’Whatever. I never opened the bag anyway, so I have no idea what’s inside. Right, no idea at all.’

Muttering to himself, he slammed on the gas, and the Raptor shot toward the garage exit.

Seeing this, the middle-aged man behind him shook his head helplessly, unable to stop himself from sighing.

"Sigh. The rich are so low-key these days. A guy worth at least tens of billions driving a half-a-million-yuan pickup truck. Tsk, tsk. Is this what they call ’returning to one’s roots’?"

...

Leaving those two aside, Fang Chenyi drove his Raptor straight to the apartment complex where he first rented a place.

When he arrived, he stared at the run-down complex and felt a wave of emotion. Just half a month ago, he was living in a place like this on a 3,000-yuan salary, eating instant noodles and not even willing to splurge on a sausage to add to it.

He gently patted the clutch bag tucked under his arm. It all felt like a dream.

Shaking his head, he left the Raptor parked at the entrance, grabbed the bag containing the phone and the purse, and walked into the complex.

He had originally planned to ask the security guard to deliver it for him, but he suddenly remembered that while this complex technically had a property management office, it hadn’t had a guard on duty in years.

He shook his head again, resigned, and had no choice but to walk into the complex himself.

"Hey, Xiaofang! Haven’t seen you in a while. Did you go back to your hometown?"

Along the way, one or two acquaintances he’d spoken to a few times before greeted Fang Chenyi. But because of the way he was dressed now, no one thought for a second that he was a rich man.

Relying on his memory, he found the woman’s apartment building. Fang Chenyi didn’t go up; he really didn’t want to see her. He waited for a while, but no one came out or went in, which was a bit frustrating.

He checked the time. It was almost noon, and he still had to go back for lunch.

’Forget it. I’ll just go up, knock on the door, give it back to her, and leave immediately!’

He walked up to the woman’s apartment and knocked twice on the door. KNOCK KNOCK.

A moment later, a woman’s voice came from inside.

"Who is it?"

As she spoke, the door creaked open.

When he saw the woman who opened the door, Fang Chenyi, who had planned to just hand her the items and leave, froze. It wasn’t the woman from before, but the friend who had been with her that morning.

Seeing Fang Chenyi at the door, the woman gasped, her eyes widening in surprise as she cried out happily.

"Wow! Handsome! What are you doing here? Are you here to unclog Xiaoling’s pipes? Come in, come in! You’ll have your work cut out for you today, handsome. While you’re at it, could you unclog my pipes too, pretty please? And I’ll let you in on a little secret... I’m still brand new~"

Fang Chenyi felt goosebumps break out all over his skin. He quickly held the shopping bag out to the woman and said:

"Since you’re friends, can you give this to her for me? I lost her bag, so this is a replacement. I have to go, I’m busy!"

After speaking, he turned to leave, but just then, Xiaoling’s anxious voice suddenly came from inside the apartment.

"Handsome! Handsome! Wait, wait a minute! I’m home, I’m home! Don’t be in such a hurry to leave! My pipes are still clogged!"

But by the time Xiaoling rushed out into the hallway wrapped in a bath towel, Fang Chenyi was long gone.

She stomped her foot coquettishly, then turned to her best friend with a pout, shaking her fist fiercely.

"Hmph! This is all your fault! You scared my handsome man away! ’Unclog your pipes too,’ what a joke! Who would want to help you, you old prude!"

As sparks flew between the two women’s eyes, the door to the opposite apartment suddenly clicked open. A rather sleazy-looking middle-aged man stepped out, eyeing the two of them with a lecherous grin.

"Heh heh, ladies, are your pipes clogged? As it happens, I’m a professional pipe clearer. Just wait here, I’ll go down to my car and get my tools. How about I help you two unclog them?"

The two women glanced back at the middle-aged man and said in unison, "Get lost!"

Then they slammed the door shut.

Back inside, the woman named Xiaoling snatched the shopping bag from her friend’s hands, still complaining.

"Honestly, it was so close to getting unclogged today. Was I out of my mind? Why did I even let you come over? Huh? This bag looks so high-end."

As Xiaoling spoke, both women’s eyes fell upon the shopping bag in her hands. The large LV logo made them exchange a glance. Then, Xiaoling carefully opened the bag, reached in, and pulled out a beautiful, exquisite handbag.

"Holy shit! Is this a real LV?"

Before Xiaoling could speak, her friend, already stunned, snatched the packaging and started rummaging through it. Besides a brand-new, unopened Apple phone, she found the Louis Vuitton authenticity tags and various proofs of purchase from the official store. Of course, the most important thing was the receipt from the boutique.

The reason this friend knew so much was that a young man who had been pursuing her once bought her an LV wallet, though it had only cost a little over 6,000 yuan.

He had taken her with him when he bought it, so she was quite familiar with the process!

Staring at the long string of numbers on the receipt, she couldn’t help but count them out: "Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands... a hundred thousand! One hundred thirty-six thousand, eight hundred and eighty-eight! Holy shit, Xiaoling, you’ve struck it rich! This bag is worth almost one hundred and forty thousand!"

Startled by her friend’s shout, Xiaoling finally snapped out of her daze. She took the receipt from her friend, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"Is... is this real? Not a knockoff?"

Her friend shot Xiaoling an exasperated look. "Knockoff my ass! Look at all this, it’s exactly the same paperwork as my bag. I’m positive, this is absolutely real! Hey, that handsome guy just now said he lost your bag and this was a replacement. Now that you mention it, he wasn’t talking about that 38-yuan one we bought from a street stall, was he? Now that I think about it, they do look pretty similar!"

Her friend’s reminder jogged Xiaoling’s memory. That was right. She had given her bag to the handsome guy, and when she tried to call him later, his phone was out of service. So that’s what happened—he’d lost it.

But at that thought, Xiaoling’s face instantly flushed red all the way to her neck. ’If that’s the case, then he probably saw what was inside my bag!’

’So, if he saw it, and then he gave me such an expensive bag... he must have come here today to... unclog my pipes!’

She turned to her friend, who was staring at the handbag with pure envy. Xiaoling carefully set the bag aside, then turned and pounced on her!

"This is all your fault!!"

[To be continued...]