Only After I Was Reborn Did I Realize That I Had Childhood Sweethearts

Chapter 61: School Begins

The next day, Lin Youxi and Xia Yuan packed up and went home. After that, they came to Mei Fang’s house again to finish watching Silent Hill.

Although this movie was indeed scary, the content of the bet was to scare the other person to tears. In order to win the bet and make Mei Fang grant one of her wishes, Xia Yuan resorted to closing her eyes, blocking her ears, or simply fixing her gaze on Mei Fang. Although she was still scared, she was far from being scared to tears.

Only the honest Lin Youxi continued to watch the movie seriously. Mei Fang was afraid of being pinched this time, so he deliberately placed Xia Yuan in the middle. Lin Youxi would not pinch Xia Yuan like she did to Mei Fang. In the end, Mei Fang discovered Lin Youxi wiping her tears and had to admit defeat.

According to the previous bet, Lin Youxi lost and had to make lunch for Mei Fang every day until Xiang Xiaoxia returned.

As for Xia Yuan’s wish, it was quite interesting. She chose to protect Lin Youxi as she did when they were kids, asking Mei Fang to stop punishing Lin Youxi.

I somewhat expected this…

Mei Fang’s solitary summer vacation flew by.

Although it was called ‘solitary’, Lin Youxi and Xia Yuan would constantly knock on his door during these two months. Mei Fang was too lazy to get up early to open the door, so he gave them a key to come and go as they pleased.

Lin Youxi and Xia Yuan didn’t always come to play with Mei Fang. Both of them had the habit of waking up early. Xia Yuan would come over early in the morning to study, while Lin Youxi was enthusiastic about trying various dishes and let Mei Fang and Xia Yuan taste her cooking. It was practically no different from fulfilling the bet.

They also played games together at home. Xia Yuan would go home at this time because her family also bought a computer, and Lin Youxi would play with her at Mei Fang’s house.

While playing, they would even open QQ video chats, playing games and video chatting at the same time, which brought unique joy to these two girls.

They also played the Little Tyrant game console that Mei Fang bought for Mei Ya. The experience of using the gamepad opened up a new world for them. Even a game like Contra^[1] could keep them entertained for an entire afternoon. Mei Fang thought that when they were a little older, they could buy a real game console and strive to improve their game aesthetics so as not to go astray.

As for the “Flappy Bird” game project that Mei Fang had been thinking about since the beginning of spring, after finding some simple art outsourcing online, he published and submitted it on some Chinese gaming websites, such as 3DM^[2] and Sina Games.^[3]

As for the results of the submission, naturally not many people paid attention to it, and most of the comments were negative.

【Who dares to call this a game? It’s garbage.】

【I’ve played flash games on 4388^[4] that are more fun than this.】

【It’s a scam for ad money, don’t click.】

It seems my marketing strategy was off.

Mei Fang also seriously reviewed it afterwards. Most of the users on these well-known gaming websites were used to playing AAA games and had high standards.

If I really want to promote it, I need to create buzz on mobile platforms. The target audience for Flappy Bird is primarily potential players who don’t play games much, so there’s no need to get discouraged.

Then Mei Fang did some research and discovered that Unity on the iOS platform was already supported in 2008. So he began working on creating an iOS version, hoping to get a piece of the cake on the App Store.

Lin Youxi still hasn’t told Mei Fang about the specific thing she’s saving money to buy that she mentioned to him in the early spring. It seems that she hasn’t achieved her goal yet and still busy earning money through account boosting.

Under Mei Fang’s guidance, she also learned how to write scripts for automated operations and created some alt accounts to support her main account, which is something Mei Fang had been doing before.

And finally, September 1st arrived, the day when elementary and middle schools started.

Mei Fang finally made it to middle school. Mei Lijun, his father, was very happy and took a day off to accompany his children to enroll.

“Why do you have such a gloomy face? You are a middle school student now, you should be energetic and cheerful.”

Mei Lijun reminded Mei Fang, who was sitting in the back row. Mei Fang disdainfully replied, “Don’t you know that it’s very disrespectful to honk loudly in the neighborhood? Don’t always show off. Although you are just a small-time official, you are still a leader now, so pay attention to your public image.”

“That’s right, Dad is really embarrassing.” Mei Ya followed up with a piercing remark.

Mei Lijun looked sad, “It’s fine since Mei Fang is going through a rebellious phase, but why is Little Ya not being my little cotton-padded jacket anymore?”

“Drive properly, stop looking around all the time.”

