Chapter 33 Scammer Decides to Be a Good Person 8 – A Brief Parting for Two

Du Heng was set to join the production team in two weeks, traveling by train with the crew through several different places.

He went to the construction site to settle his wages with the foreman, without mentioning what he was leaving to do.

Some people spoke with sour jealousy: “If I had a girlfriend who was that good at making money, I wouldn’t be working construction either. Living off a woman would be pretty sweet. Too bad heaven didn’t give me a pretty-boy face.”

It wasn’t the first time Du Heng had heard something so disgusting, and he couldn’t be bothered arguing with them.

After leaving a few boxes of pastries made by Shi Lan for the coworkers he got along fairly well with, he left directly.

In Shi Lan’s words, he probably would not be seeing those people again anyway.

Since Du Heng was going away, Shi Lan could not stop worrying. She was afraid he’d get tricked again, afraid that his innocent, sweet nature would get him bullied, afraid he’d end up thirsty or hungry out there.

She kept stuffing more things into his luggage, practically wishing she could pack up the whole house and send it with him.

Du Heng caught hold of the busy Shi Lan as she hurried back and forth. “Don’t worry. I’m not a child. Sit down and talk with me for a while.”

Shi Lan sat down beside him, leaned against him, and sighed. “If I’ve already ended up in a transmigration story, why didn’t I get a portable storage space too?”

Du Heng looked utterly confused. “Who’s going crazy?”

“Me! I’m so anxious I’m about to lose my mind.” Shi Lan rubbed his face, kneading his handsome features into a complete mess.

Du Heng laughed and squeezed her hand soothingly. “At the very least, the place I’m going is full of educated people. It can’t be harder than construction work, right?”

“Wrong, wrong, wrong! Being an actor is serious physical labor too. Wuxia dramas have so many outdoor shoots. Won’t you have to climb mountains and cross rivers and hang on wires¹ every day? Or if they want to catch the right weather, getting up early, staying up late, and filming for ten or even twenty straight hours is all possible.”

Shi Lan counted it off on her fingers for him.

“And another thing, when educated people scam someone, it’s even harder to notice.”

Seeing his girlfriend always imagine him as some kid who had not even finished kindergarten, Du Heng could not help laughing. “What could they scam me out of? All my money’s with you anyway.”

“They could scam your feelings. They could scam you yourself!”

Du Heng wrapped his arms around his pouting, indignant girlfriend. “Other than you, who else would be foolish enough to really fall for a poor guy like me? Don’t worry, Lanlan.”

Shi Lan mulled that over and felt there was something a little strange about it, though she could not quite say what. She stopped thinking about it and muttered, “The world is dangerous anyway. There are way too many female demons and male monsters out there…”

Du Heng said, “Then they’d only go after Tang Monk’s flesh², not pay attention to me.”

That was not true at all.

As the male lead, wasn’t he basically Tang Monk’s flesh himself?

But no matter how worried and reluctant they both felt, Du Heng still had to leave.

This was the starting point of his career journey, a road he had to walk.

Du Heng did not know any of that.

Still, compared with worrying about himself traveling far away, he was more worried about Shi Lan’s safety after he left. More than once he had heard her complain about how poor public security was these days, to the point that even going out to buy supplies made her nervous.

Before leaving, he asked Li Xia and another female helper Shi Lan had newly hired to move over and stay with Shi Lan at night.

Even though three young women living together was not all that safe either, it was already the best solution they could think of under the current circumstances.

It was only a brief parting, but both of them were uneasy, each worrying about the other.

Even when Shi Lan went out to run her food stall, she was a little listless.

But there were no mobile phones to spend hours talking on or texting with. Aside from the one call Du Heng made to the shared phone at the tobacco and liquor shop³ after arriving safely, all she could do was wait.

After two days, Shi Lan felt this could not go on.

She had to hurry up and make money, buy a cell phone, buy a computer, buy more houses all over the country before housing prices started rising, and then hire several bodyguards for Du Heng to follow him around. That way, no matter where he went in the future, she could contact him anytime, someone would be there to protect him, and at night he could sleep in one of their own homes.

Then she probably would not worry so much anymore, right?

Shi Lan began pestering the agent Xiao Liu three times a day.

“The storefronts, where are the storefronts?”

Suitable storefronts nearby were hard to find, and Xiao Liu seemed like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown from her constant pressure.

But under intense pressure, Xiao Liu became more efficient, and a week later he brought her two shops to choose from.

After inspecting them, Shi Lan said, “I’ll take both. Help me negotiate the price with the landlords.”

Liu Haifeng said, “Both… both of them? You’re opening two stores?”

“Yes.”

Shi Lan had already planned it all out. Both shops would be fast food, one Chinese style and one Western style.

She had even come up with the names. The Chinese one would mainly sell noodles, rice noodles, and set meals, and it would be called Rice Steward.

The Western one would mainly sell hamburgers, wraps, fried chicken, fries, and popcorn, and it would be called Mr. Bread.

After the rental prices were settled, Shi Lan signed three-year contracts in one go. Then she began dealing with the renovations.

That turned out to be even more troublesome than finding the shops. She went to several places and still could not find a designer she liked.

Shi Lan did not understand design or renovation, but she definitely knew how to judge and appreciate them. After Liu Haifeng, designers too began getting driven nearly insane by her.

The designer said, “Miss Shi, what kind of style are you actually looking for? Just tell me, and I’ll revise it bit by bit.”

Shi Lan said, “If I knew how to revise it, I’d become a designer and draw the plans myself.”

