Chapter 26 Scammer Decides to Be a Good Person 1: Opening Her Eyes to Social Order

Shi Lan realized she had transmigrated.

There was no need to double-check. She had been in a wheelchair for more than ten years, yet now she could actually stand. She could not help bouncing in place a few times.

Drawing the attention of the people around her.

At the moment, she was in the waiting hall of a very run-down train station.

The small waiting hall was packed shoulder to shoulder. Many people carried woven snakeskin sacks¹, and through the torn openings peeked yellowed, blackened pots, bowls, ladles, and basins. Everyone coming and going was dressed in a style from the last century.

Nearby, a married couple seemed to have managed to buy only one ticket. They were quietly plotting how to get both of them onto the train while the railway police were not paying attention, and how to avoid ticket inspection once on board.

A flood of memories came roaring in.

It was like a heavy hammer smashing into her head. Shi Lan could not withstand it and collapsed onto the floor.

When she finally recovered, she realized that not only had she transmigrated, she had transmigrated into a novel.

A novel she had just read a few days ago.

Because of her disabled legs, she spent most of her time online. Some time ago, a sweet romance called Gifted to Me had exploded in popularity, so she followed the trend and read it too, even sending it a tip.

After finishing it, she followed the recommendation at the end of the final chapter and picked up another sweet entertainment industry novel.

This supposedly sweet little romance, however, left Shi Lan furious.

It was roughly the story of a beautiful, sweet young woman charging into the entertainment industry and rising from an ordinary nobody to Best Actress.

The blurb sounded pretty inspiring, but the actual story never showed how the heroine worked hard, honed her acting skills, or strove to improve herself. Instead, it leaned heavily into Mary Sue territory, showing off how absurdly lucky she was with men. Every difficulty she ran into just happened to be solved by one man or another. Then she would put on that innocent white-lotus² act and insist on keeping her distance from them. The problem was, all those men somehow saw her as pure and naive. With that level of brains and scheming, Shi Lan really had no idea how those male supporting characters, who existed like walking tools, had managed to achieve success in their respective fields.

It was so frustrating to read that she had wanted to drop it countless times.

What kept Shi Lan reading was that the male lead in this story was exceptionally well written.

Though of course, she also felt pairing him with the heroine was a complete waste.

The male lead, Du Heng, was a Film Emperor³ with talents across the board, a senior figure in the industry whom everyone respected.

He belonged to the self-made, hard-working type.

He was sincere, upright, and had spent years in the entertainment industry without being dazzled by all its glitz and glamour. No matter how much praise and how many titles were heaped on him, he still treated acting as nothing more than a job. It was rare for someone to stay so true to himself.

After being single for many years, he met the heroine at around thirty-seven or thirty-eight and swiftly fell head over heels in love. The romantic development was utterly baffling.

In the latter half of the novel, Du Heng voluntarily accepted a supporting role in a film about fraud starring the heroine, just to bolster her career.

To help promote the heroine’s film, Du Heng even revealed old stories from his own past.

That pulled in a huge wave of attention for the movie.

In an interview, when Du Heng was asked whether he himself had ever had any experience related to fraud, he revealed that he had once been unable to afford college tuition even after getting accepted. At seventeen, he had gone out to work, laboring on construction sites and saving twenty thousand yuan over three years. In the end, his girlfriend at the time tricked him out of that money by claiming they should save it for their future marriage, leaving him to survive by borrowing from others. In order to repay those debts, the damage done to his body by overworking and by scrimping too much on food still remained to this day…

His fans had never known their idol had such a past, and they immediately began condemning and denouncing the female scammer from back then.

To support their idol, the box office soared for a while.

In the end, however, the heroine had aimed for awards with that film and came away empty-handed. Du Heng, on the other hand, despite only appearing in a supporting capacity, walked off with yet another Best Supporting Actor trophy.

The author had probably set up this plot point to make the heroine feel sorry for Du Heng and heat up their relationship.

But Shi Lan saw no romance there at all. She only wanted to curse Du Heng for having such terrible taste in girlfriends. If the author had not forced a happy ending because they could not keep writing otherwise, he probably would have still been getting scammed in middle age. With his current net worth, the consequences would not be as simple as just a painful loss.

