Who Would Fall in Love After Being Reborn?

TL: Etude Translations

As the splendid fire clouds burned out the sky, Jiang Qin watched Gao Wenhui change “ordinary” to “handsomer than Pan An” on the computer, then closed it and glanced at the time.

It was already 6:10 in the evening, and his mom should be home in two minutes.

Jiang Qin quickly left his room, took his shoes out of the shoe cabinet, placed them at the door, and asked Feng Nanshu to sit nicely, instructing her to start saying she was hungry as soon as the door opened.

Three minutes later, Yuan Youqin came home from work and immediately saw her son’s shoes at the entrance mat, her anger flaring up instantly.

They had agreed he would come back after a week of playing outside, but it turned into half a month, and with school starting soon, he would likely run off again after staying just two days. He really treated the house like a hotel, coming and going as he pleased.

Yuan Youqin had rolled up her sleeves, ready to scold him, but as she entered the living room, she saw Feng Nanshu and her son sitting obediently on the sofa, looking at her with eager eyes.

“Mom, I’m hungry.”

“Auntie, I’m so hungry too.”

Seeing Feng Nanshu’s pitiful look, Yuan Youqin took a deep breath, her heart melting. She thought, how could she stay angry now? Her son really knew how to handle things. So, she didn’t rush to scold him and hurried to the kitchen to cook instead.

Jiang Qin couldn’t help but smile, thinking that he had cleverly averted a family crisis. He really was a genius.

But he didn’t plan to let Yuan Youqin cook anymore. Instead, he waited for his dad to come home from work and went straight to the best restaurant in Jizhou for a meal.

By the way, he also sent a red envelope to the couple.

Actually, such gestures didn’t need to wait for holidays or special occasions, because whenever he did it, his parents would feel like they were celebrating.

Jiang Qin had experienced a failed life, but his failure was not just due to the lack of money, a house, or a wife. It was also because he wasted his life and owed his parents.

He had read many rebirth stories where the protagonist either sought revenge, lived freely, or obsessed over trivial matters. But when it was his turn, he realized his mindset was completely different.

Having died once, he always felt that his current time was borrowed, to repay debts, so he cherished everything immensely.

This mentality was somewhat pathological. He wasn’t sure if it was good or bad, but in the end, he didn’t want to leave any regrets for himself or others.

In the restaurant’s private room, Yuan Youqin and Jiang Zhenghong looked at each other after opening the red envelope.

“Jiang Qin, what exactly have you been doing outside? Why don’t you need living expenses and keep sending money home?”

“I’ve told you, I’m earning a lot, so much that I can’t even spend it all,” Jiang Qin artfully dodged the question.

Yuan Youqin looked at the red envelope in her hand, “Son, you’ve been rushing to make money since the end of your college entrance exams. What’s pressuring you so much? Can you talk to mom about it?”

Jiang Zhenghong glanced at Feng Nanshu, “Alright, our son’s gift is out of filial piety. Just accept it.”

“Don’t you keep it. Give it to me, I’ll save it for you.”

Jiang Zhenghong: “…”

Yuan Youqin put the red envelope in her bag, looking up at Jiang Qin, “I’ll accept the money. Along with what you gave before, it’s all saved up for your future wedding.”

Feng Nanshu was momentarily stunned, then picked up a piece of beef and offered it to Yuan Youqin, “Auntie, this is delicious.”

Yuan Youqin’s heart warmed, enjoying the dinner immensely.

The little rich lady also looked pleased, patting her purse, planning to send a large red envelope to the uncle and auntie when Jiang Qin wasn’t around, saving it for his wedding.

After dinner, the family of four walked home, the old couple in front, the good friends trailing behind, leisurely and unhurried.

As they reached the entrance of the community, Jiang Qin suddenly stopped, looking up at the sky, feeling the beauty of the moonlight.

“I am a person without great ambitions…”

“I truly cherish the present happiness.”

“Wishing to take care of my parents while they’re still here, plus having a clingy good friend.”

Jiang Qin looked at his parents walking arm in arm ahead and then at the little rich lady who turned back to look at him blankly, and he quickly caught up with them.

In the blink of an eye, the time had come to late August. Su Nai’s technical team had completed the most crucial part of the website upgrade: the launch of a same-school friend recommendation system.

Theoretically, based on the integrated student registration information, one could meet anyone in their school through the website, not only viewing their personal pages but also following their dynamic shares.

