Not Ready to Grow Up

Early the next morning, Chen Lu returned to school and went to the drama club to meet Liang Zhirou again and enjoy the breakfast made just for him.

Chen Lu had noticed he had been seeing this silly girl more and more often lately.

It felt pretty good.

Unlike before, though, Lin Miaomiao was there today too.

"By my second day home, my mom already wanted to throw me out! What kind of person does that?!" Lin Miaomiao complained huffily. "Before the May Day holiday, she practically called me every day to hurry me home.

Then I went home like a good girl, and she still couldn't stand the sight of me! If I looked at my phone, she'd say all I ever did was look at my phone. If I watched TV, she'd say all I ever did was watch TV.

I figured doing chores ought to be fine, right? But then she complained I hadn't mopped the floor clean enough!

I'm so mad I could die!

Just watch, before summer vacation she'll start saying how much she misses me again. Then she'll keep asking when I'm coming home, and once I get there, she'll go right back to scolding me. Over and over..."

Chen Lu quietly drank his congee and listened to her complain.

Liang Zhirou didn't know how to comfort her either, so she could only gently hold her hand.

"Oh, come on, that's nothing." After finishing his congee, Chen Lu gave her a disdainful look.

Lin Miaomiao glared at him, wondering how he could be so rotten. There was nobody in the world more miserable than her, okay?

Just then, Chen Lu slowly spoke in the tone of a seasoned veteran. "That's a college student's standing in the family. You'll get used to it.

Before the May Day holiday, my mom kept hurrying me home too, so I went back early that morning, all excited.

And I found my parents had just finished packing and were getting ready to go on a trip."

He clapped his hands together, then slowly spread them apart. "Without me."

Lin Miaomiao burst out laughing, while Liang Zhirou stared at him in a daze.

Clearly, she hadn't expected that was even possible.

"Sadness hasn't disappeared from me. It's just moved onto your face," Lin Miaomiao said with a laugh. Seeing someone even more pitiful than herself immediately cheered her up quite a bit.

Sure enough, happiness had to be built on someone else's misery.

As she laughed, she saw Chen Lu reach his right hand toward Liang Zhirou and ask softly, his expression earnest, "I need comforting too, so can you hold my hand?"

Smack!

Before Liang Zhirou could speak, Lin Miaomiao slapped his hand away.

Liang Zhirou watched Chen Lu shake his hand frantically from the pain and pursed her lips slightly.

Naturally, Lin Miaomiao caught the gesture. Her face filled with shock. "Whoa! You don't feel sorry for him, do you?!"

She turned to Chen Lu. "What kind of love potion did you feed my Zhirou?! She's mine! You can't do this!"

Chen Lu shrugged. "I suggest you mind your own business."

"You shameless couple! I'm so mad I could die!"

After staying a little longer, Chen Lu ran off to class.

The school had been very "considerate" in arranging an entrepreneurship course for its third-year students.

There were classes and group projects.

Apparently, they also had to give a presentation onstage at the end.

They said it was all voluntary, but nobody was allowed to take time off.

It was absurd.

That evening, darkness gradually settled over everything, and the stifling air grew a little cool.

As the weather grew hotter, the jumbled chorus of insects grew louder.

It left people's thoughts in a jumble.

As usual, Chen Lu went to hang out at the drama club for a while and only returned to the dorm after dark.

As soon as he walked through the door, Li Sinian came over and muttered, "Boss is drunk."

"Drunk? Why?" Chen Lu looked up to see Jiang Chao lying back in his chair, his face utterly devoid of hope.

Li Sinian sighed. "What else? He brought up his dad forcing him to change his college application choices again!"

The matter had always been a thorn in Jiang Chao's heart. Given that his father was a bureau chief, it was only natural for him to want to pave the way for his future, and just as naturally, he would overlook what his own son wanted to do.

"You're good at handling things. Go cheer him up," Li Sinian continued, still mumbling quietly.

Chen Lu shrugged, wondering how he was supposed to do that. Was it possible that he'd originally chosen this major to pursue Mo Yuqing?

But he happened to be bored and didn't think Jiang Chao was serious, so he sat down to shoot the breeze with him.

"Boss, what do you want to do?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "What was your original dream?"

"I want to start a business! Make games!"

Chen Lu pretended to nod seriously and kept playing along with the drunken fool. "Before games are the ninth art, they're first and foremost a product.

Since they're a product, they have a market. Have you studied the market?"

Jiang Chao listened intently. "I'm studying it..."

"Actually, anyone who's played enough games knows the business, because domestic mobile games have a siphon effect. People in the industry don't necessarily know much more than you do," Chen Lu said with a chuckle.

"You mean I should start with mobile games?" Jiang Chao sat up straight, growing more animated the more he heard.

Chen Lu shook his head. "No, start with WeChat minigames.

They're suitable whether your studio has just been established and you want some practice, or you're trying to earn your first pot of gold.

The development cycle is short, the returns are quick, and most importantly, the profit you need to invest is low.

If you find it isn't right for you and split up, you won't lose much. If it turns out the studio really does have some potential, it won't be too late to try something else."