Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 567: Fireworks in the World

The internet cafe was filled with a strong smell of smoke, sweat, and cheap perfume.

The space, less than fifty square meters, was crammed with more than twenty old computers.

The computer screens were filled with images of the game "Audition Online," and the spacebar on the keyboards was being slammed loudly, accompanied by excited screams and profanities from the players.

"Boss, renew machine number 12, two more hours!" A boy with messy hair and bloodshot eyes slammed three yuan on the boss's table.

"Go ahead." A middle-aged man with a cigarette in his mouth, wearing a vest and slippers, replied lazily, and wrote on a crumpled notebook: "Extend machine number 12 for 2 hours, extending to 9:06."

The computers here are all running pirated versions of Windows XP.

Although the internet speed here is slow, the environment is bad, and the equipment is broken, it doesn't matter, as long as I can play Audition Online.

The emergence of Audition Online has also led to a proliferation of illegal internet cafes on the outskirts of major cities.

They lack proper licenses, disregard fire safety, and have outdated facilities, but they all have one thing in common: they primarily promote "Audition Online".

The crudely printed game posters were pasted in the most conspicuous places. The bosses were well-versed in the art of riding the wave of trending topics, knowing that as long as the game could be played, they would have no shortage of business.

At 7 p.m., Fei Zhengyu drove his Xiali car to the building where the company was located.

Upon seeing Cheng Yi come downstairs, Fei Zhengyu rolled down the car window, stuck his head out, and said with a smile, "My dear CEO, why don't you ride in my car today?"

"Okay." Cheng Yi nodded with a smile.

Now he can stroll around Jingzhou City without needing any bodyguards.

Especially in Shinan District, where Momo Group is located, there are crackdowns on organized crime every day and crackdowns on prostitution every two days. The level of safety there even surpasses that of first-tier cities in 2025.

There's nothing we can do about it, because many companies across the country are now focusing their attention on Shinan District, and the Handong Provincial Government Affairs Association absolutely will not allow Shinan District to have even the slightest stain on its reputation.

Especially after the Momo Group's annual meeting, many internet companies have considered relocating to Jingzhou City.

"Wasn't Lao Ba going too? Where is he?" Fei Zhengyu asked curiously.

Fei Zhengyu still admires Lao Ba very much, after all, he is now a big star.

“He went to that urban village you mentioned and waited there,” Cheng Yi replied.

Fei Zhengyu started the car and quickly drove towards Beimang Village, an urban village in the Shinan District.

As soon as his car left, Lin Yongxing, accompanied by two bodyguards, followed in an Audi.

No matter how safe Gyeongju is, they must fulfill their duties.

Soon, Fei Zhengyu drove to the urban village of Beimang.

Beimang Village is the largest urban village in Shinan District. Even in 2025, the previous life, Beimang Village had not been demolished.

Several groups of developers have come here before, but without exception, they were all driven away by the villagers.

There was no other way; whenever news of demolition came out, the villagers of Beimang Village would frantically build on top of their houses.

After three waves of developers came, the villagers built six-story houses.

Many developers felt wronged, as their original budget was for the demolition of a single-story house, but these villagers had turned it into a six-story building.

They were worried that before the project even started, Beimang Village would be full of skyscrapers.

The villagers felt wronged, suspecting that the nearby brick factories were experiencing sluggish sales, so they brought in developers to pretend they were going to develop the site.

With this back and forth, the development of Beimang Village was put on hold, which also made it the busiest place in Shinan District.

Many people from other places come to Jingzhou to develop their careers, and their first stop is the urban village of Beimang Village. There are shared rooms with a monthly rent of 50 yuan everywhere, and the roommates may be tall, beautiful girls from nightclubs, and you might even get a couple of free fast food meals.

This urban village, with an area of ​​only 0.6 square kilometers, has only 724 registered households, but the actual population living here is as high as 6, making it dozens of times more vibrant and lively than other places.

At the bustling alley entrance, the lights of various food stalls are lit up, and the aroma of food mingles with the sounds of people, creating a warm and lively scene full of life.

Fei Zhengyu and Cheng Yi both enjoy coming here. For Cheng Yi, the lively atmosphere here has a strong, down-to-earth feel.

This is a scene he could hardly find again in his previous life.

For Fei Zhengyu, he simply enjoys being in a lively atmosphere. He would rather eat ten meals in a restaurant dressed in a suit and tie than eat a couple of bites of gutter oil food at a street stall with his shirt off.

As soon as Fei Zhengyu stopped his car, a girl with a gentle smile rode up on a scooter. She stopped the scooter and smiled innocently at Fei Zhengyu.

