Chapter Summaries

Chen Fan escaped Huang Hu’s thugs with Guo Shuai’s help, then had his injured hand stitched without anesthetic so he could take the Gaokao. He reached the exam room just as the final bell rang, leaving Huang Hu shocked by his arrival.

• Chen Fan stabbed Red-Hair and forced him to reveal that Huang Hu had paid him to cripple Chen Fan before the Gaokao.
• Guo Shuai distracted the pursuing thugs with a trash can and rode Chen Fan toward the school on his bicycle.
• Chen Fan refused to go to the hospital and persuaded the ambulance doctor to stitch his bleeding hand without anesthetic.
• The doctor treated Chen Fan, and he thanked her before hurrying to the exam room with Guo Shuai.
• Huang Hu assumed Chen Fan would miss the exam, but Chen Fan rushed into Exam room 13 as the final bell rang.

Chen Fan arrived injured for the Chinese exam but relied on his memories from a previous life to finish confidently. After lunch with Guo Shuai, he checked his domain-name website and discovered the Easy Domain Network had already gone live.

• Chen Fan entered the exam room just before the bell, ignored Huang Hu, and recognized that the Chinese exam matched the paper from his previous life.
• Chen Fan wrote his prepared answers and essay, checked his work, and finished the Chinese exam confident he would score at least 130.
• Chen Fan told Guo Shuai that Huang Hu had been behind his injuries, but said they would deal with him after the exams.
• Chen Fan and Guo Shuai ate lunch, then went to an internet café while Su Ruochu searched for Chen Fan outside the school.
• Chen Fan checked his domain-name website and discovered that the Easy Domain Network had already gone live.

Chen Fan discovered that Yao Jinbo had launched a competing domain-name website and worried about how to attract users with his limited funds. He finished the Gaokao feeling confident about his results, then reunited with Su Ruochu, who saw his injuries and demanded he tell her about such things in the future.

• Chen Fan studied Yao Jinbo’s newly launched Easy Domain Network and realized their competing websites would fight for traffic, while he had little money for promotion.
• Chen Fan set aside his worries to take the math exam, then went home with Guo Shuai and told his worried parents that he had only fallen and bumped his head.
• Chen Fan took the English exam and the final humanities exam, finishing early and believing he could attend the same university as Su Ruochu.
• Su Ruochu waited for Chen Fan after the final exam, noticed his head and hand injuries, and cried as he explained how he had been hurt.
• Chen Fan admitted he had avoided Su Ruochu to keep her from worrying, and she told him to share such things with her in the future.

After the Gaokao, Chen Fan and Su Ruochu openly became a couple and celebrated with Guo Shuai. The chapter left Su Ruochu relieved about Chen Fan’s exam performance and asking him to pour her another drink.

• Chen Fan apologized to Su Ruochu for hiding his worries, and she stayed close to him when they encountered Huang Hu, whose reaction suggested he feared Chen Fan knew about the attack he had arranged.
• Chen Fan and Su Ruochu met Guo Shuai, who was shocked to see them together, and the three headed to their usual restaurant for lunch.
• Chen Fan told Su Ruochu that Guo Shuai liked Li Na and had confessed to her, so Su Ruochu offered to find out how Li Na felt.
• Guo Shuai toasted Su Ruochu as his “sis-in-law,” and the three celebrated finishing the Gaokao together.
• Su Ruochu asked about their exam results, and Chen Fan assured her he had done well and would stay with her; relieved, she asked him to pour her another drink.

After estimating his Gaokao score at 575, Chen Fan reassured Su Ruochu that he could attend Cloudsea University with her. He learned that Li Na had rejected Guo Shuai, then stunned his friend by revealing his score.

• Wang Qiming had Su Ruochu write the Gaokao answers on the board so the students could estimate their scores.
• Chen Fan checked his answers and estimated that he had scored 575, enough to apply to Cloudsea University.
• Su Ruochu told Chen Fan she had estimated her score at 578 and planned to apply to Cloudsea University, and he promised to choose the same university and major.
• Guo Shuai told Chen Fan that he had scored 486 and that Li Na had rejected him because they would be studying in different places.
• Chen Fan revealed his estimated score of 575 and said he would attend the same university as Su Ruochu, leaving Guo Shuai shocked.

