Chapter 2: The Online Dating Target

Chapter 2: The Online Dating Target

When he stepped out of the dessert shop, it was already eight in the evening. Streetlights flickered along the roadside, lighting up the city's bustling streets. Street vendors lined the sidewalks selling snacks, and the mixed smells of all kinds of food hung in the air, full of that down-to-earth vibe of everyday life.

The dessert shop didn't serve meals, so Shen Mian had just snacked on some bread he'd brought that evening. By now, his stomach was about to give out. He wandered around the block for a bit before finally grabbing some fried rice.

Six bucks for fried rice—no meat, no ham, just an egg cracked in, a couple of leaves of bok choy, and a sprinkle of scallions.

The rice sizzled and tumbled in the hot oil of the wok, sending out a mouthwatering smell.

Shen Mian stood by the stall, his eyes glued to the fried rice sizzling in the wok. He swallowed hard, his stomach growling even louder.

When the fried rice was boxed up and handed to him, it was still steaming and almost too hot to hold. Shen Mian grabbed a seat at a small table behind the stall and immediately shoveled a big bite into his mouth with his chopsticks.

The savory, soft fried rice instantly melted away the exhaustion of the whole day. He'd been hungry for so long that he wolfed it down. It wasn't until he'd downed more than half the box that the burning ache in his stomach finally started to ease.

After the last bite, Shen Mian wiped his mouth with a tissue, pulled out his phone, and started looking online for any remote side gigs.

His course load wasn't heavy this semester, but he already had the dessert shop gig, and all his free time outside class was spent there. Adding another in-person job would be too much to juggle, so he could only look for something online.

He scrolled through a bunch of listings, and they were all scam ads for fake click-farming. Shen Mian sighed and was about to close the app when he accidentally stumbled on a news story.

"A 45-year-old man in City X posed as a hot woman online and was dating seven guys at the same time, scamming 13 people out of 2 million yuan total."

Shen Mian's finger froze mid-scroll.

Two million yuan. That was insane.

And were those guys really that dumb, sending money without even knowing if the person they were dating was a guy or a girl?

Curious, he tapped on the article and read the whole thing.

In the photo, the fake "beauty" had long wavy hair, a nice figure, and a sweet smile—you'd never guess it was some old dude in disguise.

The chat logs were just as explicit. With a voice changer, he had this soft, sweet voice that coaxed those guys—who'd never even seen his face—into willingly sending red packets and transfers, calling him "brother" over and over.

The article said the guy used to be a gambling addict and a thug who came up with this crooked scheme after racking up crazy high-interest debts from online loans: dressing up as a woman to pose as a poor, pretty girl and lure rich trust-fund guys on social media, scamming them for money under the guise of a relationship. If two of the thirteen "boyfriends" he was dating at the same time hadn't happened to know each other, who knows when the scam would've been exposed.

The dim screen of his secondhand phone, bought off some resale site, cast a faint glow over half his face. He stared at the screen for a long moment, and suddenly a ridiculous idea popped into his head, his heart pounding along with it.

His dad was still lying in the hospital, and if the medical bills didn't get paid soon, there wouldn't even be medicine. The dialysis, surgery costs, and meds would add up to a huge amount—like a bottomless pit. Even throwing in his scholarship would be a drop in the bucket.

He was really strapped for cash right now.

So even though he knew this was fraud and illegal, and that if it came out he might end up arrested and locked up like the guy in the news, he still couldn't shake the thought:

Pose as a hot girl, find some rich trust-fund guy online, and scam him for money through a fake relationship.

Once the thought surfaced, it was like wild grass taking over, wrapping around his heart until he could barely breathe.

Shen Mian thought about the bag Jiang Mingye had given his girlfriend—a bag worth over twenty grand meant nothing to people like them. Maybe... he could actually pull it off.

The late-summer breeze had a chill to it as Shen Mian clutched his phone and wandered back to the dorm in a daze.

His mind was too preoccupied to sleep. He spent the whole night searching for "online dating tips" and even gritted his teeth and bought a 9.9-yuan tutorial on scamming people through online romance off Pinduoduo.

He studied the tutorial for days, convinced he was fully prepared, before registering a brand-new WeChat account with the cute username "Sweetheart Ruanruan" and a squinting kitten avatar—the kind that instantly made people think of some sweet, adorable girl.

But... what about the target? Was he supposed to find one online?

But behind the screen, he had no idea who he'd be dealing with. And when it came to scamming people out of their money, he still couldn't quite do it with a clear conscience.

Shen Mian bit his lip, staring glumly at his new account. Then, out of nowhere, a snippet of conversation popped into his head.

[A four-figure bag is nothing. You haven't seen my big brother—he spends way more than me. He's got a bunch of lovers and mistresses, rotating through the week...]

[Girls on the street add him on WeChat, call him 'brother' a couple times, and he sends them red packets...]

Right—Jiang Mingye had mentioned he had an older brother who was a company exec, surrounded by countless lovers, never turning away pretty girls who came to him, and super generous to his mistresses.

And getting his contact info wasn't hard either. Jiang Mingye's phone was often just left lying around on the table, sometimes without even locking the screen.

No one fit the bill better than him.

Shen Mian made up his mind almost without hesitation: he was the one.

...

He'd figured he'd need to come up with some excuse to get his hands on Jiang Mingye's phone, but the opportunity came the very next day.

This semester, they had an online elective course that required watching 20 video lessons before taking the exam, with random questions popping up during the videos. Jiang Mingye, the typical spoiled rich kid, couldn't be bothered to watch. He'd usually just scan his face for attendance, then go take a shower, tossing his phone to his roommates to answer the questions for him.

