Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“This Young Master Li is a strange one. He’s that rich, but he won’t eat sea fish or river fish-he wants farm-raised carp?”

I watched the video Peng You had sent me.

In the video, a pale-faced driver sat collapsed on the ground, screaming at the top of his lungs, “It’s not a fish! It’s a person! I saw legs-”

But in the video, what had fallen out of the overturned fish tank was clearly a whole, perfectly intact, enormous carp, still flopping around alive.

I held my finger against my phone screen to measure it. “This thing’s got to be five feet long, right? How do you even raise one that big?”

“Hell if people like us can understand rich people’s tastes.”

Peng You looked utterly helpless. “I heard it’s some new improved breed. That’s exactly what Young Master Li likes.”

I pulled out a cigarette and lit it, watching the driver on the screen break down sobbing and refuse to get back in the truck no matter what. I didn’t have to think hard to know why Peng You had come to me again.

“Brother Long, I really need your help this time. There are only two trips left. If you don’t go, this job is definitely going to blow up in my hands.”

Seeing Peng You’s pitiful expression, I figured the commission from the Li Family had to be high-but the penalty for breaching the contract was probably just as steep.

The Li Family wasn’t an ordinary household around here. They had connections everywhere. Peng You would rather die than offend them, and I wasn’t exactly eager to get involved with them either.

“Why have you been taking on all these messy jobs lately?”

I felt a little conflicted. “People in logistics are better off sticking to steady work. People like the Li Family aren’t the kind you should be dealing with.”

Peng You sighed along with me. “Isn’t it almost New Year’s? Everyone wants to make a little extra. Before I took the job, I discussed it with the drivers too. The Li Family was offering a high commission, and everyone was willing to take it. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have made it through these past three months.”

Peng You and I went way back, and many of the drivers at his company were good friends of mine too. Times were hard, and with the end of the year coming up, I could understand where they were coming from.

Seeing my expression soften, Peng You went on, “Brother Long, Old Li hasn’t been in good health this year, and Dashun’s wife is about to give birth. This is exactly when everyone needs money.”

“I’m admitting defeat on this one. As long as the job gets done, I won’t take a single cut. I’ll give it all to you as a hardship fee. If it doesn’t work out, then that’s fate. I won’t blame you for a word of it.”

With Peng You putting it like that, I couldn’t really refuse. After all, when I’d been down on my luck, these brothers had helped me plenty.

“All right. Let them know not to load the truck until I get there.”