Rebirth 02, the Celestial Being Told Me to Stop Pretending

Li Lu was the first to discover Liu Yifei's blog.

"Mr. Lu, Ms. Liu has posted a blog."

Lu Chen opened his blog.

The first thing I saw was a photo of an ice pop and a sausage.

The composition is terrible, and the lighting is off. Unlike the meticulously edited posts on Weibo by celebrities in later generations, Liu Yifei here looks like an ordinary girl squatting on a street in Northeast China eating, giving off a very real and relatable vibe.

It garnered 50,000 views in ten minutes.

The comments section is completely different from Zhang Guorong's.

"The way the fairy sister eats popsicles is so cute! Ahhhhh!"

"Ice City? What would Yifei do in Ice City?"

"Even a military overcoat can't hide Faye Wong's beauty."

"Ice popsicles with sausage? What kind of monstrosity is that, hahaha!"

Who is Wu Zhizhen?

"Upstairs, Wu Zhizhen is the female lead in Director Lu's new movie."

"So Yifei is experiencing life? That's really going all out!"

Within half an hour, the number of views exceeded 200,000.

Lu Chen rested his chin on his hand and looked at the girl in the photo for a while, then picked up his phone and sent a text message to Liu Yifei.

"I saw your blog. Is the red sausage tasty?"

Two seconds later, she replied: "Delicious. But after eating it, my burps smelled strongly of garlic."

Lu Chen looked at the text message and couldn't help but laugh.

You're just too cute.

He sent another message: "Where's the popsicle?"

"My head hurts after eating. But I still want to eat more."

"Then I'll buy another one."

"I've already bought it. One of the guys said I'm a tiger."

Lu Chen was a little puzzled. What tiger?

It took me a while to realize that they were probably saying I was being reckless.

Lu Chen placed his phone on the table, screen facing up.

Li Lu stood to the side, watching the backend data continue to rise.

"Mr. Lu, Ms. Liu's blog post has already surpassed the readership of many celebrities."

"Um."

"She seems... to be born for this."

Lu Chen didn't reply.

He looked at the photo on the screen: popsicles, sausages, military overcoats, and cobblestone roads.

A seventeen-year-old girl squatted on a street in Northeast China, her mouth glistening with oil from eating, her nose red from the cold.

"Li Lu".

"Um?"

"Put Liu Yifei's blog on the homepage's featured section. The title should be 'Wu Zhizhen in Harbin'."

At 11 p.m., Lu Chen pushed open the door to the server room.

The server room was buzzing, the air conditioning was on full blast, and there was a distinctive smell of electronic components in the air.

Lu Jianguo was still inside, squatting in front of a row of server racks, holding a multimeter and testing something.

A sweat stain clung to the back of his shirt. The server crisis during the day had taken its toll on him; the newly added machines had just gotten going, and he was still conducting final stress tests.

"dad."

Lu Jianguo turned his head.

"Still here? What are you doing?"

"Add another layer of Redis. Zhang Guorong's blog post today brought the cache hit rate to 87%, I'll optimize it a bit more."

Lu Chen leaned against the door frame, watching his father's back.

He's over fifty years old, squatting in front of the server rack adjusting parameters, he can endure more than the programmers in their early twenties in the company.

"dad."

"Um?"

"When you were selling building materials, did you ever imagine that one day you'd be sitting in a server room configuring Redis?"

Lu Jianguo didn't even look up.

"When you were making movies, did you ever imagine that one day you'd be sitting in a server room watching your dad debug Redis?"

Lu Chen paused for a moment, then waved his hand.

"I put you in management, not in these kinds of jobs. Can't you leave these things to the professionals?"

"It's not on the right track yet, I'm not at ease. Let's talk about it later."

Building material merchants have always preferred to do things themselves.

"Okay, then take care of yourself."

Lu Jianguo waved his hand and said nothing more.

Lu Chen turned and walked out of the server room, standing in the corridor, looking out the window at the growing city.

