then hurry up and chase after him!"

"We don’t want to!"

"Yeah!"

Hearing such obviously insincere replies, Yao Ling narrowed her eyes. "Aiya, you really don’t want to?"

"You little bastard!"

Annoyed, they rushed at her. Seeing them charge over, Yao Ling spun around and bolted.

Because of this playful roughhousing, the heaviness of parting was greatly diluted.

They thought Xiaobei had already left, but he actually hadn’t. Right now he had found Hei, Xiaobai, and the Treasure-hunting Rabbit.

After looking at them a few times, Xiaobei gave a calm instruction, "Stay here and watch over them, then leave together with them at the end!"

"Yes!"

They agreed without the slightest hesitation.

Seeing them agree, Xiaobei felt relieved.

Xiaobei knew that after everything they’d been through, these guys had become much more reliable.

With them guarding this place, basically nothing should go wrong.

...

After leaving, Xiaobei quickened his pace...

He was itching to get home!

Right now he really was itching to get home...

"I’ve finally come back to this familiar place again!"

In the county town, Xiaobei muttered excitedly to himself.

Normally, it would take most people a long time to get from the mountains to here, but Xiaobei didn’t need that much time.

In just a few hours, Xiaobei was back again.

Xiaobei had originally wanted to go straight home, but in the end he gave up on that...

He felt he should go see Song Yaling first and give her a surprise.

While Xiaobei was thinking this, over in the Xicheng villa district where Song Yaling lived, a few people were furtively picking a lock.

They were none other than the people Li Wei had invited earlier.

Sitting in the car smoking, Li Wei frowned.

"These useless idiots, it’s just opening a lock, how can it be taking this long!"

In fact only three minutes had passed, but he was already impatient.

He knew this was a top-tier residential area, which meant security guards patrolling at all times. That was exactly why they couldn’t afford to waste time now, otherwise things would really get troublesome later.

...

"Fuck, turns out this is a rich people’s district, and that Kenghuo actually said they had no background!"

"Exactly!"

Over on their side, they exchanged looks while cursing Li Wei like crazy in their hearts...

Earlier, after they had met up with Li Wei, they let him drive them over here...

Once they got out of the car, they were stunned, because they knew this was a high-end residential area.

They knew that the people who lived here were all rich or powerful, so they’d immediately wanted to back out.

But they also knew backing out was no longer an option, so they could only bite the bullet and come here...