NOVPUBXu Qingfan’s typing speed was streets ahead of his peers, so much that Lin Wanning, Zhang Yiyi, and he only played with him once and never again, especially when Xu Qingfan played the thief, going straight to the police’s side, leaving no game experience whatsoever.
Xu Qingfan plugged his USB drive, which was attached to his key ring, into the computer and transferred Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne onto his desktop.
"Here you go." After the game finished transferring, he safely ejected the USB drive and handed it to Xia Xiaoxiao.
"I’m going to crush you!" Xia Xiaoxiao took the USB drive, plugged it in, and quickly dragged the game to her desktop as well.
Not many second graders played such complex strategy games, and Xia Xiaoxiao followed closely into the room Xu Qingfan created on the local network.
"Xu Qingfan is a big dumb dog... What kind of weird name is this!" Xu Qingfan spelled out a string of letters for Xia Xiaoxiao’s name and said speechlessly.
"It’s still better than your ’Hong Kong Honest Man’, are we playing or not!" she retorted.
"Just don’t cry when my Dragon Knight smashes your face later!" he warned.
Xu Qingfan randomly picked a map, chose the Human race, while Xiaoxiao, as always, went with the Dark Night Elf, "Let’s start!"
As the game began, Xu Qingfan immediately corralled five peasant workers, setting his sights straight on Xia Xiaoxiao’s base.
Human peasants could spend money to upgrade to a militia state during battle, with a fighting prowess impressive right from birth.
By the time the five peasant vanguard reached Xia Xiaoxiao’s home, her Hero Altar was only two-thirds constructed, so Xu Qingfan wasted no time in moving forward to cause destruction.
"Xu Qingfan, are you a dog?"
With no ability to attack, Xia Xiaoxiao rounded up all her little Elves to help with repairs, creating a stalemate on the field.
While Xu Qingfan caused trouble on one hand, on the other, he was frantically producing peasant units—chopping wood, mining, and building houses.
Before long, a troop of soldiers wielding shotguns arrived at Xia Xiaoxiao’s base and proceeded to thrash the primitives.
After the game returned to the settlement page, Xia Xiaoxiao glared at him, exited the local network, and started a simple AI game against the computer.
"Don’t pick this... this unit is useless... upgrade the Life Tree... you’ve run out of population units..." Xu Qingfan leaned on one hand next to her, chipping in with unsolicited advice.
Fed up, Xia Xiaoxiao twisted her screen to the side to keep it out of his view.
Playing alone wasn’t fun, so Xu Qingfan closed the game and aimlessly watched his classmates.
Except for a few students browsing forums, almost everyone was playing Kingsoft Typing Master.
In 2003, there really wasn’t much entertainment online; QQ Spaces and QQ Pets, which became popular, wouldn’t arrive until 2005, and the 4399 website was also non-existent at the time.
A computer class lasted only 40 minutes, hardly enough time to download a large-scale game, so the built-in typing and pinball games became the top choices for students.
[CrossFire, Dungeon Fighter Online, Audition... what a pity Aunt Zhang doesn’t invest in the gaming industry.] Thinking of missing out on so many golden egg-laying hens, Xu Qingfan felt he was losing a fortune.
One shouldn’t be too greedy; catching the trends of take-out and short videos during high school and college was already quite good, Xu Qingfan reminded himself.
The first volume of his comic book generated an after-tax income of 1.52 million. The second volume was conservatively estimated to bring in 2.7 million.
Xu Qingfan hadn’t realized, until he did the math, that in just second grade he had already made over four million from selling books.
Who would believe such a thing?
Xu Qingfan couldn’t remember how much Apple’s stock would rise by 2008, but he did know that by 2023, it had increased nearly five hundredfold.
Even with a conservative estimate of a tenfold increase, Xu Qingfan, by the time he reached middle school, would already be a millionaire.
[Oh Mama~] Xu Qingfan inwardly marveled.
Choosing the right path often turned out to be more important than hard work; invest a million yuan in Apple in 2003, and twenty years later, you’d be a billionaire. Invest the same in oil stocks, and two decades later, you’d be left with only a little over four hundred thousand.
