I used to think that taking game-finding requests through Taobao’s Qianniu platform was a bad idea. It turns out I had blamed the wrong platform. Compared with Xianyu, Taobao brings in more potential customers, and the customers themselves tend to be easier to deal with.
Some people ask questions politely when they run into something they do not understand. Others immediately start making a fuss and demanding a refund, even when the problem is clearly with their own computer or setup. Those are the customers I dislike most.
The buyer in this case was one of the particularly pleasant ones.
The request was for an old favorite
She contacted me looking for ad-free versions of Cut the Rope—the old game widely known in Chinese as “Cut the Rope”—for both Android and PC.
Afterward, she sent me what was essentially a small tip. Usually, someone might send five or ten yuan as a token of appreciation, but she sent thirty.
I did not realize the amount at first. It was only after I found the ad-free Android version and claimed the payment that I noticed how generous it was. That made me put even more effort into finding the PC version.
We later added each other on QQ. From her posts and the way she talked, I gathered that she might be an international student—or perhaps an overseas Chinese. That was when I started jokingly thinking of her as a wealthy customer.
The PC version proved much harder to locate. Throughout the process, though, she stayed friendly and kept discussing possible solutions with me. I searched other platforms as well, and eventually suggested checking the legitimate versions on Steam or Epic Games.
She appeared to be based in the United Kingdom. The game was not available in the UK Steam region, so I also checked the China and Argentina regions, but none of them had it either. In the end, I had to give up on finding the PC copy.
She still insisted on paying me for the Android version. I refused—the thirty yuan was already more than enough.
Part of me had imagined that, once I found both versions, I might ask to add her on WeChat, chat a little, and take a peek at the world through her friends’ posts. My abilities were clearly not quite up to the task this time.