Chapter Ninety-Three: A Band of Little Swindlers

I was thinking we should head out with Big Sis in a bit and try to rent a spot near the supermarket entrance. If the price is too high or we can’t get one, then we’ll slip into the geology school and set up our lottery booth there. Sweetie, go borrow two packs of good cigarettes from Leng Haoyang later; if the guard notices us, we’ll have something to smooth things over with.

"All right! Let’s do that. I’m throwing caution to the wind," said Willow. "I’ll go find some cardboard for the tickets. Du Xinmeng has some."

"Good. Then let’s take stock of what we have. First prize has to be something eye-catching..." Dong Yanyan rummaged through the pile, and the only things worth mentioning were two exquisite photo frames. But using those as first prize seemed far too cheap.

"Sweetie, didn’t you just buy a portable cassette player yesterday? Did you throw away the box?" Dong Yanyan asked, turning to her.

"Big Sis, that thing cost over eighty!" Sweetie pouted.

"Sweetie, if we make our money back, we’ll buy you the same one again with the profits. If we don’t, we’ll return it to you exactly as it was. How about that?" Dong Yanyan said with a smile.

"Fine! For Third Sis, I’ll do it!" Sweetie laughed.

Willow hesitated again, asking uncertainly, "Old Five, if we rent a place, won’t that cost money too? If it doesn’t work out, then I’ll lose even more."

"Third Sis, if we really lose money, then count these things as if I bought them from you. I’ll pay you back," Dong Yanyan reassured her.

"That won’t do. It’s already enough that you’re helping. All right, I trust you," Willow said with a smile.

"Then trust me. Fine, first prize will be the portable cassette player. Sweetie, when you bought it, how much did they ask for?" Dong Yanyan asked.

"They wanted one hundred and eighty. I bargained them down to eighty-five," Sweetie said.

"Good. Then we’ll write: one first prize, a multifunction portable cassette player valued at two hundred yuan..." Dong Yanyan wrote it down on a sheet of paper while sifting through the goods. "Two second prizes: one exquisite folding photo frame valued at sixty yuan each. Ten third prizes: one branded lipstick valued at thirty-nine yuan each. Ten fourth prizes: one nano antibacterial toothbrush valued at ten yuan each, or one exquisite soap dish. Fifth prize..." She looked over what was left. Aside from the two remaining lipsticks and a few toothbrushes, there were only buttons.

"The fifth prize can only be these buttons," said Xinran.

"That won’t do. That swindler definitely wasn’t targeting us alone. Who knows how many people he cheated before he came to us. If we bring out these buttons, we’ll give ourselves away. I still have some bracelets. Let’s use those for now." Dong Yanyan took out the bracelets left over from the autumn sales. They were really just two strands of red cord twisted together, with a tiny brass coin threaded in the middle. They had cost three dimes and sold for two yuan. She counted them: thirty-seven in all.

"Fifty fifth prizes: one lucky charm bracelet each!"

"You really dare to write that. What about the rest of the stuff?" Willow asked.

"Keep it for yourself. It’s all things you’ll use sooner or later anyway." Dong Yanyan put down her pen and said to the others, "Xiaohan, you can write calligraphy-style lettering, right? You’re in charge of the posters later; just copy what I’ve written. Sweetie, go get two packs of cigarettes from Leng Haoyang. He’s the only one in our class who has good ones. Don’t tell him what they’re for. The rest of you help cut paper. We need at least a few hundred lottery tickets. Put the winning tickets aside first. Third Sis, hide the first-prize ticket for now. If someone really draws the first prize, we’ll take it out later; otherwise, if somebody wins it early, everyone will leave, and we won’t make our money back. Xinran, go borrow a loudspeaker from Teacher Liu Qing."

Xinran muttered unhappily, "I don’t want to go."

"It’s only borrowing something. I’ll go!" Xiaohan said, bouncing out the door.

"Big Sis, come out with me to rent the space. I’ll tell you how to do it." Dong Yanyan took Li Hui with her and headed out. She brought Li Hui because she looked more mature and therefore more trustworthy.

The two of them ran all over the nearby supermarkets, and at last found a suitable spot outside the South Street supermarket. They went straight in and asked the front desk to call the manager. The manager was a woman in her thirties, not tall, with a kindly face.

"Hello, I’m Dong Yanyan, a promoter from Century Star Company. Our company wants to publicize our product, so we’d like to hold a lottery event in your store and came to discuss it with you. This is Manager Li." Dong Yanyan introduced herself with a sweet smile. Then she took out the work ID she had prepared for the occasion; it had been issued when she did temporary promotion work for a cosmetics company and had never been collected back.

The shop owner nodded.

Li Hui extended her hand solemnly and shook hands with the manager. The manager shook back and said with a smile, "I’m Zhang Jie, the manager here. Welcome, welcome. But if you want to do promotions here, there is a fee."

"Well, our event is only for one afternoon. At other stores, they charge thirty yuan a day," Li Hui said, pretending to be very professional.

"That won’t do. We charge at least fifty here. There are many colleges nearby, so events like this definitely work better here than elsewhere." The manager smiled.

Li Hui looked around with a fussy air, then said helplessly, "All right, then. I hope we have a pleasant cooperation." She turned to glance at Dong Yanyan, unable to hide her delight.

