Chapter 308

Chapter 308

◎The Con Artist◎

The moment Dong Qi realized he had been scammed, his world came crashing down. He’d thought of every angle—the entire scammer’s playbook.

Tea leaves piling up unsold, struggling jujube farmers, family members falling ill, company cash flow issues—he had considered all these schemes and remained vigilant, refusing to let himself be swept away by a love-struck stupor.

Yet, he still fell for it.

On Friday, after the assessment exams, the first parent-teacher meeting of senior year began. From the morning, everyone was restless. Their scores loomed over them like an executioner’s blade—whether it would be a swift strike or drawn-out torture depended entirely on how it fell.

While everyone else worried about what the homeroom teacher would tell their parents and how their assessment results would turn out, Dong Qi sat pale-faced at his desk, looking like a zombie.

Zhang Yuan took one glance at him and knew something was wrong. Setting down his half-eaten breakfast, he studied Dong Qi’s expression and asked, “What’s going on with you? You look like a ghost.”

Dong Qi suddenly snapped back to reality, clutching Zhang Yuan and bawling his eyes out, “I got scammed! What do I do? I’m screwed! My life is over! Maybe I should just jump off the school rooftop—I can’t go on like this, wuuu!”

Zhang Yuan pushed Dong Qi’s head away. “What’s the deal? Start from the beginning and explain properly.”

The commotion drew the attention of nearby classmates, who perked up their ears, eager for gossip. Zhang Yuan quickly covered Dong Qi’s mouth. “Let’s talk outside.”

As they headed out, Xiao Ye and Ji Nanxing happened to enter the classroom. Spotting them, they asked, “Where are you two going?”

Zhang Yuan replied, “He got scammed. I’m getting the details.”

Xiao Ye and Ji Nanxing exchanged glances, then dropped their bags and followed them out of the classroom.

With teachers potentially passing by at any moment and Dong Qi looking utterly devastated—clearly scammed out of a significant sum—the three led him to the dilapidated building for grilling.

Inside the rundown building, The Coward was munching on the meat buns Yu Sixing had left as an offering that morning. Ever since Yu Sixing returned, he had been treating him like a real person—providing not only incense and candles to nourish his spirit but also three full meals a day, served on time.

Mornings were usually quiet, so Guo Xun strolled around his territory while eating, loafing about. When he heard footsteps, he panicked before darting back to his hiding spot in the corner.

Peeking out and recognizing Ji Nanxing, he asked curiously, “Why are you guys skipping class to come here in the morning?”

Ji Nanxing reached out and pushed his nosy head back down.

Zhang Yuan pulled over a chair, seating Dong Qi in the center before launching into the questioning. “Alright, spill it. What happened? How much did you lose?”

Zhang Yuan wasn’t entirely clear on the details of Dong Qi’s online romance, but since Dong Qi had constantly talked about it, he had a rough idea.

Dong Qi had met his online girlfriend in a game. She had gifted him several in-game skins—the most expensive one costing 628 yuan—and had sent him at least two or three of those. She also regularly ordered milk tea and takeout for him, sometimes spending a couple hundred yuan at a time. She had even supposedly bought him a pair of shoes worth 8,000 yuan.

Zhang Yuan hadn’t seen the shoes, but the skins had been delivered, and the takeout had indeed been eaten. Even if this was all part of the scammer’s initial investment, it still amounted to thousands. No scammer would operate at a loss—whatever Dong Qi had lost was bound to be substantial.

Dong Qi sobbed, “Fifty grand.”

Zhang Yuan was taken aback. Fifty grand was a staggering amount for a high school student.

Xiao Ye looked at Dong Qi in surprise. “You’re pretty loaded, huh? Able to cough up fifty grand just like that?”

Fifty grand was nothing to him or Ji Nanxing, but for a high schooler with only a few bucks of daily allowance, it was a fortune. To have that much saved up, Dong Qi must have drained his entire stash of lucky money.

