Children born in the 1980s were the first generation of people that were affected by the family planning policy, especially the descendants of state-owned enterprise employees like Li Mu. Parents only had one children in order to keep their family financially stable, although the children of this generation had their own aspirations. The media called them the little emperors in their family, but almost all children past the 1980s wanted to prove themselves for their family.
For the children in Li Mu's comunity, that desire had sprouted ever since they were ten.
When they were in elementary school and had nothing to do, they would go to the nearest construction site, pick up scrap iron or steal the big clips off of the scaffoldings, exchange them for a few yuan at the scrap purchase section, and buy an ice cream for themselves to enjoy. With the rest of their money, they would buy a bunch of turnips and cabbages from the shops on the street and take them home. The children all felt proud because they could contribute to their families, even if their families didn't need them to.
After Li Mu grew up, he didn't do those naive things anymore, but the desire within him was never extinguished.
Although Zhao Kang was far more rebellious than Li Mu, his desire was not inferior to Li Mu's own.
When he heard that he could earn a year of tuition during summer vacation, Zhao Kang immediately became interested, and could no longer focus on his game of CS.
He faced Li Mu and asked, "Lao Mu, you're my brother. I know you aren't a brazen person, but how can you make so much money?"
"By making plug-ins." Li Mu said indifferently. "I'll make them. You don't need to worry about it for now. Keep it a secret temporarily though. After a few days, I might need you to start a water army for me."
"Water army? What do you mean?"
"Whatever I mean, if even you do or don't want to do it, you can wait a few days. If you aren't willing to do it, I won't blame you as my brother."
"****, you're troublesome! I'll do it! Tell me what to do!"
In recent years, earning a year of tuition and fees during summer vacation is unconceivable to the average office worker. A person would need at least a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan to say that, but not to mention that it was Li Mu, a high schooler, who said that. Li Mu immediately perked up his head.
"You won't have anything to do for the time being. Familiarize yourself with the game Stone Age in the next few days first. I don't want you to become familiar with how to play the game, but to familiarize yourself with how to best advertise in the game and online. Whether it'll be chat rooms, forums, or etcetera, once my plug-in comes out, you will have to go everywhere and promote it."
"Okay." Although Zhao Kang didn't understand, he always had an extraordinary spirit of perseverance. Once he made his decision, even ten cows wouldn't be able to pull him back.
Li Mu went home first and took out his 400 remaining yuan, returned to the internet cafe to pay the boss Erbin, and then began to study plug-ins in the private room.
In the evening, the two guessed that their parents would home at that time. They called their parents to let them know that they were going to stay out that night and play. Their parents didn't reure because they knew their sons had just finished the college entrance exams and needed to release the pressure from working so hard for a long time.
At the entrance of the internet cafe, Li Mu and Zhao Kang each ate a bowl of fried noodles. Zhao Kang rushed to pay for the meal as he said that he couldn't save any money when it came to eatin meals.
Li Mu didn't stop him. When he went inside the cafe, he spent five yuan to buy two bottles of Cola from Erbin. Zhao Kang was embarrassed because the drinks costed more than their meal.
Li Mu gave Zhao Kang his drink and said, "There's no need to care so much between brothers. Affection is first before everything."
Zhao Kang nodded his head, and after they drank their Cola, they both headed upstairs.
To tell the truth, Li Mu's understanding of Zhao Kang was before he turned eighteen. Both of them had little interest in money. But with at least a fivve-figure deal, Li Mu wasn't sure that Zhao Kang's integrity would be able to be controlled after seeing such a large sum of money.
However, he remembered that Zhao Kang in his previous life had gome to countless places in ten years, and that he would call from a new place every new year. For that alone, he felt that he could trust Zhao Kang.
He wanted to do a lot of things in the future, and he need a person he could trust to help him. Li Mu thought that if Zhao Kang could be absolutely credible, he would be a powerful helper.
The current internet cafe didn't restore the data on the computer yet, so Li Mu could use the computer as his own as long as no one else touched it.
Programming is boring, especially when writing weak programs. It was like a person who had been writin literature for more than ten years having to write literary compostions for elementary school. There would be no sense of accomplishment.
However, Zhao Kang was abnormally involved with his research.
He quickly got familiar with the game, and under Li Mu's guidance, registered accounts in multiple areas. He also went downstairs to get a paper and a pen to record some information with a very serious attitude from various forums and chat rooms.
Li Mu stopped him when he started to register for a BBS and a chat room account and found an overseas agent. After hanging up the agent, he let Zhao Kang continue. Plug-ins were a semi-illegal act, so they had to be careful.
The two got back in the internet cafe in the morning. Li Mu's progamming work progessed quick. He was 30% of the way done, and he estimated that he would need around twenty more hours to finish it.
Li Mu was going to name his plug-in Stone Overlord V1.0. The name was a bit vulgar, but the early internet users needed a simple and crude name to attract their attention.
In order to not let their parents think that they were out too much, they went home before their parents went to work the next day.
When they got home, his parents almost didn't recognize their son.
Mom Li exclaimed, "Xiaomu, when did you cut your hair? Why did you shave? Didn't mom tell you that you can't shave at your age or else you'll have a thick mustache when you're older? That would make you look ugly."
Then she carefully looked at Li Mu's haircut, compared it to his previous one, and said, "This is a good haircut. It's very spirited. But the mustache..."
Dad Li glanced at Li Mu and laughed, "Hey, what do you mean when he grows old? I worked on mine for half a year when I was his age. At that time, my dad told me that everyday too. I didn't shave for two years, and I barely had a mustache."
Li Ma shook her head helplessly.
"How can he compare to you? My son is much handsomer than you."
"Hey, your son is also my son."
The couple quarrelled until Li Ma saw Li Mu's dark circles underneath his eyes. She knew he was playing at the internet cafe overnight, but she didn't blame him.
Instead, she said, "Xiaomu, there's breakfast in the kitchen. After you eat, you should go to bed. Tomorrow your scores should be out, and you can't go out tonight to play."
Li Mu nodded and said, "Mom, don't worry. I'll go to bed early today."
"Okay." Mom Li smiled with satisfaction. "Call the finance department where your mom works and tell me."
Dad Li came up and said, "Don't forget to call the measurement team and give me good news too."
Li Mu said with a smile, "Dad, mom, I can't accurately predict my score. Let's talk after we get the score."
"It can't be done precisely, but it should be close!" Mom Li slightly smiled and patted Li Mu's shoulder. "Go eat your dinner and sleep. Look at you, you stay up late and you already look like a panda!"
After his parents left for work, Li Mu ate a few bites of food thinking that if he slept now, he would need to sleep until next afternoon. What's more is that the plug-in was only 30% finished, and he feels anxious about it.
As a result, he decided to stay home for the day. In the evening, his parents came back from work, had a meal, and went to bed early because they had to go to his school early in the morning.
Tomorrow at school, Li Mu was going to see Su Yingxue, his crush when he was young. Although she wasn't friends with him, he was in the same class as her and he would get to see her at school!
When he thought of her, Li Mu, an old man in his 30s, felt something in his heart.