The girl in the Santana was none other than the one Yu Yan and the others were frantically searching for, Wang Jiake.

Based purely on her facial features, Wang Jiake was very beautiful. However, every fiber of her being was emitting a deep sense of unease, a state that was like being the female lead in a horror film—losing her head in panic, every intersection and every corner seeming to have a monster that could pop out suddenly at any time. She was trembling all over, shifting restlessly in her seat.

The driver glanced at her in the rearview mirror and turned up the heat. "Why, feeling cold?"

Wang Jiake nervously folded her arms across her chest and shook her head.

There were many red lights along the way. The driver was very bored and naturally, used the beautiful lady beside him to while away the time. He asked, "What kind of money was it that you borrowed and can't repay? Such a beautiful lady, were you taking drugs?"

"No, I wasn't."

"Then, gambling? Doesn't look like it." The driver sized her up, looking at her out of the corner of his eye. Then, with no good intentions, he asked, "Surely you're not redeeming yourself from a pimp?"

Wang Jiake was thin-skinned but when this man who was like a hoodlum insulted her, she only dared to be angry but dared not say anything. Her face reddened from holding it in.

"I just want to chat," the driver said easily. "It's Lunar New Year but I have to come all the way here to pick you up. I'm just joking and you got angry? You sure have a hot temper for a lady, how are you going to survive in the world?"

Wang Jiake had graduated not long ago and had a natural reverence for the phrase "survive in the world." When offended, some young people—especially those who had been taught to be "kind, good, respectful, restrained and magnanimous" since young—would always first reflect on themselves and consider if they were the ones being troublesome, rather than firmly deciding that the other party was an idiot.

When the driver said those words, she stared blankly and then really felt a little embarrassed. So, she made her tone milder and told him honestly, "I… At the start, I just borrowed a little bit of money to buy makeup."

The driver was actually not interested in her sob story. Striking up a conversation was purely to tease her. Only half-listening, he let out a grunt to indicate that she should continue speaking. His eyes were almost turning in two different directions—one was just barely watching the road while the other had rotated towards the corner of his forehead for the sole purpose of staring indecently at the girl.

Wang Jiake did not notice it, entirely focused on digging her fingers into the seatbelt. "That day, someone in our group posted a secondhand set, a seasonal limited edition version. It was sold out all over the world and was no longer being produced. Her set was new and unwrapped, it was really a rare deal… I really wanted it, it was like I was obsessed…"

But it happened to be near the end of the month and she didn't have the money.

Working as a music teacher at a high school was an easy job that made other people envious because as everyone knew, music and arts class in high school was like the flower garden behind the old monsters in the mathematics group. The No. 33 High School where Wang Jiake worked was not a large school and did not recruit students that were talented in music. On average, she had one class a day. When there were any cultural activities, she sometimes helped to organise them. She usually did not have to be on duty.

However, in accordance with her easy job, her income was also not high.

Since she had few classes, Wang Jiake's monthly pay was only a little higher than the basic pay. Yanning was a city full of hidden talents. The children who had the money to study music would all look for well-known teachers at music schools. She was young and a nobody, even if she wanted to hold private classes, she could barely recruit any students.

By the end of the month, that small amount of money was not enough for anything.

The internet was all abuzz with rumours and slanders about her. The more they were passed on, the more twisted they became. There were people who said that she wore branded goods from head to toe and drove a Maserati the moment she stepped outside her door; there were those who said that she frequented high-class places and that she wouldn't stay at a place that didn't have at least five stars. In actual fact, they were all nonsense.

She didn't even have a sachima, much less a Maserati. Every day, she took the bus to work. Out of the three meals in a day, two were at her workplace's cafeteria. Most of her clothes and shoes were bought on Taobao. When she occasionally went to the physical shops in the shopping malls, she would only try on the clothes to scratch the itch. On her whole body, the only item that had a tenuous relation to "luxury" was an entry-level branded bag that she had gritted her teeth and bought for herself when she just started work, the type with a very perfunctory design and the brand's logo plastered all over it. It was not at all beautiful but because it cost a considerable amount, even with those "good looks," it could enjoy its owner's care and protection.

She was over twenty years old now. She had a job and she was a member of society. For her to have one or two fancier items to dress herself up with, was that crossing the line?

