After graduating from college at 22, Jian Xingmian struggled to find a job. She went from aspiring city office worker back to country girl, helping her parents farm and raise pigs, and never losing an argument with anyone in the village. A chance matchmaking game introduced her to a mysterious player with the ID “He.” He was a dazzlingly skilled player with a deep, pleasant voice. Little did she know that on the other side of the screen was He Chengyan, the 28-year-old heir to the He Group and a princeling of Beijing’s elite circles who had never dated.
He Chengyan was drawn to this “aloof goddess” who played brilliantly but never used voice chat, while Jian Xingmian thought of him as just another online friend. When her parents’ pressure to marry became too much, she complained in passing, and He Chengyan took the opportunity to suggest pretending to be her boyfriend. And so began an online romance founded on a lie: he thought she was an independent, elegant city woman, while she thought he was an ordinary nine-to-five office worker.
The misunderstandings kept snowballing. He transferred her 800,000 yuan to show his affection, but Jian Xingmian repeatedly turned him down because picking up packages in the countryside was inconvenient. He sent her the location of an upscale restaurant, and she took pictures of the chickens and ducks in her yard, claiming it was “our farm.” When he asked for a video call, she had to climb onto the roof to escape the cluttered background, with rolling green hills behind her and roosters crowing and dogs barking all around. After a friend warned He Chengyan he might be getting scammed, he decided to show up unannounced. But after a “transformation journey” by plane, high-speed train, coach, and tractor, he finally stood before the weather-beaten wall of the Jian family courtyard, staring in shock at their “half-acre farm.” “Miss Jian, how exactly do you plan to pay me back for the 499 acres you owe me?”
