Rebirth is fine, but I get eight hundred dollars right from the start?

The Luo family!

As dusk fell, Luo Yu, whose motion-activated light in the stairwell had been broken for half a month and hadn't been repaired, groped his way up to the third floor. When he took out his keys to open the door, he smelled the aroma of stir-fried pork with chili wafting from inside.

He changed into slippers and went inside, immediately noticing an extra set of chopsticks and a bowl on the table—

It's rare for Dad to come home today.

Mrs. Luo had been busy all afternoon, and she hadn't even taken off her apron yet. She had just come out of the kitchen and said, "You're back. Go wash your hands and get ready for dinner."

"good!"

"Where's Dad?"

"Honey, come out for dinner."

"Alright!"

With that, the family of three sat down at the table.

While serving him food, Luo's mother whispered, "Eat more meat, you've lost weight recently."

Luo Yu ate a couple of bites of rice, then secretly glanced at his father, as if to say something.

Seeing his father eating his food in silence, moving his chopsticks very quickly, he quietly put them away.

Garlic bird, eat first.

Let's eat first and then talk.

The meal was eaten more quietly than usual.

After the dishes were finished, Mrs. Luo, unusually, did not get up to clean up immediately. Instead, she wiped her hands and gave a wink: "Come on, sit on the sofa for a while. The TV is on, you can watch the news."

The family of three moved from the dining table to the living room sofa.

The television was on, broadcasting the provincial evening news, but nobody was actually watching it.

Luo Yu sat on the right side of the sofa, Luo's mother sat in the middle, and Luo Jianguo sat on the left, with about an arm's length between the three of them.

"I'll ask you one more time, have you thought it through?"

Mr. Luo turned to the side, his gaze heavy on Luo Yu. "You're neither sick nor academically gifted, yet you go and play professionally. Once the leave of absence is processed, if you regret it and want to come back, you'll have to start all over again from the first year of high school. Think it over carefully."

Luo Yu put down the water glass in his hand and leaned back off the sofa cushion.

He looked at his father with unwavering eyes, revealing a confidence that was hard to discern whether it was ignorance or self-assurance.

He even curled his lips into a slight smile, his tone slightly teasing as he spoke: "Um... Dad, you're not having second thoughts, are you?"

After returning from watching the All-Star Game in Shanghai, the relationship between father and son improved significantly. Luo Yu has been attending school normally and no longer stays up late at home.

Of course, in exchange, Luo's father would also support him in registering for this nationwide professional selection.

Luo Jianguo frowned: "Regret my ass! Is your father the kind of person who goes back on his word?"

The man raised his voice slightly, slapping the coffee table lightly, causing the water in his glass to slosh around. "I'm just afraid you'll act impulsively and really hit a brick wall, then you won't even know how to cry!"

Luo's mother quickly reached out and took Luo Jianguo's arm, trying to smooth things over: "What's going on? You two get so worked up over just a few words. Didn't we already discuss everything?"

She turned to look at Luo Yu, her tone softening, with the gentleness unique to women from Jiangnan, "Your father has already gone to the school to complete the leave of absence procedures, and he's also spoken to your homeroom teacher. It's not that he doesn't want you to go, he's just worried that you can't handle the hardship."

"Wanting to play professionally is fine, but once you've decided, you have to stick with it to the end."

"I will, Mom, don't worry."

Luo Yu is full of confidence: "With HWG's training, I will definitely be able to become the next e-sports star in the LPL league."

……

The same night, the same time.

In a tenement building in an old residential area in the south of the city, the stairwell lights were working, but they were dim and yellowish, like a dying candle flame, flickering on and off on the peeling paint on the stair railings.

Zhao Yicheng carried a half-bag of discounted vegetables up to the fifth floor. As soon as he reached the door, he heard suppressed coughing coming from inside, one cough after another, as if he was coughing up his lungs.

He frantically fumbled for his keys, pushed open the door, and was immediately hit by a strong smell of Chinese medicine mixed with the damp air. The small single room was divided in two by a curtain; behind the curtain was the bed, and in front of the curtain were a folding table and two plastic stools.

The food was already laid out on the table: a plate of stir-fried bok choy, a bowl of steamed egg custard, and half a bowl of cooled, dark medicinal soup on the side.

"Mom, I'm home." He put the groceries on the kitchen counter and walked around to the back of the curtain.

"Didn't we agree that you'd wait for me to come back and cook?"

A thin, middle-aged woman was leaning against the bed. Her face was sallow, her cheekbones were high, and her eyes were deeply sunken. Only her eyes were still bright. When she saw her son come in, she forced a smile and said, "Xiao Cheng is back. There's food warming up in the pot. Go and eat."

"Mom was in good spirits today. She went for a walk, but I was worried it would be too late if you came home from school, so I just did it on my own."

Zhao Yicheng didn't dwell on the food; instead, he reached out to check his mother's forehead temperature and tucked the blanket back up, his movements as practiced as if he'd done it a thousand times. "What did the doctor say today?"

"Same as always, take it slow and let it heal."

Zhao's mother waved her hand, "Don't keep worrying about me, your studies are the most important thing. By the way, have the monthly exam results come out yet?"

Zhao Yicheng paused for two seconds, then pulled a folded report card from his backpack.

"It's down, pretty much the same as before."

"Stability is good, stability is good."

"It's all because of Mom that you're a burden, otherwise you wouldn't be... cough cough..."

"Mom, why are you saying all this?"

Zhao Yicheng retorted hastily, "My grades are just so-so; I'm not cut out for studying."

You're lying to your mother.

"There are about 800 students in the whole grade, and you rank 117th. Even in the experimental class, you would be in the middle to upper ranks. To be honest, if you maintain this level of performance, you should have no problem getting into a decent university in the future."

"In terms of academics, if you didn't need to take care of your mother and you didn't work part-time on weekends, you would have a good chance of getting into a top university."

"..."

"Xiao Cheng, um... the doctor said I'm feeling much better lately and can take care of myself normally. Why don't you live at school for your last year of high school?"

“Cough… cough…”

She folded the report card and handed it back. Just as she was speaking, she suddenly started coughing again, curling up into a ball. Zhao Yicheng quickly patted her back to help her catch her breath, then brought over the medicine bowl and fed her little by little with a spoon.

"Mom, you lied to me too, saying you could take care of yourself."

"Why……"

After the commotion subsided, Zhao's mother wiped her mouth, leaned back on the pillow to catch her breath, and deliberately changed the subject: "Why are you home so late today? Did something happen at school?"

Zhao Yicheng tightened his grip on the empty medicine bowl.

He bit his lower lip, placed the bowl on the bedside table, turned around to pull back the curtain, and sat down next to the folding table.

The food was still steaming, but he didn't touch his chopsticks.

"Mom, I have something to tell you."

Zhao's mother leaned against the headboard, looking at him gently: "Go on."

After a long pause, Zhao Xiaohu's first words were: "Mom, do you remember what I told you about e-sports?"

Zhao's mother paused for a moment, then shook her head in confusion: "E-sports? Is it that kind of thing, playing video games? I remember you said before that someone at an internet cafe paid you to help them with something like esports competitions, right?"