Chapter 7 Xu Musen! I'm never talking to you again!

Although smartphones had already become quite common at the time.

Many were off-brands or knockoffs, like Coolpad, Little Pepper, Pineapple, Feixin...

The big brands were ridiculously expensive, and before the advent of Xiaomi's game-changing "Make Friends in 1999," most people were using these off-brand phones.

Watching a video could be laggy, let alone playing mobile games.

It's no wonder people exclaimed, "Xiaomi, how could I live without you!"

...

Musen remembered a gaming method from his past life.

Cloud gaming.

The game data was all on the server; the player's phone was merely a medium. As long as the signal was good, they could enjoy the game smoothly.

But cloud gaming required powerful server terminals, and setting up large servers started at six figures, which was definitely beyond Musen's reach now.

So, he thought of another form with much lower costs.

Mini-programs!

QQ and WeChat had both become mainstream social media platforms.

Strictly speaking, the previously popular QQ Farm, Grabbing Parking Spaces, and such were the forerunners of mini-program games.

A good product is one that solves a consumer pain point.

Even though they look so crude and childish now, they were addictive fun back in the day.

Last century, lounging at home scrolling through short videos, I'd always stumble upon ads for cutting trees to level up, swallowing the universe to evolve, hatching blood eggs, and the like.

These mini-program games didn't need downloading, not even a registration; you could just click and play.

The development cost of these mini-programs might be just a few thousand yuan, but the revenue they brought in was significant.

I still remember a hit game "Sheep Shears Sheep" raking in a hundred million in advertising revenue in just a month or two!

It sounds unbelievable.

Musen didn't expect to make a billion right off the bat. As long as it could bring in his first pot of gold, that would be enough.

Moreover, there weren't many competitors in the market yet; whoever made it first would earn money first!

The more Musen thought about it, the more feasible it seemed!

He had studied computer science in his previous life, so this bit of mini-program programming was too easy for him!

"Qiang Zi, I've got it!" Musen excitedly patted He Qiang's shoulder.

"You got a tumor in your brain? Freaking out like this."

He Qiang was speechless, feeling that his buddy had been acting a bit abnormal these past few days.

"I've got a way to make money. Do you want to invest some money and ensure a big profit?"

Musen rubbed his hands together with enthusiasm. Although the cost of mini-programs was not high, it still required a few thousand as a foundation.

He Qiang looked at him and finally silently took out two fat fish from the fishing net and handed them to him.

"Brother, I can see you've been emotionally unstable these days; take these two fish home to nourish your brain."

Musen looked at He Qiang and couldn't help but laugh.

To be honest, if a buddy from high school got dumped and suddenly started talking about starting a business, you probably wouldn't take it seriously either.

Anyway, it would take a few days to develop the program, so the money wasn't urgent.

Musen was not pretentious, he reached out to take the fish, and said with a smile, "Okay, I'll consider these two fish as your stake. Wait for my good news in a couple of days!"

Musen turned and left.

He Qiang watched his buddy's excited figure leaving and sighed while scratching his head.

...

Back at home.

Musen put the fish in a basin and then dived into his room.

There was an old computer in his room, which was bought several years ago when the family had more money, costing over ten thousand yuan.

Of course, it couldn't even match the performance of computers that now cost three to four thousand yuan, and it lagged even when playing CF.

"Ding~ This boot-up took two minutes and thirty seconds, beating 5% of the computers nationwide. Keep it up, yo!"

Musen twitched the corner of his mouth, but knew it was definitely okay to write simple programs on it.

In open-source libraries, many ready-made structures could be used directly.

The programmer's magic tool.

Ctrl＋C, Ctrl＋V.

Time quickly moved on to the afternoon.

When his parents came back and saw the fish in the basin, they knew those were from He Qiang's place again.

"It's not good to always accept things from people. Next time you go out to play, don't go empty-handed..."

His mother pushed open the door to Musen's room, only to discover her son typing furiously on the keyboard.

"What are you doing?"

She approached and saw that instead of games, the computer screen had a dense array of English letters.

"Writing some programming. Maybe your son can turn his life around with this."

Musen replied with a smile.

His mother couldn't understand all that, but it looked better than him idly playing games all day. She advised, "The most important thing is to study hard. There are many scammers online; be careful not to get cheated."

"Don't worry, Mom, I've got it under control."

Musen nodded.

