Restart life

Chapter 131 0128 [A Class Reunion That Was Talked About by Everyone Even When Absent]

In the past year, agritainment has suddenly become popular.

For our high school reunion, we chose a farmhouse restaurant, located in a rural area near the county seat.

You can pick vegetables in the field or fish in the pond.

Those who arrived early were already fishing by mid-morning.

Li Jun drove his uncle's car out; he had taken his driving test right after finishing his college entrance exams. Actually, not having a driver's license wasn't a big deal; these days, in a small county town, few people bother to check.

He used to be very arrogant, always bragging about how his family were officials, but in reality, his parents were only a section chief and a deputy section chief, respectively.

"Drip!"

Li Jun pulled over to the side of the road, stuck his head out of the window, and shouted, "Squad leader, get in!"

Li Rui walked around to open the car door and sat in the passenger seat: "Not bad, you've even started driving a sedan."

Li Jun boasted, "It's my uncle's car. Now that the real estate industry is booming, he made a lot of money doing earthwork business last year, and he plans to get a new car after the new year, so he just gave this one to me to drive around in."

"Awesome!" Li Rui exclaimed.

Li Jun continued to boast: "Don't underestimate me just because I only went to a junior college. My family had already made arrangements for me. I'll be working at a bank right after graduation, which is why I chose accounting when filling out my college application."

Having studied at Renmin University for half a year, Li Rui now looked down on people like Li Jun even more. But there was no need to start a conflict, so he went along with the latter's words, saying, "You have it so easy. I'm worried about how to find a job after graduation."

"That's right, don't you know how many connections my family has?" Li Jun became even more smug.

Li Rui didn't say anything more, too lazy to chat with Li Jun.

Li Jun, however, was still bragging: "I have a girlfriend now, she's much prettier than Bian Guanyue and Ou Yafei, she's the school beauty!"

Li Rui casually chimed in, "You've achieved success in both love and career; I can only envy you."

"Haha, with my looks and qualifications, I can easily find someone to date," Li Jun said, beaming with pride.

This guy kept babbling on and on, and Li Rui looked down on him even more, offering only a few perfunctory compliments.

After driving for a few minutes, Li Rui pointed to a person riding a bicycle ahead and said, "That's Wang Lei!"

Li Jun stepped forward, honked the horn, rolled down the window, and mocked, "Wang Lei, you're in college now, and you're still riding a bicycle?"

Wang Lei retorted irritably, "What's it to you!"

Li Jun then said, "You rode this bicycle for three years in high school; it's so worn out that even thieves wouldn't bother stealing it. Throw it away, and I'll take you to a farmhouse."

"Stupid."

Wang Lei muttered something to himself and continued pedaling his bicycle.

"Hahahaha!"

Li Jun seemed not to hear the insults and laughed like a madman, believing that he had broken Wang Lei's defenses.

Then he stepped on the gas and instantly overtook Wang Lei, leaving him behind.

Li Rui thought to himself: What are you laughing at? You only went to a lousy junior college, while Wang Lei went to Southwestern University of Finance and Economics.

Before long, they arrived at the farmhouse, and Li Jun deliberately parked the car in a conspicuous place.

Several girls were chatting and eating sunflower seeds in the courtyard, while the boys were fishing in the nearby pond.

"How many people have come?" Li Jun asked.

Wang Siyu said, "Nine, plus you, that makes eleven."

Qin Shanshan, a second-generation resident of Yantai who chose to repeat her senior year of high school, actually came to the gathering today. While cracking sunflower seeds, she said, "Not bad, Mr. Li, you've even got a car now."

"No problem." That's exactly what Li Jun wanted to hear.

A rural bus pulled over, and Li Yulin and Wang Yu arrived together.

Qin Shanshan was quite surprised: "They're still together?"

Wang Siyu said enviously, "They are a perfect couple. The universities they applied to are right next to each other. They can walk to each other in just a few steps."