Even if these fancier items had resulted in her toiling desperately for half a year to pay her credit card bill.

After carving out the portion for rent, utilities and other necessities, the amount left in her monthly salary was barely enough to survive on.

Online, those people said that girls had to start using eye cream at twenty years old to fight wrinkles. At twenty-five, they would start to age, and their youth and beauty would flow away like sand between one's fingers.

Those girls around her age whose looks were originally just average were all very encouraging and shared tips and experiences in their WeChat Moments on how to put on makeup, dress up and accessorise to achieve certain styles. Day by day, their looks grew more dazzling. She was so beautiful, a little crane in a flock of chickens since she was young. Her beauty had basically become the foundation of her self-confidence but now, at this stage of her life where she was supposed to be a flower, she had to live a difficult life and couldn't even be compared with those ugly little ducklings!

Was she supposed to just pour a few pounds of glycerin on her face as skincare and call it a day?

In just a few years' time, she would become an old woman and even if she put on makeup, it would cake and crack!

Just one or two small items: a few tubes of lipsticks, a bottle of essence. At the start, those people online had said, "Your husband or boyfriend can't even grant your wish for these little items, how cheap are you." Later on, they said, "You need to depend on a man even for these little items, how cheap are you..." Whether or not it was feminism, she was not too bothered. In any case, regardless of what opinions either side had, the gist of it was: the items themselves are "insignificant," but you can not be "cheap."

And it was none other than these "insignificant" things that resulted in an eternal shortfall in her credit score and credit card account. Every month, when her salary reached her bank account, the first thing she did was repay loans.

But there would always be accidents in life. That month, she had just bought a pair of shoes. She was still saving up for the remaining payment when her phone was stolen on the bus. This unforeseen disaster was like the straw that broke the camel's back. Buying a new phone exhausted her credit limit.

Less than a week before she was paid, Wang Jiake only had 80.05 yuan on her.

Sometimes, a person would become as though possessed and have a ravenous desire to own an item. Furthermore, the more the item is beyond their reach, the more they would want it. The online friend selling the makeup item was quite generous. Since it was secondhand, she was selling it at 80% of the original price. But Wang Jiake just could not afford it. That day, all her feelings of grievances and injustice ever since she graduated were dug out by that little incident. Sorrow welled up from within her and she cried for half the night.

"On that day, I happened to receive a text from a money lender offering small personal loans," she said softly. "My colleague bought a house with a loan. I've seen him going around the school to get various documents. He had to put up a collateral and sign stuff in person, it was really troublesome. The bank was worried he would run away. I saw that the text message said 'Collateral not necessary, quick and convenient, money in your account within three hours'—so I couldn't resist trying. I guess it must be fate."

"What fate?" the driver asked. "Don't you get this kind of annoying text message every day?"

"Really? In the past, I had never read marketing texts closely, I didn't notice." Wang Jiake looked up in confusion.

"How much did you borrow?"

"2,000. Actually, they loaned me 1,950, the service charge was fifty yuan. I just needed to repay everything in one week," Wang Jiake said. "Nothing else was needed. I just needed to sign a loan agreement and I could get the money immediately."

The driver snorted a laugh. He felt that the current day female university graduates were really easy to deceive. The interest on a high-interest loan was named "service charge" and just like that, they couldn't tell what it was.

"I saw that the amount written on the loan agreement was 6,000 so I didn't dare sign it at first. But they said that most loans have collateral. Their business is in small and short-term loans, so they do not require a physical collateral. The extra 4,000 was like a 'collateral,' I just need to repay the 2,000 on time… They were afraid that I wouldn't feel reassured so they made a supplementary agreement for me that clearly stated that if I repay the 2,000 according to schedule, I would be cleared of all debts." Wang Jiake said softly. "My school doesn't pay us late. No matter what, I would be able to repay the amount."

Upon saying that, her face looked like she had suffered an injustice. "But coincidentally, I had a credit card payment due. Earlier on, for convenience's sake, I set up an auto-transfer to pay the balance. I forgot to set it to pay by installments so they directly transferred my salary out."

