Chapter 43: Scammer Decides to Be a Good Person 18 – You’re Not Stupid, Just Dense

Manager Huang was pushing forty, yet he still didn’t have a single artist under him worth mentioning. Shi Lan didn’t believe for a second that he had much left in him to properly promote Du Heng. If Du Heng really signed with him, it would already be a blessing if the man didn’t just latch onto him and bleed him dry.

Manager Huang kept circling around the questions. It sounded like he’d said a lot, but not one word of it was a straight answer.

Even at a time like this, he was still trying to fool them.

Shi Lan was starting to pity him. She hadn’t even asked about the most sensitive issue yet, the profit split, and that was where all the real tricks were hidden.

She gave Manager Huang a polite smile. “All right, I don’t have any more questions.”

Manager Huang let out a breath of relief, took out a pen, and handed it to Du Heng. “Then shall we sign the contract first?”

Du Heng had stopped speaking the moment Shi Lan started talking. Now that the question had been directed at him, he reached out and pushed the contract lying on the table back.

“Sorry, Manager Huang. Your company probably isn’t a good fit for me.”

He stood up and held out his hand to Shi Lan, letting her take it. Then he nodded to Manager Huang. “Goodbye.”

With that, he led Shi Lan out.

Manager Huang hadn’t expected this outcome at all and froze for a moment.

“Don’t go. If you’re not satisfied with the contract, we can still talk it over.”

As if anyone was going to pay him any attention.

Very seriously, Du Heng explained himself to Shi Lan. “I wasn’t planning to sign in the first place.”

“Oh.”

“Really. I’m not stupid. When I first started working on construction sites, the foreman I met was a lot like him. He could really talk. The moment he opened his mouth, he’d have us working overtime to rush the deadline, sixteen hours a day. He kept saying that once the job was finished and settled, everyone would get a bonus. He also said we’d all worked hard, so the cafeteria would add extra dishes and stuff.”

“In the end, the extra dishes only lasted two or three days. There was no bonus at all, and our wages were still calculated based on eight hours a day. We almost didn’t get paid at all. It was only because a bunch of us workers blocked him in a foot bath parlor and wouldn’t let him leave that we finally got our money. Otherwise, those six months would’ve been for nothing. After that, everyone learned to be smarter.”

So he’d been burned before.

“Oh, got it. You’re not stupid, just dense.”

Du Heng wilted. “Why do you always say I’m dense?”

“If you weren’t dense, you wouldn’t ask questions like that!”

Du Heng: “…”

After teasing him enough, Shi Lan turned serious. “Don’t worry. There are definitely good companies and good managers out there. Not everyone just knows how to talk big. You don’t have any works airing yet, so the people coming to you are probably all like today’s Mr. Huang, acting like they’re doing you a favor. That makes it hard for us to negotiate terms too. Anyway, it’s not like you don’t have acting jobs right now, so let’s just wait. Good things are worth waiting for. Once your work starts airing and people see how good you are, the contract offers that come to you will definitely be like snowflakes. Then it’ll be our turn to choose and negotiate terms. I believe in you!”

“Mm!”

Du Heng loved hearing her say she believed in him with that bright, spirited confidence, as if he truly could make something of himself on this road ahead. Even though he still had doubts about himself, the moment Shi Lan said she believed in him, he felt like he had the courage to charge forward without hesitation.

He felt that Yang Chong had gotten it wrong. It wasn’t that he had good taste in choosing a girlfriend, it was that Shi Lan had chosen him.

Sometimes he even thought that this was probably the blessing he’d earned in a previous life.

While he was still lost in thought, he heard Shi Lan say beside him, “A monthly salary of eight hundred yuan, and he actually had the nerve to say it. The salary I pay Li Wei has long been higher than that. If it’s really that little, you’d be better off working for me.”

“Sure. If I can’t find work in the future, I’ll go be Secretary for Miss Shi.”

Du Heng as her secretary… Shi Lan pictured herself going in and out every day with a face that devastating by her side. Honestly, it would be kind of amazing. Stylish as hell.

Shi Lan said, “Even though the person we met today wasn’t much, the tea at this teahouse is pretty good.”

Du Heng turned and started walking back. “I’ll go buy some to take home.”

