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

As I stepped out of the Humanities Building, the sky was already tinged with a light orange-red.

Xu Wei didn't rush to leave; instead, she slowed down her pace.

The evening breeze blew through the sycamore leaves, lifting a few stray strands of hair from her forehead before gently falling back down.

The setting sun cast its rays on her profile, outlining a soft contour, even gilding her eyelashes with delicate gold.

"Ye Ming, you've been acting all mysterious lately, what have you been up to?"

Ye Ming turned his head to look at her.

Why is this girl so curious?

She was tilting her head slightly, her eyes sparkling in the sunset, and a lingering smile still graced her lips.

Standing in the orange-red light, she was dazzling, as if she had just stepped out of a painting.

Ye Ming was momentarily stunned.

This brat is so pretty, she's ruining my mind!

Ye Ming paused for a moment, remaining calm, before speaking: "I'm learning some programming and planning to make a personal website."

Xu Wei blinked: "A personal website? What's the use?"

"It's like building your own little house online." Ye Ming turned his gaze away from her face, his tone steadying. "You can put articles, pictures, and even some small tools here. If people come to see it, you'll get traffic."

"Data usage?" Xu Wei tilted her head, stray hairs brushing against her cheek. "What's the use of that?"

"Traffic can be monetized." Seeing her blank expression, Ye Ming rephrased it, "It means you can make money. If you leave your account running on Google Play, you get a few cents for every click. With a lot of traffic, you could potentially earn several thousand yuan a month."

Xu Wei's eyes lit up, and she suddenly realized, "I get it! It's like setting up a stall at school; the more people come to look, the more likely you are to sell things! The website is your online stall!"

Ye Ming nodded: "That's about right, that's what individual website owners do. I know a few senior students who did it before, and they could earn a few hundred yuan a month for pocket money."

Xu Wei stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled.

The smile bloomed in the sunset, bright and vibrant, even the passing evening breeze seemed to pause for a moment.

"Ye Ming, you're a really strange person."

Looking at her smiling face, Ye Ming suddenly felt a little dizzy.

You're the strangest one, why do I always feel so unsettled?

"What's strange about it?"

"We've just started university, and everyone's figuring out how to adapt to university life, how to make friends, and how to have fun. You, on the other hand, are already thinking about how to make money."

She paused, her tone earnest, "However, I really admire people like you. You know what you want, so you just go and do it."

Ye Ming didn't say anything.

Xu Wei rummaged through her bag and pulled out a plastic bag containing a few small cookies. She opened it and handed one to him.

"Lin Zhixia gave this to me this afternoon, let me try it. I can't finish it all by myself, so I'll share half with you."

Ye Ming took the cookie. When his fingertips touched hers, her fingertips were slightly cool, and he quickly withdrew them.

Ye Ming's heart was racing.

This girl is toxic, she's really toxic.

Xu Wei took a piece herself, took a bite, her cheeks puffed out slightly, and said indistinctly, "If your website really makes money, you have to treat our class committee to a meal. Chen Yu, Lin Zhixia, Zhang Jian, and me, the great guy, no one can be left out."

After she finished speaking, she lowered her head and continued eating her cookies, but a small patch of her ears turned slightly red.

Her heart skipped a beat the moment her fingertips touched the back of his hand. She didn't dare look at him, and didn't know if he had noticed.

Ye Ming paused for a moment: "It's not even close to being a done deal yet."

"You still have to order in advance." Xu Wei stuffed the remaining cookies back into her bag, looked up at him, and smiled with her eyes crinkling. "Anyway, I remember, Ye Bapi owes us a meal."

The evening breeze blew again, and the sycamore leaves rustled a few times.

The setting sun bathed her in its light, casting a flowing glow on her long hair. Standing in the orange-red light and shadow, she was as vibrant as a dancing flame.

Ye Ming watched her turn and wave goodbye as her skirt fluttered gently in the wind before falling back down.

He glanced down at the cookie in his hand, then looked up at her back, put the cookie in his mouth, and walked towards the dormitory.

It was evening.

Ye Ming pushed open the door to dormitory 204 of Taoyuan Dormitory 7.

Chen Mo was sitting at his desk flipping through a professional book when he heard the noise. He immediately looked up and joked with a smile.

"Class monitor, you're finally back? Xu Wei was waiting for you downstairs at noon, and we saw it all from the dorm."

Zhou Lei was curled up in his chair playing CrossFire.

The speakers emitted game sound effects such as "Fire in the hole!" and "Go! Go! Go!", mixed with the gunshots of AK47s.

Without turning his head, he muttered casually, "Always running around, I wonder what he's busy with."

Lin Hao lay on the upper bunk, facing the wall.

The faint light from his phone screen illuminated his face as he engaged in a deep conversation, a faint smile playing on his lips. When Ye Ming entered, he didn't even lift his eyelids, continuing to reply to messages rapidly.

Ye Ming put down his schoolbag.

Chen Mo leaned closer curiously: "You've been acting all mysterious these past few days, what have you been up to?"

"I'm learning some programming and planning to make a website," Ye Ming replied calmly, his tone utterly unwavering.

Chen Mo looked surprised: "A liberal arts student learning programming? That's quite a leap for you."

Zhou Lei had just finished a game, took off his headphones, turned around, and sneered: "Liberal arts students learning programming? What if you fail your major courses before you even understand how to write the code? It's not worth it."

Lin Hao didn't even look up the whole time, completely absorbed in his own conversation.

Ye Ming ignored the reactions of those around him and sat down at his desk.

I opened the book "Web Front-end and Back-end Infrastructure" and my fingertips landed on the pages filled with code and notes.

On another open notebook, the architectural draft of "Rebirth Simulator" has filled three whole pages.

In the dormitory, the sound of Chen Mo turning pages, Zhou Lei firing a gun, and Lin Hao's soft laughter mingled together, forming the most ordinary background sounds of a university night.

Before Ye Ming lay another silent and vast world, composed of code and logic.

"Beep beep—beep beep!"

Ye Ming picked up the Nokia N95 and took a look.

"Ye the Skinflint, I know you've been busy lately, so I'll let you off the hook. If you really need anything, just let me know. After all, I've taken this upon myself to be a good Samaritan!"

Ye Ming looked at the screen and lightly rubbed his fingertip against the edge of the phone.

Well, she hasn't even returned the "good guy" card yet, and she's already welded it back on herself.

He put down his phone and opened the book "Website Design and Web Application Development Technology" on the table—recommended by his senior classmate Li Yue that afternoon, who said the book covered the entire web development process and was more systematic than reading tutorials in bits and pieces.

The bookmark is in Chapter 5, "Fundamentals of Dynamic Web Page Technology".

He turned to that chapter, his gaze landing on the Apache configuration section. He felt he understood it when the senior student explained it in the computer lab during the day, but now, alone with the book, he felt a sense of unease.

He picked up a red pen, circled "Virtual Host Configuration," and put a question mark next to it.

He read a few more lines, including a section on the "HTTP request-response flow," which he read twice but still didn't quite understand. He drew an asterisk at the beginning of the paragraph in red pen and wrote two words next to it: Ask again.

His notebook lay open beside him, filled with code snippets he had jotted down during the day. He compared the examples in the book with his notes, then added two lines of comments in red pen.

Senior Zhang Yuan is right; it's better to type out code once than to read it ten times. It's a pity I haven't bought a computer yet, so I can only run it in my head.

Moonlight streamed in through the window, falling on the pages of the book and illuminating the red pen marks.

He turned another page and continued reading.