"Impossible!"
Even if he had never lived up to any expectations, even if he had been a loser from beginning to start!
Yet, living in an ideal world, he had never seen himself clearly, not even once!
"Ah, Daddy, did you go sell flowers? Where are the flowers? Youyou loves flowers so much, Youyou wants some too!"
Held in his arms and basking in paternal love, Ye Youyou blinked her wide, watery eyes and asked.
"No more flowers, Daddy sold them all!" Ye Youyou laughed.
"Sold them all? Then didn't Daddy make a lot of little money?" Ye Youyou asked.
"Mm-hmm, Daddy made over twenty-eight hundred, almost three thousand yuan!"
Pressing his forehead against the little girl's forehead, Ye Youyou spoke with a profound sense of fulfillment.
"Wow, three thousand yuan? Daddy is amazing!"
Perhaps Ye Youyou didn't really understand what three thousand yuan meant.
Yet, having grown up constantly hearing adults argue about money, the word "thousand" undoubtedly signified a huge sum to her!
Little did he know, Chen Yinuo standing at the side could no longer bear to watch or listen!
"Ye Chen, isn't that habitual lying routine of yours enough when used on me? Do you have to subject Youyou to it as well? Do you want Youyou to end up just like you—full of lies and completely lacking self-awareness when she grows up?"
After Chen Yinuo's icy rebuke fell.
She called out toward Ye Youyou, "Youyou, get down, come back to the room with Mommy to sleep!"
Chapter 6: Do You Really Trust Me That Little?
In Chen Yinuo's eyes.
Doing something as "humiliating" as selling flowers was definitely not something Ye Chen would ever lower himself to do.
And making two to three thousand yuan in just a few short hours.
That was the height of bragging without even needing a rough draft!
In an instant, her disgust toward Ye Youyou multiplied tenfold!
Even though she already despised him enough as it was!
Now she worried that her daughter Ye Youyou would be influenced by all his tall tales!
"No, I want to be with Daddy!"
The little girl shouted stubbornly.
"Be a good girl, Youyou, go to Mommy first! Daddy will go buy Youyou McDonald's tomorrow morning!"
Ye Youyou set Ye Youyou down.
Hearing about french fries and hamburgers, Ye Youyou, who had originally wanted to stay put, instantly lit up. "Really?"
"Really! Daddy doesn't lie to Youyou!"
"Then Daddy and Youyou pinky-promise!"
"Alright, pinky-promise!"
Only then did Ye Youyou contentedly return to Chen Yinuo's side.
"Let's go, back to the room with Mommy to sleep!"
Pulling Ye Youyou along, Chen Yinuo didn't even want to glance at Ye Chen.
"Yinuo, do you really trust me that little?"
Before Chen Yinuo could take a step, Ye Chen spoke with a conflicted expression.
Her footsteps pausing, Chen Yinuo let out a mocking, cold laugh. "If you told me you won two or three thousand gambling, I might actually believe you. But saying you made two or three thousand selling flowers? That's pure fantasy! I've been with you since I was twenty, and now I'm twenty-eight. Do you really think I, Chen Yinuo, don't know what kind of person Ye Chen is? You lowering yourself to sell flowers? That's the joke of the century! Besides, making two or three thousand selling flowers in a single night—what kind of flowers are you even selling?"
It was no wonder Chen Yinuo felt this way, because over all these past years, the phrase "down-to-earth" had never once applied to Ye Chen in the slightest!
Just like that failed business venture of his; if not for his grandiose ambition and desire for instant success, it wouldn't have ended in such absolute failure!
"I..." Ye Youyou started.
Before he could finish.
Chen Yinuo impatiently interrupted him. "Save the explanations. I'm not that foolish woman who used to be spun around in circles by your lies over and over again. Don't think that just because you cleaned the place up, you're suddenly a changed man. A leopard never changes its spots—those words apply to you more than anyone else!"
"I know I was a bastard before, and I know I failed you, but can't you—"
Chen Yinuo still refused to hear him out.
"Enough! I believe you, alright? I believe you made two or three thousand selling flowers! But what good does that do? A one-week deadline—how do you plan to pay back two hundred and seventy thousand? Never mind two or three thousand, even if you made twenty or thirty thousand a day, it wouldn't be enough to pay off that loan shark in a week! Ye Chen, if you have any conscience left, if you're still human, sign the divorce papers, and then run away to the ends of the earth. That way, not only will you have a way out, but Youyou and I can at least scrape by and live in peace!"
Pulling the divorce papers out of her bag once more, Chen Yinuo slapped them down onto the table.
Giving Ye Youyou no further chance to speak.
She grabbed Ye Youyou and hurried into the bedroom.
With a loud bang, she closed the door and locked it from the inside!
Standing right where he was.
Ye Youyou remained motionless for a long time.
