After being reborn, I gained a childhood sweetheart who appeared out of nowhere.

Lin Chuan and Cheng Xue stood in the cafeteria queue, neither of them having anything to say to each other, so he could only turn his head and look around in boredom.

"It's your turn to get your food," Cheng Xue suddenly said.

Military training has ended, but Cheng Xue still has her hair tied up, revealing her beautiful profile, which attracts subtle glances from the boys around her. Even Lin Chuan feels that he has been looked at intentionally or unintentionally a few times.

However, he had long since gotten used to this feeling, after all, he had been frequently seen with more eye-catching girls lately.

Lin Chuan said "Oh," and looked at the food window. Although the food at No. 1 Middle School was a bit expensive, it had a wide variety of dishes and offered different flavors, which was a good thing.

"Auntie, scrambled eggs with tomatoes and fried chicken wings," Lin Chuan called out to his aunt.

"Is that all?" Cheng Xue asked.

"Mm." Lin Chuan wasn't just being polite; he genuinely wanted whatever he wanted to eat.

Actually, if he didn't want to run into the teacher, he would have even wanted to go to the second floor. However, the last time he went to the second floor to eat with Chen Xiyu, he ran into Lao Xue, who gave him a long lecture before leaving.

Cheng Xue said to the aunt, "Give me a plate of scrambled eggs with tomatoes and a plate of tofu and cabbage, and then pay for his meal together."

The cafeteria lady and the boy next to her both eventually focused their attention on Lin Chuan, and their gazes became somewhat strange.

Lin Chuan didn't care at all. After Cheng Xue paid, he took his plate and left.

He found a corner seat and sat down, while Cheng Xue sat down diagonally opposite him. The two of them just missed each other, as if they didn't know each other at all, but were just strangers who happened to be sitting at the same table.

Lin Chuan didn't bother to say anything, and lowered his head to gnaw on his chicken wing, while Cheng Xue also lowered her head to eat her meal.

Throughout the entire process, no one tried to start a conversation; it was unusually quiet.

Lin Chuan finished eating the food on his plate. When he looked up, Cheng Xue was already sitting there waiting. He noticed that Cheng Xue always sat very straight, like a slender bamboo.

"I've already treated you to a meal, so the military training is over," Cheng Xue said.

Lin Chuan responded with an "oh," and casually asked, "Do you really like to calculate everything so clearly?"

"This is the most convenient way," Cheng Xue said.

Lin Chuan thought the girl was just a little serious, but now it seems she's more than that.

She was even a bit stubborn, and gave the impression that she didn't want to have any entanglements with anyone. Zhao Jiajia had told her that Cheng Xue and her roommates were actually quite similar.

He had once read a saying that the entanglements between people are also a manifestation of good relationships.

For example, if a girl asks you for a small, inexpensive gift on her birthday, she might be hoping to have some kind of connection with you. In those action-packed Japanese anime, it might be a declaration of our bond.

Lin Chuan had actually recalled the girl he knew more than once, but he still couldn't remember her.

After all, he wasn't exactly a social butterfly when he was young. His female neighbor counted on her fingers several times, and Chen Xiyu was the only one she knew.

Besides her, there were only two children, a boy and a girl, ten years younger than him in that old neighborhood. They were still in kindergarten. The rest of the residents were elderly people, older than their parents, after all, it was an old neighborhood.

The two of them got up and left the cafeteria at the same time, without saying goodbye at the door, as if nothing had happened.

With nothing to do in the afternoon, Lin Chuan was too lazy to go home, as it would be too much trouble to go back and forth. So he went to the classroom first, intending to rest for a while.

"Hey, Old Lin's back?" Wang Xu grinned at the classroom door, a smile nine parts lewdness in it. He leaned closer. "How was it? What was it like having dinner with Cheng Xue?"

"It's better to eat alone," Lin Chuan said honestly.

"You're just showing off. You have no idea how many people have asked her out to dinner, and none of them have succeeded. Cheng Xue's popularity in our class is only slightly lower than Chen Xiyu's," Wang Xu said.

Several days before military training, the boys in the class had already ranked the girls.

The undisputed number one is Chen Xiyu; she doesn't need to do anything, she's a picture-perfect presence wherever she stands. Next is Cheng Xue; she looks as cold as ice and snow, but quite a few boys are attracted to this ice queen. Then there are Liu Qian, Zhao Jiajia, and others...

The two girls who are currently in first place both seem to have had affairs with his deskmate, how could he not be jealous?

"Don't worry, Lao Lin, we're brothers. I won't go around telling everyone, and I won't tell Chen Xiyu either," Wang Xuyi said righteously.

Lin Chuan didn't bother to explain anything, returned to his reporting seat, and yawned.

"Going online?" Wang Xu asked again. "Didn't Instructor Liu say we're free this afternoon? Why not go to an internet cafe for some gaming?"

Lin Chuan thought for a moment, then said, "Okay."

"Let's go, let's go..." Wang Xu said impatiently.

"You got up too early today. Let me lie down for a while. There's still a long afternoon, what's the rush?" Lin Chuan said, slumping onto the table.

"Oh." Wang Xu had no choice but to return to his seat.

Lin Chuan had only been lying on the table for less than ten minutes when Wang Xu woke him up, eager to go out and go online.

Although students who get into the top high school in the city generally have good grades, there is no absolute conflict between being a good student and loving the internet.

