He operated with practiced ease, his fingers flying across the keyboard to write code so fast it left afterimages in the air.
Li Meifeng was startled. She had never seen a kid with such lightning-fast hand speed.
Whoever ended up as his girlfriend would be the luckiest and happiest person alive!
At the same time, the look she gave Li Zhiyan was filled with deep admiration.
For a child from a poor family to teach himself programming and reach this level meant he must have put in an immense amount of hard work and hardship.
Rao Shiyun, sitting right beside Li Zhiyan, couldn't help reaching out to pat his head.
Then she picked up her phone and recorded a video of Li Zhiyan's typing speed and the operating interface.
A brilliant glade of fascination lit up her eyes, while a wave of maternal affection flooded her heart.
How wonderful it would be if her own son were this talented.
Those lines of code looked like an ancient, incomprehensible heavenly script to her.
Yet in this boy's hands, they flowed effortlessly.
Seeing Rao Shiyun acting so intimately with Li Zhiyan, Liu Huan's expression darkened even further.
Where on earth did this kid come from, and how could he actually understand such complex programming?
He had thought he had no rivals in love, but suddenly an eighteen-year-old rival had appeared out of nowhere.
What kind of absurd situation was this!
If Rao Shiyun really started feeding him like a mother, it would definitely drive him crazy for seven or eight years.
A dozen minutes later, Li Zhiyan ran a test on the system. Finding no bugs, he reset Li Meifeng's company system and finally finished his work.
"Aunt Li, your company's system has returned to normal."
"So fast!"
Li Meifeng went out to verify it with her company's employees.
Ten minutes later, she hurried back into the office.
"It really is fixed! Li Zhiyan, you're an absolute hacking genius."
Li Zhiyan felt a bit awkward. True enough, in the eyes of the older generation, anyone who knew how to set an alarm on a smartphone was considered a hacker.
"Here, take this."
Li Meifeng pulled open her office desk drawer, took out an envelope, and placed it in front of Li Zhiyan.
Judging by the thickness, it clearly contained ten thousand yuan. A wave of secret satisfaction washed over Li Zhiyan—his system task reward was already thirty thousand yuan.
With the extra ten thousand Li Meifeng had just added, this single trip had netted him forty thousand in total.
"No need, Aunt Li. How could I possibly accept money for helping you out?"
Li Zhiyan offered a polite refusal.
Rao Shiyun reached out, picked up the envelope, and shoved it into Li Zhiyan's hands.
"Just take it since she's giving it to you. Why are you being so polite, kid?"
"If you don't take it, your Aunt Li won't be able to sleep a wink tonight. If we'd had to hire another programmer, there's no guarantee they could even fix it, and the cost would certainly have been much higher."
She held Li Zhiyan's hand until he firmly gripped the envelope.
Only then did she let go.
"Well, Old Liu, looks like your judgment was way off. Li Zhiyan here is a genuine computer genius."
"He helped Liu Yan solve her company's system troubles just recently."
"They paid him fifty thousand straight away. This kid's speed at making money puts yours to shame."
Liu Huan gave an awkward laugh, his face burning with embarrassment. Who could have imagined that a mere kid actually understood such complex programming?
No wonder Rao Shiyun was so favorably disposed toward this brat.
A talented man would never be buried in a crowd, no matter the circumstances.
The thought of Li Zhiyan's hands being enveloped by Rao Shiyun's tender, smooth palms made his heart itch with bitter hatred.
He had never even held those fair, delicate hands himself! Fortunately, judging by their current state, they definitely hadn't reached the stage where she was feeding this kid yet.
His plan to wear her down was in serious trouble now; he had a nagging feeling that Li Zhiyan would turn into a massive stumbling block on his path to conquering this mistress.
Rao Shiyun pinched Li Zhiyan's cheek, growing fonder of the boy by the minute. His movements at the computer just now had been impossibly cool.
He was simply too talented!
He was the exact image of her dream lover, and he matched the idealized fantasy of the precious son she wished she had.
"Xiaoyan, won't you really consider adopting me as your mother?"
Rao Shiyun brought up the question once again.
"Exactly, Li Zhiyan. I think you should take your Aunt Rao as your godmother. With a godmother like that, you're guaranteed to be well-fed every single day, and she can even feed you—how wonderful would that be?"
"I think I'll pass..."
While the few of them were chatting casually, Li Meifeng's twenty-six-year-old secretary, who possessed rather average looks and figure, came running in.
"President Li, President Liu, the client from France has arrived at our company."
Li Meifeng lost all mood to continue bantering with Li Zhiyan.
