Gold bricks are underselling, please help us

Thanks to the intervention of local media, coupled with the fact that internet celebrities Brother Hua and Brother Gang were live-streaming at the scene when Chen Jue hauled away the gold brick, a trending topic titled "The Giant Gold Brick at the Gold Museum Has Been Snatched Away!" surged to the bottom of the 24-hour trending list just before lunchtime.

The trending topic included clipped video footage from the live streams of the two influencers, as well as footage shot by tourists at the scene.

At first, netizens simply refused to believe it!

Because the gold brick challenge had been a viral topic on the internet for many years, and several science communication influencers had previously stepped in with professional scientific knowledge and mathematical formulas to carefully calculate and analyze it, the unanimous conclusion had always been that it was impossible.

Therefore, netizens initially dismissed the trending topic as a joke or a rumor, assuming it was just a new script concocted by some influencer team trying to boost their engagement.

This skepticism persisted for hours until the officially verified media outlets of Jindu City and the Gold Museum stepped in to build momentum. They released a group photo of the masked man receiving his prize, alongside surveillance footage that recreated the entire process of extracting the gold brick. Only then did the trending topic, previously buried at the bottom of the list, soar upward and shoot straight to the number one spot by unanimous vote of the netizens!

"Ah??? It's actually true? Are we sure they aren't paid actors? (Staring eyes)"

"Seeing this Monkey King mask, I thought the director's relative had stepped up to claim the prize again (Facepalm)"

"Lottery tickets are underselling... No wait, gold bricks are underselling, please come help us (Laughing through tears)"

"9.4 million! That's an apartment in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou! I'm so jealous (Eating lemons frantically)"

"Bro, with that kind of skill, why are you pulling out gold bricks? Go to the East China Sea Dragon Palace and pull out the Ruyi Jingu Bang instead (Laughing through tears)"

"I watched the live stream of @FitnessBrotherHua @GangBrother this morning, and my mind has been wandering all day at work (Crying my eyes out). I'd have to tighten screws without eating or drinking since the Ming Dynasty to earn 9.4 million (Distorted by envy)"

"Can any tech-savvy gurus in the comment section calculate how much force is needed to pull that gold brick out of its hole? (Question)"

"My Qilin arm trained from thirty years of being single is ready to go try it out (High-speed rail ticket attached)"

"I was there in person, when this dude pulled out the gold brick, the museum curator's face turned green (Shiba Inu .JPG)"

Netizens debated endlessly beneath the trending topic, and witty remarks flooded the comment section. Even Curator Jin himself was turned into a hilarious meme and began spreading wildly across the internet.

Of course, the footage of Chen Jue wearing a mask and grabbing the gold brick was also made into a GIF, paired with captions like "Bro has struck it rich," "Getting rich overnight," and "Pulling a gold brick to support you," which began circulating widely in major chat groups.

Netizens even bestowed a nickname upon this anonymous young man: "Gold Brick Bro."

Everyone's mindset shifted from initially watching the spectacle as bystanders to collectively turning green with envy.

If someone wins a lottery jackpot, nobody gets jealous because everyone knows it's just the director's relative coming out to collect a surprise year-end bonus.

But pulling a gold brick was entirely different!

This was genuine, massive wealth earned through sheer personal skill!

A windfall amounting to nearly ten million after taxes was enough for an ordinary person to leap across social classes.

Consequently, following Chen Jue's precedent, netizens began posting photos of their train and plane tickets to Jindu City.

Even tickets to the Gold Museum for the next half month were sold out within hours by netizens fantasizing about getting rich overnight.

Nearby hotels and guesthouses began receiving constant bookings from all over the country, and they were fully booked for the next half month.

The entire city caught this tailwind and was swept onto the internet's headlines overnight.

Furthermore, since Jindu City is located in the north, temperatures drop below zero after the onset of winter, presenting ubiquitous snowy scenery. As a result, little potatoes from the south eagerly signed up to visit.

Netizens figured that even if they couldn't pull out the giant gold brick, they could still take a trip and buy some affordable gold jewelry along the way to bring themselves some good luck.

Even the head of the tourism bureau and the vice mayor in charge of the matter cheered and celebrated with excitement when they saw the related trending topic hit number one.

Normally, it wasn't easy to advertise their city to the national populace; without pumping hundreds of millions into promotional funds, you wouldn't even hear a peep.

Compounded by the impact of neighboring Zibo barbecue earlier in the year, leaders of the surrounding counties and cities had been racking their brains for ideas.