In 2004, Wangjing was half construction site and half wasteland. Ten years later, it will be the most expensive office building area in Beijing.

A week after the blog went live, Lu Chen held another product meeting at the company.

This time, the theme is coordinate video.

The meeting room was mostly filled with the same people, except for Shen Yulan, the person in charge of coordinate video, and Liu Yi, the main architect.

Liu Yi is Li Lu's friend. He has a master's degree in computer science and just flew back from the United States three days ago.

After receiving an invitation from my friend Li Lu, and also wanting to go back to China for a visit, I joined the company.

"We won't do UGC, we'll do PGC plus copyrighted content." Lu Chen wrote three letters on the whiteboard.

What we want to do is create online movie theaters.

Xiao Chen raised his hand: "So, will we continue with UGC in the future?"

"Do it. But not now. First, create high-quality content to satisfy users, then start UGC."

After the meeting, Lu Chen kept Shen Yulan behind alone.

"Mom, act quickly. Negotiate all the film and television rights you can within three months."

Shen Yulan patted the leather notebook in her hand.

"I remember it all."

She was almost at the door, a hint of unease on her face.

"Son, there's something I'd like to discuss with you."

Lu Chen found it a little strange to see his mother like this: "What is it? Please tell me."

"Yes, that's your uncle's kid, Xiaohu, you remember him, right?"

Lu Chen thought for a moment.

Shen Minghu, a year younger than him, used to follow the original owner around calling him "brother, brother" when they were little.

He later joined the army and didn't see the original owner for several years.

"I remember. What's wrong?"

"Xiao Hu couldn't stay in the army and was discharged. He's been at home for over two months now, with nothing to do." Shen Yulan paused, "Your uncle heard that you started a company and wants to find Xiao Hu some work."

Lu Chen wasn't surprised. After all, it's normal to ask relatives for favors, especially the original owner's maternal uncle.

In the original owner's memory, his uncle was an honest farmer who gave up his studies for his younger sister Shen Yulan and got married later than his sister.

After Shen Yulan graduated, she found a good husband in the city and got a job there. He was the happiest person in the family.

Later, when his sister and brother-in-law's family became successful in business, he never tried to curry favor with them. He not only never asked his sister for anything, but he also rarely visited their villa.

Every time I come, I say I'm not used to it. I guess I wouldn't have asked for this if it weren't for my son.

Thinking of this, Lu Chen looked at Shen Yulan.

"Did Xiaohu himself say what he wanted to do?"

"Xiao Hu said... he'll drive you, run errands for you, do anything, he's willing to do anything."

Lu Chen nodded.

"Have him come to the company tomorrow. Right now, I need someone I know well by my side."

Shen Yulan's eyes lit up for a moment, then she hesitated.

"Son, I'm just asking for Xiaohu. If it's inconvenient for you..."

"Mom, Xiaohu is my cousin, and you're his aunt." Lu Chen held Shen Yulan's hand. "You're being too polite with me."

Upon hearing this, Shen Yulan immediately beamed with joy.

"Oh, alright, don't be shy. I'll call your uncle right now and have Xiaohu come over."

Lu Chen stopped Shen Yulan from taking out her phone. "Mom, the company will only grow bigger and bigger, and I'll have more and more things to do. Xiaohu is one of us, I can trust him. I feel at ease with him by my side, and you can too."

Shen Yulan's eyes were a little red.

"Son, you're right. We're family, and we can trust each other."

Yes. Family.

With tears welling up in her eyes, Shen Yulan continued, "Son, Xiaohu is straightforward and doesn't know how to speak properly. You have to be more tolerant of him."

"Mom, don't worry." Lu Chen paused for a moment.

"Also, ask my uncle and aunt if they'd be willing to come to Beiping. You can arrange their jobs and housing. After all, they've had a tough time, so let's help them if we can."

Upon hearing this, Shen Yulan could no longer control her emotions and began to sob softly.

"Son, thank you. You've grown up and become more sensible. Thank you, Mom."

Lu Chen gently hugged Shen Yulan, patted her back, and said nothing more.