What angered Shi Lan even more was that in the extras, the author had gone into detail about the time Du Heng was swindled at age twenty. The ex-girlfriend who had cheated him out of twenty thousand yuan was a shampoo girl named Shi Lan.

She was done. Completely done.

When it came to this naive man, Shi Lan could not even bring herself to keep cursing.

Before going to sleep, Shi Lan had still been muttering to herself.

If she were Du Heng’s ex-girlfriend, she would cling tightly to a man like that and keep a close eye on him, so he would not go out and get ruined by some other bad woman!

Well, wish granted. She really had become another Shi Lan.

The Shi Lan from the 1990s, who had just tricked Du Heng out of his twenty thousand yuan and was preparing to flee by train.

She really wanted to raise her middle finger at the heavens.

Running away was out of the question.

Shi Lan would never do something she despised, and besides, she still wanted to go back and see what the older-heartthrob male lead from the book actually looked like. Well, Du Heng was not an older heartthrob yet. Right now, he should still be fresh and delicious young eye candy.

She took out the train ticket to look at it, and wow, this escape plan covered more than half of China. With the internet still in its infancy, there would basically be no way to track her down.

It was a hard-sleeper ticket with a face value of 265 yuan.

She stopped the married couple beside her who had been plotting to dodge the fare.

“I’ve got a hard-sleeper ticket here. I’ll sell it at half price. Want it?”

“Half price?”

“Half the face value. Cheaper than a hard seat.”

Shi Lan showed the ticket to the couple.

“You’re really selling it? You’re not riding?”

“I’m really selling it.”

The couple still wanted to haggle.

Shi Lan was getting impatient. “No bargaining. If you don’t want it, I’ll find someone else.”

“Buying, buying, buying.” Seeing other people starting to glance their way, the wife hurriedly stopped her.

The wife pulled Shi Lan into a corner to count out the money.

Then Shi Lan watched as the woman turned to face the wall, unzipped her pants, then unzipped her underwear, and took out a wad of cash to count…

Wow. What a primitive anti-theft method.

One hundred thirty-two yuan and fifty cents, in a stack of money that definitely had a smell to it…

Shi Lan really did not want to take it, but money was money.

She had been born after the Millennium and had basically never seen old-fashioned dark-colored bills like these.

Forget old editions of currency, even with the new editions, in the age of mobile payments she had nearly forgotten what money actually looked like.

She was worried she would not know how to tell real bills from fake ones. Fortunately, the woman had not given her any hundreds. The largest note was only fifty, so presumably there was less chance of counterfeits?

After counting and confirming the amount, Shi Lan quickly left the train station with her luggage.

While it was still early, she needed to find a place to stay, and she also had to think of some excuse for how to deal with her “boyfriend” Du Heng once she went back.

After all, when the original owner had decided to leave, she had quit her job, given up her rental room, and cut off contact for two days… no matter how one looked at it, it was clearly absconding with the money.

Her mind was still in a tangle.

The moment she stepped out of the train station, the scene before her left her stunned.

A Hong Kong-style⁴ woman in a red business suit, with voluminous permed curls, high heels, and a little leather purse, was walking along the road when a man suddenly sprang out from behind a tree she passed. He slammed into her once and ran.

At first, Shi Lan had not seen clearly what had happened. She thought the man was some kind of pervert who had slapped the woman across the face. It was only after hearing the woman’s cry of pain and seeing the crowd gathering around that she realized something was very wrong.

Maybe her wide-eyed shock made her look too much like a country girl who had never seen the world before.

A passing auntie said, “Another one stealing gold earrings⁵. Young lady, when you’re out on your own, keep your things hidden well.”

Stealing gold earrings?

Shi Lan moved a little closer to where it had happened and saw that one side of the Hong Kong-style woman’s face was covered in blood, and her earlobe had already split open.

Hiss…

It looked agonizing.

How was that stealing? That was blatant street robbery.

Good grief, was public order in the 1990s really this chaotic?

The young girl from the new era started to feel scared.

Especially when a sleazy-looking man wearing a thick gold chain came over and asked, “Little sister, here to work? Just got off the train, right? I’m hiring over my way. Restaurant server. Easy job, just pour drinks beside the guests while they eat. Base salary 1,200. If you do well, there’s commission too…”

Shi Lan completely ignored him, dodged around him, and broke into a run.

