Chapter 12 The Golden House

"There's still one very practical problem to solve."

Zhou Wang stroked his chin, "Tomorrow is the deadline to leave school, and I need to find a place to live as soon as possible."

Previously, Zhou Wang hadn't planned on staying in the provincial city. Although reluctant, he had planned on returning to his hometown and therefore had made no preparations.

Now, after clearing his debts, he had about 1.67 million left, and Zhou Wang found himself in a dilemma.

Buy an apartment directly?

Zhou Wang did a quick check of the housing prices in Ming City. The real estate market wasn't doing so well these past two years, with the average price in the five main districts being around 13,000 to 14,000 per square meter. Second-hand housing would be even cheaper, and the money he had was more than enough to buy a small apartment.

But it was the beginning period of "entrepreneurship"; he had to keep at least 1 million as working capital. After calculating, he realized that buying a house would have to wait.

Ding-dong!

Just then, his WeChat chimed again. Zhou Wang picked it up to see that Liu Zixi hadn't transferred the payment immediately but had instead sent a "?".

Before Zhou Wang could reply, Liu Zixi had already called directly.

Hearing Liu Zixi ask if he was involved in something shady, a bemused Zhou Wang hastened to explain that he had just found some business opportunities and hence needed some temporary cash flow.

However, Zhou Wang also realized he might have cycled the money too quickly, sounding not quite credible, but it wasn't important. He had just been looking for an excuse, so that later on, when he became affluent, his close friends would find it easier to accept.

With a stable three million a month now, it would be hard not to make it big!

But after the experience of earning over a million the day before, Zhou Wang was no longer satisfied with just that.

He had discovered that Hextech was just a safety net of the system; the turn-based game was the true essence of the "Game of Life".

Regrettably, Zhou Wang had no idea how to trigger the second round and could only take things one step at a time.

Once Liu Zixi was assured that Zhou Wang didn't need the money anymore, he hung up the phone to accept the transfer and the red packets. Zhou Wang was about to exit WeChat when he habitually clicked on "Discover" and noticed a minimized avatar with a red dot.

The most recent update in moments would display here, and that avatar was none other than from Su Yajing, who had just been chatting with him.

Her profile picture was a photo of herself, a radiant half-portrait under the sunshine. Zhou Wang remembered an analysis by a seasoned playboy stating that a girl's avatar could very well reflect her personality.

Generally speaking, those who dare to use their own photos as avatars are hugely confident in their appearance and temperament and tend to be extroverted.

Digging deeper, such girls often have a great... modestly put, desire to show off; more bluntly, vanity.

They also post on moments and microblogs much more frequently than the average girl.

Of course, in their own words, this is just "loving life and enjoying sharing".

Another typical type of girl has substantial confidence in her appearance but feels too shy to use a selfie as an avatar, or thinks she's not photogenic. They would use a picture of a beautiful girl from the internet as their avatar to achieve a kind of suggestive psychological equivalence.

These girls usually look okay in reality and are much more approachable than the first type.

As for those who use cats, dogs, and other animals as avatars, the quality varies widely. There might be some beauties hidden among them, but most are just average looking.

Zhou Wang's thoughts briefly diverged, and he casually clicked to open moments. Sure enough, the first post that refreshed was Su Yajing's.

Huh... it seems to be somewhat related to me?

There were just two photos. The first one showed a small pile of gift bags with LV and Balenciaga logos on a coffee table, with only an LV perfume box prominently placed in the front.

At first glance, it looked quite impressive. Aside from Zhou Wang himself, probably no one would guess that those bags contained only giveaways; it appeared more like she was merely showing off a gift after shopping.

This crafty girl...

Zhou Wang couldn't help but let out a wry laugh.

The second photo was a selfie of Su Yajing leaning on a chair, her smile innocent and pure, but with little hooks hidden in her eyes. Add to that the neckline slightly revealing a gap and her fair collarbone, and you have an aura of pure desire.