In the end, Mei Lijun was also scolded by his wife, Xiang Xioaxia.

Mei Lijun planned to first take his wife and daughter to enroll for elementary school, and then take his son to middle school. They had just left the neighborhood when they saw Lin Youxi and her father standing on the side of the street. Lin Youxi was standing aside while her father was squatting on the ground, adjusting a motorcycle.

After being reminded by Mei Fang and Mei Ya, Mei Lijun parked the car and rolled down the window to talk to Lin Youxi and her father, “Lao Lin, is your motorcycle broken?”

Lin Youxi’s father stood up and greeted Mei Fang’s family, quickly wiping the oil on his nose, “It has been running fine all this time, but today it won’t start.”

Mei Fang, sitting in the back row, also rolled down the window, “Uncle Lin, why don’t you put the motorcycle aside and fix it later? Come sit in our car and go enroll Youxi first.”

“That’s not necessary, it would disturb your family.”

Lin Youxi’s father smiled and said, “I’ll take a taxi with Youxi later.”

“Hey, Lao Lin. Why are you being so formal? There’s still space in the car, we’re all going to school for enrollment anyway, let’s go together.”

“Come on, Lao Lin, or you’re going to be late for enrollment.

“Sister Youxi, come on, sit next to me!”

So the Lin family got into Mei Lijun’s car, and Mei Ya grabbed Lin Youxi’s hand and asked her to sit next to her, “Sister Youxi, I’m in second grade now!”

“Yes, you’re amazing.”

Lin Youxi patted Mei Ya’s head. The two of them had a very good relationship. On the other hand, Lin Youxi’s father seemed somewhat uncomfortable, as he kept looking at the scenery outside the window.

Mei Fang’s parents and Lin Youxi’s father were already familiar, and as soon as they got in the car, Xiang Xiaoxia and Mei Lijun started chatting with him warmly.

From their previous conversations and Lin Youxi’s descriptions, Mei Fang also learned a lot of information.

Lin Youxi’s father, Lin Guochuan, worked on construction sites all year round, but he was not a construction worker on the site. He was a site engineer, responsible for directing construction and coming up with on-site plans.

Although this kind of technical work was hard, the salary in 2008 was relatively high compared to other industries. This was one of the reasons why so many people chose to study civil engineering early on. So, logically, Lin Youxi’s family wasn’t considered very poor.

However, Lin Youxi’s family had other worries.

As they continued their conversation, Mei Lijun brought up one of these worries.

“Oh, speaking of it… Does your little brother-in-law still ask you for money all the time?”

Lin Guochuan smiled bitterly and shook his head, “Don’t even mention it.”

Xiang Xiaoxia said indignantly, “I heard that guy is idle all day, playing cards in the gambling house every day. It’s fine to help him once or twice, but you can’t support him for the rest of his life!”

“When his sister was alive, he was relatively well-behaved. Now that there’s no one in their family to keep him in check, he’s become unruly.”

Lin Guochuan shook his head, “It’s just that, seeing him as the only one left in the family, and I’m his only brother-in-law, I feel a little obligated to look out for him.”

“In my opinion, you’re just too honest.”

Mei Lijun added, “With your experience on the construction site, you should have been promoted long ago, but you don’t compete with others. And your little brother-in-law received so much compensation when his sister passed away. You shouldn’t have given him any! If your family was better off, you would have more time to spend with Youxi and buy her more beautiful clothes.”

“Yes, you’re right…”

Lin Guochuan smiled and nodded, not refuting Mei Lijun’s words. Meanwhile, Youxi, who was sitting next to him, kept fidgeting with her hands and had a lonely and disheartened expression on her face.

Xiang Xiaoxia, who saw this scene in the rearview mirror, quickly interrupted Mei Lijun’s words, “Stop talking for a while, it won’t hurt you. You act like you’re so capable, but you’ve been in Baizhou City for three years and haven’t achieved anything.”

“The higher-ups haven’t stepped down, so I don’t have any promotion opportunities. Besides, I—”

“Dad, focus on driving.”

Mei Fang interrupted, “We’re in a hurry to enroll!”

“Alright. I get it, I get it!”

At this point, only one person in the car was unhappy.

And a very unhappy one.

Translator's Notes:

Contra by Konami – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_(video_game)↩︎

3DM was a Chinese video game piracy group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3DM↩︎

Sina Games – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sina_Corporation↩︎

It’s 4399 is a Chinese website where you can play games on your browser – https://www.4399.com↩︎

Only After I Was Reborn Did I Realize That I Had Childhood Sweethearts

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