"The other party sent me ten messages in a day, telling me to take note not to be overdue on the payment. If I didn't repay the money, I would be penalised and my credit score would be affected or something like that… I didn't really understand. Basically, the way they said it, it sounded like I wouldn't be able to take out loans or take the high speed rail in the future. I didn't dare tell my family. I asked a few colleagues but they all said that they were still paying their credit card bills and didn't have money to spare… so I didn't feel like I could ask them anymore. At that time, the person who guided me through taking out the loan called me and said that his boss wasn't good to him and that he didn't want to continue working there. He wanted to change jobs and take his customers away too, and asked me if I would follow him. If I follow him, he would first give me money to repay the loan with this company, then sign a new loan agreement with him. I was going to be penalised soon and was at the end of the rope, so I agreed."

"After he knew my circumstances, he voluntarily did me a favour. He said he could make the term of the agreement last until next month. I was very grateful so when he asked me to help him with something, I agreed without thinking."

The driver had an idea of where her words were leading and he glanced at her with interest, feeling that he had gained a new idea for becoming rich. "What did he ask you to do?"

"He said that when he joined his new company, he would need to perform well so he brought me to the bank and transferred 100,000 to my account. Then, he had me help him print out an account statement, return the additional 98,000 to him and sign a 'yin-yang contract'—basically, on the surface, I took out a 100,000 loan but in actual fact, I borrowed 2,000. I didn't take the 100,000. It just went one circle and he paid it back himself. It was all for his work performance."

"The loan repayment term was one month. You couldn't have run out of money again, right?"

"At first, I wanted to repay the money," Wang Jiake said. "But that loan manager called me again and said that the competition at his new company was too great. He wanted me to help him push up his work performance again and asked me if I wanted to extend the loan term by another month. I just needed to pay 50 yuan as the service charge… I was short of cash in the first place and hadn't finished paying my other installments, so I agreed to extend it. Hence, he took me through another round of paperwork.

"...Later on, that terrible proxy shopper kept chasing me for the remaining payment and said that if I didn't pay up, she would blacklist me and post my identification details online. That was why I asked the loan manager to lend me another sum of money, just 3,000 was enough. But he said that I already have over 40,000 of debt under my name and that they couldn't give me any more loans.

"I was stunned. How was that possible? I've never seen that much money in my life. They clearly said that I would just be pretending to take out the loan…" Wang Jiake said. "But when I couldn't repay the money, those people started to send people to follow me and corner me at my school. They called me every day and stuck notes on my door… I couldn't bear it and moved back to my parents' home. But those people followed me like a shadow. They said that making a police report would be useless. They even wanted to sue me… I had printed the account statement myself so it was effective from a legal standpoint… Isn't that just something printed on any old A4 paper? It's so long but no one has ever told me that it is useful… the bank also did not remind me that it is something important, I thought…

"Later on, the first loan company contacted me. They said that a former employee of their company was doing bad things outside and they were warning their customers not to fall for his tricks. I nearly cried. I said, why didn't you say so earlier? They quickly sent a lawyer to meet with me. After listening to me, the lawyer said that there was nothing he could do either. The other party has evidence in their hands and there was no way I could explain myself. I had to find some way to repay the money first. He spoke with his company and they helped me pay the loan for the time being but the amount was too large, I needed to pay interest…"

The driver chuckled. "You can't still not know that both parties are from the same group, right?"

Wang Jiake lowered her eyes and stared at the road ahead. "So what if they are? I have no way out now anyway."

The girls in the same proxy shopping group as her knew about her problem and said that they could teach her a way to earn money. They took her along for a few meals and told her that it was not considered being a "hostess." They were just simply having a meal. Weren't there also women at the table?

Didn't those big bosses who did business have to attend social events too? It was just that their socialising was for the sake of business transactions, whereas their purpose was a little more simple. They specialised in socialising and depended on livening up the atmosphere at the dinner party and pouring drinks for other people to earn some extra income. It was a little like being a waitress at the table. The pay for each party varied, ranging from a few hundred to more than a thousand.

It could just barely cover the interest on her loan… but it was still not enough.

That was why, when the girls from the proxy shopping group told her that there was a dinner party that paid a very high price and asked her if she wanted to go, she agreed without hesitation.

"I saw her there," Wang Jiake said softly.

"Who?"

"Teacher Yang," Wang Jiake said in a soft voice. "I've read her articles since I was in school. I believed everything she said… I even joined her group and tried to find a way to be WeChat friends with her but she had always ignored me. She only hung out with those rich people."

"She had never told me that things would be like this."