At one in the afternoon, Jiang Ning arrived at Yuzhou City.
It was midsummer, at the peak of the sun's intensity, and only the faint sound of cicadas could be heard near the bungalow.
The large empty lot in front of him was deserted, as people were mostly huddled at home taking their midday nap, so much so that Jiang Ning couldn't see Xue Yuantong at the doorway.
He unlocked the door; the time he had arranged with the telecom service worker was between three and four o'clock.
After putting down his backpack, Jiang Ning casually set up an Array to maintain the temperature of the herbs and prevent the loss of their medicinal properties.
Having traveled all night without sleep and then journeyed over a thousand miles, Jiang Ning felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him.
With a gesture of his hand, a ball of water flew out of the bucket and flames appeared, instantly heating the water to the right temperature.
The water poured over his hair, yet not a single droplet splashed around.
The warm water flowed over his body, cleaning his skin. Jiang Ning then cast another Magic Formation, drying his clothes and making himself feel refreshed immediately.
He lay down on the bed, listening to the chorus of cicadas outside, and fell into a deep sleep.
He was awakened by the sound of his phone ringing.
"Mm, I'm at home, just come over," said the broadband installation technician on the phone.
Jiang Ning stepped outside the house. The sun was not as bright as it was at noon, and people were gathered in front of the bungalow chatting. Several elderly gentlemen had set up a Chess board and were engaged in a game of skill.
Xue Yuantong sat on a little stool at her doorstep, playing with her phone and eating a peach, looking quite content.
She saw Jiang Ning and greeted him:
"Jiang Ning, you didn't just sleep till now, did you?"
"No, I went out last night and just got back not long ago."
Jiang Ning glanced sidelong towards the distant dam and saw the workers on motorcycles approaching. His eyesight was superb, and he could clearly see the logo on their uniforms.
"Did you go to the internet café?" Xue Yuantong whispered.
She had been wanting to visit the internet café for a long time, always hearing her classmates discuss "Honor of Kings" with such fervor and passion. She wanted to play as well, considering herself to be quite skilled in games.
But she didn't dare to go to the internet café on her own. Given her age, she could only go to unregulated ones, and surely, there would be unsavory characters in such places. What if someone were to bully her?
"I didn't go. I don't really like that kind of place."
The Jiang Ning of the past did like internet cafés, but later, to pursue Shen Qing'e, he had a change of heart, revolving his high school years around her, hardly ever visiting them again.
Unfortunately, in the end, he gave up gaming, and the woman left him, leaving him with nothing.
In college, that was all in 2016, he wanted to get into "Honor of Kings," felt it was too late, and thus, he gave up on the game entirely.
After getting a job, he assembled a high-end PC and shifted to single-player games, preferring immersive AAA titles or the social sensation, "Honor of Kings."
Technicians arrived with tools in hand, one of them making a phone call, as Jiang Ning's phone ringtone sounded.
Xue Yuantong was startled by the familiar melody; wasn't that the ringtone of an iPhone? When did Jiang Ning change his phone?
Jiang Ning hung up the call and shouted, "Over here, this way."
The two technicians, in their mid-twenties, said, "You've scheduled a broadband installation, right?"
Jiang Ning handed them the form, "Let's start the installation now."
So the technicians entered Jiang Ning's house, began pulling wires, and started the installation.
Seeing them sweating profusely, Jiang Ning handed them two bottles of water, "You're working hard."
"Great, thank you!" they responded.
Jiang Ning had previously bought a router from the business hall. After connecting it, the technicians began configuring, activating the network, setting up the internet account, the Wi-Fi name, and password. They ensured everything was working fine, stuck a maintenance number on the router, and even cleaned up the packaging and wire casings left from the installation before leaving.
Once they were gone, Jiang Ning connected to the Wi-Fi. With a 20m connection, the download speed easily reached 2MB per second. Telecom's broadband was very stable, not lagging in the slightest.
"Jiang Ning, you got Wi-Fi installed?" Xue Yuantong blinked, feeling a sense of urgency as her own data plan was already running low just halfway through the month.
"Yeah, just got it installed," Jiang Ning said.
Xue Yuantong's eyes brimmed with anticipation, "Is the internet speed fast?"
"I'll let you in on a secret, I'm especially accurate at testing internet speeds," she said earnestly with a tiny face.
Jiang Ning pretended not to hear and continued chatting with Xue Yuantong:
"I think it's okay, much better than my previous mobile data use."
He opened a video streaming site to demonstrate the internet speed to Xue Yuantong, and the video loaded instantaneously. Plus, as a distinguished VIP user, he could watch whatever he wanted.
Xue Yuantong admitted to feeling jealous, thinking about how she'd browse forums in image-free mode and only load pictures she really wanted to see, all to save a bit of data. Meanwhile, here was Jiang Ning, streaming videos directly.
"It's quite fast," Xue Yuantong said with a forced smile, corners of her mouth twitching.
"But you know, the thing with internet speed is, it needs multiple tests."
"Oh, got it, I'll try downloading a few videos then."
Hmph, I wanted to test the speed for you! It wasn't for you to try on your own!
Xue Yuantong kept a stiff face, maintaining a fake smile.
Jiang Ning laughed to himself and decided not to tease her further.
"Why don't you help me give it a try?" he offered.
"What?" Xue Yuantong didn't catch on, "Let me try?"
"The password is eight eights, with an 'm' at the end," Jiang Ning said.
Xue Yuantong inhaled sharply, her eyes lighting up with delight, almost shouting, 'I'll try it for you right now!'
But the last bit of her rationale helped her calm her racing heart quickly.
She cleared her throat, took her time, and pretended to be casual as she softly said,
"Well then, I'll help you test the internet speed, so you don't get swindled by the service providers."
She entered the Wi-Fi password seemingly slowly, yet quickly, eager to experience the joy of watching anything without worrying about data usage...
Then a popup appeared, indicating the password was incorrect!
Xue Yuantong: ...
It felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on her - her previous excitement cooling down in an instant.
"Ahem, the password's wrong," she muttered, her earlier joy deflated!
Jiang Ning uttered an "Oh," correcting himself, "I misspoke, it ends with a 'y'."
With a resentful glance at Jiang Ning, Xue Yuantong re-entered the password. This time it was correct, and her phone finally connected to the grand avenue of Wi-Fi.
She was too excited to deal with Jiang Ning now. The first thing she did, like a nouveau riche, was to open the video app.
Swish, a whole screen of video thumbnails loaded in a flash. She could watch any video she wanted!
Xue Yuantong felt her heart swell with contentment and a sense of abundance, so much so that she almost cried from happiness; nobody knew how joyful a girl, who had always been stingy with her mobile data, could be upon connecting to a full-strength Wi-Fi signal.
And it was even the neighbor's Wi-Fi, which added to the thrill.
Jiang Ning looked at her with a smile, "How's the speed?"
Xue Yuantong didn't understand broadband rates, and couldn't distinguish technical details, but she could tell if the internet was fast or not, and at this moment she had already started streaming a video she'd wanted to see.
"Not bad at all, the speed is very fast. However, to see if it's stable or not, I'll need to use it for a while longer. I'll just have to test it for a bit longer for you," Xue Yuantong bluffed earnestly.
"Sure, go for it!" Jiang Ning agreed readily. After all, whether it was used by him alone or shared with Xue Yuantong, it made no difference.
After all, it was like gold mined from beneath her family's bungalow.
Watching Xue Yuantong try to suppress her joy, Jiang Ning found it especially amusing, wondering when she would grow to have the face of someone from the future.
Otherwise, he always felt like he was teasing a primary school kid every day.