The classroom was bathed in morning sunlight streaming through the windows, but the light was blocked by stacks of textbooks piled higher than people's heads.
There were still fifteen minutes until morning reading class. The students who had arrived early seized this last bit of time to sleep with their heads on their desks.
The lifeless classroom was like a massive incinerator, with all the students lying inside in a daze, as peaceful and serene as corpses, hoping that one day the school would go down with the world.
"Yong."
The moment Lin Tian sat down, he placed a bag of McDonald's on Xu Yong's desk.
"It's for you."
"?"
Xu Yong's drowsiness vanished at once. He raised his head and stared at Lin Tian in shock.
"There's a burger and soy milk in there," Lin Tian said.
Xu Yong opened the bag and found that it really was McDonald's. His expression became even more horrified.
"You're not planning to live anymore?"
"I don't have a future anymore."
"You're getting sterilized?"
"Sterilize your mom."
Even Lin Tian, who was usually so civilized, could not help swearing in front of Xu Yong.
He calmed himself down, then said seriously,
"After thinking about it, we've been desk mates for two and a half years, and I've never treated you to breakfast."
"Oh, you've grown up!"
Hearing Lin Tian suddenly get sentimental, Xu Yong blushed. He slapped Lin Tian on the shoulder and put on a shy, teasing look that said, "Come on, why say something like that?"
"Seriously, we've been desk mates for almost three years."
Xu Yong unwrapped the burger, took a bite, and said emotionally.
"Hey, I've been starting a business lately, and I'm short a piano. Without that piano, I won't have a future. If someone could lend me some cash—"
Xu Yong spat out the meat in his mouth, shoved the burger back into its bag, and stuffed it into Lin Tian's arms with lightning speed.
"Hehe, you little punk~!"
Xu Yong pointed at Lin Tian with a brilliant smile.
"Oh, Brother Yong~"
Lin Tian grinned sheepishly as well.
"I knew there was no way you were being so damn nice and buying me a burger?!"
Thinking about how he had nearly fallen for it, Xu Yong's mouth immediately filled with affectionate greetings for Lin Tian's parents.
"You're such a motherless bastard."
Halfway through the insult, Xu Yong quickly remembered that this would only make Lin Tian happy.
He hurriedly changed his wording.
"You really have both your parents alive!"
"What a vicious curse."
Even Lin Tian could not help gritting his teeth as he acknowledged Xu Yong's sheer aggression.
"I'm not joking, Brother Yong. I'm really desperate this time."
"Don't even fucking think about it. That's my PC-building money!!"
Xu Yong was different from Lin Tian, who had to cover his own food, clothing, and living expenses.
His family could more or less be considered middle-class, and he usually did not lack for anything.
The reason he still worked part-time with Lin Tian was to build a cool gaming PC so he could play the game he had been dreaming about, Black Myth: Wukong.
Originally, Xu Yong's parents had given him 3,000 yuan to build a computer. But with that budget, even the bargain hunters on the PC hardware forums probably could not put together a setup that could run Black Myth: Wukong smoothly.
With no other choice, Xu Yong had joined a graphics card forum.
In the end, the kind-hearted forum users kept raising the budget for him until they settled on an RTX 4070 with an i5-12400, sending the cost soaring to 8,000 yuan.
Xu Yong could only work like crazy to earn the shortfall himself.
After working hard for more than three months, he had finally almost saved enough to build his PC.
And Lin Tian had actually set his sights on that money!
How black-hearted! How could he bring himself to do it?!
How was this any different from scamming an old man out of his pension?!
But after forcing himself to calm down, Xu Yong thought it over carefully. Lin Tian did not seem like someone who borrowed money casually.
So he still patiently asked,
"What do you need a piano for? What kind of business are you starting?"
Lin Tian did not hide anything. He took out his phone.
He showed Xu Yong the video he had posted two days ago and explained the current situation.
"So what you mean is, you're making short videos with that girl now, and you've already gotten a little traffic. As long as you can get a piano, you'll be able to blow up on Douyin?"
"That's about right." Lin Tian nodded.
After hearing this, Xu Yong fell into thought.
