Chinese Stories in English
Opposite Shore (Page 3)
Stories printed in The Other Shore《彼岸花》作家网*选编|冰峰*主编
Original text at page noted after each story; translated from the webpages cited below.
1. City Defense 3. Anti-Scam Blunder 4. Barnyard Grass
2. Beggars 5. Ride-Share Second Fiddle
1. City Defense (守城)
Yin Xianhua (殷贤华)
Arrows rained down. The air was filled with smoke.
Horses neighed. People screamed and cried. Bombs exploded. The sounds all mixed together.
“Brothers, we can't let the enemy capture the city!” he shouted. “Hold on for me! Hold on!”. We waved his hands wildly in the light of the fires and kept issuing orders.
He hadn’t been able to see his hand in front of his face, but now, the flames of war lit up the pitch-black night. The city and its surroundings were as light as day. Outside the city wall, he saw batch after batch of enemy soldiers that had been shot by arrows, killed by rocks or burned by falling oil drums, but they still kept coming back like chives that would spring up again as soon as you cut them down. They swarmed forward like ants, one following the other.
An officer stumbled up to him, his face covered in blood. “Commander, there’re too many of them. We can't defend the city. How about we escape through the back gate?” he pleaded.
Another officer staggered forward. Trembling, he echoed, “Yeah, Commander. Like they say, ‘As long as the mountains remain, there’ll be no shortage of firewood!’”
He drew his saber and stabbed both officers in their hearts, one after the other. “You who dare to undermine the morale of my army will be killed without mercy!” he bellowed. Then he climbed up to the drum platform on the city wall and beat the war drum himself.
Boom!
Boom, boom!!
Boom, boom, boom!!!
Out of nowhere he heard the faint cry of his old mother below the sound of war drums. Her voice seemed ethereal, as if it came from the distant horizon or fell directly to earth from high in the clouds.
She cried out, “Please, Son, stop beating the drum and run away!”
He completely ignored her. He killed an enemy soldier climbing up the wall on an assault ladder with one stroke of his saber, then strode forward and used all his strength to overturn another ladder on the wall. He smiled a smile of victory as he watched enemy soldiers fall down the wall like leaves from a tree, wailing like ghosts and howling like wolves.
“Hold on for another hour, Brothers, and it’ll be dawn! Devil soldiers from Hell can’t stand the light. These ghouls will naturally vaporize in the daylight! The dawn is just ahead! Hold on, everyone, hold on!” His eyes spit fire, and his throat spit fire, too.
He was like an angry lion. His hair stood on end and his whole body shook.
Boom!
Boom, boom!!
Boom, boom, boom!!!
And then, in addition to the sound of war drums, he could clearly hear his old mother crying. She sounded very close, maybe just outside the city wall.
Her cries were heartbreaking. “Please, Son, open up right away or it’ll be too late to get out!”
He frowned and looked at the sky growing pale as a fish belly on the horizon. He ultimately ignored the voice.
He waved his hands wildly and kept issuing orders.
Under his breath, he muttered the last words of his life. “I finally made it past this level. It was so hard killing the monsters to get up to the next level!”
.…
.…
The sun shone brightly the next morning, but it didn’t warm the people at all. Instead, it made them feel sad and distressed. Their village was in ruins after the flash flood. An old woman being held up by others looked at her flooded home and cried bitterly. The villagers comforted her while they shook their heads and sighed.
Just last night, the old woman's son was home playing City Defense on his computer. As was his habit, he stayed up all night and bolted his door because he was worried that his family would disturb him. When the flash flood burst through the village in the early morning without warning, the old woman was too weak to break open her son's door….
Text at p. 197. Translated from 搜狐 at:
https://www.sohu.com/a/683449188_120753574
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2. Beggars (乞丐)
Wang Zhendong (王振东)
It was long past lunch time when a group of beggars gathered in front of Propitious Unicorn Pan's house to beg for food. Their leader bowed at the waist and clasped his hands in front of him, the traditional gesture for showing respect. “Congratulations! Congratulations!” he said in a steady voice. “The master is celebrating a wedding. Please give us any leftover food and drinks.”
Unicorn looked gloomy and waved his hands. “No one in my family is a bride or bridegroom. Go away, go away! You’re making me unhappy!”
The leader wasn’t offended by the cold shoulder. “Since no one’s getting married, why are you preparing a banquet?” he asked with concern.