Qin Shanshan asked Li Rui, "Class monitor, did you have a boyfriend in college?"

"Studies come first. I'm going to watch them fish." Li Rui didn't want to talk about this topic, so he left after saying that.

One by one, old classmates appeared, and gradually even the teachers arrived.

As soon as the teacher arrived, the boys who had been fishing and the girls who had gone to pick vegetables all returned to chat.

Xu Haibo looked around: "Where are Master Chen and Xie Saobang?"

Wu Meng said, "Master Chen has started a company and is too busy to leave. Xie Yang is also helping out at his company."

Class teacher Liu Shuying asked in surprise, "Isn't Xie Yang studying at Hangzhou Dianzi University?"

Wu Meng said, "I've dropped out of school."

This news surprised everyone.

Li Jun scoffed, "If you don't even go to university, what kind of future will you have?"

Wu Meng said, "As long as Master Chen's company grows big, Xie Yang will be a founding member."

"Do you think everyone can do business?" Li Jun said dismissively.

This guy is interesting. He doesn't read newspapers or go online. He spends all his time playing basketball and dating at school. To this day, he still doesn't know what Chen Guiliang did.

Upon hearing Chen Guiliang's name, class monitor Li Rui quickly opened his bag: "Teacher Liu, Teacher Gao, Teacher Li, this is a gift that Chen Guiliang asked me to give you. He said he was very sorry that he couldn't come back for the gathering this time."

Chinese language teacher Li Zerun laughed and said, "Why would I need him to give it to me? I already bought a set a long time ago."

Political science teacher Gao Zhan examined the cover: "I've heard about it too, but I haven't had a chance to buy it yet. He's doing quite well; three doctoral supervisors wrote prefaces, and a whole bunch of writers recommended it."

Li Jun glanced at it and said, "Nobody reads history books; they won't sell many copies." Wang Lei replied, "These are bestsellers; they're even in the bestseller section of Xinhua Bookstore."

Li Jun wanted to refute, but didn't know how to say it, so he mumbled a few words and then stopped talking.

Zheng Feng sat silently to the side, his feelings towards Chen Guiliang complex: admiration, envy, jealousy... yet he also felt that Chen Guiliang was a good match for Bian Guanyue. The two of them together were at least better than Bian Guanyue having any other boyfriends.

Xu Haibo said, "Master Chen chatted with me on QQ and asked me to register on his Renren (校内网) account. Have you received any messages from him?"

“I registered too,” said a girl named Zhang Yun. “I also got a few roommates involved, and we all played on the school’s intranet. Later, we even created a class group on the intranet.”

“Me too,” Wang Siyu said. “There are a lot of people using Renren.com at our school now, and I was the one who started it in the first place.”

"I was also the first person in our school to use the school's intranet!"

"It seems that Master Chen has sent messages to all his high school classmates."

"He asked us to help him promote it for free!"

"This man has gone from a chivalrous hero to a capitalist."

"..."

The classmates' chatter made Li Jun feel outdated.

What is Renren (校内网)?
It seems to be quite popular.

The growth of registered users on Renren.com did not stop during the winter break; in fact, it accelerated its natural expansion.

It took a full 28 days for the number of registered users to grow from 0 to 1.

It only took 33 days to go from 1 to 10.

Now, another 18 days have passed, and the number of users has increased from 10 to 26. And this is still despite the winter break!

It's like a snowball rolling downhill.

Because the number of users was increasing too quickly, Guo Feng was so alarmed that he urgently expanded the server capacity.

Tencent hasn't launched QQ Zone yet, Sina Blog hasn't launched a campus channel, and Sohu Alumni Network is barely surviving. In the realm of campus social networking, apart from Renren.com, there's no one else that can compete.

(There was a mistake in the previous chapter; Sina Blog hadn't actually launched yet. BlogChina was the popular platform at that time.)
College students have no other choice; once they are "infected" by their classmates, they become glued to the campus network and can't leave.

