Genius Club-Chapter 192 - 34 Good Night

Lin Xian set down his chopsticks, leaned back in his chair, and fell silent.

The plate in front of him contained peanuts cooked with spicy gluten.

It’s hard to imagine...

how a frail, impoverished rural woman who was bullied everywhere managed to collect discarded wasteland, accumulate little by little, and grow peanuts to raise Zhou Duanyun.

This story sounds even more tragic than scar literature.

But it was the truth.

The truth of a mother’s steely tenacity.

"Later on, did he really win the lottery?" Lin Xian tentatively asked.

"Of course!"

Zhou Le replied without hesitation:

"He definitely won the lottery! Otherwise, how could he suddenly come up with so much money? You have no idea how rich Zhou Duanyun was during that time!"

"Did Zhou Duanyun himself admit it?" Lin Xian continued.

"He definitely wouldn’t admit it, haha!" Zhou Le poured himself a full glass of wine, drained it in one gulp, and chuckled as he looked at Lin Xian:

"Who would admit to winning the lottery? The moment you do, won’t everyone be panicking and rushing to borrow money from you? Back then, the whole village said he had won it, but he flat-out denied it. The more he denied it, the more we were sure it was true!"

"Zhou Duanyun’s life probably started to take off at that moment." Zhou Le popped a few peanuts in his mouth:

"That’s how fortune works, I guess. After hitting rock bottom, you’re bound to bounce back. Zhou Duanyun got into a prestigious university and won the lottery, instantly becoming the village celebrity. From then on, no one bullied their family anymore. Instead, when Zhou Duanyun went off to university, many villagers gave him money as a gift, hoping that he would remember them when he made good."

"It’s quite the drama." Lin Xian couldn’t help but remark.

It truly was overly dramatic.

"Didn’t you ever suspect that Zhou Duanyun’s university admission notice was fake? His grades were so poor, how could he suddenly get admitted to a top-tier 985 university?"

"At first, of course we doubted it!" Zhou Le said:

"But then our homeroom teacher posted a congratulatory photo, saying everyone in our class got into university, and listed all the school names. How could that be fake?"

This chapt𝙚r is updated by freeωebnovēl.c૦m.

...

By now.

Lin Xian had managed to understand this dramatized portion of the story.

Due to a stroke of serendipity.

Zhou Duanyun’s two unintended "lies" ended up convincing those greedy villagers, completely changing their attitude towards him and his mother.

From being bullied everywhere to being treated like honored guests.

In essence, nothing had changed, but everything had changed.

The world is so peculiar.

If you say you won the lottery, everyone’s first reaction is disbelief.

Yet the more you deny winning the lottery, the more others think you’re lying.

Lin Xian couldn’t fathom what Zhou Duanyun himself thought about these two incidents... But since he accepted the villagers’ gifts and pretended to go to university...

It meant that he ultimately, incrementally, maintained the deception and continued to fool everyone.

Was it the deception that gave him a taste of the sweetness of falsehood?

Or did the change in the villagers’ attitudes give him a real understanding of the hypocrisy of human nature?

Looking at it now.

Zhou Duanyun seemed like a person living with a mask.

And it appeared he wore more than just one layer on his face.

"What happened afterward?" Lin Xian looked at Zhou Le:

"How did Zhou Duanyun become prosperous later on?"

"That, I’m not too sure about..." Zhou Le lifted his glass again:

"You know, with Zhou Duanyun’s personality, he really didn’t hang out with us much. And at the time, many people in the village were bullying him, laughing at his misfortunes. Although I didn’t participate in that kind of bullying, I didn’t stand up for him either, so we weren’t exactly friends."

"Looking back, I actually feel quite guilty. After all, we were classmates, and I should’ve lent a hand. But... huh, that’s just the way people are. By the time you grow up and realize it, it’s already too late."

"[Some things you think are a big deal when you’re young turn out to be trivial when you’re older; but some things that seem trivial and insignificant when you’re a kid... turn out to be a big deal when you grow up.]"

Thump.

Zhou Le set down his glass and wiped his mouth:

"Lin Xian, you’re free this afternoon too, come over to my place."

"I’d rather not." Lin Xian gestured with his hand.

"Come on, I’ll show you Zhou Duanyun’s mansion!"

"Mansion?"

Lin Xian’s interest was piqued:

"When was it built?"

"Just finished last year. After Zhou Duanyun made his fortune, he bought up all the neighboring homesites and built his mother a nine-story mansion! It’s like a damn castle!"

Lin Xian was indeed curious, and besides, he hadn’t had enough of his chat with Zhou Le; he wanted to learn more about Zhou Duanyun’s background.

So far, he only had some understanding of Zhou Duanyun’s life before university, but the past few years remained a blank.

How did he make his fortune?

And for what reasons did he become wealthy?

Zhou Le didn’t know that both Zhou Duanyun’s lottery ticket and admission notice were fake, but Lin Xian did; he was well aware that relying on some lottery as seed money for wealth was another lie.

Lies, lies, lies.

Nothing but lies covered Zhou Duanyun.

Everything was false, but surely some things must be true, right?

"Alright then." Lin Xian beckoned the waiter to pay the bill:

"Let’s go to your place then."

...

The village where Zhou Duanyun and Zhou Le grew up was quite remote; they first took an hour-long shaky bus ride, then caught a taxi to arrive.

Before even entering the village.

From a good distance, Lin Xian saw the nine-story castle!

Really...

This size and scale couldn’t be described as a villa; it was truly a castle.