Becoming a Scum A in an Old-School Melodramatic Novel - Chapter 12

Shen Xian was momentarily stunned — this was the first time Lin Qinghan had smiled at her! And honestly, Lin Qinghan looked really beautiful when she smiled.

After Lin Qinghan washed her face, she remembered that she had actually smiled at Shen Xian just now and immediately regretted it. She must not have been fully awake earlier! Smiling at Shen Xian definitely wasn’t intentional.

After Lin Qinghan and Shen Tian finished washing up and came out, Shen Xian had already placed the seafood congee on the coffee table to cool — it wouldn’t be too hot to eat now.

“Let’s have breakfast first. Qinghan, you can head straight to work afterwards. I’ll take Tian Tian myself. I don’t have anything planned for this morning anyway.” Since she was already there, Shen Xian figured she might as well help out and let Lin Qinghan go straight to the office.

“Alright.” Lin Qinghan glanced at Shen Xian and replied. This was actually the first time in years that she had eaten breakfast made by Shen Xian. After tasting a few bites, she found it wasn’t bad at all.

Looking down, she saw Shen Tian eating like a little hamster — her cheeks puffed out as she chewed. Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Shen Xian and said, “Mommy, it’s delicious!”

“Great, then eat more if you like it.” Shen Xian looked at her daughter, finding her more and more adorable.

After breakfast, the three of them left the house together. Lin Qinghan headed straight to work, while Shen Xian took a taxi with Shen Tian to the kindergarten. As soon as they got out of the car, they ran into Shen Tian’s little friend, Li Mengmeng. Li Mengmeng happily waved at her, “Tian Tian, your mommy brought you today!”

Holding Shen Xian’s hand, Shen Tian smiled and nodded, “Mm-hmm, Mommy brought me.”

“Hello, Auntie~” Li Mengmeng said, dragging out the last syllable just like Shen Tian.

“Hello, Mengmeng.” Shen Xian smiled kindly at her daughter’s little friend and watched the two adorable girls walk into the kindergarten.

After dropping Shen Tian off, Shen Xian went home, tidied up the house, took a shower, and finally returned to her room. Over the past few days, she had posted quite a few messages and sent out many resumes on local forums. But with the original owner’s academic background, those posts might as well have sunk into the ocean — no responses at all.

She opened her newly registered Feibo account, where she had been posting her analyses of the stock market and mutual funds. Lately, her predictions of market trends had been accurate, and the stocks she recommended had indeed risen steadily. As a result, Shen Xian had gained quite a few followers — going from just a few fake ones to now having several hundred real ones. 

She wrote a lengthy post analyzing today’s market trend, and whether to increase or decrease positions. After finishing that, she checked her private messages on Feibo. One of them said they wanted to meet her in person and hoped she could help with investing in stocks. They had even left their contact information.

Shen Xian’s first instinct was that it might be a scam. But after thinking it through, she realized she was dirt poor right now and had nothing worth scamming. So she simply entered the number into her phone. Her phone was already two or three years old and was running slow — she decided she’d get a new one that afternoon.

She dialed the number, and to her surprise, the voice that answered was a pleasant-sounding young woman. Shen Xian introduced herself first, “Hello, I’m ‘Xian Talks Finance’ on Feibo. I saw your private message and just wanted to follow up with a call.”

“Oh, it’s you! I saw your recent predictions in the super topics — they were amazing, almost all accurate! And since your Feibo location shows you’re in the same city as me, I thought I’d reach out. I’ve got some startup capital that my dad gave me to test my abilities, and I want your help investing it. Why don’t we meet up and talk in person?”

“Sure, you pick the place. I’m free this afternoon.”

“Okay, how about the café across from Linhai University? Let’s meet at 2 p.m.”

“Sounds good.” Shen Xian hung up the phone, feeling a little unsure. Could this person really be trusted? But in her past life, she’d encountered all kinds of people — she wasn’t so easy to scam. She figured she’d find out whether this person was real or fake that afternoon.

Shen Xian changed into a clean outfit, black fitted pants and a white V-neck T-shirt. She already looked good to begin with, and ever since she had arrived in this world, she’d been paying attention to exercise and avoided staying up late. After getting ready, she really did look quite attractive.

When she entered the café, she called the person, who then stood up and looked toward the entrance. Shen Xian saw her too — a young woman who looked to be just in her early twenties, with ash-brown curly hair casually draped over her shoulders. She waved enthusiastically at Shen Xian, a bright smile on her face.

Shen Xian’s first impression of her was that she didn’t look like a scammer.

Shen Xian walked over quickly, smiled at the girl, and said, “Hi, I’m the blogger from Feibo. My name is Shen Xian.”

“Hi, I’m Jiang Xi, but you can call me Xiao Xi.” The girl gave Shen Xian a sweet smile and added, “I wasn’t sure what kind of drinks you like, so I just ordered something at random.”

Shen Xian nodded, took a sip of the coffee in front of her, and asked, “Xiao Xi, what exactly did you want to talk about?”

Jiang Xi thought for a moment before speaking. “I’m graduating this year. My dad gave me ten million yuan as startup capital to train me before I take over the company in the future. But he said no family members are allowed to help me. So I racked my brain trying to figure out how to make money with this ten million, and then I saw your posts. I thought I’d give it a try.”

