Why did the system take my request to take photos with a cosplayer seriously?

The bespectacled woman in front of me, Baima, was unassuming in appearance and seemed approachable...

Pema instinctively reached into her pocket.

Can I borrow your phone?

She recalled the scams she had seen online before and became extremely vigilant.

"Please, I'm in a real hurry!"

The thin girl pleaded again, "Please, have mercy, I just want to make one phone call, less than a minute, I'll make it in front of you, okay?"

After hesitating for a long time, Baima finally softened and took out her phone to unlock it and hand it over.

The girl quickly reached out and took it, then dialed a number.

"Beep...beep...beep..."

She held the phone to her ear and shouted, "Hello? Where are you?... It's not that my phone was stolen... Don't ask, I'm at that... Can you come pick me up... the odd jobs market... Okay, I'll wait for you!"

After hanging up the phone, the thin girl handed the phone back to Baima.

"thank you."

"You're welcome."

Baima took the phone, and the thin girl squatted down and rummaged through her bag, muttering to herself.

"My ID card and bank cards are still here... thankfully I didn't put them behind my phone case..."

Baima stood there, unsure whether to leave or stay.

"Um... your phone was stolen, do you need help reporting it to the police?"

"What's the point of reporting it? It's just a broken wall-mounted air conditioner; the police won't care."

"Wall-mounted air conditioner, what is a wall-mounted air conditioner?"

"Um……"

The thin girl looked up and glanced at Baima.

Because of the [Holy Radiance Disguise Mask], from the girl's perspective, Bai Ma is just an ordinary girl, except that she is a little shorter and has fairer skin.

"You just came to Xingcheng looking for work?"

"Correct."

"No wonder... he doesn't understand anything."

"I……"

Before Baima could answer, her stomach rumbled.

"It's past two o'clock and you still haven't eaten?"

"Isn't he busy looking for a job...?"

Baima smiled shyly.

Immediately afterward, an electric scooter turned into the alley and stopped in front of the two.

The person riding the bicycle was a short-haired girl, much more robust than the thin girl, with tanned skin.

She yelled at the skinny girl, "What? Your phone got stolen?"

The thin girl stood up and patted the dust off her pants: "I just came out of the market, my phone was still in my hand, and it was gone in the blink of an eye. I don't even know when it was taken away."

The short-haired girl scratched her head and turned her gaze to Baima.

"This is?"

"I borrowed your phone to make a call."

Bai Ma nodded to the short-haired girl, unsure of what to say, and politely said "Hello."

The short-haired girl nodded at her.

The skinny girl casually asked, "Want to grab something to eat together? It's on me."

"That's not a good idea..."

"It's okay, I haven't eaten either."

The thin girl turned around, got on the electric scooter, and patted the back seat: "Get on."

Looking at the two girls in front of her, Baima felt a strange sense of novelty and stopped being coy.

Since I can't find a job anyway, I might as well talk to some people first; sharpening my axe won't delay my work.

The seats were narrow, so the three of them had to squeeze together.

The short-haired girl turned the handle, and the car started with a hum, suddenly lurching forward. Then it began to twist and turn, and because the road conditions were bad, the bumpy ride made Baima's butt hurt.

Finally, the three of them arrived at a small restaurant.

It was past lunchtime, and there weren't many people in the restaurant except for an old man leisurely drinking beer.

The slender girl sat down in front of the fan and called out to the proprietress, "Three dishes, please... stir-fried pork with chili peppers, spicy and sour chicken giblets, and water spinach with garlic."

The proprietress responded and turned to walk into the kitchen.

The short-haired girl rolled her eyes: "Are you crazy? We're going to buy a phone later, why are you ordering so much food?"

"fine."

The skinny girl pulled a wad of crumpled cash from her pocket: "This is the cash I got from my part-time job yesterday. I'll get a new phone card later, and we can make do with one for now."

After saying that, she took out a pack of cigarettes, pulled one out, put it in her mouth, lit it, and took a deep drag.

The smoke filled the air, causing Baima to instinctively cover her nose.

The skinny girl asked, "Can't you smell smoke?"

"Fortunately."

Baima let go of his hand: "It's just a little...uncomfortable."

The thin girl held the cigarette between her fingers and flicked off the ash: "You'd better get used to it. When you're out looking for a job, you'll often smell cigarettes. You'll smoke on construction sites, in factories, and even more so in the casual labor market. You have to smell it whether you like it or not."

Baima nodded but didn't reply.

The thin girl took another drag of her cigarette, turned her gaze to Bai Ma's phone, and unceremoniously reached out and took it, examining it from all angles.

"iPhone 17 Pro Max?"

She held the phone up to her face: "How much did you pay for it? How many installments?"

Baima looked confused: "What installment plan?"

Are you kidding me?

The thin girl examined it carefully again to make sure it wasn't a counterfeit before handing it back to Baima.

She put the cigarette back in her mouth and mumbled, "If you hadn't paid for your phone in installments, would you be struggling to afford food now?"

Baima tried to explain, but didn't know how to say it.

Last year, when the Fruit 17 was first released, Secretary Huang asked her if she wanted to exchange it. She nodded, and the next day Secretary Huang brought her a new one.

As for installment payments... she had no idea.

"Is the iPhone 17 any good? If my credit score wasn't ruined, I'd like to borrow one and try it out."

The skinny girl sighed and lamented, "I used to use a 16-inch phone, but a man tricked me into getting my butt flashed. He turned me into a wall-mounted phone and then just walked away."

Baima looked completely bewildered again: "What's PG?"

"It's not a good thing."

The skinny girl didn't bother to explain: "You don't need to know."

Bai Ma simply said "Oh" and didn't ask any further questions.

The food was served, 15 yuan per dish, and the taste was passable.

The skinny girl wolfed down her food, leaving Baima speechless.

He's so skinny, like a bamboo pole, yet he eats so wildly?

Why are you looking at me?

The skinny girl noticed Bai Ma's gaze: "Eat yours."

"nothing."

Baima lowered her head and continued eating, finding it increasingly novel.

After finishing her meal, the thin girl counted out a fifty-yuan note and handed it to the proprietress, taking back five yuan in change.

She asked Baima, "You just came to Xingcheng to look for work, do you have a place to stay tonight?"

"It's very convenient for me to live here..."

Baima tentatively said, "I just want to find a job now to earn some pocket money."

For some reason, Baima had a strong intuition that the girl in front of her could help her complete her plan to buy a car!

The skinny girl then asked, "It's a little past three now. I happen to have a job, from five to nine o'clock tonight, six hours for a hundred yuan. Do you want to do it?"

Pema asked warily, "Is it serious?"

The skinny girl scoffed and slammed her hand on the table.

"Don't worry, I have the utmost contempt for those guys who just lie on the bed with their legs spread wide. If I wanted to make that kind of money, would I be squatting here?"

Bai Ma was amused by the thin girl's blunt and vulgar remarks, and her worries were relieved.

"Dry!"

She readily agreed: "One hundred it is fine, it's better than coming out with nothing."

The thin girl took the electric scooter keys from the short-haired girl, turned around and walked out, and Baima quickly followed.

After the electric scooter had traveled a short distance, the thin girl started chatting.

What's your name?

"Pema, Pema Yangjin".