Ever since that incident at the KTV, life seemed to have returned to normal, and everyone began diving back into their intense and thrilling studies.
Once her father’s illness was cured, Xu Xintong was able to set down her heaviest worry. She picked up her studies again while recalling the technical skills from her past work, pondering how she could help herself change her current situation faster and achieve a comeback.
She figured she couldn’t possibly return to being a corporate drone like in her previous life. Living a second time, she had far too many things she wanted to do.
However, the prerequisite for all these ideas was that she needed capital.
Money was the starting point of every plan.
She wanted to start a business, or more accurately, build her own corporate conglomerate.
Her family wasn’t wealthy, but they could basically support the family’s living needs.
Yet in her previous life, saving her father had drained every last cent, and it was still futile, beyond saving.
Afterward, when her mother was hospitalized, they had to borrow money left and right from relatives and friends just to barely scrape together enough for the medical bills.
She didn’t want to make her family’s lives hard anymore; this time around, she would make them happy.
With a set goal in mind, Xu Xintong wasted no time in making her plans.
Once a person has a life they yearn for, they start filling their days with expectation and vitality.
Xu Xintong had been paying extreme attention in class lately. Although she hadn’t completely caught up on the knowledge she missed before, fortunately, she understood the saying that diligence can make up for clumsiness.
In the national college entrance examination, she was determined to turn the tide and become the most dazzling dark horse.
“Yibao, dinner is ready.”
Her mother’s affectionate call pulled Xu Xintong’s thoughts back. She hurried downstairs, her stomach completely empty.
“Sigh, Lao Xue, is there a bit too much going on at the company lately?”
Just as she got downstairs, she ran right into her father returning home. Her mother attentively helped her father hang up his coat.
“There are really too many issues with some of these investment projects; I’ve been coming home late every day.”
Dad Xue felt exhausted over the past few days, with his workload being much heavier than before.
“Forget it, forget it. Once you’re home, let’s not talk about annoying work stuff. Let’s hurry up and taste Mom’s cooking.”
Bringing bad moods home to those around you is the worst taboo, especially when it comes to family. Dad Xue brushed off his fatigue and got ready to enjoy the delicious food.
Seeing his sudden change in attitude, she didn’t dwell on anything else. After all, the aroma of the dishes on the table had already drifted to her nose; without even thinking, she knew how delicious it would be.
“Mm, mm.”
“Delicious, delicious.”
No matter how many times she ate her mother’s cooking, Xu Xintong never grew tired of it.
This was the flavor she had yearned for day and night. Being able to taste it again made her genuinely happy.
“If it’s delicious, eat more, otherwise Dad’s going to eat it all.”
With that, he placed several chicken wings right into Xu Xintong’s bowl.
“You two really, if it’s good I’ll make it again next time.”
Watching the interaction between father and daughter, Mom couldn’t help but find it amusing.
“Dad, you eat more too, haha.”
Xu Xintong dropped some Chinese cabbage into her father’s bowl and started shoveling her own rice again, wondering why she could never seem to get enough.
“Aiya, Yibao is caring about me, telling me to eat more vegetables.”
Given a few pieces of vegetables, Dad Xue looked as if he was about to be moved to tears, such a skilled actor.
Mom had nothing to say, feeling utterly speechless at his clumsy acting.
Amidst a round of laughter, dinner was finally finished.
Not wanting to exhaust her parents too much, Xu Xintong took on the daily task of washing the dishes.
Watching her parents sit together on the sofa, watching television with great relish.
The happiness of this moment was what Xu Xintong had dreamed of, and a joyful smile bloomed on her face.
“So happy.”
Xu Xintong muttered to herself. Seeing her looking a bit spaced out, Mom called out to her, “Yibao, come watch TV with us, this show is hilarious.”
“Hey, oh oh.”
“Coming, coming, let me just put my chopsticks down.”
Xu Xintong hurried over on tip-toe, squeezed between Dad Xue and Mom Xu, and curled up into a tiny ball on the sofa.
“You’re not little anymore, why are you still acting so spoiled?”
Though her tone was scolding, Mom actually loved it most when her daughter acted like a child at home. Normally she always wore the face of a serious adult, it was interesting, but it always felt a bit unnatural.
“Yibao is just a child, how cute is that.”
Dad Xue wasn’t as prideful as Mom; he spoke his mind, and his precious daughter was the cutest daughter in the world.
