Ch 87: After My Mother Returned to the Rich Family

The company Ruan Zhengfei acquired was originally named Mango Tree Culture Ltd., but he felt the name wasn’t grand enough. After thinking for a bit, he came up with something that better matched their current situation.

“Three Whales?” Ruan Cha noticed the logo on the conference room wall and turned to look at Ruan Zhengfei. “Dad, you think flipping over like a salted fish turns you into a whale?”

“Of course! Our whole family is working hard now—how can we not become whales?” Ruan Zhengfei said while cursing Yu Zheng hundreds of times in his head. Once they do become whales, he’ll be the first to bite Yu Zheng to death!

Hearing that, Ruan Cha laughed. “Dad, you should’ve gone with something like orca or great white shark—off-the-charts ferocity.”

Before Ruan Zhengfei could reply, the conference room door opened, and a bright, crisp female voice came with a laugh. “Haha, seems like the little boss knows her fish well.”

The newcomer looked around thirty, wearing a blazer over jeans, with chin-length chestnut hair. Upon seeing Ruan Cha, she reached out first with a broad smile. “Good morning, little boss. I’m Ye Ying, from Planning Group A.”

Ye Ying didn’t have the rank to attend upper-level meetings, but as one of the few remaining planners, she’d been responsible for Ruan Cha’s proposal since Ruan Zhengfei brought it in.

“Sis Ye Ying.” Ruan Cha shook her hand, then pulled out her revised second version of the proposal. “The previous issues have been optimized. How far along is development?”

Ye Ying, seeing that Ruan Zhengfei had truly handed the whole project over to Ruan Cha, got straight to the point. “There’s some pushback from the dev team. They think, based on our current capabilities, your requirements aren’t feasible.”

In most game companies, planners and developers often clash—planners think devs can’t keep up, and devs think planners are dreaming with no clue what’s possible.

Because the previous owner only cared about subscription fees and not user experience, the developers left behind at Mango Tree were used to simple tasks. The two remaining planners had to constantly gauge if their requests could even be implemented.

Ruan Cha’s proposal was like a giant crack in calm ice. The devs, spoiled by easy routines, couldn’t—or didn’t want to—rise to the challenge.

“Hmm.” Ruan Cha propped her chin up thoughtfully. “It’s fine. Sis Ye Ying, go ahead and organize a meeting. If they think something’s not doable, let them say it to my face. If it really can’t be done, I won’t force it.”

Ye Ying was briefly stunned, surprised at how easygoing the little boss was. After a beat, she smiled and agreed. “Alright, I’ll get them into the conference room right away.”

Since the company only had two live games needing minimal maintenance, the dev team’s schedule was loose, and the impromptu meeting came together quickly.

There were five people in total: Ruan Cha, Ruan Zhengfei, Ye Ying, and the two programmers, Wang Sheng and Ying Yifan.

Wang Sheng took one look at the young Ruan Cha and underestimated her. Interns straight out of college were already clueless; what could a girl who still looked like she was in high school know?

Probably couldn’t even read a line of code.

Of course, she was the daughter of the new boss—the little boss of the company. Couldn’t offend her. He glanced over the second draft proposal. The formatting looked decent, probably revised multiple times with Ye Ying’s help.

“Little boss, your request to have characters go up stairs without model clipping—we really can’t do that,” Wang Sheng said, starting with one of her more demanding asks. “Let’s move on. First, the engine we built doesn’t support…”

He went on, stringing together jargon and technical terms one after another.

Wang Sheng assumed only fellow dev Ying Yifan could understand him. Even Ye Ying, with two years of experience, likely only got half of it.

Since receiving the proposal, the dev team had believed the company was doomed—it was clear the new boss had just bought it as a toy for his daughter. Working here was a waste of time.

The capable developers had already jumped ship. Those left were in their late thirties or forties, dragging families along, lacking cutting-edge skills. Instead of risking unemployment, they stayed, hoping to pocket some severance if the company folded.

So Wang Sheng and Ying Yifan agreed beforehand: don’t openly offend the little boss, but reject her requests as “technically impossible,” implying her vision was unrealistic and not their fault.

Wang Sheng wasn’t totally wrong—Ruan Zhengfei couldn’t understand a word. But one thing felt off. If they really couldn’t do it, he’d just pay to hire someone who could. His daughter’s first proposal wasn’t going to fail halfway.

Ye Ying, on the other hand, saw through their tactic. If she hadn’t taken over the proposal, she would’ve resigned by now.

Out of professionalism, she studied every request in Ruan Cha’s plan. While she didn’t understand everything, a few of the supposedly “impossible” tasks? Yeah, Wang Sheng and Ying Yifan could do them.

As the technical team dragged things out, Ye Ying grew frustrated. She turned, about to whisper to Ruan Cha—but stopped in shock.

