Chapter 4: The Arrival of a Little Troublemaker

Yang Hua was the younger sister of Chen Fan’s eldest sister’s husband. She was nineteen that year, had dropped out in her second year of high school, and was a complete delinquent girl.

Ever since middle school, Yang Hua had relied on her age, her status, and the few petty thugs she knew from the streets to bully Chen Fan behind everyone’s back.

Whenever the family bought Chen Fan something new, whether it was a portable cassette player, a new phone, or fresh tapes, Yang Hua had to have the first turn with it.

Only after she had grown bored of it would Chen Fan be allowed to use it.

When she had no money to spend, she either took Chen Fan’s pocket money or threatened him into stealing money from home for her.

On top of that, because she had quit school and spent her days loafing about on the streets, Chen Fan’s eldest sister and brother-in-law had asked her to help watch the shop, promising her eight hundred a month, with Chen Fan’s parents paying half and the sister’s family the other half.

But on ordinary days, whenever Chen Fan’s parents were at home, Yang Hua could hardly be seen.

Only when Chen Fan’s parents went out to buy stock or were too busy to leave would Yang Hua show her face and come keep the shop.

She was simply collecting money for nothing and eating for free.

What was more, every time Yang Hua came to watch the shop, the drawer at home would be missing one or two hundred yuan.

As soon as Chen Fan’s parents noticed any money missing, Yang Hua would pin the blame on Chen Fan and wash her hands of it completely.

“For nearly half a year now, Yang Hua’s been coming over to help watch the shop, and I’ve taken the blame for her more than ten times. Damn it... if I count it all up, that bitch has taken almost two thousand yuan in my name.”

Thinking back on all the details of his previous life, Chen Fan, lying on the bed, clenched his teeth with hatred.

Since he had been reborn, he would reclaim everything Yang Hua had done to him before—every beating, every humiliation, and every bit of the more than two thousand yuan she had stolen from the family—and he would pay her back in full.

Chen Fan looked around the bedroom plastered with posters and finally found the calendar wedged between posters of F4 and Brother Haonan.

His perfect eyesight settled on January twenty-fifth.

On that day in his previous life, Yang Hua had framed him with a terrible crime, the kind that could land someone in a cell.

Because of that false accusation, Chen Fan had been beaten, scorned, and despised.

His parents and eldest sister had also been left unable to hold their heads up in front of Yang Hua’s family because of it.

Compared with Su Xue’s long-term draining and torment, Yang Hua’s frame-up was the deadliest blade to strike Chen Fan’s entire family in the winter of 2005.

But Chen Fan understood clearly that he had no evidence of Yang Hua’s wrongdoing in hand. Even if he caught her red-handed on the twenty-fifth, that shameless woman would still find some excuse to pin the blame on him.

The most urgent task was to find a way to obtain proof that Yang Hua was up to no good while watching the shop, but...

Chen Fan looked at the Nokia 7260 his mother had given him for the New Year.

Although this phone could record video, each recording was limited to ten minutes, unlike future phones that could capture long videos.

Using it to film evidence of Yang Hua stealing money would not work.

Chen Fan got out of bed and went to the desk, turning on the bulky old computer on top of it.

This computer had been a gift from both of his sisters when he passed the entrance exam for high school.

But no sooner had it arrived than Yang Hua occupied it for more than a month, and it was only after she visited certain adult websites and infected the machine with a virus that she, in guilty conscience, finally stopped hogging it.

With a series of thudding startup sounds, the monitor displayed the familiar, old-fashioned interface of a classic system.

“Tch... what a retro desktop. It’s almost unfamiliar to look at now.”

Chen Fan first connected the broadband by hand, then opened the built-in IE browser and entered links to the main shopping sites.

After the homepages of the three major online marketplaces finished loading, he typed five words into the search bar: pinhole camera.

Five or six minutes later, Chen Fan looked at the items on the site and sighed helplessly.

The merchants that had moved in at this point were still very legitimate.

Unlike a few years later, when all manner of things ran wild and one could find sellers offering bugs, pinhole cameras, sedatives, and every other sort of contraband.

Chen Fan also opened forums and message boards, searching and posting for pinhole cameras.

The result was a flood of scammers contacting him, along with several private investigators sending him messages. In short, none of them were reliable.

He had considered buying one offline as well.

But pinhole cameras were rare in a county town.

Even if someone sold them, who would dare sell one to a stranger without connections or a channel? After all, if the police found it, you’d be wearing silver bracelets.

Just when Chen Fan was at a loss, his gaze suddenly fell on a camera about half a fist in size.

He slapped his forehead, the frown between his brows instantly smoothing out.

“Oh, my brain... I just got reborn and almost forgot about this thing. Isn’t this a ready-made pinhole camera?”

Chen Fan pulled a cardboard box out from under the bed. Inside were a pile of half-new mice, keyboards, and cameras, all gear his father had scavenged from the secondhand market and small internet cafes.

Since many things had inexplicably broken not long after he started using them, his father had collected these peripherals to keep as spares.

In his previous life, Chen Fan had despised them. He had never expected them to come in handy today.

Chen Fan gave a wistful sigh and no longer wasted time. He had to get everything ready before Yang Hua came to watch the shop.

He took a tape measure and measured the distance from the computer to the window, then from the window to the awning over the first-floor shop entrance. After that, he selected three cameras that were about seventy percent new from the box and began tinkering.

Very soon, a homemade camera with an extra-long power cord was in his hands.

He had seen the making process many times in short videos in his previous life, and there were even tutorials online. It was not technically difficult; he only had to connect the wires properly.

Then Chen Fan rushed downstairs, carried a ladder to the shop entrance, and concealed and fixed the prepared camera in place.

It was winter now, and Liangyuan County lay in the subtropical south of the country, so there was no need to worry about snow or rain.

Ten minutes later.

Chen Fan looked at the video image now appearing on the computer and let out a long breath.

Though it was not full high-definition quality, it was enough to make out everything happening in the shop.

“I really am a genius!”

Just as Chen Fan was congratulating himself, a woman’s voice came from outside the bedroom window, shouting for the door to be opened.

“Chen Fan, where the hell are you? If you’re not dead, get over here and open the door for me.”

Hearing Yang Hua’s voice, a playful smile appeared on Chen Fan’s face.

Sister Hua, you’re finally here.

With a rattle, the rolling shutter door was lifted, and outside stood a delinquent girl dressed in the height of what was then considered edgy and unconventional style.

Her straight bleached-blond hair fell sleek and rigid, and beneath a blue denim jacket she wore a black low-cut camisole, her breasts round and full. She had on ultra-short shorts and black stockings, and on her feet were a pair of pink-and-white canvas shoes.

Her somewhat pretty face was made up with smoky eye makeup, and on her ears, nose, and lips were the standard blue crystal studs.

This look was very popular at the time.

This little thug was Yang Hua.