I grew slowly under my father's wings, but my father aged quickly because of the responsibilities weighing down on his shoulders. Over time, my father stopped scolding me. I never knew how much he missed me because I was always away for work; never knew that I, to an old man like him, was his pride and everything.

……

"Ah, Lu Chen! You've come…"

My father pulled my sleeve before pointing at the first-rate desktop computer on the display before asking me, "Do you like this PC? If you do, then I'll buy it for you. Work is always hard, and the rent and bills are very expensive these days. Your salary isn't even higher than us farmers', right? We at least have some money to save every month."

I watched the glowing display and the price tag in blood-red font.

Father was looking as well.

The snow fell on our heads and shoulders. My father's palms were shaking because of how cold it was.

"It's fine, dad. I have a notebook now, so I don't need a desktop computer anymore. Plus, I promised you that I won't play Starcraft anymore."

Father blew his palms to warm himself before replying, "Are you still angry with me about that day? Three years ago, you wanted to go to Beijing to compete, but I didn't give you a single yuan, and I scolded you harshly. In the end, you weren't able to attend that compet.i.tion."

I shot my father an apologetic look before saying, "Dad, I… I actually went and snuck off to Beijing that day. Third uncle's the one who paid the 400 yuan taxi ride for me…"

My third uncle immediately chided me, "Why are you spilling the beans now!?"

But my father smiled through his s.h.i.+vering. "That's good, that's good… what happened afterward?"

I thought for a moment before replying, "Well… I was disqualified in the first round…"

That was a lie. The truth was, I spent seven days sleeping at the subway stations and rationed every meal, but I still wasn't able to save enough money to pay the registration fee. What can you do? Life is like this sometimes.

……

It was at this moment He Yi showed up and smiled at the three of us. "Uncle, third uncle, Lu Chen, why are you three standing in the snow? Let's head home already, it's really cold outside. Oh right, uncle and third uncle haven't eaten yet, right? In that case, let's go look for a restaurant first…"

Father was surprised to see He Yi. He gave his eyes a rub before asking, "Are you… manager He Yi?"

He Yi nodded and shot him a sweet smile. "That's me. Lu Chen and I are living in the same company apartment, and I suppose that you can call us flatmates? Anyway, let's go find a warm place to have dinner already."

For some reason, father and third uncle looked a bit caught off-guard by He Yi. I supposed that her graceful aura wasn't something they were used to seeing. Father even shook his head and said, "It's fine, Third… third and I already ate some food!"

I pressed the question, "What did you guys eat, third uncle?"

Third uncle pointed at a nearby stall and said, "We ate two roasted sweet potatoes each."

"There's no way you're full with just that! Come on, let's find a place to eat," I said while holding my father's arm.

Father and third uncle had no choice but to follow us then.

The X12 was very s.p.a.cious, enough so that my father could be comfortable even with his bad leg. However, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of sorrow when I saw how much effort it took for him to climb into the back seat. I owed him far too much, and I had failed to perform my responsibilities as a son completely.

……

"This car is pretty s.p.a.cious…" third uncle praised immediately after he got into the car.

He Yi looked back from the front pa.s.senger seat and replied smilingly, "Mn, it's Lu Chen's car. His eye for cars is pretty good."

"What? This car is Lu Chen's?" third uncle exclaimed in astonishment. "The first time I saw it, I thought this was your company car, and that Lu Chen's your driver…"

It was He Yi's turn to be astonished. "Of course not! Lu Chen is an elite employee in our company. Of course he can afford a car."

Third uncle then looked at the logo on the steering wheel before commenting, "This is a BMW, right? From what I heard inside the village, this car is expensive as all h.e.l.l. How much did you spend to buy this, Lu Chen?"

I hurriedly replied, "Not much, not much at all…"

He Yi interrupted that line of conversation with a question, "So, uncle, third uncle, why didn't you inform us before you came over?"

My father replied smilingly, "We didn't want to disturb you while you're working. Also, it's a nice experience to tour the city once in a while."

Third uncle added, "The only issue is that it's a bit too cold, and the cars don't care about pa.s.sersby when they drive."

He Yi chuckled. "I see. Anyway, please give us a notice before you visit Suzhou next time. This way, Lu Chen will be able to receive you."

"Mn…"

……

After a brief discussion with He Yi, I took us to a Hot Pot City restaurant. The weather was really cold today, and my father and my third uncle desperately needed to eat something hot to warm themselves up.

We ordered a lot of food after we took a seat. Father and third uncle ate a lot as well.

"Lu Chen… are you coming home for New Year this year?" father asked tentatively before adding, "It's fine if you're too busy."

I shot him a smile and said, "Yes, I'm coming home. I already applied for leave, so no worries."

"Mn."

He Yi nudged me beneath the table, and I added, "Er, also… He Yi doesn't have anyone to spend New Year with because her mom is travelling overseas. If possible, she would like to celebrate New Year at our home while she visits Yangzhou. Is that fine, dad?"

Father hurriedly nodded. "Of course, of course! That is no problem at all."

However, my third uncle seemed to notice something and laughed. "Old Lu, you remember all that ranting you did about Lu Chen not having a girlfriend not long ago? I don't think you need to worry about that anymore, haha…"

He Yi blushed and bit a pitiful piece of lotus root repeatedly.

Father smiled a happy smile that I had never seen before until now.

……

After we returned to the workshop, we arranged so that my father and third uncle would sleep in my room, I in He Yi's room, and He Yi in Murong Mingyue's room. He Yi and Murong Mingyue would be sharing a room tonight.