The reason for launching this feature was actually to enhance user stickiness, ensuring that all new users registered during the promotional period would be significantly retained.

One of the benefits of online socializing is that many details that can’t be displayed in offline interactions can be effortlessly shown in this non-face-to-face environment.

Additionally, the story “Loving You in the Name of Friendship” by Huihuizi Who Loves Sugar, had completely blown up on the website. Every day, a bunch of crazed fans were online for updates, and the number of favorites on the serialized post had even surpassed the Unremarkable Young Master Cao, closely following Shi Miaomiao’s “If We Share Snowflakes in the Morning.”

Jiang Qin wasn’t surprised by this phenomenon. Since it was the holiday season and Old Cao couldn’t see him, there wasn’t much material to show off, so a slight drop in popularity was normal.

That night, for the summer work summary, Jiang Qin, Su Nai, Dong Wenhao, and Wei Lanlan held a telephone conference, joined by the part-time manager of the branch office, Yue Zhu, as well as the heads of the business department, Sun Zhi, and marketing department, Deng Yuan.

“Boss, I have a question and I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to ask,” said someone.

“Go ahead.”

“Why did we integrate the student registration system into our website? After raising the registration threshold, is it really beneficial for promotion?”

Dong Wenhao, who wasn’t tech-savvy but had a user’s perspective, raised this question. He remembered when Zhihu was first launched, Jiang Qin kept asking Su Nai to lower the barriers, even allowing visitors to browse all content without registering, just by clicking on the guest mode.

But now, with the national promotion about to start, the boss began to set restrictions, which was truly puzzling.

Of course, it wasn’t just them who didn’t understand this move; even Wei Lanlan and Su Nai didn’t get it, and many who had signed strategic cooperation agreements were also baffled.

Why create a barrier and exclude social personnel? Wouldn’t the forum have a broader and larger traffic if social personnel also used it?

“The answer to this question is quite simple. Do you think a website exclusively for college students is easier to spread, or a forum where all sorts of miscellaneous people are mixed in?”

“The former, I suppose…”

“Right, the more focused our content domain, the faster it spreads. It’s like a narrower sword blade penetrates deeper. Frankly, I want to spread across the country at the fastest speed, not harvest users city by city.”

Dong Wenhao somewhat understood, “So this time, we’re not pursuing the number of user registrations, but coverage area?”

“You can understand it that way. If we spend a year turning all eight million people in the neighboring city into our users, it’s a failure. But if every university town in the country, even with just a few thousand users each, uses our website, we’re successful.”

After explaining, Jiang Qin added, “The city-wide promotion of the group buying site is like a spider weaving a web, while this Zhihu national promotion is like spores floating in the air.”

“I see. So, where should we start the promotion in the four major cities?”

“Let’s start with Shanghai.”

Jiang Qin decided without hesitation to start in Shanghai.

Zhihu’s chariot was bound with many local brands from Linchuan. Although they had signed strategic cooperation agreements and joined the Linchuan Business Alliance led by the Linchuan Municipal Government, they might not truly trust Jiang Qin’s capabilities.

Therefore, Zhihu’s first stop had to make a splash, one that would make all the Linchuan bosses feel it was worth it, and Shanghai was the best choice.

The first reason was that he had the phone number of the vice-chairman of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, who was also Ye Ziqing’s uncle. By morally obligating her, he could definitely get a significant boost.

Secondly, Feng Nanshu was a princess in Shanghai. If there were unforeseen troubles during the promotion, he could swallow his pride and seek help through connections, which might be useful.

Compared to Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou lacked such conveniences and support, which was why he chose Shanghai as the first stop for Zhihu’s promotion.

After understanding the boss’s plan, both the 208 and group buying branches became busy. The staff responsible for the Shanghai branch started to arrange and plan the promotion according to the earlier strategy.

There were many issues to resolve, with the most pressing being the promotional materials needed for ground marketing. They also held a meeting to discuss the best design approach for these materials.

“Boss, let’s use fans as the carrier,” suggested Lu Xuemei.

Jiang Qin nodded, “Good idea. Also, we’ve chosen so many campus beauties, let’s not waste them. Gather them to do some modeling.”

…

Pan Yue, courtesy name Anren, was a prominent Chinese fu poet in the Western Jin dynasty. He is popularly referred to as Pan An and was well known for his good looks from a young age. “Pan An” has become the Chinese byword for handsome men.