"Brother Jun!" Qiu Mengze shouted excitedly. He knew Ren Jun too; the guys often hung out together when they had nothing better to do.
Xue Rui wasn't happy to hear that form of address.
He called Ren Jun "Uncle," while Qiu Mengze called him "Brother." Didn't that make Qiu Mengze a generation above him?
"You little punk, don't try to get one over on me." He grabbed Qiu Mengze's head in a lock, and the two of them started roughhousing.
Ren Jun arrived in a small truck. In the back were several large dogs, their long fur covering their eyes.
The big dogs caught Xue Rui's attention.
"What are you doing hauling Tibetan Mastiffs around so late at night? They're pretty scary," Xue Rui asked.
"I'm delivering them to someone tomorrow morning. See that brown one? Fifty thousand yuan," Ren Jun said with a grin, patting the cage.
It was 2012, and a craze for Tibetan Mastiffs had driven the price of these big, curly-haired dogs sky-high.
Ren Jun was riding this wave to make a quick fortune.
However, in a few years when the fad died down, Ren Jun would lose everything and end up saddled with a mountain of debt.
"This isn't a proper business. You should probably get out of it in a couple of years," Xue Rui advised.
Ren Jun lit a cigarette and took a few drags. Hearing Xue Rui's words, he immediately became displeased. He frowned and said, "Why are you just like your mom? Their restaurant is a proper business, but my dog dealing isn't?"
Xue Rui smiled. "Dealing only in one breed, Tibetan Mastiffs, is too risky. If their price drops, won't yours drop with it? If you're going to do it, you should run a legitimate pet business. Get all the proper licenses first."
If he entered the pet industry now, the future was full of people who would treat their "dog sons" and "cat sons" like royalty.
With the rise of short-video platforms, these people would realize just how much goes into raising a pet. They wouldn't hesitate to spend money on them, feeding them better than they fed themselves. The future was a blue ocean of opportunity.
"By the time the licenses come through, the opportunity will be gone! What do you know? Get in!"
Ren Jun thought Xue Rui was still too young to understand the ins and outs of it all.
The small truck slowly drove into the bustling city center, and Xue Rui's gaze was drawn to the surrounding scenery.
In terms of architecture, Hedong City hadn't actually changed that much, but its overall appearance was a world of difference.
There were all sorts of small stalls along the roadside, foul-smelling water flowed in the alleys, and everything looked greasy and grimy.
Ren Jun randomly found a barbecue stall, parked the truck, and ordered about a hundred yuan worth of meat skewers, which was enough for the group to eat for a while.
Ren Jun and Qiu Mengze ate with relish, but Xue Rui held a handful of skewers with a troubled expression.
'Meat from a street stall like this... who knows if it'll give me diarrhea.'
"Eat up," Qiu Mengze prompted.
'Forget it. "A little dirt never hurt nobody."'
Xue Rui decided not to be so picky. 'This body has a high resistance to toxins anyway. I'll just be more careful in the future. One or two meals like this won't make a difference.'
PSSSH!
Ren Jun opened a bottle of beer for Xue Rui, but Xue Rui didn't take it.
He waved his hand. "I quit."
Ren Jun then offered him a pack of cigarettes.
"I quit."
Ren Jun looked at him strangely. "What's gotten into you?"
In his eyes, Xue Rui was practically a carbon copy of himself—just as flamboyant and unrestrained, with the same bad habits and the same aversion to studying.
But the Xue Rui of today was very different. He had actually refused on his own initiative.
"It's good that you quit."
Ren Jun knew the dangers of smoking and drinking, so he didn't try to persuade his nephew. He was just very surprised.
"Uncle, lend me some money," Xue Rui said with a grin.
He knew that Ren Jun had made a lot of quick cash over the years.
But that kind of money came fast and went faster. It wouldn't be long before it was all squandered, and Ren Qunfang would have to pay off this troublesome brother's external debts.
"Why talk about 'borrowing' with your uncle? How much do you need?" Ren Jun waved his hand magnanimously and pulled a few red bills from his wallet.
