I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

After talking with Shen Kang, Jiang Yateng returned to his small dormitory, looking like a dedicated employee who couldn't wait to get back to work. It was enough to make working people sigh and capitalists weep.

Shen Kang sat in the living room, watching this scene, and felt like crying—taking the initiative to come up with solutions, improving them, and now being so eager to get to work, is this still a college student?

Previously, he only treated Jiang Yateng as an ordinary classmate, but judging from Jiang Yateng's performance today, he is a talent!

This plan for using secondhand teaching materials can be put into practice by Jiang Yateng first.

If Jiang Yateng not only has great ideas but also strong execution skills, then that would be a huge gain. Most importantly, Jiang Yateng is only a freshman and has a lot of potential. If he has good talent and receives further training, he will definitely be a valuable asset to our team.

Thinking this, Shen Kang got up and went back to his small dormitory.

……

The door to Jiang Yateng's small dormitory, which was originally open, was now ajar.

Jiang Yateng pushed open the door and went inside. The three people were already in the small dormitory room.

On the upper bunk of the table by the window, Gao Ming was leaning against the headboard, flipping through a rented martial arts novel. The cover of the book was wrinkled, as if it had been soaked in water and then dried.

Zhang Chaoyang, who was in the lower bunk, was sitting at the table, playing Warcraft III on the computer. On the screen, a group of human infantry were being ganged up on by orcs. He clicked his tongue and typed rapidly and loudly on the keyboard.

At the table near the door, Liang Xuyang was listening to music with headphones on. The headphones were leaking sound, and from a distance, you could hear a male singer belting out something like "I'll love you even if I die."

The three of them went about their own business, and no one looked up at him.

Jiang Yateng didn't say anything. He walked to his seat, tossed the bag of sunflower seeds he was holding onto the corner of the table, and pressed the Enter key to wake up his laptop. The screen lit up, and the icon in the lower right corner flashed incessantly.

He clicked on it and saw that "Crimson Snow"'s avatar was flashing.

It's that message from just now—"Why aren't you online?"

After telling Fei Hongxiangxue what had happened with Shen Kang, Jiang Yateng chatted for a while about the local customs and culture of Yangcheng, and his mood improved considerably.

He closed the chat window, leaned back in his chair, and stared at the ceiling for a while, his mind still replaying what Shen Kang had told him—the agency plan, the pilot program at the university, closed-loop data, and the deadline before the end of winter break.

He reached for the bag of sunflower seeds on the corner of the table, wanting to open it and crack a few seeds to calm the churning thoughts in his mind. Before his hand even touched the bag, he heard a voice behind him.

"Oh, Mr. Jiang is back?"

It's Zhang Chaoyang.

He finished the game, and the score on the screen showed a crushing defeat. He didn't rush to quit. Instead, he turned around, put one arm on the back of the chair, and looked at Jiang Yateng with a grin.

"What, Mr. Jiang?" Jiang Yateng's hand stopped on the sunflower seed bag, without turning around.

"Didn't you just come back from reporting to General Manager Shen? Then you must be General Manager Jiang, right?" Zhang Chaoyang's tone was clearly sarcastic.

They had heard Jiang Yateng and Shen Kang talking in the living room, and they had left the open door slightly ajar, clearly annoyed by the conversation.

After saying that, Zhang Chaoyang winked at Gao Ming on the opposite bed.

Gao Ming lifted his eyelids from the martial arts novel, glanced at Jiang Yateng, and didn't say anything, but the slight curve of his lips made his meaning very clear.

Jiang Yateng took the bag of sunflower seeds, tore it open, and popped one into his mouth with a crisp crack.

"I just went over and chatted for a while, nothing like a work report."

"Chatting?" Zhang Chaoyang stood up, walked behind Jiang Yateng, put one hand on the back of his chair, and gestured in the air with the other hand. "You're carrying a bag of sunflower seeds and talking to people in the living room for ages about websites and promotions. Is that what you call chatting? Old Jiang, why don't you ever bring sunflower seeds when you chat with us? We bought those sunflower seeds together at the supermarket last week, didn't we? I remember you said you were saving them for the New Year."

Jiang Yateng choked for a moment, his action of cracking sunflower seeds paused for a second.

"I didn't..." He paused, "it was just a spur-of-the-moment decision. I couldn't just go to someone's dorm empty-handed, could I?"

