Zhang Wu had his way, directly picking up a stack of cash and handed it to a lackey next to him, giving him a meaningful glance.
Immediately, the lackey got the hint, holding two thousand red tickets and walked to Su Mo's side, placing the money in front of him.
After all, the feast that his boss had just ordered wouldn't even cost 300 yuan.
"Bro, let's talk about something."
Su Mo looked up at the young man in front of him.
"What is it?"
"This money is for you, how about you give your dishes to my big brother?"
"I don't need money,"
Su Mo replied after a moment of silence.
Thinking that Su Mo was hinting the money wasn't enough, the lackey put his hand on Su Mo's shoulder and persuaded, "Bro, this is quite a lot of cash, please give me some face. Our Zhang Wu is a well-known figure around here, think of it as making a friend. If we see each other again in the future, you'll have some regard."
At that moment, Uncle Zhao came out of the kitchen, saw what was happening, and quickly approached to ask.
"What's going on here?"
Su Mo, who wasn't very hungry to begin with and found their manner of speaking barely tolerable, signaled Uncle Zhao with a hand gesture to refrain from intervening, not wanting to cause trouble in Uncle Zhao's restaurant.
"Alright, I agree."
"Bro, that's really decent of you. In the future, if you run into any trouble in this area, just drop our big brother's name, and people will show you respect," said the lackey, clearly pleased with himself, as he took the dishes and walked towards his boss.
Uncle Zhao wanted to say something but held back at the last moment.
Standing up, Su Mo said to Uncle Zhao, "Uncle Zhao, I've got something else to do and need to leave."
"Wait a moment, here is your rent,"
Uncle Zhao took out a stack of cash to give Su Mo.
Su Mo declined, "No need, you treat me to good food on my birthday every year, I should be the one thankful."
"What are you talking about? Just take it."
Seeing that Su Mo was reluctant to accept, Uncle Zhao went ahead and opened Su Mo's bulky snake-skin bag.
Underneath, the gleaming cash was all exposed.
Zhang Wu, Xiao Wen, and their lackeys saw the bulging snake-skin bag filled with money, their eyes nearly popping out as they inwardly exclaimed.
"Fuck! Is this guy that rich?"
Uncle Zhao quickly put the rent inside the snake-skin bag, telling Su Mo, "Come for a meal when you have time."
"Sure!"
Su Mo shakily pulled the snake-skin bag and left the restaurant.
"Who the hell is that guy? So rich?"
After Su Mo left, Zhang Wu couldn't help but ask.
At this, the other diners in the restaurant couldn't help but snicker.
One of them, a bulky man covered in tattoos and smiling broadly, said to Zhang Wu and his group, "Kid, you're from another area, right? You're lucky today that he didn't make it hard for you. That guy is the landlord of the whole urban village here, everything inside out belongs to him. Your petty cash is nothing compared to him. And, this is his territory. Let me tell you, if he called out, none of you would be able to leave this place today."
"Haha!"
The diners all burst into raucous laughter.
"Ah..."
Zhang Wu and the others were too shocked to speak.
Meanwhile, Su Mo dragged the snake-skin bag to the only bank in the area.
There was a round, small-eyed manager in a white shirt, pacing at the door early on. As soon as he caught sight of Su Mo from afar, he showed more affection than if he'd seen his own father and hustled over with his short legs.
"Aiyah, Mr. Su Mo, you've finally arrived, let me help you with that!"
"No need, I'll do it myself, to deposit money."
Su Mo appeared to have dealt with this manager before.
Since a large portion of the bank's performance came from Su Mo, it went without saying that this little chubby manager was exceptionally enthusiastic.
"Don't worry, I'm on it. What are you waiting for? Come over and help!"
The manager immediately shouted to the employees behind him.
Several employees quickly ran out to help. The burlap sack was extremely heavy, easily weighing several hundred pounds. Soon, the money was dragged into the bank, and the manager bluntly said,
"Stop all other services; everyone count the money."
"Yes, Manager!"
The employees present responded in unison.
Su Mo walked straight to a corner chair and sat down. An employee poured him a glass of water but didn't bother him further.
They were well aware that this young man in front of them didn't like to converse too much with strangers. Instead of trying to please him, it was better to focus on counting the money, which would make him happier.
The collected rent was made of various denominations, including thousand-yuan bills, as well as five hundred and hundred-yuan bills, and even dimes and fifty-cent pieces.
Two hours later, the counting was finished.
A message popped up on Su Mo's phone.
"Alert: Dear Mr. Su Mo, your account ending in 245 has received a cash deposit of 18.632 million yuan....."
After seeing the message, Su Mo picked up his phone and made a few taps. In no time, he transferred out a property tax payment of 15 million yuan.
In this world, all properties are subject to an annual property tax of one percent.
However, the area Su Mo was in was entitled to a reduced rate due to its nature as a poverty alleviation zone.
In fact, if Su Mo charged the normal rate, he couldn't collect as high as the new districts, but earning 70 to 80 million yuan a year would not be a problem.
But Su Mo didn't care about these things. He always remembered his grandfather's advice: "A drop of water should be returned with a gushing spring."
Although the money he had left wasn't a lot, he was still very satisfied.
His account balance now displayed a figure of 1.334 billion yuan.
Becoming a billionaire at such a young age, he felt helpless.
You see, once your assets reach tens of millions, you can apply to live within the high walls.
At this moment, the manager respectfully handed the worn burlap sack to Su Mo, rubbing his hands and asked with a smile,
"Mr. Su Mo, would you care to join us for a meal or something?"
"No need, thanks. I'm leaving."
Su Mo had no mood for it and stood up to leave.
"Then I'll see you out."
The manager didn't insist and enthusiastically escorted Su Mo out.
When night had completely fallen, Su Mo returned home alone.
The faint moonlight shone into the dim, 200-square-meter room, making the spacious house feel cold and void of any warmth.
He walked straight to the bed, kicked off his shoes, crawled into the blankets, sat cross-legged, wrapped himself up, and stared blankly at the photo frame on the table in front of him.
The photo frame contained a picture of a kindly old man and Su Mo, both beaming with radiant smiles.
That period was the happiest time in Su Mo's life.
Drip-drip~~~
Drip-drip~~~
...
The bedside clock kept ticking away, time slowly passing by.
After who knows how long, as Su Mo dwelled in his memories, his grandfather's words that he had said before passing away suddenly surfaced in his mind.
"A person can't stay idle all the time; you have to find something to do."
Perhaps it was this phrase that kept encouraging Su Mo to keep living.
Su Mo slowly got out of bed, stretched out his hand to turn on the room's main light, and instantly, the vast room lit up.
At a glance, cabinets and bookshelves filled the room, topped with an array of lifelike figurines. There were beautiful game characters and anime characters, futuristic science fiction weapons, mecha models...
Additionally, the bookshelves were stuffed with collectors' edition game boxes covering a range of games, each incredibly valuable.
Su Mo walked to his computer desk, sat down, and turned on the computer to check out the latest hot topic, the Star Ring Game, to see if it was fun and could potentially spark a bit of interest for him to find something to do.