Shen Xian was stunned. This girl really had guts — just randomly trusting a stranger she found on Feibo?

She said, slightly at a loss for words, “Aren’t you afraid I might be a scammer?”

Jiang Xi smiled. “I was a little worried at first. But once I saw you, I wasn’t scared anymore. You’re so pretty — you don’t look like a bad person.”

Shen Xian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. So, being good-looking automatically means not being a bad person?

“Xiao Xi, even though you said that, I still need to confirm that you really have ten million. After all, we don’t know each other, and if you want me to help manage that money, we’ll need to sign a proper contract,” Shen Xian explained.

Jiang Xi nodded and said, “Mm-hmm, I know about this, Sis. I’ll show you right now.” As she spoke, she took out her phone, opened a certain online app, and handed the phone to Shen Xian.

Shen Xian glanced at it — sure enough, there really was {ten million} in the account. She sighed and handed the phone back to Jiang Xi. “Um, Xiao Xi, you shouldn’t show this kind of thing to outsiders so casually. It’s easy to attract bad people.”

Jiang Xi smiled and said, “Sis, you sound exactly like my sister! Xiao Xi isn’t a child anymore — I can tell the difference between good and bad people!”

Shen Xian forced a smile, thinking, Looking at you, you seem like the type who’d get scammed easily, okay? At the same time, she couldn’t help but feel a little concerned for the “sister” Jiang Xi mentioned — having a sister like this must be exhausting.

“So, shall we talk about profit distribution? I’ll manage your ten million for a year, and you’ll pay me ten percent of the total annual profit. Is that okay?”

Jiang Xi nodded. “It doesn’t have to be ten percent, Sis — I’ll give you twenty percent of the total profit. I just need to prove to my dad that I’m not some spoiled spendthrift. Oh right, Sis, let’s add each other on FeiXin (a messaging app). It’ll make it easier to stay in touch.” She happily pulled out her FeiXin QR code.

Shen Xian hesitated for a moment. In all her years in business, she’d only seen people try to get more benefits for themselves, never someone insisting on giving more to others. She took out her phone and scanned Jiang Xi’s QR code, and the two became contacts.

“Sis, it’s fine. Let’s agree on this then. I’ll give you twenty percent of the profits from this year. You draft the contract, okay? I don’t really know how to do it.” Jiang Xi smiled and fiddled with her phone.

Shen Xian quickly nodded. “Alright, I’ll draft the contract by tomorrow, and we’ll sign it then. After that, just leave everything to me.” As she spoke, she casually glanced at her phone — and then her eyes widened when she saw a {100,000 yuan} red envelope in her chat with Jiang Xi.

“Xiao Xi, what is this for? I haven’t even started earning profits for you yet!”

“Sis, just think of this {100,000 yuan} as a meeting fee — it’s not part of the contract. It’s just a little reward for you coming to see me today. I left messages for several local influencers on Feibo, but you were the only one who actually called me back.”

Shen Xian thought, Well, of course. With how Jiang Xi went about it, anyone else would’ve thought she was a scammer. Only someone like me, who has nothing left to scam, would dare come.

“Alright then, same time tomorrow afternoon, here at the same place — we’ll sign the contract.”

“Mm-hmm, sounds good.”

After their talk, Jiang Xi insisted on driving Shen Xian home. Shen Xian checked the time and saw that it was about time for her daughter to get out of school, so she gave Jiang Xi the address. Jiang Xi’s car was a bright red Porsche — definitely eye-catching. But Shen Xian had seen every kind of car in her past life; she was used to them by now. This only confirmed her belief that Jiang Xi was a typical airheaded, rich second-generation girl.

When Jiang Xi parked outside the kindergarten, she immediately drew a lot of attention. Most of the families were middle-class workers — who could afford a sports car?

“Sis, we’re here. See you tomorrow!” Jiang Xi said with a cheerful smile.

“See you tomorrow.”

As soon as Shen Xian got out of the car, she saw her little one waiting by the teacher’s side to be picked up. She immediately went over, and her daughter spotted her, too.

“Mommy, you look so pretty today! Mommy, whose car was that just now?” Shen Tian asked, tilting her little face up.

“You sweet little thing. That was a friend of Mommy’s. Come on, let’s call your mom and go buy some mangosteen for you.” Shen Xian called Lin Qinghan and then took Shen Tian to the supermarket.

By the time they returned, Lin Qinghan had also ridden her little electric scooter to the school gate.

From a distance, Shen Tian called out in a drawn-out voice, “Mom, Mom, Tian Tian is here~”

Lin Qinghan smiled when she saw her. “Alright, Tian Tian is such a good girl.”

Shen Xian hesitated but then asked, “Do you want me to come over tonight? I’m just worried, in case something happens again.”

Lin Qinghan glanced at Shen Xian, then at Shen Tian.

As soon as Shen Tian heard Shen Xian wanted to come over, she cheered. “Mommy, come! Tian Tian wants you to stay. Mom, let Mommy come. Mommy always listens to Mom the most!”

Lin Qinghan gently pinched Shen Tian’s smiling face. “Don’t talk nonsense.” Then she turned to Shen Xian and said, “Alright, let’s go together. Sorry to trouble you because of Lin Zhixin’s issue.”

“It’s no trouble at all. I was missing Tian Tian anyway,” Shen Xian said with a smile.