Reborn not to be a beast of burden, I set the rules.

When Ye Ming arrived at the computer room, Li Yue and Zhang Yuan were already there.

Several computers were on, their screens casting light on the wall.

Ye Ming put down his schoolbag and pulled up a chair to sit down.

"I asked Dean Li of our college for help with the filing yesterday, so it should be done soon."

Li Yue paused for a moment, then turned her head. "So fast? Last time you said twenty working days."

"I asked someone to urge them on."

Zhang Yuan placed the cup on the table. He glanced at Ye Ming and, unusually, spoke up, "You really know how to get things moving. I thought this was something we could only wait for."

Ye Ming said, "There's no major problem. Let's prepare according to this schedule."

Li Yue moved her chair forward a bit. "Okay. I'll urge Lin Ting on the UI side to finalize the design draft as soon as possible."

Zhang Yuan turned back and placed his fingers on the keyboard. "The forum interface should be working by the weekend."

Ye Ming nodded. "We'll prepare in the next few days. Once the registration is complete, it can go live, and we should be able to catch up with the Baidu Alliance."

He paused, then said, "The framework for the Workshop is also set up. It's the one where players write and upload their own events. Let's create an entry point in the forum first. Once the framework is done, I'll write a few pieces of content, and we'll test them out."

Li Yue paused for a moment, then quickly realized: "Okay, that's not complicated, we'll do it together with the forum API."

Zhang Yuan pressed the Enter key.

The door was pushed open.

Xu Wei walked in, followed by Lin Zhixia and Ruan Xing.

Xu Wei wore a royal blue knit sweater, with a section of a white T-shirt peeking out from the neckline. She wore a pleated mini-skirt, the hem just past her knees, revealing a glimpse of her shapely calves. Her skin was radiantly white, like warmed porcelain.

Ruan Xing wore a loose, off-white sweatshirt and light blue denim shorts. Her legs were slender, straight, and fair, like freshly washed lotus roots.

Lin Zhixia followed behind quietly.

Ye Ming looked up.

The royal blue color made Xu Wei look radiant. Ruan Xing's legs were dazzlingly white.

His gaze swept over the two of them, wanting to take another look, but afraid of being caught if he looked too much.

My heart skipped a beat, then I calmed it down.

These two girls are only eighteen years old, and they have such good looks that they'd look good even if you put a burlap sack over them.

Xu Wei put her bag on the table, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

Ye Ming suddenly stood up, walked around the table, and stood in front of her.

Upon seeing this, Xu Wei tensed up and her breathing became rapid.

"How's the event database coming along?" Ye Ming asked.

Xu Wei relaxed, rolled her eyes, and said with a hint of coquettishness on her bright face, "Ye the Skinflint, all you do is exploit us. A few beautiful young women are standing here, and you don't even glance at us?"

Ruan Xing, standing next to him, paused for a moment without looking up.

Lin Zhixia pursed her lips, then looked down and turned on her computer.

Li Yue lifted her fingers off the keyboard, leaned back in her chair, and pricked up her ears.

Ye Ming looked away and said, "Don't interrupt. Let's get down to business."

"Is this the first thing you ask me as soon as I arrive?" Xu Wei stared at him. "You wrote 500 entries during the National Day holiday, and then rushed to write over 300 more on the 7th. You've accumulated another 400 or so in the last few days. Now you have around 1,300."

"That's enough," Ye Ming said. "Let's use 500 at the start, and release the rest in batches."

"Besides, you're the number two in our team, so of course I have to rely on you." Ye Ming paused for a moment, lowering his voice by half a beat.

"The number two?" Xu Wei's voice was a little unsteady, her fingers tracing the edge of the table. "When did I become the number two?"

"Didn't I tell you on the phone yesterday?" Ye Ming didn't look at her, but looked down at his notebook, "In the ranking of core members for the Challenge Cup, you're ranked after me."

Xu Wei stared at him for two seconds. Was that what he meant on the phone? She hadn't listened carefully yesterday. The tips of her ears turned red, and she turned her face away.

"Alright, alright, I understand." Her voice was a little lower than before as her fingers touched the keyboard.

"By the way, categorize these events," Ye Ming said. "Campus-themed, workplace-themed, relationship-themed, and imaginative-themed. Organize them before they go live."

Xu Wei looked up at him, then lowered her head again. "Okay."

Ye Ming lowered his head, suddenly leaned close to her ear, and whispered, "Thank you so much, Mr. Xu, for helping to expedite the filing yesterday. You really helped a lot."

Xu Wei froze. Warm breath brushed against her earlobe, her fingers gripped the edge of the table tightly, and her heart pounded as if it would jump out of her chest.

A tingling, numb sensation spread from the tips of my ears all the way down to my cheeks.

She opened her mouth, as if to say something, but her throat felt blocked by something.

Ye Ming straightened up and turned to walk back.

Xu Wei stared at his back, bit her lip, feeling weak all over and having no will to compete.

