Ch 98: After My Mother Returned to the Rich Family

I want to start a school romance with Fu Chen?

Ruan Cha was startled by her own sudden thought, sitting up straight in alarm. She actually wanted to have a time-wasting school romance with Fu Chen?

That’s right—time-wasting.

She vaguely remembered having a conversation with someone before about dating in high school or college, and her conclusion at the time was clear: a complete waste of time.

In her mind, time spent on romance would be better used on studying. And if she ever had free time after that, she’d rather lie around doing nothing like a salted fish.

Thinking back on Fu Chen’s serious, focused expression when he said they could keep each other accountable for studying, Ruan Cha now realized—her chances of success before graduation were very low.

“Class is starting!”

As the chemistry teacher came in holding a stack of papers, the class monitor immediately called for order.

Ruan Cha quickly reined in her drifting thoughts, pulled her focus back to class, and stood up with the rest of her classmates.

“Good morning, teacher!”

“Good morning, everyone. Today we’re going to cover—”

Listening to the teacher’s voice, Ruan Cha gave her cheeks a light slap.

Focus. Study now. Daydream later.

By noon, with soft music playing over the campus speakers, the senior students of Grade 12 dashed downstairs in full sprint, leaving their younger schoolmates looking on with envy.

The crowd split—most headed for the cafeteria, while a smaller group formed clusters and marched off toward the food street near the school’s back gate.

Ruan Cha and Fu Chen placed their orders for stir-fried dishes and found a round table by the window to sit at, waiting for Huang Jiajia, Xu Nan, and the others to arrive.

Normally, Ruan Cha wouldn’t feel awkward sitting alone with Fu Chen, but ever since she realized how she felt earlier that morning, she kept sneaking glances at his face.

And—of course—Fu Chen caught her.

Their eyes met in midair.

Ruan Cha froze for a second, then quickly covered with a casual question:

“Fu Chen, do you have time this weekend?”

“I do. Don’t we always team up to study on weekends?” Fu Chen handed her a bowl of corn and pork rib soup and set his own down. As if asking casually, he added,

“Cha Cha, do you have something else going on?”

“If you do, you can take care of it first. We can still chat about homework on WeChat, right?”

Ruan Cha: “…”

Three lines in and two of them were about studying.

How had she never noticed before just how much Fu Chen loved studying?

Afraid he’d keep going down that path, Ruan Cha coughed lightly.

“No, no. Nothing else. It’s just… that meal card Tang Ruobing gave me—it’s expiring soon, so I wanted to ask if you’re free this weekend and—”

Before she could finish, Fu Chen had already set down his chopsticks and replied instantly, without a hint of hesitation, as if afraid she might change her mind:

“I’m free. Saturday and Sunday both work. You pick the time.”

“Then… let’s go together,” Ruan Cha finished, flustered by his quick response, automatically blurting out the rest of her sentence.

She had prepared multiple reasons to persuade him, but she didn’t even get the chance to use them.

He said yes so fast that she didn’t know how to react.

Meeting the surprise in her wide apricot eyes, Fu Chen calmly nodded, suppressing his own nervousness.

“Actually, I’d been thinking of going to Qimangxing too. We can go at lunch, then head home and study in the afternoon?”

“Sure.”

Of course she didn’t say no. That was her original plan—eat at Qimangxing with Fu Chen, then head home.

If he was willing to give her the whole day, even if part of it was for studying, she was more than happy.

Also… maybe it was psychological.

But Ruan Cha suddenly felt like midday Fu Chen looked even more handsome than morning Fu Chen.

“Cha Cha, if you have time this afternoon, would you come study at my house?” Fu Chen asked, slightly shy but smiling gently.

“I came to your place before, and you showed me the storage room. I’d like to show you mine—do you want to take a look?”

Looking into his dark, inky eyes, Ruan Cha pressed her lips together.

She couldn’t bring herself to say no.

After all—

With the excuse of being classmates, she could get invited inside?

Only a fool would refuse.

She nodded immediately. “Okay. After we leave Qimangxing, let’s go straight to your place to study.”

Fu Chen’s smile deepened. “Mm. I’m looking forward to it.”

—Looking forward to our couple’s meal.

Maybe it was the fun conversation at lunch, or maybe it was the thought of their weekend plan—

Either way, Ruan Cha was in a great mood the whole afternoon.

After school, she waved goodbye to Fu Chen and ran over to her dad waiting by the car, grinning.

“Dad! I missed you!”

Watching Fu Chen as he left, Ruan Zhengfei rubbed Ruan Cha’s head, emotions swirling inside him.

He didn’t know how long their little piglet would stay home now.

Once they got in the car, Ruan Zhengfei remembered the reason he came today.

“Can’t you wait until after the college entrance exams to manage the mobile game stuff? You’ve got plenty of time. Aren’t you tired?”

“Not at all. When you’re doing what you love, it’s not tiring,” Ruan Cha said as she scrolled through the food delivery app.

“Besides, compared to me and you, it’s the folks at the company who are exhausted. Sister Ye Ying said some of them don’t finish work until ten at night.”

“I’m looking for some good food to order and take to the company to treat everyone.”

She had thought about ordering from Qimangxing, but remembered how much attention it had drawn last time at school—so she scrapped that plan and settled on delivery instead.

After Ruan Zhengfei acquired the company, he didn’t change its flexible work schedule.

They still finished around 10 PM and started at 10 AM.

