That's such a clever hiding spot.

An unexpected upset occurred in this afternoon's competition.

Lifang Li, known as the "Six-Fingered Keyboard Demon", severely underperformed in the Chinese character entry event, achieving an average typing speed of only 141 characters per minute.

Meanwhile, Fang Qingye, a young and obscure employee from the Nanxin Sub-branch, reached a typing speed of 151 characters per minute, securing first place in the event.

The Nanxin Sub-branch finally claimed a championship title, allowing the participating team members to hold their heads high at last. Their overall ranking had finally climbed into the middle tier among the eight competing teams!

The awards ceremony followed immediately after the competition. Fang Qingye went on stage to accept his award, receiving the certificate from the branch leaders along with a red envelope containing the promised 20,000 yuan prize.

It did look somewhat comical for him to be accepting the award while wearing a tank top and loose shorts.

Of course, the envelope did not actually contain 20,000 yuan in cash; the funds would be transferred directly into the winner's payroll account afterwards.

After the competition concluded, the team enjoyed a meal in Jinghai before happily boarding the vehicle back to Nanxin.

Naturally, Fang Qingye drove his own car home.

Once back home, Fang Qingye hurried to take a shower and changed into a clean set of clothes, instantly feeling refreshed and revitalized.

His phone, tossed casually onto the bed, began to ring. Fang Qingye picked it up, saw that the call was from Xia He, and answered it casually.

"Did you get home?"

"Yeah, I'm back."

"I really didn't expect your typing speed to be so fast."

"You've already said that several times." Fang Qingye said with a hint of resignation, "Senior Sister, you were way too excited today!"

"Of course I was excited! You have no idea—this time our branch used a bunch of newcomers for the competition, and all the other branches were just waiting to make a fool of us. You saw Director Hu's ugly expression before the match! But after it ended, they completely lost their arrogance... Hmph!"

"This also fully demonstrates from another angle that my decision to heavily utilize newcomers for the competition was entirely correct!"

"Senior Sister's decision is correct! Senior Sister's decision is brilliant!" Fang Qingye replied lazily.

"Heh... listen to you barking out slogans. Also, rest assured about one thing: I won't treat you like a regular typist. That would be far too unfair to you. I've already instructed Director Wu not to assign you any extra typing tasks!"

That's more like it...

Fang Qingye had indeed been slightly concerned about this very issue.

In the workplace, the more capable you are, the more work gets piled onto you.

However, with Xia He around, that problem simply ceased to exist.

"Hey, Little Fang, you've earned a 20,000 yuan bonus. Everyone on the bus was saying you should treat us to a meal," Xia He added.

"Senior Sister, it makes sense for others to ask me to treat them, but you definitely shouldn't... I brought glory to the institution and to you, and instead of treating me, you're trying to shake me down?!"

"Don't you worry about that. How could I treat our great contributor unfairly? I already discussed it with President Su yesterday—the branch will provide matching rewards for everyone who won an award! Whatever the main branch awards, we will match it! Are you satisfied now?"

Doesn't that mean another 20,000 yuan?

That's more like it...

"Satisfied! Senior Sister, next time we go play badminton, I'll treat you and cover the court fees!" Fang Qingye replied with a smile.

"Stingy! At the very least, add a cup of milk tea to that!"

...
...

On Friday, Fang Qingye and Xia He went to Yikangyuan to play, and true to his word, he paid for both the court fees and the milk tea.

After the game, Xia He was holding a cup of milk tea, sipping it with great satisfaction, and sighed as she drank:

"Sigh, I'm done for."

"What's done for?"

"I originally quit milk tea ages ago, but ever since I started playing badminton with you, I've started drinking it again... If I gain weight, I'm blaming you."

Fang Qingye took a sip of his own milk tea and couldn't be bothered to argue with her.

Life returned to peace and quiet once more, and his attention shifted back to the stock market.

Beijing Tourism had started its upward climb on June 20th, rising all the way from around 12 yuan to its current 29 yuan in one breath. With a massive gain of 141%, it was time to sell!

Returning home that evening after badminton, Fang Qingye logged into Tonghuashun and placed a sell order for all 1,240 lots of Beijing Tourism he held at 29.0 yuan per share.

Now he just had to wait for the market to open tomorrow and collect his money!

Closing Tonghuashun, Fang Qingye logged into QQ in stealth mode.

Surprisingly, the Dongguan girl's avatar was not flashing today.

He glanced through a few alumni group chats, but they were just filled with idle chatter and held no real value, so he naturally ignored them. He had already exited quite a few stock groups, and the ones he hadn't left were basically muted—he didn't need to pay attention to them.

