《Cash Rules Everything: My Infinite Wallet》

Chen Guo wished she could wrench open the train window and leap into the void.

♫ I belong under the wheels, not in these seats~

The cringe was unbearable.

Lu Yuan noted Chen Guo's crimson ears—frost-touched earlobes now burning scarlet—but grasped her gambit. With practiced nonchalance, he approached the interloper occupying his seat: a middle-aged man whose receding hairline formed a precarious peninsula.

"Excuse me." Lu Yuan's knuckles rapped leather-clad shoulders. "You're in my spot."

The man's gaze traveled upward, pausing at Lu Yuan's gym-honed frame. "Apologies, young sir!" He scrambled to the opposite seat. "This lovely lady's... boyfriend, I presume?"

"Got a problem with that?" Lu Yuan dropped into his seat, voice laced with manufactured irritation.

"None at all!" The man's smile stretched thin. "Merely admiring your girlfriend's modeling potential. My livestream audience would—"

"Did he cross any lines?" Lu Yuan cut him off, turning to Chen Guo with performative concern.

"N-no." Chen Guo's fingers worried her bangs, pink blooming across cheekbones. The protective act stirred something warm beneath her ribs—a forbidden ember she dared not name.

Satisfied, Lu Yuan withdrew into his phone, leaving frost hanging in the air.

Five minutes of suffocating silence passed before the man's appraisal began anew: nondescript sweatshirt, off-brand sneakers, that laughable Redmi phone... A broke college grad playing knight-errant.

Prime cuts always end up with the swine, he mused, jealousy curdling his smirk. "Young man," he oozed, "might I inquire about your... profession?"

"Unemployed. Got issues?" Lu Yuan didn't glance up.

"Merely concerned!" The man leaned forward, cufflinks glinting. "A strapping lad like you should provide for his lady! Take my trade—live commerce. Know the top streamer fined 1.4 billion last week? That's the big leagues!"

Chen Guo's eyes remained glued to her screen, but the faintest eye-roll betrayed her disdain.

Undeterred, the man brandished his iPhone 14 Pro. "See this? Two days' earnings! Join my team—5K monthly base, up to 10K with commissions!"

Lu Yuan's sleeve slid back as he stretched—a flash of blue starburst against platinum.

The man's pitch died mid-syllable. His Adam's apple bobbed. That wrist... That impossible constellation dial...

Patek Philippe 6102P—a timepiece worth over two million yuan, practically unobtainable at any price.

Sweat beaded beneath his collar. "I... That is..."

LuYuan merely adjusted his cuff, the movement calculated to casual perfection.

Chen Guo blinked, missing the silent killshot. "Why'd he flee like scalded cat?" She prodded Lu Yuan's arm.

"Boredom, perhaps." His smile held Mona Lisa ambiguity.

"Liar." Her narrowed eyes held playful accusation. "You've got tells."