It was when they went to check out the building in the morning.
There was a gap when Chen Yue pulled An Nuonuo aside and muttered to her for a long time.
Jiang Xu didn't know what they had talked about.
All he knew was that when they came back, An Nuonuo's face was flushed.
"No... we didn't say anything," the girl's eyes were darting around.
This assured Jiang Xu even more that Chen Yue must have said something unusual to her.
He then pretended to be fierce and demanded, "Spit it out, or I'll beat you."
"I won't say anything, let's go home."
The girl made a face at Jiang Xu and then ran off.
Jiang Xu shook his head helplessly.
Never mind, he'd ask again when he got a chance.
Meanwhile, An Nuonuo, who had run outside the house, was all flushed.
She couldn't help but recall what Chen Yue had said to her that morning.
"Nuonuo, dear, now that we have money, if you get pregnant in university by accident...hehe."
"Don't feel burdened, have the baby, I'll help you raise it."
"Look, if you have a child at twenty, by the time you're forty, you might have grandchildren."
"Your uncle and I are still young, we can help you raise it. You two just focus on your careers."
"And, I want to add your name to our property certificate."
...
The words Chen Yue said to An Nuonuo that morning were still fresh in her mind.
In addition to being shy, she was also touched.
Presently, she and Jiang Xu were just classmates.
Wouldn't she be moved seeing Chen Yue go to such lengths?
When they returned home, Li Yuanjuan had already prepared the food.
An Feng was also home.
Naturally, An Nuonuo was delighted to see her dad.
The family had dinner together, the atmosphere was very pleasant.
After dinner, An Nuonuo went back to her room and opened her notebook computer.
As a habit, she first checked Weibo.
She had secretly followed Jiang Xu and checked his page daily.
Then she noticed the latest update that Jiang Xu had posted.
"Has his second novel hit the market?" An Nuonuo's eyes brightened "I want to watch it, should buy tickets tomorrow."
Then she started browsing through the reviews from netizens.
Most comments were evaluations of the new film.
Though there were some poor ratings, the majority of the reviews were positive.
A soft smile appeared on the young girl's face.
She was empathetic towards the netizens' validation for Jiang Xu.
On the morning of October 3rd.
As soon as he got up, Jiang Xu went to look at the website's backend.
Hmm, all the data had increased, but not as much as the previous two days.
What's impressive were the user retention rate and the payment rate, both were much higher compared to the same period's Dianmi.
The only drawback was that pirated versions had started to appear online.
These few days "Martial Universe" had also started to create some buzz and was known by many people.
Of course, it had also attracted the attention of those bloodsuckers.
Jiang Xu took a look, currently nine pirate websites had updated this book.
Several other books on the website were also stolen.
Especially "Martial Universe", one-third of its paid content was already stolen.
The click-through rate was not low.
Fortunately, Jiang Xu was well-prepared.
That was... Jiang Xiaoyan.
He sent her a message along with the links to those pirate websites.
To deal with thugs, one needs to act like a thug.
Quite simple.
He directly asked Jiang Xiaoyan to use her hacking skills to take down those websites.
Delete all backups, making their efforts go in vain.
One hour later, Jiang Xu received a message from Jiang Xiaoyan, saying it was taken care of.
Jiang Xu was surprised and replied, "Shouldn't you be sleeping at this time?"
Jiang Xiaoyan: Sleep is for the mortals.
Jiang Xu: Do you poop?
Jiang Xiaoyan: Of course, but mine smells nice, want to smell?
Jiang Xu: Yuck, you're disgusting. But I got to admit, your professional skills are top-notch.
Jiang Xiaoyan: It's just obvious, sister Jiang can be cruel and doesn't mince words.
As Jiang Xu busily chatted with Jiang Xiaoyan, he began to open the nine piracy websites.
He found out he couldn't access any of them.
Excellent.
How dare they pirate his own novel, they deserved to be ruined!
Meanwhile, someone was shrieking desperately in a rented room somewhere in the country, "Ah, all my nine websites are gone!"
...
Once Lin Nan and the others had left for work, Jiang Xu went out on his own.
He remembered that today was An Nuonuo's birthday.
An Nuonuo didn't mention it, but he couldn't act like he didn't know.
Speaking of which.
Even though Jiang Xu always made An Nuonuo call him brother.
In reality, he was several months younger than An Nuonuo.
What would be a good gift to buy?
Jiang Xu was a bit perplexed.
He didn't want to buy things like diamond pendants.
The whole business was a scam, with global diamond reserves being terrifyingly abundant.
Furthermore, they could also be artificially produced in the future.
After much thought, he decided to buy gold jewelry.
Even though many people considered it to be tacky, its value would increase with time.
Typical young girls at this age would probably find gold tacky and be uninterested.
Jiang Xu believed that An Nuonuo was not an average girl and wouldn't think like this.
Arriving at the gold shop.
Jiang Xu picked out a necklace of over twenty grams of gold.
After some consideration, he also bought a gold bracelet for his mother.
Gold prices were not high at the time, just over 200 yuan.
Just as he left the gold shop, An Feng called him up.
He invited Jiang Xu over to his house in the evening to celebrate An Nuonuo's birthday.
He was at least considerate enough not to forget his own daughter's birthday.
A girl's eighteenth birthday was quite important.
As an added bonus, Jiang Xu also bought a bunch of fireworks to light up in the evening.
He aimed to give An Nuonuo an unforgettable birthday.
Returning to the company.
He hid the fireworks in the backyard, deciding not to let An Nuonuo know just yet.
In the evening, he would give her a little surprise.
Upon seeing Jiang Xu, the young girl said, "Let's go watch 'Youth and Sorrow' tonight, okay?"
Jiang Xu: "Beg me."
An Nuonuo pressed her hands together, her eyes twinkling like stars.
It was as if she could suck the soul out of a person.
Soft and enchanting, she implored, "Please, will you go with me?"
Jiang Xu shuddered, chills racing up his spine.
The killing power when this girl pulled out her charm was too great.
He couldn't resist, he just couldn't.
Even though he didn't want to go, she begged him with such sweet charm.
Work carried on until the afternoon.
The website had mostly stabilized by then.
Over the course of the day, the amount recharged had exceeded 50,000.
The subscription rate for "Martial Universe" was noticeably higher today.
That was due to the pirate websites being taken down.
But these damn things sprouted back up just like weeds, 'blowing' once more with the spring breeze.
Jiang Xu also consulted Jiang Xiaoyan.
He asked if she could create a program.
A program that would automatically launch an attack once a website was uploaded.
Jiang Xiaoyan said she would have to research it.
After work, An Nuonuo went home as usual.
Jiang Xu wasn't sure if she remembered her own birthday.
Thinking back on those years, considering her family's circumstances then, they probably hadn't had the means to celebrate her birthday.
Jiang Xu took a shower.
As soon as he came out, he received a call from Fu Yanjie, "Did you get the invitation yet?"