This post made Su Ke's heart race all over again. Just thinking about what would happen if someone found out left him at a loss, so he ran to the bathroom, splashed water on his face, and tried hard to calm down..
Then he sat back down at the computer and checked the replies one by one.
"Front row! No pictures, no proof!"
"Second row! Poster, post a photo!"
"You guys above are all scumbags. Big sister, don't be sad. Your little brother will help you find that pervert!"
"Uh, based on the poster's description, why does this sound like she's looking for a boyfriend?"
"What do I do, what do I do? My skin's really fair, and my eyes are bright, but I didn't touch the poster's butt!"
"Quit hiding it, you above! Come on, tell us, how did it feel?"
After reading all the replies, Su Ke had calmed down quite a bit. Thinking back to what had happened, he was certain that nobody else had seen him at the time. But what if he got exposed?
Then he suddenly remembered the new task displayed in the space. He still had to touch her again. Although 200 yuan was very tempting, to avoid getting caught, it seemed he had no choice but to give it up.
Su Ke's family was not well-off. The small shop his parents ran only made enough to get by, and he was about to take the college entrance exam. Paying for university had become the whole family's goal.
His mind was a complete mess. He opened his schoolbag on instinct and pulled out that day's homework. Su Ke's grades were average in his class, but he ranked near the bottom of his year. There were 650 students in the science track, and he was around 500th..
As a result, he could only scribble down answers for many of his assignments, with an accuracy rate below fifty percent. But the complicated math problems that had once stumped him seemed much easier now. It looked like the High School Math Mastery (Beginner) reward really worked.
By the time Su Ke had finished all his homework, his parents had just opened the front door.
At the dinner table, although his parents had been busy all day, they showed no sign of exhaustion. Su Ke lowered his head as he ate and said, "Mom, Dad, I found 300 yuan today!"
Su Ke's mother was named Zhang Xue. She was just over forty, but years of hard work had already brought wrinkles to the corners of her eyes. Still, when she smiled, he could see the grace she must have had in her youth. She set down her chopsticks and looked at Su Ke. "You found money? Su Ke, you didn't find it in our shop, did you? We're all neighbors in the same complex. It wouldn't be good if someone came looking for it!"
"Mom, I didn't find it in the shop. I found it on the road after school. Really!" Su Ke could have kept it to himself, but those three hundred yuan were almost enough to cover two months of meals. At the very least, they would ease the burden on his family a little.
"Really?" Zhang Xue asked, still doubtful.
"Come on, honey, don't be so suspicious. If Su Ke says he found it on the road, then he found it on the road. Are you going to make him hand it over to the police, too? These days, handing it over to the police is worse than—" When he saw Zhang Xue glaring at him, Su Ke's father hurriedly stopped himself. "Eat, eat!"
Su Ke's father was named Su Youfu. Although he was around the same age as Su Youpeng of the Little Tigers, his circumstances were completely different. At just forty-three, Su Ke's father looked much older than his age. The years had etched lines across his face, and his once-black hair was now streaked with gray.
After dinner, Su Ke pretended to review his lessons. But his mind was full of thoughts about butts, and rewards, and all sorts of things. He couldn't concentrate at all, so he took a shower and went straight to bed.
The room was pitch-black, but Su Ke wasn't the least bit sleepy. Too many unexpected things had happened that day. Although the Flower Picking System had appeared in his mind five days ago, this was the first time he had completed a task and received the promised reward.
He closed his eyes and entered the system space in his mind. The text on the electronic screen still read:
"Task: Touch Li Feifei's butt; Reward: 200 yuan."
"Anyone there?" Su Ke called out.
No one answered.
"No customer service! Surely there's a help option?" Su Ke examined the strange electronic screen from top to bottom, but besides the task displayed on it, there was nothing at all.
The more he thought about it, the more agitated he became. He sat bolt upright and looked at the moonlight spilling through the window into the dark room, turning the floor silvery white. Without realizing it, he felt calm and at ease.
"Phew!" He let out a breath and opened the door to use the bathroom. But as he passed his parents' bedroom, he heard them talking softly inside.
"Have you worked it out, honey?" Su Ke's father spoke in a low voice, but in the quiet of the night, Su Ke could still hear him clearly.
"Mm! Seventy-eight yuan and twenty cents!" His mother, Zhang Xue, sounded a little down. "Everything's getting more expensive lately. Business is hard!"
A daily profit of seventy-eight yuan and twenty cents might have sounded like a lot, but when they did the math, it came to less than three thousand yuan a month. The couple worked tirelessly and never had a day off.
It sounded like his parents had run out of things to say, and silence fell over the room. Standing outside, Su Ke felt gloomy too. He was just about to step away quietly when his father spoke again. "It's all right. Business will pick up after a while. The other day, I heard Old Zhang say how much it costs to send his kid to college!"
"Yeah, I've asked around. College costs over ten thousand yuan a year now. I wonder what kind of school our Su Ke will get into." At the thought of Su Ke, Zhang Xue's voice softened.
"Don't put too much pressure on him. As long as he does his best, that's enough. They're always talking on TV about how stressful everything is, and how someone jumped off a building. It's terrifying!" Su Youfu shifted and put an arm around Zhang Xue's shoulders. "I think if Su Ke gets a score above the cutoff for a third-tier university, we should let him go to college."
"A third-tier university? Tuition alone is ten thousand yuan a year, not counting other expenses!" Zhang Xue had clearly looked into it too and answered at once.
"With a college degree, he'll have a better chance of finding a decent job. We can't let Su Ke end up running a small business like us!" Su Youfu's voice held both helplessness and hope.
Su Ke's eyes grew hot with tears. A father's love was like a mountain, weighty yet restrained. Those words struck him right in the heart. His parents worked so hard and still had to worry about his studies. But what could he do for them?
"The Flower Picking System! I have the Flower Picking System!" Back in bed, Su Ke clenched his fists. He was going to change his fate and give his parents a better life!
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