Chapter 42: Xing Mountain Tiger

  "Two T-bone steaks, one vegetable salad, one fruit salad, two cups of juice. That's all for now, I'll order the rest later!" Qian Ling shouted to the waiter in a familiar tone.

  "Alright, please wait a moment, it'll be ready soon!" The pretty waitress bowed politely to Su Yan and Qian Ling, then headed towards the back after making sure they didn't have any other orders.

  At this time, they were in the coffee shop opposite the school, which had always been Qian Ling's favorite. In the past, due to economic reasons, she could only come occasionally, but since Su Jin became a rich man, this place almost became her daily dining fixed point!

  By the way, after Qian Ling became the deputy general manager of Dream Network, Su Jin paid her a salary of 1,000 yuan per month. This amount is not much now, but you should know that at that time, factory workers only earned two or three hundred yuan per month! In other words, if we put it in today's terms, Qian Ling can be considered as someone who earns tens of thousands of yuan per month!

  Theoretically, the quality of steak in ordinary cafes is not good. If you really want to eat a good steak, it's best to go to a specialized Western restaurant! However, in the ancient city of 98, the probability of finding a Western restaurant that specializes in Western food is no less than the probability of a comet hitting the earth! So, we can only make do with this for now!

  Fortunately, Qian Ling had never had a higher-end steak before. In her opinion, perhaps steaks should just taste like this, the way they were made in cafes. Without comparison, there was no good or bad, so she still enjoyed the cafe's steak very much!

  Compared to the countless Western restaurants he had been to in his later years, where he had savored top-grade steaks, Su Jian found the steak here somewhat bland and unappetizing. Fortunately, he was originally here to accompany Ling, so he didn't care about the quality of the steak!

  The waiter first brought up two cups of coffee, which is the specialty here. In fact, this coffee shop only has this kind of coffee, no matter what you come for, you have to have a cup, and it's not even necessary to order! Su Jin was deeply resentful of this, this is completely a tyrannical clause! But even so, he had no choice, who let this be the only coffee shop in the ancient city? The monopoly is unbearable!

  Su Jian gently stirred the coffee in his hand, his eyes scanning the café lightly. It was noon and there weren't many people inside, probably around ten or so scattered about. Suddenly, Su Jian's gaze stopped on a young man sitting by the window!

  The young man is probably twenty-three or four years old, and seems to have been in society for a few years. His face has a mature and steady look, with a hint of cultural atmosphere, and he should be engaged in a cultural profession.

  This young man gave Su Jin a very familiar feeling, and Su Jin knew that he should have seen him somewhere before! "Who is he after all? I don't know many people since my rebirth, so this person shouldn't be someone from this life. That means he must be someone from my past life!" Su Jin thought to herself, "Moreover, it should be when I just came back to life after my rebirth, or else I would have forgotten him by now. Who can remember people from a few years ago? If that's the case, then when I saw him before, he must have been his appearance ten or so years later! That's right, that's how it is. The person I knew was his appearance ten or so years later, so now when I see him, I just feel familiar but can't tell who he really is!"

  Su Jing thought for half a day, but still couldn't remember who he was. He simply stopped thinking about it and stood up, walking towards the young man's direction.

  "Hello, may I sit here?" Su Jin said with a smile on his face.

  The young man glanced into the coffee shop and looked at Su Jin with some confusion: "It doesn't seem crowded in here."

  "Actually, I am a website investigator and I'm on a mission to conduct an investigation. I hope you can give your opinions about our website, that's why I came here." Su said calmly.

  "Ah, please sit down, is there anything I can help you with?" The young man was taken aback for a moment, inviting Su Jin to take a seat, and then asked very cooperatively. At this time, the common people had not yet been harmed by the ubiquitous deception of later generations, and they still maintained a basic trust in society and their peers, so the young man did not guard against Su Jin too much. If it were in later times, I estimate that he would have sent him away before even listening to Su Jin's words!

  "Thank you! Before I conduct the survey, may I ask for your name?" Su Jin asked calmly, sitting across from the young man.

  "Uh, does this have something to do with the investigation?" The young man became slightly defensive, and a hint of suspicion also appeared in his eyes. It's normal for anyone to be a little wary when a stranger they just met asks for their name.

  "Hehe, this is a real-name survey, so we can gain more credibility. Of course, if you feel uncomfortable, you don't have to say it!" Su Jin said with a slight smile, sincerely.

  "Oh, so that's how it is. No big deal, I'm not some kind of big shot anyway! My name is Xing Shantiger." Xing Shantiger let out a breath and said casually.

  "Xing Shantiger! So it was him! No wonder I felt so familiar!" Su Jin was shocked, and then suddenly enlightened!

  When it comes to Xing Shantiger, most people may not be familiar with him, but if you mention his other name, I believe everyone will know! That is the great master who wrote "Mercenary World"!

