I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

In the suite at the Sheraton Portland Hotel, the family of four had already arrived and were sitting in a circle.

"...What I mentioned before about the potential risk of breach of contract is no longer a concern, but the condition is that the four of us need to live under the same roof. Of course, the house will be provided by me, and you won't need to pay rent. In addition, for convenience, I will also hire a housekeeper, so you won't need to take care of daily cleaning, meals, or anything like that."

After Zhou Man finished speaking, she looked at the three of them and said, "What are your thoughts? Feel free to speak up."

"Can I take this to mean that if we don't live together, you might break your contract?" Xiao Bonian asked.

After a moment's thought, Zhou Man nodded, "From what I understand, yes."

Xiao Bonian then asked, "What kind of house is it? We should all have our own rooms, right?"

Zhou Man knew what he was worried about and smiled, "You can rest assured about that. The house is being looked for by someone else, but I think it will be a villa, and maybe not one room per person, but one floor per person."

Xiao Bonian nodded, "Then I have no objection." Then he and Zhou Man looked at the two children.

Shen Kangzheng crossed his arms in front of his lower abdomen.

He never expected things to end this way, with everyone having to live together—he's already looking at rental apartments these past few days.

However, there's no other way. In order to continue this high-paying job, even living in a villa wouldn't be out of the question.

"I have no objection either."

Having received Shen Kang's reply, only He Qiuzhu remained.

She was holding a red rope chain on her left wrist with her right hand, her head slightly lowered. After a long while, she said softly, "I need to make a phone call."

Shen Kang guessed that she was going to call her uncle—although her guardian had changed from her uncle to Zhou Man, she was still living with her uncle, and her uncle had sent someone to drive her here today.

"sure."

Then He Qiuzhu went to the inner bedroom to make a phone call, and came out after a while.

"Can I reply later?"

Although Zhou Man wished she could get everyone to agree immediately, she knew it was unrealistic: Xiao Bonian was a true adult and could make his own decision; Shen Kang was also a mature young man with no family and could also make his own decision; but He Qiuzhu was slightly different.

He Qiuzhu does have an uncle.

Zhou Man was already quite surprised that He Qiuzhu's uncle was able to transfer guardianship so readily. Now that his niece wants to move in with someone else, it's perfectly normal for the uncle to have to think about it.

So Zhou Man agreed, "Okay."

However, she had already made up her mind that if He Qiuzhu's uncle disagreed, she would go to his door in person to negotiate. She was willing to discuss all kinds of conditions and was determined to get this done!

However, things went more smoothly than Zhou Man had imagined.

After a short meeting, around 9 p.m. that evening, she received a call from He Qiuzhu saying that everything was fine on her end too.

You're done!

Zhou Man didn't bother to notify everyone individually; instead, she announced the news directly in the QQ group: "Everyone has agreed, and I will notify everyone immediately when there is news about the house."

This QQ group was created today, based on the trouble that Zhou Man caused by calling each person individually.

If there is similar information that the family of four needs to share in the future, we can just notify them in the group, or even hold a remote meeting in the group.

"receive."

Shen Kang habitually replied with "Received".

He is now sitting in front of a computer, surrounded by smoke, with the constant clicking and banging of buttons.

This is an internet cafe called "E-Net All-Out". He was keeping his promise and came with Yin Mingyang to spend the whole night. As for the "slap slap slap" sounds all around, those were players of Audition Online attacking the space bar.

As soon as the "Received" message was sent, Shen Kang noticed his QQ name in the group chat box—Xuan Shuang Ye Ming · Meng Lei.

He quickly typed "General Manager Wang of AAA Building Materials Wholesale" on his fingertips.

As for his personal signature, he already changed it.

His previous QQ signature was "If you shed a tear, I will slaughter a city," which just stunned Shen Kang.

He never expected that he would become a "slaughtering city brother" so early; he was so trendy.

So I immediately changed a few words, and my current signature is "[For every drop of blood you lose, I draw two cards]", which feels much better and suits the temperament of Mr. Wang from AAA Building Materials Wholesale better...

"Operations Coordination Committee?"

A voice came from the side.

It was Yin Mingyang, who was turning his head to look at Shen Kang's screen.

As for the "Operations Coordination Committee" that Yin Mingyang mentioned, it was a name that Shen Kang collectively gave to their family of four.

"A game group." Shen Kang said calmly, and then closed the chat window.

