Chapter 19: Parallel Multiple Instances

As he boarded the subway, Xiao Ma suddenly received a call from Chen Xiao just before reaching his stop.

It seemed something unexpected had happened, but Xiao Ma had no idea what exactly. When the call connected, there was a commotion in the "home," accompanied by the sound of things crashing and a woman's shrieks.

Chen Xiao couldn’t even finish a sentence. She only managed to say, “Xiao Ma, where are you, your money—” before the call cut off.

When he called back, the phone was already switched off.

Now Xiao Ma truly panicked, blaming himself for his carelessness: it really wasn’t wise to leave a huge sum of money at home just like that.

Yet, Xiao Ma forced himself to think calmly. There seemed to be two possibilities: one, Chen Xiao and the others had staged something for the money and were trying to take it for themselves; two, something serious had actually happened, and both the money and the people were gone.

After pondering this, Xiao Ma thought, while Tao Zi was a bit wild—it was understandable—but when it came to Chen Xiao, he trusted her. Or rather, this body seemed to have a natural trust in Chen Xiao.

At this point, Xiao Ma caught himself, surprised by the train of thought.

By rights, although Xiao Ma wasn’t an idiot, he’d always been a carefree, somewhat insensitive person, and his thinking hadn’t been like this before. But over the past two days, there had been a marked change: the almost superhuman reflexes while racing cars with Ni Feihong, the gaming skills, even understanding Longze Meishu’s Japanese dialect—these all seemed to come from the body itself, performed subconsciously, like how the teeth and tongue cooperate when eating without needing the brain’s intervention.

Of course, overall, it was still Ma Weimin’s mind in control, so Xiao Ma was now worried about both Chen Xiao and the safety of the money. If he lost that money, he’d feel like dying.

Perhaps this body couldn’t fully comprehend it, but only someone like Xiao Ma, who had been up to his neck in IOUs and suddenly struck it rich, could understand what that over one million meant.

Unfortunately, this second chance at life had come with its drawbacks. The money had become nearly as tainted as black market cash and could not see the light of day.

Even if it was dirty money, others could use it after laundering it, but right now, Ma Weimin had no identity, no bank account, and didn’t even know what his real name was—so even laundering was useless.

In fact, Xiao Ma had already cleaned a small portion by having Chen Xiao buy things on his behalf, which was essentially money laundering. The necessary taxes had already been paid in this process.

Also, based on typical laundering commissions—minimum around fifteen percent—Chen Xiao had helped Xiao Ma clean a hundred thousand, for which Xiao Ma gave her two iPhone Xs. Generous, but not excessively so.

With all these thoughts swirling, Xiao Ma’s mind was working overtime.

Just as he was about to reach his stop, he received four text messages!

To be precise, it was the same message received at the same time on all four of his major-brand phones. The content was simple: Don’t get off the train. Don’t go home!

Nothing else. Not even the sender’s name, since the messages came from the system numbers of the three major telecom providers: Unicom, Mobile, and Telecom.

This freaked Xiao Ma out—next to his rebirth, this was the most surreal thing yet.

It couldn’t be a phone malfunction; when had he ever seen four phones go haywire in the same second? System numbers weren’t supposed to send such messages, let alone all three providers at once.

Indeed, Xiao Ma’s four SIM cards came from the three major operators.

With this, Xiao Ma was getting numb, glancing suspiciously at the people in the subway car, then at the cameras, thinking: Even if the National Security Bureau was watching him, it wouldn’t be like this, would it?

After a moment, his usual carefree attitude took over. If it couldn’t be figured out, he’d just let it go for now.

What needed to be decided was: should he heed the message? Should he get off? Should he go home?

After hesitating only a moment, Xiao Ma decided: he couldn’t ignore Chen Xiao’s situation, nor the cash.

So he still decided to go home, but took a different route. He rode one stop farther, then approached the back entrance of Crystal Palace from another direction.

Xiao Ma wasn’t a special forces member, nor did he have any supernatural skills, so he didn’t want to pit himself against impossible odds. He kept himself hidden, gradually approaching the row of villas.

From a distance, he observed: a seven-seater vehicle was stopped at his door, and four burly men, each sporting gold chains as thick as a pinky, were carrying two large burlap sacks away.

The sacks were moving—clearly, there were people inside. Most likely, Chen Xiao and Tao Zi?

Xiao Ma had a sense of justice, but he wasn’t stupid. It looked as though any one of those musclemen could take five of him at once, and they seemed to be carrying knives at their waists. Though society had become more restrained, men like these were still the sort who lived by violence.