Doing business was the priority. Liu Huan straightened his collar and strode out with a serious, professional air.
This was a prime opportunity to impress Rao Shiyun; a mature man possessed far more charm than a little punk like this.
"Mr. Smith, please."
After the two of them ushered the French client, Smith, into the office, they still hadn't realized anything was amiss.
"Mr. Smith has traveled a long way to inspect our company. I believe our professional strength will certainly satisfy him."
"Qu'est-ce que vous racontez?"
Li Meifeng and Liu Huan looked blankly at the young man accompanying Smith.
The young man wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
"I'm sorry, but our translator was suddenly struck by acute appendicitis."
"So he had to be rushed to the hospital."
"President Li, it seems communication is impossible today. Do you happen to have a French translator on hand? If not, we'll have to take our business to the next company."
Panic gripped Li Meifeng's heart. Although they called themselves an international trading company, months and years could pass without them ever laying eyes on a foreigner.
Even if they did encounter a foreigner, the client would always bring their own translator.
They had never once encountered a situation without a translator!
"Bonjour, je parle un peu français."
At that moment, Liu Huan stepped forward and squeezed out a sentence in French.
Both Li Meifeng and Rao Shiyun turned to look at him in surprise. He actually knew French?
In reality, that was the only phrase he knew, and due to his heavily accented and inaccurate pronunciation, Smith simply wore a look of utter confusion, offering no reply.
For a moment, an awkward silence descended on the room.
After a brief pause, seeing that communication was impossible, Smith stood up, intending to leave. He had to sign this contract today, which meant finding a translation company with a French speaker to push the deal through.
Otherwise, discussing the finer details was completely out of the question.
Watching Smith prepare to leave, Li Meifeng collapsed weakly onto the sofa.
This deal... was dead in the water.
Li Zhiyan slowly stood up. With thirty thousand yuan on the line, he had to step in.
"Xiaoyan, what are you doing?"
Rao Shiyun called out softly.
Did Li Zhiyan actually teach himself French?!
Li Zhiyan stepped directly into Smith's path.
Then, speaking in fluent, immaculate French, he said, "Hello, Mr. Smith. Perhaps the two of us can talk. If you need anything translated, I can help you converse."
Smith immediately stopped in his tracks. He hadn't expected to hear such standard, flawless French in a foreign country.
"Kid, are you a French-born Chinese?"
"No, I just taught myself French for a while."
"To teach yourself French to this level—kid, you're a true genius."
Smith held an extremely favorable impression of Li Zhiyan.
Li Meifeng's eyes widened in disbelief. He had actually struck up a conversation with Mr. Smith from France!
And they appeared to be communicating without the slightest barrier.
The kid actually knew French too? Unbelievable!
Meanwhile, standing a little behind them, Rao Shiyun felt her heart hammering wildly.
She had already recorded the video of Li Zhiyan fixing the computer system earlier, and her appreciation for his talent was boundless.
To earn sixty thousand yuan at eighteen while being entirely self-taught—he was already the embodiment of Rao Shiyun's dream child.
Yet who would have guessed!
Li Zhiyan possessed even more hidden talents. He spoke French, too.
...
"Aunt Li, you can tell me whatever you need directly, and I'll translate for you."
Li Meifeng, who had been momentarily stunned, quickly snapped back to reality.
"Oh! Great!"
She no longer cared how Li Zhiyan had managed to learn French; the most urgent task was to secure this deal quickly.
That matter outweighed everything else combined.
Moments later, with a sense of secret satisfaction, Li Zhiyan showed off his French prowess right in front of Aunt Rao.
Li Zhiyan was an ordinary person, and an ordinary mortal at that.
Therefore, he thoroughly enjoyed it...
Half an hour later, under Li Zhiyan's translation, Li Meifeng successfully signed the contract.
After Liu Huan left to escort Smith out, Li Meifeng burst into jubilant cheers.
"Thank you so much, Xiaoyan. If not for you, Auntie would have suffered a massive loss today."
Li Meifeng walked over to her desk, pulled open the drawer, and took out a thick stack of hundred-yuan bills, placing them right in front of Li Zhiyan.
"Here, child, take this."
Li Zhiyan truly felt that although Li Meifeng spoke with a flirtatious tongue, she was genuinely generous when it came to actions.
"Aunt Li, this is way too much. Being a translator for a day usually only pays about a thousand yuan, and you don't find work like this every day."
"Oh, just take it when your aunt tells you to. If it weren't for you, her losses would have been much greater."
Li Meifeng pushed the cash straight across the table toward Li Zhiyan.