Dong Qi shook his head. “No, I was always careful. I thought as long as I didn’t give her money, what could she possibly take from me? She never once asked me for cash—instead, she kept asking if there was anything I wanted or needed.”

Zhang Yuan frowned. “Then how did you get scammed?”

Dong Qi glanced at the three of them before lowering his head and confessing, “She said she bought me shoes as a birthday gift. I thought it was too expensive and tried to refuse, but she insisted. She said she wanted to meet me on my birthday, that she was older, better off than me, and that she just wanted a simple relationship without any pressure. So I figured I’d get her a gift just as pricey when her birthday came around… so I caved.”

Xiao Ye: "And then? Did you meet?"

Dong Qi shook his head: "No, we only video called. She said the shoes she bought were from an international purchase and would be shipped directly to my school. She had bought me things before and knew my address, but international purchases require the recipient's ID number, so she asked for my ID."

Zhang Yuan looked speechless: "You gave it to her?"

Dong Qi nodded.

Even an ID card could be handed out so casually. Xiao Ye and Zhang Yuan rolled their eyes so hard they nearly saw their brains. And he claimed to be cautious?

Ji Nanxing glanced at their exasperated expressions and continued: "Then what? How did you realize you were scammed?"

Dong Qi: "Later, I got a call demanding I repay a loan—something about a principal of 50,000 and 1,000 in interest. They said if I didn’t pay on time, the interest would double daily. How could I have taken out a loan? I’ve never done anything like that. I thought it was a scam and hung up. But the next day, they called again, giving my name, ID number, home address, even my school and class. They said they’d hunt me down if I didn’t pay."

By then, even Dong Qi, dense as he was, realized something was wrong. He immediately tried contacting his girlfriend to ask if she had done something, only to find himself blocked with no way to reach her.

Dong Qi sobbed: "Later, I thought back—not long ago, when I was video calling with... Tian Xin, she was dressed skimpy and talked me into stripping too."

Since they were already in a relationship, and even though he was still in high school, he was an adult. Dating someone a few years older in college wasn’t a big deal. If his girlfriend was showing herself off to him, wasn’t it normal for her to want to see his body? He wasn’t particularly muscular from lack of exercise, but at his age and with a lean build, he had no flab, so he showed off without thinking.

Dong Qi suspected it was during this video call—when she asked him to stand up, turn around, or move closer to the camera—that she used him to take out the loan. Once the money was transferred, she blocked him, leaving the debt collectors to chase him, the one whose ID was registered, not the scammer.

After hearing this, Zhang Yuan snorted even more exasperatedly: "Still calling her 'Tian Xin'? What a simp."

Dong Qi: "It’s 'Tian' as in 'rice field,' 'Xin' as in 'sweet aroma'—not some cutesy 'sweetheart'!"

Zhang Yuan scoffed: "Oh, I see. Still calling her by her name at a time like this—what a simp."

Dong Qi turned to the three of them for help: "What should I do now? They called me again yesterday—the interest has already shot up to 5,000. Forget the principal, I can’t even pay the interest!"

Catfished in a teenage fling and stuck with debt out of nowhere, Dong Qi couldn’t bear to imagine what would happen if his family found out. Would his parents kill him?

Zhang Yuan said bluntly: "What should you do? Report it to the police, of course. Loan sharking is illegal. You got your identity stolen. If you’re too scared to report it because you don’t want your family to know, those people will exploit that fear to threaten you into doing worse things. Once you give in, your future is ruined."

Dong Qi: "But I didn’t borrow that money, and my family isn’t well-off. How could we come up with so much at once...?"

Just thinking about it terrified him—50,000 yuan, plus interest, totaling around 55,000. His parents couldn’t save that much in a year.

Ji Nanxing: "If you didn’t borrow the money, you don’t have to repay it. Legally, as long as the police confirm you were unknowingly used in a video scam for a loan, you won’t be held responsible. Now, you have two choices: report it and get your ass kicked by your parents, or keep it from them and try to pay it off to settle things."

