The Young man in Online Romance (3): 

In Little Sheep’s previous life, when the Emperor’s scandal had just broken out, everyone was gossiping, all discussing the Emperor and him.

But after the Emperor vanished from the internet, new gossip gradually replaced the Emperor’s, and no one mentioned him again.

No one paid attention to him anymore either.

At that time, he got to know Zhou Qinghao’s cousin and became his lover.

The game “Cultivation” was produced by Qida Technology, which belonged to the Zhou family.

The Zhou family was founded by Old Master Zhou. He had two sons, and together those two sons gave him six grandchildren—three grandsons and three granddaughters.

Because his two sons were mediocre, Old Master Zhou planned to choose an heir from among his grandchildren. He arranged for all six to work in the company, intending to observe their abilities.

Among them, Zhou Qinghao was the most capable. In contrast, his former patron—Zhou Qinghao’s cousin—was a good-for-nothing slacker.

Still, even a slacker from the Zhou family had privileges. His patron would bring him along to all sorts of “Cultivation” events, letting him cosplay as game characters…

“Cultivation” was the hottest game in the country, naturally attracting attention.

By riding on these events, his fanbase began to grow again.

But just as his patron was trying to get him more resources, Zhou Qinghao appeared.

Zhou Qinghao said he could attend events, but Qida Technology’s resources couldn’t be given to such a small-time influencer.

Because of that one sentence, he could no longer get good resources, and his patron broke up with him.

It was then he realized that the player “Qingtian Bairi” whom he had once ostracized and bullied in the game was actually Zhou Qinghao.

Clearly, Zhou Qinghao remembered the old grudge and was targeting him on purpose!

By that time, he was older, and years of heavy makeup combined with unsuitable cosmetics had left his face with severe allergies—he couldn’t even wear sunscreen. He’d become hideous.

And Zhou Qinghao? He had taken over the Zhou family and was now a rising star in the business world, basking in glory.

In his early years, Zhou Qinghao had personally played games to better understand them, which had become a much-admired story.

The gap between them was enormous. Why was Zhou Qinghao so fortunate while he had nothing?

He cursed Zhou Qinghao daily. Then, he was reborn.

Now, he already knew that the Emperor was nothing but an uneducated scammer.

No matter when he contacted the Emperor, the reply came instantly—what successful person would act like that?

After rebirth, of course he wouldn’t stupidly date the Emperor again and end up in a mess like before.

He would get himself a better boyfriend!

As for Zhou Qinghao… in his past life, he had discovered Zhou Qinghao liked the Emperor, so he targeted him, making up lies to drive him out of their guild.

This life… he wanted to make sure Zhou Qinghao could never become the Zhou family heir.

His former patron may have been incompetent, but that man’s younger brother was extremely capable.

That man had competed fiercely with Zhou Qinghao for a long time, even using some extreme methods in the power struggle.

Unfortunately, in the end, Zhou Qinghao still came out on top.

But what if that man performed even better? What if Zhou Qinghao got embroiled in a scandal? Would the Zhou family heir still be Zhou Qinghao?

He managed to contact his former patron’s younger brother and gave him some ideas—like what updates “Cultivation” could make in the future, and how in-game and offline events could be made more impressive.

Those ideas were all things Zhou Qinghao had come up with in his past life, and supposedly it was through these that Zhou Qinghao earned Old Master Zhou’s favor.

Now, with his cousin presenting the exact same proposals, who would Old Master Zhou choose?

Of course, that wasn’t all he did.

In this life, Zhou Qinghao still cared about the Emperor.

So, after the Emperor ran out of money, he hinted to him that he could date Zhou Qinghao and get money from him.

He thought Zhou Qinghao might not fall for the Emperor’s scam.

But even if Zhou Qinghao dated a scammer—one who was a fat, ugly shut-in who’d only completed compulsory education—it would still be enough to ruin his dignity!

For this, he created a small account, added the Emperor, and urged him to pursue Zhou Qinghao.

He thought the Emperor wouldn’t be able to get any money from Zhou Qinghao, but the opposite happened.

The Emperor actually managed to scam quite a bit of money from him.

Still, their relationship was kept entirely private, and since Zhou Qinghao’s cousin—now his boyfriend—wanted to wait before making a move, he hadn’t exposed the matter.

Thinking of this, Little Sheep secretly glanced at Qingtian Bairi.

“Cultivation” was a very realistic game; even though you could alter your face, expressions remained vivid.

He could see Zhou Qinghao looked a little worried.

Who would’ve thought the Zhou family’s young master would actually like that scammer Emperor?

