“When Wang Qian broke up with me, it felt like the whole sky was coming down.”

“I honestly don’t know what I did wrong. All those years together… We grew up together. I bought her gifts for every birthday and holiday. Whenever she wanted to go out or go shopping, I went with her. If she called, I’d log off and rush over, even if my dorm mates were in the middle of a team fight. And in the end, she told me I couldn’t give her a sense of security or the life she wanted.”

For some reason, Liang Zhiming suddenly opened the floodgates in front of the Guoguo Breakfast Shop at the entrance of Shenbin Forest Park.

He sat on a little stool by the door.

“For her sake, I cut my expenses to the bone every month. I’ve barely bought any clothes since starting college. I even hated spending money on games… There was this Lucky Summoner event before. The skin I liked only cost nineteen yuan, but I still forced myself not to buy it.”

Liang Zhiming gnawed on a steamed bun and said in an aggrieved tone, “Lucky Summoner is an in-game event.”

“Mm-hmm.”

Without changing my expression, I reached out and picked up another shrimp dumpling.

“That’s the game everyone keeps saying is already outdated. LoL.”

“That’s why Xiaoxue is the cutest.”

Liang Zhiming smiled, but his voice soon wilted again.

“I even skipped class that day. I stayed in my dorm, totally out of it, and frantically searched on my phone for things like what to do after a breakup, what kind of boyfriend girls really need, and what a sense of security was. Somehow, while I was searching, I ended up finding an advertisement for Hualimao.”

How real.

I maintained an elegant posture, holding the shrimp dumpling in both hands and nibbling it one small bite at a time.

These days, what privacy did we even have?

Whenever you installed a phone app, it demanded every permission in one go. It recorded your keystrokes, your interests, your bank-card details, and your Alipay balance.

Search online for what medicine to take for a cold and fever, and you’d immediately receive recommendations for online shops, Taobao stores, and health supplements.

Search for how to deal with a breakup, and you’d instantly get suggestions for realistic dolls, gaming companions, and rental girlfriends.

If Newton had lived to see this era, I was sure his phone notifications would’ve been filled with fast-acting heart-saving pills.

How exaggerated was this kind of privacy “peeping”?

Here’s an example. Some mobile games secretly obtained your bank-card and Alipay information. They collected your online posts and figured out whether you were a student or an office worker.

They learned how much money you had, whether you were a mobile-gaming fanatic, and how much you were willing to spend.

Then, based on all that information, they adjusted your account’s drop rates.

Suppose you had twenty thousand yuan in Alipay and earned around six thousand yuan each month.

The game knew that, after receiving your salary, you’d spend 1,200 yuan on rent, 2,000 yuan on food, and 800 yuan on socializing.

That left 2,000 yuan you could save.

So the game would set your account’s expected cost for drawing a five-star card or an SSR at roughly 1,000 to 3,000 yuan.

Or suppose you suddenly decided to buy a house and visited some real-estate transaction center.

You casually connected to its Wi-Fi, and some of the apps on your phone would immediately know you’d entered a particular sales office.

They’d even know you’d stayed there for half an hour.

Your phone number, name, job, income, and other details would be tagged with notes like “prospective homebuyer.”

Then that information would enter a database and be sold to local property agents.

Remember, I’d fallen into the online-loan trap because of leaked privacy as well.

I saw my classmates with new phones, so I searched for those models online.

When I saw the prices and realized I couldn’t afford them, I started thinking about installment payments.

But the reality was that even split into twelve payments, I couldn’t squeeze the money out of my 900-yuan monthly living allowance.

Frustrated, I spent ages searching random keywords like “how to borrow money” and “how can college students make money?”

Then the online-loan advertisements came.

Online loans were deep waters.

The first online loan I encountered claimed in its advertisements that it “met national standards,” that its “interest rate complied with legal requirements,” and that it offered “immediate disbursement.”

In reality, it was full of traps.

Under the laws of the Skyflame Nation, private loans only received legal protection up to an interest rate of 15.4%.

In other words, any interest above 15.4% was legally invalid.