Ruan Cha was listening seriously… even nodding in agreement at times.

Ye Ying: “…”

Did the little boss actually understand?

Wang Sheng had rambled on for so long he got a bit cocky. Maybe the girl was just too nice. He even closed with, “Little boss, programming is complex. As a high schooler, it’s normal for you to be imaginative but not realistic. I’ve been in this field for seven, eight years—I just don’t want us wasting effort on dreams. Hope you won’t take it personally.”

Ruan Cha smiled and didn’t comment. Instead, she turned to Ye Ying, “Sis Ye Ying, may I borrow your laptop?”

“Of course.” Ye Ying pushed it over—it was already hooked up to the big screen showing the proposal.

Ruan Cha said thanks and began working directly in the blueprint environment—graphical coding—demonstrating some of the proposal features on the spot.

Since she was going to write the proposal, she had already shown it to Fu Chen, who assured her it was all technically feasible. She gave the first draft to Ye Ying afterward.

She had considered that some parts might exceed the team’s current ability. But she hadn’t expected them to reject 70% of the whole thing.

No matter how nice she was, even Ruan Cha could tell she was being scammed. So she simply laid her cards on the table.

Blueprint was a very advanced visual programming system that could replicate most C++ functionality. Though she hadn’t studied much programming, Fu Chen had taught her the basics over four weekends—just enough to avoid being seen as clueless.

Just like now.

Wang Sheng and Ying Yifan watched as Ruan Cha fluently coded in Blueprint. Their faces flushed red and white, hearts pounding. They’d tried to bluff a clueless teenager—and got completely shown up.

They sat stiffly in their chairs, unable to meet her eyes. Even though she never looked at them, the shame was overwhelming.

A high schooler could pull it off.

And they—seasoned veterans—had said it couldn’t be done.

Especially Wang Sheng, who wanted to crawl into a hole and die just thinking about the smug closing line he’d said five minutes ago.

It had to be said—after living in Nanshi for half a year, Ruan Cha might not have changed much in front of her family, but in front of outsiders, she was clearly different from before.

As for Ruan Zhengfei, seeing his daughter able to program in Blueprint stunned him too. But after the shock came a bit of heartache—he recalled last Saturday at lunch, hearing his daughter and Fu Chen discussing things at the table that sounded incredibly deep and complicated even just in passing.

After Ruan Cha demonstrated what she had learned from Fu Chen, she had to stop typing for fear of giving herself away if she kept going.

Then, she looked at Wang Sheng and Ying Yifan with a calm, confident smile and said, “I hope to receive a new report tonight, listing the features you can implement, and those you cannot.”

“Y-yes, of course.” Wang Sheng didn’t dare meet her eyes, stammering through his response. After a pause, he asked, “For the things we can’t do…”

Maybe we can tweak them? Or I’ll try my best to do it anyway?

Ruan Cha pushed the laptop back to Ye Ying and responded without hesitation, “If you can’t do it, my dad will just hire someone who can.”

Ruan Zhengfei, still sulking over being less helpful than Fu Chen, immediately backed her up. “Exactly. If something’s not doable, just write it down—we’ll pay to bring in someone who can.”

Then, remembering how Wang Sheng and Ying Yifan had dodged responsibility earlier, he added, “Of course, if the newcomers are really skilled, they’ll get paid more.”

Ruan Cha nodded. “The fact that we gave you a proposal means we’re serious about developing this game, not just playing around. If you two think there’s no future here, you can say so. Either way, we’re hiring—five, ten people, it’s the same to us.”

The recently-stunned Wang Sheng shook his head repeatedly, “No, no, there’s definitely a future.”

Ying Yifan quickly echoed, “Yes, yes, a golden future!”

Truthfully, they still weren’t very optimistic—but if they got fired, even with compensation, it wouldn’t be worth it. Especially if word of what they did in this meeting got out—their reputations in the industry would be ruined.

It was already hard enough to find a job. Without a good name, they’d really have to pack up and return to their hometowns.

Seeing that she had successfully intimidated the two of them, Ruan Cha quietly let out a breath of relief. It really was the right move to ask Fu Chen—or her older brother—for business advice beforehand.

——

While Ruan Cha had temporarily handled her pre-Gaokao business, in a certain apartment, Yu Zheng sat grim-faced in front of a firewall that had locked him out. Behind his glasses, his eyes were cold and dead.

After a moment, he slammed the mouse aside.

Being foiled by Old Master Shen twice had shaken his control over everything. Especially after his medical team was taken down, Yu Zheng had no choice but to pin all his hopes on the forbidden life-exchange ritual. That was why someone who had been planted at Xiji for half a year had been forced to act just two weeks in.

To get at Ruan Cha, he had to remove the people connected to her first—otherwise, he couldn’t touch her. Yu Zheng had never expected to meet someone so deeply intertwined with the world.

