chapter 7 - money troubles

A few more weeks went by with them continuing to explore around Shanghai every day and of course, lots of food. Alyssa's clothes were growing tight again and she was worried she would soon need more clothes. She hadn't weighed herself again but it was obvious she was still gaining. She had not planned on buying a lot of new clothes while in China and was starting to worry about money. She liked it here, she liked spending time with her friend Austin, she just needed to figure out how to stretch her money further.

It was getting hot and humid as summer came on. The monsoon was starting and it rained nearly every afternoon now. On days it really poured, her dinner would consist of a couple of big bags of junk food and beers from the local convenience store as they would get soaked if they tried to get out very far in the driving rain. All that junk food wasn't good for her and certainly was not helping her maintain her weight, but at least it was cheap.

Alyssa met a girl from Britain that was in China a couple of months and staying in the same hostel. They had become friends and would often drink together down in the cafe area in the evenings. Unlike Alyssa, her British friend was able to keep the weight off. One evening Alyssa mentioned to her that she was worried about running out of money. Her friend told her about a cam site in China. She said "it is easy money, I do it". Alyssa was a bit shocked at this "I don't think I could strip on cam for a bunch of Chinese perverts". Her friend responded "Oh no, it's not like that. They literally pay you just to chat with them. At most they might pay to walk around in front of the camera or something. Pornography and getting naked on cam is illegal in China."

Alyssa was still leery of trying the cam site, but she couldn't come up with any other way of making money, so she decided she would try. After all, there is no way anyone she knew in the states could ever find out. She logged on to the site and set up an account. Luckily there was an English version of the site she could use, and it would translate any messages sent to her in English as well as translate any messages she sent to Chinese. She told Austin about it and he just said "well I will just stay out of the camera view OK".

The next evening Alyssa was just lounging around in her pajamas, the rain pouring outside. She thought what the hell, I might as well try this, and logged into the cam site, turning on her cam. It was quickly apparent that western girls were quite popular on the site and soon she had at least a hundred Chinese guys in the room. She wasn't making any money yet as most of them would just say an awkward hello. Finally one messaged "eat something". She thought for a moment and responded back "200 yuan" which is about 28 dollars. He tipped her 200 yuan, and she opened a dove chocolate bar and ate it. As soon as she finished it, she got another message from another use "eat something". She replied "200 yuan" again, and he tipped her. She opened some oreos and ate the tube. Even with the site's cut of her "tips", she had just made 40 dollars or so American. Another message popped up, "eat something", again she replied "200 yuan" and ate another tube of oreos once the user sent it. Another one then messaged "show stomach". She thought about this, that was a weird request, it wasn't nudity though. She finally replied "300 yuan". The user paid her, and she stood up in front of the camera, pulling up her t-shirt. A ton of thumbs ups popped up on her cam's chat feed as she stood there showing her stomach. She looked down thinking just a couple of months ago it was flat, now she had a belly that showed through most of her clothes. Finally she sat down. A few minutes later another message popped up "fill stomach". That puzzled her so she replied back "what do you mean". A few seconds later a reply came back "fill stomach, make stomach bigger". She replied back "you want me to eat a lot of food?" . A reply came back "yes". She wasn't really comfortable doing this, and was already feeling full, so she replied back with what would be considered an exorbitant number in the hopes the user would be put off by it "1000 yuan" a moment later the user paid the 1000 yuan and sent a message "eat lot of food".

She stood up and walked over to the cabinets digging around to find what she could eat. She found 3 pineapple buns, a can of Pringles, a box of egg tarts, and a whole box of wife cakes. It was a lot of food and she thought it would be ridiculous to expect her to eat all of it, but the user had been watching her and sent a message that said "I pay lot money eat all". He was right, in China that was a lot of money, so she didn't know what to do but eat it. By the time she finished the third pineapple bun she was already complete stuffed and had the loosen the draw string on her pajamas. She then moved on to the egg tarts, they tasted good, but she was just so full. A message popped up "keep eating". She then opened the Pringles and started eating stacks of crisps. She got 5 wife cakes in her before she replied back saying "I can't eat anymore". The user seemed satisfied that he got his money's worth and sent 300 yuan saying "show stomach". She stood up, pulling her shirt up, her stomach bulging as though she were pregnant.

All in all, she made about 140 dollars in about an hour and half before stopping the session.