"Oh, you can come to our dorm empty-handed, but you can't go to President Shen's dorm empty-handed." Zhang Chaoyang clicked his tongue twice, then spread his hands towards Gao Ming and Liang Xuyang. "Brothers, you think about it, you think it over carefully."

Gao Ming didn't speak, but turned a page of the martial arts novel. However, he was clearly distracted while turning the page, his eyes still glancing towards Jiang Yateng.

Liang Xuyang was wearing headphones the whole time, but his headphones leaked sound so badly that he could hear the conversations outside clearly.

Liang Xuyang hesitated for a moment, took off his headphones, turned around, and spoke in a gentler tone than Zhang Chaoyang, but the meaning was not much different: "Ya Teng, honestly, aren't you tired of always going to Shen Kang's place?"

Jiang Yateng spat the sunflower seed shells onto a piece of scrap paper on the table, turned around, and looked at Liang Xuyang.

"What's tiring?"

"Well..." Liang Xuyang carefully chose his words. He wasn't one to say harsh things, but sometimes, the things he said were the most hurtful. "Don't you think it's a bit... too much?"

He didn't say which one "that" was, but everyone present understood.

Zhang Chaoyang was much more direct. He plopped down on the corner of Jiang Yateng's table, tilting the bag of sunflower seeds. Jiang Yateng reached out to steady it, glared at him, but he didn't seem to care.

"Old Jiang, let me be frank. We all know Shen Kang is rich. Bentley, driver, young master Shen. But what does that have to do with you? His family's wealth is their business; you can't inherit their surname. You're always following him around like a servant, are you getting paid?"

"We haven't been paid," Jiang Yateng said.

"Then that's settled!" Zhang Chaoyang slammed his hand on the table. "Working for free? What are you after? Let me tell you, I have a friend in my high school classmates' group chat whose family owns a factory and is worth tens of millions. I still roast him in the group chat, saying whatever I want. We all have two shoulders and one head, who's more lowly than whom?"

Zhang Chaoyang said this with great satisfaction and pride.

Jiang Yateng did not respond.

He cracked open a sunflower seed, making a crunching sound, his expression unreadable.

Zhang Chaoyang, thinking he had taken it to heart, added fuel to the fire: "And honestly, do you really think Shen Kang is interested in you? He might just see you as a gofer. You're pouring your heart out here, but when he's drinking with his real friends, he might even joke about you—'There's this guy in my class named Jiang who comes to my place every day, I can't get rid of him,' you believe it or not?"

Jiang Yateng stopped eating sunflower seeds again. This time, he paused for a little longer than before.

But he quickly recovered, accurately spitting the sunflower seed shells onto the waste paper and patting the crumbs off his hands.

"I believe what you're saying," he said.

Zhang Chaoyang was taken aback. He hadn't expected Jiang Yateng to admit it so readily, and all his prepared follow-up attacks were stuck in his throat. He could only stammer, "Then what are you after?"

Jiang Yateng did not answer immediately.

He leaned back in his chair, his mind filled with thoughts of the Heavenly Daoist.

That legendary player who commanded the world of World of Warcraft, that calm and collected raid leader who could direct forty people through voice chat, that loyal older brother who would fly to their rescue the moment someone was killed.

Then there's the unemployed graduate who joked in the group chat that he "has money but doesn't know where to give it away."

The two images overlapped, sending a chill down his spine.

He then thought of "Happy Hoeing the Land"—a terrible newbie in the game, who was like a handful of dirt under the sun, not worth mentioning.

But on the afternoon the expert fell from grace, this newbie casually remarked, "Want to try e-commerce? 6,000 a month or more." The expert went, had a welcome dinner at a five-star hotel, and when he returned to organize a group buy, he called that person "Big Brother."

Jiang Yateng witnessed the entire incident firsthand.

He didn't just hear about it, or read the story online; he personally witnessed it, word by word, while he was in that group.

He wondered then if he would become a Heavenly Daoist four years later.

His family had no mines, no factories, and no relatives who were "happy-go-lucky" enough to work the land. His father ran a small hardware store in their hometown, earning just enough to pay for his schooling. His mother was a primary school teacher with a stable but meager salary. Who would he rely on when he graduated?

