On the screen, Lin Ruoxuan was sitting cross-legged on her desk chair, a strawberry-flavored lollipop in her mouth, her fair little feet dangling casually in the air as she periodically checked the numbers rolling on the official lottery website.
Suddenly, her dangling feet stiffened mid-air, and the lollipop in her mouth fell to the floor with a "smack," shattering to pieces, yet she remained completely oblivious.
She rubbed her eyes in disbelief and bounced up from the chair:
"I-I won! I really won! First prize! Five million! Even after taxes, it's four million! I'm rich, I'm rich! Daddy System! I love you to death! Ahhh—!"
The girl was so excited she was incoherent, jumping up and down in place completely out of rhythm.
Her cheeks flushed bright red from extreme excitement, and tears of overwhelming emotion even welled up in her eyes. Her voice trembled, almost cracking.
Xu Yunzhou looked at the unreserved, pure, and passionate ecstasy on the screen, and a wonderful sense of satisfaction, like a Creator looking down and controlling destiny, spontaneously arose in his heart.
This emotional value was truly delivered perfectly.
Carrying an indulgent smile that even he hadn't noticed, he teased her through the microphone:
"Look at you, so easily shaken. I didn't shock you, but you act like you got electrocuted. If you want to thank me, do something practical. Dance for Daddy."At this moment, Lin Ruoxuan was practically hanging onto "Daddy System's" every word.
Without another word, she immediately turned on the speakers, selected a soothing and ethereal piano piece, and improvised a ballet routine that was elegant yet filled with joyful leaps.
The hem of her skirt fluttered lightly with her spins, blooming into a soft, pure white halo under the light, truly like a little swan so happy it forgot itself, spreading its wings ready to fly.
"Alright."
After admiring this improvised performance full of gratitude, Xu Yunzhou got back to the main topic, his tone returning to calm,
"The rejoicing ends here. Serious matters are important. Go out immediately and open stock and futures accounts at a brokerage branch, and activate the margin trading permissions as well. Once you get the prize money, transfer three million in first as startup capital. I will make you witness with your own eyes the terrifying power of capital snowballing from a prophet's perspective."
Xu Yunzhou was getting more and more immersed in the role, feeling like the other party was truly a living, breathing person from 2008.
His interactions with her also became increasingly natural, almost forgetting this was just an NPC.
And the other party's responses were completely like a flesh-and-blood real person. He couldn't help but doubt again: had current AI technology really reached this level of being indistinguishable from reality, without any flaws?
Lin Ruoxuan's eyes brightened astonishingly.
She immediately put away all her playful expressions, knelt obediently on the soft carpet, tilted up that small face that was even more charming due to excitement, and answered crisply:
"I will strictly follow Father's orders! I guarantee to complete the task entrusted by Master!"
Xu Yunzhou was instead amused into a sudden "pfft" of laughter by this answer, then shook his head in slight disappointment.
"The task entrusted by Master?"
This was clearly an internet meme from recent years.
(TL: "Task entrusted by Master" is a phrase from a viral Chinese meme video where a woman in a maid outfit speaks in a submissive, cringeworthy tone.)
As expected, this game planner still made an oversight in the details, revealing a flaw.
However, even though it was a virtual relationship, he was willing to invest his feelings and emotions.
Because this virtual Lin Ruoxuan inside the computer would never betray him; her joy and her growth were closely tied to him.
Suddenly, a trace of complex emotion surged into his heart, and Xu Yunzhou couldn't help but hum softly, carrying a bit of self-mockery:
"...You are in the prime of your youth, and I am down and out in poverty, with a body full of destitution how dare I embrace you..."
(TL: Lyrics from the popular Chinese song "Destitute", often used to express feelings of unworthiness in love due to poverty.)
The Lin Ruoxuan on the screen, however, blinked her clear large eyes, her long eyelashes fluttering like butterfly wings:
"Tyrant, are you confessing to me? Even though you're just an intangible System... I'll just accept it, why are you singing so sadly?"
Xu Yunzhou felt his face burn with embarrassment from having his mind seen through, and he immediately hardened his voice:
"You even dare to flirt with the System, you're rebelling! Hurry up and open the accounts, if you talk back again I'll shock you!"
"Ahhh! You're just a straight man of steel, not understanding romance at all! Don't shock me! I'm going right now!"
Lin Ruoxuan complained verbally, but her movements were not slow at all. She hurriedly changed into clothes for going out, carefully put away her ID card and bank cards, and rushed out the door like a cheerful little bird.
Everything that followed fell perfectly into place.
After keeping a low profile to claim the huge after-tax prize accompanied by her family, she followed instructions, keeping three million for herself as "startup capital" to break into the financial market, and handed the rest to her surprised and delighted parents, who felt like they were in a dream, letting them settle it properly to improve their lives.
Subsequently, under Xu Yunzhou's command, Lin Ruoxuan utilized the high leverage of margin trading and futures. Before the summer vacation ended, she made the funds in her account ride a rocket, snowballing the capital to a massive fifty million!
Looking at this profit speed that outsiders would call a financial miracle, Xu Yunzhou felt it was both funny and reasonable in his heart:
"As expected, one of the core satisfying points of this game is letting the player act as a transmigrator, utilizing absolute information gaps to launch a dimensional strike on the past world, experiencing this thrill of controlling the overall situation and turning clouds into rain."
The financial trends in this virtual world completely matched the real historical data he searched for, without the slightest error, so achieving sudden wealth was simply as easy as pie.
Watching the numbers in her account crazily increase by units of millions every day, Lin Ruoxuan was so happy she almost floated.
The "dance of gratitude" she dedicated to Xu Yunzhou every day also became increasingly refined; she even self-taught a few quite difficult ballet spins. As the hem of her skirt flew up, it fully displayed the agility and vitality of youth.
One day, she even secretly lowered her voice, carrying a bit of mischievous shyness as she proposed:
"Daddy System, should I... go learn that kind of pole dancing from bars? I feel... it fits the ultimate aesthetics of a straight man of steel like you even better."
Xu Yunzhou felt helpless. At this moment, he no longer treated this purely as an erotic game, but genuinely wanted to cultivate Lin Ruoxuan into a dazzling existence:
"If you really want to thank me, then completely, thoroughly, and uncompromisingly do as I instruct, and spend your time and energy where it counts."
"Yes, sir!"
Lin Ruoxuan immediately straightened her slender waist and back, then as if remembering something, muttered softly, her cheeks slightly red,
"Then I... I'll go drink papaya milk right now, two glasses every day! But Daddy System, is your aesthetic standard just... um... that... the bigger the better?"
Xu Yunzhou rolled his eyes at the screen and typed in annoyance:
"This is the underlying setting of your game world! It has nothing to do with my personal noble aesthetics! Hurry up and go exercise!"
Throughout the entire summer vacation, Lin Ruoxuan strictly followed all instructions from "Daddy System."
Besides the necessary time for watching the market and operating, she rushed around like she was catching shows to various high-end training classes to improve herself.
Hot yoga for body shaping, T-stage catwalk for practicing demeanor, international standard dance for enhancing charm and temperament... stuffing her daily schedule completely full. In pain yet happy, tired yet growing.
The sweat and huge amounts of money invested yielded significant and gratifying effects.
Looking at the girl in the footage who was becoming increasingly dazzling and had already begun to show initial charm in her glances, Xu Yunzhou nodded in satisfaction, and rarely made a joke:
"Very filial indeed, taking very good care of your grandmothers."
(TL: "Grandmothers" here is Chinese slang for breasts.)