  "The Mercenary World" appeared a bit too early. In Su Jian's memory, it seemed to have emerged around 2003. At that time, the online literary world was indeed full of heroes and gods. Many great authors, including Tu Dou, San Shao, Fan Qie, and others, basically started to emerge during that period.

  But even in the presence of so many great gods, "Mercenary World" is absolutely a divine work! This book describes from the perspective of three small mercenaries, a war that spans multiple continents and more than a dozen countries, and finally, the flames of war spread to the realm of the gods. Fifteen countries with completely different beliefs and customs, spanning 21,000 years of story background, three absolute main characters, fourteen main line characters, hundreds of people, dragons, gods, demons and other roles.

  In Su Jian's memory, this seems to be one of the few multi-protagonist settings that can explode in the online world, and its readability is not inferior to Huang Yi's "Twin Dragons of Tang Dynasty"!

  But Su Jin felt very familiar with him because before his rebirth, he had just arranged for a reporter to interview him! And the reason why he didn't match the interviewee from later generations with him at first was that in later generations, he had long since faded out of the online literature world. It wasn't until Su Jin organized his materials that he knew about this glorious period!

  However, Su Jin's eyes flashed immediately, and a sharp light streaked across the bottom of his eyes. "It's really heaven helping me! Since I can meet him here, he must not have arrived at Jinshan yet! However, it should be soon, after all, according to the information, he joined Jinshan Software Company this year. But since he hasn't joined yet, there's an opportunity! This is a talent that perfectly matches himself! Whether it's his writing ability or professional ability, it will be of great help to him! Haha, heaven and not taking, but suffering from its blame; time has come, but suffering from its calamity! This is the blessing of heaven!"

  "Considering Mr. Xing is not very old, I'll just call you Brother Xing!" Su Jin said with a familiar tone, "Brother Xing, do you read online novels?"

  "Web novel? Ah, I occasionally read some!" Xing Shantiger replied without much hesitation.

  "Alright, I'm a public opinion surveyor for Mengxiang Net. Don't know if you've logged onto this website before, what do you think of it?" Su Jin said with a smile.

  "Yeah, I've been on that website before. It's alright. They have the novel 'Fighting Through the Sky' which is quite interesting." Xing Shantiger said after some thought.

  "Some people in society now say that 'Fighting Through the Sky' is too straightforward and lacks literary merit, but it has a strong allure to young people and belongs to the category of poisonous weeds in literature! I don't know what you think?" Su Jin looked at Xing Shantiger with a calm expression.

  "Haha, this question is indeed a matter of different opinions. The 'Dou Po' doesn't have much literary flair, but it's precisely because it doesn't have literary flair that it uses the most straightforward language, which greatly expands its potential readers! This type of thing is meant to be a temporary distraction for people, if you think about it too deeply, then it's being taken too seriously!" Xing Shantiger said with a smile.

  "Awesome! No wonder he's a legendary figure of the younger generation, and having worked as a newspaper reporter and editor, his understanding of the internet is spot on!" Su Jin secretly admired.

  "Haha, Xiong Ge's insight is very incisive! I'll ask casually, where does Xiong Ge work?" Su Zhen asked, pretending to be unaware.

  "Haha, what's profound or not, it's just my personal humble opinion. I'm currently working at the Gucheng People's Daily!" Xing Shantu said with a laugh, speaking humbly.

  "Haha, Xiong Ge is being modest! Thank you, Xiong Ge, your words are of great help to us. Would it be convenient for you to leave a contact method? There might be surprises in the future!" Su Jin said with a smile, mysteriously.

  "Haha, nothing, not intentionally flattering you, I'm just telling the truth. Like this kind of survey, I've also done it before, just to see what people think about something! Overall, I still think the emergence of this is a good thing! In fact, in my opinion, the emergence of this is an inevitable phenomenon!"

  From a broad perspective, this is determined by the main contradiction of the current society, that is, the contradiction between the increasingly growing material and cultural needs of the people and the backward social productive forces.

  From a small perspective, the rise of the Internet has provided the most powerful platform for the dissemination of this type of culture, solving all the objective conditions for its emergence.

  So his appearance seems accidental, but it's actually a necessity! You don't have to worry at all, just walk steadily on the path you've set for yourselves, this industry will have great prospects!

  "This is the phone number of our newspaper, if you want to find me, just call this number!" Xing Shantiger smiled brightly and handed Su a business card from Gucheng People's Newspaper.

  Su Jin took the business card and chatted with him for a couple of sentences, thanking him again for his support for Mengxiang Network before returning to her seat. Xing Shantou had finished eating, he nodded at Su Jin and walked out of the coffee shop.

  Su Jin looked at Xing Shantiger's back, a glint in his eyes, "Hehe, the visitor is far away, no hurry, no hurry, if you want to be fast, you won't reach!"