Only After I Was Reborn Did I Realize That I Had Childhood Sweethearts -
Chapter 10: Mei Fang’s Ambition
After slapping his father, Mei Fang became much more awake. Under the urging of his father, Mei Lijun, he took out a hidden lottery ticket from his picture book. Mei Lijun carefully checked the betting information on the ticket.
“Brazil, Germany, Turkey, South Korea, you actually guessed the rankings correctly… You really are our family’s lucky star. It’s not an exaggeration to call you ‘Dad’ today!” After he got slapped by his filial son, Mei Lijun didn’t even blame him, but hugged him tightly instead, and was pushed away by the disgusted Mei Fang.
“Dad, calm down. Don’t make a scene like Fan Jinzhongju[1]. I can’t handle it.”
“Fan Jinzhongju? Did you learn this in kindergarten?”
Upon hearing this, Mei Fang immediately imitated Conan’s voice[2] and acted dumb.
“It’s… it’s that, the ancient story our teacher told us, teaching us not to panic when facing difficulties, and to stay calm and avoid excessive joy leading to sorrow.”
“Good son, give the lottery ticket to Dad for safekeeping. Dad will help you claim the prize tomorrow.”
Mei Lijun, who was overjoyed, didn’t pay attention to his son suddenly using a series of idioms. He rubbed his hands and wanted to take the ticket from Mei Fang’s hand, but Mei Fang held onto it tightly.
“I will definitely give it to Dad, but Dad, you have to promise me a few conditions first.”
“Sure, tell me! Do you want to buy something? What toys do you want? Where do you want to go? I’ll take you shopping and play tomorrow!”
“It’s not about that.”
Mei Fang said seriously, “I want you to promise me that this winning will not be disclosed to others. If relatives and friends find out, they will probably come to borrow money from us.”
“You little devil, you can think that far? But indeed… many people on TV end up ruined after winning the lottery. Don’t worry, this kind of guessing prize usually doesn’t have much money. I won’t tell anyone outside.”
“Secondly, the thing I want you to buy for me… is a home computer.”
“A computer? You’re still so young, what do you need a home computer for?” Mei Lijun was puzzled.
“Teacher Li said that the 21st century is the century of computers. I’m very interested in computers. I absolutely can’t fall behind at the starting line.” Mei Fang said earnestly.
“Hahaha, okay, okay, I’ll take you to buy a computer tomorrow.”
Mei Lijun didn’t think much about it. He guessed that this son probably saw another child’s computer at their house and wanted to buy one too. “Good boy, give the lottery ticket to Dad first.”
“After buying the computer, I’ll give you the ticket.”
“You brat! How can you not have any trust in your own father?”
“Don’t you still have to convince Mom?”
When Xiang Xiaoxia learned that her son had won a big prize with the lottery ticket he bought, her first reaction was to beat her husband for corrupting their son. But despite the beating, she was also very happy about this unexpected windfall.
And when she heard that her son wanted to buy a computer for studying, she, who is usually stingy, didn’t care whether her son was talking nonsense and agreed on the spot.
After reserving a computer at the computer store, the family of three went to the lottery shop together to confirm the exciting first prize for this round.
The prize money for a single bet is a little over 140,000 yuan, and after deducting taxes, it is estimated that they can receive a little over 500,000 yuan.
Even in the present year of 2002, several hundred thousand yuan still cannot help Mei Fang and his family improve their social status. For Mei Fang, it is just a small attempt.
He wouldn’t have imagined how much this money would change his life’s circumstances this time.
Mei Fang cannot directly persuade his parents to use this money to buy a house in Pengcheng[3], thousands of miles away. However, they might consider buying a house in Jiangcheng, so he will mention it to his family at an appropriate time.
Prizes exceeding 10,000 yuan need to be redeemed at the provincial prize redemption center. After confirming the winning amount at the lottery shop, the family strolled leisurely back home together.
After closing the door, Mei Fang’s parents started to hysterically shout and kiss Mei Fang repeatedly, turning him into a blushing cat.
In fact, Mei Fang couldn’t save tens of thousands of yuan in a year in 2022. According to reason, he should be very excited after winning the prize. However, the madness displayed by his parents after winning the prize forced him to remain calm.
