Chapter 56: What on Earth Did You Do to My Best Friend?

"Little Uncle! I told you, you are not allowed to call him a pretty boy."

Chang Lu straightened her face and said very seriously.

"Did I say something wrong?"

Zhao Qitian spread his hands and stood up from the sofa. "Let's talk about it! Last time you spent dozens of dollars on pizza, and this time you directly dropped two hundred thousand euros. What did you buy for this pretty boy again?"

"You speak so harshly. Hojitaj has money; he just earned over ten million recently!

The situation was quite urgent, so I just paid the two hundred thousand euros on his behalf first. He will wire the money over in a few days after he exchanges it for foreign currency."

Chang Lu argued logically.

"That ten million was still earned thanks to your dad. Otherwise, relying solely on him being a high school student, he would be lucky if people didn't chew him up and spit out his bones."

Zhao Qitian still brushed it off. "In my view, he has completely latched onto you for a free ride. What is he if not a pretty boy? Tell me! When will Little Uncle get to drink the wedding wine of you and him?"

Chang Lu, who was initially somewhat angry, was hit by the words "wedding wine," and her face instantly turned as red as an apple.

She bit her lower lip and let out a delicate huff. "Stop talking nonsense. He and I are iron-clad buddies, good brothers. This time I helped him buy a domain name, 55.com."

"Two hundred thousand euros to buy a pure numeric domain name? Is he burning money because he has too much of it?

Or does he really believe the hype from these foreign media outlets and think he is some kind of investment genius?"

Zhao Qitian was a very standard second-generation wealthy heir, the kind who looked at people with his nose in the air.

Especially after graduating from UPenn and entering the financial industry, he thought even more highly of himself.

Let alone someone like Hojitaj, who merely favored the future value of Bitcoin, he didn't think much of domestic internet entrepreneurs who had already successfully started businesses and were worth hundreds of millions.

In his eyes, these were just a bunch of copycat pioneers who directly replicated newly emerging foreign internet models into the domestic market; even if you tied a dog with a chain and put it there, it could successfully go public.

Chang Lu naturally knew her little uncle's high-and-mighty, dismissive attitude and smiled. "I believe in Hojitaj's vision. 55.com will definitely make him a fortune."

"Oh, come on! Lulu, I've actually looked into domain name investment.

The era of super-normal profits has long passed. Valued domain names were already registered and occupied by people around the year 2000.

Everything left over consists of 'tuition fee domains.' Do you know what that means?

It means creating the illusion that they are very valuable so that newly entered investors like Hojitaj can pay tuition fees.

However, most people at most pay a few thousand or tens of thousands in tuition. Take a friend of mine, for instance; he paid one hundred thousand dollars in tuition during his sophomore year.

Hojitaj is really something else, blazing ahead of the pack and paying two hundred thousand euros in tuition all at once.

Why do you think the 55.com domain name sat in TIME's hands for twelve years without being sold?

Was it because they didn't want to sell it? It's genuinely because it's not worth much.

Look at well-known foreign websites like Facebook, Google, Amazon, and so on—who uses numbers as domain names?

This is a classic sky-high tuition fee domain. How about that? Your little uncle hasn't spent all these years abroad for nothing.

At the very least, I am quite well-versed in this domain investment circle."

After rattling off a long string of high-sounding theories, Zhao Qitian felt that no one understood "tuition fee domains" better than he did.

After all, back in his sophomore year, he had bought dozens of "tuition fee domains," resulting in a bloody loss of nearly one hundred thousand dollars.

Among the investors he knew, the only ones who could make money in the domain name sector were very early-stage domain investors; anyone who entered later had to pay heavy tuition fees.

He refused to believe that while he and a crowd of professional American investors had suffered a crushing defeat in domain investment, Hojitaj—a mere little Chinese high school student—could succeed the moment he made a purchase?

Listening to Zhao Qitian's analysis, Chang Lu also grew somewhat worried.

She wasn't afraid of Hojitaj losing money; after all, although two hundred thousand euros was not a small sum, both she and Hojitaj could afford to lose it given their current net worths.

She was just afraid that Hojitaj's investment would fail and his confidence would be shattered.

"Alright! You don't need to worry too much either. Like I said, it's tuition fees; at least he'll gain some experience and absorb a lesson.

It's not a bad thing for Hojitaj.

Besides, his money came easily anyway; a half-month of giving speeches earned him over ten million RMB, which is faster than robbery."

Seeing Chang Lu pouting, Zhao Qitian smiled and changed the subject.

"Right! Have you and Hojitaj talked about the admission invitations sent by those universities?

Tell him that if he misses this village, he won't get this shop.

It was so hard to help hype him up along the way; how wasteful it would be if he didn't go to a top university!"

In Zhao Qitian's view, a child from an ordinary family like Hojitaj would normally never have had the chance to touch top foreign universities.

Now that such a god-given opportunity had fallen into his lap, why wouldn't he immediately fly to the United States with eager enthusiasm?

Looking sideways at Chang Lu, the reason Zhao Qitian was working so hard to hype up Hojitaj and orchestrate the "school" business was actually because he had seen his niece's feelings for Hojitaj.

He figured that as long as he could lure this kid over to the United States first and let him spend a few intimate years with Lulu, how could she fail to win him over?

To his surprise, however, Chang Lu shook her head. "Hojitaj isn't coming. He said going to Peking University will do."

"Oh! This kid has quite a backbone, looking down on these top Western schools?"

Zhao Qitian shook his head. "He is still too young. To refuse so carelessly means he completely fails to understand what he is missing out on.

Lulu, make another call and properly persuade him..."

"Just help him decline all of them! Whatever his decision is, I support it."

Chang Lu said with a smile.

"You, you're beyond saving."

Zhao Qitian expressed utter helplessness, then took out his phone to call and reject these elite universities for Hojitaj one by one.

However...

The responses over the phone made Zhao Qitian feel once again that this world was definitely a massive amateur production.

Because those elite universities actually claimed that Zhao Qitian could not represent Hojitaj, and that he must have accepted money from other schools to deliberately reject them.

Therefore, they would mobilize their resources to find out the true identity and address of this mysterious Chinese high school student themselves, and then mail him an admission letter and a full scholarship.

"Are they out of their minds? He's just a poor kid who struck dumb luck and happened to trade a pizza for ten thousand Bitcoins.

Why are these elite universities fighting over him like they've never seen the world?"

After making seven or eight consecutive calls, Zhao Qitian was truly depressed.

Chang Lu, on the other hand, grinned from ear to ear as she said, "Hehe! Isn't this all because of the hype you guys created?"

"What the hell! Are foreigners this easy to fool nowadays? I can only say this kid's luck defies the heavens."

Zhao Qitian's tone was somewhat sour; back then, it had taken a tremendous amount of effort for him to get into UPenn.

Comparing people really makes you want to die of frustration!

...

Meanwhile, Hojitaj, who had just returned from Zhaowu County to his rental apartment, had barely reached downstairs when he spotted a familiar figure sitting there waiting for him with a small stool.

"Sister Hui, why are you here? Are you staking out my place?"

Hojitaj looked closely and saw it was his eldest uncle's daughter, Lin Sihui.

Lin Sihui looked like she was brimming with anger, having waited for a long time. She glared at Hojitaj with a scrutinizing gaze and demanded:

"Xiaotai, spill it. What on earth did you do to my best friend?"