Roly Poly broke into a face-splitting grin when he saw the extra thousand dollars in the WeChat account. He was awfully pleased with himself.

"Dumb people are everywhere," he thought happily.

He had to put his phone down when Elizabeth called for him.

"Roly Poly, where are you?" she demanded, "We're surrounded!"

The fat cat immediately put his paws back on the keyboard. "Don't panic! I'm here!"

While Roly Poly reveled in his gain, Is.h.i.+da was burning with rage from his loss.

"Sc.u.mbag! How could he swindle a stranger like this?" he spat.

"Should we call the police?" the a.s.sistant asked.

Is.h.i.+da turned to him in disbelief. He kneed him in the s.h.i.+n, causing the man to topple over.

"Have you gone mad? Us?" he said, pointing to himself, "Calling the police? Us? Seriously?"

His stubby right-hand man was at a loss. "Then what should we do?"

"We'll create a new account and contact him again. This unfortunate turn of events was not completely fruitless. At least now we know that his greed knows no bounds. We'll use that against him. This time, we won't transfer the money until he does as he promises."

10 minutes later, Is.h.i.+da threw the phone across the room in a fit of rage.

"What the heck? He blocked us because we didn't want to transfer the money? Does he need money that badly?"

Is.h.i.+da had met all kinds of people on his climb to the top, but he had never had the displeasure of dealing with someone that greedy. He was greatly tempted to rush to his cafe and just fight him.

Unfortunately, this was nothing more than a fantasy he could not act on, at least not with the apostle officers still in the lobby.

He took a deep breath.

His best shot seemed to, once again, lie with Matsuo. He picked up the phone and dialed his number.

"Hey, you said that Zhao Yao's relatives also borrowed money from you, correct?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Loans apps like yours must employ debt recovery services, no?" Is.h.i.+da asked.

Matsuo raised his eyebrows. Of course he did. Some of his users just refused to pay their loans. They did not care if their names were blacklisted, not just by his app, but by every bank in the country.

Under such unfortunate circ.u.mstances, they would sell the account to professional debt buyers for a low price.

"Just how much money does this Zhao Yao owe you? Are you serious about implicating his family too?" Matsuo asked, scratching his chin.

"I'm unable to disclose my reasons to you. However, I am interested in buying his debt. Will you sell it to me?"

Matsuo shook his head even though Is.h.i.+da could not see him through the phone. "We have rules to abide by. You know I want to help, but I can't just snap my fingers and make this happen."

There was a firmness in Matsuo's voice that was not there before. Is.h.i.+da knew that there was only one way to convince him.

He had to grovel endlessly.

Thankfully, it worked.

Is.h.i.+da smiled triumphantly, "Okay, I look forward to the information packet you'll share with me."

A few minutes later, the promised info reached his phone. They contained personal details of Zhao Yao's younger sister and aunt.

"Let's start with the sister. They must be closer, so she would likely be an easier target," Is.h.i.+da said.

He turned to his a.s.sistant. "Onitsuka, send her a message. I doubt it'll be hard to bribe a college girl who's knee deep in loans."

Back at Zhao Yao's house, a vibration set off Roly Poly's phone. The fat cat took a look at the new message.

"Oh? They're targeting Zhao Xue now? They never would've guessed that I have dual SIM," he chortled to himself.

Zhao Yao's ident.i.ty was not the only one that he had stolen for his escapades.

Every night, he would head downstairs to lend Zhao Xue his power of invisibility.

On one such occasion, he remained hidden from sight so that he could steal her ident.i.ty card. He had since used it to chalk up more loans.

"I'm so grateful that Zhao Xue carries her ID everywhere she goes," Roly Poly sighed blissfully.

His eyes then landed on Baiquan, then Hanako.

They lit up.

"How is it? Has she replied?" Is.h.i.+da asked anxiously.

"Yes, she has," his a.s.sistant, Onitsuka, nodded, "She's more polite than her brother was. Should we be honest with her?"

Is.h.i.+da waved him off instantly. "No, don't. Let me think about this."

He scratched the bottom of his chin thoughtfully. "I don't think it's wise to be too frank. We might scare her off. All the same, we must be quick about it. We don't have much time."

There was a short pause as he considered his options. "Perhaps…"

Onitsuka interrupted him. "She's sent us a message."

"What does it say?"

"She said she'll block us if we do not transfer RMB 500 to her in 10 seconds."

"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l," Is.h.i.+da cursed, "Is the entire family that hard up?"

Onitsuka's next words were careful, "So, do we give her the money?"

Is.h.i.+da took a succession of deep breaths as if to calm himself.

"Do it," he said, brows knitted together.

"How much?"

"500!"

Onitsuka did not need to be told again. He got to work immediately, thumbs flying across the screen as he made the transfer.

Within seconds, his entire body tensed. He blinked at his phone a few times, then looked up at his boss uncertainly.

"What is it this time?" Is.h.i.+da fumed.

"She said we took more than 10 seconds to give her the money. She has blocked us."

Is.h.i.+da was speechless. He balled his fist tightly, then relaxed his fingers, exhaling as he did so.

"They're a family of liars, cons, and absolutely sc.u.ms of the earth. Atrocious!"

"What should we do now? Try Zhao Yao's aunt?"

"We can try," Is.h.i.+da said, defeat seeping through his words, "But this time, we're not sending any messages or entertaining any money transfers. Call her."

At Xiao Yu's house, Fish Ball was hiding under his owner's bed covers.

"It's too cold! I'm literally freezing my b.u.t.t off," he complained, curling up into a tight ball.

He poked his head from underneath the thick quilt, then retracted it immediately.

"This weather is too much for lil' old me. I shall leave when Xiao Yu is back."

Fish Ball had always been susceptible to the cold, so he loved huddling under Xiao Yu's covers. However, she never permitted him to do so.

He could only snuggle against her quilt in secret when no one was at home. He was adept at rearranging her bedsheets and covers into their original position, leaving no trace of his misdeed behind.

"This is perfect weather for playing games underneath the covers," he sighed contentedly.

Fish Ball settled into the most comfortable possible position and opened the King's Glory app. He was about to start a match when he received an incoming phone call. It was from an unfamiliar number.

"Hmm? Who could that be?" he wondered, eyeing the digits flashed on the screen with suspicion, "It must be a scam."

He decided to decline it.

He ended having to decline a few more calls in succession. All of them came from the same strange number.

"Why, I never knew that scam groups were so dedicated."

He was about to reject the call again when a tremendous weight descended on him. He found himself wedged uncomfortably between this horrible weight and the mattress.

Noodle licked his lips as he lay on top of the covers. He s.h.i.+fted around, causing Fish Ball to yelp in pain from the movement.

"Get off me, you dumb dog! Who said you could get on the bed? I'm telling Xiao Yu about this!"

"Go ahead. Tell her and she'll know that you snuggle against her covers pathetically when she's away at school every day."

Noodle adjusted his position again, accidentally rejecting another incoming call in the process.