July 11, Thursday.

Zhang Yan returned home from work carrying a large box.

She peeked into the house from the living room and saw her father practicing calligraphy in the study while her mother was preparing dinner in the kitchen.

Hearing movement in the living room, Zhang’s mother poked her head out of the kitchen and said, “Is that you, Xiao Yan? Go call your father, dinner’s ready.”

Zhang Yan set the large box on the floor, then went to call her father to the living room for dinner.

After washing his hands, Zhang’s father noticed the large box in the living room and asked, “What’s this?”

Zhang Yan replied, “Oh, our home router has been in use for a while now. The internet speed has gotten slow, and the signal coverage isn’t great. My room is too far away and often has poor signal. So I bought another router that can mesh with our existing one to significantly improve the network speed.”

“This way, you won’t have to worry about lag when watching TV!”

Zhang’s father looked over suspiciously. “Such a big box?”

Zhang Yan nodded. “Of course. The more high-end routers are getting bigger these days. After all, they process so much data—small machines just can’t handle it.”

She took out a paper cutter to open the box and pulled out an enormous octopus-like device.

Zhang’s father was quite surprised. “Wow, these new routers really are big, almost the size of a small computer.”

“Are you sure this is a router? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one this big before.”

Zhang Yan nodded. “Of course! This is Tenda Group’s latest router—it’s super high-end.”

“Don’t believe me? Look at the description on the packaging!”

“And check out this promotional video!”

Zhang’s father skeptically examined the packaging description, which indeed explained router-related parameters.

He then took the phone from Zhang Yan and watched the official gaming router promotional video.

The content was similarly straightforward.

The reason it was called a gaming router was likely because it had dedicated bandwidth for games, built-in game acceleration features to effectively reduce lag during gameplay, and could select different frequency bands based on usage to minimize interference between users.

Zhang’s father had no objections to this, as both he and Zhang Yan’s mother had accepted her side career as a streamer. Since she streamed games, buying a better router to improve internet speed was reasonable.

Moreover, Zhang Yan’s family was well-off, and their house was quite spacious. A standard router’s signal coverage would indeed be somewhat inadequate, so using two routers in a mesh network made sense.

Zhang Yan efficiently installed the gaming router on the tea table beside the TV, then plugged in the network cable, power cord, and TV connection cable to begin setup.

Zhang’s father helped Zhang’s mother bring dishes to the table while casually observing the screen.

The installation guide even had AEEIS voice prompts!

“Please log in to your official Tenda account.”

“Please set names and passwords for your router and wireless network.”

“System upgrade in progress. You can check the automatic upgrade option, and the router will automatically update its firmware while you’re resting, as long as it remains powered on.”

The step-by-step installation process seemed normal.

But Zhang’s father found something odd: “Why does a router have so many installation steps? And what are you holding in your hand? Isn’t that a game console controller?”

Zhang Yan explained, “Well, this is the latest router model. Modern routers have many functions. This router can also integrate TV box and cable TV functions, so you can use it to watch TV and movies in the future.”

“Routers with such complex functionality can’t just be plugged in and used like other small routers—they require proper setup.”

“This is a game controller I bought before. What’s great about this router is that it can be controlled using controllers from other brands, which saves the cost of buying a remote control.”

As a game streamer, Zhang Yan’s parents had seen controllers before, even though they didn’t play games themselves.

Considering that her family already had three or four controllers, buying another version with a controller might raise suspicions. So she purchased the version without a controller and used controllers from other consoles to control this gaming router.

This way, it was less likely to arouse suspicion.

Zhang’s father nodded. “Alright, once it’s set up, come eat dinner.”

The three chatted while eating, and Zhang’s father was tapping and clicking on his phone, searching for something.

He had remembered the router’s name and searched for “Tenda gaming router” online, easily finding the official webpage.

Clicking into the product details, he still found nothing unusual—it was all about the router’s specifications.

Although he didn’t understand what these parameters meant specifically, phrases like “latest computer-grade flagship chip” and “massive storage capacity” impressed him.

Looking at the price, it was indeed expensive—almost 10 times the cost of a regular router!

But Zhang Yan’s family was quite well-off, and her parents were relatively open-minded about spending money. Since Zhang Yan had already purchased a steering wheel setup for over 10,000 yuan, spending 4,000 yuan on a gaming router didn’t seem like a big issue.

