Chapter 92: New Website, 2 Million in Funding

For several days in a row, Cao Sheng did not see Wei Dongming in the classroom.

He did hear from Song Chao that Wei Dongming had moved out of the dormitory, apparently to rent a place off-campus; it seemed no one in the class knew what Wei Dongming had been up to these past few days.

It wasn't until noon a few days later, while Cao Sheng was eating in the cafeteria, that Ai Qian carried her tray over, sat opposite him, and struck up a conversation, allowing him to hear a little news about Wei Dongming from her.

Ai Qian: "Senior, are you eating alone? With so many beauties on campus, haven't you found yourself a girlfriend?"

Cao Sheng smiled, "No time to date."

Ai Qian chuckled, "How can that be? I heard from Wei Dongming that you don't have many classes, so you should have plenty of free time, right?"

She paused, and without waiting for Cao Sheng to reply, she continued: "Oh, I understand, you spend all your other time writing, right? Let me think, you're only a sophomore and you've already written two novels, totaling over a million words, I believe? By that count, you really don't have time for romance! Haha."

Cao Sheng had no interest in this topic, so he followed her lead and asked: "Let me ask you something, has Wei Dongming come to find you these past few days?"

Ai Qian frowned slightly, smiled, and nodded, "Mm, he came to find me once. Why?"

Of course, Cao Sheng wouldn't tell the truth—that he needed information about Wei Dongming to flesh out a character in his new book.

"Just curious. Can you tell me what happened when he came to see you recently? What did he say to you?"

At this moment, Cao Sheng seemed a bit gossipy.

Ai Qian pursed her lips, looked left and right, and seeing no one was paying attention, she said softly: "A few days ago, early in the morning, I had just come out of the dormitory building when I saw him suddenly pop out from the side, which gave me a fright. He was wearing a hat and a mask. I was hungry at the time and was just about to go out for breakfast when he suddenly blocked my path and confessed to me, saying he really liked me and that he had even fought all his roommates for my sake. He even pulled down his mask to show me his face; it was all bruised and swollen. I took one look and didn't dare look again..."

Listening to Ai Qian's description, Cao Sheng already had new inspiration.

He thought: The character based on Wei Dongming shouldn't just fight a group of friends; after the fight, he should go to confess to the beauty he likes while bruised and swollen, and the beauty's reaction at that moment should be that she doesn't dare look at his face, is very hungry, and wants to hurry off to eat breakfast.

Hmm... the identity of this character could be set as a disciple of some academy or sect, and the beauty he likes could be set as a female disciple of that same academy or sect. With that setup, this character could fight all his roommates in the dormitory.

Also...

"Senior? Senior?"

Ai Qian, sitting opposite him, called out to Cao Sheng twice and even waved a hand in front of his eyes.

Cao Sheng snapped back to reality and asked with a smile, "What's wrong?"

Ai Qian: "Senior, that's not very nice, is it? You asked me to tell you about Wei Dongming, but then you started spacing out. By the way, what were you thinking about just now?"

Her eyes were full of curiosity.

Cao Sheng shook his head, "Nothing, just thought of a bit of plot for my new book."

Ai Qian's eyes lit up, "New book? Are you writing a new book again recently? When will it be published?"

Cao Sheng: "Not writing yet, just preparing the outline. It's still a long way from being published!"

Ai Qian: "Oh, I see! By the way, Senior, what was the address of the place you said you rented over on Binjiang Road? When I have time, can I go there to ask you questions about writing?"

Cao Sheng politely declined: "That wouldn't be very appropriate, would it? If you have any questions, you can just find me in the cafeteria or at our class later."

Ai Qian pursed her lips and puffed out her cheeks, looking very dejected.

Days passed one by one.

Every day, Cao Sheng went to school for classes, and at night, he silently typed away at his computer until midnight. His life was peaceful and fulfilling.

Occasionally, Huang Qingya would come to him, and they would take what they needed from each other.

One of them was fully mature, and the other was at the age of peak vitality; it could be said they were well-matched opponents, and every time, they were thoroughly satisfied.

It was very cooling.

When the injuries on Wei Dongming's face had mostly healed, he finally returned to class.

Every time, he sat far away from Cao Sheng, Pang Yunhai, and the others.

The weather was getting colder.

One day while jogging in the morning, Cao Sheng felt the cold wind hitting his lungs like a knife, and he realized that in this season, he should stop morning jogs.

But he didn't want to stop exercising.

So, over the weekend, he went out and bought a set of fitness equipment, placing it in another room on the first floor of his residence.

The first floor had three main rooms: one was partitioned into a dining room, a restroom, and a shower room; one was the main hall; and the third, which used to be a bedroom, was now converted into a gym.

Treadmill, dumbbells, barbell, punching bag, etc.—he bought seven or eight items.

While out buying the fitness equipment, he also took the opportunity to get himself two sets of winter clothes, buying everything from inner layers to outer layers.

He also bought two sets for his parents while he was at it.

This had almost become a habit; every season, when he bought new clothes for himself, he would always think to buy two sets for his parents as well.

This habit was formed before his rebirth.

Back then, he was in his thirties or forties and still unmarried. Every time he went home and saw his parents still wearing their old clothes and shoes, he felt that since he didn't have a wife to help them buy things and they were reluctant to spend money on themselves, he should be responsible for getting them new clothes.

It just so happened that in those years, being unmarried, his income was decent, and he couldn't spend all the royalties he earned by himself, so he gradually developed the habit of buying them clothes.

And now, it seemed he had brought this habit with him.

The peaceful days didn't last long before the final exams arrived.

The semester was coming to an end.

Cao Sheng prepared for a few days and completed his final exams in an orderly fashion.

Before heading home for the New Year, he went out and bought a laptop, spending over ten thousand, planning to take it home to type during the holiday.

The laptop he had been reluctant to buy before, thinking the price-to-performance ratio was too low, he now bought without much hesitation.

Because he had hundreds of thousands in his bank account; he was no longer short of this bit of money.

Besides, by taking a laptop home, he could earn the cost of at least several laptops using it during the New Year.

On the eve of his departure, he was testing his new laptop and, upon logging into his email, saw an email sent by Wang Jing from Banyan Tree.

The content was: "President Cao! I have two pieces of good news to tell you. The first is that, following the three design drafts you gave us, our technical department colleagues have been working overtime, and the new website test version is ready. I've sent you the URL; please try it out and give us your feedback. Thank you for your hard work, hehe.

The second piece of good news is that President Zhu recently secured an investment of 2 million. President Zhu asked me to ask you if you would like to make an additional investment to keep your share percentage unchanged? If you are willing to invest more, President Zhu will contact you personally regarding the details.

——Wang Jing."

The words "President Cao" at the beginning of the email made Cao Sheng pause for a moment before he realized this was Wang Jing's new form of address for him.

Immediately, his interest shifted to the new website for Banyan Tree.

What did the test version of the webpage look like?

Was there a big discrepancy from the design drafts he gave them?

With this curiosity, he clicked on the URL Wang Jing had attached to the email.