They never expected the wheel of fortune to turn and land unconditionally on Jindu City's head.

You could only say that those ten-plus million were damn well worth spending!

If it could trend a few more times, the vice mayor would practically wish he could invite Chen Jue over to pull gold bricks every single day.

...

Being able to boost a city's tourism market overnight, this fellow Chen Jue definitely deserved the utmost credit.

After cooperating with the filming of promotional materials and treating himself to the museum's staff cafeteria meal along the way, Chen Jue promptly found an Industrial and Commercial Bank branch to cash the check.

Counting the endorsement fee he had earned previously, the balance in Chen Jue's bank account had now reached over 27 million.

Without lingering long in Jindu City, he caught a high-speed train back to Hangzhou in the afternoon.

When he returned to Hangzhou, it was already past 9 PM. Returning to his rented apartment after days of absence, the fatigue of constant travel finally melted away.

He first soaked in a medicinal bath, followed by relaxing meditation, and enjoyed a wonderful, deep sleep that night to recover his energy.

Early the next morning, Chen Jue temporarily set aside his eye and ear training routines and drove straight to the morning exercise park.

Days apart felt like ages.

When he saw the youthful and radiant Wu Fang again, the two exchanged a mutual smile, shared a normal couple's greeting hug, and then strolled over to the deserted lakeside of the park to cuddle on the lawn.

"Jue Ge, you're way too good at making money!"

"Just a few days and you've made another nine million plus. With a wonderful guy like you, I feel like I'm barely a match for you anymore."

"So many girls online are begging for your contact info, saying they want to bear children for Gold Brick Bro." Wu Fang's eyes curved into crescent moons.

With her beloved being so exceptional, she, a regular high school physical education teacher, felt a certain degree of pressure.

"What can you even do with this meager pocket change?"

"You can't even buy a decent property in Hangzhou." Chen Jue waved his hand modestly while pulling the treasure-filled little wealthy girlfriend in his arms even tighter.

Because in Chen Jue's eyes, money and romance could never be equated.

Moreover, having previously worked in the financial industry, he understood that a net worth of tens of millions didn't make him a big shot in Hangzhou by any stretch of the imagination.

Any random grandpa playing chess in this morning exercise park was wealthier than him, so his earnings could only be considered a basic improvement to his material life. He was still a long way from truly stepping into the upper echelon of the wealthy.

...

The young couple chatted and laughed by the lake, showing affection for quite a while before beginning their morning exercises.

Once the two-plus hours of morning exercise were wrapped up, Chen Jue drove Wu Fang to her school.

Looking at the luxury cars dropping off students at the school gate, and then glancing at the balance in his mobile banking app, Chen Jue's mind began to spin.

Previously, he hadn't figured out how to spend all this money, but seeing those students chauffeured in high-end luxury vans, a lot of ideas suddenly popped into his head.

If he and Teacher Wu were to step into marriage in the future, purchasing property would undoubtedly be inevitable.

If he really relied on Teacher Wu's family foundation, he would likely be criticized by her relatives behind his back as an outsider living off a woman.

Therefore, he still needed to buy a house, and he had to take into account the school district for future generations; not only did he need to buy a good house, but the location had to be prime as well.

Furthermore, with a large sum of cash in his hands, continuing to rent a home was inappropriate, so he simply put the idea of buying a house onto his agenda.

He downloaded a few property-hunting apps to research the surrounding housing market. Although housing prices seemed to have retreated quite a bit this year, Hangzhou, as a newly minted tier-one city, experienced a net population inflow every year, so property prices remained extremely resilient.

Moreover, Chen Jue planned to buy a house in the downtown area for greater daily convenience. Surrounding areas like Linping and Xiaoshan were ruled out entirely; he focused his sights directly on the Xixi Wetland area.

This region boasted high vegetation coverage and served as the urban lung of all of Hangzhou.

Additionally, being close to Jiangda University campus and Wu Fang's home, purchasing property in this area would facilitate future life and studies.

"Buy big, not small! My new home in the future must definitely have a professional gym, equipped with a relaxation sauna, a home theater, and preferably an outdoor swimming pool in the courtyard to support daily training."

"With such a large usable area, I can only set my sights on villas," Chen Jue muttered to himself.

This could be considered reaching the top in a single bound, using the panel to achieve a material class leap.

He no longer cared for the three-bedroom elevator apartments he used to daydream about while working regular jobs; instead, he aimed directly for the Hangzhou villas that ordinary working folks could never reach in a lifetime.

