After waiting for several days, Bai Yexiu received some very bad news: the assets in his bank account had plummeted to just one-seventh of their original amount.
"What?"
Bai Yexiu doubted his own ears.
"You heard right. I'm sorry, I only managed to salvage one-seventh of it." On the other end of the phone was the slightly mature voice of a young man, though in reality, he was only four years older than Bai Yexiu.
His tone sounded deeply apologetic. "The fund transfer was blocked by MI6. They spotted me."
"It's fine." Though Bai Yexiu said this, his heart was quietly weeping for his lost fortune.
He had traveled all over the world, toiling for several years to accumulate that wealth, only to have it slashed.
"At this rate, I hardly have any money left. I might have to go back to my old trade."
Bai Yexiu lay on the sofa, staring blankly out the window.
He had spent a long time abroad as an intelligence broker, to the point where many people in the underground world were well acquainted with the alias he used to sell information: Chain.
He would secretly sell irrelevant intelligence dug up by the Organization's Intelligence Division to others—for instance, when the Intelligence Division was investigating a specific target and happened to dig up information on someone else, or intelligence that turned out to be completely useless once uncovered.
The Organization had plenty of intelligence like this. Perhaps due to the Organization's cautious nature, the Intelligence Division always uncovered a lot of extra details when looking into things, and most of this incidental information was useless. This had provided Bai Yexiu with his golden ticket to wealth.
The Organization didn't need it, but various gangs in the underground world needed it badly. Bai Yexiu, having stumbled upon this fortune-making formula at the time, made a killing off of it.
Every time the Organization assigned him a task, they would send over a bundle of information—regarding a specific person, for example—but in the end, much of that intelligence often proved useless, so Bai Yexiu would take it and sell it.
However, he didn't sell all of it. Bai Yexiu would never sell intelligence that was sensitive to the Organization, because that would pose a risk to them.
Bai Yexiu still wanted to make a living off the Organization; if the Organization ran into trouble, what would happen to his paycheck?
A money-maker must never lose his meal ticket.
Not even the boss knew about this; the only one who knew was Peinuo, a good friend Bai Yexiu had made in his childhood.
Peinuo was the person on the phone with Bai Yexiu. Peinuo was a member of the Organization whose latent talent for black tech in childhood had caught the boss's eye, allowing him to enter the Research Division. Later, he and Bai Yexiu met and became friends.
Peinuo often mailed Bai Yexiu bizarre black-tech gadgets of his own invention, leaving Bai Yexiu utterly helpless.
This time with the bank account, Peinuo had volunteered to help him salvage the funds. Knowing Peinuo's capabilities, and happening to know nothing about that field himself, Bai Yexiu had left the matter in Peinuo's hands with complete peace of mind.
If even Peinuo couldn't salvage it, the situation must have been truly difficult.
Bai Yexiu made a decision: he would return to his old trade.
Upon hearing this, Peinuo didn't seem surprised at all, acting as though he had expected it. "Chain really ought to make an appearance for a while."
Hearing this, Bai Yexiu grew interested. "Oh? How so?"
"Didn't you go to Japan? You've been gone for quite a long time now, and all those guys who depend on you are losing their minds, sending people everywhere to look for you." Peinuo sounded as though he were about to laugh.
Bai Yexiu couldn't help smiling. "Where did the other intelligence brokers go?"
"Ever since you left, a bunch of fake-intelligence pedakers suddenly popped up. Now none of the gangs dare to buy information anymore, and even some of the legitimate brokers have gone out of business along with them." Peinuo's mood seemed quite good, the rhythm of his speech even turning lighthearted.
Bai Yexiu figured it was probably because Chain's reputation in the underground world was simply too good. During the year he spent as an intelligence broker, he had never once sold a piece of fake information. Moreover, his intelligence was diverse and comprehensive—basically whatever anyone asked for, he had. He was deeply beloved by all the gangs.
Inevitably, every intelligence broker in the underground world would end up selling a few fake reports due to various circumstances during their career, but for Bai Yexiu, such a thing did not exist.
"Looks like I can make a killing." Bai Yexiu's mood instantly improved a lot.
Since so many peddlers specializing in fake intelligence had appeared, if Chain—who possessed an immaculate reputation in the circle—suddenly reappeared, a crowd of people would inevitably flock to him to buy information.
To be honest, he had almost forgotten that his side hustle was being an intelligence broker. When he first arrived in Japan, his mind had been entirely occupied by his devastated finances, and he had only thought about working hard to make money.
Who doesn't love money?
Bai Yexiu certainly couldn't refuse it.
"Good luck." Peinuo hung up the phone.
Bai Yexiu put the phone down and suddenly spotted Camilla trying to sneak a bite of the bag of dried small fish he had left on the table.
"Tsk." Bai Yexiu grabbed it by the scruff and popped it into a box.
That bag of dried small fish was something he had bought abroad. Although it was meant for cats, Bai Yexiu loved eating them himself and hadn't even had the heart to eat very many. Yet this snake had an absurdly strange diet and actually liked cat snacks, having devoured half his bag in just a few short days.
The training manual the boss had sent him that day stated that this little snake liked eating dried small fish. At first, Bai Yexiu thought the boss had made a typo, but to his surprise, it really did like eating dried small fish.
So why on earth would a snake like dried small fish?
Bai Yexiu looked at Camilla wriggling inside the box. Well, fine, I suppose it's just my snake...
He collapsed lazily onto the sofa once more, took out his phone, and began organizing the emails he had saved previously.
While someone like Gin would delete the information sent by the Intelligence Division immediately after reviewing it, Bai Yexiu always kept these emails, waiting for an opportunity to sell the intelligence contained within them. This had already become a habit for Bai Yexiu from the past, even though he had now arrived in a new country.
Looking at the intelligence on his phone, Bai Yexiu wore a smile.
It was the fragrance of money...