9 CHAPTER 9: Going To An Internet Cafe

Scene: Inet 8, Internet cafe across Wen Dei High

At the moment, she is a 16-year-old high school student. But her mind is already a 48-year-old woman.

She lost all that innocence and excitement of living out a life wondering who would she be when she grows up.

She had been alone and lonely in her past life. Too scared to open up her heart to even friends. In the end, she spent her life in a recluse - hiding from the world. Her only source of income is freelancing as a programmer working at home in her basement. Her hobby was hacking and challenging Q.

She never came back to Yun Cheng. So for 20 plus years, she stayed away from the Lins and Qins, her father's family. She never regretted it. And she plans to do the same this lifetime.

What she will change is that she will be more open to friendship. She will also stay away from Xu Junyen. She would never let herself fall in love with him. And lastly, she would never chase him again.

But her utmost concern right now is to start earning money. Her mother gave her a cash card, but it is a card linked to Erlang's account. In her last life, Erlang blocked this card a couple of times. Right now, she got her own account. This is where she wants to keep her cash funds for the future.

She is currently in front of a computer now. She planned to join a hacker community where hackers often get working gigs. However, nobody can join this community on a whim. She has to go through 12 levels of firewalls to enter a professional badge where she can freely choose assignments worth 100 thousand to 1 million yuan.

She can get beginners' tasks that will allow her to earn 1 thousand to 99 thousand yuan at level 7. But she won't be able to get assignments unless she has some experience. Clients contact the hacker at beginner's level to do work and experience will attract clients. If you don't have the experience, your account will be ignored.

So today, she doesn't plan to stop at 7th level. She plans to go ahead on the 12th so she can start working on assignments right away. She wants to earn money ASAP.

Qin Ran dialed Erlang's number on her phone. She wants to tell her mom where she is at. She doesn't want to give room to someone to find fault and influence her mom's impression of her.

"Hello, Qin Ran, you called?"

"Hello, Mom. I need to do some research. I will be at an internet cafe in front of the school. I will be home around 9 pm. Don't wait for me for dinner. I will grab a bite on my way home."

Erlang, on the other line, paused a bit to think. She looked at the time. It is just 4 pm. Xiaowen should be on her way home.

"Okay. Don't be too late." Erlang replied. Her voice not too warm nor too cold, but obviously lacking the concern of a mother towards their child staying out late at night.

"Hmmm" Qin Ran hummed before turning the phone off.

Qin Ran looked at the computer monitor and opened an account.

"Qr, welcome back. Let's get started." She softly said to herself.

Scene: In someone's residence's villa computer room

As Qin Ran moves her way up the hacking community in one sweep, a young man also has his eyes on the monitor. He chuckled and whispered to himself "Qr, welcome back..."