chapter 1
“My fiancée is missing. If I can’t find her, I’ll die!”
The person saying this was my first client after the Spring Festival in 2023.
He was Chinese, but called himself Daniel. He worked in foreign sales, had stylishly dyed white hair, a handsome face clouded with worry, and sat in front of my desk with his long legs crossed.
I was curious: “Is your relationship really that deep? That’s rare.”
He replied, “…She swindled me out of 1.5 million.”
That made sense.
He sobbed and pleaded, but human sorrows are never truly shared-especially in the cold-blooded world of debt collection.
I spun my pen behind the desk:
“Pig-butchering scam? Sorry, can’t take the case.
“Every chicken pees in its own way. I’m just a small Debt Collection Workshop, usually helping Loan Sharking operations chase down debts. I can’t afford to mess with those organized hard cases.”
“If you really can’t manage, just call the police.”
The man panicked: “I can’t call the police! It’s complicated-of the 1.5 million, 1.4 million is money she tricked me into stealing from the company. Now the company is forcing me to pay it back;
“This money got the company involved in some… illegal activities. They’re threatening me-if I go to the police, the group’s legal department will pin all the blame on me, and I’ll go to jail! The company wants to destroy me!
“Besides, I know about pig-butchering scams. Aren’t those all online romance scams on WeChat? I wasn’t in an online relationship with her-we met in person, she’s real!”
He pushed his phone over. On the screen was a young, beautiful woman, her head leaning against Daniel’s. Handsome man and pretty woman, straight out of a TV drama.
1.5 million-at a ten percent service fee, that’s 150,000. He knew my rates and mentioned it on purpose.
Alright, he knows how things work.
I became interested: “What’s her name, contact info, ID number?”
“…I don’t know.”
Utterly lost-a classic beautiful fool.
“She said her name was Fang Jibai, but I’ve checked, that’s a fake name; her WeChat and phone number are both deactivated; her ID… I’ve never seen it.”
My pen paused: “You were engaged and never saw her ID?”
The handsome guy looked aggrieved and lowered his eyes: “…She said her father was the President of a hospital. I was already marrying up, how could I dare ask for her ID…”
“She said it, and you just believed her? Haven’t seen a real fool in a while. Guess you and the scammer were both running toward each other.”
Daniel blushed furiously and hurried to list “evidence,” trying to prove he wasn’t that dumb:
“I checked at the time. The President she mentioned really is surnamed Fang and does have a daughter, and the age matches;
“She said she was a sophomore in the Medical Department at Haishi Tongxi University. I graduated from there too, and her descriptions of the campus and courses matched up;
“She was very familiar with ‘her father’s hospital,’ and could even walk straight into the Vice President’s office to grab snacks;
“Plus, I met her by chance at a medical industry summit in early October 2021. My boss was forcing drinks on me, and she played the beautiful hero saving the day-
“Looking at it that way, who would think she was a scammer? It’s not like my boss was in on it too, right?”
I shrugged: “Hard to say. Lots of scammers target people they know.”
I stood up, grabbed my coat, and pocketed the Butterfly Knife from the desk:
“In my experience, you have to move fast to find someone. Come on, let’s go ask your boss.”
“No, no, no!” He hurriedly grabbed my sleeve.
“Our company only entered the Chinese market before the Pandemic. My boss is a foreigner who can barely speak Chinese. You think he’d cross the world for a high-paying job just to scam a migrant worker? Doesn’t make sense, right?
“He really doesn’t know anything, but still has to take joint responsibility. He’s already so mad he could kill me, I’m hiding from him!”
“Sister Yun, you see, I’m really at my wit’s end.”
He gripped his hair with both hands, despairing as he buried his head:
“My mind’s a mess, I have no clue what to do, no one to talk to-otherwise I wouldn’t have come to you!”
“Tsk.” The handsome guy pleaded, and I scratched my head. “Her President father-you’ve met him, right?”
“…Yes.”
“When did you last see him? Where? What did he say?”
“Before the New Year, on TV.” The handsome face twisted slightly.
“What did he say? What could he say?
“He was on one of those TV shopping channels, claiming to be a late-stage cancer patient, but after taking a miracle drug, he was lively again, and even cured his hair loss!
“Seeing him was when I realized I’d been scammed! Fuck!”