937 As Long As You’re Happy

The chauffeur deserved his title as a professional. He drove the car swiftly and steadily.

Tang Rou sat shotgun*, while Ye Xiu, Chen Guo, and Steamed Bun sat in the back. No one said anything. Chen Guo fished out her cellphone and went online to do a quick search.

A moment later, she gently nudged Ye Xiu and put her cellphone in front of him to look at.

Tang Corporation Limited. The corporation started out as a spinning, weaving, printing, and dyeing business. After ten years of growth, their main business was in spinning and weaving. They were an enormous conglomerate with developments in several other areas as well and had about 14,000 employees. The corporation could even be ranked on an international level.

There was a big picture of the corporation’s chairman, Tang Shusen, who was the person they had just met: Tang Rou’s father. He had a huge list of gorgeous achievements and honors. The Internet didn’t have much information on his family background though. Was Tang Rou an only child? Did she have any brothers or sisters? Searching for Tang Rou didn’t yield any results.

Their hotel wasn’t far. No one said a word on the way there, and they soon arrived. The chauffeur got out of the car and sent them on their way. After bidding them farewell, he left.

After the car drove off, Tang Rou turned around. The other three were standing neatly behind her.

"Miss, would you like us to carry your bags for you?" Ye Xiu asked.　

Tang Rou didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

"Go go go, let’s go up first." Chen Guo called out.

When they returned to the room, the four sat together in a circle. Ye Xiu lit up a cigarette, but it was snatched away by Chen Guo.

Ye Xiu was helpless. He could only jump to the main topic. He looked at Tang Rou: "What’s the situation?"

"Uh, it’s not as complicated as you think it is." Tang Rou obviously knew that the other three wanted to talk to her.　　

"What?"

"I was originally studying music abroad, but I didn’t want to anymore all of a sudden. Then, my father said that if I didn’t want to anymore, then to just come back home, so I came back home. Then, he asked me what I wanted to do. I said I didn’t know. He told me I should go and travel around to relax, so I did. Later, I passed by Happy and saw that it was hiring, so that’s how I got there. And once I was there, I stayed." Tang Rou said.　　

"This... your father said that? He doesn’t care what you do?" Chen Guo was dumbstruck.　　

"When I decided to stay here, I told him! I told him I found a job. He asked me what type of job? I said as an Internet cafe employee. He asked, what do you do there? I said that I managed the computers at an Internet cafe. He asked me how long I would do it and I said I didn’t know. He said okay and told me to call and come back often. That’s about it." Tang Rou said.

"That that that that.... That’s not scientific at all!" Chen Guo was having an intense struggle in her heart. From what she had thought, Tang Rou had such a powerful background. There must be some sort of special reason or conflict that made her become an Internet cafe employee! But it turned out that everything between Tang Rou and her father was just that plain and simple. Let alone a household like hers, even a very normal family would be worried about their child’s job, no?

"Hm? What’s not scientific?" Tang Rou asked.

"Internet cafe employee….. this..."

"Haha, for me and my father, it doesn’t matter what I do!" Tang Rou said.

"How can you say that?"

"Because he always tell me that it doesn’t matter as long as I’m healthy and happy." Tang Rou said.

In this instant, everyone understood. Tang Rou had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She never had to worry about clothes or food. She was the child of a wealthy family who didn’t know which direction to go. And it turns out that her father was someone who only hoped she enjoyed her life and didn’t care which direction she went in.

Enjoying life. This concept differed from person to person. Some people considered struggling towards a goal as enjoying life. Some people considered having clothes and food and idling their time away as enjoying life. So on and so forth. In reality, Tang Rou was someone who treated struggling and competition as enjoying life, but the problem was that struggling and competing required a goal. During her time at the Internet cafe with Chen Guo, she was rather bored because she didn’t have a goal, but now, Glory had become her inspiration, so now everyone could see a Tang Rou, who was filled with enthusiasm.

"Does your father know that you want to be a pro player?" Chen Guo asked.

"Yeah, he knows!" Tang Rou said.

"What does he think of it?" Chen Guo asked.

"He watched the Pro League streams three weeks in a row and even had his secretary record all of the matches for him. Then, he asked where I was." Tang Rou said.

"Pft..." Chen Guo couldn’t help but laugh. No matter how powerful Tang Shusen was, it seemed like he was no different than the average father. He truly didn’t know much about something like Glory, which was more of a young person thing.

"He should understand now, right?" Chen Guo said.

"He gets it now. He’s been watching our journey through the Challenger League ever since." Tang Rou said.

"Does he understand it?" Chen Guo asked.

"He didn’t at first, but slowly, he’s getting a feel for it." Tang Rou said.

"Oh?"

"He at least knows that Soft Mist can’t shoot bullets." Tang Rou said.　　

"Haha, you should help your father expand his knowledge on Glory." Chen Guo said.　

"I heard that his secretary had to research Glory until his head bled." Tang Rou said.

"What a pity." Chen Guo sighed.

"That’s just the way it is."

"So you can still continue playing for our team, right!" Chen Guo said.

"Of course." Tang Rou smiled.

"Then, let’s keep working hard!" Chen Guo was excited. Tang Rou’s identity had made her worried the most. She didn’t know whether Tang Rou could continue playing the game with them, but she could finally relax.

