Tomorrow is Saturday, but unfortunately for the senior high school students, it is still a full day of classes, and they only have one day off a week.
Zhou Rui did not get distracted at night. He secretly put his ID card back and then focused on the test paper to gain experience.
The next day, Zhou Rui did everything as usual. He picked up Li Wenqian from school and gained experience. The progress on the copyright registration website had entered the "acceptance" stage.
Han Zinyin seemed to have always wanted to say something to him, but this tall girl appeared to have a delicate heart, or perhaps she had never talked to boys before. She seemed hesitant to speak all day long.
It wasn't until after school, just before Zhou Rui left, that Han Zinyin finally mustered up the courage to say what she had been holding back all day.
"Um, classmate Zhou Rui, are you free tomorrow? My father wants to invite you to his house for dinner."
Zhou Rui was stunned for a moment but soon realized that it was normal. After such a big thing had happened to her, it was only natural for her to want him to meet her family.
But it was a pity.
"I'm sorry, I have a lot of things scheduled for tomorrow, so it may not be possible. Please tell uncle that I appreciate his kindness, and there's no need to go through so much trouble."
Hearing Zhou Rui's rejection, Han Zinyin couldn't help but feel disappointed—no, a huge disappointment. But she didn't dare to show it on her face. She could only force herself to say, "I know. It's my fault. I should have told you in advance."
Zhou Rui nodded and said, "Then I'll leave. See you tomorrow?"
As he went down the stairs, Zhou Rui opened the system panel to check the entry task status.
"Task entry: Concentration, Experience value +1, Current progress (78/100)"
"Quest entry: Self-disciplined, Experience value +1, Current progress (50/100)"
"Quest entry: Inspiration, Experience value +1, Current progress (25/100)"
If nothing goes wrong, the "concentration" entry will be completed by Monday.
On time, on point, Zhou Rui affectionately "rua'd" the mushroom head and took Li Wenqian home.
Song Bin had asked for leave from evening self-study in the afternoon and left early, as if something had happened, but they had already made plans to meet at Song Bin's place tomorrow.
Li Wenqian was walking while softly humming "Starry Sea." This girl is really talented. After just hearing Zhou Rui sing half the song, she already knew the melody and rhythm by heart. She only had trouble remembering the full lyrics and would occasionally ask Zhou Rui a few questions.
With each time she sang, she got better and better.
Since Zhou Rui insisted on letting her record the demo, she didn't want to disappoint him, let alone ruin his plans.
As Zhou Rui walked, he thought about what new task he could add to the empty task bar once he completed the "Concentration" entry.
In the evening, Zhou Rui did his homework diligently and gained some experience that night.
Concentration, current progress (81/100)
Self-disciplined, current progress (53/100)
Inspiration, current progress (26/100)
The next day, the poor senior high school students finally had their precious day off.
Although he had a lot of homework to do, Zhou Rui had other plans for today.
He no longer wore his school uniform but instead put on a short-sleeved shirt and jeans.
After Zhou Rui picked up Li Wenqian, they went to the community where Song Bin lived.
Mid-level Villa.
As the name suggests, this is a villa area.
Real estate development is booming these days. Even a small place like Qinghe County has a villa area. It is said that the local leading enterprises developed it, making the specifications very high—no worse than those in big cities.
The security guards standing guard at the door were all in their early thirties and very meticulous.
All in all, Song Bin's family situation was both unexpected and reasonable.
At the gate of the community, the plump boy Song Bin was waving happily: "Zhou Rui! Over here!"
The houses in the community were spaced apart, with one villa every few dozen meters. Each house was slightly different, but all had a white base.
It may be a bit outdated in a dozen years, but it was still an excellent design now. In a place like Qinghe County, the developer didn't know how much they needed to sell it for to make a profit.
The parents of the plump boy Song Bin seemed to be very busy. At least they weren't at home today or were only home a few days a week. Even though he lived in a villa area, his family affection seemed no different from that of left-behind children.
His cowardly and autistic character may also be linked to his unique family environment.
Zhou Rui thought he was just going to borrow Song Bin's computer, but when Song Bin opened the door, a bunch of messy equipment was revealed inside.
Zhou Rui was stunned.
Song Bin touched the back of his head and said, "Well, I've downloaded 'Cool Bass.' I tried learning it last night, and it's not too difficult. I also bought a few basic sound effect libraries. Also, I thought Zhou Rui might want to record songs, so a computer alone wouldn't be enough. I bought two pairs of monitoring headphones, microphones, and a sound card."
Zhou Rui looked at the messy wires and rubbed his eyebrows with a headache.
"Xiao Song, how much did you spend?"
When Song Bin saw Zhou Rui mention money, he became nervous. "Nothing, not much."
Zhou Rui stared at Song Bin and asked, "Do you believe this?"
Song Bin had some idea of how much money he had and knew his family was relatively wealthy.
However, his long-term autistic campus life and cowardly character made him unclear about the power of "money" in society.
Now, he was eager to be friends with Zhou Rui, but he worried that Zhou Rui might ignore him because he had spent too much money.
Zhou Rui wasn't very familiar with the prices of these devices but estimated that they would cost at least 30,000 or 40,000 yuan. If Song Bin had bought high-end equipment, it might be more than that.
Even the genuine version of the "Cool Bass" software costs several thousand yuan a year.
However, Song Bin's impulsive behavior did solve many of Zhou Rui's problems. Without it, it would have been very troublesome for Zhou Rui to record, and the quality would have been much worse, which would have made the early stages harder.
Zhou Rui thought about it and could only say, "You've already bought it, so use it. You have a sound card, microphone, and monitoring headphones. Let's try to record a demo today."
Song Bin nodded excitedly.
However, Zhou Rui changed the subject and said:
"But we're classmates, and I don't want to take advantage of you for nothing. This equipment can be considered your investment. When the time comes, you can be the tuner or producer, and your name will be on it. Li Wenqian will be the singer, and I will be the lyricist, composer, arranger, and producer."
"I'll take 80% of the proceeds from this song, and you two can split the rest. Of course, this is only if there's any profit. If not, your investment will be a failure."
Song Bin felt a little embarrassed. He thought he was just helping and making friends.
Talking about profit distribution with young people often makes them uncomfortable.
Li Wenqian felt even more unworthy.
Zhou Rui clapped his hands and said loudly: "It's settled. The workload has suddenly increased. We have to hurry up today!"
Being timid is not the style of a reborn person.
Youth means doing what you say.
Let's do it!