After estimating a score of 575, Chen Fan’s parents celebrated his prospects and supported his plan to attend Cloudsea University. The next morning, Chen Fan took five thousand yuan from them under the false pretense of paying for computer lessons and rode into the city to promote his domain-name website.

• Chen Fan told Chen Jianye and Li Jinqiu that he estimated his Gaokao score at 575, and they celebrated his chances of attending a first-tier university.
• Over dinner, Chen Fan said he planned to study international trade at Cloudsea University, and Chen Jianye urged him to act with integrity and make something of himself.
• The next morning, Chen Fan asked his parents for five thousand yuan, claiming he would use it for a summer computer course.
• Chen Fan took the cash his mother gave him and rode into the city to promote his domain-name website.

After the Gaokao, Chen Fan spent his savings on advertising his website and registered valuable QQ numbers. On July 12, he and his friends submitted their university choices and shared a farewell meal, leaving Guo Shuai drunk and Chen Fan and Su Ruochu promising to stay together.

• Chen Fan demonstrated his touch typing at Zhou Honghai's computer school, impressing prospective students and checking the traffic on his website.
• Chen Fan negotiated three Sina.com ad placements for 5,400 yuan, then registered fifteen five-digit and ten six-digit QQ numbers.
• Chen Fan paid for the ads and mailed the signed contract, leaving his savings spent while he waited for the campaign to begin.
• On July 12, Su Ruochu chose Cloudsea University's international trade program and filled in Chen Fan's application with the same choice.
• Chen Fan, Su Ruochu, Guo Shuai, and Li Na shared a farewell meal, where Guo Shuai drank too much and Chen Fan supported him on the way back.

Chen Fan’s Domain Name Network gained users through Sina.com ads, but Easy Domain Network’s heavier promotion threatened its lead. With Guo Shuai’s eight thousand yuan and money from computer repair jobs, Chen Fan kept advertising as he waited for the Gaokao results.

• Chen Fan’s Sina.com ad drove a surge in Domain Name Network traffic and registrations.
• Chen Fan saw Easy Domain Network advertising across Sohu and NetEase and realized the competition had begun in earnest.
• Guo Shuai lent Chen Fan eight thousand yuan and explained that he had chosen a university near Chen Fan’s so they could stay close.
• Chen Fan spent the money on a new Sina.com advertising contract after bargaining for homepage and secondary-page placements.
• Chen Fan and Guo Shuai visited internet cafés and computer shops in Luo City to earn money repairing computers, and Chen Fan reinvested the proceeds in ads.
• Domain Name Network held a slight traffic lead over Easy Domain Network as July 23, the day Gaokao results were released, arrived.

Chen Fan’s family waited anxiously for his Gaokao results at Chen Meiyun’s house, where they learned he had scored 603. The family celebrated, and Chen Fan confirmed he still wanted to attend Cloudsea University.

• Li Jinqiu repeatedly called the results hotline while Chen Jianye and Chen Fan waited with Chen Meiyun’s family.
• After the hotline connected, Li Jinqiu found Chen Fan’s admission ticket number and heard that he had scored 603.
• Chen Jianye called again several times and confirmed Chen Fan’s total score was 603.
• Chen Jianye celebrated with Li Jinqiu, while Chen Fan said he would still choose Cloudsea University.
• Chen Meiyun urged Chen Jianye to celebrate that night, so he decided to invite Jian Zhong and Jian Long over for drinks.

After celebrating Chen Fan’s Gaokao score of 603 with his family, he rushed to see Su Ruochu and learned she had scored 584. The two walked hand in hand, and as Chen Fan leaned toward her, Su Ruochu wondered whether he was about to kiss her.

• Chen Jianye and Chen Fan’s family decided to celebrate his exam result at home with close relatives.
• Chen Fan hurried to Su Ruochu’s residential complex and waited until she came downstairs to meet him.
• Chen Fan told Su Ruochu he had missed her, and they went for a walk while Lin Wanxiu watched them from the balcony.
• Chen Fan and Su Ruochu held hands as they shared their Gaokao scores: he had earned 603 and she had earned 584.
• Su Ruochu asked whether Chen Fan regretted choosing Cloudsea University with her, and he assured her that attending the same university mattered most.
• Chen Fan began lowering his head toward Su Ruochu, who grew nervous and wondered whether he was going to kiss her.

