Your Teacher I, am Hella Rich

August, the blistering heat of the summer sun scorched down on the aisles of the Yangtze.

A high-rise district in the suburbs of Suzhou, the most prominent three-story villa.

On TV currently was news of an upcoming heat wave.

A rich, middle-aged woman wearing a red cheongsam and a gold bracelet handed a peeled apple to her son who was at the moment reviewing for his exam.

The anchor on TV once again emphasized the high temperature warning.

“Heavens, it’s going to be this hot…. Son, let’s not go to cram school this afternoon, okay?”

Upon hearing this, Ji Xiao Li exclaimed: “Mom, the test is in two months. If I don’t study now, will I pass the entrance exam?”

Mrs. Ji, mumbling to herself: “you won’t get in even if you study.”

Ji Xiao Li: “….”

Was she really his biological mom?

At the sound of a door opening, the youngster sitting on the couch turned and yelled, “Dad! Persuade mom for me! Mom is once again telling me not to attend cram school. Even though we’ve already paid forty thousand!”

[note: the amount is in yuan, which may sound exaggerated if you’re thinking USD or any other currency]

Mr. Ji removed his straw hat and gave the basket of freshly caught fish to the nanny in the kitchen before silently retrieving a card from his pocket and giving it to his son: “What costs forty thousand? Go, quickly go buy! Father has money!”

“…” Ji Xiao Li was rendered speechless.

 

*

After things have been cleared up, Mr. Ji puzzedly stared at his son, “Xiao Li, you still want to be a civil servant? What’s the purpose of becoming one? You’ll have to work everyday, even driving to the city takes an hour. You’ll have to get up at seven in the morning. Son, how can us nouveau riche suffer such hardship. Work, what work? Just wait to receive dad’s inheritance!”

“Dad, you aren’t dead yet!”

Mrs. Ji jumped in, “exactly! What inheritance? Those are properties!”

Mr. Ji nodded, quickly changing his tone, “son, now that you are going to work, who will come inherit your father’s property?

The old couple anxiously watched their son, fearful that he would refuse to part from the idea.

Ji Xiao Li, “……”

*

Ji Xiao Li wordlessly retreated to his room with his review book. Rearing to his large velvety bed, he plopped down and allowed his whole body to sink into the soft fabric.

Lying there, he ruminated his parents’ words, coming to a conclusion they were not necessarily wrong.

“Indeed, why should us nouveau riche work that hard anyway!”

Ji Xiao Li threw the brick-like review book into the thrash can and flipped open his cellphone.

A melodious tune echoed shortly after Ji Xiao Li entered the game. Appearing on screen was a handsome swordsman clothed in blue and white. Above his head were the words, “Teacher Orders a Salute.”

Ji Xiao Li controlled his swordsman step by step along the way till he fulfilled the day’s mission.

Games nowadays required much less hand action than before. As long as your character had reached a certain level threshold, then they were perfectly capable of solo-ing their fights themselves. Ji Xiao Li delivered his blue-attired swordsman to a dungeon and aggressively picked out two dungeon BOSSes while he searched the game shop for good equipment.

This game is called《Knight Errant Road》 and is currently the hottest ancient-styled RPG of the moment. Although it had only been out for a month, because it can be played on mobile anytime one wished, it immediately became popular. Soon after becoming a nouveau riche, Ji Xiao Li too began playing.

He bought the equipment just in time for the round to finish, his character reaching level 60.

At level 60, one can accept a disciple.

Ji Xiao Li rubbed his hands excitedly.

Illuminated from head to toe in a golden light, the blue-attired swordsman shot like a rocket towards Tao LiTang. 

“Tao Li speaks not, destiny is of your own choosing.”

“Knight Errant Road” was similar to every other RPG game out there in that all disciples had to fulfill a certain requirement, this was the same for the teachers. Since Ji Xiao Li had just reached level 60, this should be his first time accepting a disciple, yet he seemed familiar with the motions of it all. Directly entering Tao LiTang, he found the recipient NPC who was responsible for matching disciples with teachers and bought the prop “Esteemed Teacher’s Signboard.”