In his previous life as a Ph.D. student, he often regretted not embracing his potential as an internet celebrity during the prime years for it, finding himself lost in the lab while others were collecting Lamborghini fragments, scraping by on a mere two thousand yuan a month from his advisor and the university.
Xu Qingfan always believed that studying unburdened by worries about life and the future was the happiest, with learning for the sake of learning, without cut-throat competition or anxiety.
[Having money is really great!]
The class bell rang, and the computer information class ended with Xu Qingfan’s last sigh.
...
"Mom, we need to go to Yanjing for the exam on January 10th. Please check and sign this," Xu Qingfan said as he handed the notice to Yao Jiping after returning home.
"It’s settled then, huh? It’s freezing in Yanjing during January, both you and Xiao Xiao need to buy down jackets!" Yao Jiping said offhand as she took the notice.
"Down jackets that don’t fit won’t keep you warm. Mom, don’t buy me one that’s a size too big again!"
"Go do your homework, do you think your mom doesn’t know that?"
Xu Qingfan shrugged his shoulders and picked up the remote to turn on the TV.
If it had been in his past life, Yao Jiping would never have let him watch television, using a damp towel to cool down and listening to footsteps—Xu Qingfan had done these more than few times.
Now that his grades had improved, he was treated much better at home. As long as he didn’t go too far, Yao Jiping generally wouldn’t interfere.
"Yanjing Normal University?" Yao Jiping read the name of the school written on the paper subconsciously before falling silent.
Suddenly, the only sound left in the room was from the television.
After sitting blankly for a few minutes, Yao Jiping seemed to think of something and took out her mobile phone from her pocket.
Then, Xu Qingfan watched as his mother took out her phone to call his grandparents. After the call connected, Yao Jiping gave him a glance and silently walked back to her room, locking the door.
Xu Qingfan pursed his lips, thinking to himself what there was to hide from him, as if it was something shameful.
When Yao Jiping came out of her room again, it had already been half an hour later.
"We’re going back to the countryside this weekend," she said to Xu Qingfan before turning and going into the kitchen to cook.
...
On Saturday, the family of three returned to Chuxi Village.
The appearance of Chuxi Village hadn’t changed rapidly just because his grandfather became the village chief. Aside from the family planning banner at the entrance of the village being replaced with "Have Fewer but Healthier Children for a Happy Life," Xu Qingfan didn’t notice any other changes.
Of course, Xu Qingfan thought this was good. Yao Shulun surpassed 99% of village officials nationwide by simply doing nothing at all.
He borrowed a famous saying from a League of Legends caster from his previous life—I’d rather you do nothing than make a mistake!
"Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle!"
"Eh~ didn’t the little girl from last time come with you?" Grandma’s face was full of smiles, and after seeing only Xu Qingfan, she couldn’t help but ask.
"They’re busy with things!" The annual New Year’s party was about to happen, and the little ones had been busy rehearsing for a drama.
"Oh, they’re busy, huh? Next time remember to bring them along to play," Grandma said, patting Xu Qingfan’s head and smiling.
"Sure!"
While cooking lunch, Grandma took Xu Qingfan to the room and, after locking the door, Lai Man Yao took out a photo from a mooncake box and showed it to him.
He had also seen this photo in his previous life. Could it be that Grandma was planning to tell him about his uncle’s matter ahead of time?
Xu Qingfan wondered.
"Xiao Fan, this person is your auntie. She went to Yanjing many years ago and hasn’t come back. She was admitted to Yanjing Normal University just like you, if you..." Lai Man Yao’s voice started to choke up as she spoke.
Xu Qingfan sighed silently. Seeing his own grandchild has always been the elder’s wish. Although his grandparents really loved him, a grandchild related by blood was dearer to them.
After Lai Man Yao finished speaking in fits and starts, Xu Qingfan took the photo and said earnestly, "Grandma, I remember now. If I can meet her, I will definitely pass on your message!"
He tucked the photo away under his grandmother’s hopeful gaze, and the two acted as if nothing had happened and returned to the living room.