The couple’s remarks completely embarrassed Xu Xintong. She thought to herself that although she still looked like a student now, she was actually fast approaching thirty years old. Showing such dependency toward parents who were only in their early thirties, wasn’t that a bit too childish?
“Aiya aiya, hurry up and watch TV!”
Hahaha.
Seeing her daughter’s face gradually turn blushing red, Dad Xue and Mom Xu knew the child was shy.
The leisurely family time added a lot of warmth to the home, a rare moment of relaxation.
Seeing that it was getting very late from watching TV, Dad Xue picked up his documents again to study them further.
Looking at the pile of files scattered across the table, Dad Xue felt his headache growing stronger.
“Dad, let’s rest. Your health is what matters.”
Worried that her father’s newly recovered body might not handle high-intensity work well, Xu Xintong came over and massaged her father’s shoulders.
“Yeah, alright.”
His daughter’s care made him realize he couldn’t accomplish much in this short while anyway, so he might as well leave it for later.
“Aiya, I sorted it wrong again. There are so many and I always mess them up.”
Seeing her father stand up to tidy up the things on the table, Xu Xintong came over to help.
Xu Xintong noticed that although these files were numerous, their categorization was chaotic, and some page numbers weren’t even continuous.
As a former IT company project manager, she instinctively thought: If only there were a smart document management system.
“Dad, isn’t your company’s document management a bit chaotic?”
The words slipped out before she realized how awkward it sounded, how old was she, after all? How could she understand these things now?
“I just saw that these files looked all messy, aren’t they hard to organize?”
Xu Xintong offered an explanation, trying to brush it past.
Fortunately, her father was busy tidying up and didn’t think much of it.
“Some of the company’s document management is indeed far from ideal, but there’s no help for it, these complex tasks can only be assigned to us.”
Dad Xue sighed, saying that sorting these files should take a few days, and only then could they make the final analysis report.
Xu Xintong remembered that the software company she used to work at had also struggled with document management.
Not only that, due to the complexity of the projects and the professional nature of the technology, it was a hurdle for many companies at the time, severely dragging down work efficiency.
Back then, the company entrusted this job to her not only because she was the project manager, but also because she possessed comprehensive software knowledge and engineering skills. True to expectations, she solved this major problem for the company.
Since her father’s company had this kind of issue, did that mean most companies currently faced these problems too?
Thinking about this, Xu Xintong lay down on her bed and pulled out Diudiu to chat.
“Diudiu, help me check if there are any highly intelligent enterprise document management systems available right now.”
“Got it, Yibao.”
“According to the data and information I’ve checked on my end, companies currently lack relatively intelligent enterprise document management systems. Most of them stop at computer file categorization.”
After hearing what Diudiu said, Xu Xintong already had a general direction for her plans.
If there were a system that could automatically categorize, number, and archive files, and even intelligently extract key information based on content to generate summaries, it would massively boost efficiency.
Perhaps she could develop a system that truly understood corporate needs and was easy to use.
Although she had created a simplified version of a system for her company in her previous life, it was far from enough. What she wanted was a one-of-a-kind technical system, entirely under her own control.
The idea was good, but starting a business required more than just an idea. She didn’t have a team, a technical plan, or market research.
She had all of those foundations in her previous life, but in this life she was still studying, so the difficulty was extraordinary.
It seemed she needed to plan long-term and take it step by step.
Right now, the most important thing was to write the business plan and technical proposal.
Staying up late again without realizing it, Xu Xintong sported two dark circles under her eyes, giving Mom a huge scare.
“Yibao, don’t study so late anymore, or you won’t have any energy in the morning.”
Mom felt sorry for her daughter too. Even though she was in her final year of high school with tight time and immense pressure, pushing herself too hard wasn’t a good thing.
“Mm, mm.”
With bread in one hand and milk in the other, Xu Xintong shouldered her backpack and headed out the door.
It seemed she really needed to sleep earlier; she woke up half an hour late.
Just as she was about to step through the school gates, she heard a bunch of people around her discussing something.
“Oh wow! So handsome! This car, this guy.”
Xu Xintong looked back and saw a gentlemanly man, looking a few years older than them, he looked so familiar.
The car next to him made people unable to pull their eyes away either. Xu Xintong took a look and thought, truly wealthy.
