Mr Hong pushed the money to the centre of the table, "This is the money for ten days. As usually, deliver it before dawn, if you still want this shop."

As he finished, he left with the others. Before the thin guy left the room, he booted the door and made a loud noise.

After the three had left, I found a broom and a dustpan and cleaned up the broken porcelain pieces from the ground. My cousin picked up the money to counted the yuan and picked two to verify against the sun to see if those were counterfeit.

"Xuan, come here."

I walked over, "What is wrong?"

Cousin quickly countered thirty-five banknote and handed to me.

"This three garbage won't leave anytime soon, so you will have to go get materials from granny in these ten days; wait until I finish the cigars, and you give those to them."

"The three thousand are your labour fee, five hundred are for the taxi, check the number would ya?"

I was counting the banknote when my cousin was sorting it, thirty-five a-hundred-yuan bills, no more no less.

"Nope, I believe you, cous."

My cousin slapped me on the back, "I knew you are a good kid, go get your work done now."

There wasn't much to do in the tea house, took just an hour to finish the chores. The rest of the time was just for me to daze at nothing.

After four hours, my cousin was still on his phone, and not a single customer had come in.

I couldn't help but ask him, "Cous, don't tell me our tea house just sell cigar. It has been two days, and I haven't seen any other customer."

Cousin kept playing his phone, did not even raise his head, "What do you know. The ones that should come will come sooner or later. The ones that shouldn't won't."

"Besides, here we usually won't have any custom for maybe a month, but whenever there is a customer, the profit was usually worth three months. Think about it, where else would you find such a relaxing and still profitable business?"

I thought about it, hey, my cousin was right. With my credentials, at most, I could be a security guard or something, and it would be hardworking and low paying.

Only on the second day, there were already nearly four grand in my pockets, I should be more content.

I took some time to give my mom a call and remitted the money; my father's medicine will run out soon, they need the money.

Waiting until night time, my cousin called for a take-out for dinner. After I finished eating, I left the tea house for the funeral home to see granny.

With the experience of the day prior, it wasn't as terrifying of an experience than before, walking on the Huang Quan Rd.

I arrived at 11:35, granny was already there. After explaining my intentions, granny took out the same bottle as yesterday and gave it to me.

"Don't leave so quickly, come talk to granny."

Remembering the dog that blocked the exit, and was almost trapped inside after twelve, I immediately told granny that I had other things to do and had to leave.

Granny didn't stop me, and so I hurried out the door.

Back at the tea house, my cousin went to the back kitchen to make the cigar. After he finished, I delivered it to Hong. Everything went well, everything was fine.

When I was on the way back, I waited at the intersection of the commercial street for a while and didn't see a single taxi going by. I began walking toward the direction I came from; if I saw a taxi on the way, I save a few yuan of travel fee this way.

It was pretty strange, I walked for almost twenty minutes, and did not see a single car. If I continue, I would be on the city's main street.

The city main street's lights were super bright, my eyes weren't so used to it. I quickly covered it with my hand, unexpectedly, I walked into a stranger.

"Oh, I am sorry."

I immediately apologize as my eyes got used to the light, and seen the person's appearance.

It was a middle-aged man around fifty, dressed in a black tunic suit, don't know if he felt hot or not since it was the middle of June.

The man seemed very wise, with a pair of gold-inlaid glasses, clearly a knowledgable individual.

"Are you ok?"

The man looked at me and did not speak. I was a little bit scared; my mom told me before I left, society is a dangerous place. There was nothing wrong with helping others, but if you see an old person on the ground, first check for security cameras, and then go help them. They could be scammers.

I was still somewhat terrified. I only had three and a half thousand on me, don't know how much he will ask for.

The old man stared at me for quite a while and finally spoke.

"You are gonna die soon."