Chapter 88: Confession

If he cannot find him, it only means that customer service agent has already changed his name, Li Sha said.

I suppose that must be it too. It is all my fault for not writing down the messaging ID ahead of time; otherwise I would not be so helpless now, Yang Po said, sounding somewhat vexed.

Do not blame yourself. Since you cannot find him, all you can do is accept it, Li Sha replied.

Hearing this, Yang Po lifted his head and looked at her, murmuring, “I cannot accept it. That was ten thousand yuan. It is no small sum.”

“By the way, did you not join any groups or anything like that?” Li Sha asked.

“No,” Yang Po said, shaking his head.

“If you did not join a group, how were you taking orders?” Li Sha asked, puzzled.

She clearly remembered that Yang Po had been doing that task every day.

“It was that customer service agent or someone like him who assigned them to me directly,” Yang Po said.

So the trail ended there.

In a vast sea of people, how could one possibly find someone he did not even know?

Suddenly, Yang Po slapped his thigh and said, “Right, I can ask those merchants. They assigned the tasks for that fake-order work; they should know that so-called customer service agent.”

“Then ask and see,” Li Sha said.

Ten thousand yuan was no small sum. If there was any chance of getting it back, that would naturally be best. If there were even the faintest hope, no one would give up.

After a while, Yang Po looked as though all the color had drained from his face, and Li Sha’s expression was not much better.

They had gone to ask the merchants, but the merchants simply brushed them off, claiming they knew nothing. They even denied that fake-order work had ever existed at all.

Because of this, Yang Po even had an argument with one of them.

The problem was that he had dealt with more than one merchant, and each one gave the same kind of answer.

“I am going to sue them!” Yang Po said angrily.

“Calm down. Suing them will be useless. Even if you do, nothing much will happen to them over fake-order schemes,” Li Sha said.

At that, Yang Po’s face darkened completely.

“Then what should I do?” he asked.

“For now, there is nothing to be done. Just take the loss and learn from it,” Li Sha said.

Yang Po said nothing for a long time. He still could not accept the result.

But what else could be done?

There was simply no way. They could not even find the people, let alone get the money back. Calling the police would probably be just as fruitless; the people were nowhere to be found.

“Do not think about it too much. Have you told anyone else about this?” Li Sha asked.

Yang Po shook his head. “No. Right now, only you know.”

“Your friends who lent you money do not know either?” Li Sha asked.

Yang Po shook his head again.

“You cannot keep it hidden forever. Since you borrowed the money, you will have to pay it back sooner or later. Rather than scrambling for excuses when you cannot produce the money later, you should tell them the truth now,” Li Sha said.

“Tell them what? That I was deceived, and then do not pay them back?” Yang Po asked.

“Not paying them back is impossible, of course. We just need some time. Write them promissory notes, and we can take part-time jobs in our spare time to slowly pay it off,” Li Sha said.

Yang Po nodded, then suddenly remembered something. “You are going to help me pay it back too?”

“Yes,” Li Sha answered.

“No. You do not need to shoulder this with me. This money has nothing to do with you. If anyone pays it back, it should be me alone,” Yang Po said.

“It would be too tiring for you to bear it alone. With my help, you will at least be under less pressure,” Li Sha said.

Yang Po wanted to say more, but Li Sha cut him off. “Do not say another word. I have already made up my mind. If you keep arguing, I will not speak to you.”

Yang Po opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing.

...

Jiang Zheng received Yang Po’s call in the afternoon.

“Second Brother, what is it?” Jiang Zheng asked.

“Fourth Brother, there is something I have to confess to you,” Yang Po said.

“What is it? Go ahead,” Jiang Zheng replied.

His eyes were fixed on the computer; if the call had not come in, he would have been typing furiously at that moment.

“The money I owe you may have to be repaid a little later,” Yang Po said.

“I do not have any issue with that,” Jiang Zheng replied.

He was somewhat puzzled, but he did not ask further.

“It is not that I do not want to pay it back. I was cheated. But do not worry, I will definitely return the money. It is just that it may take longer,” Yang Po said.

Hearing this, Jiang Zheng hurriedly asked, “What happened? You were cheated?”

“Yes,” Yang Po replied.

Jiang Zheng quickly guessed the rest and asked, “You were scammed through fake-order work, right?”

“Yes,” Yang Po said again.

“How much did you lose?” Jiang Zheng asked with a quiet sigh.

“Ten thousand,” Yang Po said.

“Ten... thousand!” Jiang Zheng was startled.

Ten thousand yuan was not a small sum to him either.

Though he had author royalties, and once those arrived, ten thousand yuan would not seem like much, the kind of household he had grown up in made it impossible for him to treat that sum lightly.

If he were cheated out of a thousand, let alone ten thousand, he would be heartbroken for a long time.

“How did you get cheated?” Jiang Zheng asked.

He could not understand how such a large amount could be lost so easily.

He knew a little about Yang Po’s family. It was not poor, but it was certainly not well-off either. Just an ordinary family, really. Ten thousand yuan was no small amount for Yang Po.

If it had been Quan Anyi who was cheated out of ten thousand, Jiang Zheng could have understood; after all, in his eyes, ten thousand yuan really was not much.

Yang Po was silent for a moment, then told Jiang Zheng exactly how he had been deceived.

After hearing the account, Jiang Zheng was filled with speechless frustration.

This was obviously a scam. In this world, where is there such a thing as a free lunch?

Jiang Zheng had always lived by one principle: when you think you are about to profit, stop and think carefully about whether it is a trap.

“This is an obvious scam. Why were you not more careful?” Jiang Zheng said.

“I do not know either. At the time, it was as if I had been bewitched. I did not think about anything and just transferred the money,” Yang Po said, his voice full of regret.

He had not meant to be deceived. Sometimes, though, a person is simply not in control, as if he had been hexed.

Looking back now, he thought himself foolish too. How had he transferred the money so readily?

“Leave that aside. Have you told the others?” Jiang Zheng asked.

He did not want to dwell on it. Since he had already been cheated, there was no point in talking about it further.

“I have told the eldest brother and you. I have not told the third brother, fifth brother, or the sixth yet,” Yang Po said.

“All right. Go tell them as well. I am not in a hurry here. When you have the money, just pay me back then,” Jiang Zheng said.

“Fourth Brother... thank you,” Yang Po said.

“No need for that between brothers. Be more careful from now on,” Jiang Zheng said.

“Do not worry. I will not be fooled again,” Yang Po said.

Jiang Zheng gave a brief acknowledgment. Yang Po hung up and went to tell the others.

Jiang Zheng stared at the computer screen, his thoughts roiling, unable to settle.