After a good while, he finally let out a bitter, desolate smile.
Thinking back on his actions over the past few years.
He had not the slightest complaint about Chen Yinuo's current hatred and disgust!
On the contrary, he completely understood it!
If he were in Chen Yinuo's shoes, he probably would have pulled a knife and dragged them both down together long ago.
Snap—!
Lighting a cheap cigarette.
Sitting on the dilapidated sofa.
Ye Youyou pushed all those romantic entanglements and bitter grudges to the back of his mind.
After all, winning back Chen Yinuo's acceptance and recognition was not something that could happen overnight.
What was imminent and pressing was how to make two hundred and seventy thousand yuan in a single week to pay off that exorbitant loan shark debt!
If he remembered correctly, tomorrow in his past life.
There was a concert at the Sports Center!
Several fanatical stans had missed out on tickets.
In the end, just so they could get inside to see their idol's concert, they went ahead and bought five-hundred-and-sixty-yuan concert tickets from someone else for ten thousand yuan apiece!
The most ironic part was that those students selling the tickets had bought them from scalpers for just five hundred yuan!
Because the concert had already started by then, the scalpers, who had originally planned to jack up the price, had to sell at a loss to avoid getting stuck with them!
This happened less than ten minutes before those fanatical stans showed up!
When this incident blew up on the internet later on, it even trended on hot searches for a while!
In his past life, when Ye Youyou saw that trending topic, he even left comments cursing those fanatical stans as absolute morons!
The next day.
Ye Youyou woke up at the crack of dawn.
First, he ran out to buy a McDonald's children's breakfast for Ye Youyou.
Then, on his way back, he stopped by the market to buy eggs, rice noodles, lean pork, pork liver, scallions, and Chen Yinuo's absolute favorite brand of packaged non-fried noodles!
These were Chen Yinuo's favorite breakfast noodles, but constrained by the rush to get to work, no matter how much she craved them, she never had the time to hit the morning market to buy these ingredients and cook them.
To let the mother and daughter sleep a little longer, Ye Youyou moved with extreme caution, terrified of waking them up!
After a round of washing, chopping, stir-frying, and boiling.
It took a full half-hour before those steaming hot breakfast noodles were finally ready.
Checking the time and knowing it was about time the mother and daughter woke up, Ye Youyou didn't linger in the apartment, fearing he would only upset Chen Yinuo further, and even more afraid that Chen Yinuo wouldn't even touch the noodles he cooked!
Scarcely had Ye Youyou stepped out the door.
Chen Yinuo and Ye Youyou woke up as well.
"Wow! Mommy, it's McDonald's, the McDonald's Daddy bought me!"
As soon as she stepped out of the room and saw the McDonald's children's breakfast on the dining table, Ye Youyou cried out in delighted surprise.
"Daddy!"
"Daddy!"
When their calls received no response from Ye Youyou.
The little girl ran into her father's room.
Seeing that the neatly tidied room was completely devoid of her father's presence.
She ran out and said, "Mommy, where's Daddy? Where did Daddy go?"
Yet Chen Yinuo gave no answer.
She stared at the bowl of steaming hot breakfast noodles on the dining table, which emitted an intensely familiar aroma.
Her delicate brows furrowed involuntarily!
Those were the exact breakfast noodles whose flavor she had never changed for all these years!
Only, if she remembered correctly, the last time she ate them was a whole year ago—not because they were a luxury, but simply because there was never time or leisure to make them!
And to trace back the last time Ye Youyou cooked these breakfast noodles for her, she had to go back several years...
And back then, he had only ever cooked them for her once...
Chapter 7: Lingnan Antique City
Hugging his entire net worth of just over two thousand yuan, all stored on WeChat.
Ye Youyou did not immediately set off for the Sports Center.
After all, the concert didn't start until eight in the evening.
Those fanatical stans in his past life hadn't paid exorbitant prices for scalped tickets until past eight o'clock either.
So going over there now was completely useless.
Instead of heading to the Sports Center.
Ye Youyou shifted his target to the Lingnan Antique City.
That place was much like Panjiayuan in the capital.
Both shared the same nature, filled to the brim with all sorts of antique curios and artifacts.
Of course, while they were called antiques, the vast majority were actually modern replicas manufactured specifically to fleece gullible fools and gullible suckers.
Yet the reason the Antique City had managed to survive decades of changing tides clearly meant it wasn't entirely made up of deceitful fakes and replicas; there was still no shortage of genuine treasures that had been overlooked, and at least from time to time, people managed to pick up treasures there, buying items worth far more than what they paid!
In the past, Ye Youyou had visited the Antique City quite a few times, but every single trip was driven by the fantasy of getting rich overnight through a lucky find.
Unfortunately, the result was that time and time again, he became a bona fide sucker who got taken for a ride.
