Chapter Sixty-Five: All Is Ready, Only the East Wind Is Missing

Seeing Li Jing here truly astonished Zhou Xuan; he had never expected that Teacher Li Yunxi was his son. As the Party Secretary of Rongzhou City, Li Jing’s image often appeared on television, which initially made Zhou Xuan feel a vague familiarity, as if he had seen him somewhere before.

When Li Yunxi introduced this man as his father and Zhou Xuan connected the surname, he immediately realized this was none other than Li Jing, the Party Secretary of Rongzhou City.

However, Zhou Xuan found it puzzling—if Teacher Li’s father held such a prestigious position as the city’s Party Secretary, how could Li Yunxi be content to remain a physical education teacher at a school?

Without further thought, Zhou Xuan respectfully greeted, “Good evening, Uncle Li.”

Li Jing saw Zhou Xuan and laughed heartily. “You must be the prodigy Zhou Xuan that Yunxi spoke of. Thank you very much for saving Tianyi; you are now a benefactor of our entire family.”

Zhou Xuan politely replied, “Uncle Li, you are too kind. Teacher Li and I are good friends, and seeing Tianyi’s condition saddened me greatly. I was just fortunate this time to be able to save him.”

Li Jing shook his head. “No matter what, we will never forget your kindness to Tianyi. In the future, if you need any help, just tell Yunxi. We will do whatever we can.”

“Thank you, Uncle Li,” Zhou Xuan said.

Everyone then sat down as the waiter began serving dishes. Li Yunxi invited everyone to eat. Zhou Xuan noticed that Li Tianyi had already recovered, and perhaps because they were both taking the same experimental drug, he felt a special closeness to him.

Li Tianyi, with wide eyes, looked curiously at Zhou Xuan.

“Tianyi, do you see this uncle? He’s your lifesaver—call him ‘uncle,’ quickly.”

Hearing Li Yunxi, Zhou Xuan felt a bit embarrassed. “Teacher Li, I’m only sixteen. Being called ‘uncle’—isn’t that a bit too old?”

His words made everyone laugh, and Li Jing smiled too. “Then just call him ‘brother.’ We’re all friends here. Little Zhou is so young; we can’t call him old.”

“Guguo…”

Unexpectedly, hearing his grandfather’s words, Li Tianyi suddenly called out, making everyone laugh again. Though his pronunciation was unclear, Zhou Xuan could sense the boy’s intelligence.

Amid this joyful atmosphere, Zhou Xuan enjoyed a pleasant dinner with Li Yunxi’s family. During the meal, Li Jing inquired about Zhou Xuan’s situation and family. Before leaving, he insisted on inviting Zhou Xuan’s parents to dinner and advised Zhou Xuan not to hesitate to ask for help if his family ever faced difficulties.

Because of his busy schedule, Li Jing left immediately after dinner, heading back to the city overnight. Watching Li Jing depart, Zhou Xuan felt a surge of joy—now his parents in Rongzhou could be worry-free. With Li Jing around, even if Zhou Xuan moved to the provincial capital, there would be someone looking out for them here.

Then, amidst Li Yunxi’s repeated thanks, Zhou Xuan slowly walked home along the Yangtze River. Thinking about his rescue of Li Tianyi, he marveled at how unexpectedly he had come to know the Party Secretary Li Jing. Previously, when he traveled nearly a hundred miles to save Jiang Yun and the others, it was deliberate; this time, meeting Li Jing was a fortunate coincidence.

Now Zhou Xuan felt completely assured. With Li Jing and Chen Yulin in Rongzhou, and Deng Cheng and Wang Ximing in the provincial capital, his future endeavors were well secured.

For the next half month, Zhou Xuan balanced studying with developing instant messaging software, while also monitoring the nationwide promotion of the Internet café management software. Meanwhile, Liu Ze was fiercely competing with the Universal Internet Café Management System across Province S and several major cities nationwide.

Thanks to statistical servers, Zhou Xuan could promptly track the promotion of the Tengfei Internet Café Management System. The competition between Tengfei and Universal was especially intense in their home province and Yudu region, with results nearly equal.

By March 20th, the Universal system had sold nearly 1,500 units in the province and Yudu. Liu Ze was not far behind, with over 1,800 units sold. However, due to uneven quality among Liu Ze’s promoters, Universal’s promoters were at a disadvantage, resulting in sales roughly 300 units fewer.

On a national scale, Liu Ze was completely outmatched. Beyond their province and Yudu, Liu Ze’s system was ineffective. Due to conflicts, several of Liu Ze’s promoters were injured, and a few were even taken to the police station for threatening Internet café owners.

In half a month, Universal had sold more than 4,000 systems outside the province and Yudu, while Tengfei had sold just over 500—ten times fewer.

Seeing Liu Ze had promoted over 2,000 units, Zhou Xuan felt it was time to execute his previous plan. If they disabled Tengfei’s Internet café management system now, the 2,000-plus café owners would undoubtedly protest. Then they could send people to infiltrate Liu Ze’s ranks, leading the owners to demand explanations from Tengfei’s headquarters in Rongcheng—a move sure to give Liu Ze a hard time.

So, on March 20th, Zhou Xuan called Deng Cheng. “Hello, Brother Deng. The time is ripe. Have you arranged the people we discussed?”

“Zhou Xuan, rest assured. Everything is arranged. I can’t wait to see that guy Liu Ze get into big trouble,” Deng Cheng said gleefully.

“Besides the province and Yudu, send a few more people to other provinces. Organize the Internet café owners who bought Liu Ze’s system to gather at Tengfei Group’s headquarters in Rongcheng and demand answers.”

“Don’t worry. I want Liu Ze to suffer even more than you do. This time, he won’t get away with it.”

After speaking with Deng Cheng, Zhou Xuan contacted Wei Lian and Zhou Changxing, urging them to accelerate promotion and swiftly capture the national Internet café market once Liu Ze’s system was disabled.

At 7 p.m. on the 20th, Zhou Xuan prepared to disable all of Liu Ze’s sold Internet café management systems via the server. This was peak business time for the cafés, and if the management system suddenly stopped working, it would be a huge blow to those accustomed to it.

Moreover, for Internet users currently online, without the system, they wouldn’t know when to log off, inevitably causing conflicts between café staff and customers. Yet, to strike at Liu Ze, Zhou Xuan had no choice but to apologize to these cafés.

When the clock struck seven, Zhou Xuan pressed the disable button without hesitation. Almost instantly, the management subsystems on the list began switching from active to disabled status at a rate of several systems per second.

Seeing this, Zhou Xuan thought, in less than half an hour, all of Liu Ze’s sold systems would be rendered useless.