After the Mid-Autumn Festival performance, there was another seven-day long holiday.
Carrying a box of food, Yin Minglu arrived at Yin Yunqiu’s company. He swiped his face to enter, and the security guards and receptionists downstairs smiled at him. He seemed to have noticed a hidden camera in the bushes, but he didn’t pay it any mind and walked in.
Taking the elevator to the top floor, he received greetings from many people on the way, and he politely responded with a smile.
Seeing his younger son’s arrival, Yin Yunqiu placed the planning documents he was working on aside. However, his younger son seemed quite interested, picked up the planning documents, and examined them attentively.
It was a game design competition sponsored by the Yin family, similar to a rising star support program in the gaming industry. The rewards for the winners were generous, including a championship prize worth five million and a job as a game designer provided by the Yin family.
“Do you want to participate?” Yin Yunqiu opened the food box brought by his son and also handed him a pair of chopsticks. Since his son started bringing food over, he had abandoned his habit of not eating in the office.
“Yeah, I want to win the championship.” Yin Minglu browsed the documents seriously. He remembered that the original owner had participated in this competition before but didn’t win. Now he was in the eleventh grade, and the academic pressure wasn’t too high, so he wanted to give it a try. “I won’t participate in the next two years because of the college entrance exams. I don’t want the judges to recognize me and worry about not giving me an award.”
His attitude was quite confident, as if not participating in the competition for the next two years was an act of kindness towards his peers, otherwise, he might sweep all the championships.
Yin Yunqiu didn’t want to discourage him and handed him the chopsticks, saying, “If you want to participate in the adult group, you’re not old enough.”
He knew that his son would definitely not be interested in the youth group, but if he wanted to join the adult group, he had to be at least sixteen years old or prove to the judges that he had a special skill. Of course, there was also a backdoor route.
For competitions held by the Yin family, it was a small matter for him to get a few people in.
Yin Minglu seemed to understand this and pouted, “Dad, I want to go.” He leaned in, tugged on Yin Yunqiu’s arm, and shook it vigorously, unconsciously acting spoiled. Seeing Yin Yunqiu losing his grip on the chopsticks due to the shaking, he quickly took them and piled up a mountain of food before stopping.
“I know it will be live-streamed, and I won’t embarrass you. Dad, please say yes!”
Yin Yunqiu was helpless. “I’m worried you’ll perform too well, and others will suspect you’re cheating.” After all, if the young master of the Yin family participated in a competition hosted by his own family and happened to win, there would inevitably be some unkind remarks. He had to consider his son’s reputation.
But when his son acted spoiled like this, he couldn’t resist, so he reluctantly agreed. Seeing his son happily leaving, Yin Yunqiu shook his head.
Since deciding to participate in the competition, Yin Minglu took it seriously. He often stayed up late working on the planning documents and discussed games with Yin Jiyu whenever he could.
“Are you preparing only now? I see other teams are already formed. Do you want me to lend you some people, little brother?” Yin Jiyu asked sympathetically. Seeing the dark circles under his brother’s eyes, he couldn’t help but frown. “The competition is still a month away. Don’t overwork yourself.”
He signaled the waiter to come over and ordered a coffee for his younger brother.
“Don’t worry, big brother. I have a plan, and I also have a team. Besides, the hard work will only last for a while. I want to take this opportunity to establish the reputation of ‘Lu Studio’ thoroughly!” He didn’t plan to design games himself. He wanted to output game concepts, buy the copyrights from others, and innovate them. And he aimed to make it big!
“You’re thinking too far ahead at your age. I don’t know who pushed you to run like a horse without stopping.” Yin Jiyu looked at his fifteen-year-old brother and couldn’t help but feel a similar helplessness to what Yin Yunqiu had felt. But in the end, this helplessness turned into deep indulgence.
Let him run. If he falls, they will be there to help him up.
“When it’s time for the finals, arrange some seats for me. I’ll bring my friends to cheer you on.” Yin Jiyu said, if he wins, they will loudly congratulate him; if he loses, they will rush to comfort him with hugs.
Yin Minglu felt embarrassed, unable to bear the enthusiasm of an adult. He said, “Big brother, don’t come. Ninety percent of the finals will be spectators. Even if I make it to the finals, I won’t have any tickets.” Moreover, Yin Jiyu’s friends were all well-known, upper-class gentlemen or children of wealthy and influential families. If they came to support him, the atmosphere at the finals would be even more permeated with the smell of money.
He didn’t want to win by pulling strings; he wanted to win fair and square.
He was even despised by his younger brother now. Yin Jiyu felt a bit unhappy but didn’t express it. However, before he could respond, he noticed someone approaching, and then the coffee cup on the table was knocked over. Following that was a startled female voice.
He raised his head and saw a slim girl in a waiter’s uniform. She had an outstanding appearance, almost everyone’s first impression upon seeing her. Seemingly realizing her mistake, the girl’s eyes teared up, and her exquisite and beautiful face showed an apologetic expression. She hurriedly cleaned up the table while continuously apologizing.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Yin, and this gentleman. Please forgive my carelessness; it was not intentional!”
This waitress turned out to be his younger brother’s classmate, so Yin Jiyu felt even more embarrassed to reprimand this clumsy girl. Yin Jiyu had a smile on his face, seemingly helpless. Seeing the coffee spilled, he found it somewhat amusing that Minglu’s first reaction was to protect his draft. He had not paid attention to his own coffee-stained clothes.
After a flurry of activity, the table returned to its tidy state.
