I am a Big Player
Chapter 226 - 224、Interesting Souls Will Eventually Meet (Second Update)_1

Chapter 226: 224、Interesting Souls Will Eventually Meet (Second Update)_1

After the field study group returned, the school was abuzz with real stories of Africa as told by them.

The place they visited was none other than Angola, which was still in the throes of conflict at the time. Sometimes, understanding the realities of Africa made it seem as though Africa had good reason to be underdeveloped. Countless Chinese people had gone there and could sell a piece of second-hand clothing for 8 US Dollars, while the same items were bought in bulk domestically.

The most precious commodity turned out to be mentholated balm; a small bottle could fetch the sky-high price of 8 US Dollars, simply because there were too damn many mosquitoes.

China was the largest motorcycle manufacturer in Africa, with a market value in the billions. Africans generally don’t save money and would even borrow to purchase something they wanted. Lin Zhichen and his group had hired some African workers, and no sooner had they paid a month’s wages than, three days later, the workers went on strike because they had already spent all their money...

Thinking it over, Lin Zhichen’s group decided to pay the workers every three days. However, the workers went on strike again on the very afternoon they received their pay... because they had spent it all again!

By the time they returned, everyone had tanned so much that not a single one of them had fair skin anymore. Yet, this healthy wheatish complexion became an object of envy among their peers, for it seemed to represent their experiences.

Being able to break free from family control and having enough money to travel the world during senior year of high school was in itself something quite enviable, something not everyone at No.4 Middle School could do.

By this time, the members of the field study group who had returned to No.4 Middle School had heard of the emergence of an impressive club that had developed a world-class game and had already begun generating substantial income for itself.

When someone mentioned this to Lin Zhichen, he paused for a moment, then laughed brightly and said, "I’ve got to meet them when I have time."

However, at that moment, Qinghe Club was swamped with work. Although they were aware of the field study group’s return, they didn’t pay much attention to it. They might have been envious before, but as people grow, their perspectives change, and they were quite impressive themselves now; there was no need to envy others.

These days, foreign agents had been flocking to China to discuss server agency matters overseas with Ren He. After much contemplation about the cooperation model, Ren He decided that franchising was the best route, as they really didn’t have the energy to audit these agents annually if it were a revenue-sharing model.

The income from the murder game wasn’t significant, so after some discussion, Ren He and his team decided to set different franchise fees for developed and developing countries. The fee was 600,000 US Dollars for developed countries and 400,000 US Dollars for developing countries, which roughly equated to 4.8 million RMB and 3.2 million RMB per year, respectively.

This lifetime’s murder game was different from the one in his previous life; its ownership was clearly defined, which meant that the creator of the murder game would reap benefits far beyond those of the previous life.

The initial franchising in 7 countries brought in a surprisingly large income for Qinghe Games. Overnight, the Qinghe Club’s account ballooned by more than 20 million in funds, so with an annual financial stronghold of over 20 million RMB during their student days, they hardly needed to envy anyone else.

And this was just the beginning of the franchise revenue. More people were expected to join later on. Although it was still small change compared to Qinghe Games’ overall business, it was more than enough for a club.

With excess money came potential problems. Over the past few days, Ren He had been pondering over money matters. Even though he had control over the funds for now, he wouldn’t be a student forever. To ensure that his successors in the Qinghe Club wouldn’t be led astray by money, Ren He needed to formalize the operations of the Qinghe Club.

That afternoon, after school, Ren He gathered everyone and headed to the studio in the comprehensive building for a meeting. The rest didn’t know what was going on and gathered around the conference table, looking at Ren He at the head of the table, waiting for him to speak.

Ren He grinned and asked, "Did any of you ever imagine that Qinghe Club would become so badass?"

Yang Xi thought to herself, yes, she had. As Ren He’s girlfriend, she had witnessed many miracles he had created, so it was only natural for her to believe that Ren He would turn Qinghe Club into a legendary organization that would continue to create miracles, the moment he established it.

Today, there were no classes; the vocal music teacher had taken leave to attend to personal matters back home. So when Yang Xi heard about the club activity, she followed along. The club was secondary—spending more time with Ren He was her priority. She looked up at Ren He only to find him secretly winking at her. The feeling of sneaking around in a relationship was sometimes frustrating. They both wished they could declare it to the world, messaging endlessly on their phones at night but having to keep it a secret when they met.

However, at certain moments when they thought about some secrets that only the two of them knew, they would still feel a special kind of happiness, just like now.

Who would have thought that two people who barely interacted at school would be a couple?

"I never thought the Qinghe Club could be so kick-ass. I thought you were nuts at first, but now looking back, dragging Jiang Haoyang to join Qinghe was a really wise choice," Liu Bing said with a laugh.

"Hold on," Jiang Haoyang suddenly interrupted Liu Bing, "You take a break. Both you and Li Yifan were brought in by me. You flat out refused to join the drama club and the street dance club because you said there were more beauties there. Wasn’t that you? Now you’re taking credit?"

"Really?" Liu Bing said with an air of righteous indignation, "You got it wrong!"

Liu Jiamin and Yang Xi laughed as they watched everyone banter back and forth. During their school days, even spending an afternoon chatting about nothing in particular wouldn’t feel boring, perhaps because everyone wasn’t rushing against time, not busy with surviving.

Countless people entering society all hope to leap out of the circle of survival, to do things unrelated to survival. Such as carefreely wasting time reading books, becoming a carpenter to master a craft, becoming a third-rate painter to satisfy one’s spiritual world, becoming a small-time guitarist to indulge in one’s hobbies, or packing up and heading to places one longs to go at a moment’s notice, the clear lakes of Turkey, the beautiful beaches of Greece, the azure waters of the Maldives, the tough mountain roads of Tibet.

Maybe you’d choose to open a small inn in Tibet, made of wood, with a courtyard, where you could look up from inside the inn to see the blue sky.

All this seems so wonderful when you think about it.

But everyone overlooks the fact that, upon stepping into society, we all soon have the opportunity to lead such lives.

This is the difference between surviving and living.

For Liu Jiamin, completing the murder game during this difficult time was very happy. Being together with a group of interesting companions was always joyful, and it also greatly helped her own mood. It seemed that she truly had reached a new level in her spiritual realm, as Ren He said, with more abundant expressions of emotion in her music.

She looked forward to the Qinghe Club continuing to move forward, together with everyone.

There’s a saying that goes well, interesting souls will eventually meet.

This time Liu Bing spoke seriously, "In fact, when I saw those seven banners at that time, it felt like there was a fire in my heart with nowhere to vent, so I ultimately chose to join."

"Me too," Li Yifan said with a smile.

Ren He spoke calmly, "So everyone should remember, it wasn’t me who chose all of you, but we chose to come together."

...

Well, as usual, let’s have a bite...