“What business is that of yours?” Unicorn was getting even more impatient.
“I'm sorry, I spoke out of turn. Please calm down, sir!” The beggar repeated the traditional gesture of respect. “There must be a reason you’re getting angry, sir. Maybe you’ll feel better if you talk about it,” he suggested.
Unicorn took his first serious look at the beggar. “To be honest,” he sighed, “I’m going to Beijing to take the imperial examination. I’ve spent all my savings on studying and I owe money to a lot of people outside the family. Today I held a banquet and invited several relatives and friends to my home because I planned to ask them for more money for travel expenses. They all said they’d come, but none of them are here yet.”
Talking about it did make Unicorn feel much more relaxed and reassured. He continued, “But you’re here, so please take a seat and have a few drinks.”
Since it turned out that they’d encountered someone experiencing financial difficulties, the beggars tactfully stepped aside. Their leader bowed and said, “We only came in to ask for drinks because we thought you were having a wedding. We had no idea about your situation. Excuse us, we'll leave now!”
Unicorn stopped the leader. “No, really, all of you, please come in for some food and drinks. It’s hot today, and if we don't eat this stuff, it’ll go bad. It's better for you all to enjoy it!”
The beggars looked at their leader. He nodded, so they ended their polite denials and sat down to eat and drink.
During the banquet, the leader said to Unicorn, “Thank you for your kindness, sir, and for giving us all this food and drink. We’re very grateful. But as the saying goes, a man who doesn’t repay a favor isn’t a gentleman. I wonder, how much money do you need to go to Beijing for the examination?”
“Just enough to reach Beijing safely and not suffer from cold or hunger on the way,” Unicorn answered.
The leader grinned. “What’s so hard about that? We’ll escort you to Beijing and ensure that you won’t suffer from hunger or cold. You’ll make it on time to take the exam.”
All the beggars agreed. “We live where we like and have no demands on our time. Let's take Master Pan to the capital.”
It was Unicorn’s turn to lean forward and clasp his fists in gratitude, but he couldn’t accept. “In all of history,” he thought to himself, “has anyone ever relied on beggars to help him go to Beijing for the imperial examination? Wouldn't my friends and relatives have a field day if they found out about it?
The leader read Unicorn's mind and smiled. “Master Pan, you scholars value your self-respect. You must be worried about being made fun of along the way if a bunch of beggars escorts you to the capital. Right?”
His words hit the nail on the head. Unicorn was shocked and replied insincerely, “You all have good intentions, but don’t I know what’s best? I just wouldn’t want you to go through all that hassle on my behalf.”
The leader replied bluntly: “You scholars are all about getting government jobs. If you pass the imperial examination and become an official, no one will dare make fun of you. If you don’t, you’ll sit at home in poverty and be laughed at no matter how righteous you are. Master Pan, would you rather stay home in poverty or go to Beijing to take the exam?”
Unicorn hadn’t expected that someone who made a living by begging would be so uniquely perceptive. He felt the beggars’ leader was more than his equal and agreed to go with his group.
The next morning, Unicorn and the beggars set out on the road to Beijing. They let him stay in an inn while they went door to door begging for food and money. They did indeed escort him all the way to the capital.
The exam was held as scheduled a few days later. Encouraged by the beggars, Unicorn entered the exam room with confidence. His essay was eloquent and he was awarded a second-class Jinshi degree. He was then assigned to be the magistrate of Yuzhou County in Henan Province.
The old imperial custom allowed officials to return to their hometowns in glory to worship their ancestors before taking up their new posts. The group of beggars followed Unicorn closely when he went home and visited his forebears’ graves.
When his relatives and friends learned that Unicorn had become an official, they came to congratulate him and brought him generous gifts. Unicorn knew they weren’t interested in him as a person, but in the power he held, so he thanked them all politely but offered them no special favors.
In the evening, Unicorn held a banquet in the hall of his mansion to entertain the beggars who’d escorted him to Beijing for the exam. He hired musicians and decorated the hall with lanterns and streamers. He toasted them and drank deeply and happily. He felt like he was with family.
Unicorn offered sacrifices to his ancestors and got ready to go and Yuzhou to take up his post. He said goodbye to the beggars when he was about to depart, but their leader said they planned to accompany him to Yuzhou. Unicorn was surprised and said tactfully, “I was lucky enough to pass the exam and was assigned as a county magistrate by the court. It was all thanks to your help. Everyone in this county appreciates what you did, but I don't want to trouble you any further or subject you to any more hassles. Besides, if we all go together, it would be … inconvenient for me.”