What choice did he have? Pay it back? With what? He couldn’t scrape it together even selling organs.

With the parent-teacher meeting coming up and now this mess, Dong Qi was so scared he wanted to skip school and hide.

Dong Qi didn’t feel reassured by Ji Nanxing’s words. He fell into despair: "They said they have the video of me taking out the loan—the one with Tian Xin. If that gets leaked, how can I show my face at school?"

Zhang Yuan smacked the back of his head: "Show your face? Are you seriously thinking of buying the video back? Did you strip completely or just take off your shirt?"

Dong Qi hurriedly clarified: "Just the shirt! You think I’m some creep?!"

Zhang Yuan: "You were already skinny-dipping on camera—how is that not perverted?"

Seeing Dong Qi about to lose his temper, Xiao Ye jumped in: "Alright, illegally distributing someone’s video is also a crime. Let the cops deal with it. Even if the video does go viral, it won’t blow up too much. Who hasn’t gone shirtless before? You’re a guy your age—why be scared of that?"

Dong Qi whispered, "I'm afraid my family will think I'm a total embarrassment if they find out."

The kind that makes you look like a total idiot.

Zhang Yuan patted him on the shoulder. "It's not the end of the world. It's not that big of a deal. You were just scammed, and thankfully, nothing worse happened. Cut your losses and consider it a lesson learned. Remember, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Whether it's love or anything else, people are always after something when they're nice to you. If a pie falls in your lap one day, first look in the mirror and ask yourself if you deserve it. If not, then it's not a pie—it's a trap."

Dong Qi couldn't help but ask, "What if I think I do deserve it?"

Zhang Yuan: "Then you're hopeless."

Ji Nanxing couldn't hold back a laugh. "Alright, it's not a big deal. After the parent-teacher meeting, come clean to your parents and have them take you to the police station to file a report. Make sure to keep all those chat records."

Dong Qi covered his face. "Just thinking about it makes me feel like I'll die from shame."

Zhang Yuan smacked the back of his head. "You were told not to get distracted in your senior year, yet you went and got into an online relationship. See if you ever dare to do it again."

Without Zhang Yuan and the others guiding him, Dong Qi might have really tried to hide this and try to tough it out alone. Even breaking a bowl would make him feel guilty, let alone something this serious—how could he dare to speak up?

But after their advice, Dong Qi felt things might not be as bad as he thought. Whether he faced it or not, the outcome was inevitable. Compared to being in debt, getting whooped seemed easier.

The group returned to the classroom just as the morning study hall bell rang. Spotting the four of them, the morning teacher adjusted his glasses. "Sneaked out for breakfast, huh? Skipping morning study hall—seems like you're still in summer mode."

Xiao Ye quickly played along. "We were starving, almost passed out, so we had to grab something to eat. Sorry, teacher, we won't do it again."

The teacher didn’t bother lecturing them. These boys were always quick to apologize but never changed. Still, with the top student in the grade here, he couldn’t scold them too harshly. "Four written apologies, on my desk by the end of school."

Xiao Ye: "Got it, four write-ups, not one less. Thanks for going easy on us, teacher. Have a good day."

Dong Qi, who had never written a single detention slip in all of high school, looked down in shame. "Sorry for dragging you all into this."

Xiao Ye: "As long as you know you messed up. The write-ups are on you—make sure to use four different handwriting styles."

Dong Qi’s eyes widened in disbelief. *So this is what Zhang Yuan meant by 'inhuman'...* He was already suffering—dealing with the parent-teacher meeting after the placement test, getting scammed in an online relationship, and now possibly tangled up with debt collectors—and now he had to handle four write-ups?

He’d often heard Zhang Yuan call Xiao Ye "inhuman," and today, he finally understood what that meant.

Back at their seats, watching Dong Qi slump in his seat as he started writing, Xiao Ye leaned toward Ji Nanxing and whispered, "See? Online relationships are way too risky. Who knows who's really on the other end?"

Ji Nanxing tilted his head slightly. "So?"

