I'm reborn and I'm an international student again?

Back at the hotel that evening, Chen Xi received a video call from Zhang Youting: "Have you been watching that Audition Online video lately?"

"Brother, how could I possibly watch that stuff? The internet connection in Africa is so slow that even browsing a webpage is difficult, let alone watching any live streams." Chen Xi rolled his eyes.

“I asked Chen Fu to register an account for me before. Do you remember that VIP button? Guess what I found.”

"What could it be? Just some illegal stuff," Chen Xi blurted out without thinking.

There have been many such apps in the past, and he knows quite a bit about the shady dealings within them.

"You think this is the end?"

"Is there something extraordinary out of the ordinary?"

Zhang Youting's words piqued Chen Xi's interest.

Do you know why old mobile phone recycling platforms keep popping up on the market these days?

"What do you want to say?"

In the video, Zhang Youting raised an eyebrow, and Chen Xi asked in confusion.

The next day, oh my god, headquarters.

Li Guang, dressed in a sharp suit, was sitting on the sofa.

A man and a woman in front of him were looking at him with smiles.

"Hey, Attorney Han Kou, what are you planning to do? It seems you've taken on more than one lawsuit involving our company," Xing Tian suddenly said.

Li Guang lost his case this time; he had no chance of winning against Su Yue, one of the four top lawyers in Beijing. In fact, Su Yue didn't even participate in the trial; she simply chose one of her apprentices and won the case.

He currently has several other streamers' commissions on hand, and if he continues to fight lawsuits, he will lose all face.

"How about... we negotiate?" Li Guang opened his mouth, but then hesitated to say the rest.

"Okay, but oh my god, we still need to maintain the company's image, and compensation is a must. If we just let it go, then any clown will come and provoke us next time," Su Yue said, arms crossed.

"Then I'll discuss it with the client," Li Guang replied hesitantly.

He sighed inwardly. He hadn't made any money again, and he was sure that the mother and daughter would criticize him to death when he got back.

Jiangcheng.

A brand-new white Mercedes-Benz C-Class was parked on the side of the road.

Wearing sunglasses, Li Yuqing tidied her hair in front of the glass after getting off the bus.

"Holy crap, you actually bought a car, and a Mercedes at that!" Shi Tao looked the car up and down.

"Of course, don't you know who I am!" Li Yuqing proudly raised her head.

"This car costs over 300,000 yuan, and you only make less than 5,000 yuan a month. How can you afford it?" The two found a small table, sat down, and ordered two bowls of beef noodles.

"It's from a loan," Li Yuqing said softly, covering her mouth with her hand, afraid that the people around her would hear.

"What? Car loan interest rates are very high, and the repayment period is short. How could you possibly afford it with your salary? Besides, maintaining a car is a considerable expense. Didn't you borrow money from me the other day? By the way, when are you going to pay me back the two thousand yuan you borrowed?" Shi Tao suddenly remembered something.

"Look how stingy you are. Let's wait a bit, I'll pay you back when I have the money. If it really doesn't work, I can pick you up and drop you off whenever you need to go out, or I can lend you my car when you go out to pick up girls."

“I always ride an electric bike when I go out! You haven’t even said how you’re going to pay me back.”

"My dad landed a few big orders, so we'll have them then, right?"

Is your dad very capable?

"Of course, everyone calls him the great lawyer!" Li Yuqing boasted while eating noodles.

"Really? You're not bragging, are you? If your dad was really that amazing, how did you end up like this?" Shi Tao's eyes lit up, then he shook his head.

"What's wrong? Do you have a lawsuit to fight?" Li Yuqing seemed to have noticed something unusual about the other party.

"It's not that there's a lawsuit to be fought, it's that there might be. I think I've been scammed..." Shi Tao explained about his partnership with someone to start a financial company.

He hadn't received any dividends from the company in a long time, and every time he asked his partners for money, they would make excuses to avoid it. Now, with less and less money on his hands, Shi Tao began to suspect that he had been scammed.

"Oh dear, I thought those people were unreliable last time," Li Yuqing remarked after listening.

"Hindsight is 20/20. I saw you toasting others so enthusiastically before," Shi Tao rolled his eyes.

"That's because I wanted to save face for you."

"Give me a break. Ever since I've known you, you've never cared about other people's feelings."

"Shi Tao, you want to get beaten up again, don't you?"

Li Yuqing angrily rolled up her sleeves.