The moment we stepped through the door, Beiming Xue, Murong Mingyue and Lian Xin immediately greeted father and third uncle sweetly, inflicting waves of shock and panic upon the two old men. For obvious reasons, they never imagined that our apartment would be accommodating this many young and beautiful women.

"What company are you working in again, Lu Chen? Why are there so many young women?" third uncle asked.

I thought for a moment before answering, "They're my colleagues from the customer service department. It's customer service, and women are obviously more scrupulous than men, so…"

"Oh, I see!"

I was also glad that all three girls knew to put on some proper clothes and avoid giving my father and third uncle a heart attack. Normally, they couldn't care less about my presence and walked around in flimsy, exposing pyjamas all the time. I didn't mind the "sceneries" as a matter of course, but tonight was clearly not a suitable occasion.

……

After my father and third uncle settled into the apartment, He Yi immediately took me to the supermarket and bought a ton of New Year goods. It was for my father and third uncle.

The next day, father and third uncle acted to leave first thing in the morning. They had no intention of disrupting our normal working environment, and He Yi couldn't change their minds no matter how hard she tried. At first, my father and third uncle wanted to take a train and head home, but He Yi insisted and made a call to Raincube's subsidiary company in Suzhou instead. A short while later, two young drivers driving a Buick each arrived, and after transporting all the New Year goods we had bought into the cars, they fetched my father and third uncle back home. He Yi even rewarded the drivers by increasing their monthly salary by 1500 RMB, causing them to erupt in joy.

Our apartment returned to normal after my father and third uncle left.

"Alright, it's time to get back online. The WEL registration has already started in the main cities, and we cannot fall behind, can we?" Beiming Xue said with a smile.

He Yi replied, "Mn. Let's go!"

……

After we went online, we joined He Yi's party and traveled to the royal capital. We were supposed to report to an NPC called "WEL Orderly" at the location to register. However, we were a bit late, and a sea of people was already blocking our way. It took us literally half an hour of squeezing and pus.h.i.+ng to finally make it to the inner area.

I had my left arm wrapped around Beiming Xue's shoulder and my right arm around Lian Xin's. He Yi was grabbing Murong Mingyue in one hand. In cramped places like this, there was no one who had it better than Strength-focused fighters. Since both He Yi and I had pretty good equipment, we were able to approach the NPC steadily like rocks parting the river stream.

When we were less than 5 yards away from the NPC, He Yi finally managed to trigger a dialogue with the NPC. After that, an option appeared before her eyes: "Would you like to register your team using your club ident.i.ties?"

After He Yi clicked "Confirm", I altered our tags before making the final confirmation. The system reported that our registration was successful, but it wasn't over yet. After Lenovo's employees came online and worked their side of things, our roster was finally confirmed—

Lenovo-AS From Water (Team Leader)

Lenovo-AS Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand

Lenovo-AS Beiming Xue

Lenovo-AS Lian Xin

Lenovo-AS Murong Mingyue

Lenovo-AS Remains

Lenovo-AS Heart Like Water

Lenovo-AS Dark Fragrance

Lenovo-AS Calm Night

Lenovo-AS b.u.t.terfly Dance

……

The maximum number of players a team could register for the WEL was 10, so Rose added the warrior Remains, the dark ritualist b.u.t.terfly Dance and three more players as subst.i.tutes. For example, if we were delayed during New Year's Day and couldn't return home in time to partic.i.p.ate in the compet.i.tion, Remains and the subst.i.tutes would compete in our stead until we returned.

Of course, the national preliminaries followed a single-elimination format, so we weren't going to miss any match if we could help it. The most sure-fire way to qualify for the play-offs was to attend the matches ourselves and secure every victory!

……

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh...

Several showers of light later, we appeared in the teleportation formation. He Yi led us to the area behind the Holy Temple—more specifically, a cool spot beneath a row of silver fir trees—to discuss tactics—

He Yi began, "So, there'll be four 1v1s and one 2v2. Obviously, Mingyue isn't suitable for the 1v1 format, so Lu Chen, Lian Xin, Beiming Xue and I are the only ones who'll compete in those. As for the 2v2, does anyone have a good combination they would like to suggest?"

Beiming Xue answered, "Lian Xin and I can pull off a double-ranged, super burst duo if necessary."

Murong Mingyue replied, "Eve and I can form a tank plus healer duo that can outlast any combination."

Lian Xin added, "I think I can work with big brother Lu Chen and make an invincible fighter plus mage duo as well…"

He Yi chuckled. "Now that you mention it, I can do the same with Beiming Xue too…"

I grinned. "I'm a blank tile who can fit with any one of you, so just use me as you please…"

Murong Mingyue puffed up her awesome b.r.e.a.s.t.s and giggled. "Oh? What a bold claim to make. I see that someone has a big appet.i.te."

I replied expressionlessly, "Well, what can I do? You're all OP as h.e.l.l."

While saying this, I shot Murong Mingyue's b.r.e.a.s.t.s a glance before adding, "Sis, fess up now. You've been sneaking papayas, haven't you? Unless I'm sorely mistaken, your bust size just went up again…"

Murong Mingyue shot me a challenging look and puffed up her awesome b.r.e.a.s.t.s again. "Hmph hmph. So what? What are you going to do about it? Do you even have the b.a.l.l.s to do whatever it is you want to do?"

I blushed. "Actually, yes…"

……

The girls fell silent for half a minute before abruptly realizing what I meant. Murong Mingyue immediately started punching me in embarra.s.sment. "You want to die, you little brat!? And don't think I don't know that you're all talk and no action! If you're a real man you'll come on me right now!"

Me: "..."

Well s.h.i.+t, she got me there…

(P.S: Happy birthday Stranger of Three Lifetimes~~)