He might be able to fool a real country girl, but who knew what kind of living hell that man had come from.

Her heart was pounding wildly, terrified that the man would catch up.

It was not that Shi Lan had poor nerves. The current living environment really was just too terrifying.

She had originally planned to head straight to Du Heng’s construction site and seek refuge with her boyfriend, but when she followed her memory in that direction and passed a hardware market, she saw the steady flow of people going in and out. Gritting her teeth, she went in anyway.

She needed a reasonable excuse for going back, and fortunately, she roughly had an idea now.

She found what she wanted in the hardware market, but she had no understanding of prices in this era, so she could only watch other customers haggle first and get a rough sense of things before speaking up to ask.

What Shi Lan wanted had to be custom-made and would not be ready for pickup until two days later. She paid a deposit and only left after taking the receipt the owner gave her.

She still needed to rent another room. She could not exactly squeeze into the work shed with Du Heng and his coworkers.

Along the way, she did notice plenty of little ads plastered all over the utility poles, but she ignored them out of concern for safety.

When she got close to the construction site, she unexpectedly spotted a real estate agency. In Shi Lan’s time, agencies like this had already spread across the whole country. She had not expected this company to have started up so early.

Shi Lan walked in. Several people inside were sitting together eating.

When they saw her enter, they all looked up at her, but no one came over to greet her. Only one person asked, “What do you need?”

Seriously…

This service attitude was nothing like the professionalism of later times. Then again, it was probably because the way she was dressed did not make her look like a customer.

“Looking to rent.” Shi Lan set her bundle down on the floor and found herself a seat.

She had been frightened nonstop since waking up and had not eaten a thing. It was only now, smelling the food, that she realized just how hungry she was. Shi Lan forced her eyes away from the agents’ meal and looked at the one who had spoken to her. “Of course I’m here to rent. If something’s suitable, I want to move in tonight. Which one of you is taking this listing? I’ll explain exactly what I need.”

After speaking matter-of-factly, she pressed her dry lips together and added, “Before that, pour me a glass of water, please.”

Shi Lan acted so naturally, as if it were only to be expected, that the young man nearest to her instinctively handed her a bottle of mineral water.

Shi Lan took it and gulped down half the bottle in one go, her eyes settling on the napkins on the table.

The young man who had handed her the water reacted even faster and pulled one out for her.

“Thanks.”

She took it, wiped the water from her mouth, and asked the young man, “Are you taking my listing?”

“M-me… I can take it too.”

The young man looked a little dazed, not especially bright.

What she did not know was that these days, only people with fairly good financial means usually came to them to rent a place. Working-class people who looked like her never set foot in the shop, much less acted as familiar and at ease as she did. It really did leave him struggling to process it.

“Hello, miss. My name is Liu Haifeng. I…”

“Alright, Xiao Liu. Write down what I’m looking for.”

Xiao Liu: “…”

Liu Haifeng had not been at the shop for long and had never closed a deal before. He had not expected to get a deal from taking care of Shi Lan. He was only treating it as a chance to gain experience.

After hearing Shi Lan’s requirements, he quickly thought it over and realized the agency really did have a few properties that matched. He got up to fetch the keys, but one of the senior agents warned him, “Be careful she doesn’t cut us out.”

Liu Haifeng looked at Shi Lan, then at the senior agent who had warned him. “Got it.”

In their line of work, customers who cut out the agency and tried to wriggle out of paying were far too common. So they usually screened clients in advance and picked the kind who obviously would not care about a little agency fee.

Shi Lan followed Liu Haifeng to see three properties, all of them single-story houses.

She decisively chose the one with relatively better security and more space. Naturally, the monthly rent was also higher. Two hundred and twenty a month, with two months’ deposit and three months’ rent paid in advance.

In this area, after all, an ordinary apartment unit in a regular building only cost around one hundred fifty or one hundred sixty.

“I’ll take it,” Shi Lan said, making the call.

Liu Haifeng tested the waters. “Then I’ll contact the landlord, and we’ll head back to the office to sign the contract.”

After all, plenty of people still got nervous the moment they heard the words “sign a contract,” as if they were being asked to sign themselves into servitude.

