Deliberate Possession [Entertainment Industry] - Chapter 77

Chapter 77: Negative Example

The next morning, although there was no deliberate frightening knocking to wake them up, they still didn’t wake up naturally, but were awakened directly by the phone’s ringtone.

Jiang Yumian pushed Jing Xiaoyan. The phone was placed on her bedside table yesterday, and she couldn’t reach it.

Jing Xiaoyan reached for the phone, forcing herself to open her eyes. It was a call. As soon as she answered, before she could speak, the other side hung up.

She stuffed the phone under the pillow, holding Jiang Yumian. After the two of them calmed down for a few minutes, Jiang Yumian pushed her shoulder and asked, “What time is it?”

Jing Xiaoyan rubbed her face, whispering, “Half past eight.”

“Get up. They should be up too.” Jiang Yumian muffled in her arms, poking Jing Xiaoyan’s waist, making the other person dodge backward because of the tickling.

Jing Xiaoyan sat up groggily. “I’m so sleepy…”

She wanted to lie down again, but the phone under the pillow rang again. This time it was an alarm, with vibration added, which was annoying.

After washing up and changing clothes, Jing Xiaoyan pulled away the bath towel covering the camera and casually said, “Good morning.”

The camera moved up and down.

Jing Xiaoyan paused. “Can it really hear?”

The camera moved up and down again.

Jiang Yumian walked over and handed her the mic. “Hurry up and put on the mic. It will be easier for sound pickup after we go out.”

Jing Xiaoyan spread her hand and looked down. “You put it on for me.”

Jiang Yumian let out a soft hum, pulling her collar ungentlely. After helping her put on the mic, she patted her collar.

“Let’s go downstairs.”

Jing Xiaoyan blew on the fuzzy mic clipped to her collar, following behind Jiang Yumian. Not long after they went downstairs, Chu Qianyun and Su Mumu also came down.

Su Mumu sat on the sofa. “Were you guys also woken up by the alarm?”

Jiang Yumian nodded, couldn’t help but complain, “One call, six alarms. I didn’t notice so many yesterday. I opened the alarm clock when I got up just now and saw that one was set every five minutes. They were really afraid we wouldn’t get up.”

Jing Xiaoyan glanced upstairs, then quickly got up. “We need to go wake up the other four. They don’t have phones.”

Chu Qianyun nodded. “Oh right.”

When Lin Xi and Luo Cheng came out, they were holding a small card.

Jiang Yumian leaned over to look. It was printed with the pattern of a bowl of rice and noodles, and a QR code.

Well, this was indeed what they needed right now, but the print looked a bit gaudy, and it even had some mosaic effects…

Jiang Yumian pondered for a long time, couldn’t help but say, “Why does this feel a bit like those explicit cards on the street…”

Jing Xiaoyan took the card in her hand, looked at the front and back. “Regardless, scan the code to add them on WeChat and ask if they have food for sale. We have money in our phone.”

The money in their phone was Jing Xiaoyan’s money. After buying the tent and other supplies in the previous episode, she still had two hundred and thirty-one yuan, and the WeChat balance was also two hundred and thirty-one yuan. The payment password was Jing Xiaoyan’s birthday.

Su Mumu’s phone was the same, but they only had one hundred and thirty yuan.

Chu Qianyun nodded. “If we buy vegetables and cook ourselves with this money, it’s enough for four days.”

As soon as they added the WeChat contact, without waiting for them to speak, a price list was sent directly.

Jiang Yumian’s eyes widened. “Why does one potato cost fifteen yuan?”

Su Mumu twitched her mouth. “One egg is twenty-five yuan…”

Where did this unscrupulous merchant come from?

Jing Xiaoyan zoomed in on the image and looked at the last line of text. “New users get a 10% discount on their first purchase, limited to twenty yuan.”

Jiang Yumian’s head ached. “It’s still not cheap. Twenty yuan can only buy eight eggs.”

Su Mumu took a deep breath. “Let’s buy first. I can also use the discount once. Let’s buy the eggs and vegetables we need for today.”

After paying, the prepared ingredients were quickly thrown outside the villa’s large iron gate. Xie Yunhuan and Ling Yisong ran out to get them. There wasn’t much, actually: eight eggs, a few tomatoes, a few potatoes, and a cabbage.

