Chapter 224 Going Abroad Again
During the next three days of Go competition, Lin Mengxi was placed in the children's group due to his age, but his Go skills were rare and strong, reaching 5th dan. He could hardly find any opponents among the children a few years older than him, and as a result, he won first place in his age group.
This year's competition is limited to children under 18. Male and female players are divided into two major groups. The men's group is larger and is further divided into youth, children, and toddler groups. Female players are in the youth and children groups, and their overall number is only one-third of the male players.
Lin Mengxi's age is older than that of the toddler group, but he is the youngest in the children's group. The other contestants are all taller than him. When they saw him, they thought they could definitely beat him, but they didn't expect that he would beat them and eventually he won the championship of the group.
Because there were enough amateur 5th-dan players participating in this National Grand Prix, the champions of both the Junior and Children's groups could be promoted to the next level. Lin Mengxi received the amateur 6th-dan certificate.
Several champions stood on the podium. He and the youngsters, who were about the same age, attracted countless people's attention. After the photo shoot, there was an interview, but Lin Mengxi immediately hid.
Lin Ruoyan's ability to spend money made the media block images of Lin Mengxi to avoid causing greater discussion and trouble. He is too young and will not become a professional chess player in the future, so it is safer to keep a low profile.
This was their first competition, so not many people knew about it and there were few experts participating, which allowed Lin Mengxi to take advantage of the opportunity. If the competition is held again in the future and many experts gather, Lin Mengxi probably won't have a chance to win the championship.
After that, Lin Ruoyan told Lin Mengxi the unlock password of the parental control mode as a reward, allowing her son to control it himself.
Although Lin Mengxi could crack it by herself, she was still very happy to accept her mother's kindness. In addition, she won Aunt Lu's favor by practicing fighting hard, and by the way, she indirectly inquired about some information about the man.
Lu Wei would occasionally say something non-confidential, and Lin Mengxi would write down these details in a small notebook. Lin Ruoyan accidentally discovered this notebook and teased her son, "Why don't you write it down on the computer? I see you type pretty fast, but writing by hand is slow and tiring."
Lin Mengxi said, "Computers are not secure. I'd rather write it down in a small notebook using secret code. None of you will know what I wrote."
Lin Ruoyan looked at her son's scribbles and was truly impressed. Actually, he didn't need any secret code; just this sloppy handwriting was enough to make people dizzy after just a few seconds of reading, and the confidentiality was excellent.
During the summer vacation, theoretically, one should find a cool place to vacation. After the Go Grand Prix, Lin Ruoyan originally wanted to take her children to fly to the north and find a place where the average temperature in summer is below 20 degrees Celsius. The beaches in the north are actually quite nice.
Unexpectedly, Hao Heshan proposed to go to a certain country in the East to sign a contract.
His company had developed a web game for oil-rich countries, which had been tested successfully in the market. A company in the east wanted to acquire it and become its exclusive agent. They cordially invited Hao Heshan to visit that country for a vacation and sign a contract. He was promised top-notch hospitality and no restrictions on the number of people he could bring.
With such a great opportunity, Hao Heshan, besides the people he needed to bring with him, would of course think of General Manager Lin first. Lin Ruoyan was the big boss of his company, so wouldn't it be more important for General Manager Lin to attend the signing ceremony?
There is another point that Hao Heshan did not mention. Others are on vacation with their families, but he is alone. If Mr. Lin takes Lin Mengxi with him, he can secretly imagine what a happy family would look like.
Hao Heshan was a bit hesitant at first, wondering if going to a desert country in the middle of summer would overheat Lin Ruoyan and her son. However, the other party explained that they had plenty of air conditioning there, and that all the cars leaving the airport were air-conditioned. At the hotel, they recommended wearing two layers of long sleeves, and that most public places were air-conditioned at around 18 degrees Celsius. After all, oil was incredibly cheap there, and the air conditioning was kept very low because it burned oil.
At the time of the book, the tallest building hadn't yet been built, but the country already had the world's first seven-star hotel, situated on an artificial island by the sea. The hotel even had a unique cantilevered helipad atop it, and its overall shape resembled a large ship with sails raised, earning it the nickname "Sailboat Hotel."
The head of that company was also a little prince who wasn't ranked high in the family, a member of the upper aristocracy. He no longer showed off his luxury cars, but instead boasted about the number of leopards and eagles he kept at home, as well as private jets and the like.
After hearing that Hao Heshan's boss also came from a wealthy family, they were particularly worried about being looked down upon for not treating her well. With their nouveau riche mentality, they arranged everything to the highest standards. And because Lin Ruoyan was a woman, they asked all the company executives with wives at home to form a group to accompany her.
So, Lin Ruoyan and her child stepped off the plane and saw a row of women with black scarves and signs waiting for them. As they approached, a translator introduced them. Lin Ruoyan could only barely distinguish who was who by their shoes and the different colors and styles of luxury bags they were holding.
Lin Ruoyan followed the local customs. Although she didn't wear a full-face veil, she still wrapped her head with a black gauze and covered it with a black robe. From the back, she looked like the local women. This forced Lin Mengxi to concentrate on holding her mother's hand, otherwise if she got lost, it would be difficult to find her mother among the crowd of women wearing the same clothes.
The capital of the oil-rich country rose entirely from the desert.
Looking down from the plane, Lin Ruoyan felt as if she were looking at a vast sandbox. The surrounding desert stretched as far as the eye could see, with a city in the center, near the sea. Straight, vertical roads cut the vast land into countless tiny pieces, each dotted with bizarre buildings, too small for humans to see. Then there were the strings of reclaimed islands, artificially shaped into interlocking geometric patterns, a work of art that defied nature.
Countless high-rise buildings appear in the sky, some are magnificent and golden, some are shining like crystal, some are twisted and stacked in a snake shape, and some do not look like places for people to live from a distance, but are actually hotels.
In such a harsh environment, there is such a bizarre modern city, which is like a mirage and seems to be out of this world.
After leaving the airport, Lin Ruoyan sat in a spacious luxury car with the air conditioning turned up to cold. On both sides of the road, she could see cultivated palm trees and vast lawns. In this desert country where fresh water is far more expensive than oil, the amount of water required to grow those lawns and various rare tropical plants was staggering. So much water sprayed into the air vaporized before it even reached the ground.
In a desert country where summer heat is so intense that eggs cooked instantly on the pavement, there are still people working outdoors. They look distinctly different from the locals, wrapped in white robes and driving luxury cars. They are migrant workers from Southeast Asia. Despite temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, they diligently work outdoors, wearing only straw hats for shade and reluctant to drink water.
Lin Ruoyan, coming from the real world, knew that not all the wealthy in China were wealthy. To work there, one had to be sponsored by a local. While wages could be high, costs were also very high, and benefits were virtually nonexistent, far below what local citizens received. While the local poor might be able to indirectly enrich themselves by sponsoring foreigners for employment, migrant workers hoping to get rich and enjoy life here by working in low-end industries like selling manual labor were lucky to be alive.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