Xiao Ma had worked in finance before, often dealing with collecting and being collected from, so he was familiar with such people.

He memorized their appearances and license plate, but kept well out of sight.

In theory, a high-end neighborhood should have plenty of security and cameras, so thugs shouldn’t even be able to get in. Yet these men had not only entered, but carried out their business brazenly in front of cameras. There was only one explanation: they had settled things with property management, or property management was in on it with them.

With these deductions, Xiao Ma watched coldly, refraining from any rash action.

He considered calling the police.

But that was complicated for Xiao Ma and wouldn’t stop what was happening. Plus, he didn’t know exactly what had happened at home, and with issues of identity and “huge sums of illicit cash,” he decided to wait and see.

All of this took place in a matter of moments, though Xiao Ma’s mind had already run through all the possibilities.

And of course, as fate would have it, while he was tailing others, he didn’t realize that someone else was watching him...

He opened the door and entered the house, moving slowly, taking in the scene. It was somewhat messy, but not to the extent of a ransacked home.

Technically, it was now a crime scene, but the mess could easily be dismissed as the untidy habits of a bachelor, not linked to a kidnapping.

“These people are professionals, repeat offenders. This is going to be tricky.”

He checked the basement and both floors above—nothing unusual, but the place was empty. Meanwhile, all the designer bags and the remaining over one million in cash were gone.

Damn it!

Though he was worried about Chen Xiao, it was the loss of cash that truly made Xiao Ma want to cry.

If only he’d let Wang Xiao’ai keep it for him.

But then again, that wasn’t ideal either. The little girl’s home situation wasn’t great, she had a gambling father, and she herself was just a child. Leaving it with her would’ve been risky too.

The only consolation was that the computer remained, along with the two “Titan” graphics cards he couldn’t fit inside.

Panicking wouldn’t help; Xiao Ma couldn’t help but laugh at himself, feeling the urge to sit down and play a game as if nothing had happened.

Besides, since Chen Xiao wasn’t around, he couldn’t return the graphics cards for a refund. Desperate for funds, Xiao Ma decided to put both Titans up for sale on a secondhand platform.

At least he could get over ten thousand from the sale, which would tide him over for now...

Beep—

His phone chimed.

Thanks to Xiao Ma’s attractive price, a buyer soon contacted him.

Given his past experiences getting scammed on the platform, Xiao Ma only agreed to local transactions. After negotiating, he set out with the two graphics cards.

All the while, Xiao Ma couldn’t shake the feeling he was being followed, but each time he looked back, he saw nothing.

He was close to tears by now, unable to figure out what mess he’d gotten himself into. First, mysterious, almost prophetic text messages; then his home gets raided; then he’s tailed by someone with maxed-out investigative skills.

He’d thought his life had turned into a romantic CEO novel, only to find himself sacked twice in one morning and abruptly switched into a Jason Bourne scenario.

“God, please don’t let Zhang Ziran come to catch me—she’s scarier than the mob,” he muttered to himself.

Soon, Xiao Ma arrived at the agreed meeting place. The techie who’d bought the cards happened to be nearby.

After meeting, Xiao Ma felt relieved—the buyer was the type of well-off otaku who played with Titans.

It was an odd stereotype, but true: people who played with Titan cards rarely lacked money. Yet, getting a nearly new card at a discount was a badge of honor among gear enthusiasts—they were always swapping, buying, and selling, their setups never static. Sometimes they’d buy high, show off for a couple months, then sell at a loss—typical geek behavior.

“Brother, could you go any lower? You don’t even have the packaging. And you don’t want to use Alipay, you want cash. Feels sketchy,” the otaku tried to haggle.

“I’ll knock off another five hundred—no more. I’ll send you the e-invoice right now. At this price for a nearly new card, what more do you want?” Xiao Ma replied.

The otaku would have insisted on the five hundred anyway, and now he was delighted, showering Xiao Ma with praise.

They went to a nearby shop owned by the buyer’s friend, plugged in the cards for a test run, and once they worked, the buyer happily handed over more than ten thousand in cash, praising Xiao Ma for being so straightforward. “Let’s do business again in the future; it’s rare to meet someone as easy to deal with as you.”

Just as Xiao Ma took the money, a handcuff snapped around his wrist.

At the same time, he felt a chop to the back of his head. A short-haired, sharp-eyed woman said with a smirk, “Kid, I’ve had my eye on you for a while. Come with me.”