“Come, come, little sister. Just call me Granny Cui. If you want to rent a room, come in and sit down. We can talk slowly…”
“Although this house was built over ten years ago, it’s been well maintained. I live on the first floor. On the second floor, there’s Chunfen and her daughter. There’s one more room available to rent to you. But you’d have to share the kitchen and bathroom. Is that alright?”
Tian Tian looked at Granny Cai, who was a bit younger than she remembered, and said directly, “Granny Cui, how much is the rent?”
Granny Cui chuckled. “Chunfen told me you came on the same bus as her and helped her out along the way. How about 30 yuan a month?”
At the time, rental prices in Shenzhen varied widely—anywhere from 5 to 10 yuan per square meter. In a city where the average monthly salary was 200–300 yuan, rent was a considerable expense.
Tian Tian followed her upstairs to take a look. The room was about eight square meters, furnished with a single wooden bed and an old desk. Just outside the room was a large balcony shared with the neighboring room. The setup was quite good by current standards. She nodded.
Thirty yuan for this room was a bargain.
“Alright, Granny Cui. I’ll take it.”
Granny Cui was pleased that Tian Tian agreed. She was a lonely old widow and very careful about choosing tenants. Chunfen and her daughter were distant relatives, so she rented to them. Now this young sister—whom Chunfen had spoken well of—would rent the remaining room.
That meant Granny Cui would earn 60 yuan a month, more than enough to eat well.
The two discussed the terms, wrote up a simple agreement, and Tian Tian paid the rent. Granny Cui reminded her to get her temporary residence permit as soon as possible.
“Sure. I’ll rest today and take care of it tomorrow. By the way, Granny Cui, do you know that middle-aged woman who just walked into the building next door?”
The auntie in imported clothes from the bus had shouted a few times outside the courtyard, and a young, pretty girl had come out from the neighboring building to let her in.
Granny Cui shook her head. “That woman’s never been here before. But the pretty girl who let her in is named Zhou Qiaoqiao. She works in the same workshop as Lizhen.”
Lizhen’s full name was Qian Lizhen, and she worked at a nearby Taiwanese-owned toy factory. She was the daughter of Liu Chunfen—the auntie who had thrown up on the bus. Tian Tian had learned this earlier when everyone introduced themselves.
“I see,” Tian Tian said.
Hearing this, she was completely certain that the auntie in imported clothes didn’t actually have a son working at the police station.
Sure enough, when you’re away from home, you can claim any identity you want. The auntie had probably said that on the bus just to get her money back.
Looks like she’s pretty clever after all.
—
But at that very moment, the auntie in imported clothes—whom Tian Tian had just praised as clever—felt like her world was falling apart.
“No way! How can these be empty? Qiaoqiao, check again.”
Inside a room in the neighboring building, the auntie had just heard her daughter say the watches were empty. Frantic, she pulled another one out of her burlap sack and handed it over.
“Empty. Really,” Qiaoqiao said.
The auntie didn’t believe it. She snatched the electronic watches from her daughter’s hands and started pressing the buttons one by one, the way the vendor had shown her. No matter how long she pressed, the screens stayed dark.
“How is this possible!”
Still unwilling to accept it, she checked every single electronic watch she had bought. Only seven or eight worked. The rest were fakes—just empty shells with no internal mechanism.
“Ahhh—!”
The auntie clawed wildly at her hair, unable to accept what had happened.
Zhou Qiaoqiao watched her mother losing it and felt exhausted.
“Forget it, Mom. Stop making a scene. If you disturb people, the landlord will yell at us.”
“Forget it?! These watches cost me two thousand yuan!”
Zhou Qiaoqiao winced at the amount. That was a whole year’s worth of savings, scrimping on everything. And her mother had been swindled out of it. But there was nothing she could do. This wasn’t the first time she’d heard such stories. At the factory, she’d always thought, What kind of idiot buys goods without inspecting them first?
Now, it turned out that idiot was her own mother.
“No way. I’m going to find that vendor and make him pay.”
“Mom, don’t do anything crazy. Do you really want to mess with people from that place? You might not live to see tomorrow. I’ve told you so many times—Shenzhen isn’t paved with gold. Why don’t you ever listen?”
The auntie couldn’t hear her daughter’s advice. Her mind was consumed by one thought: It’s over.
She had brought her entire life’s savings on this trip. The money stolen on the bus was only part of it. The rest was hidden inside her sanitary pads.
She had been so proud of that trick. No thief would ever think to look there, she’d thought.
Now, thieves hadn’t found it—but a con artist had.
She tore at her hair, desperate to get her money back.
Then, through the open window, she spotted Tian Tian standing on the second-floor balcony of the building next door.
In an instant, she was reenergized and dashed downstairs.
