Chapter 30 – Scammer Decides to Be a Good Person 5 Thank You, Du Heng Is Already

The movie was very long. Even though she had watched it many times before, Shi Lan still found it utterly absorbing.

Ah, she really envied Forrest Gump’s luck in business.

“What do you think?”

Du Heng said, “It’s pretty good.”

???

That was it?

“Don’t you have any other thoughts?”

That question completely stumped Du Heng.

Shi Lan prompted him, “For example, do you have any thoughts about acting as a profession?”

Du Heng actually didn’t have any, but with his girlfriend looking at him so expectantly, he racked his brains and finally came up with, “It should be kind of like construction work. Both are physical labor. The only difference is that more people get to see you.”

Shi Lan thought to herself: This is bad. Du the Film Emperor’s ambition for his career hasn’t even sprouted yet.

The novel didn’t seem to explain when he switched careers, either. Who knew where that talent scout who discovered him even was?

Such a perfectly handsome face, being worn away day after day on a construction site, his hands covered in calluses…

People always said fame should come early.

Shi Lan didn’t want to just sit around here waiting for a talent scout. What if, because of some butterfly effect from her transmigration, the scout never came?

Du Heng couldn’t afford to waste time either.

She decided to take the initiative.

But this was too big a leap into a completely different field. She had just arrived here. Forget entertainment industry connections, she barely even knew any ordinary people, otherwise she wouldn’t have been milking Xiao Liu for all he was worth. There wasn’t even an internet cafe… though in this era, entertainment news probably wasn’t all that available online anyway.

Shi Lan turned her attention to traditional media.

She bought a whole stack of related magazines and newspapers and flipped through them whenever she had time.

And sure enough, after half a month of searching, she finally found a bit of information.

It was roughly about how the mainland was preparing to film The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber¹.

In this era, wuxia² dramas were still mainly dominated by Hong Kong productions, so filming a classic this time was a kind of experiment. They had even left a phone number for applications.

That was pretty novel too.

Shi Lan called to ask about it, and the other side gave her an address where she could pick up a character list and an audition application form.

It was right in their city, and the audition would be local too!

Shi Lan decided to coax Du Heng into going.

Du Heng was shocked by the suggestion. An actor? Wasn’t that a little too big a jump from his current line of work?

Shi Lan immediately started showering him with praise. “You have no idea how handsome you are. I think a lot of actors can’t even compare to you. With your face and your build, it’d be a waste not to enter showbiz. Don’t you like reading wuxia novels? Don’t you want to experience that jianghu³ passion for yourself? Besides, we’re just trying it out. There’s nothing to lose.”

He was not moved at all.

So Shi Lan started acting shameless. “Come on, go with me. I don’t care, I just want to see you wearing a hero’s costume. Just think of it as playing along with me. It’d be good to have one more life experience too.”

As the victim of her shameless pestering, a certain someone agreed, the tips of his ears turning red.

So this worked even better?

Boss Shi seemed to have learned something.

Shi Lan took time out to go pick up the character list and audition application form herself.

That night, after Du Heng got off work, the two of them huddled together to study which role he should apply for.

Du Heng truly loved reading wuxia novels. He had read works by masters like Jin, Gu, and Liang⁴, and a classic like Heaven Sword was even more deeply engraved in his heart. Perhaps in his own heart, there was already a jianghu of his own.

The lead role was out of the question, and the important supporting roles probably weren’t realistic either.

When it came to choosing a role, Shi Lan only watched from the sidelines and didn’t interfere. She trusted the judgment of the future Film Emperor.

In the end, Du Heng chose “Yang Xiao⁵.”

Shi Lan: “…”

She suddenly felt she might have trusted the future Film Emperor’s judgment a little too blindly.

As Shi Lan remembered it, Yang Xiao was supposed to be kind of an older man. Could Du Heng really pull it off with such a young, tender face?

She couldn’t bear to dampen Du Heng’s enthusiasm.

So she didn’t object, especially after looking over the list and realizing there were basically no suitable young male roles. It was either Zhang Wuji or Song Qingshu.

The male lead was impossible, and the male supporting role wasn’t any good either. Besides, Shi Lan definitely didn’t want Du Heng’s debut role to be a villain.

