Chapter 25: I Refuse to Be My Sister's Puppet

Beside Anhe Bridge stood a restaurant called Feng’s Tripe Delicacies.

Gu Cheng felt lately as if he’d become the protagonist of a Japanese morning drama: why did every plot have to unfold around the dining table, with endless eating?

But there was no helping it; such was the awkwardness of returning home. He hadn’t seen his cousin for two years—she had endured the hardship of a long train journey just to visit him. How could he not treat her to a good meal?

Gu Cheng ordered two plates of tender lamb tripe, a hot pot, seven or eight dishes of fresh ingredients for dipping, and two bottles of beer.

Lamb tripe itself is tasteless, and there is no secret to the dipping sauce, so the key to enjoying this dish lies in achieving that perfect balance of crispness, resilience, and tenderness.

If you could manage all three, then you had truly mastered the art of tripe. It seemed simple, but the knife skills and control of heat required over a decade of dedicated practice.

As they ate and chatted, Pan Jieying gradually gained an understanding of what Gu Cheng had been through over the past two years.

Pan Jieying was not an especially nosy person. After hearing the general outline, she quickly steered the conversation to the matter that concerned her the most.

“Cheng, about your experience at the entertainment company—I won’t pry. I just want to ask you one thing, and you must answer me honestly: this new business you’re doing, are you absolutely certain it’s not illegal?”

“Jie, don’t you trust me? You’ve watched me grow up from a child—when have I ever done anything illegal?”

Gu Cheng did his best to feign an innocent, virtuous expression, hoping to muddle through.

With more time spent together, the body’s original temperament and memories were awakening within him, and Gu Cheng could finally understand why his cousin was so anxious about him.

Generally, handsome men, if weak-willed and indecisive, easily become mama’s boys. Gu Cheng’s current body was undoubtedly handsome, but his mother had died young, so he never had the chance to become a mama’s boy.

Instead, he had become a “sister’s boy.”

Naturally, now he didn’t want this cousin, who had once depended on him as family, to meddle too much—after all, the soul inside was no longer the obedient boy she remembered.

His innocent act was ineffective.

Pan Jieying pressed on, unrelenting: “You must tell me exactly what business you’re in, or I’ll never believe you.”

Gu Cheng sighed, glanced around to confirm there were no eavesdroppers, then leaned in and lowered his voice. “My business is entirely legal. I simply have a sharp eye and spotted a commercial opportunity that no one else in the world has noticed.

But this business won’t last long. Once others catch on and copy my method, the profits will disappear—so you absolutely cannot let this idea slip.”

Pan Jieying was furious, her brows arching: “What are you saying? I’m your cousin! If I ever betray you, may I never marry!”

“Don’t make such oaths! Keep your voice down! How can I feel safe telling you if you’re so jumpy? Even if you don’t mean to, you might let something slip.”

Pan Jieying hurriedly lowered her voice, coaxing him with gentle words.

After pondering, Gu Cheng knew there was no escaping this. After all, he had taken over the body of her dear cousin.

So he outlined the nature of his dealings with Ding Sanshi.

Pan Jieying listened, mouth agape, as if she could swallow a whole egg.

“You spent a year and a half in the East, didn’t you just train with the entertainment company? How do you know all this?”

Gu Cheng made up an excuse: “The East’s internet industry is more advanced—they started earlier. As for this business model, it was naturally your clever cousin who thought it up.”

Having never been abroad, Pan Jieying couldn’t tell if this was true or false, so she reluctantly accepted it. Still, she was worried. “But… zombie programs are still viruses, aren’t they? Doing business with viruses, and even faking data—isn’t that illegal? Cheng, if you can avoid it, you should. We may be poor, but we mustn’t disgrace our family.”

“Jie, don’t be so soft-hearted. Weapons themselves have no morality. If the motive is just, any means is valid. What about viruses? If you use them for the right purpose, why not? I’m not stealing ordinary people’s private information, or running telecom scams, or directly hacking accounts to steal game items or online bank funds.

What I’m manipulating is the valuation of a company about to go public—the only ones getting hurt are Wall Street underwriters. If they can’t see through it, that’s their own incompetence. I’m just helping Boss Ding earn money from these people and taking a commission for myself—that’s only fair! Have you forgotten how my father died? It was those Wall Street finance wolves—every one I trick is what they deserve!”

Gu Cheng spoke rapidly, leaving Pan Jieying speechless.

At first, when she heard him accuse her of “soft-heartedness,” she was truly hurt and tears welled up. But when he mentioned his father’s loss in the market crash of ’98, all her anger turned to compassion.

Soros himself could be considered a distant “enemy” in Gu Cheng’s eyes.