He sat in his chair for over ten minutes, motionless. Once his emotions stabilized, he straightened his collar and walked to the innermost bedroom of the apartment.

As the door opened, the full scene came into view—charms, red string, formation plates surrounding the sleeping woman on the bed.

She had a gentle face, young and serene, but her skin was unnaturally pale and her frame emaciated.

Yu Zheng held her hand and stared at her in silence for a while before whispering, “Yirou, don’t worry. I’ll wake you up. That Ruan old man interrupted the ritual that would’ve brought you back—so his granddaughter will have to pay the price.”

He gently traced her face with his hand. “You and she are fated to be connected—otherwise why would her life fate be the only one suitable for the second exchange? But her fate is too unique, I can’t directly target her blood relatives. Otherwise, I would’ve done it long ago.”

Still holding her hand, he pressed it to his cheek, his hoarse voice laced with obsession. “If you live, I live. Yirou, you must wake up. No one will stop me.”

Buzz—

Yu Zheng frowned and answered his phone, his tone immediately cold. “What is it?”

On the other end, the voice was anxious. “Boss, the person we planted at Xiji got exposed—the police took him away. What do we do now?”

“What?” Yu Zheng stood up abruptly. “The police took him?”

He had been trying to breach Xiji’s firewall, planning to hack the surveillance system directly—but to his shock, Xiji had silently upgraded. Each layer of defense matched his skill level.

But he’d just received confirmation yesterday that the footage had been altered. How did the Liang family still find out?!

And where was Jiang Yuxing? Even if he couldn’t shake his B mission, he should’ve been able to cause enough chaos to distract the Liangs from noticing anything at Xiji.

Unless—

Jiang Yuxing had turned traitor.

Willing to suffer backlash from the B mission rather than harm the Liang family!

As the other person finished explaining, Yu Zheng ended the call with a black expression, then lost control and slammed a hand against the wall, eyes red with rage.

“Damn it!”

Ren Qingqing, Yu Zhiyan, Jiang Yuxing, the four medics, and his best hiding spot—all gone!

——

At Second High’s cafeteria.

“Cha Cha, come back to Earth.” Huang Jiajia waved her hand in front of Ruan Cha’s face after finishing her soup. “You’ve been zoning out this whole lunch. Something bothering you?”

After Ruan Cha and Fu Chen moved to Class 1 of senior year, their little lunch group still held together—but the dynamics had shifted.

Before, Ruan Cha and Xu Nan would come to the cafeteria together. Huang Jiajia and Xie Changan were a pair, and Fu Chen, Ji Feiyang, and Xie Sui formed another group.

Now, with Ruan Cha and Fu Chen as the only seniors, they naturally became a pair. Since senior students were dismissed ten minutes earlier, the two were responsible for saving seats. Xu Nan had been pulled away by Ji Feiyang, who brought Xie Sui along daily.

Fu Chen glanced at Ruan Cha, eyes thoughtful. In truth, not just here—in class too, he had noticed her seeming distracted. But when he asked, she just said everything was fine.

Her odd behavior made Fu Chen think of the new driver Liang family had assigned to her.

Later, his father had shared some background—Yu Zhiyan’s father didn’t just treat him as a living test subject, he now had designs on Ruan Cha as well.

Originally, the Liang family hadn’t told Ruan Cha. But now, Fu Chen suspected she might’ve already learned the truth.

After snapping out of it, Ruan Cha gently pushed away Huang Jiajia’s hand. “I was thinking about the mobile game.”

She had mentioned the game development plans in their WeChat group chat, so everyone accepted the explanation. Only Fu Chen still felt uneasy.

And he was right—Ruan Cha had indeed known for a while about Yu Zheng targeting her.

Just now, the system had informed her that Xiji Hotel had reported someone to the police—he was taken away for deliberately poisoning ingredients and endangering public safety.

As soon as she heard the news, Ruan Cha thought of the string of crises from the first timeline. At Xiji, over a dozen diners were poisoned, and the scandalous label of “black-hearted food supplier” was slammed down hard on the Liang family.

And in the second timeline, that person was caught by her older brother just as they tried to poison the food, and her offhand mention of the auxiliary surveillance room had actually come in handy.

With her future sister-in-law and eldest cousin both back in the country, things had taken a completely different turn from the first timeline.

After finishing that thought, Ruan Cha looked toward Huang Jiajia, who had just finished eating. “You were talking about the school festival?”

Huang Jiajia nodded. “Yeah. You guys in senior year don’t have a school festival, but I just asked if you’d come to Class Ten’s booth at the end of the month. We’re doing a haunted house. Xie Changan and the others are in charge—it’s gonna be super intense.”