Seeing this, Li Zhiyan stopped holding back. Heading out today had netted him a cool fifty thousand yuan—it was thoroughly worth it.
"Why hasn't Liu Huan come back yet?"
Li Meifeng could more or less guess that he had simply lost too much face to return.
Being completely outshined by an eighteen-year-old kid in front of the woman he fancied meant coming back would only make him look pathetic in front of Rao Shiyun.
Rao Shiyun said with a hint of disgust, "Good thing he hasn't come back. A man who only thinks about getting into bed all day long is utterly repulsive."
"Our Xiaoyan is so much better."
The more she looked at Li Zhiyan, the more Rao Shiyun appreciated the boy.
Although he looked fairly ordinary, he still had a distinctly handsome edge to him.
Combined with his talent and drive, he was simply impossible not to like.
"Oh-ho, the boy hasn't even agreed to let you feed him yet, and already it's 'our Xiaoyan.' Isn't your son Liu Zifeng?"
"In such a rush to feed Xiaoyan, are you?"
"Don't even mention it..."
The moment her biological son was mentioned, a wave of disappointment washed over Rao Shiyun.
Compared to Li Zhiyan, Liu Zifeng fell hopelessly short.
Li Zhiyan checked his phone and saw that the system's thirty-thousand-yuan reward had already been deposited into his bank account.
The system was truly becoming more and more reliable.
His total assets now stood at a solid eighty thousand yuan.
As for his goal of buying a house...
He was still short by 920,000!
...
At noon, Li Meifeng treated Li Zhiyan to a table full of delicacies at a nearby high-end restaurant to express her gratitude. After all, had it not been for Li Zhiyan, her losses today would have been astronomical.
As the group walked out of the restaurant, Li Meifeng couldn't resist dropping another suggestive remark: "Beauty Rao, make sure to send me a photo when you're feeding Xiaoyan so I can enjoy it too."
"If you want to feed him so badly, you do it!"
"Gladly, but I'm afraid Li Zhiyan wouldn't want me to. Besides, one of me equals three of you—what I've got wouldn't be enough to fill him up, so it's all up to you."
"Hurry up and get going!"
Rao Shiyun's face grew warm again. This woman talked about feeding him nonstop, never knowing when to quit. When it came to verbal sparring, she was simply no match for her.
"Bye-bye, Li Zhiyan."
Watching Li Meifeng leave, Rao Shiyun sighed with a helpless smile.
"Xiaoyan, don't listen to her nonsense all the time. She has no sense of propriety even in front of a kid."
"She's so annoying. Hop in, I'll give you a ride home. I have to head back to the office this afternoon anyway."
"No need, Aunt Rao. I'm not going home; there's no one there right now, so it's pointless to go back."
"You can just head straight to your office, and I'll get out nearby."
"Alright then, my office isn't too far from your place anyway."
...
When the Audi A6 came to a halt downstairs from Rao Shiyun's office building, Li Zhiyan stepped out of the vehicle and was immediately hit by a wave of scorching heat.
Yet right now, Li Zhiyan rather liked this intense summer heat—it was the burning warmth of youth.
"See you later, kid."
Looking at Li Zhiyan before her, Rao Shiyun's mind kept replaying the scene of Li Zhiyan communicating effortlessly with Smith.
His French really was learned to an incredible standard.
"Yeah, Aunt Rao, goodbye."
"Oh, by the way, Xiaoyan."
"Auntie forgot to ask—how did you get your French to be so good? Have you ever lived in France before?"
Li Zhiyan couldn't help smiling. An ordinary guy like him—where would he ever get the money to go to France?
"No, Aunt Rao, I've never even left the country since I was born. To be honest with you, I haven't even stepped foot outside Anhui Province."
A look of sheer astonishment filled Rao Shiyun's beautiful eyes.
"Then how on earth did you learn to speak French so well? Getting started with French is so much harder than English. Did you hire a professional French tutor?"
"No, Aunt Rao, I taught myself French. I just wanted to master another skill to help share some of the financial pressure on my mom."
Li Zhiyan knew this was the only explanation that made sense.
He certainly couldn't tell people he possessed a cheat-code system.
Hearing this, Rao Shiyun found it hard to believe her own ears.
He had actually taught himself French?!
Not only did he teach himself computer programming, but he had also taught himself French!
Just how much willpower did that take?!
And all of it was simply to alleviate his mother's burden.
What a sensible, considerate boy.
For a moment, a stinging sensation hit the back of Rao Shiyun's eyes, and tears almost slipped out. She stepped forward and gently pulled Li Zhiyan into a hug.
Caught off guard, Li Zhiyan instantly bent forward.
