After a long flight of several dozen hours, Tao Ran finally arrived back in her home country.
Calmly, she turned on her phone.
Instantly, a flood of notification pings appeared—mostly missed call alerts. Six were from landlines, which she guessed must have come from the airport police station where Fang Ming had been detained.
Xiao Ai had called eight times.
Fang Ming’s parents had called over thirty.
Her unread text messages numbered close to a hundred.
Among them, Tao Ran found exactly what she was looking for—two bank deposit alerts from ten hours ago: one for 100,000 yuan and another for 50,000 yuan. Both had been transferred by Fang Ming’s parents.
They’d taken the bait.
Perfect.
With the exchange rate conversion, Tao Ran’s bank balance now sat at around 360,000 yuan—enough for Tang Ran to make a down payment on a house in a major city or even buy one outright in a smaller city.
As for the remaining messages, more than half were filled with curses—from Xiao Ai and Fang Ming’s parents, who had obviously realized they’d been played.
Tao Ran wasn’t in a hurry.
She went straight to the hotel she had booked in advance, checked in, ordered room service, and took a long, hot shower.
Just as she was debating whom to call first, a new message came in—it was from her landlady, reassuring her not to worry and saying she’d already recovered a thousand dollars.
Pleased that the landlady was still awake, Tao Ran immediately called her. Smart as ever, she had set up international roaming a few days prior, with fees discounted to a third of the usual rate.
The landlady eagerly recounted her actions that day.
After receiving Tao Ran’s call that morning, she had stormed off to Fang Ming’s school. Fang Ming wasn’t there, so, using the information Tao Ran had provided, she found Xiao Ai instead.
The moment Xiao Ai saw her, she was terrified—and the back of her head, still sore from the hit she’d taken earlier, began to throb again.
The landlady didn’t waste words. “Fang Ming owes me two thousand five hundred dollars and borrowed another hundred this morning. Now he’s disappeared, so I’m coming to you for it.”
“What’s that got to do with me? Go ask Tang Ran for it!” Xiao Ai protested.
The landlady sneered. “I already know about your little affair with Fang Ming. You’re his mistress—you must know where he is. You’d better pay up, or I’ll go straight to your school’s administration and report your disgusting behavior.”
Truth was, the landlady had never liked Xiao Ai. The memory of that day—when the homewrecker had tried to unlock the door and sneak into the apartment—still made her blood boil. Compared to her, even a thief seemed more decent.
She knew what kind of girl Tang Ran was—kind, hardworking, respectful. To force a girl like that to flee in tears… those two had to be downright vile.
Xiao Ai was dumbfounded.
Why was everyone suddenly blaming her for everything?
She tried calling Fang Ming for an explanation, but his phone wouldn’t connect. Then she tried Tang Ran’s number—same result. It was already noon. How could both of them have their phones turned off? A cold sense of dread crept over her. Something was wrong.
Before she could think further, the landlady grabbed her firmly by the arm.
It was broad daylight, with people all around.
The landlady’s voice was loud, sharp, and full of fury—enough to draw a crowd. Even two passing professors came over to see what was happening.
Xiao Ai panicked. The last thing she wanted was to become the center of a scandal. This story is hosted at g.com.
After much begging, she finally promised to have Fang Ming repay the money soon.
But the landlady wasn’t letting her off that easily—either she dragged Fang Ming out on the spot, or she paid on his behalf.
In the end, under pressure, Xiao Ai had no choice but to swipe her credit card for a thousand dollars.
“Ran, I just wanted to stand up for you!” the landlady said, huffing. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure they pay for what they did.”
Tao Ran smiled. “So she actually swiped her card?”
“Yep. At XX Bank.”
That explained it.
Xiao Ai’s previous credit card had already hit its limit, so she must have applied for a new one. That also explained how she had the cash to rent a hotel room when she picked Fang Ming up from the airport that day.
Trying to cover one debt with another? At this rate, that wasn’t going to end well.
…
After ending the call with the landlady, another call came in, this time from Fang Ming’s parents.
Tao Ran hung up and blocked them without hesitation.
Let them rage. Let them stew. Let them choke on their anger.
A minute later, the phone rang again.
This time, it was Xiao Ai.
Tao Ran answered.
What followed was a torrent of vulgar curses.
Calmly, Tao Ran hit record, saved the audio, then hung up and blocked the number.
Her room service arrived.
The waiter brought in five dishes and a soup—lavish and fragrant.
Her phone rang again.
Another unfamiliar number.
This time, it was Liu Jie.
Tao Ran wasn’t in a hurry. She directed the waiter to arrange the dishes neatly, savoring the sense of ceremony.
Only when Liu Jie’s call came for the third time did she finally answer.
The man on the other end had learned his lesson—no yelling this time. Find the original chapter at g.com.
“Tang Ran, it’s me, Liu Jie.”
“If you’ve got something to say, then say it. But if anyone dares curse again, I’ll block this number too—and you’ll never be able to reach me again.”
“Xiao Ai was panicking, that’s all. Don’t take it to heart.”
“She can panic all she wants, but she doesn’t get to lose her mind and her dignity at the same time. Tell her to crawl over here and apologize, or I’ll make sure she never shows her face again—not in this country, not in your school.”
A few tense seconds later, Tao Ran got exactly what she wanted, an apology.
Xiao Ai had been cornered.
With no other way out, she could only swallow her pride and mutter a weak, “I’m sorry.”
“Xiao Ai,” Tao Ran said coolly, “that little tirade you spat at me earlier—doesn’t that deserve another apology?”
Terrified that Tao Ran might actually cut contact—and with it, any chance of recovering her money or clearing her name—Xiao Ai forced herself to apologize again.
Only then did Tao Ran decide to chat a bit longer.
From Liu Jie, she quickly learned about Fang Ming’s situation.
It had been fourteen hours since his arrest, and he was still in detention.
Just as Tao Ran had guessed, even with everything falling apart, Fang Ming hadn’t dared drag her into it.
The police had conducted both urine and blood tests. Until the results came back and the powder’s contents were analyzed, he couldn’t leave.
Unable to reach Tang Ran, Fang Ming had begged Xiao Ai and Liu Jie for help.
By the time they rushed to the police station and saw him, Tao Ran’s plane was already flying over the Pacific. Meaning that even if they realized she was behind everything, they couldn’t do a thing about it.
At that point, Fang Ming was seething with hatred toward Xiao Ai. He and Liu Jie shouted at her until she was dizzy, unable to even remember what she might have done to cause all this.
Then it hit her—those flirty text messages she’d sent “Fang Ming” the night before.
She’d been played.
All along, Tao Ran had been the one texting her!
Could the “evidence” the landlady mentioned be those very chat logs? If they were leaked, she’d be socially dead!
She cried the whole night, cursing Tao Ran for hours.
Meanwhile, Fang Ming was still worrying about the money in his account—until Liu Jie got a call from Fang Ming’s parents. Only then did they find out the old couple had been scammed out of 150,000 yuan too.
If even their money was gone, how could Fang Ming’s account possibly still be intact?
And on top of that, the $2,500 debt to the landlady…
The three of them couldn’t believe it.
That foolish, meek woman they’d mocked and looked down on… had orchestrated all this?
Who was the real fool now?
It seemed the answer was obvious.