Xiao Ye hinted, "So in the future, if you’re looking for someone, make sure they're someone you know really well. Otherwise, it's too dangerous."

Ji Nanxing gave an "Oh," then leaned a little closer. "Know really well, huh? What counts as knowing someone really well?"

Seeing him up close like this stunned Xiao Ye again. He heard Ji Nanxing’s words, but didn’t fully process them—all his senses seemed focused on his eyes, locked onto the person leaning toward him.

Unconsciously, he mumbled, "Like… you know me… I know you… that kind of thing…"

Ji Nanxing lifted his chin, then turned his head to face the blackboard. "Class is starting. Pay attention, desk mate who knows me really well."

Xiao Ye’s ears turned bright red as he didn’t dare turn back, staring at the blackboard while his heart was racing. *Ji Naonao is too good-looking—even getting a little close is overwhelming. Damn it, I’m so shallow about looks—will Ji Naonao think I’m shallow? But he’s just so… so…*

In an ATM vestibule, a man stared at the machine while a woman stood leaning slightly beside him. Only when the screen displayed "Dispensing Cash" did they relax. The crisp sound of bills being counted was the sweetest sound.

If not for the bank’s limit—only 20,000 yuan per day per ATM—they would’ve withdrawn the entire sum long ago. Why wait three days? Every extra day was another day of risk.

The withdrawal card wasn’t theirs either. It belonged to an elderly man with no family. As long as they had the PIN, even if the old man died, the card would still work.

Using someone else’s card to cash out loans meant no matter how the police investigated, it wouldn’t lead back to them. Besides, small-time loan scams like this weren’t worth the police’s effort—they’d likely just file a report and move on. Only major financial cases might get real attention.

He’d just withdrawn the last 10K in cash. The man took the money from the machine, didn’t bother counting—just gauged the wad’s thickness. Satisfied, he opened his bag, placed the money inside, and smiled cheerfully at the woman beside him. "In another two days, we can wrap things up with that other fool, right?"

The woman was Tian Xin, Dong Qi's online girlfriend. Hearing this, her face fell with hesitation. "We've already scammed quite a bit of money. Let's stop now. I'm afraid things might go wrong if we keep going."

The man’s eyes flashed with irritation, but he turned back with a smile, playfully pinched her cheek. "What's there to be afraid of? You women are always so timid. Fine, let’s finish up the ones we have on hand, then we’ll quit. How’s that?"

Tian Xin looked up at him. "Really?"

The man chuckled. "Why would I lie to you? The money we’ve made these past two years is enough to buy a place in a smaller provincial city. After that, we’ll still have some savings left. With money not being tight, we can just find some easy jobs and never scam anyone again. Sound good?"

Tian Xin knew how addictive easy money could be. Once you got used to effortlessly filling your pockets, who’d want to return to the daily grind? But now, even if she didn’t believe him, she was in too deep to back out. At this point, there was no turning back.

As they walked out, Tian Xin noticed what appeared to be finger marks on his neck. She quickly tugged at his collar to get a better look. "What’s this on your neck? Have you been seeing other women?"

The man touched his neck, baffled. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Tian Xin pointed at the marks. "These are clearly from someone gripping you!"

The man couldn’t see the marks himself, but he knew he hadn’t done anything wrong. "I’ve been with you practically every second these past few days. Where would I even find another woman? Stop being so paranoid, will you?"

Tian Xin thought about it and realized it didn’t make sense—they had indeed been together constantly, barely leaving the house, ordering everything in. But the marks were unmistakable.

The man rubbed his neck. "You probably did it yourself and forgot. Blaming me for your own handiwork. How about we go for a massage this afternoon? Staying cooped up staring at screens all day has left me sore all over."

Tian Xin rolled her eyes. "A massage? More like your excuse to see hookers, huh?" With that, she turned and walked off.

The man chased after her. "Why are you always jumping to conclusions? When have I ever done that?"

After they left, a dead branch by the roadside snapped in two with a sharp crack.