Ye Ming stood up and walked straight to Ruan Xing's side.

Ruan Xing was staring blankly at the screen, still thinking, "Xu Wei is number two, so what number am I?"

"How's the material preparation going?" Ye Ming asked.

Ruan Xing snapped out of her daze and opened the folder.

"I worked on it until 2 a.m. last night, and it's basically all done."

Ye Ming bent down and leaned closer to the screen, opened the application form, and flipped through it.

He frowned slightly, then clicked on the book's synopsis, read a few lines, and remained silent.

"What's wrong?" Ruan Xing asked, leaning closer.

"It's too wordy," Ye Ming said. "The judges look for the highlights, not how hard you worked. Put the innovative points first, and just briefly mention the technical solutions."

He paused, then added, "Get up, I'll change."

Ruan Xing was stunned for a moment, then quickly stood up and moved aside.

Ye Ming sat down in her seat and placed his fingers on the keyboard.

After reviewing the application form, revising the work introduction, and going through the project description again, I finally understood the process.

He kept revising and talking, his fingers never stopping, the keyboard clattering away.

"The team's division of labor is too detailed; cut it in half. Put the instructor's information at the beginning."

She couldn't get involved; she could only watch.

He can modify things faster than he usually types code.

It was all completed in less than twenty minutes.

"Alright."

Ruan Xing read it through from beginning to end.

The application materials were written neatly, logically clear, and of much higher quality.

"How come you changed things so quickly?" She looked up at him.

If you've been writing documents in an office for sixteen years, you can revise them very quickly too.

Ye Ming did not respond.

"Print it out and we'll get Teacher Liu to sign it."

The two went downstairs to print the documents and then headed towards the college building with them.

In his office, Teacher Liu took the materials, glanced through them, and found the application to be concise, well-organized, accurate in wording, and appropriately detailed. He immediately signed it.

"Is Dean Li not here today?" Ye Ming asked.

Teacher Liu looked up: "He went out and won't be back until this afternoon. Submit your materials to the school's Youth League Committee first, and I'll report to him later."

As Ruan Xing left the office, she clutched the documents tightly.

"I'll deliver it to the school's Youth League Committee; you go back first."

Ye Ming glanced at her in surprise.

"You haven't finished the code you were working on yesterday yet," Ruan Xing added. "Besides, didn't Dean Li already give you instructions?"

Ye Ming didn't say much and handed her the materials.

"Okay, message me if you have any questions."

Ruan Xing took the materials and turned to walk towards the school's Youth League Committee.

Her steps were light and quick, her stray hairs were blown by the wind, revealing her smooth forehead.

The backpack also contained a laptop, which was heavy and pressed down on my shoulders.

When she arrived at the entrance of the school's Youth League Committee, she took a deep breath and pushed the door open to go inside.

Two people were sitting in the office. The younger one was on the phone, and the older one, in his forties, wore glasses and had a stack of documents spread out on his desk. Ruan Xing walked over to his desk and handed him the documents.

"Teacher, the materials for the supplementary selection of the Challenge Cup by the School of Humanities."

The teacher took the document, glanced at it, and frowned. "The deadline for the supplementary selection was last week. Why are you only submitting it now?"

Ruan Xing's heart skipped a beat.

Didn't Dean Li already give instructions?

She was stunned for a moment, but quickly regained her composure.

"Teacher, this project is finished." She put down her bag, took out her laptop, opened it, and turned to face the teacher. "You'll see once you play a game."

The teacher paused for a moment and glanced at her.

Ruan Xing had already opened the game, and the screen showed the initial interface of "Rebirth Simulator".

She pushed the computer towards the teacher.

The teacher hesitated for a moment, then clicked "Start a New Life." She randomly assigned a few attributes and clicked through them.

After playing a few rounds, he put down the mouse and leaned back in his chair.

"The completion rate is indeed quite high. When will it be available online?"

"The game has been successfully tested, and the personal ICP filing is being expedited. It will be launched soon."

The teacher flipped through the materials on the table again; the application form, recommendation letters, and team member list were all complete.

He looked up at the game interface on the screen, then at Ruan Xing.

"Did students from the School of Humanities make this?"

"It was a joint effort between the School of Humanities and the Computer Science Association, with technical solutions overseen by Professor Zhang Bingwen from the School of Computer Science."

The teacher nodded, gathered the materials together, picked up the stamp, and stamped it.

"Okay, all the materials are ready. Here, keep this copy for your records. Go back and wait for further instructions."

Ruan Xing's eyes lit up. She took the materials and bowed, saying, "Thank you, teacher."

After leaving the school's Youth League Committee, she jogged all the way to the Computer Association's computer lab. Leaning against the door frame, she caught her breath, her eyes bright and her cheeks flushed, and said to Ye Ming, "I submitted the materials, and the teacher said to just wait for further notice."

Ye Ming looked up at Ruan Xing and smiled, "Thank you for your hard work, classmate. Once I'm done here, we'll go to the hotel together."