Chapter 12: Maintenance

Should he take this opportunity and give it a try?
Maybe it's worth a shot, but he can't let the Zhan family know...
Otherwise, who knows what kind of chaos that random passerby would stir up in the Zhan household.
The most important thing now is to quietly find that passerby first.
***
Shi Qingqing lived on the fifth floor. She arrived at the stairwell on the first floor and tapped "grab" on her phone again.
The screen displayed: "Searching..." once more.
Ten seconds later...
"Search successful. Would you like to join the Star Kindergarten Parents Group?"
Star Kindergarten? That was a private kindergarten nearby, considered pretty modest. All the kids in this area went there.
Of course she wanted in!
Shi Qingqing tapped her finger and immediately joined a new group.
There was no need for admin approval—she could get in whenever she wanted. What a miraculous piece of black technology!
The group was quite lively, with thirty or forty members, each named after their child’s parent...
She didn't care what they were chatting about.
She was fully focused, ready to snatch red envelopes.
"[Wishing Teacher Zhou a happy holiday in advance!]" from Xiaoli’s parent.
A password red envelope! Snatch it!
Shi Qingqing acted without hesitation...
She got fifty cents! Hahaha!

Looking more closely, Xiaoli's parent had sent a ten-yuan red envelope, split among twenty people. She got fifty cents, which was pretty average.
With fifty cents, she’d only get a tenth, so five cents.
Damn, five cents is still money! Little by little, it adds up.
She was someone who wouldn’t turn her nose up at a single cent, so of course she wouldn’t mind five.
"[Thank you for your hard work, Teacher Zhou. Here’s a small envelope for everyone to enjoy.]" from Xiaoming's parent.
Shi Qingqing was quick to respond, tapping again.
This time, she got one yuan and fifty cents!
Even though Xiaoming’s parent said it was a small envelope, it was twice as much as the last—twenty yuan.
"[Wishing Teacher Zhou a happy holiday in advance~~ Our little Bao always gives you so much trouble.]" from Shanbao’s parent.
Shi Qingqing snatched once more—this time, two yuan.
So the parents were secretly competing, each envelope bigger than the last, showing off and saving face.
A rain of red envelopes followed in quick succession: Huanhuan’s parent, Honghong’s parent, Yuwa’s parent... and so on.
Several were sent in a row.
All were envelopes of twenty, thirty, forty, even fifty yuan.
Leaning against the dark stairwell, Shi Qingqing grinned from ear to ear.
"Beep!"
Just as she finished grabbing the last envelope, her phone chimed with a notification.
"Congratulations, Host! You have snatched ten red envelopes! Initialization System 0 has leveled up to Initialization System 1. The system will undergo maintenance for eight hours."
Huh?
What did that mean?

She was just getting into the groove!
There were still some parents who hadn’t even joined in yet—how could this happen?
Couldn’t you wait until she finished grabbing this wave of red envelopes before upgrading and going into maintenance?
When her phone automatically shut down and the screen went dark, Shi Qingqing felt utterly defeated.
Oh well, better go home and sleep—there was school tomorrow after all. Eight hours was eight hours. Tomorrow morning she’d be back in action, grabbing red envelopes like a hero!
Back home, after washing up, she noticed the scratch on her arm was fine—it had already scabbed over.
She also washed the handkerchief she’d found and hung it up to dry.
Under the light, the handkerchief looked even more exquisite and beautiful—it would be perfect to keep in her backpack.
After that, she lay in bed, too excited to sleep.
She did a quick calculation: the seven red envelopes she’d grabbed in the Star Kindergarten Parents Group that evening added up to about fourteen or fifteen yuan.
P.S. About the update schedule: it’ll still be around noon, about 12 o’clock.
That’s the healthiest time—if I posted in the morning, you’d all be at school or work, and the morning is important for starting your day—no distractions!
The afternoon is the same as the morning: it’s for work and study—not ideal for updates~~
Evening is the peak time for posting, which makes it hard to get the chapters out smoothly and causes all sorts of problems...
Late night would affect everyone’s sleep and health~~
I’m really thinking of you all!!