"Holy crap, your car got a parking ticket." In a moment of crisis, Shi Tao suddenly pointed to the side.

Upon hearing this, Li Yuqing jumped up from the small stool and ran towards her car.

In front of the Mercedes-Benz, a uniformed man is registering the license plate.

"Driver, I just got off the bus to buy something. I'll leave now, please!" Li Yuqing clasped her hands together in a pleading gesture.

"If everyone did this, Jiangcheng would be in chaos. Be more careful next time." The uniformed man glanced at her, his actions of writing the ticket continuing unabated.

"You son of a bitch, I only stopped for a few minutes, why did you fine me? There are so many cars around, and you didn't give them any tickets, why are you targeting me?" Li Yuqing's catchphrase came out.

"Why are you swearing?" The uniformed man's expression changed.

"Judging from their accent, they're not locals, are they?"

"What's wrong with the yellow skin?"

"How dare an outsider bully a local from Jiangcheng like me? Do you even want to stay here anymore?" Li Yuqing threatened, pointing at the other party.

"If you keep acting so unreasonably, I'm going to call for backup." The uniformed man prepared to turn on his walkie-talkie.

At this moment, Shi Tao ran over and grabbed Li Yuqing: "It's not easy for Garlic Bird, Garlic Bird. You can't beat him. If you keep going like this, you'll lose everything."

"Don't mess with me! You think you're so tough? You little punk, who do you think you are?" There were many onlookers, and in order to maintain the dignity of her Jiangcheng native, Li Yuqing continued to hurl threats.

Twenty minutes later.

"Waaah, I've lost two hundred yuan." Li Yuqing bit her lip as she sat in the car.

"Alright, consider it a good start. Do you think I can get this money back? He gave me an IOU back then." Shi Tao first comforted the other party, and then asked about his own situation.

"How would I know? I was actually thinking of working at your company, but it turns out you're not doing as well as me. How about this, I'll ask my dad for some money, and you ask your dad for some money, and we can do some business together like we did in Australia." Li Yuqing suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

“I’ve already invested all the money in the house! How about this, you have your dad help me win the lawsuit, and once I get the money, we can start a business together.”

"No problem, with Attorney Han Kou on the case, there's no case we can't win!"

Li Yuqing readily agreed.

But she quickly turned to Shi Tao and asked, "So what kind of business should we do with the money? Have you been in contact with Chen Xi lately? He's got a lot of ideas, why don't you ask him?" "I won't ask. I'm already in this mess, it's too embarrassing."

“Then we’ll do it ourselves, and when we make a fortune, we’ll surprise our old classmates! I’ll take you home now, and the fare will be deducted from the money I borrowed from you.”

Li Yuqing snapped her fingers and started the car before Shi Tao could refuse.

Huajing.

As Chen Xi entered the office, he saw Su Yue and Xing Tian chatting. He waved and asked, "How's that lawsuit going?"

"The opposing lawyer just left. If you had come a little earlier, you would have seen his frustrated expression. What kind of great lawyer is he? I bet there aren't any in Jiangcheng anymore. With Attorney Su here, the case is definitely a sure win!" Xing Tian gave Su Yue a thumbs up.

A lawyer with a sweaty mouth?
What the heck? Do people still have such bizarre titles these days?

Chen Xi's mind was full of questions.

Little did they know, the person who had just left was the very one who had almost become their father-in-law in their past life.

Actually, Li Guang is a decent person, quite different from Li Yuqing. He's the kind of scholar who doesn't talk much but is reasonable.

As a lawyer, one can only say his abilities are mediocre; otherwise, he wouldn't have ended up in this situation after all these years. And to say he's honest wouldn't be accurate either; he's keeping a mistress on the side.

"Aunt Su, could you please take a look at these documents for me?" Chen Xi handed a stack of A4 papers to Su Yue.

Su Yue frowned slightly after flipping through the pages a few times.

Meanwhile, in Shenzhen, at the Sanhe Human Resources Market in Hualong District.

The area surrounding the labor market seems somewhat out of place in Shenzhen, a modern first-tier city. Prices are less than half of what they are elsewhere, making it a haven for cheap laborers and attracting migrant workers from all over.

几毛钱一根的散装烟、2块钱的肠粉、清汤面，5块钱的盒饭和挂比面，10元的上下铺住宿及6元包夜的网吧比比皆是。就连别的地方一模一样的大桶矿泉水价格都只要3元。

The people who work here are mostly called the "Sanhe Gods." "Work one day, rest three days" has become their common saying.