“After a borrower defaults, the interest generated may not exceed the protected upper limit. Any excess remains outside judicial protection, even if both parties agreed to it.”

Therefore, under normal circumstances, even if a loan shark company sued you, you’d only need to repay the principal and a maximum of 15.4% interest.

But those online-loan companies weren’t stupid.

They had countless ways to get around the law.

As the saying went, “The authorities make the rules, and the people find ways around them.”

For example, some online loans would “shortchange” you when issuing the money.

The contract might say:

“Party A, Bi Xinxue, borrows 100 yuan from Party B, Some Company. The loan shall be repaid on such-and-such date, at an interest rate of 15%.”

But when it came time to transfer the money, the company would deduct so-called “service fees” or “processing fees.”

It might even send the money through a private account or under the name of a “temporary worker.”

You’d actually receive only 70 yuan.

The contract, however, would still say 100 yuan.

Then you’d have to pay interest based on that full 100 yuan at 15%.

The real interest rate would have already exceeded 15% by far.

That was one of the tricks used by online-loan companies.

They exploited every loophole to make illegal loan-sharking look legal.

Even if some impoverished student actually had the time and ability to take the matter to court, getting a favorable judgment would still be difficult.

On top of that, when it was time to repay the money, the companies’ apps and payment accounts would often develop all kinds of “malfunctions.”

Even if you had the money, you still couldn’t repay.

The app would freeze endlessly, or the payment would fail over and over.

At first, I hadn’t planned on robbing Peter to pay Paul.

I simply wanted to borrow enough money to buy a phone, then repay it as quickly as possible.

Even if it meant eating steamed buns every day, I’d pay it all back.

But the lending company wouldn’t allow that.

The system was either malfunctioning or under maintenance.

As the deadline approached, customer service from the online-loan company called me.

“Our company’s servers are experiencing problems, so they’re temporarily closed today. Your personal account can’t receive payments.”

“If you don’t repay this loan today, it’ll become overdue. Overdue payments are a breach of contract. We can take you to court, and there’ll also be a huge penalty fee.”

“Why don’t you contact one of our partner companies? They can connect to our internal network, so you can still repay during the maintenance period.”

Bi Xinxue had grown up in the countryside and didn’t have many friends.

Her parents were divorced, and her mother worked away from home year-round.

She had always lived with her grandmother.

How could a little girl like her understand all those schemes?

Naturally, she panicked when she heard she might be “sued” for missing the deadline.

So she had no choice but to borrow money from the so-called partner company and let them temporarily repay the loan for her.

And just like that, I, Bi Xinxue, owed another online-loan company a high-interest debt.

When the repayment deadline came, I couldn’t pay that one either.

Gradually, I began robbing Peter to pay Paul.

What had started as a loan of several thousand yuan for a phone became nearly twenty thousand yuan owed to various online-loan companies within just a few months.

The debt had nearly tripled.

This was a complete black-market industry chain.

Even an ordinary person like me, with no company or connections behind me, could search Tieba and search engines to find out about Wang Lei’s particular habits.

So for an app developed by a company with hundreds or even thousands of employees, slipping through your privacy with a casual “scoop” wouldn’t be difficult, right?

They could scoop up your private information and sell it.

That alone was another considerable source of income.

One trap led to another.

Every link was part of the scheme.

After finishing the last shrimp dumpling on the little table, I gracefully picked up the slightly cooled millet cake beside me.

Hmm…

This guy hadn’t noticed that, ever since I’d used the chopsticks to pick up a steamed bun for him, I hadn’t eaten anything with them again.

“At the time, I thought that all those girls on the site had to be acting. I wanted to find the most genuine one.”

Liang Zhiming had no idea that the subject of privacy had sent my thoughts racing in every direction.

He continued venting about everything that had happened to him over the past few days.

“Then I sorted all the contracted users by credit score, from lowest to highest. And that’s when I… saw you.”

Perhaps influenced by me eating with my hands, the boy finished his steamed bun and reached out for a shumai beside him.

“I remember wondering why someone this pretty had a negative credit score. Had she gotten into a fight with some client?”