"Your mom is just too strict. I heard her say during the New Year that she only gives you five yuan a day? What can you even do with five yuan?"
Now that Xue Rui wasn't smoking or drinking, he figured the money was probably for hanging out at an internet cafe or treating a female classmate to a meal. As his uncle, he naturally had to support that.
"One hundred thousand," Xue Rui said.
"How much?!" Ren Jun's hand paused as he was pulling out the money. He suspected he had misheard.
"One hundred thousand. I want to play the stock market. I'll probably need to borrow your ID to open an account, too," Xue Rui said seriously.
"Don't have it," Ren Jun refused flatly.
"I know you do. And I never said I wouldn't pay you back."
Xue Rui's expression didn't change. He didn't have money now, but he would in a couple of years.
His mom had been swindled by an insurance agent into buying a bunch of policies for him. One of them was a savings-type plan that would pay out about eighty thousand yuan into his account when he turned eighteen.
Besides, as long as Ren Jun lent him the money, with his memories, there was no possibility of losing in the stock market.
Ren Jun knew that Xue Rui had a mind of his own—to put it bluntly, he was stubborn. Once he decided to do something, basically no one could stop him.
"It's not about paying it back. Let me tell you a story. A buddy of mine, a few years older than me, was ruined by the stock market a few years back. His family was torn apart, he lost his mind, and I heard he's now homeless, wandering around the Grape Street area."
'Playing the stock market?' In Ren Jun's eyes, it was no different from gambling.
"A few years back? He probably got hit by the subprime mortgage crisis. That was pretty rough, indeed," Xue Rui sighed.
Ren Jun's personality was a lot like his own; once he made up his mind about something, it was hard to change it.
Xue Rui wracked his brain, trying to remember something that could convince Ren Jun.
'What did Ren Jun do in 2012? Was there any dirt on him?'
Suddenly, the image of a beautiful figure flashed through Xue Rui's mind—it was Ren Jun's ex-girlfriend.
A cunning glint appeared in his eyes. He now had a way to make Ren Jun lend him the money.
However, just then, Ren Jun answered a phone call.
"Hello? You want it now? I'm busy."
"I told you I'd deliver it tomorrow morning for sure. I'm a man of my word. Why would I sell a dog the customer has already picked out to someone else?"
"More money? Okay, I'm on my way."
Ren Jun drained the beer from his can and dropped five hundred yuan on the table.
"You guys grab a taxi back to school later. I have to go make a delivery."
Ren Jun picked up his keys and was about to leave, but Xue Rui stopped him.
"You've been drinking. How can you drive?" Xue Rui snatched the keys from him.
Ren Jun looked confused. "It was just a few beers."
"Not even a drop. Drunk driving was criminalized last year. Do you know the consequences?" Xue Rui's gaze was sharp as a torch. He remembered that Ren Jun had been detained for a DUI, and it was on this very day.
"Then what do you suggest I do? I already promised the guy. Besides, nothing's ever happened before. Don't worry, it's all bark and no bite," Ren Jun said, reaching to grab the keys back.
In a small city like Hedong, designated driver services didn't really exist yet. Xue Rui had no choice but to hail a taxi by the roadside and offer a few hundred yuan as a driving fee.
Of course, it was Ren Jun who paid.
"Driver, this is a pretty good gig you've got. Making a few hundred yuan in just an hour," Ren Jun joked.
"We already agreed on the price. You can't go back on your word."
"I won't. My nephew here doesn't know how to haggle."
As the two were chatting and laughing, the small truck approached a remote intersection where red and blue lights were flashing.
A traffic officer on duty waved his hand, signaling for Ren Jun's truck to pull over.
"What a coincidence. See? This money wasn't wasted after all," the taxi driver said, also a bit surprised. It was his first time taking a gig like this, and he'd actually run into a checkpoint.
"Hiss~ I really have Xiaorui to thank for this."
Ren Jun suddenly felt that Xue Rui was his lucky star. If Xue Rui hadn't forced him to hire a driver, he would have been in real trouble today.