The leader replied, “You don't need to worry, Master Pan. We don’t have any unreasonable expectations about going with you as you take up your post. When we get there, you’ll perform your official duties and we’ll beg for our food. We’ll each have our own destinies and we’ll never cause you any trouble. We hope you’ll be a good and honest official and are going with you just to see if you will be. Besides, you may need us in Yuzhou and it will be more convenient for us to serve you if we’re there.”
Unicorn looked ashamed and agreed to travel together with them.
Shedian, a town famous throughout China, is in Yuzhou County. It’s an important commercial port connecting nine provinces by land and river routes. Merchants from the entire country gathered there, and robbers, thieves, deadbeats and swindlers followed them. The interference with normal trade and the disruption of social order brought about by these people had been a headache for successive county magistrates.
The beggars’ leader settled his group in Shedian after they got to Yuzhou with Unicorn. They made inquiries about the circumstances and whereabouts of the criminals while they were out begging and reported back to Unicorn in timely fashion. Following these clues, it didn't take long for Unicorn to solve a backlog of several major and cases. He punished an assortment of habitual thieves, bullies and other scumbags, and also took down a bandit nest that had been entrenched in the Qifeng Mountains for more than ten years. The people of Yizhou were astounded that this new county magistrate had such ability and shouted his praises!
Supplementary note: Unicorn served in Yuzhou for three years with outstanding achievements. He earned a good reputation. The Ministry of Personnel was eminently satisfied and transferred him to Shandong Province as a prefect. He never forgot the kindness of the beggars and gave them a portion of his salary every year, which became legend.
Text at p. 10, Translated from 搜狐 at
https://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_a9f8b7c30102yttv.html
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3. Anti-Scam Blunder (反诈乌龙)
Lai Haishi (赖海石)
Telephone fraud was rampant for a while. Gambits such as “Guess who I am?” and “Transfer the funds to a safe account” were used regularly. I’ve been out in the world for many years and have seen a lot, so I never got fooled. I could even play games with the scammers if I felt like it.
One time, for example, I got a call from an unknown number. The caller addressed me by name. “Are you busy, Ocean?”
The voice was hoarse, so I asked, “Who are you? Do you have a cold?”
“Can't you even recognize my voice?” he responded. “Oh, I ate too many lychees last night. They’re so acidic, I got a sore throat.”
I’d already figured out about eighty percent of what was going on, so I decided to play a trick on him. “Are you Brightness Li? Are you at home?” In fact my coworker Brightness was sitting at the desk next to me at the time.
“Yeah, I'm home. I'm Brightness. I'm in a little trouble now….”
The caller was undoubtedly a scammer. I turned on the speakerphone and invited my colleagues to listen in.
“What trouble?” I asked. “Can I help you out?”
“I got drunk last night and got into a fight with some guy,” he answered. “I beat him up and he had to go to the hospital, and I’ve got to foot the bill. Can you send me the money...?”
I interrupted him. “I was just about to call you to tell you about that 300,000 yuan I borrowed from you. I was supposed to pay you back next month, but I’ve got the money now, so I can get it to you early. I asked my wife to take it to your house this morning.”
He paused, obviously not having a reply. “How much did you send?”
I said, emphasizing every word, “Three -- hundred -- thousand -- yuan. That’s what I owe you, right?”
“Yeah, right. Three hundred thou.”
“I think my wife will be at your door any second now. Don’t go anywhere. My boss is here, so I've got to hang up.”
My colleagues got a big laugh out of that.
My friend Old Liu from the Public Security Bureau said they’ve recently been working with the police and the public to catch telephone scammers. He asked me to help him if I heard anything. I asked what I could do, and he said I could hook my phone up to their system ... stuff like that.
I got the chance today.
I got a call from an unknown number. As soon as I answered, the caller said, “Ocean....”
His voice was hoarse -- obviously another liar.
I asked, “Who is this?” At the same time I followed the instructions Old Liu had given me to connect to the Public Security Bureau’s system.
The caller responded “You pipsqueak. Can't even recognize my voice?”
“I do, I do. What's up?”