Yin Minglu breathed a sigh of relief and placed his game draft back on the table. Fortunately, his quick actions had only caused a small corner of those documents to be dampened by coffee. The price he paid was that his own clothes were now completely dirty.
Seeing that her plan had failed, Jiang Mingqin bit her lip imperceptibly, but she still wore an apologetic look on her face, like a little girl who had done something wrong. She lowered her head and said, “I’m sorry, Minglu, is this your brother? But you two don’t really look alike. Ah, I shouldn’t have said that.”
The girl playfully stuck out her tongue as if she had said something wrong, but no one paid her any attention. Yin Minglu’s casual wear was now completely covered in coffee, so he had to take out a handkerchief from his pocket and handed another one to Yin Jiyu to start wiping.
Yin Jiyu’s clothes were not as heavily affected as Yin Minglu’s, so he noticed the details of the handkerchief only after wiping himself. There was a faint coffee aroma in the air, along with a subtle men’s cologne scent on the handkerchief. It was well-known that Yin Minglu never used cologne.
The scent was very subtle, but Yin Jiyu was familiar with it. The original owner of the handkerchief seemed more like a sophisticated adult man with excellent taste, rather than a young and spirited teenager. Not to mention the ambiguous implications behind this limited-edition cologne. With these thoughts in mind, Yin Jiyu’s eyes narrowed, and he asked, “Who gave you this handkerchief?”
Yin Minglu was momentarily stunned and replied, “A friend gave it to me. Why?” It was actually a gift from his idol, but given the current situation and Yin Jiyu’s dangerous expression and tone, he felt it was better to refer to the person as a friend.
“Is that so?” Yin Jiyu responded ambiguously, not pursuing the matter further. However, deep down, he made up his mind to thoroughly investigate his younger brother’s circle of friends.
“Brother, you’re acting really strange,” the young man complained. It was just a gift of a handkerchief; why was it so scary? He hadn’t done anything wrong, but being questioned like this made him feel inexplicably guilty.
“I’m just concerned about you and whether you’re associating with any unsavory characters,” Yin Jiyu said seriously, adopting a cautious demeanor as if his brother were still just a child. This made Yin Minglu roll his eyes, not wanting to continue the topic any further.
Meanwhile, Jiang Mingqin, realizing that she had been ignored by both of them, momentarily had an unpleasant expression on her face. She quickly approached them, clasped her hands together, and said, “I’m so sorry for staining your clothes. Minglu, please let your brother take off his clothes so I can take them for dry cleaning. Consider it my way of making amends, or else my conscience won’t forgive me.”
Yin Jiyu looks like the kind of well-mannered, handsome and wealthy young gentleman with polite behavior and demeanor. Such a person definitely wouldn’t wear cheap clothes, so anyone with eyes can tell that the outfit he’s wearing is definitely not cheap. The girl’s line about taking it to the dry cleaner is also normal.
The girl pitifully said, as if feeling deeply guilty, but Yin Minglu immediately knew that she was probably doing it on purpose. If she took the clothes to the dry cleaner, there would be a chance to return it, and it would be normal for some feelings to develop between a boy and a girl. The girl knew that Yin Jiyu was her cousin, but she still wanted to get close to him using the identity of his classmate.
“So you’re working here,” Yin Minglu casually remarked, “Is your family short of money?”
Jiang Mingqin’s expression stiffened, not expecting Yin Minglu to suddenly ask this. Her family was certainly not poor, and her father had even been promoted this year, after many years of hard work, his salary had increased several times, and her pocket money was unusually generous. She had told her best friends about these small things, and during casual conversations, she had mentioned them to some classmates, so everyone in the class knew about her family’s financial situation. She really didn’t need to work part-time in high school to make money.
But if she didn’t work in places where wealthy kids gathered, how could she meet these people and gather information about the upper class?
In front of Yin Minglu, she couldn’t come up with any “working hard to study” reasons, so she could only mumble, “My family is okay, although I can’t afford one of your brother’s clothes, I can take it to the dry cleaner…”
“No need,” Yin Jiyu politely declined, and he couldn’t be bothered to take off his dirty coat. He just made a phone call and asked his secretary to bring two sets of clothes and pick him up. He noticed the girl’s expression and was somewhat disappointed. He raised an eyebrow. Normally, when someone hears that they don’t need to compensate for the accident, they should be relieved. The girl’s disappointed expression seemed to imply something.
Yin Jiyu shifted his gaze away and continued to make a phone call, but he couldn’t help but think.
Seeing that the two of them were about to leave, the girl couldn’t help but ask again, “Classmate Yin Minglu, I just heard that you’re going to participate in the game design competition, is that true?” She had seen the handwritten manuscripts on the table, and when she walked over, she happened to hear the word “Deer Factory,” which had a thunderous reputation in her previous life. She couldn’t control her trembling hand as she held her coffee.
In her previous life, she didn’t find out until she was eighteen that her birth mother had intentionally switched her with someone else. So even though she was reborn in this life, there were still many details she didn’t know. She didn’t expect that Yin Minglu from her previous life had started to show his talent for game creation at such an early age, and even at such a young age, he had ambitions to build a game factory.
She couldn’t let him successfully establish his reputation in this life. Being kicked out of the Yin family because her birth mother conspired with a man had already caused a deviation from her previous life’s path, and she was worried that if Yin Minglu shone in this competition, she would have even less of an advantage when she returned.
Soon, two more registration forms appeared on the organizer’s table for the first game design competition, and the staff were surprised to see that the birthdays of these two participants were on the same day. They approved their registrations with the comment, “These two participants have the same birthday.”
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Author’s Note:
Sorry for taking a leave of absence yesterday, but I’m back now to update!
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