Who Would Fall in Love After Being Reborn?

TL: Etude

On the first night of the school year, the campus was alive with students reveling in the ty of their new environment.

Jiang Qin walked back to the male dormitory, pondering a question: What’s the most profitable venture to start in a university setting?

Internet cafes, supermarkets, bubble tea shops.

These seemed to be the top choices for student entrepreneurs due to low initial investment, stable profits, and ease of management.

However, the downside was clear: limited growth potential and a low ceiling for development.

As Jiang Qin strolled, he stopped in front of the campus supermarket, attracted by a poster on the door.

“University Student Forum, the professional forum used by all university students.”

He walked over, peeled the entire poster off the wall, and examined it thoughtfully.

Ding, ding, ding—

At that moment, his phone chimed. Pulling it out, he saw a pixelated penguin icon flashing in the signal bar.

“Godfather, I need your advice on how to get someone’s contact details.”

“Already targeting someone just after entering school? Not bad. Just ask boldly, it’s not like you’ll be fined for being rejected.”

“Is there a way to get contact details without asking?”

Reading Guo Zihang’s message, Jiang Qin’s lips twitched. He thought, ‘This guy is hopeless, was his mouth financed on a loan? He’s so reluctant to use it.’

But, considering Guo Zihang’s earlier address of ‘godfather’, Jiang Qin decided to patiently inquire further.

“Upperclassman or freshman? If it’s an upperclassman, don’t bother. They’ve seen it all and can see through your little tricks. If it’s a freshman, you could pretend to borrow their phone and then secretly call yourself.”

“What if it’s a fruit seller auntie at the school gate?”

“??????”

“That auntie has a baby voice. When I heard her speak, my heart wouldn’t stop racing.”

Jiang Qin was momentarily dumbfounded, then had an epiphany.

Guo Zihang had never shown interest in any girl during high school, not even giving Chu Siqi a second glance. Jiang Qin had assumed he was a late bloomer, but now, in university, this guy was finally letting loose.

However, the allure of a young auntie with a baby voice did seem intriguing.

Jiang Qin casually sent a dismissive message and headed back to his dorm.

As he entered the dorm building, a flurry of footsteps thundered from above. Six or seven students rushed down from the second floor, creating a chaotic scene.

Jiang Qin watched as he ascended, reaching the entrance to find Cao Guangyu, Zhou Chao, and Ren Ziqiang also gathered, drawn by the commotion.

“What’s going on?”

Zhou Chao spoke in a hushed tone, “New students from the Foreign Trade Department are clashing with seniors. It started because a guy named Li Dazhuang was disrespectful, provoking the upperclassmen by calling them ugly.”

Jiang Qin raised an eyebrow, “There’s actually someone named Li Dazhuang in the Foreign Trade Department?”

“Is he your friend?”

“No, not important. How’s the situation now?”

Ren Ziqiang’s eyes lit up with excitement, “Do you know why this guy is called Dazhuang? He’s literally as strong as his name suggests, his arms thicker than my thighs. Those seniors are in for a rough time. They strutted in confidently but left in a sorry state.” (Dazhuang = big muscular)

“Still fighting in university? So immature, no substance,” commented Cao Guangyu disdainfully, pulling out a full-screen phone and tapping it.

Zhou Chao and Ren Ziqiang were immediately captivated, “Holy shit! Cao, what phone is that? The screen is huge!”

Cao Guangyu proudly showed off his Nokia 5230, a new model not yet available in China, boasting about it as though he had tried all the top brand phones. “Got it for over three thousand yuan through my dad’s contacts. It’s decent, but the feel isn’t as good as my BlackBerry, and it’s a bit slow to respond. Makes a good backup phone, though.”

“Over three thousand yuan? That’s almost as much as our tuition fees! Can we take a look?”

Cao Guangyu handed the phone to Ren Ziqiang nonchalantly but couldn’t help adding, “Be careful, don’t drop it.”

Ren Ziqiang and Zhou Chao treated the phone like a treasure, almost breaking the phone in their excitement, causing Cao Guangyu visible distress. He quickly shifted his attention to Jiang Qin, who seemed uninterested in the new phone and was more focused on the ongoing situation at the Foreign Trade Department.

Feeling a bit uncomfortable with Jiang Qin’s lack of interest, Cao Guangyu tried to engage him. “Hey Jiang, don’t you want to check it out? It only has eight physical buttons and runs on Symbian. Heard of it? It’s a smartphone. I remember you have a Nokia too, the 7610 from 2005, right? That old thing’s nothing compared to the 5230.”

Jiang Qin glanced at him and dismissed the idea, “Not interested. I’ve used one with just three physical buttons, and that’s what I call a smartphone.”

“Only three buttons? Yeah, right!”

Ignoring him, Jiang Qin entered the dorm and took out the poster he had ripped off earlier, spreading it on the table. He then pulled out a Lenovo workstation – the ThinkPad W500, from his luggage. It was a 2008 model, dual-core CPU, 4GB RAM, priced at 12,600 yuan. He had bought it with the compensation money from his property demolition, knowing that internet access would be essential for starting his business.

Ren Ziqiang and Zhou Chao immediately lost interest in Cao Guangyu’s phone and crowded around Jiang Qin.

“A laptop?”

“Jiang, can it run CrossFire?”

Jiang Qin plugged in a mouse and pressed the power button, “CrossFire? I don’t know, never tried.”

Zhou Chao enviously rubbed his hands, “A laptop not used for gaming is a waste.”

“It’s a workstation, not a gaming laptop. It probably can’t handle games.”

Ren Ziqiang couldn’t resist joining in, “What about movies? Have you seen ‘The Legend of Sword and Fairy’ with Hu Ge? I missed the finale!”

Jiang Qin inserted a mobile card into a network card device, “Heard of the mobile data package? 5 yuan for 30MB. Guess how much data a TV episode uses?”

“I really haven’t looked into that.”

“At least 500MB, I’d guess. Watching an episode would cost over 100 yuan in data.”

Jiang Qin was also frustrated by this.

Although not many students had laptops in 2008, most dorms had at least one or two. However, to prevent freshmen from becoming distracted, all first-year students, except those in the Computer Science department, were not allowed internet access in their dorms.

Now he could only access the internet using a mobile card, and he had to install an app to monitor his data usage, giving him a strong sense of nostalgia.

“If you can’t game or watch movies, what’s it for?”

Cao Guangyu, feeling a bit sour, decided to call his dad and get a high-spec desktop computer, determined not to be outdone by Jiang Qin.

…

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