"Did you and Chen Fan have a fight?"
Faced with her friend's question, Su Ruochu shook her head.
"No."
"Then why didn't he talk to you while we were eating? It looked like he was deliberately avoiding you just now, too."
Su Ruochu said nothing, pressing her lips together as she watched Chen Fan and Guo Shuai run off.
A thought flashed through her mind.
Did I hurt his pride when I turned him down that day?
At that moment, even Su Ruochu didn't know how she felt.
When Su Ruochu stayed silent, Li Na quickly moved closer and linked arms with her.
"Hey, tell me the truth. Do you like Chen Fan?"
Su Ruochu's pretty face instantly flushed.
"What... what are you talking about?"
"When have I ever liked him?"
"When he suddenly kissed you in class that day, you weren't even angry."
Su Ruochu grew flustered. "Didn't he explain? He was dreaming. It wasn't on purpose..."
"You really don't like him?"
Seeing that Li Na wouldn't stop until she got an answer, Su Ruochu shook her head helplessly.
"It's not a question of whether I like him. I'm simply not going to think about any of that before the college entrance exam."
"That's true."
Li Na muttered, "There's less than a month left until the exam."
"Even if you two got together, it'd just be a last-minute romance that ended at graduation..."
"Honestly, what's with Chen Fan? He's been your deskmate for so long. What was he doing all this time?"
"Now that graduation's right around the corner, he's finally getting anxious. Still..."
"Still what?"
Su Ruochu looked over curiously.
Li Na grinned and casually teased her.
"Chen Fan is actually pretty handsome, though. Especially his eyes. They look really nice when he smiles."
"It's just that I heard his family isn't very well-off. Otherwise, I'd almost want to try dating him myself."
Su Ruochu stared wide-eyed at her best friend, then suddenly reached out and pinched her arm.
"What... what goes through your head all day?"
"Handsome boys, obviously. Don't tell me you've never secretly thought about them..."
"I haven't!"
"Hehe, I don't believe you!"
"You little brat! Get back here..."
The two girls chased each other all the way toward school.
Meanwhile, as soon as they entered the White Birch Grove, Chen Fan went through the familiar process of getting a temporary access card, then hurried over to boot up a computer.
"Seriously, do we have to play games today?"
Guo Shuai stood beside him, looking thoroughly disgruntled.
"I finally made a little progress with Li Na, and here you are openly sabotaging our relationship..."
"Quit whining! This'll only take a minute."
Chen Fan excitedly opened a webpage, entered some text, and started searching.
Just moments earlier, inspiration had suddenly struck him.
He had thought of a way to make money.
Yesterday, Chen Fan had spent ages researching domain names, only to discover that all the good ones he could think of had already been registered.
Trading domain names was off the table for now.
But he could take another approach and build a website specifically for buying and selling domain names.
For this idea, Chen Fan actually had Boss Yao of 59.com to thank.
In his previous life, Yao Jinbo had held a large number of domain names. To make trading them easier, he had founded the Easy Domain Network.
In just a few months, the Easy Domain Network had become the largest domain trading platform in China.
That same year, HiChina had acquired the Easy Domain Network, earning Yao Jinbo his first pot of gold.
There had been no precise figure online for how much the Easy Domain Network had sold for. Some said hundreds of thousands, while others said millions.
But Chen Fan reckoned it couldn't have been less than a million yuan.
And that was a million yuan in the year 2000.
Chen Fan had rushed to the White Birch Grove this time to check whether the Easy Domain Network had launched yet.
A few minutes later, Chen Fan excitedly slammed his fist on the desk.
"Great! It really hasn't launched yet."
If the Easy Domain Network hadn't launched yet, that meant he still had a chance.
From now on, he had to make every second count, build the Easy Domain Network first, and beat Boss Yao to the punch before he even realized what was happening.
Chen Fan remembered that, in his previous life, HiChina had apparently acquired the Easy Domain Network in September of this year.
In other words, he had less than four months left.
Time was tight, but it was worth a shot.
Beside him, Guo Shuai watched Chen Fan sitting at the computer, grinning like an idiot, and couldn't resist leaning over for a look.
He discovered that Chen Fan was only looking at an ordinary news webpage.
"Hey, have you been drinking idiot juice or something? What's got you grinning like that?"
Chen Fan turned and chuckled. "Am I?"
"'Am I?' Open your mouth any wider and I'll be able to see your prostate."
"Idiot! Those are called tonsils."
"Buddy, you really need to pay attention in biology."
Guo Shuai wasn't embarrassed at all. He just chuckled.
"You know me. I get sleepy as soon as class starts. Aside from those few lessons on human physiology and hygiene near the end, none of it interests me, and I don't understand any of it..."
Suddenly remembering something, Guo Shuai said indignantly,
"Damn it! Just thinking about that pisses me off. Do you know how long I waited for those two lessons on human anatomy? And then the biology teacher just told us to read ahead on our own and skipped right past those pages..."
Chen Fan didn't waste time shooting the breeze with him. He simply shut down the computer and stood up.
"Let's go."
"We're leaving already?"
Guo Shuai's eyes widened.
"It hasn't even been an hour. Can't I play a round of Red Alert?"
"Come on, let's go. Our homeroom teacher has the next class. You dare skip it?"
As he spoke, Chen Fan dragged him toward the exit.
"Let me play one round. Just one... We paid for the time! Wasting it is shameful..."
In the end, Guo Shuai never got to play. Chen Fan hauled him all the way back to school.
During the afternoon classes, Chen Fan was so excited that he stopped even looking for exam questions.
He kept his head down, scribbling and sketching with his pen.
For a skilled programmer like him, reborn from the future, creating a forum or website was no great challenge.
What worried Chen Fan was whether Boss Yao's Easy Domain Network would launch before his did.
If the other site launched too, the two websites would inevitably have to battle it out for traffic.
And to get ahead, he would have to promote his site and advertise.
That would take a lot of money.
Besides, if he wanted to create a forum, he would need a computer of his own.
He couldn't go to an internet café to work every day, could he?
Never mind whether he could even get a computer there.
The main problem was the time it would waste.
Buying a computer of his own was nothing but a pipe dream for Chen Fan right now.
Computers weren't cheap in 2000.
A laptop cost ten to twenty thousand yuan.
Even the cheapest desktop cost over five thousand, and that was for one with lousy specs...
Money, money, money...
In the end, money is still what trips me up.
Frowning, Chen Fan stared glumly at the list he had written on the paper, his expression darkening.
His earlier excitement felt as though someone had dumped a bucket of cold water over it.
In an instant, he was chilled to the core.
Ah, even a hero can be brought down by a single penny.
Beside him, Su Ruochu lost focus in class for the first time.
Although she sat perfectly upright, her mind kept wandering.
She wondered whether she had upset Chen Fan.
Otherwise, why hadn't he taken the initiative to talk to her today?
Besides, ever since class began, he had been hunched over his desk, scribbling and sketching while muttering to himself. She had no idea what he was doing.
She wanted to ask, but felt too awkward to bring herself to do it.
She agonized over it for ages, until class was almost over.
Finally, Su Ruochu couldn't hold back any longer. She picked up her pen and wrote a line in her notebook.
Then she quietly slid it sideways and nudged Chen Fan with her arm.
Before you continue