However, the real estate developments around the Xixi Wetland were relatively older. Newly developed high-end housing estates were concentrated along the riverbanks, with large flat-floored mansions and trendy riverside towers lining the Qiantang River.

As for large-area villas, they were located in surrounding districts and counties like Tonglu and Fuyang, which were inconvenient for commuting back and forth.

After searching around, Chen Jue had no choice but to focus on slightly older villa communities, preferably rough-cast houses that people had purchased and held onto without decorating or moving in, which would make his own future remodeling much more convenient.

After browsing online and bookmarking a few suitable villa communities, Chen Jue drove around to check them out in person.

Now that he didn't need to punch in for work, his labor and studies depended entirely on his own self-discipline and creative imagination.

Besides, after working hard for over two months to level up his attributes, he decided to treat these few days as a short vacation for himself, spending more time improving his material life to prepare for subsequent training enhancements.

...

After spending a morning searching for and viewing properties, Chen Jue finally narrowed his focus down to a community named Fuyue Xiangxi by the edge of Xixi.

There was no help for it!

Villas in the Xixi area were in extremely high demand, filled with local tycoons and wealthy individuals. There were very few vacant villas listed for sale that met Chen Jue's criteria.

The reason he took a fancy to Fuyue Xiangxi was also because the villa layouts in this community did not face the street; backed by the Yuhangtang River, driving to Jiangda University took less than 10 minutes, making it extremely convenient.

Online listings indicated that there were two vacant villas listed for sale in the community, so Chen Jue found a real estate agency at the entrance of the estate and stated he wanted to view the properties.

The agency staff assumed that because he drove a domestic SUV, he was merely there to rent a home, never expecting that he would ask to view the villas inside right off the bat.

"What is your honorable surname, sir?"

"Viewing our villas requires capital verification first. Is that convenient for you?" The staff member was extremely polite and didn't look down on him.

Hangzhou's real estate market was sluggish this year, and transaction volume was extremely limited.

Especially for high-end villa projects, examples that remained unsold after being listed for several years were everywhere. It was already fortunate to have a client inquire in person, let alone casually turning people away.

"My humble surname is Chen."

"You need capital verification just to view the property?"

Hearing this, Chen Jue was slightly stunned, not expecting that he too would experience the scenario of wealthy people buying houses portrayed on the internet.

He pulled out his ICBC Black Gold Peony card and flashed it. The long string of 8888s at the end instantly made the slick-haired real estate agent's mouth split into a wide grin.

This was a top-tier savings card exclusive to premium customers with an average daily deposit of over 10 million RMB at the Industrial and Commercial Bank. He never expected this young man driving a domestic car to be so unfathomably wealthy.

With this card displayed, there was no need to check Chen Jue's bank account balance anymore. The agent briskly fetched the keys and politely invited Chen Jue into the community to tour the environment.

After touring both completely raw, rough-cast villas, Chen Jue felt slightly indecisive, pulled out his mobile phone, and called Jiang哲 (Jiang Zhe).

Matters of viewing and buying houses still needed to be handed over to professionals; since this was his first time riding in a bridal sedan chair, he wanted to avoid getting scammed.

To his surprise, Jiang Zhe happened to be measuring dimensions for a client at a new real estate project nearby. He couldn't figure out over the phone why Chen Jue wanted him to bring his professional measuring tools.

Twenty-something minutes later, after rushing to the Fuyue Xiangxi villa area and seeing a real estate agent serving tea and catering to Chen Jue hand and foot by his side, Jiang Zhe was somewhat dumbfounded.

"Old Si, what on earth are you doing here?"

Jiang Zhe couldn't quite grasp the situation because, in his impression, Chen Jue—who had recently lost his job—should have had zero connection to such high-end villa districts.

"What else could I be doing?"

"Buying a house!"

"Quick, bring all the tools from your car and help me measure the orientation and dimensions of these two villas."

"Whether we can seal the deal today depends entirely on you, Second Brother Jiang." Chen Jue patted the other man's shoulder, signaling him to remain calm.

Upon hearing that an interior designer had arrived, the real estate agent hurriedly pulled a pack of Chunghwa cigarettes from his pocket and distributed them to Jiang Zhe.

"Ah???"

"You're buying a villa here?"

Jiang Zhe accepted the cigarette handed over by the agent in a daze, then stared at his best friend with an expression as if he had seen a ghost. He suddenly felt that Chen Jue, whom he remembered as being deeply impoverished, had suddenly become so utterly unfamiliar.