Jiang Yumian looked at the phone, remembering the Moments posts she had scrolled through yesterday.

She placed the phone on the table, pointing at the screen. “Look at this person whose username is ‘Niguang’ (Against the Light). Their net income is ten thousand a day, and they can earn it with their phone. Should I ask?”

Jing Xiaoyan glanced at it and looked away, saying directly, “This is obviously a scam.”

“Then do you have any other way?” Lin Xi said, taking the phone directly, taking a screenshot, clicking into the chat box, and sending a message asking how to make money.

The other side replied almost instantly.

Niguang: “Want to make money? It’s simple, but a bit troublesome. It depends on whether you want to earn it or not.”

A few people gathered their heads together. Luo Cheng looked at the phone, clicked on the input box, “Is it simple or troublesome?”

Niguang: “It’s simple, but I’m afraid you’ll find it troublesome.”

Jing Xiaoyan impatiently inhaled. What was all this talk about? Just say it directly. “Ask him how to earn it.”

Lin Xi took the phone. “Just say it directly. I’m not afraid of trouble. I just need money.”

Niguang: “One yuan. I’ll send you five article links. You like them and send me a screenshot, and I’ll transfer you five yuan.”

Jing Xiaoyan’s eyebrows twitched. She basically understood what this episode was about. She silently leaned back, letting them play.

After earning four yuan, the other side asked them to transfer ten yuan and do something else, and they would transfer back thirty yuan later.

Lin Xi rolled her eyes. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

Jiang Yumian blinked. “This is a scammer.”

Jing Xiaoyan nodded. “One hundred percent, a scammer.”

Xie Yunhuan took the phone, hesitating. “Although we know it’s a scam, it’s only ten yuan. If we get scammed, it’s only six yuan, right?”

Luo Cheng scratched her face, nodded, and looked up at the others. “How about…”

Jing Xiaoyan’s mouth twitched. “If you want to play, just play.”

They kept playing, not saying a word, a typical pig butchering scam. Wouldn’t they just be broadcast as a negative example later…

In the end, after transferring over three hundred yuan, a group of people surrounded the phone, watching. Only Jing Xiaoyan sat far away, not wanting to sit with these fools at all.

Ling Yisong looked at the account balance. They already had one thousand yuan in their account!

Jiang Yumian reached out to interrupt them. “Stop playing for now. Let’s buy the vegetables.”

Jing Xiaoyan quickly sat back, amused. “Oh, you’re stopping now? Are you willing to?”

Jiang Yumian cleared her throat. “I wasn’t playing with them.”

One thousand yuan was enough to buy all the vegetables for the next four days, plus some rice.

But they waited for over an hour, and the vegetable seller didn’t come.

Jing Xiaoyan shook the phone. “No more money, not a single cent left.”

Now, it was obvious that the two of them were in cahoots. It was likely that everyone in this contact list who claimed to be able to make money was part of the same group.

Lin Xi blinked, looking at the other phone in Su Mumu’s hand. “Mumu still has one hundred and ten yuan. Let’s play with Niguang again.”

Jing Xiaoyan’s expression froze. “I see you won’t give up until you hit a brick wall.”

Chu Qianyun said weakly, “But that person didn’t scam us. If they’re in cahoots, maybe we can scam some back…”

Jing Xiaoyan pulled Jiang Yumian, who was eager to try, and said unhappily, “Just go ahead and play.”

A new round of transactions began. When the group was about to transfer all the money, Jing Xiaoyan finally couldn’t hold back. “How much is left in the change?”

Lin Xi didn’t even lift her head. “Two hundred and fifty.”

Jing Xiaoyan: “…”

You look like two hundred and fifty. (A Chinese slang term for an idiot.)

She sighed heavily, reminding them, “That’s enough. Don’t continue. If you transfer everything this time, it will all be gone for real.”

Xie Yunhuan looked up. “Really? Doesn’t seem like it. Last time we got up to one thousand.”

Jing Xiaoyan took a deep breath, directly stuffed the phone into her pocket. Creating a bit of show effect was enough. They really fell for it.

“If we keep playing, we’ll finish this season of the variety show, and the next one will be a public legal education class.”

