During the week after Xing Wu left, Qing Ye maintained her regular schedule of attending classes, helping at the factory after school, finding time to help everyone review exam topics and question types, and then returning to the hotel to wait for Xing Wu’s call.

Although Qing Ye started missing him the day after he left, she could always count on his call no matter how late. His days in Shanghai were even more monotonous than in Zhazhating. To outsiders, it might have looked like he was just playing games, but the daily intensive training was grueling and tedious.

Once in training mode, they would go five or six hours without eating or using the bathroom, leaving them extremely exhausted. Yet no matter how busy he was, he still set aside half an hour every day to call Qing Ye, though he never mentioned these hardships to her.

The club had rented them a bachelor apartment where he lived with other players. While the apartment was clean and tidy, living with a bunch of guys meant things were somewhat rough around the edges.

When he missed Qing Ye, he would want to see her. Whenever their video calls connected, they would just stare at each other with silly grins, unable to say a word for quite some time, content just to gaze at each other without wanting to look away.

On the weekend after Xing Wu left, Qing Ye had just woken up when she received a call from Pang Hu, urgently asking her to come to the factory because something big had happened.

Only when she arrived did she learn that after their recent food-tasting event, the video of her playfully introducing products in London, New York, and Indian accents had been uploaded to Pang Hu’s short video account the night before.

He had casually edited it while lying in bed and included the online store link. When he checked his phone in the morning, he was shocked to find the video had suddenly gone viral with hundreds of thousands of likes and many comments demanding to know everything about “this young lady” within three minutes.

Pang Hu thought he was seeing things and immediately called and woke up Du Qiyan to ask if there was any activity on the online store.

When Qing Ye heard this, she rushed to Du Qiyan and checked the backend – good heavens! They had automatically processed over three hundred orders overnight. When Qing Ye saw these numbers, she was just as stunned as Pang Hu and Du Qiyan had been that morning, standing frozen in front of the computer.

While they could only helplessly call Qing Ye after their shock wore off, she immediately sprang into action after her initial surprise, grabbed a blackboard, and began listing out work plans that needed immediate implementation.

She ultimately outlined five main areas: materials, production, online store, shipping, and social media operations, with a large character for “people” written in the center.

They needed many people right away, as the four of them alone couldn’t possibly handle the entire supply chain.

So in just one morning, they called everywhere to contact people. Liu Nian even called his mother to help. Pang Hu finally demonstrated his authority as class monitor – with one phone call, dozens of people rushed over, and many students from the tutoring class voluntarily came to help Qing Ye, directly joining the production line.

Old Man Xie was playing chess when he got the news. He immediately drove his old Wuling van to gather all his extended family members from their rural hometown to prepare supplies.

Du Qiyan stayed glued to the online store handling inquiries from across the country. Quan Ya brought a batch of boxes and took charge of product packaging, an extremely labor-intensive process, but he seemed very experienced in this area. He had even brought packaging equipment, and packages of various sizes emerged from their hands like magic, with boxes precisely wrapped in tape.

Qing Ye didn’t even have time for lunch, busy everywhere coordinating shipping matters. In the afternoon, Huang Mao called his father to come directly with his truck. When Qing Ye saw Huang Mao jump down from the cargo truck, she wanted nothing more than to give him a big hug.

By evening, that video had reached over a million likes, with orders still steadily coming in through the online store. Everything had happened so suddenly – everyone had been working hard all day. It wasn’t until evening that Qing Ye caught her breath and said to Pang Hu, “This is surreal. Why don’t you study social media and develop your account? Traffic equals money, fatty.”

It was like a bolt of lightning had struck Pang Hu’s head as he discovered this new world, spending the entire evening studying how to become a qualified social media content creator.

They stopped working after dusk because Old Man Xie hadn’t delivered the goods yet. Pang Hu, as if possessed, kept pestering Qing Ye to record another video to test the waters.

So Qing Ye casually rolled up a book as a microphone, but just as she was about to let Pang Hu start recording, she touched her hair and asked, “Should I fix my hair and put on makeup or something?”

Everyone around shouted: “No need!”

Qing Ye laughed, and Pang Hu told her, “You, you’re just fine like this, na-naturally beautiful, just stay ca-casual.”

Qing Ye thought being casual was indeed better, so she snapped her fingers and said to the others, “Then don’t all hide behind Pang Hu! Go do whatever you need to do. We’ll title this ‘High School Students Getting Rich and Pursuing Prosperity, Balancing Making Money and Studying.’ How’s that?”

Pang Hu suddenly got inspired and exclaimed, “Th-this is good, it’s ca-catchy!”

Everyone immediately got into position and character. Qing Ye flipped her long hair and began introducing their small but complete food factory in perfect pronunciation. She playfully switched to comical Japanese-accented English, then a Korean accent, deliberately interacting with Pang Hu behind the camera, asking him which country it was. Pang Hu responded, “Sumida!” making Qing Ye’s eyes crinkle with laughter.

This was one of her special talents. Having attended international schools all her life, she knew many students from different countries and had unconsciously learned to imitate various countries’ English accents. Since middle school, whenever she got bored memorizing texts and vocabulary, she would hide in her room and play around switching between different accents to make studying less tedious.

Qing Ye never imagined that this little amusement of hers would one day go viral on social media. After Pang Hu went home, he stayed up all night studying video editing, music, and special effects. He uploaded this new video in the early morning and slept for just two hours before being awakened by phone calls.