Looking at it that way, Yang Xiao wasn’t that unsuitable after all. After all, if he wasn’t handsome enough, Ji Xiaofu wouldn’t have fallen for him.

Shi Lan wasn’t really holding out hope anyway. She just treated it as helping Du Heng gain some audition experience.

After submitting the application form, all she could do was wait for news. Not having a phone really was inconvenient. She had boldly gone to look at mobile phones once. An ordinary Motorola candy-bar model with a keypad cost eighteen thousand.

No thanks, she didn’t want one. How many boxed meals would she have to sell to make that back?

A landline was cheaper, but the installation fee would still be three to four thousand.

And they might not stay in this courtyard long-term anyway. If they moved, it wouldn’t be worth it.

Shi Lan left the public phone number of the tobacco and liquor shop next door. For that, she even brought the shop owner fruit and pastries a few times, asking him to notify her if any related calls came in.

–

After Li Xia arrived, Shi Lan’s work efficiency shot up.

Now, the number of boxed meals they prepared each day had already risen to a little over two hundred. That was the absolute limit the two of them could handle.

Shi Lan had done the math. On workdays, the stall’s customer traffic could support three hundred portions without a problem, but selling them would take longer and be more exhausting.

And it would affect her popcorn business outside the movie theater.

Yes, in the evenings she had set up a stall fifty meters away from the theater, selling popcorn, chips, and fries. She had bought a batch of kraft paper bags wholesale, filled and tied them up at home in advance, and then all she had to do was sell them individually on site. She also didn’t have to worry about them being left exposed and going stale.

This was the real profiteering!

Puffed snacks looked like a lot in each bag, but the cost was less than one mao⁶. When she sold them, the small bags were two yuan and the large bags were three.

The small bags only held half as much as the large ones, so in comparison, more people chose the three-yuan large bags.

Every evening, she could sell at least thirty to fifty bags.

She couldn’t possibly make all the money there was to make. Money in the nineties was simply endless.

She even wanted to go sell fried chicken outside schools. She had heard KFC had already entered China in the eighties, and by now there were already several locations in the city. But they were criminally expensive. Shi Lan had gone to look, and the prices weren’t much different from what they had been in her own era. A standard combo with cola, a burger, and a side cost around thirty yuan. It was practically robbery.

If she opened a fried chicken and burger shop, even if she priced things at only half of what that old American guy charged, she’d still make a killing.

Shi Lan happily pictured her commercial empire.

Li Xia focused on preparing the ingredients. “Seems like there’ve been more customers from the construction site these past few days.”

Shi Lan smiled smugly. “Naturally. I have a secret.”

Among the customers from the construction site, the first stable regulars had been some young men without families to support. Of course, they didn’t come every single day, but they would always stop by once every two or three days.

As for the other types of customers, they were only drawn in after seeing these young men running to the stall every day.

Most workers might not give up the cafeteria and choose a street stall just because of flavor, but the body was always honest.

The dishes in the construction site cafeteria lacked oil and substance. Since they were doing heavy physical labor, they had to eat huge basins of food at every meal. They would feel full while eating, but they’d get hungry again quickly, and the two or three hours before dinner were basically pure suffering.

But the boxed meals from the stall were different. Once they noticed that the coworkers who ate at the stall still had plenty of strength for afternoon labor, nobody needed to call them over. They would willingly give the stall a try on their own.

No one wanted to work for hours on an empty stomach.

Shi Lan wasn’t just bragging. She really did have a little secret.

Workers burned through energy fast, and children ate for growth. Both got hungry quickly.

When she first designed the menu, she had never even considered the later generations’ health-conscious obsession with leafy vegetables.

All the dishes in the stall’s boxed meals were cooked using a specially blended oil. Rendered pork fat, unprocessed rapeseed oil, and sesame oil were mixed in a ratio of 5.5:4:0.5. Rich, fragrant, and glossy.

The dishes weren’t overly greasy, but they were deeply aromatic and filling.

One day, a middle-aged man in a leather jacket, carrying a briefcase under his arm, also came to buy a boxed meal.