The girl wore a simple T-shirt and jeans. She wasn't particularly beautiful, but she gave off a very pure feeling.

"Cheng Yi, this is my new girlfriend, Li Xiaoya. She works at a nearby telecom service center," Fei Zhengyu said with a smile, putting his arm around the girl's shoulder.

Li Xiaoya greeted Cheng Yi somewhat shyly, saying, "Hello, Brother Cheng."

Cheng Yi smiled. Just as he was about to say something, he heard a familiar voice from not far away.

"Hello, Mr. Cheng."

Cheng Yi's heart skipped a beat. He turned around and saw Sun Baxin and Su Duo standing on the other side of the road.

Su Duo was waving and greeting him.

Cheng Yi felt a headache coming on as soon as he saw Su Duo.

This woman who likes women really has no sense of boundaries.

Before long, Sun Baxin and Su Duo came over. Sun Baxin nodded to Cheng Yi and said, "Brother Cheng."

"Hmm." Cheng Yi looked Sun Baxin and Su Duo over and asked with a smile, "You went with her?"

Sun Baxin said helplessly, "She likes to use force."

"You..." Su Duo was furious, but quickly realized there were others around, so she immediately changed to a submissive posture, holding Sun Baxin's arm with both hands, and said in a standard Taiwanese accent, "I don't have any, don't talk nonsense."

Cheng Yi said slowly, "It's good to be together, but we need to take it easy and be restrained. The competition is about to start."

"We're not like that at all!" Su Duo shook her fist at Cheng Yi, revealing a fierce expression.

“Disrespecting your superior will result in a three-month salary deduction,” Cheng Yi said.

Su Duo glared at him and said angrily, "Try using QQ, do you believe I can make it so that Sun Baxin can't even get on a plane?"

Su Duo, known for her fiery personality, caught Fei Zhengyu and Cheng Yi off guard before they could even react, while Li Xiaoya blushed with embarrassment. Good heavens!
Cheng Yi exclaimed "Goodness!" three times and stopped provoking Su Duo.

Just as the internet says, boys are actually more innocent than girls, because boys only use the internet to chat, play games, and watch videos.

Girls' online activities are much more complicated. They browse various websites, watch gossip videos, read dirty jokes, and check forum posts and trending topics.

With the advent of the internet age, they seem to know more about that aspect than boys of the same age.

Soon, Fei Zhengyu, familiar with the area, led Cheng Yi and the others through a maze of turns, finally stopping in front of an open-air barbecue stall with a simple shed and no sign.

"This is it, boss, same old spot!" Fei Zhengyu shouted in a loud voice, clearly a regular customer.

The five people sat down. Fei Zhengyu and Li Xiaoya whispered to each other, while Sun Baxin and Su Duo exchanged glances, which made Cheng Yi a little embarrassed.

He sat alone and lonely on the stool, not knowing how to break the awkward silence.

This was the first time he had ever been a third wheel.

He's already so successful, yet he still has to be a third wheel one day.

Lin Yongxing and his group also sat down at the barbecue stall outside and ordered some barbecue. Seeing that Cheng Yi was in a somewhat awkward situation, one of the bodyguards couldn't help but say, "I think the boss is a little uncomfortable. Does he rarely come to barbecue stalls?"

"No, he's just not used to it because there are no women around him," Lin Yongxing asserted.

The bodyguard couldn't help but say, "How about I find a few women for the boss? There's a really nice teahouse in this urban village. I've been there a few times, and the girls there are all very attractive."

"Shut up." Lin Yongxing glared at the bodyguard.

Fortunately, the barbecue at this restaurant was served relatively quickly. As soon as the meat skewers and draft beer arrived at the table, Cheng Yi was finally able to ease his embarrassment. He took the initiative to put the meat skewers on the grill, but he did so slowly because there weren't many skewers available.

Seeing Cheng Yi start barbecuing, Fei Zhengyu quickly got up to take over the task, but Cheng Yi refused.

Left with no other choice, Fei Zhengyu had to take on the task of grilling the vegetables.

"Old Eight, with the competition approaching, are you feeling a lot of pressure?" Cheng Yi asked while grilling skewers.

Sun Baxin frankly said, "There is definitely pressure, after all, this time it feels like we are representing the country in a competition, but our training is going well, and we have absorbed a lot of experts."

He paused, then said, "This time, we will definitely keep the championship in China."

"Good! That's the spirit!" Cheng Yi smiled, raised his glass, and said, "Come on, let's wish Lao Ba a great victory and bring glory to the country!"

The group clinked glasses and drank it all in one gulp.

"Cheng Yi, try this chives. The boss has a really good grasp of the heat." Fei Zhengyu handed a skewer of grilled chives, glistening with oil and sprinkled with cumin and chili powder, to Cheng Yi.