If anyone else had told him something like this, Xu Yong would have thought it was complete bullshit.
But Lin Tian was different. Xu Yong had always known that Lin Tian was extremely practical when it came to studying.
When it came to being serious and hardworking, this guy was just as damn enviable as he was good-looking.
So Xu Yong truly began to think it over seriously.
He had seen Lin Tian's piano skills with his own eyes last week, and one of his videos really had gone viral.
Back then, Xu Yong had been the one explaining Douyin content creation to Lin Tian. He had not expected them to get into actual practice so quickly.
Looking at the video with 29,000 likes on the phone, Xu Yong noticed the name of Lin Tian's account.
He pointed at "Moonlight and Cat" and asked Lin Tian,
"Who's Cat?"
"Gan Yan Yu."
"Who's Moonlight?"
"Me."
"Why are you called Moonlight?"
"Should I call myself Cat?"
"..." Xu Yong choked.
The reasoning was sound and convincing.
"But I have to tell you, monetizing Douyin isn't that simple."
"I know."
"..."
Looking at Lin Tian's determined gaze, Xu Yong finally sighed.
"How much do you need?"
"Around 8,000."
Lin Tian had checked. A slightly better piano cost between 12,000 and 15,000 yuan.
Although spending that much money on a piano at this stage was a little irrational, Lin Tian did not care.
People who wanted to accomplish great things sometimes needed the courage to charge ahead when it was time to charge ahead.
Once he succeeded, this little bit of money would not matter at all!
"You really aren't leaving anything for me."
Xu Yong could not help saying,
"Even though I really want to help you right away, I gave my money to my mom for safekeeping so I wouldn't spend it recklessly before building my PC. If I ask her for it now, I'll definitely have to explain what it's for."
"Mm-hm."
Lin Tian understood.
After all, 8,000 yuan was not a small amount.
Any parent who found out their child had secretly lent such a large sum to a classmate would probably be furious enough to faint.
"During the next long break, I'll call my mom and get the money from her."
As Xu Yong said this, he gradually grew excited, and even his body began to tremble.
That was 8,000 yuan. Eight thousand!
"Lin Tian, are you sure? You want to spend more than 10,000 yuan on a piano?"
A poor high school student borrowing money to buy a piano just to make Douyin videos.
That was insane!
If any teacher or parent found out, they would probably think these two high school students had something seriously wrong with their brains and needed to be sent off for electric shock therapy at an internet addiction camp.
But for some reason, Xu Yong believed Lin Tian.
If he could really see the day Lin Tian succeeded, Xu Yong would feel quite accomplished too.
In the blink of an eye, it was the long break.
The two of them got up and went to the chemistry lab on the top floor. Nobody was usually there, making it a good place to do things that could not be seen.
After waiting outside the door for nearly fifteen minutes, the class bell was about to ring.
Xu Yong finally finished his call and came out of the lab.
"How did it go?"
Lin Tian immediately stepped forward to ask.
Xu Yong let out a heavy sigh and said,
"We're screwed!!"
"Huh?"
"My mom said no. She said that at most, at absolute most, she'll only let me lend you 3,000 yuan."
"This..."
Three thousand yuan could probably only buy a toy piano.
Now there really was nothing they could do.
Helplessly, Lin Tian told Xu Yong it was fine, then returned to the classroom.
On the way back, Lin Tian reflected as he walked.
Had he been too hasty?
He had only just solved the problem of food and shelter, yet he was already thinking about buying a piano.
Maybe even without accompaniment, if they filmed the next video well, it could still have a chance to go viral.
Lin Tian kept thinking about it. When he reached the classroom door, a girl from his class suddenly stopped him.
"Lin Tian, where did you go just now?"
"During the long break, a girl came looking for you."
"Looking for me?" Lin Tian could hardly believe it.
"Yeah, she had long hair and was pretty. She said she had something very important to talk to you about. Since you weren't here, she left first."
Hearing that description, Lin Tian felt a faint sense of unease.
He took out his phone and, sure enough, saw a message from Sunshine After Rain.
Why did that silly girl come to school?!
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