His mother took another look at her son's focused demeanor and couldn't help but ask, "By the way, did you not go to see Ming Yue today?"

Musen's typing hands paused for a moment.

He remembered that on every Sunday in the past, Musen would always pester Yao Mingyue to go out shopping together.

"What's fun about looking for her? It's better to figure out how to make some money."

Xu Musen replied offhandedly.

His mother felt even more that something was off.

A boy who thinks about dating all day suddenly wants to make money.

That must definitely be because he was provoked by a girl.

Although the two families had always had a good relationship, the economic gap between them was growing wider and wider.

His mother sighed in her heart, originally the two families were well-matched in social status, and both had the intention of becoming in-laws.

But now…

"Alright, are we having the fish stewed or braised in soy sauce?"

"I like whatever you cook, Mom!"

"You little rascal…"

His mother couldn't help but smile, turned around, and left.

Nighttime.

Xu Musen was intently looking at the program that was running test after test.

Meanwhile, in a villa a couple hundred meters away,

Yao Mingyue lay on the soft sofa, her phone not leaving her hand for the whole day.

Her phoenix eyes were almost bloodshot with strain; it had been two whole days, and he really hadn't sent her a single message!

Moreover, she had even visited his social media space today, only to find that Xu Musen had locked it.

Even though it was his QQ space, Yao Mingyue had long come to regard these as her possessions.

After all, Xu Musen's space was filled entirely with things about her, even if another girl wanted to chat with Xu Musen, one look at his space and she would back off.

But what did it mean for him to lock his space?

Was he telling others that his 'car' was now empty and could take new passengers?

The sick fire of jealousy in Yao Mingyue's heart blazed fiercely, such things beyond her control made her unable to hold back any longer.

She took out her phone and opened Xu Musen's chat window.

Her delicate fingers hesitated back and forth for a long time before she sent what might be her first initiating message of the year.

"?"

The question mark symbol could represent too many meanings.

Xu Musen, intently looking at the code that was running tests, didn't notice the message at all.

After sending the message, Yao Mingyue immediately set her phone aside.

In her heart, she smugly thought that Xu Musen also had his capricious moments in the past, but as soon as she made a slight indication,

Xu Musen would immediately forget everything and send her apology messages non-stop!

At that moment, Yao Mingyue would feel especially satisfied.

So now, like a hunter waiting for his prey, she prepared to savor the hunting moment about to come.

However, the phone set aside was as quiet as if it was turned off, not a single sound.

A nameless anger burned more and more intensely in Yao Mingyue's heart; she knew all of Xu Musen's patterns.

At this time, it wasn't possible for him to be showering.

That meant, he was deliberately not replying to her messages!

But she had clearly already made a concession!

Yao Mingyue gritted her teeth, her phoenix eyes narrowing into a dangerous curve, as she picked up her phone and jabbed at the screen.

"Xu Musen! What exactly do you mean?"

This was nearly Yao Mingyue's ultimatum.

After a long wait, there was still no reply.

She was almost biting through her rows of pearly white teeth as she sent the third message on her own initiative.

"Xu Musen! I'm only giving you three more minutes, if you don't reply, I'm going to stop bothering with you for real!"

The three minutes passed quickly.

Yao Mingyue looked at the screen that still showed only her own messages, her phoenix eyes now almost engulfed by a pathological gleam.

She picked up her phone, nearly wanting to smash it to pieces; holding onto the last bit of her sanity, she sent the fourth, fifth, and sixth messages.

"Fine! Xu Musen, you're so capable! This was your choice, don't regret it later!"

"Xu Musen! I hate you!"

"Even if you come apologizing to me again, I won't pay attention to you anymore!"

At that moment, Xu Musen, looking at the program that had successfully run through once, let out a huge sigh of relief.

Maybe it was because of reincarnation, but he felt that both his mind and body were much stronger than before.

A task he had planned to take two or three days was done in one.

It was then that he heard the persistent notification sounds from his phone.

He picked it up and was momentarily stunned.

Yao Mingyue's, and she had sent so many.

Looking at her frantic messages,

A thought flashed through Xu Musen's mind.

What's she barking about?

Looking at the threatening words, if it had been before, Xu Musen would have instantly gone to her doorstep to beg for forgiveness.

But now…

"I won't bother with you anymore?"

Xu Musen instantly picked up his phone and replied quickly, afraid she would retract her words.

"It's a deal!"