NOVPUB[Since I’m already here, might as well take a look,] Xu Qingfan mused to himself.
In this life, he no longer kept in touch with his elementary school classmates, and as he recalled the names of those he had known in his previous life, he wondered if they were currently surfing the web in the internet café.
Walking along the riverside for seven or eight hundred meters, the familiar black-market internet café soon came into view. 𝑛𝘰𝑣𝘱𝑢𝑏.𝘤𝑜𝘮
Sitting at the entrance was the owner’s son, who looked to be around eighteen or nineteen. In his previous life, Xu Qingfan was scolded by him for secretly downloading "Love Apartment" to an MP4, causing the internet speed in the café to slow to a crawl.
He pushed through the convenience store’s door, and with a wall in between was the café. Having been there before, Xu Qingfan didn’t say a word and just twisted the doorknob, a small, dark room of about twenty-something square meters quickly came into sight.
Over ten computers were all occupied, with numerous school kids who didn’t have a machine either standing or sitting next to those playing, cramming nearly thirty people into the small room, intermingling a variety of foul smells.
The scent of smoke, spicy sticks, and foot odor overwhelmed Xu Qingfan, who could barely stand at the entrance for more than a minute before he had to leave.
He truly admired his past self for being able to play in such conditions—the urge of internet addiction was indeed unstoppable.
Scanning the room with his eyes, he quickly spotted his former elementary school classmates, but since they didn’t recognize each other, he could only stand behind them, silently watching them spit swear words while playing "CrossFire."
Those who visited this illicit café were primarily elementary students; middle schoolers would typically steal their parents’ ID cards to surf the web at legitimate places.
After surveying the room, Xu Qingfan noted that the players were mostly engaged in "CrossFire," "Dungeon Fighter Online," and "QQ Speed."
Having outgrown his gaming days, he couldn’t see the appeal in these games, let alone understand spending 888 yuan on a virtual Fire Qilin.
He remembered how, in his previous life, several top-scoring boys in his class fell behind academically because they were addicted to online games and ultimately failed to even qualify for high school.
Having come all this way, he felt it wouldn’t be right not to guide these kids out of their web addiction, and a very wicked idea suddenly sprang to his mind.
[I should just call the police and report this black-market café!]
Having been through the storm himself, he found it only fair to tear apart someone else’s umbrella.
Muttering to himself about the lack of available computers, he left the store quite naturally.
Once he was far enough away, he took out his phone to call the police.
"Hello?"
"Hello, officer. I am a school student with a sense of justice. The convenience store opposite the river patrol has opened an illegal café. A tiny room holding more than thirty people, all of them my classmates. If there’s a fire, the consequences would be unthinkable. I’m worried about their safety, so I called to report the café. You guys should come and seal it off—I can hold them here for you. My name is Chen Wenze, please don’t arrest me!" Xu Qingfan said into the phone.
"Alright, Chen Wenze, you did the right thing. Could you confirm if the address is Jigong Ridge number 132, facing the river patrol?" the operator asked for confirmation.
"Hold on, officer, let me check!"
"Take your time, little friend, no rush."
"Huff, huff—yes, that’s right, Jigong Ridge number 132, and the store is number 128!" Xu Qingfan confirmed after checking.
"Thank you for your help, we’ll send an officer right out."
"Right, don’t forget, I’m Chen Wenze!"
"Got it, got it!"
After hanging up, a scheming smirk spread across Xu Qingfan’s face. Chen Wenze had been his good friend in previous elementary school days. However, the bastard had secretly written love letters to Xia Xiaoxiao behind his back. Xia Xiaoxiao handed the unopened letter to him so he could return it to the sender, and that was how Xu Qingfan found out.
Chen Wenze thought Xu Qingfan had sabotaged him, while Xu Qingfan was angry that Chen had written love letters to Xia Xiaoxiao without telling him, and their friendship ended there.
Sure enough, three police cars soon arrived from two different directions and cordoned off the black-market café. A bunch of school kids walked out shoulder to shoulder, and several who tried to escape through the windows into the river were caught by the police waiting outside.