Taking the postgraduate entrance exam? Taking the civil service exam? Resumes disappear without a trace, interviews are met with rejection, and finally, carrying a cardboard box, I walk out of the dormitory and stand at the school gate, not knowing which way to go?

The Heavenly Daoist had already rehearsed this scene for him.

Fortunately, he had Shen Kang by his side.

It wasn't some vague "it's said that a certain alumnus has a big shot" kind of person, but rather Shen Kang, who lived on the same floor as him, could talk to him face-to-face, and had already done several real things for him.

If I let someone go because of some bullshit reason like "college students can't flatter," then on graduation day, I won't even have a chance to cry.

Jiang Yateng went over these words in his mind, but didn't say them aloud.

He shares a dorm room with Zhang Chaoyang, Gao Ming, and Liang Xuyang, and they'll be living together for over three more years. There's no need to make such a fuss over something like this. Besides, what they said isn't entirely unreasonable. To the average college student, Jiang Yateng's current behavior is nothing short of sycophancy.

They just had never seen a Heavenly Daoist.

You can't understand it if you haven't seen it.

Jiang Yateng finished cracking the last sunflower seed, clapped his hands, and stood up.

"I wanted him to play games with me."

Jiang Yateng said this.

Zhang Chaoyang was taken aback: "Huh?"

"Shen Kang is pretty good at World of Warcraft." Jiang Yateng said without changing his expression. "I haven't been able to climb the Arena rank lately, so I wanted him to carry me. Okay, I'm going to wash my face."

Zhang Chaoyang opened his mouth, momentarily unable to tell whether Jiang Yateng was telling the truth or making it up. He turned to look at Gao Ming, who also looked bewildered. Liang Xuyang put his headphones back on, but turned the volume down, and the next song from Xin could be faintly heard through the leaky sound.

As Jiang Yateng walked to the door, Zhang Chaoyang's voice came from behind him: "Wait a minute, you really want him to play World of Warcraft with you?"

"Really." Jiang Yateng said without turning his head.

What profession does he play?

"Warlock".

"How many points?"

"Ask him yourself."

Jiang Yateng left the dormitory, walked through the living room, went into the bathroom, turned on the tap, and splashed a handful of cold water on his face.

Water dripped down his chin. He looked up at himself in the mirror and suddenly remembered the message that Fei Hong Xiang Xue had once sent him.

"It's not about truly falling in love with him, but about interacting with him as if you were in love with him."

What is it like to love someone?

You'll try to understand his needs, pay attention to his emotions, and know what he wants before he even speaks. Everything you do will make him feel natural, comfortable, and unforced. You won't stand in front of him and shout, "I'm so good to you," you'll simply let him feel your presence in the details.

Just like Zhang Chaoyang did to Ji Feiyan.

Jiang Yateng knew that Zhang Chaoyang was saying in private that he was practically Shen Kang's dog.

However, in Jiang Yateng's view, Zhang Chaoyang was actually like Ji Feiyan's dog.

Moreover, not all dogs are the same.

Zhang Chaoyang has been licking Ji Feiyan's boots for a whole semester, spending a lot of his spare change on her, buying her breakfast, treating her to meals, buying her small gifts, and sending her text messages every day to check on her well-being. But what has happened?

Nothing arrived.

Zhang Chaoyang has never even held Ji Feiyan's hand.

And what about him fawning over Shen Kang?

Today I've already achieved some results—I've roughly become the project leader for Shen Kang's secondhand textbook project on Huanhuan.com.

If I do a good job, maybe when we graduate, Zhang Chaoyang and the others will still be struggling to find jobs, while I'll already be "General Manager Jiang" interviewing them.

It's even possible that they aren't even qualified to have themselves interviewed.

Even if the secondhand textbook business fails, Shen Kang still has so many businesses and such a large fortune. How could he possibly go hungry?

So, what's wrong with being a dog?

As for Zhang Chaoyang, who was mocking him, Jiang Yateng really wanted to tell him, "Since you're going to be a dog anyway, you might as well be a dog for Shen Kang than for Ji Feiyan."

However, these kinds of thoughts are only meant to be thought in one's mind; they definitely cannot be spoken aloud, or a fight might break out.

Jiang Yateng took out a tissue from his pocket, wiped his face, crumpled the tissue into a ball, threw it into the trash can, and pushed open the bathroom door to walk back.