As for that "IQ Over 150" brain-dead chat group, he couldn't even be bothered to click and open it.

The next day, all his stocks were successfully sold. This time, his net profit amounted to 2,245,387 yuan, bringing his total capital to approximately 3.59 million yuan!

Not bad, not bad at all...

Fang Qingye was quite satisfied. Could he be considered a minor millionaire now?

He would take a temporary break for a while.

There was no need to rush when it came to making money; he would take it slow. If he spent every single day fixated on this, how would it be any different from his life before rebirth?

Fang Qingye closed Tonghuashun and opened World of Warcraft.

On August 8th, the Olympic Games officially opened in Beijing, capturing the attention of the entire nation. Everyone was immersed in the joy brought by this grand sporting event.

Fang Qingye didn't pay it too much attention either.

Aside from badminton, he wasn't particularly interested in other sports, plus he had already seen it all before his rebirth.

However, the opening ceremony directed by Director Zhang was indeed magnificent. Looking back at later Olympic opening ceremonies, especially those in Tokyo and Paris, what even were those?

A chaotic dance of demons.

Coming home from work this afternoon, his father, Fang Jianwen—who rarely dined at home on weekday afternoons—had actually returned early. While the family of three was having dinner, Fang Qingye heard his father say, "Little Ye, your mother and I are planning to head out of town for a while starting tomorrow."

Oh...

The critical moment for choosing and sorting schools for the transition from elementary to middle school had arrived. Over the past few days, people had been trickling in to seek favors from his father, and it looked like he was about to skip town again to find some peace and quiet.

"Where are you guys going?" Fang Qingye asked.

"We've planned it out. This time we're heading to the Hulunbuir Grassland, and the plane tickets are already booked."

My, oh my... What a great place to hide out.

Fang Qingye muttered inwardly, then asked:

"Which airport are you leaving from? Huijing or Shanghai?"

"Shanghai, flying directly to Hulunbuir."

"Then I'll take a day off tomorrow and drive you guys to the airport?" Fang Qingye thought for a moment and offered.

His father disagreed, "Focus on your job! We'll take the train or a long-distance bus ourselves!"

To his surprise, his mother chimed in, "What's wrong with our son driving us? Why squeeze onto public transport in this scorching heat? Some people just don't know how to enjoy a good life... Little Ye, take the day off!"

"Alright!"

After dinner, Fang Qingye sent text messages to Wu Shengli and Xia He respectively, explaining that he had a family matter to attend to and needed a day off. Approval was granted very quickly.

The next morning, after breakfast, Fang Qingye loaded his parents' luggage into the trunk, loaded his parents into the car, hit the highway straight for Shanghai, and drove for a full three hours before reaching Hongqiao Airport.

After having lunch at a nearby restaurant, he saw his parents through the security checkpoint before driving back to the county seat. By the time he arrived home, it was already close to five in the afternoon.

The house was empty. Freedom at last...

Turning on the air conditioner, Fang Qingye took a shower, changed into a tank top and loose shorts. Too lazy to cook for himself, he went to a restaurant outside the residential complex and ordered a bowl of fried rice with pickled long beans and minced pork. Unwilling to go anywhere in this sweltering heat, he returned home and prepared to turn on the computer for a session of World of Warcraft. Before the game even finished loading, he heard someone knocking on the front door.

He walked out of the bedroom to open the door and saw a middle-aged man approaching forty standing outside, tucking a briefcase under his armpit.

"Is Principal Fang in?" The man asked with a face full of smiles when he saw Fang Qingye open the door.

"My dad's not home. He and my mom went traveling." Fang Qingye stood in the doorway with no intention of letting him in.

A look of disappointment instantly appeared on the man's face as he pressed further, "When will he be back?"

"I'm not entirely sure about that, but he'll definitely be back before the school term starts."

The man hesitated for a moment before finally saying, "My name is Zhang Jie. The matter I wanted to ask your father's help with is written inside an envelope. Could I trouble you to pass it on to your father?" With that, he pulled a thick envelope out of his briefcase and tried to push it into Fang Qingye's hands.

"No, no, I can't." Fang Qingye quickly refused. "I can't accept this, otherwise my dad will chew me out when he gets back... How about this, I'll give you my dad's cell phone number, and you can tell him directly whatever you need to say."

"Alright, alright, thank you." The man tucked the envelope back into his bag, pulled out his phone as he walked down the stairs, looking as though he was about to make a call.

Fang Qingye chuckled inwardly.

If you manage to get through with a call right now, you must be a genius!

As it turned out, Fang Jianwen's phone had two cards in one device, and his work number had been switched off for this exact situation...