Cheng Yi took it and took a bite. The unique spiciness of the chives mixed with the smoky aroma of charcoal filled his mouth, bringing a long-lost taste of the local market. He smiled and nodded, saying, "Hmm, it's really authentic. You know how to find a good place."

Fei Zhengyu chuckled, a hint of pride in his voice, and said, "That's right! It's my only survival skill."

As everyone ate and chatted, after a few drinks, the initial awkwardness gradually dissipated.

Fei Zhengyu then began to recount the interesting stories that happened in his girl-themed card game studio, such as how the beautiful girls drawn by a certain programmer artist always had a strange flirtatious vibe, and how during testing, a character card was found to have turned into a male character.

Cheng Yi listened quietly, occasionally interjecting with a joke, but mostly just watching the lively scene before him.

One beer after another, and bamboo skewers piled up on the table.

Sun Baxin had probably drunk a bit too fast, and he let out a loud burp, which made Su Duo give him a push in disgust, making him laugh out loud.

Fei Zhengyu and Li Xiaoya were talking in hushed tones. The girl blushed slightly and nodded gently.

After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, they walked out along the narrow alleys of the urban village. On both sides were densely packed buildings that were close together, with lights shining from the windows of each household. Occasionally, in the narrow, empty alleys, one could see a scantily clad, heavily made-up woman leaning against a wall, seemingly waiting for her ideal husband.

The air was filled with a mixture of cooking fumes, musty smells, and an unknown, subtle fragrance.

"Boss, look." As they walked down the slightly wider alley in the urban village, Fei Zhengyu pointed to an inconspicuous internet cafe not far ahead and said, "Isn't Audition Online not allowed in internet cafes? Why does that internet cafe still have Audition Online?"

Fei Zhengyu turned to look at Cheng Yi and Sun Baxin and said, "How about we go online for a while? We can also see what Audition Online is like."

“This is an illegal internet cafe. The environment inside is terrible.” Su Duo frowned and said, “A lot of illegal internet cafes have sprung up recently. Why don’t the regulatory authorities do something about it?”

"If the water is too clear, there will be no fish." Cheng Yi laughed. "These kinds of things are like hair salons; their existence is justified, and it's unlikely that you can completely eliminate them."

“Yes,” Fei Zhengyu said, “This is also a way for the locals to generate revenue. Once they have made enough money, they will come and impose a hefty fine on them, and then let them continue to operate. In fact, if you think about it carefully, the money they have been fined over time is enough to open a legitimate chain of internet cafes or buy a license.”

"Are you going or not?" Fei Zhengyu asked again.

“Go ahead,” Sun Baxin chimed in. “I like the environment of internet cafes. Back in the day, I would spend the whole night in those shady internet cafes in the county town, surrounded by smoke and flames, just to play a few rounds of StarCraft. Thinking about it now, the environment was really awful, but the feeling was definitely exhilarating. Now, even though I have my own internet cafe with top-of-the-line computers, I can’t find that kind of joy again.”

Sun Baxin sighed.

Upon hearing Sun Baxin's words, Cheng Yi immediately said, "That's easy. I'll just shut down your internet cafe and replace it with a dirty and chaotic illegal one."

"Huh?" Sun Baxin was dumbfounded.

Su Duo put her hands on her hips and looked at Sun Baxin, scoffing, "You too, why are you showing off in front of President Cheng for no reason?"

"It's just a spontaneous thought," Sun Baxin sighed. "Actually, I prefer the current internet cafes; they're like my child."

Seeing that even the sharp-tongued Sun Bayin was bowing down for a pittance, Cheng Yi couldn't help but laugh.

"Brother Chengyi, are you going?" Fei Zhengyu asked Chengyi.

Cheng Yi laughed and said, "I'm fine with anything. If you're willing to go, then go in and take a look."

"Let's go! Let's go online!" Fei Zhengyu shouted, as if he had returned to his freshman year of college.

Pushing open the glass door, a stench mixed with cheap air freshener and the smell of heat dissipation from electronic devices hit me.

The expected smoky scene did not appear; instead, a sign was prominently displayed on the wall that read, "No Smoking, Violators Will Be Fined 50 Yuan."

The internet cafe was much cleaner than I had imagined. Although the lighting was dim, the floor was relatively clean, and the computers, though not high-spec, were arranged neatly.

It was already past 10 p.m., the peak time for staying up all night.

Looking around, most of the camera positions were occupied, many of whom were students wearing blue and white school uniforms, probably students from the nearby Shinan No. 2 Middle School.

(End of this chapter)