Rather than joining the crowd watching this rich young master, Xu Xintong figured hurrying into her classroom was much more important.
“Xiao Shi, I’ll come pick you up after class and we can go to Grandpa’s banquet together, no need to call Uncle Long.”
The man’s gentle words could practically squeeze water out, just watching him made people feel how caring he was.
“Mm.”
Nong Wanshi avoided Zhao Yue’s hand and walked straight into the school gates.
Huhu, exhausted to death.
As soon as Xu Xintong reached the classroom, she wanted to slump down over her desk; that sprinting burst just now had worn her out completely.
She didn’t dare be late; the consequences were unimaginable.
“Hey hey, did you hear? Today Nong Wanshi’s fiancé came to drop her off, so handsome.”
“Right, the two of them look like a match made in heaven, both so handsome and beautiful.”
The chattering noise prevented Xu Xintong from getting any proper rest.
She might as well go to the restroom, or class would start soon.
“Then what Nong Wanshi said before, about Xu Xin.”
“Aiya, she was definitely just joking, who would take that seriously?”
“That’s Nong Wanshi! A top-tier omega! Xu Xintong is just a dime-a-dozen ordinary alpha, if you ask me.”
So annoying, even the restroom offered no peace.
Xu Xintong didn’t want to stay a second longer. She pushed open the restroom door, not even sparing a glance at the people washing their hands nearby.
“Hey hey hey, stop talking, she’s right here.”
The people around pulled at the girl who had been speaking, losing face quite a bit now that the person in question had caught them talking about her.
Pulling out a tissue, Xu Xintong slowly wiped her hands.
A fiancé.
Thinking of the guy she saw this morning, he looked like that guy from the restaurant before, perhaps he really was.
“That’s not right, her fiancé in the previous life didn’t look like this.”
Xu Xintong suddenly felt something was off. Did Nong Wanshi change her fiancé in this life?
Her muttering was a bit too loud, drawing everyone’s attention around her. Seeing her deep in thought, they all felt it was rather strange.
“Crap, class is about to start.”
Xu Xintong hurried back to the classroom in a panic, almost getting caught.
“Class dismissed, students.”
Xu Xintong felt that learning nowadays seemed much more relaxed; studying something a second time really made it much easier.
As she walked along, a familiar scent drifted into her nasal cavity, pulling her thoughts away.
Nong Wanshi walked past her and headed toward the car parked at the school gates.
“Let’s go.”
Gently shutting the car door, Zhao Yue started the engine.
“Such a gorgeous couple!”
Even though the two didn’t make any special moves, the surrounding onlookers were shipping them hard.
Xu Xintong walked on her own, kicking a rock far ahead with her foot.
“Yibao, what’s wrong?”
Diudiu sensed her emotions; it always felt like Yibao wasn’t very happy.
“Diudiu, I’m fine.”
Xu Xintong kept her head down, holding back her emotions so her parents wouldn’t worry when she got home.
She felt like her mentality was regressing into childhood, and some of her emotions were getting harder to hide.
“Yibao, I just modified some of the system’s structures. From now on, I can switch modes!”
With a proud tone, this was a function Diudiu invented all by itself, truly living up to the newest system.
“Modes? What modes?”
Xu Xintong didn’t understand what Diudiu had discovered.
“I can assist your study even better now. The teaching mode can enable brainwave teaching, projecting learning and communication.”
“This way, knowledge can also be simplified, making absorption effortless.”
“Wow! That makes you a super great teacher! Thank you, Diudiu. Can you help me break down really difficult knowledge too?”
“Of course, I can! The newest Metaverse system, nothing is impossible!”
“Hahaha, that’s amazing, I love Diudiu so, so much.”
Xu Xintong’s emotions came and went quickly.
She had been fretting that while studying was much simpler now, there were always things she didn’t understand. Furthermore, the explanations from online courses or problem-solving apps weren’t very clear, making it hard for her to truly grasp the concepts.
Now, with Diudiu’s help, she was much happier.
Meanwhile, a solemn atmosphere hung over a magnificent venue. Crystal chandeliers cast golden light across the entire banquet hall, and the light spots refracted by countless prisms rippled across the walls like crushed diamonds.
Inside the hall, murmurs were hushed. Expensive leather shoes made muffled sounds against the Persian handmade carpets, and waiters wove through the crowd carrying silver trays, wine glasses reflecting tiny glimmers.