“Okay.” Shi Lan was exhausted and starving, with barely any strength left.

Liu Haifeng glanced at her, then added, “Our terms are two months’ deposit and three months’ rent up front.”

He was just about to explain what that meant when his client agreed without hesitation.

Liu Haifeng was surprised.

Shi Lan, meanwhile, thought he was being annoyingly long-winded. Wasn’t this standard practice?

“Stop dragging it out. I’ll grab something to eat before the landlord gets here. Which place nearby has the best food?”

Liu Haifeng silently took Shi Lan to a noodle shop and bought her a bowl of noodles with beef, then went back to the office to call the landlord. After that, he came back to the noodle shop to wait for Shi Lan.

Shi Lan’s evaluation of this five-yuan bowl of noodles was: “The noodles are alright, nice and chewy, but the flavor’s just average.”

Liu Haifeng: “…”

The contract signing went very smoothly. He had even been worried Shi Lan might stir up some kind of trouble halfway through, but she did not.

This somewhat picky customer not only let him close his first deal, she also earned him a very decent agency fee.

When Shi Lan left, he eagerly walked her to the door.

Shi Lan patted him on the shoulder. “Xiao Liu, you’re a good guy, but you don’t like talking. How can you work in real estate if you don’t like talking?”

The Xiao Liu who supposedly did not like talking: “…”

He wanted to say that he was actually pretty chatty, but Shi Lan so often left him speechless that he could never get the words out.

Shi Lan said, “Alright, no need to see me off. Work hard. If I need anything next time, I’ll come to you again.”

Liu Haifeng suffered internal injuries for a good while before finally forcing out one sentence: “Take care…”

After leaving the Xiao Liu who did not like talking, Shi Lan took her key, dropped off her things, and bought bedding and toiletries. Once she had everything ready for the night, she went to a Western pastry shop by the street and bought twenty yuan’s worth of little cakes, cream puffs, and such, then headed toward Du Heng’s construction site under the cover of night.

She remembered the book had mentioned that Du Heng liked sweets.

–

Construction site.

Inside a temporary shack made of wood and plastic sheeting, the workers who had gotten off work were gathered together chatting.

The topic of conversation was Du Heng’s runaway girlfriend.

The workers all agreed that Du Heng had been scammed. Some suggested he call the police, while others said that would be useless, because once she had run off, where were the police supposed to find her?

Then they all joined in criticizing Du Heng for being too foolish.

Du Heng’s eyes were red, and his heart was full of anxious torment.

He and Shi Lan had met when he went to a hair salon. The girl was funny and interesting, and she was also very understanding and tolerant of the way he sometimes seemed out of place in his surroundings.

As they spent more time together, they became close. When Shi Lan confessed to him, he agreed to date her.

Their relationship had never been especially passionate, but being with her was comfortable enough. When Shi Lan said they should save money together and get married, he agreed to that too.

But he had never expected that the day after he handed Shi Lan the money to deposit, she would disappear.

He went to the hair salon, and the boss said she had quit.

He went to her rental place, and the landlord said she had moved out.

Even the girls sharing the place with her did not know where she had gone. All they knew was that she had packed up and left before dawn. She had not even taken things like her bedding or washbasin.

At that point, Du Heng more or less understood that he had been tricked. As scene after scene from the past few months of their relationship washed over him, he realized the signs had been there all along.

For example, his coworkers and fellow villagers all knew Shi Lan, but he knew none of the people around Shi Lan.

For example, the most they had ever done was hold hands.

For example, she had never contradicted him and always went along with whatever he said.

…

Thinking about all this, and listening to the workers around him saying how unfair it was for him,

twenty thousand yuan, three years of blood and sweat,

he was struck by overwhelming despair and felt wave after wave of dizziness.

Maybe his mind had gone fuzzy from the shock, because he actually started hallucinating and heard Shi Lan calling his name.

“Du Heng, Du Heng, come out…”

It was a girl’s voice, bright and clear, yet carrying a trace of hesitation. It was a voice he knew all too well.

No, it wasn’t a hallucination.

The other workers had cried out in surprise too.

One of the workers lifted the plastic sheet that served as a door and glanced outside. In a complicated tone, he said to him, “Du Heng, your girlfriend’s here.”

Translator’s Notes