【Prop:Esteemed Teacher’s Signboard】

【Level:60】

【Function: Allows you to issue Esteemed Teacher’s delcaration in Tao LiTang and accept a disciple】

The courtyard of Tao LiTang already hosted more than a dozen players. Every player clenched in their hands a signboard, and were sitting on the floor. The signs distinguished different ranks by prices and colors, although they were all capable of accepting a disciple. An overwhelming majority of the signs displayed were gray, with one exception that was bronze. Ji Xiao Li only maneuvered his swordsman to the area, arranged the hem of his robes, extracted the sign from his inventory, and sat down.

In an instant, a golden light flashed through the entirety of Tao LiTang, blinding the eyes of everyone present.

Tao LiTang instantly drew quiet.

The Shaolin sitting to the left of Ji Xiao Li exclaimed with astonishment:

【A Tyrant(1) ah! This signboard costs 88RMB! Just to take in a disciple, you are willing to expend this much! Big bro, lemme kneel for you.】

Ji Xiao Li did not see what was said because he was currently browsing the game shop for equipments.

At present, the level cap in «Knight Errant Road» was 138. Newcomers received a bonus and with only two days, can easily reached level 60. As a matter of fact, Ji Xiao Li’s account had only been established for two days yet his strength was not low.

The Shaolin gloomily observed Ji Xiao Li’s equipment before crying out in surprise:

【Fuck! You’re only level 60 yet your cultivation is already 7800! Big bro, you really are a big shot!】

Upon seeing the Shaolin’s words, the other players in Tao LiTang all subsequently checked Ji Xiao Li’s stats.

Cultivation is the value of a player’s strength in «Knight Errant Road». A player’s equipment, grade, and cheats will be taken into account in the calculation of this number. Ordinary level 60 players will at most have a cultivation of 4000, while players who spend money can obtain a cultivation of 6000 and above.

 

The prying players mauling over Ji Xiao Li’s stats did not know that the person himself was still engrossed in the shop.

After debating for half a day, Ji Xiao Li finally obtained a pair of boots he regarded as not bad and equipped it, noticing on the side that it increased his cultivation by 50 points.

From the blue-attired swordsman’s body once again emitted a faint golden light. Said swordsman merely held his signboard and sat down; not far from him sat a nearly indistinguishable looking swordsman also garbed in blue, however why did Ji Xiao Li feel like he had such a noble and graceful bearing in comparison?

It was precisely because while both of them were level 60, one had a cultivation of 7850 while the other – a measly 4500. Even if they had to PK with eyes closed, Ji Xiao Li was confident he could still one-sidedly beat the other to death.

No one entered Tao LiTang even after waiting for so long.

Ji Xiao Li, finally sensing something wrong, jabbed the abreast Shaolin and asked: 【dude, why is no one coming?】

Shaolin: 【Tyrant!】

Ji Xiao Li stared blankly at his screen, thinking to himself, that’s right, I am a tyrant.

Thus he calmly accepted it and continued:

【Normally shouldn’t it only take around 10 minutes to receive a disciple? It’s been an hour already, how come there has yet to be a single person to show up? What’s the occasion today?】

Have all the novices disappeared?

Without waiting for the Shaolin to respond, the Emei beside spoke:

【Did you not see the megaphones bro? Everybody already left to watch the big show, how can there still be people heading to Tao LiTang to pledge apprentice status?】

Ji Xiao Li, dumbfounded, checked the world chat in a haste.

He wouldn’t have known had he not checked, but it still gave him a big shock after he checked.

While Ji Xiao Li was in the midst of rummaging for equipment, an explosive courtship drama was happening in the world chat. The region’s first ranked Emei, who was also the first ranked Emei of the entire server, the well respected senior sister “Bei Yuan,” had sent 520* megaphones professing her love for the server’s number one Huashan disciple, “YueJian ChunHe.”

In《Knight Errand Road》, if players wanted to broadcast a message to the world, then they only needed to spend 500 copper coins. However, sending megaphones was different, for it requires actual RMB. Megaphones also had different ranks and classifications. The pink ones Bei Yuan issued were worth 28RMB each and activated dozens of cherry petals across the screen when scrolled over.

520 megaphones in total were worth 14560 RMB….

Even a nouveau riche like Ji Xiao Li felt pained by the sum.

Ji Xiao Li had just arrived yet this courtship drama had already reached its epilogue. After Bei Yuan issued the megaphone, she waited half a day for the male lead to respond but he still hadn’t made his appearance, hence five minutes later, she sent out a few more strips.

