Chapter 9: Sister’s Friend
The small shop’s cubicle housed a total of ten computers, distributed in four directions, with three on the top and bottom, and two on the left and right, topped off with a large ceiling fan.
Chen Qiao’s usual computer was in the upper left corner, right in front of a window. Outside the window was the stinky ditch of the back kitchen, usually free of passersby. If the curtain were to be lifted by the wind, people on the street side could only see his back, making it quite safe. Moreover, in case of any unexpected situation, he could easily escape through the window.
The computers at the Black Internet Cafe didn’t have a cafe management system, meaning that powering off and rebooting wouldn’t erase or reset any downloaded data. Chen Qiao’s game saves were still intact. The downside was that if users accidentally clicked on some pop-up ads, they could download viruses, causing the computer to crash. Nonetheless, Chen Qiao had installed antivirus software on each computer; although these “guardians” were quite aggressive, they could still manage minor threats, applying poison to counteract poison.
Chen Qiao booted up the computer. While waiting, he took a sip of water, dialed up the internet, and logged into QQ. He shared an account with his sister, and he had helped her apply for a QQ number that was catchy and easy to remember, consisting of nine digits. This year, ten-digit QQ numbers were already being issued.
Surprisingly, his sister was quite attentive to her QQ level. No matter how outstanding and understanding she was, at her core, she was still just a junior high school girl.
Chen Qiao skillfully opened the farm feature to steal vegetables, collect crops, and plant seeds. He also tried to grab parking spots. His sister didn’t have many friends, just him in the family category.
Then there was a group with an English name, called Best Friends, which contained only one person, whose online name was “Summer’s Light Blue.” In this age where strange characters were all the rage, this name was already considered very normal.
The profile picture featured a girl’s back wearing a Lanhhe Junior High School sports uniform, standing on the playground at sunset, making a peace sign against the sunset. It wasn’t a stock photo, but rather a blurry shot from the rundown playground at Lanhhe Junior High School. The pixel quality was poor, with motion blur, creating a unique artistic ambiance.
All the other friends were in the classmate group. Besides Chen Qiao, the sister’s other friends should be those she added from classmates’ phones; perhaps this “Summer” was one of them. The phone that could take such a picture wouldn’t be cheap, not even a knock-off.
His sister often helped her boarding school classmates by taking their phone batteries home to charge with a flickering universal charger.
As for Chen Qiao’s friends, there were only a few who came to the internet cafe with him. The first wave of friend additions happened before graduating from primary school when he followed the trend and bought a yearbook, shyly asking everyone to write a page.
Chen Qiao launched the first installment of Xianjian, with the familiar BGM ringing in his ears, as if he had returned to his childhood.
No, he really was back.
At that moment, the save file was from when Li Xiaoyao went to steal a phoenix egg and got discovered by Anu, where the two characters first met. Anu was also one of the most portrayed characters adapted into a TV series.
Chen Qiao had completed Xianjian during this summer vacation, then played Jian San and Jian Si. He admired his current self for having the patience to keep playing. At times when he got stuck, making money for equipment or leveling up had its own satisfaction.
Jian San had a little sister, who also had a dual personality; she was more of a “spirit.” It could be considered Chen Qiao’s introduction to “sister complex.”
Growing up and becoming a streamer earning money, life wasn’t as strained anymore; he managed to buy the complete set of Xianjian. However, he couldn’t get into it anymore, feeling restless. Whether it was him changing or the game changing, he wasn’t sure.
Chen Qiao closed the game and opened Kugou Music, playing “Doctor’s Ten Years” while putting on headphones.
The downside of this Black Internet Cafe was that the headphones were somewhat poor quality, not the typical stylish over-ear headphones found in cafes, but rather knock-off headphones sold on the street, yet they could still produce sound decently.
He created a blank text document; compared to fully equipped office software like Word, Notepad opened fast and took up little memory. Since there was no automatic saving feature without an internet connection, he needed to save frequently, as sudden power outages were quite common during summer in the countryside.
Chen Qiao planned to write a novel to make money, which could be considered his old profession. He had been an unsuccessful writer before; although he never became popular, he at least completed a book and earned some royalties—though not much, just enough for subsistence, it was already more than many writers earned.
Now the welfare system was relatively sound, and reader tipping for authors had also opened up.
Every failed author probably daydreams about how they could surpass the greats if they returned to the era of online literature, but Chen Qiao wouldn’t be so arrogant. From a retrospective viewpoint, the clichés and plots that now seemed terrible were possibly created by these great authors.
Old bottles hold old wine; the same stories were just told better, whether it was in writing style, word choice, or invoking the reader’s emotions and foreshadowing.
Even if you created a new pathway with an entirely new genre no one had written before, if your writing wasn’t good, someone would copy it right away, and there would be many who could even write better. This is also part of the cruelty of online literature.
However, in this era, it was also a fact that competition pressure was lower. Readers hadn’t consumed that much literature yet, so they would be less picky. Coupled with the favorable environment, even though there were annual internet-cleaning campaigns, the most substantial one was in 2007, and the next one that could go down in online literature history would be the 2014 cleaning, which was almost a watershed for internet literature.
2009 was called the year of double struggles. Chen Qiao opened a point website, filled with familiar names of great authors. After a certain company acquired the point the previous year, it, like subsequent Penguin Literature, began to buy up numerous novel websites and eventually got acquired itself.