He said, “I had thyroid surgery and my voice is hoarse. The doctor said it’ll be back to normal in three months, but it's been six months and it still hasn’t improved. Someone told me I'll be hoarse for the rest of my life if I don't get it taken care of quickly. I heard there’s an imported thyroid hormone that’s effective, so I want to get some and try it out, but I don't have enough cash. Can you send me some money? I'm at the bank now.”
I knew he’d made up that bit about “surgery” and “medicine” for one purpose: to get money. And he was already waiting at the bank.
Feedback from the police showed that the scammer's location had been identified, but because he was out of town, it would take time to coordinate with the police there to assist in his arrest. To gain the necessary time, they asked me to delay as much as possible. If I got him to stay at the location for thirty minutes, he wouldn’t be able to escape.
I told the scammer, “Money’s no problem. How much do you want?”
“Two thousand yuan.”
“Don't leave. I'll go to the employee residences to get my bank card and come back right away to transfer the money.”
“Oh. Well, I’ll wait….”
I hung up the phone. I was incredibly excited and hoped that the scammer would be brought to justice right away.
I was notified a little over twenty minutes later that plainclothes officers had arrived at the scene. They asked me to call the scammer back so they could identify him. I made the call: “Hey, I got my bank card. Tell me your card number and I'll transfer the money right away.”
So he read off a string of numbers. As he was reading, I heard him start arguing. “…What’re you arresting me for.…”
I knew that they’d closed the net over there.
That evening Old Liu called and asked me to go to his workplace for a celebratory drink. I drove over, and when he saw me, he grasped my hand and said, “It took a long time to get that liar. I'll take you to meet him. He’s still using you as an excuse, pretending to be your father.”
My head buzzed when I saw the guy. He really was my father.
“Why were you trying to pull off a con, Dad?” I asked.
“What con?” he responded in a hoarse voice. “Who did I cheat?”
“What's wrong with your voice, Dad?”
“Didn't I tell you on the phone this morning? My voice got hoarse after thyroid surgery. The doctor said it's OK, most people's voices get hoarse after the surgery, but they usually get back to normal in three months. It's been six months now and it's still not healed. I heard that imported thyroid hormone drugs are useful, but I don't have enough money, so I asked you to send me some.”
“You never told me before, so I didn't know you had a problem.”
“When have you ever come home for a visit in the last two years?” my father asked. “Have you even called me? Have you ever asked if I'm OK? Have you ever sent me a penny?”
I lowered my head, speechless. I’d been busy doing nothing every day since I left home, really busying myself to death. I looked at Old Liu awkwardly, wishing there was a crack in the ground I could crawl into.
Text at p. 230. Translated from 刊AAP下载 at https://m.fx361.com/news/2023/0406/20591371.html
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4. Rice and Barnyard Grass (稻与稗)
Xu Jinqing (徐金庆)
Rainy Liu saw a familiar face when he strolled into the restaurant. It was his former director, a man with a calm expression and gray hair standing straight up. Rainy intuitively wanted to avoid him, but after hesitating for a moment, he walked over and sat opposite him.
Rainy, like the old director, ordered a dish and a bowl of rice. He told the waiter, “I'll pay the old director's bill.”
The old director made a downward motion with his hand. “When did I ask you to pay my bill?” he demanded.
A smile slid across Rainy's mouth, and then he laughed: “You're already retired, but you’re still afraid I'll get you in trouble with the corruption watchdogs?”
The old director stared at Rainy but said nothing. He took out his wallet and paid the bill.
Rainy felt uncomfortable under his former boss's gaze and made an effort to avoid the man’s eyes. He straightened up to sit tall but didn't dare look directly at him. At the same time, he snorted under his breath, “What year is he living in, still paying in cash.”
The two of them chatted idly.
The old director finished eating quickly and stood up. Rainy finally asked about something he’d long wanted to know. “Can you tell me in what way I’m not as good as Sunny Fang, sir?”
Sunny Fang had been Rainy's classmate in college. They’d graduated and started at the bureau together, but Sunny was now the director while Rainy was only a section chief. Rainy didn't understand. He had no less ability to do the job than Sunny and was better able to respond to unexpected problems. He often spent time around the old director’s office, so why had his former boss favored Sunny?
The old director sat down again. His eyes focused into the distance over Rainy's head. After a long time, he looked at Rainy again.
“Do you remember the flood a few years back?” he asked.