Designer: “…” He was already regretting taking the job.

After all that tossing about, Shi Lan was not having a much easier time than the designer. The rent had already started, and every extra day the renovation took was another day of losses.

Still, with all these things keeping her busy, at least she would not spend all her time worrying about Du Heng while he was away.

Both new storefronts were some distance from the place where she currently set up her stall. Shi Lan did not do much promotion for the new openings at the stall, because the target customers were never going to be the same group anyway.

Once the boxed meals moved into a proper store, the price would definitely have to go up. The stall’s regular customers were already used to the current two-yuan price, and if they were asked to pay more to eat inside the store, most of them probably would not be willing. It was not about begrudging that little price difference, since plenty of the stall’s customers could easily afford it. But psychologically, customers would feel like they were losing out.

So Shi Lan only hung a simple sign on the food cart announcing that Rice Steward would be opening soon. Just as expected, very few customers asked for details about the new store. More of them were concerned about whether the stall would still operate after the store opened and whether prices would go up.

Only after Shi Lan gave them a definite answer did the customers finally relax.

When the time came, all meals would be prepared at the new store and then pushed over by staff to be sold at the current boxed-meal stall.

But to protect the interests of dine-in customers, the quality and variety of dishes would be different. The store version would be the premium one, and it would also include soup of the day and fruit.

While the shops were being renovated, Shi Lan had advertising boards set up in front of them so passersby would know the opening date, what kind of stores were about to open, and what grand opening promotions would be available.

On the eve of the opening, she also had people hand out coupons in the surrounding area. Customers who brought a coupon to dine in would receive an immediate fifty percent discount, valid for one month after opening.

Besides that, Shi Lan also had to stay busy recruiting staff and setting the menu. In order to free herself from the kitchen, she also had to standardize the flavors and streamline the serving process…

In short, everything needed doing.

So one evening, when she heard the tobacco and liquor shop owner calling out for her to answer the phone, she suddenly realized Du Heng had already been gone for a month.

Over the phone, Du Heng’s voice sounded tired too, but full of spirit.

“Only after coming out here did I realize I don’t know how to do anything. I have to learn everything. Not only do I have to learn from the martial arts instructor how to hold a sword and go through fight sequences, I have to learn it well and figure out how to make it look good on camera. I even have to relearn things like walking, smiling, looking at people, eating, and sitting in a chair.”

Shi Lan could imagine just how hard and exhausting that must be.

Running a stall and opening a store were things she was already familiar with from the influence of her previous life. But for Du Heng, stepping into the entertainment industry really was starting from zero.

As she listened to him, her heart ached for him too. But when she spoke, it wasn’t words of comfort, only a question: “Are you happy, then?”

“Happy!” Du Heng answered without the slightest hesitation. “Every day feels full and meaningful.”

He organized his thoughts for a moment, then said, “Back when I was on construction sites, I was busy too, and every day felt full. But it’s different now from back then. Back then, every day was busy, but it was the same thing over and over. There wasn’t any time to think about anything else. Now, every moment I have to think about what I need to do and what I need to learn. Every day, I can feel myself improving. Even though I’m more tired than before, and even though the road ahead is unknown, I can see hope.”

Shi Lan felt happy for him.

Of course it was different.

Before, the happiness he felt came from the most basic, instinctive satisfaction of having enough food and warmth, a low-level kind of happiness. But now, it was the sense of achievement and joy that came from the spirit.

“It’ll only get better and better,” Shi Lan encouraged him.

When they hadn’t been in touch, she hadn’t really noticed it. But now that they were on the phone, it felt like there were so many things to say.

In truth, there were only a handful of new things to talk about, and she had no idea how they’d managed to chat nonstop for two hours. Looking back on it, she could hardly remember what exactly they’d talked about.

Neither of them wanted to hang up. They dragged it out for ages.

Shi Lan said, “We’ve been apart so long, and you still haven’t said you missed me!”

“That’s not it!”

“Not what?”

“I… I missed you.”

That stammering voice was enough for Shi Lan to picture just how flustered he must be on the other end of the line.

She really had teased him.

Her mood instantly brightened.

“I missed you too. A lot,” she said.

Before hanging up, she even gave him a loud, ringing “Mua~”

Then she hung up at top speed. Ah, who knew what kind of reaction he had.

For the Nth time, she wished they were on a video call.

On the other end, Du Heng stood there blankly holding his phone. Once he realized what that final sound meant, he couldn’t recover for a long time, and his ears turned bright red.

Even though the two of them had already kissed before, this kind of intimacy through the phone still carried a different sort of tender, lingering charm.

He’d called to ease his longing, but who would’ve thought that after the call, he’d feel even emptier. It was as if the tip of a feather were brushing back and forth through his heart, tickling him until he couldn’t sit still. All he wanted was to rush to her side in an instant and pull her into himself.

Or else turn her into a tiny thumb-sized person, so he could tuck her into his pocket and carry her with him wherever he went.

But when he thought of the filming schedule, all he could do was sigh. All those fantasies were nothing but wishful thinking.

How had he never realized before that the days without his girlfriend by his side could be so hard to endure?

Shi Lan had no idea that a blown kiss through the phone could be that powerful.

She only felt that Du Heng’s phone call was basically a miracle charger, and it had come at exactly the right time. Now she was full of energy again and ready to tackle the preparations for opening.

Yes, tomorrow at 8 a.m., Rice Steward Chinese Fast Food Restaurant will officially open for business.

Translator’s Notes