Qi Rui had no idea how he managed to get through the day. The stuffy classroom, the dust stirred up by constant foot traffic, and the noisy chatter of his classmates felt like they were about to pierce his eardrums.
And to make matters worse, this school even had three evening classes.
What’s more, his uncle hadn’t called to check on him the whole day. Qi Rui was certain that his uncle abandoned him and didn’t want to bother with him anymore.
Qi Rui lay on his desk, feeling utterly miserable and on the verge of tears.
“Qi Rui, wake up! Evening classes are about to start, and they’re closing the classroom doors.”
Someone nudged him, and Qi Rui lifted his head to see his class monitor, Zhou Nan.
Now, there were only the two of them left in the classroom.
Qi Rui walked out of the classroom in silence, and he heard the sound of the door being locked behind him. Then, he heard his class monitor’s voice.
“Qi Rui, why aren’t you heading back to the dorm?” Zhou Nan asked, puzzled.
“I don’t know where the dorm is,” Qi Rui replied with a downcast expression.
“I’ll take you there,” Zhou Nan grinned. “The two boys’ dorms for our class are right next to each other, easy to find.”
“Oh.” Qi Rui followed behind Zhou Nan, occasionally taking out his phone to check. But his phone was completely unaware of his inner thoughts, offering no response.
“Qi Rui, your parents already got you a phone?” Zhou Nan sounded a bit envious. “My parents said they’d buy me a phone when I entered high school.”
“Hey, how much did your phone cost?”
Qi Rui glanced at his phone. “My uncle gave it to me, I don’t know the price.”
“Your uncle is really nice to you.”
Qi Rui’s mouth downturned. If his uncle had been kind to him, he wouldn’t have sent him to such a remote place, where even cellphone signals were sporadic.
The two of them reached the dormitory entrance, and the residential teacher standing there called out, “The new student.”
Qi Rui stopped in his tracks, looked over, and saw the residential teacher turn and retrieve a key and fifty yuan from a small room.
“This is your dorm key, and your grandfather said this fifty yuan is your weekly allowance.”
Qi Rui took the key but left the money behind, then turned and headed up the stairs.
What could he do with fifty yuan? He wouldn’t even bend down to pick up five thousand if it fell on the ground.
“Hey, the money, you haven’t taken it yet,” the residential teacher called twice, and Zhou Nan looked at her. “Teacher, Qi Rui probably didn’t hear. I’ll take it up to him.”
“Sure, go ahead,” the residential teacher replied, recognizing Zhou Nan and knowing that he was the class monitor of Experimental Class One.
The key provided by the residential teacher had the corresponding room number on it. Qi Rui used the room number to find his dormitory. The dormitory door was wide open, so he walked right in.
“Qi Rui, your bed is here,” a boy saw him and quickly pointed to his upper bunk.
Qi Rui glanced at the bed and then, at this moment, his expression remained flat, but he was dumbfounded.
In his entire life, he had never seen such a Spartan bed, and the smell in this dormitory—
Qi Rui sniffed the air, and his face turned a shade of green.
“Why does it smell so bad in here?”
Qi Rui felt a wave of nausea in his chest, covering his mouth, he rushed to the sink on the balcony and spent some time retching.
Zhou Nan stood at the door, having just come from the other two dorms. “Liu Hao, is Qí Ruì here?”
Liu Hao peeked his head out from the bed. “Class monitor, he’s on the balcony throwing up.”
“What’s wrong with him?” Zhou Nan was taken aback and walked into the dorm. He indeed saw Qi Rui vomiting continuously on the balcony.
Zhou Nan was getting anxious. “Qi Rui, what’s wrong with you?”
Qi Rui hadn’t actually vomited anything since he hadn’t eaten much for lunch. He took a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped his mouth, and then disdainfully tossed it into the trash can by his feet.
“I don’t want to live in this place,” Qi Rui took out his phone and dialed his uncle’s number. The signal was intermittent, but he managed to connect the call.
“Uncle!” As soon as the call was answered, without waiting for Qi Heng to speak, Qi Rui began to complain, “Can I not stay in this school? The dormitory is too smelly, and the bed is too small.”
“Is that why you called?” Qi Heng asked, sounding cold.
“Brother?” Qi Han entered the room carrying his suitcase and was surprised to see his older brother sitting on the couch in a bathrobe, making a phone call, with his hair still wet.
It was a rare sight to see his elder brother in such a casual state.
“Third Master,” a servant approached and took Qi Han’s suitcase, dragging it away.
