Chapter 3: Unofficial Ally
Li Yuheng could barely open his eyes let alone move, or he would already close that annoying curtain. Hiding under the blanket didn't work since the sunlight penetrated it like tissue with a flashlight.
In the end, he forced himself to close the curtain and went back to bed, before the corner of his eyes caught the glimpse of the clock, 9:30. It's cold but not freezing with minimal light, a textbook example of a perfect environment to sleep, but his eyes were wide open because he felt like he forgot something important.
10 AM…...10 AM...10 AM...
All his sleepiness was gone in an instant when he remembered about Rose. He jumped out of bed and ran to the toilet. With 30 minutes left on the clock, It would take him at least 20 minutes to drive to the city and it would be wise to immediately go, but he couldn't live without a bath in the morning.
Not bothering with drying, he picked a random white shirt and black pants as time didn't allow him to dress anything fancy. What can go wrong with casual shirts and pants anyway?
Before he forgot, he grabbed the briefcase on the table, a special briefcase he prepared for today. This briefcase would decide Rose's fate, not literally but it would decide her role in the future. An audition to get into his team, the only winning team in this novel plot.
...
...
It was exactly at 10 PM when Li Yuheng knocked on Rose's office door. His plan to drive failed miserably after he almost crashed into his fence. He realized his body wasn't ready for a drive. Thankfully there was a taxi service in the residence, so he managed to come on time.
"Come in," Rose's voice sounded from behind the door.
Invited, he opened the door and saw Rose working on stacks of documents, but instead of her strong expression like yesterday, she looked like a tired old man after walking down 10 steps of stairs.
"I'm here as promised," He said, informing his arrival in case she didn't notice it like yesterday.
"I appreciate it. Sit down," She said, forcing a smile through her tired face.
"Let's get down to business first," He said and sat on the couch.
She nodded and put down a few documents on the table, "Here are all the permits and licenses, and here are the purchase and sale agreements. Please check it thoroughly."
He checked the documents, everything was clear and detailed. A professional work. "Where to sign?"
"Here, here, here, and here." After he signed it, she checked on it for a moment and said, "A pleasure doing business."
"The same. But what happened to your expression?"
"My expression?" She asked while touching her face.
"Don't you look at your expression? It looked like you just died."
"Oh.....It's nothing. Just a little trouble at work."
"You want help? I don't usually help anyone but I like you. Of course, it has a price."
"....What is the price?"
"Depends. It won't be expensive, don't worry."
After a few moments of silence, she finally let out a heavy sigh and said, "Haahhh, Ok. You must know the Cheng family, they attacked my finances yesterday. I haven't slept the whole night dealing with it."
"I see." He said, acting like he knew what the problem was.
He didn't know who the hell was this Cheng family, but it should be one of the men behind the scenes. Rose's plot in the novel? Big chance.
"Do you think I can beat the Cheng family or not?" He asked a trap question.
".....Yes."
"Why?" He asked a bit surprised.
"Because I can find intel about the Cheng family, but you, you are like a ghost who never existed. I don't know any family that can do this kind of thing."
He laughed and said, "Good answer. I will help you. And for the price," He reached into his briefcase and brought out a square box with chess patterns, "You will own me a favor, and let's play a game of chess."
"Huh? Chess?" She asked with a face similar to a goldfish.
He only replied with a smile and started setting up the chessboard on the table. "Let's play."
Her expression didn't change she sat on the couch anyway and said, "The proudest thing I can say about my chess skill is I know the rules, so don't expect much."
"Try your best. If you win I will give you a grand prize," He smiled.
"Oh? Now I'm pumped out!"
And so the game started.
There are many ways to see someone's true colors. Success, failure, anger, fear, or even a simple game.
It's human nature to not want to lose. To go over the sky or to go to the deepest sea, humans in general love challenges. But those are difficult and dangerous, the reason why most people play video games or watch youtube videos was that they are harmless and a safe place to fail.
But he preferred chess. It's a game with no luck and every mistake counts, a perfect game to test someone's personality and capability. Oh, and it's fun too.
It's best to test if she was worth the investment now since fighting the Cheng family most likely won't come out cheap.
He didn't like bullying people, but to put her under the uttermost pressure, he attacked without a single heart for mercy.
Almost every move she could make now ended in checkmate the next move, and the one move that didn't was hard to spot, even if it's still a checkmate. Most grandmasters won't even saw it, only the best of the best and engines.
And she noticed the direness of this situation. Every second the clock passed, the pressure on her face became more clear. With less than 30 seconds on the clock, she almost tried to move a random piece to not just lose on time, but stopped at the last second.
She took a deep breath and took one more look on the board and her eyes widened. It seemed like she figured it out. True to his words, she played the only correct move. She still lost on every way, but that wasn't important.
The ability to stay calm under pressure, the logical and rational decision making, but most importantly the desire to go for the win.
She passed the audition. Welcome Rose, Li Yuheng ally no 1.
"Good job," Li Yuheng said, smiling.
"Is that sarcasm? I got completely crushed," She said while pouting away.
"No. You did a good job."
"....Thanks I guess. But at least show me some mercy!"
"I will deal with the Cheng family." He sat up from the couch and continued, "Wait for my contact."
She nodded and said goodbye.
…..
…..
"Now now, it's time to find this Cheng family."
He could ask Rose's intel for it, but he won't be the cool mysterious guy anymore, and that would be more beneficial long term. Almost everything could be found on the internet anyway.