There are also a group of people who are good at studying and also quite good at playing games.

So there were still a few illegal internet cafes nearby. Wang Xu had already scouted the area in advance, and Lin Chuan followed him as they wandered around in some quiet alleys for a while before finally stopping.

Lin Chuan immediately spotted the internet cafe they were heading to. Opening and closing the glass door, he saw the four neon signs for "Moonlight Internet Cafe," which were lit up even in broad daylight.

Of course, this is somewhat retro for Lin Chuan; in this day and age, this kind of internet cafe is considered to have pretty good facilities.

In his memory, a real "illegal internet cafe" should not even have a sign. The internet cafe is hidden in a residential building with a few floors. The location of such internet cafes is spread by word of mouth.

Lin Chuan pushed open the glass door of the internet cafe, and was immediately hit by a mixture of smoke and heat.

The cold white light also filled the air with white smoke, and all I could hear was the intense sound of keyboards clicking. People would shout or curse from time to time, and someone wearing earplugs would whisper sweet nothings to the girl opposite them. In front of rows of old-fashioned computers were worn-out black sofas and chairs.

The guys who had just finished their "all-nighter" hadn't left yet; they still had a cigarette in their left hand, a mouse in their right, bloodshot eyes, and powerful rock music blaring from their headphones.

Lin Chuan also saw many students from the No. 1 Middle School of the city wearing military training uniforms. Not far away, a young female internet cafe manager was idly playing on her phone at the front desk.

"What a familiar scene," Lin Chuan thought.

He hadn't been to an internet cafe in a long time. His most vivid memories of internet cafes were always the morning after he and his friends stayed up all night, walking in the cold winter wind, shivering from the cold, saying that they would never stay up all night again, and then happily going back to the internet cafe.

He couldn't remember when he last went online, just as he couldn't recall the day after which he never saw his close friends again.

Perhaps it was just an ordinary afternoon.

Lin Chuan went to the receptionist and got two computers. Wang Xu had just sat down when he couldn't wait to open his favorite game, StarCraft. He turned to his deskmate with a smug look on his face and said, "Hurry up and log in. Today I'm going to show you who's number one in our channel."

"Don't rush." ​​Lin Chuan slowly opened the webpage and began browsing.

"What are you doing, looking at study materials in broad daylight?" Wang Xu said, coming closer and discovering that Lin Chuan was actually browsing a novel website aimlessly.

"If you want to read a novel, download it and read it at home. Why come to an internet cafe to read novels?" Wang Xu said, somewhat speechless.

"It's nothing, I'm just browsing. You go ahead and play." Lin Chuan's willingness to come to the internet cafe definitely wasn't for playing games; he was there to research.

Although he had just started high school, Lin Chuan still wanted to find opportunities to earn some money, since studying and making money were not in conflict.

I initially thought about starting a small business, but considering the situation at the No. 1 High School in the city, it seemed inconvenient. This century-old school is one of the best high schools in the city. I had heard before coming that the school had strict discipline, and I found out that it was indeed true after I arrived.

So after thinking it over, Lin Chuan decided to focus on new media or online novels, because it was one of the lowest-cost methods. All he needed was a computer with internet access, or even an internet cafe if he didn't have a computer.

He remembered reading about an online novelist who went to an internet cafe to write novels after the earthquake.

As for other startups, they will all face the challenge of "start-up capital," which is an unavoidable problem for entrepreneurs.

The truth is, he only had a few hundred yuan on him, and he couldn't very well ask Chen Xiyu for money, could he? Then Chen Xiyu threw a bank card in his face and said there were millions in it, so he could use it to start a business.

Although her family seems to be well-off, after all, her mother always drives an Audi and sometimes a BMW with "angel eye" headlights, it still sounds too far-fetched.

As for new media, most people are drawn to its novelty. It has an inherent advantage, since it's familiar with the previously popular and profitable self-media genres.

As for writing novels, he did write some things during college, but because he was very busy with his studies, he only wrote short stories in his spare time to earn some extra money and royalties.

Because I haven't read novels for several years, I want to first understand what the currently serialized novels are like and what new media is like, using his work process as an example.

Isn't this a kind of "market research" activity?

Lin Chuan spent the entire afternoon looking at works from this era, and only after Wang Xu kept bothering him did he finally play a few rounds of StarCraft with him.

He opened the game after a long time, and was a little rusty in the first game. Wang Xu won, and the guy couldn't help but brag to him, saying something like, "Old Lin, you've been slacking off all summer. How come you're so bad now?"

Lin Chuan smiled, familiarized himself with the feel of the mouse, adjusted his grip, and started the next game.

His fingers danced across the keyboard, commanding his army to rapidly take shape. Berserkers and dragoons formed an iron torrent, crushing everything in their path, leaving a trail of blood. The light from the screen illuminated his slightly pale face.

On Wang Xu's screen, he could only watch as the enemy human cruiser focused its fire on his Yamato cannons, turning his brood mound into a pool of blood.

He sighed helplessly, "Damn, it was just a hair's breadth away."

"Is it just a little bit off?" Lin Chuan raised an eyebrow.

Both of their computer screens displayed a "insufficient balance" pop-up. Lin Chuan stretched, skillfully exited the game, shut down the computer, got up and left. Wang Xu quickly followed him, and they walked outside together.

"This doesn't count, let's try again next time."

"oh."