Chapter 26
Stepping out of Ye Zhenzhen's room, he found the living room empty. The sound of Lao Gu and Aunt Ye talking came from the master bedroom. Knowing that the two were also packing, he turned and went back to his own room.
Sitting at his desk, he immersed himself in the world of code. After a few days of patient output, the source code for Temple Run was finally complete.
Now, all he had to do was fill in the details, test the program's fluidity, check for bugs, and finally add the art assets and sound effects.
He estimated the time. If all went well, the full version of the game would be released in about three months.
Of course, his chosen launch platform was iOS. He would release it overseas first, and then introduce it domestically.
As for Android, he planned to wait until smartphones became more widespread in China before launching it on Android channels.
With a clear plan for the future in his mind, he was constantly motivated, striving to create a second game and establish a company before going to college.
Once he went to college, he would choose a location for the company, start recruiting staff, and ramp up production.
Build brand awareness in the first year, surpass other game companies in the second year to become the top tier in the mobile game industry, and challenge Tencent in the third year...
As for romance... what romance? He had been reborn! What decent person bothers with romance? Making money is the real deal!
As long as you drive a Porsche Cayenne well, your babe will always be a high school senior!
It's not that I don't have feelings for you, it's just that you don't drive a Porsche!
Having set these grand goals in his heart, he was full of fighting spirit, his hands typing so fast on the keyboard they left afterimages.
Suddenly, Ye Shulian's voice came from outside the door.
"Xiao Ran, Zhenzhen, do you want to go to the mall to buy some things?"
As soon as she finished speaking, Ye Zhenzhen's voice followed closely, "I won't go, Mom. Ask Gu Ran."
Gu Ran stopped typing, feeling a slight headache because he didn't want to go out either. After all, he still had to make money to buy a Porsche.
But then he remembered that he still owed her a plush toy. He sighed helplessly, saved his work, and pushed the door open to walk out.
"Aunt Ye, I'll go."
Seeing that he was tagging along, Gu Xiangcheng was taken aback for a moment but didn't say anything, just nodded. The three of them quickly left the house.
Inside her room, listening to the sound of the three leaving, Ye Zhenzhen paused her pen, finding it somewhat funny that Gu Ran was tagging along to be a third wheel.
Bah, what a kiss-up. Tagging along the moment her mom called, without even considering if it was appropriate!
The corners of her mouth curled up slightly. Imagining Gu Ran acting as a third wheel while the two of them shopped at the mall made her inexplicably happy.
What a big fool. How could that be better than staying home and studying?
...
Gu Ran naturally knew he was going as a third wheel. The two of them usually had to work, so they didn't have much time alone together. He understood this well.
So on the way to the mall, sitting in the back seat, he spoke up to Ye Shulian, "Aunt Ye, I'll just buy something and leave. You and my dad can walk around by yourselves later."
Hearing this, Ye Shulian was a bit surprised. She turned around and smiled, asking, "Aren't you going to walk around with us?"
"No, I need to hurry back and study."
Hearing this answer, the smile on Ye Shulian's face grew even wider. She held his hand and nodded repeatedly, saying with gratification, "Studying is good. A child who studies seriously is a good child. Remember to ask your Sister if there's anything you don't understand."
"Mhm, I will definitely go ask Sister."
Listening to their conversation, Gu Xiangcheng, who was driving in front, hesitated to speak.
But seeing the cheerful atmosphere, after thinking for a long time, he abandoned the idea of saying anything.
He just hoped that this kid going into Zhenzhen's room was truly to ask questions...
Once inside the mall, Gu Ran quickly parted ways with Lao Gu and the others. All alone, he walked briskly straight toward the plush toy section.
Sweeping his gaze over the shelves filled with all kinds of cute plush toys, his eyes were immediately drawn to a black and white panda doll.
For some reason, looking at the charmingly naive panda made him think of Ye Zhenzhen. The corners of his mouth lifting slightly, he reached out and took the panda in front of him to examine it closely.
