My cousin-in-law helped me achieve my ambitions.

"Thank you!" Su Ming said excitedly.

He left the industrial area with the joy of surviving the ordeal and the hope for the future. Following Yang Tian's directions, he arrived at the overpass in the town center.

People came and went under the bridge, the light was dim, and the walls and pillars were covered with all sorts of graffiti. Su Ming was looking down, struggling to find a phone number for document processing among a bunch of graffiti for "drain cleaning" and "curing STDs", when suddenly a sweet voice came from next to him.

"Handsome young man, all alone?"

Su Ming looked up and saw a young woman in a red halter-neck dress leaning against a bridge pier, winking at him. The woman was about thirty years old, dressed very seductively, heavily made up, and had a voluptuous figure. She was smiling and waving at him.

Su Ming paused for a moment, thinking that this was probably the "street vendor" Yang Tian had mentioned. He walked over curiously.

The glamorous woman smiled even wider when she saw him approaching, winked at Su Ming, and swayed her hips, saying, "Shall we go?"

Su Ming assumed they were going to a place to get a certificate, so he asked directly, "How much does it cost to get a certificate?"

The woman misunderstood, thinking she was being asked "How much does it cost?", so she held up three slender white fingers and said in a coquettish voice, "Thirty."

Su Ming thought for a moment, and Yang Tian said it could be done for twenty. He tentatively tried to bargain, "Twenty, is that alright?"

"Deal!" The woman laughed heartily, grabbed Su Ming's arm, and without saying another word, darted into the alleyway of the nearby urban village.

Su Ming followed the glamorous woman through a maze of dark, damp alleyways, finally entering a dimly lit little room. The room contained only a worn-out bamboo bed and a stool, and the air was thick with a strange odor—a mixture of cheap perfume and mildew.

Su Ming peered around curiously, thinking to himself that this fake document business was incredibly discreet. Unexpectedly, the woman clicked the door shut, turned around, and without a word, quickly stripped off her tight-fitting dress, lay naked on the bamboo bed, and called out to him, "Come on!"

"Ah...this..." Su Ming was stunned on the spot.

He'd never even held a girl's hand properly in his entire life, let alone witnessed anything like this! A living, naked woman lay right in front of him. Her fair body, though slightly plump, had full breasts and a slender waist, making her appear exceptionally alluring in the dim light. His heart pounded wildly, and his cheeks instantly burned.

Although this woman was not nearly as well-built as his cousin's wife, Su Ming, who had never seen a woman in her true form before, couldn't help but feel a little excited when he saw her in full "The Emperor's New Clothes" for the first time.

Seeing Su Ming standing there motionless, the glamorous woman impatiently urged, "Hurry up! Stop dawdling, I still have business to do!"

Su Ming then seemed to snap out of his daze, and stammered awkwardly, "Big...big sister, I...I'm here to get a certificate..."

"What the hell are you talking about! Get me a certificate first! Twenty it is!" The woman snapped, sitting bolt upright in bed. She yelled at Su Ming impatiently, "Get me the certificate first! Come on, twenty it is!"

As she spoke, she got out of bed and reached out to undo Su Ming's belt.

"Hey! What are you doing!" Su Ming was startled and pushed the other person's hand away as if he had been electrocuted. He then turned around and tried to pull the door open.

With a "bang," he frantically flung open the door.

Seeing that her business was about to fail, the woman, not even bothering to put on her clothes, chased after Su Ming naked to the door. Seeing that Su Ming had already run down the stairs, she angrily put her hands on her hips, pointed at the stairwell, and began to curse, "You son of a bitch! You useless bastard, what are you pretending to be so righteous for!"

Su Ming dared not linger any longer and rushed out of the alley as if fleeing, feeling as if his heart was about to jump out of his throat.

The city is full of tricks; I almost fell for one today!

He ran all the way back to the overpass where he had seen the document-for-hire guy. The afternoon sun slanted down, casting long shadows on the bridge piers. Panting, he carefully searched the pillars covered with all sorts of graffiti and finally found the phone number for the document-for-hire service.

The public phone booth was right at the bridgehead. Su Ming took out a few coins, dropped them in, and dialed the number with trembling fingers.

"Beep...beep..."

It's connected. Su Ming's heart was in his throat.

"Feed?" The person who answered the phone was a man with a hoarse voice and a heavy local accent.

Su Ming felt a little relieved. It was a man; he probably wasn't a prostitute! He lowered his voice and explained that he wanted to get a high school diploma.

"Under the overpass, right? Wait here, someone's coming to find you." The other person said succinctly and then hung up.

Ten minutes later, a middle-aged woman in her forties appeared under the overpass. She was slightly plump, wearing a floral shirt and black trousers, carrying a cloth bag. Her eyes warily scanned her surroundings before she walked up to Su Ming and asked in a low voice, "Looking for someone to make documents?"

"Hmm!" Su Ming nodded.

The woman beckoned: "Come with me."

Su Ming remained standing, still preoccupied with what had just happened. He hesitated, then asked in a low voice, "Big sister, you...you're not a prostitute, are you?"

"What?" The woman was stunned for a moment, then her face turned pale with anger, and her voice rose eight octaves, "You bastard, who are you calling a prostitute? Who's selling themselves? Explain yourself clearly!"

Startled, Su Ming quickly waved his hands and explained, "No, no, big sister, you've misunderstood! I mean... I just found a woman who said she could get a certificate, but she took me to a room, and then... then she took off her clothes, and I was so scared that I ran out immediately. That's why I..."

Upon hearing this, the woman's anger gradually turned into mockery. She looked Su Ming up and down, then chuckled, "Oh, that woman's all dressed up, you two really didn't do 'that'?"

Su Ming's face flushed red: "No! I'm here to get a certificate!"

"Tsk tsk." The woman laughed even harder, leaning closer with a teasing look in her eyes. "Young man, have you never had a girlfriend before?"

"Big sister, could you please not ask that..." Su Ming's ears burned, and he just wanted to end this awkward conversation as soon as possible. "Didn't you want me to help you with your documents? Can we talk about documents instead?"

Seeing his embarrassed expression, the woman finally stopped joking. She cleared her throat and said seriously, "To get the certificate, you need to pay a ten-yuan deposit first, and then give me a one-inch black and white photo."

"Photographs?" Su Ming was taken aback. "I don't have any photographs."

"Then let's go take a picture." The woman pointed across the street. "There's a photo studio over there. If you need it urgently, it'll cost ten dollars and you can get the photo in half an hour. Call me when you get the photo." She gave me a number.

Su Ming had no choice but to do as he was told. He felt the little money he had left in his pocket and felt a pang of regret, but remembering that he needed identification to find a job, he gritted his teeth and headed to the photo studio.

Half an hour later, Su Ming returned to the overpass with the still-smelling black-and-white photograph and dialed the number again. The woman appeared quickly, took the photograph, looked at it, and nodded: "Okay, two days from now, at this time, same place, cash on delivery. Thirty yuan in total, plus another twenty yuan, don't forget."

"Two days? That's too slow! Can't it be done today?" Su Ming said worriedly, "I need it tomorrow!"

"It won't be until evening at the earliest today. If you want to speed things up, it will cost an extra twenty yuan. Give me another ten yuan as a deposit, and the remaining twenty yuan when I pick up my documents."

"What? Another twenty? That's too much!" Su Ming pleaded. "Can you lower the price?"