Overtaken by a rival

Su Ruochu was nervous.

Chen Fan was nervous too.

Facing the girl before him,

Chen Fan believed no one knew her better than he did.

In his previous life, they had been together for more than four years.

They had shared tender intimacy and treated each other with respect.

He knew everything about Su Ruochu.

Yet in this life, as he looked at Su Ruochu standing before him, her cheeks red and her body trembling slightly,

Chen Fan found himself inexplicably nervous.

Just as the two of them, trembling with nerves, prepared for their first kiss,

a car horn suddenly sounded nearby.

They both jumped.

"Sweetheart."

Su Ruochu turned and saw a black sedan parked across the road.

A middle-aged man in a suit stood beside it, smiling and waving at her.

Startled, Su Ruochu hurriedly let go of Chen Fan's hand.

"Dad..."

Chen Fan was shocked. That middle-aged man was Su Ruochu's father?

Didn't that make him my future father-in-law?

Su Ruochu gave Chen Fan an awkward glance, then blushed as she hurried across the road.

Chen Fan hesitated, then followed her of his own accord.

"Dad, what are you doing here?"

Su Ruochu's voice was quiet, and she looked uneasy.

Su Xuecheng smiled and patted his daughter's head.

"I just finished a dinner engagement. I didn't expect to run into my own daughter on the way back."

Su Xuecheng's gaze naturally settled on Chen Fan as he approached.

"Sweetheart, who's this? Aren't you going to introduce him to your dad?"

Su Ruochu's face flushed again. She was so embarrassed that she didn't know what to say.

Chen Fan, however, stepped forward with easy confidence.

"Hello, sir. I'm Su Ruochu's classmate. My name is Chen Fan."

Su Xuecheng looked at Chen Fan with a smile.

"Hello, hello. So you're a classmate."

Chen Fan volunteered an explanation.

"The Gaokao results came out today, so I came to ask Su Ruochu how she scored."

"Oh, I see."

Su Xuecheng smiled as he sized Chen Fan up.

"Since you're already here, why not come up to our place for a while?"

"No, thank you. I need to head back."

Chen Fan glanced at Su Ruochu, then waved.

"Goodbye, sir. I'll be going now."

"I won't see you off, then. Take care on the road."

Su Xuecheng watched Chen Fan ride away on his bicycle, then turned back to his daughter with a smile.

"That boy seems nice. He's open and confident, and he knows how to conduct himself around his elders. He didn't look nervous or awkward at all."

After speaking, he stole a glance at his daughter.

"Could it be that he likes you?"

Su Ruochu was so embarrassed she wished she could disappear. She reached out and took her father's arm.

"Dad, what are you talking about?"

"Haha, what's there to be embarrassed about?"

"My daughter is so pretty, it'd be strange if no boys liked her."

"But..."

"You seem to treat him differently from the other boys. Sweetheart, do you like him too?"

Su Ruochu blushed, looking a little nervous.

"Dad, you said you wouldn't interfere in my love life."

Su Xuecheng smiled.

"I'm not interfering. I'm just curious."

"What? Can't you even tell your dad?"

Su Ruochu hesitated, then spoke softly.

"I... like him."

"I've already agreed to date Chen Fan."

Su Xuecheng smiled and ruffled his daughter's hair.

"The Gaokao is over, and you're a young woman now."

"I'm not against you dating. But as your father, there are a few things I need to remind you of."

"Make sure you aren't dating on a whim. You need to know him well enough, and you need to..."

Su Ruochu quickly said, "Dad, don't worry. Chen Fan really is a good student."

"He did really well on the Gaokao this time. He scored 603, even higher than me."

"Oh?"

Su Xuecheng was a little surprised.

"Then it seems I underestimated him."

Su Ruochu looked a little nervous.

"Dad, could you not tell Mom about tonight?"

Su Xuecheng smiled.

"She's your mother. Why shouldn't she know?"

"You know how Mom is... If she found out, she'd act like the sky was falling. And she always treats me like a little kid..."

Su Ruochu pouted, clearly full of complaints.

Su Xuecheng smiled and ruffled his daughter's hair.

"Honestly, how can you talk about your mother like that? She's your mother. Isn't it only natural for her to worry about you?"

Su Ruochu stuck out her tongue playfully, then gently rocked her father's arm.

"So will you promise me or not?"

"I'm not saying we should hide it from her forever. I'm just saying that when the time is right, I'll tell her myself."

Su Xuecheng was helpless against his daughter's coaxing.

"All right. I'll keep your secret."

"Thanks, Dad."

"Get in. Let's go home."

"Okay."

Su Xuecheng started the car with a smile and glanced at his daughter beside him.

"I've promised to keep your secret, but could you tell me a little about this classmate of yours, Chen Fan..."

Su Ruochu was clearly still basking in her happiness.

"Chen Fan sometimes seems very quiet, but he actually has a lot of ideas and a mind of his own."

"And his grades weren't particularly outstanding before. Then, right before the Gaokao, it was as if something suddenly clicked..."

The Easy Domain Network had clearly felt the threat posed by Chen Fan's Domain Name Network.

It had suddenly increased its investment lately, flooding every available space with advertisements.

It seemed intent on throwing enough money at the problem to crush Chen Fan's Domain Name Network in one blow.

Chen Fan's efforts to earn money had also hit a snag.

After all, there were only so many computers in a small town that needed repairs.

Even if Chen Fan repaired every computer in the entire district, there was a limit to how much he could earn.

Even pouring all of it into promotion would be a drop in the bucket.

Compared with Boss Yao's deep pockets, Chen Fan's modest investment couldn't make so much as a ripple.

August arrived.

Under the pressure of his rival's heavily funded promotional onslaught,

the small advantage Chen Fan's Domain Name Network had built up gradually vanished. The Easy Domain Network came from behind, and its daily traffic had already surpassed that of the Domain Name Network.

Sitting at his computer, Chen Fan looked thoroughly dejected.

Perhaps he had taken the wrong path from the very start.

Trying to compete with his rival through money alone was a road to ruin.

After all, even if he worked himself to death earning money twenty-four hours a day, he still couldn't match Boss Yao's wealth.

It had only been a matter of time before his rival caught up.

If he really wanted to win, he had to change his approach and find another way.

Both the Domain Name Network and the Easy Domain Network were open on his computer.

Over the past few days, Chen Fan had spent almost all his energy monitoring the traffic on the two websites.

"Sigh, am I really going to lose just like this?"

"I really can't accept that!"

Chen Fan scratched his head, feeling deeply frustrated.

Just then, a graceful figure walked through the entrance of the computer school.

Su Ruochu had arrived.

She greeted Zhou Honghai first, then walked over to Chen Fan and sat beside him as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"How... how did you know I was here?"

Chen Fan's eyes widened in disbelief.

Su Ruochu blinked smugly.

"I have my own inside source, of course."

Chen Fan suddenly smiled.

"Guo Shuai told you, didn't he?"

Instead of answering, Su Ruochu took an envelope from her bag and placed it in front of Chen Fan.

Chen Fan froze.

"What's this?"