True enough, he found some information about the Cheng family, a very basic one, but with the power of money, it was more than enough.
"Can I withdraw 500 million Alexa?" He said, still focused on his laptop.
[Ding! For what host?]
"To help Rose of course. The best way to befriend someone is to help their problem."
[Calculating!..... Approved! The host can withdraw 500 million to help the protagonist helper No. 1! But please don't destroy the villain no. 1!]
The Cheng family was villain no. 1? That was good to know, he could maybe set up a nice bear trap for the protagonist. But not now.
With the system's approval, he called his bank and asked them to set up a new account to transfer the money, but he was asked to come in person. After a few more conversations, he promised to come in an hour.
It's standard procedure, especially for this much money. A bit nervous since he didn't know how the system got the money, but it shouldn't be illegal, at least not obvious.
After an hour of more research of the Cheng family, he went to the bank.
.....
.....
Pillar Bank
Li Yuheng finally arrived at the promised meeting location in downtown Jinpeng. The main branch of Pillar Bank in Jinpeng. As the main branch, the building was naturally huge so it won't lose to its nearby competitor, and it seemed to work with how awful crowded the place was, but even if he hated a crowded place, he still missed them.
After receiving a queue ticket upon entering the building, he realized his number was still far far away. Not a problem, he had a book to read on while he waited. After finding an available seat, his mind was fully focused on the book.
That was if he could.
Not even a minute after he sat down, he was sandwiched between two groups of teenagers that laughed like mammals giving birth. Why they even flexed their streetwear in a bank? Supreme this, Bape that, it's impossible to read anything under these noises. He couldn't move seat as well since the bank was full.
"Hello, can you tone it down a bit? It's hard to concentrate." Li Yuheng said politely to the kids.
The group of teenagers turned their faces at him and one of the loudest guys moved forward, "What did you say!?" He said while rubbing his ear.
"Tone your volume down." He said with the same calm tone.
The loud guy got closer to him and basically screamed in front of his face. "What did you say!????"
"Tone. It. Down." He said with a calm but much deeper voice.
"Huh! Say it ag-"
"What are you doing Guiren!"
Before the guy could finish, a tall middle aged bald man cut him off. The bald man has a bank name tag in his pocket, it looked like he was an employee.
"Father! This guy is disrespecting me!" The loud guy said while pointing at him.
"Shut up! I knew you started it! Didn't I tell you to be respectful because a big person will come!?" The tall bald man screamed at the loud guy.
"Big man, big man, what big man!? He can suck my dick!" The loud guy said and laughed with his friend.
"Guiren! I will smack you at home!"
The tall bald man seemingly gave up after being ignored and went to him instead. "I'm sorry for my haughty son. As compensation, why don't mister skip the line?"
"No worry. Kids will be kids." He smiled and went back to reading. Peace was truly gold.
But the tall bald man didn't leave.
"A-are you by any chance Mr. Li Yuheng?"
Li Yuheng faced him again and said, "Yes. What is wrong?"
There was a strange silence between them but it didn't last long after the bald man talked again, "Please wait for a bit, Mr. Li." He said then ran off somewhere.
He shrugged it off and went back to reading before moments later the bald man came again but this time in a group. Now there are 3 very distinguishable bald men. The tall bald, the bearded bald, and the fat bald. Are they comedy troupe members or what?
"Welcome to Pillar Bank Main Jinpeng Branch Mr. Li!!!!!" The three bald men said and bowed in unison.
They instantly took almost everyone's attention on the bank, especially from the bank staff gasping their mouths open. Li Yuheng could hear gossip, how the three bald musketeers actually bowed to someone.
Li Yuheng tried his best to hold his laugh but still let out a smile and said, "You don't need to greet me like that."
"No no, I'm sorry I didn't recognize you earlier Mr. Li! I'm also sorry for my retarded kid and their friends! I will kick their asses later!" The tall bald man said, looking for words.
The two bald men also nodded tremendously.
"Please follow us inside Mr. Li!!!" The tall bald man said while the other two calmed down the bank staff and customers.
Li Yuheng nodded and followed him to a private room.
…..
The tall bald man introduced himself as Hu Shun, the director of this bank. Hu Shun was waiting for him at the door since the phone call but passed him because he didn't expect him to be so young. Li Yuheng took no offense and told him to stop apologizing.
Afterward, he went through a series of tests to confirm his identity. The staff worked slower than he entered the documents since he was so used to it.
"Is it done?" Li Yuheng said and sat on the VIP lounge couch.
"Yes, your identity has been verified Mr. Li!" Hu Shun said.
"Then can you transfer 500 million to a separate new account? Put it under my name."
"Absolutely Mr. Li!" He said, full of vigor.
"Is there anything you want to ask?" Li Yuheng asked, Hu Shun's expression was clear.
"Oh! I just didn't expect Mr. Li to be so young with this amount of net worth. Is there any secret?" He said shyly.
The other two bald men that were sitting on the corner were also full of anticipation waiting for his answer.
He smiled then swirled his teacup.
The secret huh? It was the system money as he didn't have the freedom to use it. But that breed questions, why was he chosen for this role? Why the protagonist would need so much money? There are too many questions to ask, but that would be a surprise for later. For now, he could only answer with the answer he knew.
"Fate. A nonsensical fate."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
TemperancE
TemperancE Rough chapters again.....I need to stop my habit changing things midway.
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