Chapter 9: A Way to Make Money Came to Mind

“Did you have a fight with Chen Fan?”

Facing her friend’s question, Su Ruochu shook her head.

“No.”

“Then why didn’t he talk to you during lunch? It seemed like he was deliberately avoiding you just now.”

Su Ruochu said nothing, pursing her lips as she stared at Chen Fan and Guo Shuai’s retreating figures.

A thought flashed through her mind.

“Could it be that I hurt his pride the other day by refusing him?”

At that moment, Su Ruochu wasn’t even sure what she was feeling.

Seeing Su Ruochu silent, Li Na quickly drew closer and linked arms with her.

“Hey, be honest with me—do you like Chen Fan?”

Su Ruochu’s cheeks flushed instantly.

“W-what nonsense are you talking about?”

“When did I ever like him?”

“Remember that day in class when he suddenly kissed you? You didn’t get angry at all.”

Su Ruochu looked a little flustered. “He said it was a dream, not on purpose...”

“Really don’t like him?”

Seeing Li Na’s insistent expression, Su Ruochu could only shake her head helplessly.

“It’s not about liking or not. I’m just not going to think about these things before the college entrance exam.”

“That’s true.”

Li Na muttered, “The exam’s in less than a month now.”

“Even if you two got together, it would only be a fleeting romance that ends after graduation...”

“You know, Chen Fan really is something. You’ve been desk mates for so long—what was he waiting for?”

“Only now, just before graduation, is he panicking. But…”

“But what?”

Su Ruochu looked at her curiously.

Li Na grinned mischievously, teasing, “But Chen Fan is actually quite handsome, especially his eyes. When he smiles, it’s really charming.”

“I heard his family’s not well-off, otherwise, I might have tried dating him myself.”

Su Ruochu widened her eyes, suddenly pinching her friend’s arm.

“What… what are you always thinking about?”

“Of course handsome guys! Don’t tell me you’ve never secretly thought about it...”

“I haven’t!”

“Hehe, I don’t believe you!”

“You little brat, stop right there…”

The two girls chased each other as they ran towards school.

Meanwhile, entering the birch forest, Chen Fan deftly got a temporary card and eagerly started up his computer.

“Seriously, do you have to play games today?”

Guo Shuai looked frustrated beside him.

“Dude, I’m finally making some progress with Li Na—you’re openly sabotaging our relationship…”

“Enough nonsense! It'll be ready soon.”

Chen Fan excitedly opened a webpage and began typing a search query.

Just moments ago, a sudden inspiration struck him.

He’d figured out a way to make money.

Yesterday, Chen Fan had spent hours researching domain names but found all the good ones had already been snapped up.

So buying and selling domains was off the table for now.

But he could change tactics and build a website dedicated to domain name trading.

Chen Fan owed this idea to Boss Yao from 59 City.

In his previous life, Yao Jinbo held numerous domain names and established EasyDomain to facilitate domain transactions.

Within a few months, EasyDomain became the largest domain trading platform in the country.

That same year, EasyDomain was acquired by Wanwang, earning Yao Jinbo his first fortune.

There was no exact figure online for how much EasyDomain sold for; some said hundreds of thousands, others claimed millions.

Chen Fan guessed it was definitely no less than a million—back in 2000, that was a huge sum.

He’d come to Birch Forest to check whether EasyDomain had launched yet.

Minutes later, Chen Fan punched the table excitedly.

“Great! It’s definitely not live yet.”

With EasyDomain still offline, he had a chance.

From now on, he had to work fast and launch his own EasyDomain before Boss Yao could react—snatching the opportunity right under his nose.

Chen Fan recalled that in his previous life, EasyDomain was acquired by Wanwang around September.

That meant he had less than four months left.

Time was tight, but it was worth the risk.

Guo Shuai, seeing Chen Fan grin foolishly at the screen, leaned over to take a look.

It was just a regular news webpage.

“Hey, have you lost your mind? Smiling like that for no reason?”

Chen Fan turned, grinning sheepishly.

“Am I?”

“Seriously? If you smile any wider, I’ll be able to see your prostate.”

“Idiot! That’s your thyroid gland.”

“Bro, you really need to catch up on biology.”

Guo Shuai laughed without embarrassment.

“You know me—I get sleepy in class. Except for the few lessons on human physiology and hygiene at the end, I can’t understand the rest.”

Suddenly frustrated, Guo Shuai said, “Damn! Speaking of which, I was so looking forward to those physiology classes. But the biology teacher just told us to self-study those pages and skipped over them!”

Chen Fan ignored his nonsense and shut down the computer, standing up.

“Let’s go.”

“Leaving already?”

Guo Shuai’s eyes widened.

“Not even an hour yet. How about let me play a round of Red Alert?”

“Let’s go, next class is with the head teacher. You dare skip?”

Chen Fan tugged him outside as he spoke.

“Just one round… we’ve already spent money on it, wasting it would be a shame…”

In the end, Guo Shuai didn’t get to play; Chen Fan dragged him back to school.

In the afternoon class, Chen Fan was too excited to even bother with the exam questions.

He sat quietly, head down, doodling and scribbling.

For a programmer like him, reborn from the future, creating a forum or website was no big deal.

What worried him was whether Boss Yao’s EasyDomain would launch before his.

If both sites went live, there would surely be a fierce battle for traffic.

To gain the upper hand, promotion and advertising would be necessary.

That required a lot of money.

Besides, creating a forum meant he needed a computer.

He couldn’t keep running to an internet cafe every day.

Even if he could get a machine, it would be a huge waste of time.

Buying his own computer was a pipe dream for Chen Fan.

Computers in 2000 were expensive.

A laptop would cost ten or twenty thousand yuan.

A desktop, even at the cheapest, would be over five thousand—and that for a low-end model.

Money, money, money…

In the end, it all came down to money.

Chen Fan frowned, staring gloomily at the list of expenses written on paper.

His previously excited mood felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over him.

Utterly disheartened.

Sigh, not even a hero can do without money.

Nearby, Su Ruochu was daydreaming in class for the first time.

Though sitting upright, her mind wandered endlessly.

She wondered if she had upset Chen Fan.

Why else wouldn’t he talk to her today?

Besides, since class started, he’d been bent over, writing and doodling, muttering to himself.

She wanted to ask but felt too shy.

Torn between wanting to speak and holding back, the class was nearly over.

Unable to resist any longer, Su Ruochu picked up her pen and wrote a line on her notebook.

Then, gently nudging Chen Fan’s arm, she slid the note toward him.