This time, however, things were different!
Armed with sixty years of prophetic memory, within those meticulously sharp recollections.
He remembered how someone in his past life had picked up a bargain at the Antique City for thirty thousand yuan and flipped its value sixteenfold. Moreover, that lucky bastard happened to be one of his gambling buddies!
Unlike him, though that gambling buddy had started out in much the same half-dead state, weighed down by gambling debts that could get him killed by loan sharks at any moment, the guy's ancestral grave must have been smoking because he ended up receiving millions from land demolition settlements. Not only did he clear his gambling debts, but while strolling through the Antique City, he spent thirty thousand yuan and scored a piece worth four hundred and eighty thousand!
It was said that when he was handing over the money, everyone around him was giving him strange looks. The moment he paid and took the item, he immediately heard sellers at neighboring stalls shaking their heads and whispering jokes about a clueless sucker getting reeled in!
At that moment, he knew he must have been conned, but wanting a refund was already out of the question...
Furious as he left the Antique City, just as he was about to toss the strand of Buddhist prayer beads into the trash, a middle-aged man who was just entering the Antique City suddenly stopped him. First, he asked to examine the prayer beads, and in the end, he actually offered four hundred and eighty thousand yuan to buy them right out of his hands!
Although that gambling buddy loved to brag and talk big, times were different back then; having received millions in demolition money, Ye Youyou was certain he wouldn't make up a story like that.
Because of this, Ye Youyou—then trapped in the terrifying grip of loan sharks—believed it implicitly, even cursing the heavens for being unfair, wondering why such good fortune hadn't fallen to him instead of benefiting that bastard.
Back then, consumed by envy and turning green with curiosity, Ye Youyou had pressed him for details, asking what kind of prayer beads they were. Although the guy hadn't explained it too clearly, he did provide one crucial piece of information: the bracelet consisted of eighteen prayer beads strung together, and each bead was carved with a representation of an Arhat—the eighteen beads corresponded precisely to the Eighteen Arhats!
Now reborn back into the past, Ye Youyou felt this was an absolute godsend of an opportunity!
If he played this card right, that two-hundred-and-seven-thousand-yuan loan shark debt would be wiped out in an instant!
There was just one problem: he didn't know on which exact day his former gambling buddy had scored that bargain...
Counting the days, though, it shouldn't have happened just yet, since the guy hadn't started bragging about his massive score until three days later.
Knowing that guy's personality, something worthy of showing off like that wouldn't be kept under wraps for long!
So it was nine-tenths likely to happen within these next two days!
Although he still faced one problem: at the time, that gambling buddy had picked up the bargain for thirty thousand yuan.
While he currently had a total net worth of less than three thousand, meaning he clearly couldn't buy it right now...
He didn't need to rush into buying it immediately; what he needed to do was locate where that strand of Buddhist prayer beads was first. As long as he could pinpoint which stall held those prayer beads, the rest would be easy. After all, tonight's exorbitant concert tickets would be enough to accumulate the capital he needed for his bargain-hunting!
Otherwise, if he waited until tomorrow to search, the opportunity would probably have already sailed!
Because that gambling buddy very likely scored the bargain tomorrow!
"Boss, genuine Tongbao coins from the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, care to take a look?"
"My friend, a vase straight out of a Qing Dynasty prince's estate, interested? We can talk price!"
"Handsome, check out the stuff on my stall, all top-tier goods, see if anything catches your eye!"
"Brother, it's early in the morning today, I'm not looking to make a killing, just hoping to make my first sale of the day. A Pixiu consecrated by an eminent monk from the Republic of China era, put it in your house and it's guaranteed to bring wealth and prosperity, only three thousand, care to take a look?"
Stepping into the Antique City, because it was early morning, there weren't many people wandering around looking for bargains.
So the moment Ye Youyou walked in, a chorus of hawking cries immediately washed over him.
Rather than proper storefronts, the stalls were set up one by one in rows.
Even though many stalls were still empty due to the early hour, the overlapping shouts instantly made the Antique City feel bustling and lively.
Yet Ye Youyou sneered at the Qianlong-era Tongbao coins, the vases from noble estates, and the Pixiu blessed by eminent monks that promised boundless wealth.
If those items were real, would the owners be standing here shouting at the top of their lungs?
Forget about the super-tycoon who would later amass four hundred billion in personal wealth during his past life.
Even that bastardized version of Ye Youyou from his early past life, who deserved a thousand deaths, wouldn't believe a single word of it.
His skepticism came from the harsh lessons he learned after being scammed countless times!
Well, even if one could unearth a hidden treasure in the Antique City, it would definitely not be an item loudly proclaimed to belong to some dynasty or royal estate, and as for lucky charms that brought wealth—that was absolute nonsense.
These tricks were meant exclusively for naive, inexperienced newbies who hadn't been scammed enough times yet!
