Chapter Thirty-Five: The Poor Relatives of Zhou Jingchen’s Family

This year, during the Spring Festival, Yu Wen's family had no intention of going to Wen Yuniang’s house to endure humiliation. Yu Wen went ahead of time, delivered the New Year’s money and the customary gifts of new clothes and health supplements, then returned home. On the second day, with nothing to do, the three of them simply stayed at home with Grandpa and Grandma, passing the time watching television and playing cards.

Yu Qian found a new amusement for herself. Perhaps influenced by the Spring Festival Gala, the Six Realms also launched a live broadcast of Spring Festival performances, accessible to anyone with a phone. The six divine lords joined forces to open a new space, where all those who signed up for the program could perform or watch. There were so many applicants that a large number of programs were filtered out just from their unreliable-sounding names.

The live broadcast would remain open until the Lantern Festival, with performances continuing non-stop every day. Yu Qian was dazzled by the variety. In the Immortal Realm, immortal maidens sang and danced; in the Demon Realm, transformed and untransformed little demons showcased their talents; in the Underworld, ghosts who refused reincarnation told stories; even the Devil Realm gathered a bunch of devil cultivators to perform fights. Only the Divine Realm did not participate, for now it was occupied solely by Pangu—surely it was impossible to ask him to lower his status and perform.

As for the Human Realm, there were only two representatives: Fuxi and Yu Qian. Fuxi could not participate in performances, so Yu Qian took the stage herself. She guessed that the inhabitants of the Six Realms had never seen a jazz dance from the Human Realm, so she donned casual clothes and performed “Naughty Girl.” The song was by the famous singer Beyoncé from Country M—a tune full of exotic flair. The entire dance was passionate and expressive, opening a new world for the immortals, demons, devils, and ghosts watching the broadcast.

Yu Qian, who was happily celebrating the festival, had already forgotten about Zhou Jingchen, until the eighth day of the lunar month when she saw him in the news. The report said that his relative had gambled, incurred high-interest debts, and went to him for money. When he refused, they smashed up the lobby of Yunzhu Tower. Zhou Jingchen called the police and had them sent to the station, and the incident was caught by a reporter working overtime for the holiday, landing it in the news.

[Aquatic Fish]: “He’s so pitiful, he has such shameless relatives too.”

Oh, daughter, that family’s gambling and loan troubles were all orchestrated by that big-tailed wolf! What are you feeling sorry for! Fuxi, who knew the whole story, wanted to tell her, but ever since Nüwa kept trying to intervene and was struck by heavenly lightning, he’d become too frightened to say anything. He angrily tossed his phone aside and went to sleep with Nüwa.

No more watching, the more he saw, the angrier he got.

In the news, Zhou Jingchen appeared cold and impatient—nothing like his gentle demeanor in person. Yet, seeing his face, Yu Qian still felt her heart flutter.

...

After sending someone to the police station, the punishment for disturbing public order was fifteen days of detention. But Zhou Jingchen still felt unsatisfied. If his relative still had the energy to cause trouble, clearly the pressure wasn’t enough!

"Cheng, it seems the lesson you gave their family wasn’t harsh enough. They still have the nerve to make trouble, and now it’s even on the news!" He took out his phone and contacted Cheng.

"Apologies, it seems we didn’t do a thorough job here. Since we promised to make sure they could never recover, we’ll make good on it. Rest assured," Cheng replied, frustrated. He’d never seen people who, pushed to the brink by loan sharks, nearly sold their daughters, yet still found the energy to make trouble.

He contacted another group. Once they were released, if necessary, let them sell themselves or break their hands. If they went out causing trouble again, it would damage Cheng’s reputation.

Zhou Jingchen transferred another sum to Cheng, saying it was for his brothers to buy drinks after the job was done. Cheng felt this was a man who knew how things worked, but the transfer account and phone number couldn’t be traced, otherwise he would have wanted to befriend him.

This Spring Festival, the programming department was on rotating leave. While waiting for the new platform to launch, they squashed bugs and expanded the server capacity to avoid a crash from heavy traffic.

Zhou Jingchen checked everything carefully; nothing major came up, so he organized a team meal.

On the first day of the new year, everyone at Yunzhu, except those who didn’t want to join, went out for the dinner. Watching their lively antics, Zhou Jingchen began planning the next project.

He bought the copyright for “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio” because, in his previous life, he had played a game called “Ethereal Beauty.” This game, developed by YiNet, used the story of “Ethereal Beauty” as its main storyline and other tales from “Strange Tales” as side quests—a classical fantasy MMORPG.

The game wasn’t particularly popular in his previous life, but its background framework was excellent. Most settings could be reused, with only minor details needing adjustment. Game balance had to be maintained; as in his previous life, simply adding new classes would only drive players away rather than attract them.

Main storylines, side quests, character settings spun in his mind. To avoid forgetting anything, Zhou Jingchen pulled out a notebook from his bag and wrote down every idea. He wanted to see the planning department’s proposal first; if he could come up with something better, he wouldn’t use their design. If not, he’d stick to it. Although he felt bad about taking over a partner’s project, he needed to make money and could only apologize to YiNet in his heart. Besides, YiNet held shares in the company, so even if Yunzhu seized the game, they’d profit too.

On the Lantern Festival, Yu Qian met Wen Xiu, the clay doll with her mother’s surname. She checked Wen Xiu’s ID—a girl of eighteen, an adult.

She took her to open a bank account, transferred a million to her, and instructed her to rent an apartment near the provincial securities office, using the rest of the money as practice funds.

...

Wen Xiu liked spicy food, so she joined Yu Qian for a fish hotpot, then followed her instructions to the provincial capital. Yu Qian believed Wen Xiu would manage well—after all, she was molded by Nüwa herself and enlightened by Fuxi. If she couldn’t handle such a small matter, it would be a disgrace to them.

With that done, Yu Qian went home for dumplings.

After the Lantern Festival, school resumed. Yu Qian returned to her busy routine, attending classes seven days a week. Her days were regular, except for occasional competitions and frequent bulk snack shopping—no other activities.

Those watching her found it boring; their daily reports to the boss were always the same, yet the boss listened with delight. They truly couldn’t understand.

What puzzled them even more was where all Yu Qian’s food went! Every few days she’d buy huge bags of snacks, yet she never gained weight. They couldn’t figure out where it all went—was her stomach a bottomless pit?

...

On the Lantern Festival, Yunbo officially launched. Registrations nearly crashed the servers, and only vigilant maintenance kept things running.

Yu Wen specially selected an elite from the publicity department to manage the official blog of "Pink Beauties."

Seeing the official blog launch, Yu Qian quickly recorded a video at home that night. In the video, she illustrated all the ancient costumes she’d worn before, then wrote "Pink Beauties," edited and posted it, tagging the official account.

The official blog was cheeky, reposting it with the comment: “Kneeling in thanks to the little princess for her illustrations.”

This playful move led to Yu Qian being discovered, but thanks to Yu Wen and his wife’s careful protection, combined with Zhou Jingchen’s efforts to hide Yu Qian’s personal information behind the scenes, netizens couldn’t dig up much.

In the end, the official blog responded: “Yes, the lovely Qian Qian you adore is our Pink Beauties’ little princess—beautiful, talented, with excellent grades and personality. Everyone in our company absolutely adores her~”

This slick operation led to Yu Qian’s Weibo being verified. Yes, verified! Not by her own initiative!

Not her choice!