For the nearly thirty-year-old William Brooks of later generations, what kind of woman hadn’t he seen? He’d encountered both those wearing expensive and cheap perfumes, but in his heart, he always felt that none of those scents could compare to the faint, fresh fragrance of shampoo wafting from a girl’s hair.

Of course, since it was the middle of winter, both of them were bundled up thickly, so there wasn’t much room for romance.

The rickshaw driver pedaled for over ten minutes before finally stopping in front of a hotel.

“Get out.”

Mary Foster was the first to step down from the rickshaw and headed straight for the hotel lobby. William Brooks, helpless, had no choice but to pay the rickshaw driver two yuan for the fare and follow her inside.

“Is it really this exciting? Could it be that Mary Foster has taken a liking to me? Maybe the whole borrowing money thing is just a pretense, and she’s actually been captivated by my stunning good looks? Using the excuse of borrowing money to try to take my chastity—if that’s really the case, should I give in, or should I give in?”

Looking at Mary Foster walking ahead, William Brooks couldn’t help but think—after all, she was a rich kid, and at this age, her development was already quite impressive.

“What are you still standing back there for? Hurry up and catch up.”

Mary Foster stood at the elevator doors, looking at the ever-changing expressions on William Brooks’s face. Although she didn’t know what William Brooks was thinking, she was certain it wasn’t anything proper.

“I’ll tell you, there’s a boss here who specializes in running lotteries, and everyone comes to gamble with cash. Cash bets, and once the numbers are drawn, payouts are made on the spot.”

Once William Brooks entered the elevator, Mary Foster actually took the trouble to explain.

“I see.”

William Brooks understood. From the looks of it, this boss must have strong resources and connections, at least enough to be well-connected on the right side of the law and not afraid of a sudden police raid.

On the fourth floor of the hotel, when the elevator doors opened, two burly young men sitting in the corridor across from the elevator immediately fixed their eyes on Mary Foster and William Brooks, a fierce glint flashing in their eyes. But it quickly faded, replaced by smiles.

Clearly, these two young men knew Mary Foster.

“Miss Foster, the boss said your room is 408. Here’s the room card.”

Mary Foster took the room card handed over by one of the young men, nodded, said nothing, and walked straight down the inner corridor, then used the card to open the door to room 408.

“Aren’t you curious what those two are here for?”

Seeing William Brooks follow her into the room without a word, Mary Foster was a bit curious and asked with a smile.

“What’s there to be curious about? Those two are probably here to keep an eye on things for the boss running the show. I’d guess the boss has booked the whole floor, so this place is no different from a casino. Since it’s a casino, of course there have to be people watching, to prevent troublemakers or sore losers. And I bet there’s more than just those two thugs on this floor.”

William Brooks curled his lip. For someone who’d even been to the casinos in Macau, this little scene was hardly enough to faze him.

He was all too familiar with this kind of situation.

“Didn’t expect you, a good student, to know about this stuff.”

Mary Foster already knew William Brooks was a student—a top student, in fact. In her mind, students in this class were all the type who only cared about their studies and ignored everything else.

“A good student?” William Brooks gave a wry smile. The class placement exams were already over, and he was about to be kicked out of Class 1 next semester. Of course, he couldn’t be bothered to explain all this to Mary Foster.

The room was a mahjong room. Mary Foster tossed her wallet onto the mahjong table, pulled out her phone, and lay down on the bed to play with it, ignoring William Brooks.

Seeing that this young lady wasn’t paying him any attention, William Brooks was happy to have some peace. He sat at the mahjong table, starting to think about what to do after earning his first pot of gold.

Eighty thousand yuan wasn’t a small sum in 2008. Given the economy and housing prices in his county, GF, it was enough for a down payment on an apartment in the county seat.

But William Brooks would never use the money to buy a house. Even though he knew prices would rise, this was still the stage of his initial capital accumulation—he needed to make quick money.

By this time, Alibaba had already been founded, Tencent had already dominated the social scene, and Baidu had become a search giant. Most vertical websites had already appeared, and he’d missed out on the first wave of internet dividends.

All he could do was accumulate as much capital as possible and wait for the next big opportunity—the mobile internet era.

William Brooks remembered clearly that with the popularization of 4G, China entered the mobile internet era. But in reality, the internet giants didn’t reshuffle; it was still the same few companies. William Brooks didn’t think he could break their monopoly, but he still wanted a share of the pie.

This was the ambition of someone reborn.

Chapter 6 Mary Foster’s Self-Assertion

William Brooks was deep in thought about the future, so he didn’t notice that at some point, Mary Foster had stopped playing with her phone and was now watching him.

In fact, Mary Foster was a very proud girl. As the daughter of a wealthy family and with her good looks, she had every reason to be proud. Although she hung out with a lot of boys, there were very few who actually caught her eye.