Approaching every single stall, Ye Youyou would halt in his tracks, then silently scan the objects laid out before him.
Finding no sign of the prayer beads he was looking for, he would move on to the next stall!
Naturally, the stall owners transitioned from initial enthusiasm to growing annoyance, stopping just short of chasing him away directly.
After inspecting over twenty stalls in a row, Ye Youyou still hadn't spotted that strand of prayer beads carved with the Eighteen Arhats.
Yet this did nothing to dampen his mindset.
From morning until noon.
He grabbed a quick, watery, cheap lunch outside the Antique City before heading back inside.
"Damn it, that idiot is back again!"
"Tsk tsk, look at his face, he might as well have 'I'm here to hunt treasures' tattooed on his forehead!"
"With that sneaky, rat-like look, he still expects to find a treasure? He can keep dreaming in his spring and autumn dreams!"
"I swear, I hate morons like this. If the Antique City had fewer of these half-wits, our business would be a lot better!"
"Don't say that, isn't he contributing to the Antique City's foot traffic, hahaha!"
Seeing Ye Youyou's figure reappear.
Muffled whispers and gossiping discussions broke out all around.
Ye Youyou even caught quite a few of them.
However, he couldn't be bothered to care.
He continued his search for that strand of Eighteen Arhats prayer beads!
Little did he know, another few hours slipped by.
The setting sun bled across the sky, shadows stretching toward the west.
The sweltering summer evening finally welcomed a rare, refreshing evening breeze.
After an entire day of walking, Ye Youyou had practically covered every corner of the Antique City, yet there was still no trace of the prayer beads!
"Could that guy in my past life have been making it all up?"
Under the setting sun, Ye Youyou paused.
He muttered to himself.
Then he shook his head again. "He spoke with such conviction, and even described the details of the Eighteen Arhats; it didn't sound like he was just making things up!"
As he muttered, Ye Youyou couldn't help but carefully recall the expression and gaze of that guy from his past life when he recounted finding the treasure, trying to deduce whether the story had been fabricated.
Right at that moment, however.
Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw the owner of a stall two or three meters away slap himself on the forehead.
"Damn it, how did I forget about that thing!"
Following the stall owner's self-reprimand.
The next second.
The man unrolled a burlap pouch by his side.
And pulled out a string of bronze-colored antique Buddhist prayer beads!
Swish—!
In an instant, Ye Youyou, whose peripheral vision had just caught this sight, felt his heart tighten!
Standing several meters away, while he couldn't see whether those prayer beads were carved with the Eighteen Arhats.
It was already enough to make Ye Youyou's heart race with uncontrollable excitement!
Chapter 8: Scalped Tickets with a Twentyfold Markup
"Do me a favor and let me take a look at that strand of prayer beads!"
Just as the stall owner was placing the string of prayer beads down onto his stall.
Ye Youyou had already appeared right in front of him and said.
"Huh?"
Hearing someone ask about his merchandise, the stall owner was initially delighted, thinking a sucker had finally swum into his net.
When he looked up, however, and saw that it was none other than Ye Youyou—the guy who had wandered around from morning till afternoon, looking at everything and buying nothing, while the surrounding stall owners cursed him behind his back—
The stall owner's delight instantly evaporated!
"This isn't ordinary merchandise I've got here. If you're not planning to buy, you'd better not look at it, lest you accidentally bump it and claim I'm trying to extort you!" the stall owner said impatiently.
"Whether I plan to buy or not, shouldn't I inspect the item first?" Ye Youyou didn't take the man's words to heart and replied with a faint smile.
The stall owner was left momentarily speechless. "Fine, go ahead and look then!"
No matter how unwilling he was in his heart, he had no choice but to hand over the strand of prayer beads.
Taking the bracelet.
Ye Youyou carefully rolled the individual beads between his fingers and examined them closely.
Sure enough, it was exactly as he had imagined!
That gambling buddy from his past life hadn't lied or bragged at all!
The prayer beads on this bracelet numbered exactly eighteen, neither more nor less, and every single bead was carved with an Arhat. Eighteen beads, corresponding perfectly to the Eighteen Arhats!
Although he didn't know the exact background of this strand of prayer beads, the heavy, substantial feel upon contact was definitely not some worthless piece of junk!
As a tycoon who commanded forty billion in personal wealth during his later years in his past life, Ye Youyou had handled countless extraordinary objects. While this strand of prayer beads still fell far short of those truly exceptional pieces, amidst the chaotic and mixed bag of the Antique City, it easily qualified as a substantial hidden treasure!
"Are you done looking or not? Are you buying? If not, give it back to me!"
Watching Ye Youyou roll the prayer beads between his fingers one by one.
The stall owner shouted with growing impatience.
Ye Youyou asked, "How much?"