“There’s nothing! It’s just that some sand got blown into my eyes just now!” Ethan Carter came up with a lame excuse.

“We’re in the car, how could there be wind and sand?” Emily Foster was amused by Ethan Carter, chuckling as she handed him a business card. “By the way, our class is having a class reunion next week, you have to come!”

“She has such a beautiful smile!” Ethan Carter grinned foolishly as he took the business card, feeling delighted inside.

It wasn’t until Emily Foster had already gotten off the car that he realized he hadn’t asked where the class reunion would be held.

When Ethan Carter dashed home through the heavy rain, Little Brian was sitting in front of the computer playing DOTA, muttering to himself as he played.

“Little Brian, weren’t you sick? How can you get out of bed to play games?” Ethan Carter looked at Little Brian curiously. When he left, Little Brian had clearly been lying in bed groaning, and now he was playing DOTA, which meant he was still clear-headed.

“Yeah! I was resting in bed, but I couldn’t resist the temptation, so I got up to play.” Little Brian was commanding his hero in a fierce battle with the enemy while chatting enthusiastically with Ethan Carter. “By the way, did you get caught again today? I told you, wait until I’m better before we make a move…”

Little Brian talked for a while, but Ethan Carter didn’t respond, so he sensed something was off. Looking up, he saw Ethan Carter pulling things out of his pockets—jewelry, wallets, a whole pile—making Little Brian’s eyes nearly pop out.

Little Brian came over to look at the table full of stuff and exclaimed in shock, “Did you steal all this?”

“Had pretty good luck today!” Ethan Carter nodded.

“Damn, you finally graduated! If you didn’t get the hang of it soon, you’d eat me out of house and home!” Little Brian stuffed some of the things Ethan Carter brought back into his mouth, then hurried back to play DOTA, not wasting a single second.

“With that crappy computer of yours, you still enjoy playing DOTA? I’ll get you a new one soon.” Ethan Carter laughed. That computer was second-hand, cost just over a thousand yuan, and usually lagged terribly even with simple games.

Sure enough, not long after Ethan Carter finished speaking, the computer started lagging.

“Sigh!” Little Brian let out a deep sigh. “It’s all your fault, jinx! The moment you said it, it started lagging.”

With the computer lagging, Little Brian lost interest in playing and started appraising the loot with Ethan Carter.

Because the things pickpockets steal, aside from cash, are mostly items that can’t be spent directly—they have to be sold for money, which can then be used to buy milk and bread—so appraising them before selling is especially important.

Ethan Carter wasn’t great at stealing, but he was really good at appraising value.

At first, Little Brian just glanced at the stuff Ethan Carter brought back and didn’t pay much attention.

But once they started appraising, Little Brian was stunned.

The things Ethan Carter stole, aside from cash, were mostly jewelry—dozens of pieces in total. Most of the jewelry was quite valuable, with the cheapest worth several thousand yuan, and the more expensive ones worth tens of thousands.

All together, the jewelry alone was worth several hundred thousand yuan.

For the two of them, this was a huge sum.

“Xiaohang, you stole all this?” Little Brian’s voice was a bit hoarse as he looked at Ethan Carter in disbelief.

Ethan Carter nodded, just about to say something, when Little Brian suddenly fainted.

At first, he thought Little Brian had passed out from excitement at seeing so much money, so he hurried to help him up, only to find Little Brian’s face was sallow. That’s when he remembered: Little Brian was still sick!

That night, Ethan Carter took Little Brian to the best hospital in H City for inpatient treatment.

Then he returned home alone.

To call it home was a stretch—it was just a temporary rental.

It was only twenty square meters, but it was divided with wooden boards, with a kitchen, bathroom, living room, and bedroom all included.

Among the things Ethan Carter had stolen, there was only a few tens of thousands in cash. After sending Little Brian to the hospital and paying the deposit, he was left penniless.

“Looks like I have to turn that jewelry into cash as soon as possible.” Staring at the table full of jewelry, Ethan Carter made up his mind.

He found a black plastic bag, secretly packed the jewelry into it, and headed out with the bag in hand.

Pickpockets don’t just sell stolen goods to anyone—they have to go to specific fences. These people buy stolen goods from pickpockets at a low price, then sell them at a higher price. Pickpockets usually call these people fences.

Jingwang Street was a street not far from the rental, and it was also a well-known nightlife street in the area.

A fence lived on this street.

Ethan Carter had come here a few times with Little Brian before, but even so, as soon as he entered Jingwang Street, he still got disoriented and couldn’t tell east from west.

This was mainly because, on Jingwang Street, the heavily made-up streetwalkers dressed flamboyantly and came out at night to solicit customers. The air around them was thick with perfume, which made things tough for a pure-hearted virgin like Ethan Carter.

After finally making it through the gauntlet of streetwalkers, Ethan Carter got his bearings, turned down two alleys, and after a lot of effort, finally found the place.