As he passed through the living room, he glanced at the empty sofa and the off television.

Not long ago, he was sitting here talking to Shen Kang about "offline counterattacks against online." Shen Kang leaned back on the wooden sofa, tapping his fingers as he listened to him finish, and then said, "It can be done. You draft the plan." Zhang Chaoyang and the others would never understand the weight of those words.

He pushed open the door and returned to his dormitory. Zhang Chaoyang had already started a new game of Warcraft, Gao Ming was still reading martial arts novels, and Liang Xuyang had changed the song in his headphones. This time it was a female singer, but he couldn't make out what she was singing.

Jiang Yateng sat back down at the table, opened a blank document, and typed a few words in the title bar.

"Pilot Program for Cross-University Textbook Circulation - A Case Study of the University of Technology of China"

The cursor is blinking at the end of the title.

He stared at the screen for a while, then opened QQ, found the profile picture of Scarlet Fragrance, and sent a message.

"I've thought about the main point you mentioned, and I think I understand it."

A smiley face quickly replied, "Tell me about it."

Jiang Yateng typed: "It's about making the other person feel that being around you is a comfortable and natural thing. It's not about you deliberately trying to please them, but about you being on the same wavelength as them."

Scarlet Snow: "That's roughly the idea. It seems you really understand."

Jiang Yateng looked at the line of text, smiled, closed the chat window, and began writing the proposal.

Behind him, Gao Ming turned a page of a martial arts novel, the paper rustling as it went.

Liang Xuyang changed the song, and this time the sound leaked so loudly that the whole dormitory could hear it; it was "Stubborn".

Zhang Chaoyang's base was razed to the ground once again. He cursed, "How disgusting are these orcs?" and pounded his keyboard.

Then, instead of starting a new game, I stopped on this screen, thought for a moment, switched to the desktop, opened the QQ account that was running, and looked around.

Soon, they found "General Manager Wang of AAA Building Materials Wholesale" in the list.

Zhang Chaoyang did not add a note to Shen Kang's contact, which was consistent with Zhang Chaoyang's style—he felt that those who were specially noted must be important people.

For example, Zhang Chaoyang gave Ji Feiyan the nickname "Yan Yan".

To have a special note in Zhang Chaoyang's contacts is an honor—this is Zhang Chaoyang's underlying thought. Although he himself is unaware of it, it is indeed hidden in his subconscious and he acts accordingly.

Therefore, his high school classmate, whose family had tens of millions in assets, was not noted, nor was Shen Kang—what did their wealth have to do with him?

But now, it seems to be something that concerns me.

Judging from Jiang Yateng's words, Shen Kang seems to be a master of World of Warcraft, the kind who can carry others to higher ranks.

Zhang Chaoyang sent a message to General Manager Wang of AAA Building Materials Wholesale: "Shen Kang, I heard you're incredibly strong in PvP?"

Shen Kang was also online and replied quickly.

"Yeah, what's wrong?"

"I always get kited by mages in PvP, don't you have any complaints?"

Shen Kang didn't respond for a while, seemingly deep in thought.

In fact, at this moment, in front of the computer in the next dormitory, Shen Kang looked at the word "mage" and thought to himself, "Another player who switched from World of Warcraft. He must have heard that there are a lot of girls in this game, so he came here to pick up girls."

Shen Kang had also encountered players who switched from World of Warcraft referring to Wudang as mages.

After saying "mage," they'll often add, "Sorry, I've played too much World of Warcraft, so I always like to talk about mages." If they're talkative, they'll follow up with a few more sentences, such as, "Compared to World of Warcraft, the PvP in this game is too easy, there's not much skill involved," or "When I used to play World of Warcraft, this and that..."

Shen Kang was just waiting for Zhang Chaoyang to say something like that.

As it turned out, after waiting for a while, Zhang Chaoyang didn't say anything.

Fine, if you don't want to say, then don't.

Shen Kang didn't wait any longer and started typing away, giving his suggestions.

Mr. Wang, General Manager of AAA Building Materials Wholesale: "Then you can change the stones first. Replace the rubies with cat's eye stones; if your accuracy isn't high enough, your attacks will be too unstable. Upgrade your weapon to level four; don't be stingy with that little bit of gold."