Qi Heng paid no attention to Qi Rui’s protests on the other end of the call. He ended the call and raised his gaze to look at Qi Han. “Is everything settled in the coastal city?”
Qi Han smiled slightly and took a seat on the other side of the couch. “It’s all settled. I bet those two, the mother and son, must be hating me right now.”
“Whom were you talking to just now, Brother?” Qi Han’s voice hesitated slightly. “I think I saw you in a video online a while ago.”
At first, he thought he might have been mistaken, so he called the housekeeper to confirm. The head of the Qí family had actually been the target of a fangirl who was trying to provoke him.
“Qi Rui. I’ve sent him to a boarding school, and he just called to complain,” Qi Heng replied.
“Brother, your attitude toward Qi Rui seems to have changed quite a bit in the last couple of months,” Qi Han remarked thoughtfully. “You weren’t this strict with him before.”
As they spoke, the family’s steward, Sun Yi, approached with a phone in his hand, wearing a troubled expression.
“Master, Third Master,” he began.
“What’s the matter?” Qi Han asked, “Just now, the principal of Yizhong School called to inform us that Young Master was involved in another fight. He’s come to ask if you want to impose any penalties.”
“For what reason did he get into a fight?” Qi Heng inquired calmly.
“Young Master found one of his classmates’ feet stinky and insisted that the boy take a shower. Then the boy mocked Young Master, so he dragged him out of bed.”
Sun Yi cautiously glanced at Qi Heng. “And then, he poured water all over the boy.”
It seems that Qi Rui still had some restraint, as he didn’t cause serious harm.
Qi Heng’s brow relaxed slightly. “In that case, have him write a reflection. And we don’t need to be involved in such minor matters in the future.”
The steward acknowledged and went outside to make the call.
Qi Han brought his gaze back to Qi Heng. “Brother, you’ve acquired a game company. Does this mean that the Qi family is entering the gaming industry?”
Qi Heng’s expression remained composed. “Just for fun. When Qi Rui goes to college, I’ll let him practice.”
…
Qi Rui finished writing his reflection and returned to the dorm. The boys who had been whispering immediately fell silent and turned over to sleep.
Qi Rui was a tough nut to crack. On his first day at this new school, he dared to get into a fight over something as minor as foot odor, and he beat up Yang Yong, who had the most volatile temperament among them.
What if Qi Rui found them noisy later? They couldn’t even handle Yang Yong.
Qi Rui walked to his bed, which was the top bunk and not very high. He reached out and grabbed the bed rail, exerting effort to flip himself onto the bed.
The person on the lower bunk of Qi Rui’s bed was in complete shock.
Those who witnessed this scene were equally amazed. Qi Rui seemed completely oblivious as he lay down and took out his phone.
An Ruoxii had sent him many messages, almost one every time interval.
Just as he was looking at them, another message popped up.
[An Ruoxi: Rui-ge, why are you ignoring me so much!]
Qi Rui glanced at the group chat where they were discussing something about a red outfit, but he had lost his account, and even if he had it, new outfits were no longer relevant to him. The more he looked, the more heartbroken he felt.
He closed the group chat and sent a reply to An Ruoxi.
[Arrived at the new school, in class.]
The message had just been sent, and the response came almost instantly.
[An Ruoxi: Rui-ge, which school are you a student of now?]
Qi Rui wasn’t naive, and he naturally didn’t answer such a question.
After attending classes for several days in a row, Qi Rui noticed that the people in his class were looking at him with strange expressions.
It was a mix of fear and admiration.
…
“Qi Rui.” After the afternoon class on Friday, Zhou Nan walked up to his desk and took out the fifty yuan from his pocket. “The holiday is coming soon, you’d better take this money back.”
Qi Rui looked at it indifferently. “No need, you can keep it.”
“This money is from your grandpa, not mine.” Zhou Nan stuffed the money into his pocket. He looked around and leaned in closer to Qi Rui. “I heard from your dorm mates that you’ve had martial arts training?”
“Humph!” Qi Rui’s desk was kicked, and his wrist was accidentally hit by the desk, making it quickly turn red. His gaze darkened as he looked at the culprit.
“Yesterday, I washed my feet, and they were too slippery, so I couldn’t stand steadily. My apologies, ‘sissy’ classmate.” Yang Yong sarcastically explained.
“How can you insult people, Yang Yong!” Zhou Nan scolded.
“Who are you calling a ‘sissy’?”
“Of course, whoever uses a handkerchief is the ‘sissy,'” Yang Yong laughed a few times, deliberately speaking loudly. “City folks and young masters like you are different from us. You even carry a white handkerchief to wipe your mouth.”