【Bei Yuan: ChunHe, I can see you are online.】

【Bei Yuan: ChunHe, I will wait for you by the Sansheng Stone.】

【Bei Yuan: ChunHe……】

10 minutes later.

【YueJian ChunHe: Was afk, didn’t see the messages. I’m not interested in seeking a marriage partner. Selling all gold ranked skills for 50,000 RMB, advanced skills for 100,000RMB. You are allowed to bargain and negotiate privately.】

Barely 2 seconds later.

【YuJian ChunHe: Selling gold ranked skills for 50,000 RMB and advanced skills for 100,000RMB. You are allowed to bargain and negotiate privately. Not seeking a marriage partner.】

Bei Yuan: “……”

Ji Xiao Li：”……”

Everyone：”……”

…..the fuck you mean not seeking a marriage partner!

And even issuing the cheapest 4 yuan megaphone!

Ji Xiao Li felt he lost face on the guy’s behalf.

The world chat suddenly grew heated.

There were comments saying Bei Yuan’s good intentions were snubbed, as well as those calling YueJian ChunHe trash.

Even in the small Tao LiTang, similiar conversations were taking place.

The female Emei:【YueJian ChunHe is truly trash！Just two days ago I saw him and Bei Yuan raiding a dungeon together, just the two of them! It’s clear he was leading her on! tsk tsk tsk!】

Shaolin：【I don’t think so, everyone knows Bei Yuan is YueJian ChunHe’s binded healer. These two dungeoning together is quite normal.】

Another hair clasped into buns female Emei:【Senior sister wasted 520 megaphones, since he’s not looking for a marriage partner, why didn’t he refused her upon the first confession? Making people needlessly spend 520 megaphones. 10,000 yuan ah! Truly a scum! He’s just enjoying the feeling of being confessed to!】

Currently in Tao LiTang, there were two Huashan, Ji Xiao Li and another male. There were indeed many Emei healers, thus they reverberated each others’ words up to the point YueJian ChunHe became Knight Errand Road’s number one scum male.

The Shaolin, seeing that he was unable to out-talk this group of female Emei, pulled Ji Xiao Li over and said：【hey fella, your Huashan brethen’s gossip, why don’t you drop a few words?】
　　
He had barely finished speaking when he saw a glistening megaphone fly over his head.
　

【Teacher Orders a Salute：YueJian ChunHe you are scum! Go die!!!!】
　　
Shaolin：“……”
　　
There were many players calling YueJian ChunHe scum on the world chat, but only one – Ji Xiao Li – who said it with a megaphone. But when the other players took a look at his stats, they found he was just an ordinary level 60 player, thus they no longer paid anymore attention.
　　
After issuing the megaphone, Ji Xiao Li didn’t even bother to explain his actions before heaving a loud sigh and getting up to leave.
　　

Shaolin yelled：【Ei bro! why are you leavin?】
　　
Ji Xiao Li：【I received a disciple ah.】
　　
Shaolin：【eh??!!!】
　　

【System】 Tao Li speaks not, destiny is of your own choosing. The player “Milk Tea Small Crisp” asks to worship you as a teacher.

|Accept|Refuse|
　　

This name was totally that of a girl’s, especially that of a cute sister’s!
　　
Ji Xiao Li quickly accepted and held his RMB-bought signboard atop the small crowd in Tao LiTang.

On the other side, Milk Tea Small Crisp stood by the NPC in search for her teacher. Turning, she saw from her peripheral a shimmery mass of light from a gold-staccato-ed signboard, as well as the blue-attired swordsman standing next to it.
　　
The Loli Emei with her hair pulled into two cute buns stood distractedly by her station, as if blindsided by the brilliant rays of the RMB halo.
　　
As she drew closer, the words on the signboard grew clearer.

 

 

【Current】Milk Tea Small Crisp：……
　　
【Current】Teacher Orders a Salute：Disciple!
　　

The signboard in the blue-attired swordsman’s hands——
　　

『Your teacher I, am hella rich!』

**

Footnotes:

Tyrant: slang – nouveau riche520: slang – the pronunciation of these numbers in Chinese bears faint resemblance to ‘wo ai ni’ or “I love you” thus is often used symbolically.