Rainy did indeed remember. He and Sunny were both deputy section chiefs at the time. They went together to learn more about the disaster. On the way, they saw a village that was surrounded by the flood, like an isolated island floating in the middle of the water.
The old director said, “Sunny waded into the village.”
“So did I,” Rainy noted. “I was the one who reported it to you.”
The old director nodded. He paused for a moment, then continued, “Do you remember when our building was under construction? Before we called for bids, one company gave paintings as gifts to several key figures.”
This was something Rainy was even less likely to forget. He and Sunny were both section chiefs then. One of the deputy directors was about to retire, and Rainy was doing everything he could to get the promotion. They were all important members of the construction supervisory team, so the company naturally gave him a painting as well. He declined it at first, a symbolic gesture of politeness, and then accepted it. Then, in the blink of an eye, he handed it over to the bureau's corruption watchdogs.
“Wasn’t I honest enough? It seems I was the only one who handed over the painting to the watchdogs on his own initiative. Sunny didn’t.” Rainy plucked up his courage and shot a look like a sharp arrow into the old director's eyes. “But you promoted Sunny to deputy director and transferred me to a department without real power.”
“Yes, he didn't hand in a painting, because he never accepted one at all,” the old director answered. “That was the finding of the watchdogs’ investigation.”
The sharp arrow he’d shot at the old director seemed unexpectedly to have been chopped off. Rainy's eyes widened instantly, and then his eyelids drooped.
“I used to grow rice when I was a kid,” the old director continued. “I have a deep affection for the plant, but there’s always a kind millet growing with it in the paddies. We called it ‘barnyard grass’. It’s almost the same as rice before it’s picked, so it’s difficult for most people to distinguish the two. Unfortunately, it competes with rice for nutrients and keeps the rice from growing. Once I recognized it, I’d make sure to root it out and feed it to the cattle. It’s good fodder for them.”
Just then the waiter brought Rainy's rice. The old director said, “Eat it right away. It’s good rice.” He stood up to leave, but after a couple of steps he turned back and said, “Sunny never told me about the time you waded into the village.”
Text at p. 236. Translated from
http://www.591qyd.net/magazine/article/qsg_3968683.html
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5. Ride-Share “Second Fiddle” (网约”店小二”)
Flute (笛子)
At noon, Plain called an online ride-share company to go to the airport to pick up relatives. The driver who took the order had a funny online name, “Second Fiddle”.
It’d take about fifty minutes to get to the airport. Plain asked casually, “I see you don’t take a break at noon, Second. Working so hard, you must make lots of money every month. Am I right?”
“To answer my esteemed guest, my salary plus a bonus is adequate to support myself without a problem.”
Plain smiled, yawned, and fell asleep to the soothing music in the car. She worked at a TV station and had stayed up until two in the morning the previous night to finish a task. She’d just set the alarm on her phone when the Sandman pulled her into a dream -- the breeze was blowing, she was walking in a field full of flowers and the sound of flowing water came from far away. She walked and walked….
“Hey, wake up, ma’am. We're at the airport. Hey, hey —.”
Plain woke up with a start. Airport? Where's the stream? Oh, the gurgling stream was just the sound of the music in the car. And there wasn’t any fragrance of flowers in a field.
She smiled awkwardly, paid the fare and got out of the car in a hurry.
Plain lived in a rented apartment on Chang'an Road. It was close to her workplace and convenient for transportation, with a bus stop only fifty meters away from her door. One morning she came out of the elevator and was surprised to see a familiar face. “Huh? You live here, too, Second?”
Second looked confused. He’d obviously forgotten her. Plain was a little embarrassed and hurried to remind him that she’d taken his car to the airport to pick someone up a week before. He smiled and said, “Oh, what a coincidence.”
A new subway line had opened recently and some buses had adjusted their routes. The bus that Plain took to work would no longer stop near her apartment starting next month. Right before she happened to run into Second, a female colleague who rented an apartment next door had suggested that they find someone to carpool with. Plain promptly stopped him and said there was a mutually beneficial opportunity. “A carpool, if you’re interested. It’s a win-win deal. How about it?”
“Okay,” Second laughed, so Plain created a small group on WeChat, the “carpooling trio” group.
The trio made a date to pick lychees at an ecological park in the suburbs on the weekend. On the way they sang along with the music in the car.
The car suddenly slowed down. Someone was lying in the road up ahead.