The workers all greeted him, calling him “Brother Wu.”

Shi Lan didn’t know him, but that didn’t stop her from greeting him with a smile, calling him Brother Wu, and handing over a boxed meal.

“Oh? You know me, little girl?”

Shi Lan said, “I honestly haven’t met you before, but Brother Wu, you’re such a distinguished-looking man. Anyone could tell you’re somebody important on this worksite.”

The polite flattery might have been fake, but it was hard to resist when it sounded so pleasing.

Brother Wu chuckled. “Since you’re doing business off my worksite, shouldn’t this boxed meal be on the house for me?”

Shi Lan said, “Treating you is no problem, just a small thing. But Brother Wu, since you’re such a big shot, shouldn’t you treat all these worker brothers too? After all, this site runs on their hard work.”

The moment she said that, some of the workers started cheering her on.

Brother Wu wasn’t stingy either. He pulled out a hundred-yuan bill from his pocket and handed it to Shi Lan. “Sure, sure, sure. Everyone gets treated.”

Taking his own meal, Brother Wu tucked his briefcase under his arm and, without any fuss, started eating right there on his feet.

One of today’s vegetable dishes was stir-fried potato, eggplant, and green pepper. He took a bite and gave Shi Lan a thumbs-up. “Authentic!”

Shi Lan accepted the praise openly. “If you like it, come again next time.”

“Next time? Even now, hardly anyone eats at the cafeteria on my site anymore. Every day they just make steamed buns, then pair them with the boxed meal dishes.”

“Listen to you, doesn’t that just save you trouble?”

It was only later that Du Heng told Shi Lan that this Brother Wu was the chief contractor for several nearby worksites.

A contractor. Rich!

Was there a chance to work together?

Apparently not.

Sigh, what a pity. A big fat fish gone to waste.

Du Heng: “…”

He could now tell what his girlfriend was thinking just from the tiny expressions on her face.

Most of the time it was: make money, count money, happy!

Or: can’t make money, unhappy!

And when she stared at him and giggled like a fool once in a while, it was: Du Heng is so handsome!

Yes, after his girlfriend’s long-term “promotion,” he had finally accepted that he was good-looking. Well, at least in his girlfriend’s eyes.

It just felt a little strange, hearing someone enthusiastically sell him on his own looks.

Even though deep down he didn’t think a man’s appearance was all that useful, if it could attract his girlfriend, it was still something to be happy about.

And it wasn’t just that. Lately, Du Heng had been very happy, ever since that time he suspected his girlfriend had run off with the money.

After that incident, he could clearly feel that his girlfriend had become much more lively.

Even the way she treated him had changed.

Before, being with Shi Lan always made him feel a lot of pressure.

She would always say, “If you don’t work hard while you’re young, how will we get married? How will we go back home and build a little house? How will we raise children?”

Back then, although she was gentle, she also made people not want to get too close.

For a while, he even thought it was because of his own character.

But now, even if Shi Lan did nothing at all, just standing there made him want to get closer.

A little closer, and then closer still.

Now, all Shi Lan did was tell him to do less work on the site, and she even personally taught him how to slack off and sneak in breaks.

And she said with absolute conviction, “Working for someone and getting paid is only what you’re owed. Slacking off on the job is where the real profit is.”

What twisted logic.

Every day while he was at work, that sentence would circle through his mind several times, tempting him to slack off.

And the girl full of crooked reasoning kept trying to lure him further. “If you don’t slack off at work, you’ll never be happy.”

Sometimes she would even ask him, “Did you slack off today?”

As if the moment he said yes, she would sit right down and drag him into a full discussion of the wisdom and experience of slacking off.

After several days in a row of him failing to give her an affirmative answer, she looked like she wanted to say something, then stopped, her eyes full of sympathy. Sympathy that he actually couldn’t learn how to slack off.

Du Heng: “…”

Thank you very much, he could now read his girlfriend’s micro-expressions, with at least 90 percent accuracy.

How could he possibly slack off?

Not after seeing how outstanding she was.

She was so outstanding, so dazzling.

It was as if… she had become a completely different person.

The one who went out was Shi Lan. The one who came back was someone else.

Translator’s Notes