Chen Fan and Su Ruochu agreed to date, and Su Xuecheng discovered their relationship and promised to keep it from her mother for now. Meanwhile, the Easy Domain Network overtook Chen Fan’s site through heavy advertising, and Su Ruochu arrived at the computer school with an envelope for him.

• Su Xuecheng interrupted Chen Fan and Su Ruochu as they prepared to kiss, then learned Chen Fan was her classmate.
• Su Ruochu told her father she liked Chen Fan and had agreed to date him, and Su Xuecheng agreed not to tell her mother yet.
• Su Ruochu told Su Xuecheng that Chen Fan had scored 603 on the Gaokao, higher than her.
• The Easy Domain Network’s increased advertising erased Chen Fan’s traffic lead and pushed his site behind in August.
• Chen Fan struggled to find a way to compete with Boss Yao’s greater resources as Su Ruochu arrived at the computer school and placed an envelope before him.

Su Ruochu offered Chen Fan her savings to support his website, but he explained that the money was too little to compete with a rival's promotion budget. He admitted he had no alternative strategy yet, and Su Ruochu insisted that he take her money as a loan.

• Su Ruochu confronted Chen Fan for hiding his financial troubles and offered him her 6,782 yuan in savings.
• Chen Fan refused the money, reassuring Su Ruochu that he was not rejecting it out of pride and explaining that the amount would not help his current plans.
• Chen Fan showed Su Ruochu his website and explained that he hoped to beat a rival website in traffic before selling to investors.
• Chen Fan told Su Ruochu that the rival's promotion budget was too large to match and admitted he had not found another approach.
• Su Ruochu pushed the bankbook back into Chen Fan's hand and demanded that he accept it as a loan.

Chen Fan rejected Su Ruochu's offer to buy him a computer, then found a new way to fight Boss Yao's campaign against the Domain Name Network. He recruited an internet café attendant to bring users into a QQ Group for fifty cents each.

• Su Ruochu offered Chen Fan her savings, and he accepted the money but declined to spend it on a computer.
• Chen Fan saw that Sina.com had replaced his expired advertisement with one for the Easy Domain Network.
• Chen Fan noticed newly created accounts posting coordinated smear comments on the Domain Name Network and realized he could use paid promotion through a QQ Group.
• Chen Fan offered the internet café attendant fifty cents for each customer he recruited into the group, and the attendant agreed.

Chen Fan recruited internet café attendants to build a paid online army for the Domain Name Network, then organized its members to post supportive comments. He launched the bounty campaign and left Guo Shuai still unsure whether the amateur-looking plan would work.

• Chen Fan borrowed Guo Shuai’s cash and explained that he planned to counter a competitor’s smear campaign by recruiting an online army.
• Chen Fan and Guo Shuai visited internet cafés, where Chen Fan gave staff separate QQ groups and offered payment for bringing in members.
• By the next morning, the twenty-four groups had grown far beyond Chen Fan’s expectations, and he paid the White Birch Grove attendant for recruiting more than 150 people.
• Chen Fan asked each group to nominate three managers, gave them administrator privileges, and gathered them to explain the bounty system.
• Chen Fan instructed the groups to post positive comments about the Domain Name Network, offering five cents per comment and ten cents per comment for administrators.

Chen Fan organized a paid-comment operation and put Guo Shuai in charge of managing its agents and payments. After workers received their first game-credit payments, participation surged, and comments flooded the Easy Domain Network the next day.

• Chen Fan explained to Guo Shuai how to pay commenters through internet café staff and game credits, verify posts with IP screenshots, and manage workers through group admins.
• Chen Fan asked Guo Shuai to run the operation, and Guo Shuai eagerly agreed, imagining he could use the commenters to fight rival game guilds.
• That evening, a group member shared proof that the commenters had been paid in game credits, prompting doubters and new recruits to ask how to participate.
• The next day, a flood of comments appeared on the Easy Domain Network forums.

Chen Fan used paid posters to turn the Easy Domain Network’s advertising and forum shutdowns into publicity for the Domain Name Network, driving a decisive surge in users and traffic. After the sale of tudou.com brought more attention to the site, hackers took it down, leaving Chen Fan ready to retaliate.