Chen Qiao didn’t plan to plagiarize novels, becoming a literary thief. Most of the novels he had read were only a rough sketch in his mind; there was no way to replicate them fully. To be precise, he wanted to use what he had written before.
His youthful works could only be considered mediocre in the seas of time, but reintroducing them now, having undergone reader scrutiny, could be optimized where they fell short. Plus, with his experiences and reading amassed over the years, he should see some improvement, especially in certain places where he could let loose his writing, making Chen Qiao eager to try.
After all, they were his own works, full of vivid memories, especially the parts that were harshly criticized, evoking a sense of heartbreak.
Before long, Chen Qiao had roughly outlined the main plot. When he first wrote, he wrote wherever his thoughts took him, and didn’t have an outline; now he intended to lay out a more detailed outline to speed up the writing process. However, internet fees were also a substantial expense.
Chen Qiao planned to write in his notebook first, and then type it in later.
After all, before it was published, he wouldn’t earn any royalties, estimating he’d need to endure about two months to finalize the contract. As for signing, the current regulations weren’t as strict as in later years. Underage authors could sign, as long as their writing was good. Without an ID, he could stick his household registration book on the contract when it came.
Using his dad’s identity information was certainly an option, but Chen Qiao still wanted to do more in the online literature world under his own identity; the world still wasn’t lacking for talented young people.
Next year, mobile reading would start charging, and wireless reading would gradually rise, similar to the development of mobile internet, where the share of computer platforms would gradually be eroded by mobile devices.
Chen Qiao planned to finish this book slowly within the year and publish it, then write a wireless literature book the following year, using royalties to invest in Bitcoin.
If he were to do purchasing on behalf of others, many products wouldn’t have free shipping, and deliveries only reached the county town. Online payments required a bank U-shield. What if a buyer refused the delivery? Returning items would be quite troublesome now, with many systems not sound.
He considered buying goods on wholesale websites to open a shop and earn the price difference, but there was a risk of unsold inventory, as the township market was still too small.
He should first obtain agency jobs from various delivery points in the township, then find recipients to charge a fee of one or two yuan for remote areas, more for larger items. This was likely something that started happening a couple of years later. Offering free purchasing services at delivery points could be more feasible, providing one-stop services and building roads where there were none.
Aside from his own efforts, being the child of wealthy parents wouldn’t be bad either; he wished for his dad and mom to become wealthy. However, besides driving, his dad had no other skills and preached about brotherhood, but they were merely a bunch of drinking buddies. When he got into trouble, only two lent him money.
His dad was experienced behind the wheel and had a wide social network, often getting work first. When he was too busy, he would pass jobs onto other drivers, but among those drivers, some even spoke ill of Chen Qiao’s dad.
Chen Qiao hoped his dad would start a dump truck fleet or a muck transportation company. Since his dad had the capability to get more jobs, it would be better to take a commission or let the company earn that money; the company had higher risk tolerance than an individual.
They wouldn’t be limited to the nearby area; there were more jobs in Pengcheng. The new district continuously built, and land was precious, with no space even for muck to be piled. It had to be transported further away, and sometimes muck needed to be backfilled, which had to be bought back.
As for his mom, she was of an extremely conservative type, there’s no way she would invest; finding a stable job was the right path. Convincing her to buy a house would be a solid achievement.
Advising would have to be left for his excellent sister; her words held more weight, and their parents would be more willing to listen. For now, Chen Qiao was still seen as the mischievous kid in their eyes.
Just as Chen Qiao thought of his sister, the female QQ icon in the lower right corner flickered.
Ding ding—
A familiar prompt sounded; his sister’s avatar glimmered. Someone had sent a message to her, that person was indeed Summer’s Light Blue.
“Are you there?”
Such a familiar opening line.
“Not here, it’s not me.”
“I know it’s not you. Feifei is right next to me doing homework.”
It seemed this was his sister’s deskmate.
“Please study hard.”
“Who are you to Feifei? How do you know her QQ password and help her with her QQ level?”
“I’m her brother.”
“Oh, I remember now. Feifei once mentioned she had a particularly naughty younger brother. She doesn’t have a computer at home, so the naughty brother must be at the internet cafe, right?”
“You’re playing with your phone in class; you’re not studying properly either.”
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll tell your sister?”
“Not afraid, just don’t disturb my sister’s studying.”
Chen Feifei certainly knew about Chen Qiao’s internet usage; she had even helped him apply for his QQ account. She kept it a secret, not telling their parents, and warned Chen Qiao not to go again in the future, or she wouldn’t lend him money.
Furthermore, Chen Qiao wasn’t here to have fun tonight; he had serious business to attend to, which made him feel justified.
“Wow, the naughty brother has quite a bit of guts. The teacher’s here, chat next time, 886…”
This good friend of his sister would probably lose contact with her later, right?
Chen Qiao had never seen his sister have any particularly good friends or close girlfriends; she had never mentioned them either.
Chen Qiao continued to type out his detailed outline.
Today was Monday, and the junior high and few high school students in town had evening study sessions. The local delinquents hadn’t discovered this untouched land; more often, they banded together to go to the internet cafe, getting familiar with the internet cafe manager.
Chen Qiao hadn’t brought any friends along either—tonight was like a private venue for him.