So when Ruan Cha and her dad arrived at the office after night classes, the R&D department was still brightly lit.

Ye Ying, one of the planners, was still working alongside the tech team.

As soon as they walked in, Ruan Cha saw Ye Ying and Wang Sheng mid-discussion over a feature request.

“You guys must be exhausted. Come have some late-night snacks first.”

They stopped talking when they saw her, and the seven or eight staff working overtime came over to help unpack boxes around the long table.

“Pizza and fried chicken? Boss, you’re making us gain weight!”

“Someone go down and grab a few sodas from the fridge. Fried chicken without Coke is just wrong.”

“I got it, I got it! Leave me a slice of pizza!”

Ruan Zhengfei waved his hand with a laugh. “No worries—we bought plenty. Eat up, don’t waste any.”

Although Ruan Cha hadn’t been to the company since that one visit, she often video-called with Wang Sheng and Ye Ying.

So the team was used to her and didn’t act formal.

“The data’s too big, so I stored it on a hard drive. You guys can grab it when needed. Should be clean—I had it checked.”

Ruan Cha passed the drive to Wang Sheng.

She had already eaten at the school cafeteria but couldn’t resist grabbing a wing when she heard the satisfying crunch from the others.

“As for the tech tree, just link it to the data inside. You won’t need it in the early phases. Maybe by stage three—about 3–5 months after launch—you can roll it out. Start with the small library version.”

“Boss, did you have that Mr. Fu check it over?” Wang Sheng no longer dared slack off.

Not just because Ruan Zhengfei had paid a premium to recruit top talent—

but because that Mr. Fu, who everyone only knew by name but never saw, was clearly the real deal.

In Wang Sheng’s opinion, that Mr. Fu’s skills far outclassed even the elite experts Ruan Zhengfei had hired.

It was the first time Ruan Cha had ever heard someone call Fu Chen Mr. Fu.

She almost laughed out loud but managed to hold it in.

“Yeah, he looked over it. But still—before you guys implement it, make sure to check thoroughly yourselves. Follow the procedure. No slacking off.”

Hearing that, Wang Sheng immediately raised his hand and swore,

“Got it!”

After working through a few phases of development, he already had a good sense of what would happen when the mobile game launched.

These past few days, he’d been willingly putting in the extra hours.

Besides, the new boss was generous beyond belief.

If they needed something like weather effects, they could just buy it directly from the marketplace.

Totally different from the last boss, who was so stingy he’d sit on approval requests forever.

Ye Ying, seeing their chat wind down, asked,

“Boss Cha, between the two startup screen options—which one are we going with?”

“The one with the starry castle,” Ruan Cha said, finishing off her chicken wing in three quick bites and sipping half her Coke.

“Change the castle color to white, then have the stars light up.”

“Got it.”

Seeing that everyone had finished eating and gone back to work, Ruan Cha stayed quiet.

After Ruan Zhengfei finished discussing other projects with Ye Ying, the two of them got in the car and headed home.

On the way, Ruan Cha pulled out the black game console her grandfather had left her.

When she powered it on, just as expected—no icons. The screen was empty.

“1128,” she asked, “Yu Zheng said his forbidden ritual was interrupted by my grandpa. You must’ve been there, right? Did you ever meet him? Is it possible my grandpa isn’t from this world either?”

Ruan Cha had never been able to figure out why her grandfather had tech from a high-tech dimension.

But after learning about Yu Zheng’s experience, she started to suspect—

What if her grandpa was also a banished spirit?

But… that didn’t make sense either.

She fiddled with the console, frowning.

Grandpa didn’t show up often, but he did show up.

Yu Zheng had died over and over, yet he still appeared in public frequently. There had to be another reason.

【Sorry, Ruan Cha.】

1128, shaped like a mochi dumpling, rested quietly on her lap.

【When Yu Zheng attempted the life-swap ritual, I had already initiated my detachment process. I did see someone interrupt it—but I couldn’t identify their appearance or spiritual signature.】

Hearing this, Ruan Cha wasn’t disappointed.

It had been seventeen years—she was long used to her grandfather’s mysterious comings and goings.

No matter where he came from, it wouldn’t change their relationship.

Besides—

Based on her grandfather’s character, he didn’t seem like someone who’d be banished.

He’d taken her dad to a welfare center as a child and always reminded him to be kind and do good.

He must have been a warm and decent person inside.

1128 sensed her emotions and held back the guess it was about to share.

In truth, after analyzing the console, the system had a strong suspicion:

Ruan Cha’s grandfather really might have come from a high-tech dimension.

But unlike Yu Zheng, who came as a spirit—her grandfather… may have come in the flesh.

Because he arrived in person, the console he brought wasn’t recognized by this dimension’s rules.

If he’d had a system too, and brought the console via its marketplace, it shouldn’t have been rejected.

1128 wanted to say more. In future worlds, time-travel devices were common.

In fact, the only reason it had managed to arrive here was because it had hitched a ride on a mini time-space node.

But the system didn’t want to risk being wrong and getting Ruan Cha’s hopes up.

So instead, it kept its thoughts to itself—making a silent note to link back to its original dimension’s database when energy levels permitted.

Then it would check—

Was there anyone else in this dimension… who didn’t originally belong?

…

Sandy: I found a proofreader but they never responded my email. I’m pretty sure it ended up in spam folder and they didn’t see it coz it happened with other proofreaders for other novels 😅 Just putting it out there so readers and the proofreader won’t get mad at this translator 😁