After a while, the urban enforcement officers also arrived and carried all the computer equipment out of the building and onto their truck.
"A joint law enforcement action, really?" Xu Qingfan murmured to himself.
It just so happened that Zhang Chaoqun was carrying out a special operation to ’clean up the school environment and prevent juvenile crime’, so Xu Qingfan’s one phone call was like lighting a fuse, resulting in an explosion with tremendous impact.
The follow-up was just making calls to have parents come and pick up their children. You don’t need to ask how he knew that.
As for the boss of the illegal internet café, he was probably going to lose everything down to his underwear. Catching so many minors at once meant confiscating all ill-gotten gains and also imposing a fine of five times the amount of the illegal income.
However, he didn’t feel a shred of sympathy for them. They were just junk dealers who could put together a computer for a couple hundred yuan and then charge three yuan an hour for their use.
The cost for twenty computers was merely four or five thousand yuan. During the summer and winter vacations, they were nearly always fully occupied, each computer generating at least forty yuan in profit per day. That added up to eight hundred yuan for twenty computers.
They could recoup their investment in just eight or nine days, which was even more lucrative than selling duck necks.
Seeing all his classmates being caught, Xu Qingfan left with a satisfied whistle. He still loved doing good deeds.
Fortunately, the youngsters would probably just get a beating from their parents and that would be the end of it. Xu Qingfan couldn’t help but recall the fear of being dominated by the ’Seven Wolves’ in his past life.
Thankfully, Li City didn’t have the ’Thunder King’s dojo’, so the youngsters would probably just get a beating from their parents and that would be the end of it. Xu Qingfan couldn’t help but recall the fear of being dominated by the ’Seven Wolves’ in his past life.
Regarding internet addiction, Xu Qingfan also felt powerless.
Due to the propagation of the ’Zhang Ya’ incident last month, online games had almost become synonymous with scourge in the eyes of parents born in the 70s and 80s. As long as there was demand from parents, these games would always have a breeding ground.
These were not problems he could solve simply by writing a few shocking articles under his most affectionate pseudonym in Hong Kong.
Without affecting his own life, Xu Qingfan was already doing what he could to change certain things.
For instance, the powdered milk scandal that was set to blow up this year, he had ignited it with the help of Zhang Chunxue three years earlier.
He also didn’t really want to get involved in this matter, but whenever he saw infants around him drinking problematic milk, he always felt uneasy.
Ultimately, after consulting with Zhang Chunxue, she told him that some things don’t necessarily require his direct action.
"Never do things that harm others without benefiting oneself," that was Zhang Chunxue’s exact words.
When Xu Qingfan asked her what he should do then, Zhang Chunxue replied, "Let the beneficiaries do it."
Then Xu Qingfan watched as Zhang Chunxue sent the information to the giant dairy corporations abroad through anonymous emails and public networks.
It didn’t take long for the issue to cause a huge international outcry. After all, deliberately contaminating pure milk with industrial products was something a conscientious and normal person could hardly imagine. And then, the lid was completely blown off.
This experience provided him with a lot of insight. Later, Xu Qingfan asked Zhang Chunxue, "What if there are no beneficiaries in a situation?"
Zhang Chunxue answered, "Then find a way to create more victims. For example, if someone waters plants upstairs and gets your clothes on the balcony wet, you just throw a ladle of water from your kitchen downstairs and then you can go upstairs with your wet clothes and join the downstairs neighbor to make a fuss."
It was very unkind, but indeed very effective.
Zhang Chunxue later taught Xu Qingfan a few more tricks, like how the Chinese, as Mr. Lu Xun said, enjoy compromise, and how it’s best to play the bad guy when you need something from someone.
In terms of interpersonal relations, Zhang Chunxue was indeed streets ahead of him, who had lived for two lifetimes.
Xu Qingfan felt that if he had half the emotional intelligence of Aunt Zhang, marrying five wives wouldn’t be a problem at all!
"Why five?" Xu Qingfan blinked, surprised by his own bizarre thought.
He shook his head, casting out the unseemly notion from his mind.