Zhang’s father still felt something was odd, so he checked the product reviews.

The review section had many users sharing their purchases, all giving perfect 5-star ratings.

“This new router works so well! Say goodbye to lag and enjoy a technological lifestyle!”

“This router is truly convenient! It integrates movie and drama streaming, and even has TV box functionality. A very worthwhile purchase.”

“Bought it for my girlfriend, and she’s extremely satisfied. Now she can beat others when shopping online, without worrying about losing to scalpers.”

“Beautiful packaging, excellent quality control. Rarely see such carefully crafted routers. Tenda Group truly is the industry leader no matter what product they make.”

After scrolling through several comments, Zhang’s father finally set aside his doubts.

However you looked at it, this seemed to be an ordinary gaming router.

Zhang Yan knew exactly what her father was doing. She gnawed on a rib while suppressing her laughter to avoid giving herself away.

Recently, Zhang Yan’s streaming business had been flourishing. She had wanted to quit her job to focus on streaming full-time, but her parents consistently disagreed.

The safe and civilized driving offline competition organized by Rabbit Tail streaming platform had concluded successfully. The outstanding players and streamers had lived out their fantasy of being professional racers, with Zhang Yan taking second place in the amateur division, becoming famous overnight!

The competition was not only livestreamed on Rabbit Tail but the recordings were edited into a variety show that played on repeat on the platform.

Although Zhang Yan had natural talent and stood out among many amateur players, she was relatively older, making it difficult to fulfill her dream of becoming a professional racer.

However, being able to regularly participate in similar track competitions already satisfied her.

After participating in this competition, Zhang Yan’s streaming channel naturally attracted more viewers. As a female streamer in the safe and civilized driving category, Zhang Yan won over many viewers with her solid skills and indomitable will, and her popularity continued to rise!

Rabbit Tail streaming constantly improved benefits for streamers, so the money Zhang Yan earned from streaming far exceeded her original career.

Zhang Yan felt she could consider resigning now, as her original job took up much of her energy, preventing her from focusing on streaming content.

Moreover, this stable job wasn’t what she enjoyed; she felt she was wasting time and shouldn’t keep occupying the position.

But her parents completely disagreed, believing that playing games was ultimately unproductive. Although her current income as a streamer was decent, the future held too many uncertainties.

So her parents’ greatest concession was allowing her to stream part-time, but quitting her job to stream full-time was absolutely out of the question!

Zhang Yan had no good solution. She wanted to gradually change her parents’ perspective, but couldn’t find any breakthrough.

Zhang Yan had tried getting her father to play safe and civilized driving with the steering wheel, but failed to spark his interest in games. Her father still felt that driving in real life was tiring enough—why would anyone choose to continue driving in games? It was incomprehensible!

After several unsuccessful attempts, Zhang Yan gave up.

Entertainment has its thresholds, and entertainment tastes and preferences need to be cultivated step by step.

Many people who haven’t played good games naturally lack understanding and taste for games. Once these stereotypes take root, truly appreciating gaming as a medium becomes increasingly difficult.

Many parents view games as a terrible scourge because they haven’t experienced or understood truly excellent games. They only see relatively poor-quality games and their negative impact on young people.

Getting non-gamers to experience the joy of games is truly as difficult as climbing to heaven.

Zhang Yan had watched the gaming router press conference and initially thought it was just a joke, but after learning online about the console’s exclusive games, she suddenly had a bold idea.

After dinner, they cleared the table, put the dishes in the dishwasher, and the family sat on the sofa eating fruit.

Zhang Yan’s mother instinctively reached for the remote to watch TV.

Zhang Yan quickly said, “Mom and Dad, from now on you can watch TV directly on the gaming router. See? It has all the mainstream video apps and can connect to cable TV signals.”

As she spoke, she handed each parent a controller.

Zhang’s father and mother followed Zhang Yan’s instructions, pressing the directional pad and joystick, discovering they could indeed control the router and open video apps with the controllers.

Seeing her parents’ interest, Zhang Yan seized the opportunity and said, “By the way, this router also comes with some family brain games. Why don’t we try playing a simple one?”