"Mr. Ling, what do you think?"
He had ordered the arrest with a lot of pressure weighing on him. If the landlord got arrested, it wouldn't end well for him either. So he was actually hoping they could settle things privately, letting him off the hook.
"You want to settle this quietly?" Ling Feng raised an eyebrow, nodding.
"I'm fine with that, but the condition is that you waive my rent for ten years."
It's easier to deal with a big boss than with the minions. Clearly, if this landlord had to show up in person to wreck the place, he was just a small fry.
Even if the landlord were arrested, it wouldn't solve the problem, and who knows if another lackey would come along later to stir up more trouble. Might as well get something out of it, and if the guy leaves him alone afterward, great. If not, Ling Feng would have to deal with it more harshly.
"Ten years rent-free?" The landlord hesitated, visibly uncomfortable.
Seeing this, Ling Feng's face turned cold. "Not interested? Fine, forget it."
"No, no! I mean, okay, I agree!" The landlord, seeing how firm Ling Feng was, had no choice but to nod and accept his terms.
The landlord returned Ling Feng's rent payments, along with compensation for the damage to the shop. The squad leader quickly gave a signal to his team, and they all made a swift exit.
Ling Feng weighed the money in his hand and smiled. It really was unexpected good fortune.
"Looks like we're having a special dinner tonight. Gotta treat the wife!" he thought, leaving the shop in a good mood.
Meanwhile, the landlord stared angrily at his goons lying on the ground, growing more furious by the second.
"This isn't over!" he muttered, clenching his fists.
Pulling out his phone, he dialed a number. "Brother Hua, there's a guy messing up our business…"
Outside the market, a crowd had gathered around a stall, and shouts of surprise could be heard. Ling Feng, passing by, noticed it was a gambling stone stall. Many onlookers were itching to try their luck.
Ling Feng stayed for a moment and watched as someone opened a decent piece of jade, doubling their money. According to the whispers around him, several people had made good money before that too.
Ling Feng smirked but kept quiet. It was obvious this was a scam. Those who made money were probably in on it with the stall owner. They were just bait to lure others into gambling.
Sure enough, once the latest act was over, someone from the crowd began encouraging others to try their hand.
Ling Feng wasn't interested and was about to walk away when the man trying to hype the crowd approached him.
"Hey, young man, why don't you give it a try?"
The man smiled warmly, giving off an air of simple honesty. But if you really believed he was that sincere, you'd be in for a rude awakening.
They set up these stalls in markets like this for a reason, targeting people who were easy to trick. Judging by Ling Feng's casual, low-cost clothing, the man quickly assumed he was someone without a steady job or much status in his household.
People like that? Perfect targets.
"Having a rough time at home, huh? Don't you want to change that?" The man leaned in closer. "You saw earlier, didn't you? These stones are really good. People have already made some nice finds today. I can tell you're destined for success—you just need to make the right decision!"
Ling Feng was about to brush him off when something caught his eye. He noticed that a few of the stones actually looked pretty good. Upon closer inspection, he saw a small, barely noticeable mark on them.
He couldn't help but smile to himself. These stones had clearly been marked for show, likely rigged for someone's act.
What would happen if he bought all the good stones? He chuckled at the thought.
Pretending to hesitate, he finally nodded and said, "Alright, I'll give it a go."
The man's eyes lit up. Got him! A fish on the line!
It wasn't a cheap game—each stone cost 1,000 yuan to try. But for those who didn't know better, it was easy to lose everything.
"I'll take five stones," Ling Feng said, handing over 5,000 yuan.
The stall owner blinked in surprise. A big fish!
Ling Feng had already spotted five of the marked stones. Casually, he picked them up as if at random.
"These will do. Let's cut them open."
The stones were marked so subtly that neither the stall owner nor his assistants noticed anything wrong. They instructed the cutter to get to work.
"Wow! Lucky guy! The first one's jade, and it's good quality too!"
The crowd gasped in surprise as Ling Feng's first stone turned out to contain a decent piece of jade.
"This is fine-grain jade. Not a large piece, but it's worth at least ten thousand yuan," said a middle-aged man with glasses.
The crowd buzzed with excitement. Ling Feng had only spent 5,000 yuan, and he was already set to make double that.
Even if the rest of the stones were duds, he had still made a solid profit.
Seeing this, the atmosphere grew even more electric, with more people itching to try their luck.
The stall owner's face darkened for a moment, but seeing the rising enthusiasm, he smiled again.
"See? I told you you've got the look of a winner. It's fate! Making money just comes naturally to you!" the stall owner said, his face plastered with a grin.
"Another one! More jade!" someone in the crowd shouted just as the second stone was cut open.
"This one's even better—an ice-grain jade! Easily worth thirty thousand yuan, maybe more once it's turned into jewelry," the man with the glasses added.
The crowd gasped in amazement. "His luck is unreal!"
The stall owner's smile quickly vanished. Panicking, he rushed to check on the marked stones, only to find that the five he had set aside were all gone.
His heart sank as two more stones were being cut. One was worthless, but the other… a gold-thread jade, worth even more than the first two combined.
Now the stall owner was fuming. There was no way this was a coincidence. Ling Feng had to be onto something.
Desperately, he signaled for his men to start causing trouble. He couldn't let Ling Feng walk away with all those winnings—it would ruin him.