Shi Lan grabbed him. “Come back. Are you seriously treating yourself like my secretary now? I was just saying that. I didn’t even pay the bill when we left. Tea tastes even better when it’s free. Serves him right for trying to trick you into becoming cheap labor for his company.”

Du Heng couldn’t really understand what part of this made Shi Lan so happy. Was saving that little bit of money really enough to make her this cheerful?

But he knew how to coax his girlfriend.

“That’s right. He deserved to bleed a little. When I left, I glanced at the front desk receipt. A cup of tea here costs seventy or eighty yuan.”

Shi Lan became even more delighted.

Du Heng smiled along with her. If she was happy, then he was happy too.

–

Between their two hometowns, Du Heng’s home was a little closer in terms of distance.

So they planned it this way: first go to Du Heng’s home, then make a detour to Shi Lan’s, and register their marriage where Shi Lan’s household registration was located. After that, they would head back from Shi Lan’s home.

If you connected the route on a map, it would basically draw a small circle on the country’s outline.

In the era before high-speed rail, traveling was pure suffering. Shi Lan refused to squeeze onto those old green trains¹ just to save a little money. So for the trip to Du Heng’s home and the return journey from Shi Lan’s home, they booked plane tickets. Only the stretch between their two hometowns had no flights, so they had to take trains and long-distance buses.

Before setting out, Shi Lan discussed it with Du Heng and said the whole round trip should take no more than a week. The reason she gave was that the shop’s business couldn’t be left unattended for too long.

In reality, she just didn’t know how to get along with Shi Lan’s family.

Would they realize the person inside this body had changed? She couldn’t guarantee that if they spent too much time together, she wouldn’t let something slip.

Du Heng had deliberately booked an early morning flight, and he’d even made sure they had seats together. On the plane, he let Shi Lan take the window seat.

The very first time he’d flown, he’d made a wish that one day he would bring Shi Lan on a plane with him. He hadn’t expected that wish to come true so quickly.

Like a child sharing his favorite toy, he watched the endless clear sky with Shi Lan, watched the mountains and rivers below shrink smaller and smaller.

In Shi Lan’s time, flying had long become an ordinary part of life. Many times, plane tickets were even cheaper than train or bus fares.

Usually, she would pull down the window shade and sleep. But now, with Du Heng sitting beside her, even the repetitive scenery outside the window seemed to become interesting. She acted like a little girl really riding on a plane for the first time, occasionally letting out soft exclamations with him or chatting in little whispers.

It was childish, honestly.

But somehow, this kind of childishness made satisfaction and happiness easier to feel.

That happiness didn’t last long, because after the plane ride, they had to transfer several more times.

Not to mention the mountain roads that jolted a person’s bones loose, or the nauseating mix of gasoline, sweat, and body odor that could make you pass out. The worst part was that the bus was overloaded. Not by one or two extra people either, but packed so full that even the aisle between the seats was crammed.

The whole way, Shi Lan stayed on edge. Halfway through, they ran into an inspection checkpoint, and she thought the bus would be detained and delay their trip, but the inspectors actually turned a blind eye to it!

She was carsick the entire way, and Du Heng told her to lean against him and get some sleep.

Shi Lan didn’t dare close her eyes at all. She kept looking for where the emergency hammer was, planning how she would escape quickly if there was an accident. She even mapped out the route in her head.

She even whispered her plan to Du Heng.

Du Heng: “…”

Du Heng: “Be good and go to sleep. If you sleep, you won’t feel carsick.”

Shi Lan refused. “Did you memorize it or not!”

He had protagonist halo protection and wasn’t afraid, but that halo might not shine on her. So if anything really happened, the best option was for Du Heng to bring her along when he escaped.

Shi Lan felt her logic was flawless, a perfect score with no holes in it.

Du Heng said helplessly, “…All right. You sleep, I’ll keep watch.”

Fortunately, they never had to use that plan.

By the time Shi Lan got off the bus, her whole body was limp like an overcooked noodle. She’d been smoked, scared, and shaken half to pieces!

That whole trip barely counted as going home. It was more like Shi Lan’s personal journey through hardship.

The village where Du Heng’s family lived was called Shujia Village. At first, Shi Lan thought there must be a lot of people there with the surname Shu, but then she stopped and thought about it. Was that even a surname at all?