This toy was nice, but just a bit small. He looked around and finally spotted a giant panda plush toy at the top of the shelf.
Getting a staff member to take down the human-sized toy, he went to the front desk to pay and then quickly left the mall.
Returning home, Gu Ran hugged the plush toy and gently knocked on Ye Zhenzhen's bedroom door.
From the moment he opened the front door, the young girl inside the room had heard the noise he made. She just hadn't expected that the first thing he would do upon returning was knock on her door.
With a look of confusion, she put down her pen, got up from the desk, and walked to the door.
As soon as she opened the door, a giant panda plush toy appeared right in front of her, giving her a sudden start.
But after reacting, she was delighted. Pushing aside the panda's head and seeing Gu Ran behind it, she couldn't help but laugh and ask.
"You went to the mall just to buy this?"
"Yeah, didn't I promise you at noon that I'd buy you another one?"
Gu Ran blinked and replied to her question with a similar smile.
He then carried the huge toy into the room, removed the packaging bag, and placed it on the already made bed.
Seeing the bear taking up half the bed, Ye Zhenzhen smiled, reaching out to helplessly massage her forehead.
"It didn't need to be this big. How am I supposed to sleep when it takes up so much space?"
"Isn't there still half left? Or are you a restless sleeper?"
"Bah, you're the restless one!"
Ye Zhenzhen spat at him playfully, then walked to the bed, bent down, and measured it with her hands. She found that there really was still space, just enough for her to sleep while hugging the big bear.
Thinking this, she stood up, turned to look at Gu Ran, and blinked her eyes with a smile, "Then thank you, little brother Gu Ran."
"No need to thank me, didn't I take one of your little bears too?"
Hearing this, Gu Ran waved his hand. As he spoke, he walked to the desk and looked at the test papers spread out on it, clicking his tongue in amazement.
No wonder this girl could score so high; she was truly a try-hard... uh, hardworking.
Even though they had just finished moving, for her, it was nothing more than changing to a different place to study.
Thinking of this, he shook his head. When someone better than you works even harder than you, how can you ever surpass them?
However, his goal wasn't to surpass Ye Zhenzhen either. As long as he got into a top-tier university in the capital, it would be fine.
"When are you free, Sister?"
He turned around and asked Ye Zhenzhen, an obedient smile blooming on his face.
"What do you want?"
Ye Zhenzhen looked defensive, feeling that this smile didn't mean anything good.
Gu Ran really wanted to say something cheeky, but he didn't dare, so he honestly answered, "I want to come look for you to study in a bit. My previous foundation is too poor. Could Sister tutor me a little?"
As soon as she heard it was about studying, Ye Zhenzhen's anxious heart immediately settled down. She reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear and nodded calmly.
"I'm fine whenever. It depends on your time."
"Alright then, I'll go back to my room to get my notes."
Gu Ran nodded with a smile, then walked out the door.
The room suddenly quieted down. Ye Zhenzhen sat quietly at her desk, occasionally turning back to gaze at the panda plush toy lying on the bed.
For some reason, looking at the charmingly naive panda, she thought of Gu Ran, and the loneliness and confusion in her heart from having just moved gradually dissipated...
...
Ten minutes, or perhaps fifteen—Ye Zhenzhen had no idea how long she had been waiting. She only knew that she could no longer focus on the practice problems in front of her.
The tip of her pen scratched across the scrap paper, drawing circle after circle. Resting her chin on her hand, she stared at her bedroom door for a long time, but Gu Ran still had not appeared.
She could not help but feel a surge of annoyance. Did he not say he was coming over to study with her? Was this his attitude toward studying?!
Just as a look of frustrated embarrassment flickered in her usually aloof eyes, she heard a noise coming from the balcony.
She turned her head to look, and her composed face was instantly washed with shock...
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
ver to a world of cultivation and returned invincible. Modern medicine is child's play compared to elixirs; technological might crumbles before true cultivation. My name is Qin Ning, Earth's sole cultivator!
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