• Chen Fan paid posters led by Guo Shuai to flood the Easy Domain Network’s forum and ads with criticism and praise for the Domain Name Network.
• The Easy Domain Network repeatedly shut down its forum, and its users and traffic shifted to the Domain Name Network.
• Business observers discussed Chen Fan’s comeback strategy and speculated about the Domain Name Network’s mysterious owner.
• A mystery buyer purchased tudou.com for fifty thousand yuan, drawing fresh attention to the Domain Name Network.
• Hackers took down the Domain Name Network, and Chen Fan vowed to answer his opponent’s escalation.

After his rival hired a hacker to attack the Domain Name Network, Chen Fan hacked the Easy Domain Network and outmatched the rival’s hacker. Through the hacker, he learned the Easy Domain Network’s founder wanted a truce, and Chen Fan countered with a demand for 50,000 yuan and a promise of fair competition.

• Chen Fan used Zhou Honghai’s office to hack the Easy Domain Network and found that its traffic had fallen amid the forum’s toxic atmosphere.
• A hacker hired by Chen Fan’s rival attacked the Domain Name Network, but Chen Fan defended it, broke into the hacker’s system, and withdrew before tracing the hacker’s identity.
• The hacker, Desert North Swordsman, contacted Chen Fan and revealed that the Easy Domain Network’s owner had paid him 10,000 yuan to attack the Domain Name Network.
• Desert North Swordsman told Chen Fan that the Easy Domain Network’s founder wanted peace and offered 10,000 yuan in compensation for a promise to stop using hacker attacks.
• Chen Fan passed back a counteroffer of 50,000 yuan for restoring the website and a commitment from both sides to compete fairly, and Desert North Swordsman went to ask.

Chen Fan received payment after ending his attack on Easy Domain Network, and Domain Name Network continued to outpace its rival as he prepared for a possible acquisition. Before university began, he took Su Ruochu to a movie, where his advances were rebuffed, but she later hinted that she might have welcomed them if he had persisted.

• Desert North Swordsman told Chen Fan that Easy Domain Network had agreed to pay, and Chen Fan sent a bank account number for the transfer.
• After the fifty thousand yuan arrived, Chen Fan withdrew his attack and erased every trace, and Easy Domain Network returned to normal by noon.
• Domain Name Network grew to more than five thousand registered members and far surpassed Easy Domain Network, while Chen Fan resolved to keep the business strong through September or longer.
• Chen Fan took Su Ruochu to see A Sigh, held her hand, and then put his hand on her thigh, prompting her to slap him and warn him to behave.
• After the movie, Chen Fan apologized for being too forward, and Su Ruochu blushed as she hinted that she might have let him continue if he had insisted.

Chen Fan and Su Ruochu spent the afternoon teasing each other and shopping, then discussed whether love could survive marriage and temptation. Su Ruochu officially agreed to be Chen Fan’s girlfriend and gave him a blessed red cord bracelet, while asking him to be honest if his feelings ever changed.

• Chen Fan and Su Ruochu chased each other along the street, and she kissed his cheek before running away shyly.
• They explored the shopping street together, where Chen Fan bought Su Ruochu accessories and snacks.
• Su Ruochu asked Chen Fan what he thought of Xi Yazhou’s affair and worried that success and married life could change his feelings.
• Chen Fan promised that he would love only Su Ruochu for his whole life.
• Su Ruochu gave Chen Fan a red cord bracelet blessed at a temple and officially agreed to be his girlfriend.
• Su Ruochu told Chen Fan that if he ever fell for someone else, she wanted him to tell her so she could leave on her own.

Chen Fan reaffirmed his love for Su Ruochu after she gave him a red cord bracelet, but her mother Lin Wanxiu caught them together and demanded he end the relationship. Chen Fan refused, declaring he would marry Su Ruochu, while Lin Wanxiu remained unconvinced and angry.

• Chen Fan recognized the red cord bracelet as the same token of love Su Ruochu had given him in his previous life and promised he would never leave her.
• Lin Wanxiu arrived, scolded Su Ruochu for lying about where she was, and ordered her to wait in the car.
• Lin Wanxiu questioned Chen Fan about his relationship with Su Ruochu and told him to stay away from her.
• Lin Wanxiu cited Chen Fan’s modest background and offered to pay his university tuition if he left Su Ruochu.
• Chen Fan refused to break up with Su Ruochu, said he would marry her, and left Lin Wanxiu insisting he would prove himself.