"Sigh, I really envy you college students. I'm just a high school student, I can't even register for Renren (a Chinese social networking site)." Qin Shanshan said with a mournful tone.

Class teacher Liu Shuying asked, "How's your repeat year going?"

Qin Shanshan said, "You've worked hard enough. Getting into a second-tier university shouldn't be a problem, but getting into a top-tier university is a bit uncertain."

Liu Shuying said, "With your grades, you were already a sure thing to get into a second-tier university. Now that you're repeating a year, don't be as playful as you were last year."

"I know," Qin Shanshan sighed again.

Political science teacher Gao Zhan asked, "What is that school intranet for?"

Li Yulin said, "You can write blogs, upload photos, vote for the school beauty, and create class groups and interest groups. It's really fun, I don't know how Chen Guiliang came up with the idea."

Chinese language teacher Li Runze, who has been reading "Those Things of the Ming Dynasty," joined the conversation, asking, "Can Chen Guiliang become a millionaire like Sina and NetEase, receiving a lot of investment?"

"I don't know," Li Yulin shook his head.

Zhang Yang, a finance student, explained, "For those in the internet industry, you need to look at... well, let's not use jargon. It's about how many people register, their activity level, and their daily pageviews. If these numbers go up, investors will come knocking. Chen Guiliang's Renren.com is definitely worth a lot!"

Li Runze laughed and said, "I thought he was going to pursue academia and become a writer, but he became a boss in less than half a year. Chen Guiliang is indeed very clever."

Gao Zhan said, "I think personality is more important. This kid liked to cause trouble in high school, and Mr. Liu and I have pleaded for him countless times. He's always been like this, outspoken and daring. This personality came in handy when we started the company."

Li Jun sat beside him, feeling increasingly uncomfortable as he listened.

He begged his uncle for a long time before he was finally allowed to borrow the car. Now, nobody cares about his car; everyone is talking about Chen Guiliang.

Depend on!
"Hoo ho ho ho..."

A signature laugh rang out, and Guan Zhiqiang arrived late: "Everyone's here?"

"Why are you here now?"

"You'll have to drink a penalty shot at noon!"

"Yes, punish him by making him drink baijiu (Chinese liquor)."

"..."

Guan Zhiqiang took out two sets of Three Kingdoms Kill from his schoolbag: "This game is really fun, I bought two sets online. We're not playing mahjong today, everyone's playing Three Kingdoms Kill."

"What is this?" Li Jun took the opportunity to change the subject, not wanting everyone to continue talking about Chen Guiliang.

Zheng Feng, who had been silent all along, finally spoke up: "Li Jun, you're not the only one who doesn't know, are you? Chen Guiliang is setting up Renren.com and the card game 'Three Kingdoms Kill,' and he's sent QQ messages to all our old classmates."

Guan Zhiqiang looked like he had just realized something: "Li Jun, so you didn't know all this time? I thought you did, otherwise I would have called you already."

Li Jun's face grew increasingly grim, and he turned around to yell at the owner of the farmhouse restaurant, "Why isn't the food served yet?"

The proprietress explained, "The fish you caught and the vegetables you picked were just washed. I'll go cook them right away."

Liu Shuying said, "No rush, it's not 11 o'clock yet."

Guan Zhiqiang continued, "Let me tell you, Master Chen is incredibly successful now. He even asked me to find a really talented artist at our art academy to create top-tier skins for the online version of Three Kingdoms Kill. I chat with him on QQ often, and his Three Kingdoms Kill game has even started charging for players. I even bought a membership and opened over 60 treasure chests!"

Li Jun became increasingly annoyed and got up to walk towards the pond: "It's still early for dinner, I'd like to borrow one of your fishing rods to go fishing."

"Hohohohohoho..."

Guan Zhiqiang laughed again; he loved seeing Li Jun make a fool of himself.

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(End of this chapter)