Chapter 92: Certainty and Difficulty

The contact known as “Dream Awakens, Sleeves Full of Tears” was very likely a scammer, but whether that was truly the case still required further confirmation.

Immediately, Jiang Zheng threw himself into talking with the man.

“What counts as good performance? What other conditions are needed to become a member?” Jiang Zheng sent.

The reply came quickly. “You need to keep placing orders every day, and every order must receive a positive review from the customer. That is what counts as good performance. As for becoming a member, as long as your performance is good, you just have to wait. When a slot opens up on our end, you can become a member.”

Jiang Zheng could tell that, while the other party was doing his best to explain things, he was also setting traps all the while.

The requirements for good performance were absurdly strict, and there was still the need to wait. Yet he did not mention at all how many people were already ahead in line.

These were all pitfalls, designed to make people understand how difficult it was to become a member, and thereby make the whole thing seem more credible.

If he had come right out and said that one could pay to become a member, most people’s first reaction would have been resistance and disbelief.

I came here to do a part-time job. I haven’t even earned anything yet, and now I’m supposed to pay so much money? Absolutely not.

So they raised the difficulty, made it seem that membership was hard-won, and once payment came up again, the sense of resistance would be much smaller.

Jiang Zheng saw through their routine. Naturally, he was not going to fall for it.

“But there’s still a queue? That sounds way too hard and troublesome,” he sent.

“Nothing we can do. Membership spots are limited, so this is the only way. Actually, even if you’re not a member, the part-time work is still quite profitable.”

That was the reply.

With the topic of membership no longer being pursued, Jiang Zheng felt a bit of a headache.

He understood it was a tactic of bait and release: not discussing it now, planting a seed, and waiting for it to take root and sprout later.

But if they did not mention it, it would be hard for him to keep going. The key point was that he still had not confirmed the other party as a scammer.

“If I want to become a member, is there an easier way? Waiting like this is too troublesome and takes too long,” Jiang Zheng sent.

Since the other side did not want to bring up membership, then he would bring it up himself.

The other side remained silent for a long time and did not choose to reply right away.

Jiang Zheng was not in a hurry. Fishing required patience; if he wanted to reel the fish in, he had to be prepared for a tug-of-war.

After reading for a while, Jiang Zheng finally received a reply.

“Since you haven’t officially joined yet, strictly speaking you’re not supposed to become a member. But I told the boss about your situation, and he specifically asked me to give you a membership slot. He said he really understands how hard it is for students doing part-time work.”

The message made it sound as though the person had truly gone to ask around and had only barely managed to secure a membership slot.

Jiang Zheng sneered inwardly. Sure enough, the moment he showed unusual interest in membership, they started to show their hand.

This routine was almost identical to what Yang Po had told him about his own experience.

Sneering inside, Jiang Zheng’s hands did not slow down at all.

“Really? Then thank you so much. Am I considered a member now?” he sent.

Dream Awakens, Sleeves Full of Tears replied: “To become a member, you need to pay a membership fee. Depending on how much you pay, the membership level you can obtain will be different. I’ll send you the specific membership tiers, and you can take a look.”

Then Dream Awakens, Sleeves Full of Tears sent over an image.

Jiang Zheng did not hesitate and opened it.

As expected, it showed the membership tiers, along with the corresponding privileges and fees.

The amounts ranged from ninety-nine to ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine.

At that moment, Jiang Zheng could finally be truly certain: this was a gang of scammers, the same one behind Yang Po’s case.

A faint excitement rose in Jiang Zheng’s heart. His efforts had not been in vain; after all that trouble, he had finally reached the scammers.

Once he confirmed they were scammers, Jiang Zheng began a series of operations in an attempt to determine the other party’s IP address through technical means.

In order to catch this gang, Jiang Zheng had put in a great deal of effort, even beginning to study programming books in advance.

But as soon as he got to work, he immediately realized something was wrong.

They were chatting through WeChat. If he wanted to pinpoint the other party’s real location through WeChat, he would inevitably have to get past the enormous barrier that was WeChat itself.

And his technical skill was not sufficient to break through WeChat and lock onto the other party’s real address.

Indeed, there is no absolutely secure network defense in this world, but Jiang Zheng’s current hacking skills were nowhere near enough to breach WeChat’s defenses.

After realizing this, Jiang Zheng hurriedly began to retreat. While retreating, he also cleaned up every trace of what he had done.

This took some time.

By then, Dream Awakens, Sleeves Full of Tears seemed to have grown impatient.

“Have you finished reading it? If you’ve made up your mind, just tell me directly. The boss is pressing me. If you can’t make the decision, then I’ll have to give this chance to someone else first.”

Jiang Zheng glanced at the message. He had originally not intended to keep dragging things out with the other side, but now it seemed that he had no choice.

“I’ve decided. I want to become a diamond member,” Jiang Zheng sent.

A diamond membership required a payment of ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine.

Of course, Jiang Zheng had no intention of actually paying. No matter how much money he had, there was no way he would throw away that much for nothing.

That would be like feeding a bun to a dog and never getting it back.

The other side seemed startled by Jiang Zheng’s words. After all, that was a hundred thousand yuan, and not everyone had the courage to take that out.

One had to know that the people they targeted were mostly those without much money. If someone had money, why would they be doing this at all?

It wasn’t that they absolutely could not produce a hundred thousand yuan, but at the very least, being willing to take out that much money required tremendous courage.

After a brief silence, Dream Awakens, Sleeves Full of Tears sent a message: “Yes. Transfer the money to me, and you can become a diamond member.”

“Okay,” Jiang Zheng sent.

He was certainly not going to transfer any money. He wasn’t stupid. He was only fishing.

The other side did not reply, apparently waiting for Jiang Zheng to make the transfer.

Meanwhile, Jiang Zheng was racking his brain for a solution.

His mind spun at high speed, and one scheme after another took shape in his head, only to be rejected one by one.

In the end, Jiang Zheng painfully settled on a plan.

It was the one he believed was most likely to work, but also the one he least wanted to choose.

Dream Awakens, Sleeves Full of Tears was getting anxious waiting, and suspicion had also begun to rise. He wondered if Jiang Zheng might be trying to scam them instead.

If he could casually produce a hundred thousand, why would he even need to do this part-time job?

Just as the doubt in his heart grew heavier and heavier, Jiang Zheng’s message arrived.

“No, my parents’ card isn’t directly linked to WeChat, so I can’t transfer it.”

The moment he saw that message, a great many thoughts flashed through Dream Awakens, Sleeves Full of Tears’s mind, and he also understood why a student could produce so much money.

So it was his parents’ money.

“You can use your parents’ WeChat to make the transfer,” he replied.

“No, I took the card without them knowing. I sneaked it out,” Jiang Zheng answered.

Some of the doubts in Dream Awakens, Sleeves Full of Tears’s heart were cast aside, and everything now had a reasonable explanation.

So, another spoiled child.