"Let’s rest for now. We’ll go back tomorrow and get ready for the final round of the online portion of the Challenger League!" Chen Guo announced.

The next day, Lou Guanning personally came over to send them off.

"Where’s Old Sun?" After Ye Xiu saw him, he asked about Sun Zheping’s situation.

"He’s already signed the contract. He’ll be with us for now. He’ll go over to you guys when you guys need him for the offline part of the Challenger League." Lou Guanning said.

"Use him well. Don’t waste this opportunity." Ye Xiu patted Lou Guanning.

"Couldn’t you describe it in a different way? Using him sounds too despicable." Lou Guanning said.

"Use? Exploit? Utilize? Put to use? Take advantage of?" Ye Xiu displayed his flexible vocabulary.

"..."

Airport, farewell, boarding, home.　　

Their biggest takeaway from their trip to All-Stars was getting a helping hand from Sun Zheping. Even though he could only provide a limited amount of help for them, for Happy, they didn’t always need him to be there. A help of the hand at the crucial moment could turn situations around.

After this news was told to everyone else at Happy, Wei Chen and Wu Chen were astonished.　　

Wei Chen didn’t need to be mentioned. He had fought against Sun Zheping in the past. He knew about how skilled the former number one Berserker was. As for Wu Chen, he had also heard of Berserker’s fame. Such a powerful helper couldn’t be compared to a jack of all trades who came from the game.

"What a pity. It’d be perfect if he wasn’t injured." Wei Chen lamented.

"If he actually recovered, we wouldn’t be able to get him to join us." Ye Xiu said.

"That’s true." Wei Chen nodded his head. If Sun Zheping was truly at his peak, he would have joined another team long ago. He wouldn’t be helping Happy, in any case.

"How’s his equipment?" Wei Chen asked.

"It’s okay." Ye Xiu said. Their requirements towards equipment emulated those of pro teams. Sun Zheping’s equipment for Another Summer of Sleep was absolutely high-end in the Heavenly Domain, but for a pro team, it was just so-so.

"Let’s see if he wants any of our equipment over here." Wei Chen was very generous at this moment.

"During this time, let’s continue working hard to collect equipment!" Ye Xiu said.

"How’s your Myriad Manifestations Umbrella going?" Wei Chen said.

"I’m still unsure about the materials for one part." Ye Xiu said. Self-made equipment was like this. If a single part wasn’t good, a good piece of equipment couldn’t be created. A passable one would affect the stats too. It wasn’t impossible for Level 60 Silver equipment to have Level 40 stats. Ye Xiu wasn’t certain about an important axle when the umbrella transformed. If the material he chose wasn’t a good fit, it was known from past mistakes that, in the worst case scenario, the umbrella would immediately collapse when it transformed. In the best case scenario, it would damage its durability.

Ye Xiu had whittled it down to two materials. Both of them eliminated the possibility of the umbrella immediately collapsing, but he didn’t know which one could guarantee its durability.

"Let me take a look." Wei Chen said. Ye Xiu took out what he had researched during this time and the two began discussing.

As soon as they arrived, Ye Xiu immediately got to work with Glory. Chen Guo was already speechless. He didn’t want to chat about Tang Rou? How boring.

Not only did Ye Xiu not gossip about it, he even pulled Wei Chen over to talk about work. The remaining Wu Chen, Qiao Yifan, and Mo Fan weren’t really targets for gossiping to, so Chen Guo could only endure.

"It really is troublesome." After Wei Chen and Ye Xiu studied for an hour, he also wasn’t sure like Ye Xiu.

Wei Chen wasn’t an equipment editor expert at first, but after retiring, he concentrated fully on it, especially after reaching Level 50. His research on Heavenly Domain materials was much deeper than Ye Xiu’s. At this point, Ye Xiu had been focused on the matches. His research towards materials gradually slowed down. Right now, he was mainly relying on his solid foundation and inferred things from what he already knew. However, even Wei Chen wasn’t sure either.

"If we can’t think of anything, we can only test it out." Wei Chen sighed, "A 50% chance isn’t bad. Let’s gamble! Prepare the the earlier stage materials."

Earlier stage materials meant that if this upgrade failed, they could immediately create another Level 55 Myriad Manifestations Umbrella.

"It looks like that’s our only choice." Ye Xiu sighed. Self-made equipment often came with uncertainties. In the end, they could only rely on testing directly. If the material used was optimal, they could record it. Sometimes there was nothing else that could be done.

"Hm?" Wei Chen suddenly thought of something, "Perhaps Luo Ji could calculate it?"　　.

"How do you calculate this?" Ye Xiu asked.

"Rubbish. If you understood how to do so, you would have done it already." Wei Chen said.

"Okay, then give it to him to see." Ye Xiu thought about it and contacted Lou Ji. He then told him about the problem and gave him a bunch of information.

Soon afterwards, Luo Ji replied: "This... I could calculate it in theory, but the information that you’ve researched doesn’t help me that much. I would need the data on what materials were used in the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella. What type of equipment could these materials create? The more information I have on that end, the more accurate of a grasp I’ll have on the data."

"I understand that," Ye Xiu sighed, "but we just don’t have that many materials to choose from."