Her location was marked at Henglong Square, and the caption read, "Living well today too, thanks for the encounter~ (Scissor hand blinking emoji)"

Zhou Wang smacked his lips. Those last four words felt as though they were meant for him, but as long as he didn't get carried away with overthinking, he'd realize that she actually hadn't said anything at all.

Her friends on the social circle wouldn't notice anything, they would just "aww" away, hitting likes madly, even perhaps conjuring all sorts of self-serving fantasies due to the goddess's remark, relishing in the highlights of their encounters with her, their smiles harder to suppress than an AK's recoil.

It was only after the chat that Zhou Wang learned Su Yajing was a bona fide university student, who even made a point to show him her student ID, which clearly listed her as a sophomore in the Performance Department of Caiyun Art College.

In her own words, working as a tour companion was just "observing life," because that's an essential course for actors.

She would also take on some short video and drama shoots; tour companion work was only something she did occasionally and she had to vibe with the client, anyway. Zhou Wang was almost convinced, he had to admire her professionalism—she could act through her words as well.

After putting down his phone, Zhou Wang stood up and started to pack.

He decided to move out today, even though the deadline for leaving the dorm was tomorrow. There was no point in sticking around for just one more night. Now he was the only one left on the floor that housed the seniors. This morning, as he greeted the dorm supervisor, even though she didn't say anything, Zhou Wang still felt a bit awkward.

There wasn't much to pack. He had already sent most of his belongings back home. Besides the clothes he had bought today, all that was left were a few odds and ends.

While rummaging through his things, Zhou Wang found many items he had forgotten about a long time ago.

For instance, there was a cabinet he used specifically for storing gifts, most of which came from before his junior year, when he could barely be considered a prominent figure on campus.

There were Zippo lighters co-branded with One Piece, a small ukulele given by a girl in the guitar club, and a jar filled with stars of various colors… yes, in this day and age, there were still people folding these pure handcrafted stars. Zhou Wang had indeed been quite surprised when he'd received them.

He vaguely remembered that the girl who gave him the stars was rather dainty, but it seemed that they never had much to do with each other afterward.

Thinking back, Zhou Wang felt somewhat sentimental, but he knew he wasn't reminiscing about the past, just those youthful days by the name of adolescence.

At last, Zhou Wang picked up a book that had been pressed under the bottom of the cabinet.

Opening the front page of the book, there was a line of graceful yet playful handwriting: "May Zhou Wang sail against the wind and shine brightly every day!"

The book was titled "Growth" and was given to him by Ding Yi at the end of his freshman year. It wasn't some famous masterpiece, but now Zhou Wang realized that it was actually Ding Yi's subtle way of expressing her hopes and expectations for him.

Girls always tend to be more mature. While Zhou Wang was still indulging in those little flirtations, she was already thinking so far ahead.

However, given her family background, hoping that he would "grow upward" wasn't at all wrong.

He had tried hard too, but unfortunately, he had failed. After that, he fell into despondency, and the two of them gradually drifted apart.

He remembered that in his freshman year, before he started down the entrepreneurial path, Zhou Wang had promised to take the postgraduate entrance exam with her. Back then, they would go to the library together every day, but now, he couldn't recall how long it had been since he last touched a book...

Ding!

At that moment, the system notification sound abruptly rang.

[Without the matching knowledge, one cannot grasp the corresponding wealth. The accumulation of knowledge will benefit you for life.]

[Host is moved by the scene, successfully triggering the second action round.]

[Please proceed to the provincial library and, before the round countdown ends, read books from the system-specified list to increase your knowledge accumulation.]

[Core reward mechanism - Golden House: Rewards different amounts of points depending on the books read by the host. At the end, exchange for an equally sized square footage of blind-box real estate, at a conversion ratio of "1 point = 1 square meter".]

[Round countdown: 14 days]

[Round privilege: During the duration of the round, any hotel accommodation fees incurred by the host will be reimbursed.]

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