Today was lucky—the other two roommates were out, leaving only Shen Mian and Jiang Mingye in the dorm.

Jiang Mingye opened the video as usual, then realized no one was there to answer the questions for him. Just as he was irritably about to close it, a soft voice came from beside him: "I happen to need to watch videos too. Why don't you just give me your phone?"

Jiang Mingye turned around in surprise, seemingly puzzled by the sudden friendliness of this usually quiet roommate.

Feeling somewhat guilty, Shen Mian's ears turned red, and his words came out stammering: "Do... do you need me to?"

He kept his head slightly lowered, a light pink flush spreading across his fair face, looking a bit nervous.

Jiang Mingye stared at his pale, thin lips for a long moment, then raised an eyebrow and tossed the phone over. "Thanks!"

Shen Mian clutched the phone tightly, his fingers trembling involuntarily. He didn't breathe a sigh of relief until Jiang Mingye had walked into the bathroom.

After the sound of the shower had been running for a while, he switched over to Jiang Mingye's WeChat interface.

Fortunately, the person he was looking for was in the pinned chats, so it didn't take much effort.

Shen Mian tapped into the WeChat profile of the contact labeled "Brother," quickly snapped a photo with his own phone, then hastily exited and switched back to the online course video interface.

Everything was done without a trace, except for the cold sweat soaking his back.

When Jiang Mingye came out of the shower, Shen Mian returned the phone and climbed into bed.

The drawn bed curtain was a natural barrier, isolating him from the rest of the world.

Shen Mian took a deep breath, pulled out his phone, and opened the screenshot of the profile. He copied the WeChat ID and pasted it into the search bar.

The account's background was clean and simple, the avatar an ordinary night scene photo, and the nickname equally plain: J.

Shen Mian hesitated for three seconds, then tapped "Add Friend."

"Brother, can we get to know each other?"

When the friend request was sent, he felt like his heart was about to leap out of his chest. Perhaps because he'd never done anything bad in his life, just the beginning alone had him sweating from nerves.

Shen Mian gripped his phone tightly, thinking about how he should respond once the other party accepted, both hoping for approval and dreading that his clumsy, inexperienced lies would be seen through.

Time passed minute by minute, the phone screen lit up and went dark over and over, yet there was still no sign of any response.

Finally, when he was just about to go to bed, there was still no reply.

When Shen Mian woke up the next day, the first thing he did was grab his phone.

There was nothing new in his chat list—Jiang Mingye's brother hadn't accepted his friend request.

He'd failed before he even got started, and Shen Mian's nervous heart sank straight to rock bottom.

Was the internet just too slow last night? Or was his old phone just being laggy? Maybe the request never even went through.

Not one to give up easily, Shen Mian steeled himself and sent another friend request:

"Brother, add me~"

*

At the very top of the Jiangyuan Group headquarters, perched high above the city's bustling downtown in a towering skyscraper,

the space was so open it bordered on extravagant.

The office was done in a minimalist black, white, and gray palette, with an ink-black desk set in front of a huge curved floor-to-ceiling window. The man in the chair was idly flipping through the papers in his hand.

He wore a custom-tailored, top-tier suit, with a crisp white shirt at the collar, pressed so perfectly it didn't have a single crease. Under his straight nose, his deep, dark eyes were cast slightly downward, and his whole presence gave off a cold, keep-your-distance vibe.

Jiang Yancheng was completely focused on his work—even though this wasn't exactly an important document, he still reviewed it with great care.

Suddenly, the phone on the desk lit up, letting out an oddly out-of-place soft chime.

Jiang Yancheng's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, looked up, and picked up the phone.

It was a WeChat friend request.

The requester's profile picture was a cute little kitten, and their username was "Sweetheart Softly."

Jiang Yancheng had a faint memory of this person, as he had also received a friend request from them the previous night.

He'd figured at first it was a wrong add, but getting another request today made it clear this was deliberate.

Holding the phone, a flicker of surprise flashed through his eyes. His personal WeChat was never shared publicly, and his contact list only included a few close friends and family—not even business partners knew of it.

Who was this person? How had they managed to add him?

"Mr. Jiang." A knock sounded, and the door to the executive office was pushed open from outside. Assistant Zhou Xu walked in, holding a file box. He approached the desk slowly and asked respectfully, "Mr. Jiang, should we start the meeting now? The department managers are already waiting in the conference room."

Jiang Yancheng's thoughts were interrupted. He glanced down at his watch and replied calmly, "Mm."

The adorable kitten on the screen was still smiling up at him. Jiang Yancheng stared at the profile picture for a couple of seconds, then swiftly deleted the friend request.

...

Shen Mian sent several more friend requests, but each one vanished into the void without a trace.

This wasn't right—hadn't Jiang Mingye said his brother never refused friend requests from girls, even random ones on the street?

Shen Mian racked his brain, trying to figure out why Jiang Yancheng wasn't accepting his request.

He pulled up the "fishing" tutorial he'd bought online and read through it carefully from start to finish. The tutorial said that to hook these sleazy, womanizing types, it was best to use a sexy female avatar or a slightly suggestive leg photo.

Shen Mian was a guy, so he couldn't exactly take a female avatar, but a leg shot should be doable.

He was naturally slim with little body fat, and his legs were slender. Combined with his fair skin and lack of body hair, his legs alone would make it impossible to tell he was male.

Taking advantage of the empty dorm during the lunch break, Shen Mian locked the bathroom door and prepared to take the photo.

His faded jeans were carefully slid down to his ankles. His well-proportioned calves looked especially long under the light. Shen Mian struck a pose he'd learned online, legs pressed together, and angled the phone camera up from his thigh to snap the shot.