Dong Yanyan gave a wry smile inwardly: she had never imagined she would one day be doing something like this. In nicer words it was opportunism; in plain terms, it was swindling. They had neither the approval of the commerce bureau nor the permit of the urban management officers. If they were truly caught, it would be a terrible mess.

Never mind. There were plenty of con artists setting up stalls on Blackwater Road, and no one seemed to care. They would just act according to circumstances.

Xiaohan hurried to the office to borrow the loudspeaker from Teacher Liu. Teacher Liu Qing was not in the office, so she had to go to his dormitory to find him.

Teacher Liu Qing’s bachelor quarters were on the first floor of the office building next door. Dong Yanyan walked up on tiptoe to the door and knocked.

Teacher Liu Qing was reclining on the sofa, watching television at his leisure. Hearing someone knock, he asked without turning around, "Who is it?"

"It’s me!" Gu Xiaohan answered crisply.

The moment Teacher Liu heard a girl’s voice, his eyes lit up. He threw down the remote and hurried out at once. Xiaohan had not expected him to come out so quickly and was startled. When Liu Qing saw it was one of his students, he looked somewhat disappointed, but still asked with a smile, "Oh? Xiaohan, what do you need?"

"Teacher, I’d like to borrow the loudspeaker." As she spoke, Xiaohan used her hands to gesture a megaphone shape.

"Student, that’s called a public-address speaker. What do you want to borrow it for?" Liu Qing said with a smile.

Remembering Dong Yanyan’s instructions that no one could be told about this, Xiaohan shook her head, then pointed to her throat and said in a pitiful, raspy voice, "My throat is hoarse~~~"

Teacher Liu burst out laughing. "If your throat is hoarse, what do you need it for? Go buy some herbal throat lozenges!"

Hearing that, Xiaohan thought: if he won’t lend it, then I’m finished. How am I supposed to explain this when I get back? So she began to pester him shamelessly, clutching at his sleeve and whining, "Teacher, just lend it to me, please? I’ll return it as soon as I’m done. I’ll only use it for one afternoon, okay? Teacher~~~ Teacher~~~ Teacher~~~"

Seeing that she was about to go on forever, Teacher Liu Qing finally agreed in irritation. "All right, all right! I’ll get it for you. But you must return it on time." With that, he locked the dormitory door, took the key, and led her to the equipment room. Only after having her sign the register did he hand over the loudspeaker.

Mission accomplished, Xiaohan hugged the loudspeaker and skipped back happily. When she reached the office building entrance, she suddenly remembered that no one else could see it or it would look bad. So she hid the loudspeaker inside her coat, tucked her arms in tight, and sneaked back to the dormitory.

Dong Yanyan and the others had set up the display booth at the supermarket entrance. Looking at it, Dong Yanyan thought that the whole dormitory could not come crowding over; that would be far too conspicuous. So she had Sweetie and Xinran keep watch over the lottery tickets and prizes, while Leng Yue and Willow handled the money at the side.

At one o’clock sharp, a lottery booth appeared outside the South Street supermarket. The poster beside it was written in large calligraphic characters: Century Star Company, New Year Gratitude Extravaganza, a thrilling grand lottery! Winning rate: fifty percent! Below that were the prize descriptions and drawing rules. The prizes were stacked in a conspicuous pile beside the booth.

"Remember, no matter who asks, you must insist that you came out for a weekend part-time job and are working for someone else. If they ask for your credentials, tell them your supervisor has them and won’t arrive until evening. Understand?" Dong Yanyan reminded them uneasily.

"Don’t worry, we know," Leng Yue said with a smile. "You girls go up and look around first. Come down later and help us play up the crowd."

Hearing that, Dong Yanyan could not help laughing: this sister had real potential to be a con artist.

After browsing the mall upstairs with Xiaohan and the others, Dong Yanyan came back down and saw that quite a crowd had already gathered around the lottery booth. Sweetie was holding the loudspeaker, speaking in a sweet voice with a radiant smile as she introduced the prizes. Willow, smiling broadly, was busy taking money and giving change. Xinran stood by the prizes, handing out the winnings.

"Congratulations, auntie, you’ve won second prize! Please come this way to claim it!" Sweetie called out enthusiastically. The middle-aged woman who won the prize took her gift and smiled so widely that every tooth showed.

Dong Yanyan could not help sighing inwardly: the ignorant truly know no fear. What lovely children they were—only to have been led astray by her.

She was still uneasy. After all, they had no permits of any kind. If the urban management officers or the commerce bureau really came to arrest them, it would be a disaster.

Fortunately, the day passed without incident. By five in the afternoon, most of the prizes had been drawn. The girls knew when to stop while they were ahead and returned to the dormitory in high spirits to count the money.

"My God, more than six hundred yuan in one afternoon! That money was too easy to make!" Leng Yue said with a laugh.

Willow was even happier, saying excitedly, "I’ll treat everyone tonight! What do you want to eat?"

"Great! I’ve been freezing here all afternoon. I deserve a proper feast!" Sweetie cheered, hopping in place.

Li Hui was a little displeased. She curled her lip and said, "We all put in effort this afternoon. Third, shouldn’t we get a share of the money we made?"

"Exactly. I spent all morning cutting lottery tickets, and my hands are sore," Yu Xia chimed in.

"I stood around all afternoon too," Xinran added.

Seeing that, Dong Yanyan knew it was no time to act lofty. So she kept silent.