Volume One, Chapter Ten: The Gunshot

What?

For a moment, I thought I must have misheard, staring blankly at Max.

I couldn’t understand why he suddenly brought up running away.

Running away would be one thing, but dragging me along? Didn’t he know I had just arrived today?

“What’s up? Weren’t you saying earlier that you didn’t really want to do this?” Max looked at me strangely instead.

After the initial official start, I realized I still couldn’t overcome the psychological barrier of chatting with the same sex. Realizing I probably wouldn’t make money in this line, I had joked with him that maybe I should just go home and get a regular job.

Coming back to my senses, I asked, “You seemed to be doing fine. Why do you suddenly not want to continue?”

Max said, “If it weren’t for the quota tasks, I wouldn’t want to leave either. But now with these quotas, if you don’t finish, you get fined, and they’ve even assigned a supervisor to watch us. Just thinking about it makes me miserable!”

“Think about it carefully. Every account’s number of people is increasing daily. Imagine how busy it’s going to be.”

“Busy is one thing, but if you’re busy and still not making money, what’s the point of being here?”

Hearing that, I could understand why Max was resentful.

The people added to the accounts had to chat according to the prescribed schedule.

It was manageable at first when there were few people, but as the number increased every day, and each person had several accounts, it became overwhelming.

The people who came here were partly drawn by the promise of good money, and partly because the relaxed environment meant they could earn money almost effortlessly.

Now with reforms in place, tasks increased, failure meant punishment, and they couldn’t just chat whenever or step out for a smoke whenever they wanted — for many used to freedom, this was torture.

Thinking of his plan to run away, I said, “Doesn’t the company forbid running away? If caught, they’ll lock you up in a water prison, or worse, you might be beaten to death.”

“If you don’t want to do it, why don’t you just tell Long you want to leave?”

“Running away is way too dangerous!”

Max rolled his eyes and said, “Do you think this company is your family business, where you can leave whenever you want?”

“Didn’t Brother Long ever tell you the conditions for leaving?”

Conditions for leaving?

Long had never mentioned anything like that to me, so I asked curiously, “Is it hard to leave?”

Max snorted lightly and said, “This place isn’t that easy to get into!”

“Unless something goes wrong, you probably didn’t spend a penny when you came here — everything was arranged!”

I nodded as he continued, “Do you think the plane tickets and the people arranging your smuggling didn’t cost money?”

“All expenses are advanced by the company but are actually charged to the employees.”

“It’s not just the travel expenses — eating, lodging, and so on here also cost money, but the company temporarily covers it.”

“There’s a company rule: you must work for at least six months to offset those costs. If you leave before six months, you have to settle accounts.”

“When calculated, if you can pay off that amount, you can leave.”

“If you can’t, do you think the company will just let you go?”

“I’ve only been here four months. I roughly calculated, and if I were to leave now, I’d owe nearly a hundred thousand.”

“If I made a million or so, I’d pay it off without hesitation. But now, the only option to leave is to run away!”

I said nothing — or rather, I didn’t know what to say.

Long never mentioned anything about having to pay fees to leave.

Suddenly Max put his arm around my shoulder and lowered his voice, “A Dong, although we just met today, you give me a reliable feeling — someone worth trusting. You just arrived and don’t really understand this place yet!”

“I’ll tell you, the project Brother Long and the others are running is the lowest level here. To be honest, making money depends entirely on luck, and it’s exhausting!”

“A friend of mine came here with me. He went to another company, doing a different project. The work is easier, and last month he made over twenty thousand!”

“He’s been urging me to switch. He said their new project just launched, with basically no competitors, a huge market, and it’s even simpler to operate than what we’re doing now. I’ve been waiting to get last month’s pay before moving.”

“Do you have to chat?” I asked instinctively.

I really couldn’t do the kind of thing where you add people to chat and slowly coax them into a trap.

“You definitely have to chat. How else do you get clients to bring in money? But it’s not like here where you have to hunt on social platforms all day. Over there, they update their moments regularly, clients come to them, and they just provide relevant info. It’s all about willing participants.”

“You don’t know, the clients over there start with at least a hundred thousand. There’s no worry about performance. They operate like robots all day.”

“The commissions are different too. Over there, no matter how much you make, you get a flat ten percent.”

“I heard even the dumbest person over there made eighty or ninety thousand last month!”

“So, what do you say? Want to come with me?”

Max’s eyes burned as he stared at me.

“I need to think about it.”

He didn’t push for an immediate answer. “Take these couple of days to think it over. The sooner you tell me, the better I can plan.”

Honestly, at this moment I was torn.

I had already come to northern Myanmar and seen that making money here was indeed easier than back home.

Under Brother Long’s brainwashing, I had accepted the reality and was ready to grit my teeth and work hard for a few months to pay off my debt.

But once I actually got involved — having to add people, chat daily about feelings and flirtations — I felt a deep resistance and dislike. Suddenly, I wasn’t so willing to continue. After all, it was impossible to focus, and to earn big money like the others was purely a matter of luck.

Max’s way of operating matched exactly what I wanted — basically not having to do much, and money would flow into my pocket effortlessly.

I did want to go.

But I had just arrived here. Leaving Brother Long behind didn’t feel right.

As for running away, I felt I couldn’t do it.

Even if I followed Max to another place, I had to leave properly. Otherwise, if caught, even if Brother Long was a high-level executive, I doubted he could protect me from punishment.

After thinking for a while, I planned to talk to Brother Long again, to verify if the fees Max mentioned about leaving were true.

His relationship with Brother Long was different from mine. We were from the same village, so if I wanted to leave, I doubted Brother Long would insist on charging me for travel expenses.

Back in the dorm, I lay on the bed scrolling through my phone, carefully weighing whether Max’s plan was feasible and whether I should take a gamble and go with him.

If it was really as easy as he said, I could pay off my debt in a month.

Just as I was thinking this, a loud commotion suddenly broke out outside.

Curious, I got up and went out.

“Bang…”

As I reached the door, a deafening gunshot rang out.

The supervisor shouted loudly, holding a pistol, “Everyone, get back to your dorms and close your doors!”