When the Emperor’s true colors were revealed, Zhou Qinghao would surely lose all face!

Zhou Qinghao was indeed somewhat concerned about the Emperor, but not overly so. First, the Emperor had messaged him last night, saying he’d be busy and wouldn’t be online much.

Second… the Emperor was just a scammer—he wasn’t worth too much worry.

Zhou Qinghao didn’t know why, but when he first met the Emperor, he liked his face.

The Emperor often tipped Little Sheep and always played games with him. His interest in Little Sheep was obvious to everyone.

So at first, Zhou Qinghao hadn’t intended to develop any romantic relationship with him. He’d just joined the Emperor’s guild and occasionally checked in on him.

Then one day, the Emperor suddenly began pursuing him.

The clumsy tactics made him laugh.

And so, he agreed.

He didn’t have much entertainment in his life, so he figured an online romance would be a fun way to relax.

They had been together for half a year. After they became a couple, the Emperor would occasionally use silly excuses to ask him for money.

From their conversations, he could tell right away what kind of person the Emperor was—a vain man with little real-world experience or ability.

Even so, he still felt some fondness for him.

After all, it was just an online romance, and since the Emperor wanted it kept secret, nobody else would know. Given that, why not go along with it?

Playing games together while dating made him happy.

As for the money… he got emotional value from the Emperor, so giving him some cash was fine—like paying for fun.

His cousin kept small stars as lovers and paid them too. His other cousin had recently bought a car for 10 million yuan.

The Emperor was always available to game with him, constantly praised him, and in half a year had asked him for only 10 million—he could accept that.

Zhou Qinghao’s father was Old Master Zhou’s second son.

His father wasn’t talented, but he was handsome and charming. Compared to the elder son, Old Master Zhou preferred him. His father never lacked money.

His mother, like his father, only knew how to enjoy life, but she also came from a wealthy family, so money wasn’t an issue.

Most importantly, they only had one child—him. Even if he didn’t inherit the Zhou family business, he wouldn’t lack money.

His cousins, however, were in a different situation. His uncle had married three times and had three daughters and two sons.

Not only was his uncle incompetent, but unlike his father, he wasn’t content to stay idle.

Over the years, his uncle had always tried to start businesses, burning through a lot of money.

His cousins’ private funds were definitely not as full as his.

Without the Emperor around, Zhou Qinghao quickly lost interest in gaming.

He logged out and focused on work.

If possible, he still wanted to become the Zhou family heir.

His strongest competitor was that same cousin who had always been at odds with him since childhood. He didn’t want him to take the position.

Gu Juntian had no idea Zhou Qinghao had already seen through the original owner.

After cleaning up the house, he took a good nap. When he woke, he saw some messages on his phone.

Ignoring Little Sheep, he sent a quick check-in to Qingtian Bairi and then went out.

The original owner was a bit overweight, but not to the point of being unpresentable—at 1.87 meters tall, he weighed 190 jin.

For his height, 160 jin would be normal weight; 30 extra jin wasn’t a disaster.

This was thanks to the VR helmet—playing games with it on made eating inconvenient. Over the past two years, the original owner hadn’t eaten much junk food, so he hadn’t become overly fat.

Still, he needed to lose weight.

Gu Juntian planned to check the original owner’s properties in the morning, then contact a real estate agent in the afternoon to prepare for selling them. He’d also buy some groceries to cook at home.

And he needed to buy a new VR helmet.

The current one was an old model from two years ago and had been dismantled once—definitely worse than a new one.

VR technology had improved a lot over the past two years.

The latest model would surely be better; he wanted one to study.

Gu Juntian took a cab to visit several rental properties owned by the original owner’s parents.

Although the original owner hadn’t personally collected rent, he’d used his mother’s phone to message tenants for payment. But if a problem arose—like a broken appliance—he wouldn’t deal with it at all.

As a result, two tenants had moved out, one still paid regularly, and three had stopped paying rent entirely yet continued living there. Some of them might not even be the original tenants anymore.

The property with the paying tenant, Gu Juntian decided not to sell. He contacted them to arrange future rent payments directly to him.

As for the rest… he planned to sell them all.

Having that many houses wasn’t worth it.

After running around all day, he felt completely exhausted again.

This body was really too weak!

He didn’t even have the strength to cook.

Using the rice cooker, he made some mixed-grain rice, steaming frozen fish on top for dinner.

As for stir-frying… that could wait until tomorrow.

While the rice cooked, he even took a short nap.

The nap restored some of his energy, enough for him to log into the game and say hello to people there.

Earlier, he’d only told Zhou Qinghao, which really wasn’t enough.