Pursuing Her Best Friend after Confession Failed-Chapter 23 - 22: Bro, you better not take the wrong path, mom and dad will skin you alive.
As expected, the moment Li Yuan spoke, Xia Qin started scolding him from the other end of the line. "Yuan, you worked so hard to get into a prestigious university. How can you not hold a celebration banquet? Our relatives and friends will make us the laughingstock of the town!"
Li Heng chimed in from the side. "Your cousin Gangzi next door only got into a second-tier university last year, and they still threw a grand party. We even gave them a four-hundred-yuan gift! If you don’t have a banquet, how will we ever recoup the money from all the gifts we’ve given out over the years?"
Xia Qin huffed. "Yuan, we’ll discuss this when your dad and I get back. Our family may be poor, but we’re not so poor that we can’t afford to celebrate our son getting into university. Don’t you worry about it. Just focus on getting your driver’s license. Your dad and I will take the train back tomorrow morning."
After hanging up, Li Yuan was speechless. He couldn’t defy his parents, so he decided he would just have to lay his cards on the table when they returned. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂
His parents were in the Northeast, where it was brutally cold. They could earn some money there, but the work was back-breaking. In his previous life, he had been powerless to help them. But in this life, now that he was a multimillionaire, letting his parents continue to toil and suffer would make him no better than an animal!
I’ve already made up my mind. When my parents get back, I’ll explain everything and show them my income. That’ll be more persuasive than anything I could say. Before, he would have been too embarrassed to show them the money he’d won from the lottery and stocks. But the money he earned from writing his novel? That was something he could present with pride.
On August 12th, Yuandian Web had already transferred the first month’s royalties for *Battle Starry Sky* to the new bank card he’d gotten from the Industrial and Commercial Bank.
He didn’t have much faith in banks, so he certainly wasn’t going to put all his eggs in one basket. He planned to open accounts and deposit money in all four of China’s major banks. He also didn’t plan to keep much cash on hand, as it wasn’t very useful. It would be better to convert it into fixed assets that would appreciate steadily in value.
Once the banquet is over and I have my driver’s license, I can think about heading to Modu early. There’s nothing really keeping me here in my hometown anyway. Right, I’m going back home tomorrow, so I won’t be able to go to the internet cafe to write every day. I’ll need to buy a laptop to use for now. No matter what, the great enterprise of writing must not be delayed.
Li Yuan searched online and found that laptops were quite advanced already. While not on par with future models, they were more than sufficient for his writing needs. After looking around, he finally settled on an Apple MacBook Air.
This laptop featured a 13.3-inch LED-backlit display with a resolution of 1280 x 800. In terms of specs, the Apple MacBook Air came with a Core 2 Duo P7500 processor, 2GB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, an 802.11n wireless LAN module, and Bluetooth. It also came pre-installed with the Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard operating system. The official website listed the price at 12,880 yuan.
Just for writing, the performance is more than enough.
That very day, Li Yuan went to a computer store in the county town, bought one that was in stock, and picked up a wireless network card. And that was that.
He then spent 100 yuan to hire a small truck to take all his belongings from the rental apartment back home. It was mostly books, clothes, and shoes. While they weren’t particularly valuable, he couldn’t just throw them away.
Gazing at the rented room he had lived in for three years of high school, Li Yuan felt a sudden pang of reluctance. It held all his high school memories. The outcome may not have been great, but those had still been happy times.
In this era, being a ’simp’ wasn’t such a despised thing. A guy like me back then was just called a ’nice guy.’
Li Yuan hadn’t told anyone he had already passed his road test and would be getting his driver’s license next week. He had also received the property deeds for the two houses he’d purchased. He felt light and unburdened, with no attachments holding him back.
Li Yuan took a minibus back to his hometown. The moment his younger sister, Li Zixia, saw him, she rushed over to greet him.
"Brother, you’re finally back! So, you’ve just been enjoying yourself in the city, not caring about me at all, huh?" Li Zixia pouted.
Although Li Zixia was only fifteen, she already stood at 1.65 meters tall, having blossomed into a slender and graceful young woman. She had inherited her parents’ looks and was the spitting image of her brother, though her fair, oval face still held a touch of youthful innocence.
"Hey, Zixia, hurry and help me get this stuff out of the car. I bought you some great things," Li Yuan said, pinching her cheek and putting her to work.
In his previous life, their personalities had been complete opposites. He was the type with immense pride, who cared deeply about his reputation. His sister, on the other hand, was incredibly frugal and always dressed plainly. This, combined with their parents’ slight preference for their son, meant she was never treated as generously as he was when it came to food, clothes, and other expenses.
Li Zixia spotted a pink shoebox and asked in surprise, "Brother, are these women’s sneakers? Did you buy them for me?"
Li Yuan chuckled. "Who else would they be for? I bought you several pairs. See which ones you like. If you don’t like them, we can go back to the city and exchange them."
"Brother, as long as you bought it, I’ll love it!"
Li Zixia clung to Li Yuan’s arm playfully. Brimming with anticipation, she opened the shoebox. Inside was a brand-new pair of pink sneakers. She asked excitedly, "Brother, these are beautiful! They have a big checkmark logo, just like on your basketball shoes."
"What brand are they, Brother?"
Since Li Zixia had always gone to school in their small hometown, she wasn’t familiar with brands like Nike, Adidas, or Puma. In 2008, to a student from a small county town, a pair of Nike basketball shoes worth over a thousand yuan was an unbelievable luxury. Students from ordinary families usually wore plain shoes that cost twenty or thirty yuan; brands like Li-Ning, Peak, and Xtep were already considered high-end.
In his past life, even as late as 2023, Li Yuan’s meager salary meant the clothes and shoes he wore cost seven or eight hundred yuan at most. He rarely bought anything that cost over a thousand.
"Zixia, the one with the checkmark is called Nike, and this one with the letters is Adidas," Li Yuan explained. "They’re both world-famous sports brands. You should try them on later to see if they fit."
Li Zixia was startled by his explanation. "Brother, these shoes must be expensive, right?" she asked quickly. "Like, two or three hundred yuan a pair?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized something was wrong—the shoes still had their price tags. She glanced down at the number and gasped. Her voice trembled, and the shoes in her hands suddenly felt like they were burning.
"Brother... this pair of Nikes is priced at 699 yuan! They can’t really be that expensive, can they? That’s terrifying! My entire monthly allowance is only a little over 300 yuan."
Li Yuan decided not to hide the truth from his sister. Sooner or later, she would have to learn that her brother was now a self-made millionaire. It was better for her to get used to it now. That way, her self-esteem wouldn’t be crushed by mockery when she eventually transferred to a school in Modu.
He patted her nervous head and said proudly, "Zixia, all these shoes had a ten percent discount. And don’t worry, your brother earned all this money himself. You can spend it with a clear conscience."
Li Zixia was stunned, her mind struggling to process it all. She counted six pairs of shoes alone, not to mention casual clothes from the same brands. All together, this must have cost several thousand yuan, right? She couldn’t fathom how her brother, who had just graduated high school, could have earned so much money. Her expression turned serious as she warned him, "Brother, where did you get all this money? This is a society ruled by law. You can’t be doing anything illegal! If Mom and Dad find out, they’ll skin you alive!"