Qi Rui stood up, and Yang Yong instinctively took a step back. He then glanced at the surrounding classmates, feeling somewhat embarrassed about his retreat.
“What? You still dare to fight?” Qi Rui sneered. “You’ve got a lot of guts. The last person who dared to cross me still hasn’t fully recovered.”
Even though his hand was injured by his uncle, these people were unaware of that fact, allowing him to use it as a scare tactic.
“What are you boasting about? That’s against the law!” Yang Yong retorted defiantly.
The bell for the next class suddenly rang, and someone shouted that the teacher was here. In an instant, the male and female students who had gathered around their seats returned to their places.
In the blink of an eye, their homeroom teacher, Li Wenying, entered the classroom, placing textbooks and teaching materials on the podium.
“Our physical education teacher is sick, so we’ll have a Chinese class for this period.”
Qi Rui rolled his eyes and continued to lie down on his desk to nap. She had said the same thing about their physical education class a couple of days ago, and he had been here for a few days, yet he hadn’t seen the supposedly frequently ill physical education teacher.
“Ah,” the students around him weakly exclaimed. “Teacher, we’re not even in the ninth grade yet.”
Was it necessary to cancel physical education classes in the middle of the second semester of the eighth grade?
“Sit down, everyone,” Li Wenying said sternly. “We don’t have much time left in this semester, and exams are coming up soon.”
“Hey, where is Class 1?… What’s going on with your Experimental Class 1?!” The door was forcefully pushed open from the outside. “The class bell has been ringing for two minutes, and I’ve been waiting out there for half an hour, but not a single person showed up on the field.”
The entire class silently turned their heads to look at the entrance, then slowly turned to face their homeroom teacher, Li Wenying, who had an expression that resembled someone with constipation.
The well-groomed young man, upon seeing that there were people in the classroom, hesitated for a moment. He held the doorknob and, with an embarrassed expression, pointed to himself. “Um… Teacher Li, did I fall sick again this time?”
Li Wenying’s false explanation was exposed in front of the students, and she couldn’t hide the expression on her face. She irritably closed her book and stepped down from the podium. “Whether you’re sick or not, don’t you have any sense in your heart?”
“I didn’t know, and you didn’t say…” Han Yu touched his nose. “If you had told me earlier, I definitely wouldn’t have competed with you.”
“Alright, go ahead by yourself.”
Li Wenying left angrily, stomping her high heels as she went. After she left, the whole class erupted in cheers.
“Teacher Han, well done!”
“Teacher Han, you did it splendidly!” Some students even gave him a thumbs-up.
“It’s all because your class teacher was too domineering in seizing all the P.E. classes. I only have two P.E. classes a week in your class, and she wanted to take them all.” Han Yu chuckled. “So, I had to come up with this plan. Now, you can go out and play.”
“Oh yeah!” The whole class became lively, grabbing balls, and playfully running and chasing each other out of the classroom.
Han Yu chuckled, about to leave, but he suddenly noticed a student still lying on a desk and not joining the others.
He walked over and gently patted the student’s shoulder. “Student, are you not feeling well?”
The person on the desk stirred, then lifted their head, wearing a perplexed expression. The person in front seemed familiar like they had seen them somewhere before.
“Isn’t it little Rui-ge? What are you doing here?” Han Yu was surprised. Qi Rui yawned and looked at Han Yu, trying to recall.
“Are you… braised pork rice?”
Qi Rui quickly regained his composure. Despite being drowsy earlier, he had vaguely heard a man talking about physical education class and going out to play.
Qi Rui widened his eyes, “So, you’re a teacher here?”
After this confirmation, the two of them were left in an awkward silence.
“How did you end up transferring to this school, Qi Rui?” Breaking the silence, Han Yu, as a mature adult, expressed his curiosity about Qi Rui’s presence here. After all, just a few days ago, Qi Rui had mentioned that his family bought a game company to remove someone’s account, indicating they were quite well-off. It was surprising that they would send their child to this run-down public school.
“I was thrown over by my uncle,” Qi Rui played with his phone. “I spent some money on the game, and my uncle got angry when he found out. He said he wanted me to experience the life of an ordinary person, so he sent me here.”
Han Yu realized that what Qi Rui referred to as “some money” might not be as small as he had imagined, so he asked, “Your uncle was so angry over this. How much did you spend?”
Qi Rui furrowed his brow, “Not much, maybe around four or five million.”
*Cough, cough, cough.*
Han Yu choked on his own saliva.