So that was how you found me, huh?

Because I’d been hospitalized for three days after jumping into the river, the system had automatically rejected several rental requests.

My credit score had fallen into the negative, which was why I’d ended up at the very bottom of the list?

I thought about it with a helpless, amused feeling.

Then I picked up my chopsticks, lifted the last shumai, and smiled as I offered it to the boy’s lips.

“I’m telling you all this… You don’t hate me for it, do you?”

Liang Zhiming looked at me worriedly and opened his mouth.

“Of course not.”

I shook my head. Keeping the smile on my face, I carefully placed the shumai into his mouth.

“Brother Zhiming is willing to tell Xiaoxue all this. Xiaoxue is really happy.”

Go on. It’s fine.

There was still a bowl of hot porridge later.

After he finished that, a few more minutes of rambling would probably bring the total to an hour.

Earning fifty yuan just by slacking off like this was perfectly fine by me.

It was much easier than running all over the park on an empty stomach with a rich second-generation heir, enduring three-dimensional motion sickness while gaming with an addicted teenager, or jumping around playing volleyball with my boss.

“I’m glad you like it. My ex-girlfriend always said I talked too much. Usually, I just followed behind her carrying her bags, too afraid to say anything.”

Liang Zhiming bit into the shumai I’d fed him with great enjoyment.

“Last night, when Wang Lei confessed everything to me, I couldn’t understand why they’d done it. Why would they rather let me curse them than force me to break up with Wang Qian that way?”

“But when I returned to the dorm and played games with my roommates, I suddenly understood.”

“I realized I didn’t have to starve myself anymore. I could buy whatever snacks I wanted. I could recharge my game cards whenever I wanted. I could play with my brothers in the dorm whenever I wanted.”

“I realized I’d brought it on myself before. Back then, I thought that no matter what happened, Wang Qian was still my girlfriend. So many of the students and friends around me were single, while I had a girlfriend.”

“Even if she was unreasonable, I only had to indulge her a little. Our parents knew about our relationship, too. We’d grown up in the same neighborhood.”

“I was always afraid that one careless mistake would upset Wang Qian and make her break up with me. Then I wouldn’t know how to explain it to our parents.”

“Only after Wang Qian really broke up with me, and I spent a few days alone, did I finally understand…”

“Not having a girlfriend wasn’t actually such a big deal.”

“Ah… Sorry, sorry! I mean, not having Wang Qian isn’t such a big deal. I’m just bad with words.”

As if he’d suddenly remembered something, Liang Zhiming looked at me with a pleading expression.

“Xiaoxue, don’t take it to heart.”

I waved both hands repeatedly.

“I won’t…”

Big brother, you’re the client.

While your service period lasts, of course I’ll listen to whatever you say.

I’ve been paid. How could I possibly have an opinion?

“Ahaha, true. Xiaoxue is so kind. I’m just overthinking things.”

Liang Zhiming scratched his head.

“Do you think I’m stupid? I mean, when it comes to girlfriends.”

Yes. Very stupid.

I suppressed my urge to roast the guy.

“Of course not. Xiaoxue already said it before. Brother Zhiming is a very gentle person. You’re gentle toward girls, and gentle toward the whole world, too.”

The all-purpose yasashii power.

Please, lend me your strength…

“Really?”

Liang Zhiming looked delighted.

“Xiaoxue, you’re so nice. You’re pretty and cute, and you have such a kind heart.”

“Th… thank you!”

I did my best to put on a shy expression.

I pressed my legs together with my toes turned inward, placed both hands on my thighs, and lowered my head slightly.

I looked every inch the perfect good girl.

“Brother Zhiming can treat Xiaoxue as someone to talk to. It’s totally fine!”

Classmate Wang Lei, I understand now.

Thinking back to that Hongmen Banquet, when Wang Lei had sat beside me and rambled on endlessly, I finally understood exactly what he’d meant by calling Liang Zhiming a “simp.”

I had a feeling that today’s assignment with Liang Zhiming…

might become the easiest rental-girlfriend job I’d had since registering.