Du Heng explained, “I don’t know why it’s called that. Some of the older people say this place used to be called Sujia Village. Two brothers from the village became bandits and made enemies, and later another bandit gang came seeking revenge and slaughtered the whole village. None of the villagers with the surname Su survived, not even a baby. The people living in the village now all moved here from other places. Later, they thought keeping the name Sujia Village was unlucky, so they changed it to Shujia Village. But I don’t know if that’s really true.”

Shi Lan thought that the ancestor who had changed the name must have been the type who couldn’t tell retroflex and non-retroflex sounds² apart.

Of course, that was just a joke. In the local dialect here, those two characters were probably pronounced exactly the same.

Shujia Village lay deep in the mountains, and there really were trees everywhere.

Mountains surrounded it on three sides, and on the fourth stood a high cliff, with a great river rushing below.

After getting off the bus outside the village, Shi Lan thought they had finally arrived. Then Du Heng told her the village was divided into several production brigades, and the one his family belonged to was even farther in, deeper in the mountains. It would still take another thirty to forty minutes on foot along the mountain path.

Shi Lan: “…”

She felt like she was about to die.

So the older generation really had a point when they said a couple should be well matched. It wasn’t about snobbery or discrimination. The objective conditions really were an obstacle.

If Shi Lan had been an ordinary city girl of this era, she would definitely have burst into tears and gone home already.

Going to the future in-laws’ home felt like Tang Monk’s pilgrimage³ for the scriptures. For a girl unaccustomed to village and small-town life, it really would be hard to make it to the end. The physical suffering was secondary. The mental despair was what truly crushed people.

Even though the first half of the trip had been by plane, it had still taken them two days to get this far. They had spent the previous night resting in the county town before coming back today.

Du Heng said, “How about this, we go back to the county town. Tomorrow I’ll come back by myself to get the household register and handle the hukou transfer procedures.”

The mountain road hadn’t broken Shi Lan’s defenses, but Du Heng’s words almost did. “I’ve already come this far, and now you want me to go back? Doesn’t that mean all the suffering I went through on the ride here was for nothing, and now I have to go back and suffer through it all over again? Has your brain short-circuited?”

Du Heng asked carefully, “Then… we keep going in.”

Shi Lan said, “Move.”

What kind of joke was that?

The worry Du Heng had been carrying finally eased a little. He knew Shi Lan had suffered the whole way here, but there was nothing to be done. There was only this one road home. He had sensed her resistance to the mountain path and to the cramped, packed town buses.

To be honest, he was scared.

He was afraid that resistance to the environment would shift onto him in the end, and that she would leave him. He couldn’t imagine how, at this point, he would go on with his life if Shi Lan left him.

Shi Lan had expected to be walking mountain roads, so she had worn sneakers today. It had probably rained in the mountains last night, and the trail was muddy. After only a few steps, her snow-white shoes were already stained with dirt. That was still bearable. The real issue was how slippery the muddy path was.

After Shi Lan nearly lost her footing several times and had to be caught by Du Heng, he finally said, “I’ll carry you.”

“No way! You’ll still slip too. If I slip and fall by myself, at least I’m closer to the ground, so it won’t hurt as much. If you’re carrying me and we both fall, I’ll be falling from higher up. Who knows how much that’ll hurt.” Shi Lan refused.

Du Heng said, “I won’t fall. I don’t slip when I walk.”

“Please. The mud path doesn’t check whether the person walking on it is from Shujia Village or not.”

Du Heng: “…”

“Besides, if you carry me, what about the luggage?”

Du Heng said, “Wait here.”

Du Heng took off his jacket and spread it over a relatively flat stone slab, then helped her sit down on it. After that, he ran off.

Shi Lan didn’t even get the chance to stop him.

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Translator’s Notes

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1. green trains: A reference to the iconic slow-speed, long-distance passenger trains (lǜpíchē) common in China before the high-speed rail era. They are known for being crowded, lacking air conditioning, and having very low fares. ↩
2. retroflex and non-retroflex sounds: A common linguistic distinction in Mandarin Chinese (e.g., ‘s’ vs ‘sh’). Many southern dialects do not distinguish between these sounds, leading to homophones or puns that are lost on speakers of other dialects. ↩
3. Tang Monk’s pilgrimage: An allusion to Xuanzang from the classic novel ‘Journey to the West’. His journey to India was famously fraught with eighty-one distinct tribulations and hardships. ↩