Yin Mingyang said "Oh" and fell silent, only glancing at Shen Kang from time to time, looking as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

Shen Kang could tell that Yin Mingyang had something to say—of course, this kid hasn't even opened the game after five minutes of booting up the computer, there must be something wrong with him!

"Say whatever you want to say."

As Shen Kang spoke, he picked up a bottle of Gatorade and drank it.

Yin Mingyang looked at him, then mustered his courage: "Old Shen, are you being kept by someone?"

"puff!"

Shen Kang suddenly spat out the water in his mouth.

Luckily, he reacted quickly, turned his head, and sprayed the aisle instead of the computer.

"Cough cough..."

Shen Kang coughed several times to clear the water from his trachea, then turned his head, looking helpless: "What are you talking about?"

"I saw you get into an older woman's car this afternoon..."

Yin Mingyang recounted what he had seen that day, and finally pointed to the two packs of instant noodles, two sausages, and two bottles of iced tea on the table, beginning his concluding remarks: "If you earned the money yourself, you might certainly treat me, but you wouldn't buy two of everything!"

She then pointed to the Gatorade on Shen Kang's wrist, "Also, you used to drink Ice Dew, but now you drink Gatorade!"

"No, what do you mean? You look down on Ice Dew, don't you? They were the only designated water supplier for the Beijing Olympics!" Shen Kang thought to himself.

Yin Mingyang finally pointed to Shen Kang's short-sleeved shirt: "Lastly, it's this shirt of yours. I looked up the brand online this afternoon, it's called Versace, even a short-sleeved shirt costs several thousand yuan! You've only been working for a few days, how can you afford such expensive clothes?"

Shen Kang had a headache.

Everything else is easy to explain, but the short-sleeved shirt he's wearing is really hard to explain.

Zhou Man is a kind-hearted person. Perhaps she couldn't stand seeing him wearing that Dacron shirt every day, so she bought him two new clothes.

He noticed that the short-sleeved shirt was from Versace, a brand that is not well-known in China, so he wore it. Little did he know that Yin Mingyang not only witnessed what happened that afternoon, but also went online to search for related information.

"Everything is on the Internet" - Shen Kang never expected that his words to that old man would soon bounce back and hit him on the head.

"Uh... actually, the 'auntie' you mentioned is just a friend I recently met."

As agreed, the "mother-son relationship" could not be revealed, so Shen Kang racked his brains and began to make up a story: "She thought I had great potential and planned to invest in my business, and also gave me some money to improve my life."

Yin Mingyang sneered twice, completely disbelieving. "Invest in your startup? Do you think I'd believe something so absurd?"

The truth is actually even more outrageous.

Shen Kang mentally complained again, then said, "Believe it or not, you'll know it's true in a few days when I start my business."

Yin Mingyang snorted coldly, then earnestly advised, "Old Shen, this kind of thing is really bad. And judging from her age, she's probably married. If her husband finds out... those rich people might just have someone cripple you!"

Thinking of that, Yin Mingyang felt a chill run down his spine.

Upon hearing this, Shen Kang felt a warmth in his heart. It was his good friend who cared about him without any ulterior motives.

However, he really didn't know how to explain, so he could only say, "It's really not the kind of relationship you're thinking of. You'll see when I start my own business in a while. By the way, didn't you say you'd teach me to play DOTA? Hurry up and do it."

Yin Mingyang still didn't believe it, but there was nothing he could do for the time being, so he could only think of a way to persuade his good brother later.

Sigh, the adult world is too complicated. Old Shen is still too naive and thinks too simply. He can only try to come up with a solution himself.

"Old Shen, open Warcraft first. DOTA is the map in Warcraft. Let's play online together first, and I'll show you a few games against the computer to get familiar with it... You choose Heimerdinger, you know, the one with Heimerdinger on its face, yes, that's it. This hero is especially strong in the early game, but since you're new, you'll probably get slaughtered early on. I'll play Queen of Pain, which is a late-game hero, but I'm pretty good at it, so I can dominate early on..."

Ji Ba Lian, one of the three late-game heroes, became a great early-game hero in Yin Mingyang's words, while the early-game hero Queen of Pain became a great late-game hero. They are truly good brothers.

Shen Kang pretended not to know and made the selection as Yin Mingyang suggested.

Seeing Yin Mingyang having so much fun, I couldn't help but feel a pang of envy: I really envy this kid, he's so happy just playing a game. Unlike myself, I have to work hard to be with my rich mom, and these past few days I've been worrying about my startup project. In a few days, I'll have to move into a big villa. Sigh, what a life of toil...