This rebirth hasn’t even started yet, so he can’t mess it up like this…
“Can you please calm down? I’m really scared.”
Mei Fang pretended to look frightened and said, “I don’t think 500,000 yuan is a lot. Xia Yuan said her family’s small villa costs one million. You must listen to me and not tell anyone in the family. I saw on TV…”
“We know, we know… We are adults, how could we be so immature as to show off everywhere?”
Xiang Xiaoxia pinched her son’s cheek, “Speaking of which, since we’re going to Jiangcheng to redeem the prize, how about taking a vacation there after Mei Fang graduates?”
“Good idea, it’s been a long time since the two of us went to Jiangcheng… The last time we went to Jiangcheng was when we were dating…”
“I really didn’t expect that so many years have passed in the blink of an eye… Xiaoxia, you’ve worked hard these years too.”
Mei Fang felt very uncomfortable seeing his parents’ affectionate appearance, so he suggested trying out the computer that had already been set up at home.
In 2002, a home computer was still a rare item in Baimei County. Even wealthy families like Xia Yuan’s never thought of getting a computer. Mei Fang can be said to be ahead of his time.
This home computer has a 17-inch monitor, an antique rollerball mouse, 256MB of RAM, a 40GB hard drive, a GF400MX graphics card, and only 64MB of video RAM.
Specs like this were considered relatively high-end in the year of 2002. Mei Li spent 4000 yuan to get it.
Mei Fang specifically reminded the shop owner to install the latest Windows XP instead of 98, as he had no concept of the 98 operating system.
The reason why Mei Fang gave up on getting the money and chose a computer instead was because he had his own purpose; this brings us to Mei Fang’s previous job.
In his previous life, he was the chief game director of a game company.
The three basic types of game development personnel are programmers, game designers, and artists. Among them, game designers are the most criticized by players, and the game director is generally close to the role of a project manager.
But although Mei Fang was called the chief game director, he was also given the title of “executor”, essentially making him a tool for the game designers in the project team.
He had to do everything from configuring database, pulling values, improving aesthetics, designing interfaces, and almost all the troublesome tasks.
But in reality, he didn’t have much decision-making power when it came to gameplay design, because the producer was his boss, and he had to plan according to what the boss said. For this reason, he had to do boring pay-to-win gameplay that he didn’t want to do.
This situation became even more severe in the internet winter of 2022, and many people were laid off from the project team, leaving Mei Fang to handle the overwhelming workload alone.
In order to complete all the work within the scheduled timeframe, he worked day and night, finally welcoming this rebirth opportunity.
But Mei Fang always loved the game industry.
In his previous life, Mei Fang didn’t have the opportunity to create the games he liked. In this life, he didn’t have to work like a horse for his boss and could freely create the games he wanted.
Therefore, one major difference between him and other reborn individuals is that…
Whether Mei Fang can create a hit game and earn a lot of money from the game industry, he doesn’t really care.
After all, he was reborn early and there are so many opportunities for him to seize.
Mei Fang can easily ride the wave of Bitcoin, there are still several rounds of the World Cup, although he doesn’t remember the rankings, he knows who the champion is. In addition, there are stocks from Maotai[4] and Ningde Era[5] waiting to be invested in.
In short, the earlier he gets a home computer, the better. With the internet as a cover, it will be more convenient for him to do things.
After all, in reality, what persuasive power does a five-year-old child have?
Translator’s Notes:
- Fan Jinzhongju (范进中举) is a character from the satirical novel “The Scholars” written by Wu Jingzi in the Qing Dynasty. A scholar who, after achieving success in the imperial examination, became arrogant and boastful. It’s often used to describe someone who becomes conceited after a small achievement. (ref:https://baike.baidu .com/item/ 范进中举/6624565) ↩︎
- Conan acting like a child: https://www. youtube.com/watch ?v=eeBE8iQqWZQ↩︎
- Pengcheng is probably Shenzhen. But I’m not quite sure, tbh. ↩︎
- Maotai or Moutai is a distilled Chinese liquor (spirit), made in the town of Maotai in China’s Guizhou province. (ref:https://en. wikipedia.org /wiki/Maotai) ↩︎
- Ningde Era (CATL) is a Chinese battery manufacturer and technology company (ref:https://en. wikipedia.org /wiki/CATL) ↩︎
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