Zhou Qiaoqiao shouted, “Mom, where are you going?!”
—
“Come out! Come out!”
Looking down from the second-floor balcony, Tian Tian saw the auntie in imported clothes banging on the gate of their courtyard. She frowned, sensing trouble. But instead of going downstairs, she continued wringing out her rag and cleaning her room.
It was already past two in the afternoon. If she didn’t finish cleaning and air out the room soon, she wouldn’t sleep well that night.
No one else in the building paid any attention to the banging.
Granny Cui was too old to be bothered. Chunfen, who had already experienced the woman’s craziness on the bus, held her daughter back from answering the door.
But being ignored only fueled the auntie’s frenzy.
Tian Tian never expected that on her very first day in Shenzhen, just as she finished tidying up her new place, the police would show up.
Listening to the officer’s account, Tian Tian finally understood why the auntie was so unhinged.
She had been scammed out of 2,000 yuan.
“But, Officer, neither Aunt Chunfen nor I got off at Renmin Road. What does Xu Songmei getting swindled have to do with us?”
If you’re scammed, go after the swindler! What was the point of coming after two fellow bus passengers?
“Comrade Tian Tian, Comrade Liu Chunfen, don’t be afraid. We came by to ask about what happened on the bus.”
Hearing this, Tian Tian said no more. She laid out the situation on the bus from beginning to end.
She had felt something was off when someone on the bus mentioned Renmin Street. Now that she knew Xu Songmei—the auntie in imported clothes—had bought so many fake hollow electronic watches, she was certain it was a setup.
The criminals had likely started their scheme the moment everyone boarded.
Theft and fraud, one step leading to the next. There was always a way to separate passengers from their money. Anyone who got off at Renmin Road, driven by greed and dreams of getting rich overnight, had probably been cheated.
After Tian Tian finished speaking, the officer immediately sensed something suspicious.
After seeing off the investigating officers, Xu Songmei popped up again.
“Neither of you got off the bus. Did you know it was a scam? You two have no conscience! You couldn’t even give me a heads-up? Now my life savings are gone… You have to compensate me…”
Tian Tian was speechless. “Compensate you? Compensate your big head! You got scammed because you’re not too bright. What does that have to do with us? If you come bothering me again, I’ll go to Renmin Road and tell all those parallel traders that you called the cops on them. Then let’s see if you dare sleep at night!”
That was harsh enough.
Xu Songmei instantly went as quiet as a duck with its neck squeezed. Zhou Qiaoqiao, who had been silent until then, rushed out and said, “Miss, I’m really sorry. My mom was in the wrong here. We were the ones who called the police because we got scammed. They came to investigate. We didn’t tell them to arrest you.”
“Heh, maybe you didn’t, but your mom did,” Tian Tian replied. She didn’t want to argue with them—it was a waste of breath.
“Anyway, I’ll make myself clear. Neither of you better come near me again, or you can kiss your peaceful nights goodbye.”
“Alright, alright. We’re going, we’re going.”
Zhou Qiaoqiao knew how terrifying Tian Tian’s threat was. If those lowlifes got wind of it, life would become unbearable.
Xu Songmei wanted to keep stirring trouble, but after her daughter explained the risks, she got so scared she grabbed her daughter’s hand and ran back into the neighboring building.
—
“What a mess,” Aunt Chunfen sighed. “Tian Tian, I’m sorry I didn’t help you yell at Xu Songmei just now. I’m not good with words, and I didn’t want to mess up your rhythm.”
Tian Tian didn’t really mind. People were selfish by nature. She had known Aunt Chunfen for less than a day. It wasn’t wrong for the woman to look out for herself. The spat they’d just had could be considered payback for helping her rent Granny Cui’s room.
Without Aunt Chunfen’s recommendation, Granny Cui never would have rented to a stranger like her.
“Want to have dinner together tonight? What do you feel like eating?” Aunt Chunfen asked, trying to make amends.
Tian Tian shook her head. “No need. I have something to do outside. I’ll eat out.”
With that, she went back to her room, tidied up a bit, locked the door, and left.
First, she found a nearby phone booth to call home and let her family know she was safe. Then she took a bus to a nearby market.
In her previous life, a colleague once mentioned that around this time, an out-of-town trader had gotten hold of a batch of flip-flops. Just as he was about to leave, a big money-making opportunity came up. Eager to free up his capital for the bigger deal, he wanted to offload the flip-flops quickly.
Tian Tian hadn’t initially planned to take advantage of this opportunity. But since the Lunar New Year, her little savings stash hadn’t grown much. And running into a lunatic like Xu Songmei today only strengthened her resolve to make money, buy a house, and move out.
So, even though it was already past four in the afternoon, Tian Tian decided to go out and earn some cash.