Inside a rented room, a shirtless young man was lying on the bed playing on his phone.

"If I win this hand, I can get out of here." He muttered to himself as he sat up, his palms sweating nervously.

"Three sides, three sides, let's get a 6! Squint, one less, blow~ blow~"

"Haha, it really is a 6! I won! 230,000! Besides my initial investment, I also made 20,000. Now I can finally leave this awful place. I'll go out for a good meal tonight. Coins, coins!" The young man jumped up excitedly after seeing the game result.

Although his head hit the bed frame above him, he didn't feel anything at all.

"What's going on? Why is the withdrawal taking so long this time? It's usually instant." After ten minutes, he was getting increasingly anxious as he still hadn't received the bank's text message.

He contacted customer service online through the app: "Why is the loan disbursement so slow? Please expedite it for me."

"Hello, please provide your game account."

Customer service responded quickly.

"I'll check for you right away, please wait a moment."

After entering his account information, the young man began pacing back and forth in the room. A minute later, he looked at his phone screen and lit a loose Double Happiness cigarette.

After an unknown amount of time, the young man finally received a response after urging the other party several times.

This time, the customer service representative was not as polite as before: "According to our investigation, your betting activity was irregular, so the platform will reset your winnings and principal to zero."

"What do you mean by 'violation of regulations'? I don't understand," the young man asked angrily.

"It's about using multiple IP addresses to place bets and hedge, also known as gang arbitrage."

"What nonsense! I'm all alone, with just one phone."

"This is the result given by the department; we are merely the platform's agent."

“I’ve been playing on your platform for many years, and I’ve always placed bets alone. This has never happened before…” the young man continued to explain.

"I'm just a customer service representative, how about I contact the manager for you?" After waiting for a while, the customer service representative finally replied.

Two minutes later, the young man's phone rang; it was an unknown virtual caller.

"Hello sir, this is your personal manager, Xiao Wang. We understand your situation and have checked with the room staff; it's true that your betting violated regulations. Given that you've been a long-time user of the platform, here's our solution. We will refund the amount, but to withdraw the money, you must make a minimum bet of 30 times the amount..." The voice on the phone was that of a young man speaking Cantonese-accented Mandarin.

30 times the turnover?
That's over 600 million?

An hour later, the young man, who was in a hurry to withdraw his winnings, finally collapsed on the bed.

Because he was impatient, he placed large bets almost every time, and as a result, he lost all his money in no time.

In fact, more than half of the people working in Sanhe came here because they were addicted to online games.

Most of them are in debt and are hiding here to escape reality.

"What's going on today? Why are they saying I violated regulations and won't let me withdraw my money?"

"Hey, is yours the same? My platform is different from yours, so it doesn't give me any points."

"It's all over, it's all over. They made me bet on dozens of times the turnover. I've lost everything this time."

"I'll have to sleep on the streets tonight."

The scattered gods of Sanhe all encountered similar situations.

Jiangcheng.

Yang Dan has been hiding here for some time.

He's living a pretty comfortable life now, occasionally remotely managing his business and casually flirting with female livestreamers and college students.

"Mr. Yang, several of our agents have run into problems recently," the assistant suddenly reported.

"What's going on?" Yang Dan asked, crossing her legs as she looked at her computer.

"Because of the recent crackdown, those agents have run into financial problems. After we refused their offer to lower the agency fees, they complained that it wasn't enough and started stealing money from users..."

"Damn it, this is ruining our reputation! If everyone does this, who will dare to play online games in the future? Tell them to stop this stupid behavior, or we will terminate their agency rights and confiscate their deposits." Yang Dan slammed his fist on the table.

"The problem is that this situation is not uncommon, and if we push them too far..."

"Hmm... how about this? Have them screen the users. Keep those with potential and slowly drain them, and get rid of the poor ones or those who just keep winning." After a moment of thought, Yang Dan came up with a compromise solution.

"Okay, I'll take care of it right away. By the way, Mr. Yang, the prices of domestic mobile phones are getting lower and lower these days, all thanks to a cheap domestic brand called Dami. Now we're acquiring more and more equipment, should we continue?"

"Of course we'll continue. Lowering costs is a good thing, isn't it?"

"But we received far too many."

"That's not enough. I'm going to expand this industry all over the world... and use it to kill that Chen Xi guy."

Yang Dan laughed heartily. (End of Chapter)