Aunt Rao's embrace was truly magnificent!
Because it was summer, both of them were dressed in lightweight clothing.
And Rao Shiyun was wearing a qipao.
Being held by her like this amounted to virtually zero-distance contact.
How could a hot-blooded young man like Li Zhiyan possibly endure that?
Aunt Rao was the epitome of womanhood.
She and Gu Wanzhou each possessed their own unique style of beauty.
"Xiaoyan, won't you really consider letting me be your godmother? Auntie likes you so much."
"I think I'll still pass."
Li Zhiyan remained resistant to the title of godmother—as the saying went, once you acknowledged a godmother, your chances with her as a woman were gone.
"Then can you call me Mom? Just pretend to indulge Auntie's fantasy."
To this request from Rao Shiyun, Li Zhiyan didn't refuse.
"Mom."
"Good boy."
She gave Li Zhiyan's cheek a light pinch before finally parting ways with him.
After walking away, her own face flushed red. The brat had actually reacted physically.
Men and women belonged to different spheres for a reason; she really needed to be more careful in the future.
Watching Rao Shiyun's receding figure, Li Zhiyan straightened up after a long moment.
"These youthful hormones really have nowhere to vent."
Walking down the street, Li Zhiyan opened the system, eager to see if the tasks had refreshed.
The Salted Fish System didn't disappoint him.
A brand-new system task had indeed appeared.
"Tomorrow evening when Gu Wanzhou goes for a walk in the park, she will be harassed by a punk with dyed hair demanding her phone number at the pavilion at 7:42 PM."
"Please go and resolve the trouble for her."
"Task reward: fifty thousand yuan in cash."
"To ensure the host's safety..."
"Combat skills learning in progress..."
"Upon completion, the host will possess the capability to take on five opponents single-handedly."
A surge of wild joy instantly exploded in Li Zhiyan's heart! Combat skills?
With his average height, Li Zhiyan had always been at a disadvantage in fights, and he had taken quite a few beatings back when he used to scrap with Liu Zifeng.
If he possessed this kind of ability, wouldn't his personal safety be guaranteed?
This was 2010, and public security was far inferior to the later internet era.
All sorts of local thugs and ruffians ran rampant, making street fights and brawls a frequent occurrence.
This ability was practically invaluable.
"My system isn't weak at all; at the very least, it's way better than those typical tycoon systems. Tycoon systems only give you money, but these practical abilities are far more precious than cash."
Watching the skill's learning progress bar, Li Zhiyan headed straight for an internet cafe, planning to pass the time with some gaming.
The moment he arrived at the cafe, Li Zhiyan spotted that annoying freeloader Li Shiyu playing CrossFire in his usual spot, camping the exact same bugged location. With a VIP membership now, however, he looked noticeably more arrogant, constantly wallbanging through obstacles.
Grabbing a temporary card, Li Zhiyan sat down beside Li Shiyu and patted him on the shoulder.
"Come on, let's play a few rounds together."
Li Shiyu immediately exited his game.
"You have immaculate timing. Any later and this place would've been packed solid, let alone getting side-by-side seats."
"How was yesterday's experience?"
Li Shiyu flashed a knowing, men-will-be-men smile.
"Don't even ask. I honestly never expected that going upstairs meant *that* kind of business, and she even gave me a one-yuan red envelope afterwards!"
As he spoke, he fished the small red envelope out of his pocket.
"That attendant has some serious professional ethics, huh?"
"Brother Yan, how come I feel like you're totally different lately? You've got this unfathomable vibe about you now."
"Must be growing up, I guess."
Chatting away, Li Zhiyan logged into his own CrossFire account.
"I'm thinking about picking up a part-time job."
"Huh?"
Li Zhiyan genuinely hadn't expected that his best buddy, whose brain was usually occupied solely by gaming, would even consider getting a part-time job.
"I asked around, and being an internet cafe attendant pays fifteen hundred a month. That way, I can afford to go up to the third floor a few times a month."
"Plus, working as an attendant means I don't have to pay for PC time—massive profit."
"Only problem is, the moment they heard I could only work for a month, they flat-out told me to hit the brick wall."
Li Zhiyan knew a thing or two about working as a cafe attendant; short-term gigs were practically impossible to secure.
Shortly after, Li Shiyu got up to fetch two bottles of iced cola from the counter.
When he was by himself, he'd at most buy a bottle of mineral water, but whenever Li Zhiyan showed up, buying two colas to beat the heat was mandatory.
"Forget it. Being an attendant usually requires a month's deposit on wages anyway. With only a month left before school starts, working that long would basically mean doing free labor."