When they got closer, they saw that the injured person was a woman who’d been riding an electric bike. Now her body was twisted into a ball. She groaned in pain and blood flowed continuously from a wound on her head. Plain and Second looked at each other at once and were about to do something to help.
“Hey, could it be.... Should we ... just call the police or call 120 for an ambulance for her?” The cautious colleague hesitated and wanted to stop them.
“We’re kind of far from the city and I’m afraid she can’t afford any delay,” Plain said.
Don't be afraid, the dashcam will prove that we had nothing to do with the woman's injury.” Second bent down to help the woman up after he finished speaking, and Plain hurried to open the back door.
They turned the car around and drove towards the city. Along the way, Plain nestled the injured woman in her arms and took out a clean towel to press tightly on her wound.
Fortunately, they’d rescued the woman in time and she was OK. The three friends were very happy, and Second generously treated them to an extravagant meal to celebrate the “trio's” good deed.
That afternoon, Plain was organizing interview materials when her colleague posted a rant on the trio’s WeChat group. “I was sick and sleeping in my quarters when the noise of a wall being knocked down during renovation work upstairs like to hit me in the head. I ran up there and knocked on the door to ask them to quiet down and saw they were actually going to knock down a load-bearing wall to make more usable space! I warned them that demolishing a load-bearing wall would have serious consequences, but they didn’t listen at all. They even said they weren’t the only family in the building doing it.”
“Bastards!!!” Second sent three angry emojis.
“This is too much,” Plain added. “We’ve got to file a complaint!”
“That’s useless,” her colleague responded. “These people who’re being relocated by the government have plenty of money. Even if we complain, nothing will happen.”
Plain refused to believe things were that bad, so she suggested that the three of them file a complaint with the relevant government agency. Her colleague immediately seconded the proposal.
Second didn't respond for over a half hour. He finally replied and said he was on the phone just now and would take care of the matter.
Plain disagreed. “No, there’s strength in numbers. It’ll be more effective if the three of us work together.”
“I can do it alone. Trust me,” Second insisted. He was treating the matter as lightly as if he were buying a cabbage and even added a flippant tongue-sticking-out emoji. Plain was disgusted and felt that he shouldn't use such a frivolous expression on such a serious matter.
Second left a message for the group at midnight claiming he had urgent matters to deal with these days and wouldn’t be able to drive. The others didn’t see a hair on his head after that. Plain thought he was hiding out, trying to avoid the hassle, and her good impression of him plummeted. She and her colleague took a taxi to and from work every day.
One night, out of the blue, Plain’s colleague reported to the group that she’d met her “full-time driver” and was leaving the carpooling group. Plain was undecided about whether to leave the group as well, but she made plans to buy a small electric scooter for transportation.
Her colleague dropped a bombshell a few days later. “I never thought Second was secretly a rich man, but he’s a second-generation demolition tycoon! What’s more, he owns two buildings near us. A little bird told me he wanted to be an online ride-share driver, even though his family is so rich, because he was bored and wanted to find something new and exciting. It’d be a fun way to pick up girls, too. Others say he insisted on going to work because he felt that being a landlord didn’t reflect his personal values. Anyway, different people say different things.”
Plain was filled with surprise and suspicion at the news, as well as inexplicable anger and a sense of loss. She repeatedly asked her colleague if she might be mistaken. “We’ve been neighbors for so long, but I’ve never known him to give me a discount when he drove me somewhere. The most generous thing he’s done was to treat us to a big meal that time we rescued the women on the road. Anyway, he doesn't look like someone with a gold mine at home.”
Her colleague continued, “Don't forget, we both make our living as journalists. How could I say anything like that without some basis in fact?” She told Plain that Second’s parents had to let his uncle manage the rental building on his behalf when they learned he was determined to become an online ride-share driver. Shockingly, his uncle allowed the tenants to change the room layout on their own so he could make a profit. Second put a stop to it right away when he found out. He hired building safety engineers to make emergency repairs on the load-bearing walls and strengthen the structure until residential building experts determined that the main structure was safe.
“This lowlife was so good at playing a role!” Plain said angrily. She was annoyed for some reason she couldn’t explain and quit the group angrily.
The next day, she found herself pulled into another group by Second. She looked and saw that the group name had changed from “Carpooling Trio” to “Twosome of Second and Esteemed Guest”.
Text at page 245. Translated from 金羊网 at
https://culture.ycwb.com/2023-03/22/content_51834126.htm (2nd story)