Rebirth of the Godly Prodigal

Hong Dali’s body condition had improved. This could be said to be the most important event that had happened in Hongwu Villa in the past 10 years. The entire villa was bustling with light. Lan Ruoxi personally cooked four dishes, and the family of three happily had dinner together. Hong Weiguo was so happy that he drank quite a bit of wine. Although they didn’t talk much during the meal, Hong Weiguo and Lan Ruoxi’s eyes were smiling when they looked at Hong Dali.

“Dali, try this. This is your Mum’s specialty. She rarely cooks this, not even for me.” Hong Weiguo kept adding food to Hong Dali’s plate until it was stacked into a small mountain. “Eat some more. A man is iron while rice is steel ¹

As for Lan Ruoxi, she kept advising Hong Weiguo. “What are you doing? Look at this, his food is already stacked almost higher than he is. Who could possibly eat so much… Dali, eat slowly. If you like, I will cook for you every day. Careful, don’t choke yourself. Slow down, slow down!”

Hong Dali’s mouth was full of delicious food. While eating, he said, “You don’t have to help me take food, I can do it myself… I can’t eat anymore, I am going to bloat. I won’t be able to sleep if that happens!”

Their only son’s body condition had turned for the better. That was better than anything else. Although it was time for Hong Dali to go to bed, Hong Weiguo and Lan Ruoxi couldn’t contain their excitement. After Hong Dali went to bed, they continued eating and chatting until about 3 AM before finally going to sleep.

…

Yesterday’s party had lasted the entire night. Therefore, Hong Weiguo and Lan Ruoxi gave special permission for the attendants to rest for one night so they could party to their heart’s content. Food and beverages were available in the villa. On this happy occasion, the attendants ate and drank to their hearts’ content. After all, if they restricted themselves during such a happy event, it would be pretentious of them.

However, when Hong Dali woke up to go to school the next day, other than the driver and his nine lackeys, all the attendants of the villa were littered on the floor, and the entire villa smelled of alcohol. Even then, when he went down the stairs, he heard his mother laughing and saying, “Look at all of you, all of you drank so much. Forget it, since there is no rush anyway, all of you can take a good rest. Our Dali’s body has recovered. I am very happy, so I shall give all of you another half day off. Additionally, everyone shall be tipped 10,000 yuan, to let my Dali enjoy the happy atmosphere!”

Hong Dali supported himself on the stairs and walked down. “Mum, I am going to school now.”

“Ai, I am here!!!” Hearing Hong Dali’s voice, Lan Ruoxi turned and happily said, “You small rascal, you have already prepared everything. Remember to wear more clothes. The wind is very strong today; don’t get catch a cold. Oh, right, is your allowance enough? This morning, I heard from Xiaoyi that you spent quite a bit yesterday. I will ask your Dad to top up your card with another five million yuan later.”

“Yes… it is not quite enough.” Hong Dali wiped his nose. “How much did I spend yesterday? I think it was about 2.4 million yuan. I bought a website and signed a female artist. Mum, I plan to set up an entertainment company to shoot some films and produce some music for fun. That will be quite interesting. If not, when there isn’t much to play with, I can watch movies!”

“OK, you can do whatever you want. Your dad and I have earned so much money, it would be a waste to not spend some of it.” Lan Ruoxi went up to him and carefully tidied his clothing for him. “If you want to watch movies, then we shall film them ourselves. You don’t have enough actors, do you? Do you want me to help you find some?”

Hong Dali thought for a while and said, “There is no rush for this. I will slowly tinker with it myself. If I keep myself busy, my body might also recover faster.” He had to settle this himself since the money spent directly from his family wouldn’t be counted by the system. Since his pocket money wouldn’t be lacking anyway, there was no rush.

“OK, you call the shots. Oh, right, I heard that the female artist from yesterday sang quite well. Weren’t you going to open a concert for her?” Lan Ruoxi grabbed Hong Dali and nagged. “I checked on her background this morning. She’s a good candidate. It’s rare that she hasn’t gotten a boyfriend all these years, though she is slightly old. Why not take her as your woman? I want to have a grandson soon…”

Hong Dali was astonished when he heard what she said. “Mum, I am only 18 this year. Aren’t you a bit too impatient? Anyway, I already have Xinxin, don’t I…”

“That lass, Xinxin, doesn’t fancy my little prodigal. Do you think I can’t see that? A forced relationship won’t end well. That day when they came and visited, I had already perceived that the engagement was fake. Only the borrowing of money is real.” Lan Ruoxi cheerfully said. “Actually, with the relationship between our families, lending one or two hundred million yuan to them is really nothing. The main issue is that your Uncle Tang doesn’t like to owe favors, so he came up with the engagement plan. I understand him. He treasures his face more than anything. Our families have been close with each other for so many years, I can understand.”

Speaking to this point, Lan Ruoxi held Hong Dali’s hands and said, “You shouldn’t take it too seriously. There are good ladies everywhere. If that lass Xinxin is willing to be married to you next time, then just marry her. If she isn’t, it’s fine to call off the engagement too. I plan to search for a few more wives for you to have more children anyway, heh heh.”

Hong Dali’s scalp went numb. This was truly his biological mother. If she carried on speaking, she would probably talk about her grandson’s wife. He immediately ran away, saying, “OK, I got it. I am going to school now…”

…

In the car, Hong Dali asked Ling Xiaoyi, “Oh right, Xiaoyi, the website that I bought yesterday, what is it about? I forgot to ask at that time.”

Ling Xiaoyi was speechless. He had spent 2.4 million to buy the website, yet he had no idea what it was about. This kind of situation could only possibly happen with him. Although this was what went on in her mind, her mouth replied, “Young Master, this website is called Ling Dian. It isn’t very popular. It is a website built for online novels.”

“A website for online novels? That isn’t too bad.” Hong Dali muttered. “Ling Dian doesn’t sound nice. Since we bought it, let’s change the name to Zhong Dian. Let it be the final destination ² for readers. No one shall leave once they enter our website!”

“OK, Young Master.” Ling Xiaoyi forced herself not to laugh. “Then this Ling… Zhong Dian website, how should we handle it? Let it develop by itself, or invest some capital into it and do some advertisement or something?”

“Burn money. We need to burn much more money on it!” Hong Dali decided with a second thought. “I want to squander! Such a golden opportunity to squander that dropped from the sky, this is definitely a wonderful thing.”

After some thought, he asked, “Oh right, why did that guy want to sell this website? I wasn’t paying attention to him when he was speaking.”

Ling Xiaoyi answered, “That’s because of the beatdown his rival, Turkey Bookstore, gave them. Turkey Bookstore is currently the biggest online novel website in our nation. This Zhong Dian website loses out to them in all aspects. Therefore, the site traffic dropped dramatically, resulting in him selling the website.”