“Cheng, I understand you. Maybe your change in temperament these past years is all because of… alas, I’m deeply saddened by what happened to your father too, but please, don’t let it turn you dark. They wouldn’t be at peace, even in the hereafter.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t turn dark. I know my limits.”

Gu Cheng held his cousin’s hand, soothing her until she calmed down. He thought to himself that at last, any lingering risks from having taken over this body were resolved.

When he went abroad, it was just after his world had collapsed. A teenager carrying such grief for two years—who wouldn’t change?

Now, with this matter explained, any future inconsistencies discovered by family could be justified; and his cousin would stand by him.

After that, they no longer discussed heavy topics, quietly savored their tripe and hot pot. Their later conversation drifted back to Pan Jieying’s recent life.

Gu Cheng learned that his cousin, now in her senior year, had just finished her graduate school entrance exams and would soon be starting her master’s degree.

She was a top student, like Gu Cheng, having started school early and completed primary education in five years—otherwise, she couldn’t have finished college by twenty. Like him, she’d entered Qianjiang University, majored in Human Resources, and was now pursuing a master’s in Business Administration—the famed MBA.

Gu Cheng, wanting to shed the “sister’s boy” image, probed about whether she had a boyfriend, only to learn she hadn’t.

This left him speechless.

Pan Jieying explained that none of the men around her were steady or trustworthy enough for her to consider.

After a few more questions, Gu Cheng realized his cousin’s attitude stemmed from the shadow of her parents’ divorce.

His aunt and uncle had separated. His uncle, a factory director, was considered quite capable; his aunt, a beauty in her youth, had a normal married life at first. But after the dual-track system reforms in ’92, his uncle took advantage of opportunities for profit and began keeping a young mistress. With Gu Cheng’s grandfather gone, his uncle no longer feared his father-in-law, divorced his wife, and legitimized the mistress.

Still, his cousin was quite sensible—she didn’t choose to live with her wealthy father after the divorce. Knowing her mother was the victim, she decided to stay with her during the legal proceedings. Consequently, her father’s assets went to the mistress’s children.

From then on, Pan Jieying harbored psychological scars about men, especially those who were rich and attractive, believing they could not be trusted. She channeled her frustrations into study, becoming an academic star.

“I’ll have to gently guide her out of this. Things can’t go on like this forever. Since you’re my cousin, I’ll have to help you find someone good one day,” Gu Cheng thought.

After dinner, they returned to the hotel. Gu Cheng wanted to book his cousin a separate room, but she refused—he was staying in a twin room, after all. Pan Jieying, who would not even splurge on a plane ticket, certainly wouldn’t pay extra for a hotel room.

Gu Cheng reasoned that, since she was his cousin, nothing inappropriate would happen, and dropped the matter.

…

The next week passed uneventfully. Gu Cheng spent his days at Huang Yi, busying himself with business.

Boss Ding’s deals were not so easily handled. The deeper Gu Cheng got involved, the more planning and strategizing he had to do.

For instance, the Chinese internet had its Great Firewall. Supposedly, the wall mainly prevented insiders from accessing the outside, but it still posed obstacles for outsiders. Most of the zombie PCs in the East had local IP addresses, which made access difficult, sometimes requiring VPNs. But most of those PCs couldn’t use VPNs, so Boss Ding had to set up a temporary server in Hong Kong for them to connect to.

To cover up the discrepancy in data, the Huang Yi portal had to spend money setting up English and Japanese versions of the site. Ostensibly, these measures were all for the “internationalization” of Huang Yi.

As the “overall data solutions provider,” Gu Cheng had to assist with all these details.

Pan Jieying learned a little as well, occasionally helping him with budgeting, managing suppliers, and drafting emails. In her free time, she wandered the city, visiting Beijing’s famous sights—after all, she’d never really toured the capital.

A business based on inflating data had no holidays—it didn’t pause even for the May Day holiday. If anything, the increased online activity during vacations called for a spike in fake traffic, to avoid suspicion.

Normally, a website’s traffic would drop after the holidays, but now, Huang Yi’s numbers held steady. Gu Cheng had cleverly calculated the proper ratio between the two, and, with the resources coordinated by Wen Huiying, kept the numbers at a peak.

Boss Ding was very pleased with Gu Cheng’s “professionalism.”

On May 12th, Huang Yi’s first payment of two million finally arrived in Gu Cheng’s account on schedule—1.8 million was sent straight to the East, laundered via Quan Shunyu’s channels, then transferred to Gu Cheng. He kept another two hundred thousand in cash, in renminbi.

He felt it his duty to let his family start living a little better, and to keep some cash on hand, so they wouldn’t have to hesitate even about buying a plane ticket.