“You don’t want to be a negative example, do you…”

As soon as Jing Xiaoyan spoke, she suddenly paused, then threw the phone out of her pocket. “Play, continue. Lu Zhi, edit this part out.”

Lin Xi was a little confused. “Didn’t you say not to play? What if all the money is gone? I don’t want to be a negative example.”

Jing Xiaoyan pointed at the phone. “How can we be a negative example if we don’t lose all the money? What if the audience in front of the TV learns from us and continues to play with a fluke mentality?”

“So, continue. Lose all the money. Lose it completely. Let the fans and the audience feel sorry for us for losing money. That’s how the anti-scam effect will be most significant.”

Jiang Yumian looked at the phone with a heavy heart. “Play. Anyway, it’s all a loss…”

The money was useless even if they kept it.

Lin Xi stopped moving. “Who’s going? I don’t want to be a negative example when the show airs.”

Xie Yunhuan also stopped moving. “Ahem, will we be called idiots…”

“Let’s do it together. We’ll have company when we get scolded.” Luo Cheng took the phone, pulling the people on both sides. “Hurry up. What are you waiting for?”

In the end, all the money was indeed scammed, and Jing Xiaoyan was absolutely right. This time, after transferring it, it was all gone.

Jiang Yumian leaned close to Jing Xiaoyan and whispered, “You knew from the start?”

Jing Xiaoyan nodded, turned off her mic, and whispered to her, “The theme of the movie I’m filming this time is anti-scam. The male lead was scammed online in high school, eventually scammed out of the country, and disappeared. Various scam methods, and this is one of them.”

Jiang Yumian raised an eyebrow. “No wonder he died early. No brains.”

Jing Xiaoyan smiled at her, and turned on both their mics again.

Lin Xi threw the phone away hopelessly, looking at Jing Xiaoyan lifelessly. “Why didn’t you stop us when you knew…”

“This money was useless anyway. You couldn’t buy vegetables.” Jing Xiaoyan patted Jiang Yumian, stood up, and walked toward the kitchen. “Let’s make dinner first. We need to get through today.”

Jiang Yumian followed her eagerly into the kitchen, watching her chop vegetables, boil water, and cook noodles. She couldn’t help but ask, “When did you learn to cook?”

Jing Xiaoyan blinked, looking at the noodles in the pot, and smiled. “I didn’t specifically learn it. I lived alone in high school and didn’t want to keep ordering takeout, so I decided to cook myself. I learned by following online recipes a few times.”

Jiang Yumian leaned in to look at the steaming pot, turned off both her and Jing Xiaoyan’s mics, and asked again, “Why didn’t you go abroad with your aunt and the others? You were alone, and no one took care of you.”

Jing Xiaoyan quickly reached out to stop Jiang Yumian, afraid she would get burned by the heat, and didn’t let her get close.

Meeting Jiang Yumian’s confused gaze, seeing her eagerness to know, Jing Xiaoyan couldn’t help but smile, leaning close to her ear and deliberately teasing her, “If I had gone abroad, how would I have met you? If I had gone abroad, I wouldn’t have a girlfriend. Besides, being managed is not good.”

Jiang Yumian grabbed the hand she had placed in front of her, seriously reasoning with her, “That’s not right. Don’t be so absolute. After all, your aunt and your father are married. If you followed your aunt back to my house, wouldn’t you have met me?”

That was a really silly question.

Jing Xiaoyan pursed her lips and smiled. If she had really gone abroad, she might not have come back. Their marriage was a sham, and it had little to do with her. Even if there was a need to return to the country for a public appearance, she wouldn’t be needed.

Jiang Yumian pushed her. “Hey, tell me.”

Jing Xiaoyan reached out and hooked Jiang Yumian’s neck, whispering in her ear, “Because my dad doesn’t like me. To be precise, he detests me.”

She quickly added, “Of course, I hate him very much too.”

Jiang Yumian pursed her lips, her eyes full of sympathy for Jing Xiaoyan.

Jing Xiaoyan released her, looking at her with a smile.

Unlike Jiang Yumian’s current mood, the more Jiang Yumian felt sorry for her, the happier she was.

Jiang Yumian opened her mouth. “You don’t have to force a smile…”

Jing Xiaoyan reached out and flicked her forehead. “You’re so silly. I’m genuinely happy.”

Support