Beauty Clinic
With a towel wrapped around her entire head, leaving only two eye holes, Li Naer walked into the consultation room.
"Take it off and let me see," the doctor said plainly.
Layer after layer of towels were removed to reveal a swollen and chapped face.
The doctor held her chin and studied her face closely for a while before asking, "Minor improvements or major reconstruction?"
"What would you suggest?" said Li Naer, seeming somewhat wary without her beauty.
The doctor patiently explained, "In cases like yours with severe tissue necrosis, major reconstruction has a chance of restoring your original appearance. With minor improvements, you'll probably end up with something like the currently trendy 'internet celebrity face'."
"Internet celebrity face? No, no, I want major reconstruction."
An average person would be quite content with a pretty internet celebrity face.
But this was Li Naer.
She had once made the campus beauty rankings. How could she allow herself to be nondescript?
The sea is difficult to contain, the sorceress mountain cannot simply be a cloud.
The doctor did not say anything more, he simply quoted a price: "Major reconstruction will be one million yuan, cash or bank transfer."
One million yuan.
Li Naer was a little shocked. All her time spent cozying up to Chen Ming had only yielded a little over 200,000 yuan.
Unwilling to give up her beauty, Li Naer persisted.
"Let me go to the bathroom first."
Li Naer hurried off towards the bathroom and took out her phone to call Chen Ming.
At that moment, Chen Ming was questioning his whole life.
Seeing the incoming call, he absently answered.
"Hello, brother Chen Ming?"
Although disfigured, Li Naer's voice was still pleasant.
"Oh, Li Naer," said Chen Ming, sounding very cold.
Having lost his dignity, he could no longer engage in such affairs.
He now had zero interest in his former goddess.
"That's right, brother Chen Ming, could you lend me some money, not much, just one million?"
Based on what Li Naer knew of Chen Ming, a mere million was nothing to him.
Usually a little sweet talk with hints would get money out of him.
"I won't lend it. Piss off," said the irritable Chen Ming, flatly refusing instead of agreeing to lend money as she had expected, and immediately hanging up.
After trying several times, her phone finally gave an English prompt.
Li Naer finally confirmed that she had been blocked by Chen Ming.
It seemed hopeless to rely on others.
She was no longer naive enough to expect getting something for nothing in her state.
Moreover, her reputation in social circles was already in tatters.
Although she had done nothing, no one would believe her.
They only believed what they could see.
"Doctor, I've thought about it. Just do the minor improvements," said Li Naer, getting straight to the point when she returned to the consultation room.
She only had a little over 200,000 yuan.
The doctor had thought she was going to be a big customer. He did not expect her budget to suddenly shrink, and his tone became somewhat colder too: "Minor improvements will be 200,000 yuan. Pay the deposit upfront, cash or card?"
Li Naer took out the card containing just over 200,000 yuan. "Card."
Swipe
Swipe again
Swipe again
The doctor's expression grew increasingly awkward. He handed the bank card back to Li Naer. "Use a different card."
"What's going on? Let me check."
Li Naer clearly remembered transferring the money from the pigeon signal onto this bank card.
Opening her mobile banking app, a notification appeared:
Dear customer, your account is suspected of illegal activity and has been frozen. Please visit your local bank for inquiries if you have any questions.
"I'll come back another time."
Li Naer put the card back into her bag and hurriedly left.
With issues on her bank card, there was no point staying any longer.
She still had to rush to a nearby bank to figure out what exactly had gone wrong.
Bank
After waiting for about 10 minutes, Li Naer's queue ticket number was finally called.
Sitting down at the bank teller's window, she passed over her bank card and asked, "Please help me check why this bank card was frozen."
"Sure."
"Ma'am, over 200,000 yuan of funds in your account came from problematic sources."
The bank staff worked efficiently, quickly identifying the issue from their back end system.
"What's the problem? That was money someone else gave me."
Li Naer was a little puzzled. What did her bank account have to do with money someone else decided to give her?
"It's like this, ma'am. The account providing you with funds has unknown origins, so your account is suspected money laundering and transactions have therefore been frozen," the staff member still responded kindly.
"I didn't launder money, I don't know anything. Someone else just gave me that money."
Li Naer was getting somewhat emotional. She had never done anything illegal.
The staff member quickly tried to reassure her, "Please don't get excited, ma'am. If you can prove your account funds come from normal sources, you can provide the information to the police to resolve this."
Provide information?
How?
Could she say it was money from selling silver that the buyer hadn't even received yet?
Looking dejected, Li Naer walked out of the bank. She knew there was no getting that money back.
Her face also most likely could no longer be fixed.
The one who caused all this was that man, that scammer.
Hospital
The scammer Li Naer spoke of was currently going through discharge procedures.
"What do you mean the card won't work? That can't be right. I used this card to make a payment before."
"Yes sir, there is something wrong with your card. Please provide another one."
"Try it again."
"Sir, there really is an issue with your card."
Just as Chen Ming wanted to argue further, a squad of police officers suddenly appeared in the lobby.
They scanned the lobby and marched straight towards Chen Ming.
Flashing their badges, "Hello, Mr. Chen Ming. You are suspected of counterfeiting. Please come with us for questioning."
Counterfeiting?
Chen Ming's mind buzzed. When had he ever done anything like that?
"No, officers, you must have the wrong person. I'm a law-abiding citizen."
Chen Ming waved his arms around in agitation, startling the officers.
"Don't move. If you continue resisting, we will consider it obstructing officers on duty which carries severe consequences. Let's talk more at the station," said the officer in charge, pulling out a gun and pointing it directly at Chen Ming.
Scared stiff, Chen Ming did not dare to move a muscle, allowing the officers to put silver handcuffs on him.
Interrogation Room
"Officers, I really didn't counterfeit anything. You must have the wrong person. I'm innocent, you have to believe me!" Chen Ming pleaded incessantly from the interrogation chair, he was so frightened by just two officers despite having the System for a short while.
"It's like this. We detected multiple unverified deposits in your bank account. Please explain," said one of the officers.
The sources of funds entering Chen Ming's bank account were dubious, appearing as if they had materialized out of thin air.
The officers had reason to suspect hacking into bank systems to modify data.
Although differing from traditional counterfeiting methods, fundamentally there was no difference.
"It's the System, I have a System."