“You spent four or five million?” Han Yu was utterly shocked. He had been playing the game for a year and a half and had only spent a few thousand yuan, and it still hurt his heart every now and then.
No wonder he was sent to a place like this. If a troublemaker like him ended up in their family and spent four to five million, he’d probably get more than just a broken leg.
Wait, his family couldn’t even afford to spend four to five million on a game. If he had that much money, he wouldn’t have to work so hard here.
“Didn’t your uncle do anything to you?”
In the past, Qi Rui used to complain in the group chat about his uncle being conservative and old-fashioned, with a bad temper. Did he just send a kid who had lost four to five million to the countryside for education?
“He kicked me out, isn’t that already something?”
Qi Rui responded indignantly, but as soon as he finished speaking, his phone in his pocket started ringing.
“Third Uncle,” Qi Rui weakly exclaimed.
Han Yu didn’t hear what the person on the other end said, but he could see that Qi Rui’s expression quickly changed.
“What? My uncle said I can go home on the weekend, and you want to come and pick me up?”
Qi Rui was thrilled. He hadn’t realized he could go back to their old house every week. He thought he had to stay in this miserable place until he graduated.
After the call, Qi Rui anxiously counted the minutes, finally getting through the day and waiting for school to end. As soon as the bell rang, he sprinted to the school gate and indeed saw his third uncle’s car parked there.
“Third Uncle,” Qi Rui knocked on the window, and the window slowly rolled down. “Get in.”
Qi Rui opened the passenger door and got in.
“Qi Rui,” Qi Han gripped the steering wheel. “Your uncle is in a bad mood today. When we go back, don’t do anything to upset him.”
Qi Rui nodded obediently and then asked with a hint of curiosity, “Why is my uncle in a bad mood?”
Qi Han glanced at him but didn’t say anything.
…
As the night fell, the car stopped at the entrance of the Qi family’s old mansion. The steward, Sun Yi, who was waiting at the entrance, hurried forward and opened the car door.
“Young Master has returned.”
Qi Rui got out of the car, and the steward, Sun Yi, took his arm, his eyes filled with concern. “Young Master, you’ve lost weight. You should go home and eat well.”
With the steward’s words, Qi Rui also felt a bit aggrieved. “The food in the school cafeteria is terrible. I haven’t had a decent meal in days.”
“Why don’t you go inside?” Qi Han got out of the car, and the steward quickly released Qi Rui’s arm. “Third Master.”
Qi Han nodded and walked briskly toward the living room. The steward gently urged Qi Rui to follow, and he reluctantly entered the living room.
At a glance, he saw that stern and unyielding face.
“Un—Uncle, I’m back…”
Qi Heng closed his book and looked up at him. His brow held a sense of clarity, not showing signs of being upset. It seemed that the dramatic event from the story hadn’t occurred.
“You’re back. Go wash up and have dinner.”
He hadn’t thrown him out! Qi Rui’s eyes lit up with joy. He eagerly took his backpack from the housekeeper and retrieved a neatly folded test paper from it.
It was the test paper from a recent quiz he had taken, and he had scored full marks in mathematics.
“Uncle, please take a look,” Qi Rui eagerly handed the paper to Qi Heng.
Qi Heng lowered his gaze and saw the perfect score written in bright red ink. He then glanced at Qi Rui, who was full of hope and nodded approvingly, “Well done. A significant improvement.”
Qi Rui’s heart swelled with happiness.
“So, is there any reward?” He hoped for something like getting his game account back.
Qi Heng gave him a brief look and said, “Your reward is to accompany me to the company tomorrow.”
Qi Rui’s joyful smile froze for a moment. Could he have a different reward, please?
But in the Qi family, there was no room for him to refuse.
…
Early the next day, Qi Heng took Qi Rui to the game company he had acquired.
The moment Qi Rui saw the company’s name, he was stunned. This was the same company he had spent five million on?
“Chairman.” Wang Lin, who had been waiting on the first floor, approached them. Qi Heng looked at Qi Rui and said, “Take him around and show him the place. I’ll go upstairs.”
Wang Lin nodded and, once she saw Qi Heng leave, she waved her hand in front of Qi Rui.
“You’re not dreaming, Young Master.”
“Assistant Wang!” Qi Rui held onto Wang Lin’s arm, still in disbelief.
He thought his great-uncle was taking him to the Qi family, but he ended up here. It turned out his great-uncle was really rewarding him!
Wang Lin gave a forced smile and pushed his hand away. “Young Master, the Chairman instructed me to show you around here.”
Qi Rui’s eyes darted around. “This company was just acquired, there must be a lot of work to do. Why don’t you go and handle that, and I’ll explore on my own?”