Senior students at Second High had an arts festival in the first semester. In the second semester, it was all about studying. For most seniors, school festivals weren’t anything new—they’d already experienced them in lower grades. But Ruan Cha was different. She’d only been at Second High for half a semester before skipping up to senior year. Knowing her personality, Huang Jiajia figured she’d enjoy it.

Sure enough, after hearing her explanation, Ruan Cha became interested. “For the haunted house, are there prizes for making it through?”

Before Huang Jiajia could respond, Xie Changan, one of the organizers, eagerly raised his hand. “Yes, yes, yes! And the prizes are great. But the rooms are hard—some were designed by Xu Shen—”

Halfway through, he shut himself up. “Anyway, a few are kinda scary, so we require teams. Three people per team, gotta have backup.”

“Three per team, huh?” Ruan Cha turned to look at Xu Nan and Huang Jiajia. “Nan Nan, Jiajia, you guys wanna go? Are you scared?”

Xu Nan raised her hand. “Not scared. I believe in science.”

Huang Jiajia originally planned to push Ruan Cha and Fu Chen together, but then thought—if she kept doing that, someone would have to be the third wheel. Rather than letting Nan Nan go it alone, might as well kick Fu Chen out.

Thinking she was being clever, Huang Jiajia raised her hand energetically. “Not scared! The three of us are an unstoppable girl gang!”

The three exchanged glances and high-fived in sync. “Yeah!”

Fu Chen: “…”

He didn’t even get a chance to volunteer.

Ji Feiyang, who considered himself a pretty self-aware guy, gave Fu Chen a pat on the shoulder. “Wanna team up with me instead?”

“No need,” Fu Chen declined flatly. “You go with Sleepy.”

Before Ji Feiyang could argue, the half-asleep Xie Sui opened his eyes and mumbled, “I don’t wanna team up with Ji Feiyang.”

One simple rejection from the Sleepy King instantly drew everyone’s attention.

It wasn’t surprising that Fu Chen didn’t want to go. But for Xie Sui to give up sleep just to say no? That was a bit wild.

Seeing even Ruan Cha looking curious, Fu Chen took the initiative to explain, “Back in elementary school, Ji Feiyang went into a haunted house and totally lost it—screaming and flailing, tore the whole place apart. The staff made him pay damages.”

Honestly, he and Sleepy, even their whole class, really didn’t want to admit they knew Ji Feiyang after that incident.

Ji Feiyang: “…”

May your love stay forever unspoken.

Unfortunately, Fu Chen couldn’t hear Ji Feiyang’s inner rant. He wasn’t that into haunted houses anyway. And now that Ruan Cha already had a full team, he really had no reason to go.

When the school festival day arrived, he’d just wait outside the haunted house. Wouldn’t it be great if Ruan Cha saw him the moment she came out?

Seeing Ji Feiyang’s face full of regret and trauma, Ruan Cha almost burst out laughing.

Ahhhhhhhhhh!

That familiar shriek, that familiar intro—it made Ruan Cha jolt upright. Her previously calm heart began to pound.

[Congratulations, Ruan Cha. The 3PM chip project research team has made preliminary progress! You’ve been awarded 2,500 energy points! Your energy pool now holds 8,651 energy points!]

[Ruan Cha, we’re less than 4,000 points away from launching an attack on Yu Zheng! Ahhh! I’m so excited!]

When she saw the number 2,500, Ruan Cha nearly lost control of her expression. Reading two books a day gave her a max of 20 points. Now she had a whopping 2,500—that was the equivalent of over two months of reading!

At first, she had simply wanted to use the library to contribute something meaningful to her world, so she had spent a few days drafting a report. She never expected that not only would the researchers read it, they would make actual progress!

According to what the system said when she submitted the report, if the research team made progress, she could earn between 1,000 and 5,000 points. Getting 2,500 now meant the team had made significant advances!

Ruan Cha was both thrilled to gain the energy and deeply proud of the researchers’ brilliance. Her whole face glowed with happiness.

Even Fu Chen, who was always paying attention to her, noticed how happy she looked. Even the typically oblivious Xie Changan caught on that something was up. Everyone exchanged confused glances.

Xu Nan tugged at her sleeve and asked gently, “Cha Cha, what are you thinking about?”

Snapping back to reality, Ruan Cha looked up and replied with perfect seriousness, “I’ve realized how important it is to study seriously.”

“The importance of studying?” Slacker Xie Changan blinked, dumbfounded. “What’s so important about it?”

Ruan Cha took a deep breath, stood up with her tray in one hand, and patted Xie Changan’s shoulder with the other, speaking with heartfelt gravity.

“Studying—”

“Can save your life!”

If she hadn’t seriously researched that chip tech, would she have gotten all those energy points?

No way!

If the experts hadn’t been so brilliant, would they have made such fast progress and helped her survive?

Definitely not!

The others: “…”

Why are you suddenly like this? What even happened to you?