Many people simultaneously discovered this trending video in the morning, and within just one morning, the likes broke a million, with the online store completely swamped with orders.

Many people desperately begged for the contact information of the young lady in the video. Qing Ye, despite being makeup-free, had naturally refined and clear features, spoke fluently with dramatically entertaining accents, and instantly gained countless fans.

Her Korean-accented interview with Du Qiyan, and Du Qiyan’s shy camera-avoiding confused expression, led many people to exclaim their love for that adorably silly young lady.

Many even shouted that the packaging guy was handsome and wanted to see more of him. Pang Hu wondered who this packaging guy was until he ran to the factory and saw Quan Ya crouching in the courtyard cutting boxes, then he understood.

The explosion of orders the next day completely overwhelmed Qing Ye. She first estimated their production capacity and called Old Man Xie to ask if he could keep up with the supply.

While they definitely couldn’t keep up, Old Man Xie told her that many families in their village made these products, guaranteeing he could source the goods for her. With this assurance, Qing Ye felt more confident.

In just two days, everyone got moving. Huang Mao joked that Liu Nian was the Production Department Director, Quan Ya was the Planning Department Director, Da Hei was the Logistics Support Department Director, Du Qiyan was the E-commerce Department Director, Pang Hu was the Marketing Department Director, and he proudly claimed to be Transportation Department Director.

Though it was just a joke, with everyone performing their duties and pushing forward, they processed over seven hundred orders within five days. Pang Hu received various cooperation requests through private messages. No one expected Qing Gu to become a legitimate internet-famous store in such a short time.

Their gang of misfits each gathered their following, with Pang Hu’s daily videos averaging hundreds of thousands of views.

The biggest draw of the videos was how these poor young people used their labor and wisdom to get rich. Pang Hu invested more passion in learning editing, following Quan Ya to study filming and scriptwriting.

He discovered he had such a love for creating storylines that even Huang Mao’s daily trips with his father’s truck became comedic sketches. This Huang Mao, particularly attention-seeking, tried too hard in his pursuit of internet fame. His daily outfit of tight clothes, pea shoes, and flowery T-shirts successfully made him the most criticized character in Qing Gu’s short videos, but the more he was criticized, the more enthusiastic people’s reactions were to his appearances.

He even specially created a Weibo account for this, dedicating himself to uploading eye-searing selfies taken in the cargo truck every day.

When Xing Wu heard about Qing Gu going viral online, he would watch their videos between training sessions, finding joy from afar in his distant location. However, in the two weeks leading up to the competition, they had to enter closed training.

Most of these esports players were teenagers or young men in their early twenties. Previously, there were often incidents before competitions where someone would have an argument with their girlfriend and disappear, sometimes couldn’t even be found for the competition, causing huge losses for the club. So now the contracts required two weeks of closed training before competitions, cutting off contact with the outside world to fully ensure smooth competition participation.

The night before, Xing Wu had his last video call with Qing Ye. Looking at his sharp features throughout the video, Qing Ye asked if he had lost weight.

Xing Wu laughed, touched his face, and joked, “Beauty filter.”

He also reminded her: “You can’t put all your energy into the factory anymore, we’ll deal with it when I get back. Remember to eat breakfast, drink milk, and eat eggs every day. I just called my mom and asked her to buy meat for you every day during this time…”

He laughed at his own words. His hair had grown a bit longer, falling messily on his cheeks, perhaps because he had just showered and hadn’t styled it. Wearing a black short-sleeved T-shirt, this casual look had a somewhat Japanese feel. As Qing Ye kept looking, her eyes welled up with tears, and she said to the video with a pout: “Want a hug…”

Those words moved Xing Wu too. He lowered his head and rubbed his nose, then looked up again, his eyes containing countless bright stars, but unable to say a word.

That was their last video call. After that, even their only means of communication was cut off. Qing Ye didn’t know how he was eating in the days that followed if he had time to sleep, or if anyone would scold him if he didn’t play well. This empty feeling made her heart feel empty too.

But the routine life continued every day. The college entrance exam had reached its final sprint stage, and as Xing Wu said, she had to pull back all her energy.

However, she had learned a principle from her father since childhood – money can solve most problems in this world.

Although the seven hundred-plus orders only brought in just over forty thousand yuan, even less after deducting various costs, people need to know how to prioritize to go further.

So she used the money earned from this batch of goods to offer part-time wages. Many students from Anzhong were attracted by the fame, so those good students were quickly replaced, and their second batch of orders was processed in a very short time.

From the initial chaos, things gradually got on track. Though every day still felt like a battle, it seemed everyone had found their direction.

The construction of Xing Wu’s house had begun. He had already given instructions to the workers before leaving. This house was designed by Xing Wu himself, and the general outline could already be seen. Every time Qing Ye went home, she would especially detour to the front door to look at her small balcony, imagining the beautiful feeling of embracing the sunshine in the morning.

Everything seemed to be continuously moving in a good direction.

She would take advantage of going home for lunch every day to make a quick round at the factory. It was on such a sunny afternoon that Pang Hu suddenly rode his bicycle to the factory to find her.

When Qing Ye came out of the workshop, Pang Hu, panting heavily, said to her: “Your dad is, is at school!”