“The Chairman gave specific instructions, so I’ll take you through each department first,” Wang Lin insisted.
Qi Rui had no choice but to follow her as they moved from one department to another. They reached the customer service department, and Wang Lin had to step away to answer a phone call.
Qi Rui casually slipped over to one of the workstations. “Hey there, can I ask you a question?”
The girl with glasses, who was working on her computer, looked up. “Hello, what can I help you with?”
Although she didn’t know who he was, he had been brought up by the Chairman’s assistant, so she naturally wouldn’t ignore him.
Qi Rui glanced at the door, seeing no one approaching, he lowered his voice. “In your game, who’s in charge of the account suspension and deletion? Can they be restored if an account is deleted?”
“Suspension? If it’s due to cheating, the system automatically suspends accounts.”
“What about account deletion? If an account is deleted, can it be restored?”
“But our game doesn’t support players deleting their accounts,” the girl looked a bit puzzled, suspecting that he might have the wrong game. Their company had only developed one game, which had just had a promotional event before it was acquired, and they hadn’t had time to work on other games.
“But what if it’s your company that deletes them?” Qi Rui pressed.
“I’m not really sure about that. Why don’t you ask other departments?” She was just a small customer service representative and didn’t understand these technical matters.
Qi Rui walked to the elevator, and pressed the button, intending to go upstairs to find his uncle. However, when the elevator doors opened, two men in business attire caught his attention.
More precisely, it was their conversation that caught his attention.
“I really don’t understand what these rich people are thinking. After buying our company, the first thing they did was ask us to delete a player’s account.”
“How big of a grudge could they have? Did some tycoon get bullied in the game, so they decided to spend money to vent their frustration?”
“Who knows, but the boss ordered the deletion, so I’ll just do it.”
As they chatted, the two men walked into the nearby technical department.
Qi Rui’s eyes were sharp, fixated on the guy in the blue checkered shirt who had been speaking.
Alright, that was easier than expected.
Qi Rui’s eyes flickered as he followed and saw the guy in the blue checkered shirt sitting at his desk with his computer open, displaying a familiar game start screen.
“Do you guys also play this game?” Qi Rui walked over, pretending to be curious.
“We play occasionally.” The person raised his head from the game, assuming that a colleague bringing a child for a visit, as such visits were common and not unusual.
“So, as internal employees, you probably don’t have to pay for in-game items, right?” Qi Rui inquired with a seemingly curious expression.
“I’m a GM (Game Master) account, so I set myself to invincible mode directly. I don’t need to buy those items.” The guy in the blue checkered shirt raised his head. “Kid, are you also a player of our game?”
“Of course,” Qi Rui smiled. “But that was in the past; not anymore.”
“Oh? Why don’t you play now?” The person asked casually, controlling his character to enter a dungeon. The dungeon was relatively large, and it took some time to load.
Qi Rui said softly, “Because you deleted my account.”
Crash!
The guy in the blue checkered shirt accidentally dropped his wireless mouse.
“Are you the [You’re the Dream of 30 Million Girls, Rui-ge]?” He had only deleted that one game account, so it immediately came to his mind.
“What do you think?” Qi Rui continued softly, “By deleting my account, you’ve left a lasting impression on me.”
Qi Rui was speaking as he took out his phone and snapped a photo. Then, he casually opened the group.
[You’re the Dream of 30 Million Girls, Rui-ge: @Everyone, can you guess where I am right now? [Photo.jpg]]
[Amidst a profusion of flowers: Where is this?]
[You’re the Dream of 30 Million Girls, Rui-ge: It’s a gaming company, and I’m still here. I’ve found the culprit who attempted to delete my game account!]
Qi Rui wanted to say a few more words in the group, but he was called away by a phone call, and Wang Lin came over.
“Young Master, the chairman wants you to go up.”
The person in the blue checkered shirt was taken aback, “Y-Young Master?”
Wang Lin, he knew, was the assistant on the big boss’s side. So, if she called this young child “Young Master,” wouldn’t that imply that this child was from the big boss’s family?
Qi Rui, seeing the person in the blue checkered shirt looking over, instantly grinned, “Don’t worry, I won’t forget you.”
The person in the blue checkered shirt said, “…” Please forget about me!
If time could turn back, he would definitely not bring up the account deletion incident even a bit.
![[Western Fantasy] What Kind of Character Did the Devs Give Me Anyway?](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/冥河摆渡者.jpg "[Western Fantasy] What Kind of Character Did the Devs Give Me Anyway?")