—
“Big sale! Big sale! Flip-flops—two yuan a pair, three yuan for two pairs!”
As soon as she got off the bus, Tian Tian heard the hawking. But hardly anyone stopped. After all, the Lunar New Year had just passed, temperatures were still around ten degrees Celsius, and people were still wearing sneakers. Few were in the mood to buy flip-flops.
“Boss, these flip-flops are pretty good quality.”
Tian Tian crouched down and flipped through the pile of flip-flops spread out on a plastic sheet. She gave a pair a firm squeeze—they were the most ordinary blue plastic flip-flops with foam soles, not very slip-resistant. But they were a classic style, one of the most popular in Guangdong Province.
If she remembered correctly, the wholesale price was usually between 50 and 80 cents a pair.
“Boss, can I get a discount if I buy in bulk?”
The flip-flop vendor had been shouting himself hoarse all day and was feeling listless. Hearing Tian Tian’s question, he didn’t think much of it and just waved his hand. “Two pairs for three yuan.”
Tian Tian wasn’t offended. She rummaged through the pile a little more before stating her offer: “Five hundred pairs. Sixty cents a pair.”
“Five hundred pairs? What? You want five hundred pairs?”
Tian Tian nodded. “That’s right. What do you say? Five hundred pairs at sixty cents each. Cash on delivery.”
“That’s too low. Bump it up—one yuan a pair.”
“Boss, you’re not being straight with me. For these flip-flops, if you buy in bulk from Guangzhou, 50 cents a pair is the absolute ceiling. Besides, the sooner you free up your capital, the sooner you can use that money to make even more. Sure, you could sell them at a higher price if you take your time, but you’d be wasting all your energy here. You’d be better off chasing bigger money.”
The truth was, the vendor was thinking the same thing. But selling 500 pairs wouldn’t really solve his problem.
Tian Tian smiled. “I’ll take 500 pairs today. If they sell well, I might take 1,000 pairs the day after tomorrow. No matter how many flip-flops you have, I’m confident I can move them.”
That finally convinced the vendor.
“Alright. Count them yourself. Five hundred pairs for 300 yuan.”
Yes! Tian Tian cheered inwardly.
Flipping 500 pairs of flip-flops wasn’t going to make her a fortune. But she’d just arrived—better to keep steady and sure.
She came out of the market carrying a large bag of flip-flops and headed straight back.
On the way to the bus stop, she passed a small eatery and had time to buy two barbecued pork buns.
Just as she bit into a bun, she overheard two guys with dyed yellow hair sitting at a table by the door, shooting their mouths off.
“Some cop tipped them off, no telling who. Lucky Brother Rong got wind of it and told everyone to run.”
“If I find out which scumbag did it, I’ll wipe out his whole family.”
“Sucks that we can’t go to Renmin Road for a while.”
Tian Tian pricked up her ears at the trash talk. Something about it felt familiar. Could it be that after Xu Songmei called the police, they actually went there to make arrests?
That was surprisingly efficient.
Just as she was thinking that, someone called her name.
“You… you’re Tian Tian, right? You’re from Tianwu Village, aren’t you?”
Tian Tian still had the bun in her mouth when one of the two yellow-haired guys suddenly called out her name. She was stunned.
She didn’t remember knowing any yellow-haired guys.
But the guy acted like they were old friends. “Tian Tian! I’m He Jiajie from the class next to yours in middle school!”
Tian Tian was still blank. Counting her past life, she had graduated from middle school over a decade ago. How was she supposed to remember someone from a neighboring class?
Especially one with yellow hair.
She gave an awkward laugh, shook her head, stopped eating her bun, and headed straight for the bus stop.
Seeing this, the other yellow-haired guy burst out laughing. “Jiajie, don’t go acting like you know every pretty girl you see. Your flirting game is terrible.”
He Jiajie slammed the table. “I’m not wrong! That’s our middle school’s campus beauty, Tian Tian. I heard she works at a supply and marketing co-op. What’s she doing in Shenzhen?”
Just then, a black Santana pulled up not far away. The window rolled down, revealing a rugged-looking man.
“Brother Meng!”
He Jiajie’s face lit up. “Brother Meng, look over there. That’s Tian Tian from your village, isn’t it?”
Brother Meng followed He Jiajie’s pointing finger and saw Tian Tian waiting for the bus.
The setting sun cast a golden glow on her profile. Her beautiful face and well-proportioned figure left every man in the car momentarily speechless.
Brother Meng was the first to snap out of it. He quickly shook his head. “You’re mistaken, Jie. Go home now. Don’t come out lately.”
Just then, a man sitting in the back seat said, “A-Meng, that girl is stunning—absolutely gorgeous! Introduce me sometime.”
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