After leaving the internet café, Liu Debao hesitated for a long while before finally deciding to take the item to the police post near the bus station.
Honestly, he had been completely bewildered at the time, mindlessly led astray by that motorcycle taxi driver.
Now that he had calmed down, the more he thought about it, the more something felt off.
Why had he been so nervous? Why had he gone along with that driver’s scheme?
He had grown up singing the children’s rhyme, "I found a coin on the roadside and handed it to the policeman." So why had he forgotten the lesson when it actually mattered?
From this incident alone, it was clear that the motorcycle taxi driver was a seasoned swindler.
From a psychological perspective, the man had manipulated the environment and emotions to completely override Liu Debao’s rational judgment. Then, with the promise of splitting the "spoils," he had dragged him into the scheme, turning an otherwise clear-thinking person into a passive accomplice.
The reason Liu Debao had been so easily led was that his psychological defenses had crumbled under the driver’s calculated pressure.
And it wasn’t just him—many first-time victims of such scams fell for the same tricks.
By the time they realized what had happened, their money would already be gone, and only then would they belatedly discover that the items they had been guarding were fake.
Liu Debao hadn’t even opened the small black bag to check its contents.
You could call him honest, or you could call him foolish—but he believed that if he had touched it, he might never be able to explain himself if something went wrong later.
He decided to hurry and hand the bag over to the police post.
But just as he stepped out of the alley, a familiar woman suddenly appeared, pointing at him and shouting, "That’s him! He’s the one who stole my bag!"
The sudden accusation startled him so badly he nearly jumped.
Before he could react, three young men with dyed hair blocked his path, and the woman in the bright red down jacket snatched the bag from his hand.
The outcome was obvious.
She immediately pulled out the small black bag from his belongings.
"Caught red-handed! What do you have to say for yourself now?"
Liu Debao’s face turned pale, his nerves so frayed he couldn’t even form a proper response.
One of the men in a leather jacket grabbed him by the collar and snarled, "You’ve got some nerve, kid, stealing from my girl?"
"N-no… it wasn’t me… it was that motorcycle taxi driver…" Liu Debao stammered, trying to explain.
But then he got a good look at the man’s face and realized something was wrong. "Y-you… you’re that driver!"
"Give me back my phone!"
Lai Pihou wasn’t about to admit anything. "The hell? I don’t even know you! You stole my girl’s bag—what are you gonna do about it?"
One of his lackeys chimed in, "Brother Hou, this punk’s trying to turn the tables on us!"
Now Liu Debao understood—this was all a setup.
He wanted to slap himself. If only he hadn’t been so cheap and just taken a proper taxi, or called his cousin, none of this would have happened.
"You got your bag back. Can I have my phone now?" he mustered the courage to ask.
Lai Pihou scoffed. "Still hung up on that piece-of-crap phone?"
The other thugs burst into laughter.
"Brother Hou, this kid’s hilarious! Steals from your girl and still wants his phone back?"
Liu Debao refused to admit to stealing anything. "I didn’t take that bag—you shoved it at me! And you took my phone! I… I’m calling the police!"
"Go ahead!"
"We’ve got plenty of witnesses who saw you steal my girl’s wallet. Let’s see how you explain that to the cops."
Lai Pihou turned to his accomplice. "Check if anything’s missing."
The woman in the red down jacket made a show of rummaging through the bag before suddenly shrieking, "Brother Hou, my five thousand yuan is gone! And my gold bracelet too!"
"You little thief! You’ve got some nerve!"
Liu Debao panicked. "I never even opened that bag! You… you’re scamming me!"
"Oh yeah? Prove it."
Lai Pihou cut him off impatiently. "Enough bullshit! Where’s the money and the bracelet? Hand ‘em over now!"
He already knew the kid had no money—he’d cleaned him out earlier.
Normally, he wouldn’t have come back. His usual MO was to scam someone and disappear. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and he had no choice but to squeeze this kid for more.
There was a reason he’d targeted Liu Debao again, though.
Earlier, he’d tricked him into revealing that he was coming to Bright Pearl City to stay with his sister—who had originally planned to pick him up by car.
That was a crucial detail.
In 2007, electric bikes and motorcycles were the norm. Owning a car was a luxury few could afford.
So he figured the kid’s sister must be well-off. If he could extort some cash from him, he’d have enough to pay back Brother Bing.
"If you really think I stole something, then call the police! Let them sort it out!"
"Oho, tough guy, huh? Still wanna call the cops?"
"Guess you won’t learn until you’re bleeding."
With a nod, he signaled his lackeys, who immediately closed in.
One of them pulled a switchblade from his waistband and sneered, "Brother Hou, why waste time? Just make him call his sister for the money."
The sudden appearance of the knife made Liu Debao’s blood run cold. "M-my sister’s just a college student… she doesn’t have that kind of money…"
Then he remembered his father’s warning—city folks were cunning, and he needed to be careful.
But it was too late for regrets now.
Lai Pihou slapped him hard. "Cut the crap! You said your sister had a car!"
"Either call her right now and tell her to bring fifty thousand, or…" He jerked his chin toward the thug with the knife, the threat obvious.
But even then, Liu Debao refused. Instead, he stood his ground. "Go ahead, kill me! I’d rather die than make that call!"
In his mind, his cousin was a gentle, introverted, timid girl.
If she fell into these thugs’ hands, who knew what they’d do to her?
He couldn’t put her in danger.
As a man, he had to have some backbone.
Just then, one of the lackeys spoke up. "Brother Hou, why bother with him? If he won’t call, we’ll do it ourselves. It’s not like the phone’s in his pocket."
Lai Pihou’s eyes lit up—good point!
He immediately pulled out Liu Debao’s phone.
It was a cheap prepaid handset—the kind you got for free with a phone plan. Pressing the end-call button and then the unlock key would open it.
If it weren’t so worthless, he’d have sold it already.
Lai Pihou powered it on and unlocked it with ease.
Then, he saw over a dozen missed calls on his phone, all labeled "Cousin."
"So it's your cousin, huh? I thought it was your real sister. Wonder if this cousin of yours is pretty? Hehe..."
Liu Debao instantly panicked and lunged forward to grab his phone. "Give it back! Give me my phone!"
But he was pinned down by the thugs Lai Pihou had brought along.
Lai Pihou raised a finger to his lips, signaling for him to stay quiet.
The two bleached-haired lackeys immediately covered Liu Debao’s mouth, muffling his protests into desperate, wordless grunts.
The call connected almost instantly.
A cool, magnetic, and strikingly pleasant female voice came through the phone.
"Debao, why was your phone off? Where are you?"
"You’re Liu Debao’s sister, right?"
"Who are you? Where’s my brother?"
"Your brother stole my girlfriend’s bag. Either pay up to get him back, or we’ll hand him over to the cops and let him rot in jail."
"How much?" Her voice was eerily calm.
"Ten thousand. But if you really can’t swing that, we can negotiate..." Lai Pihou bumped up the price on the spot to leave room for haggling.
"No need to negotiate." Her tone was sharp and decisive. "Give me an address. I’ll bring the money now."
"Straight to the point! The address is..."
