Chapter 63: The Extension of the Joker's Effect

When Zhai Da returned home, Yu Xiaoli was watching television, while Lu Wei seemed to be studying in her room.

Having decided to prepare for the college entrance examination, she was putting in the necessary effort, regardless of whether it was in a place where Zhai Da could see her.

Unusually, Zhai Da sat down beside Yu Xiaoli. He had rarely sat on this sofa since his rebirth.

Yu Xiaoli turned her head. "What's wrong? Not studying today? Xiao Wei is waiting for you in her room."

Zhai Da asked in a low voice, "Mom, does our family have any hidden secrets?"

Yu Xiaoli raised an eyebrow peculiarly. "Did you find the ice cream in the fridge?"

Zhai Da was momentarily stunned. "What kind of secret is that? I ate it all, only an empty box is left."

Yu Xiaoli: ...

"I mean... does our family have any hidden identities?"

Yu Xiaoli curled her lips. "Starting from you, the Zhai family has been workers for three generations. Going further back, we were poor and lower-middle peasants. Your dad wanted to start a business back then, but unfortunately it went midway... What hidden identities could there be?"

"That aunt of yours, whom you've barely met, did a bit of business. Is that what you're trying to say?"

Zhai Da immediately retorted, "What do you mean by 'the Zhai family'? You and I are one family! Weren't you the one who decided I wouldn't change my surname back then?"

Having been called by this name since childhood, he already had a psychological identification with his surname, and he certainly wouldn't want to change it now.

However, this was by no means due to a stronger sense of belonging to the Zhai family than to the Yu family; he was a child raised single-handedly by his mother.

"I want to ask, did Grandpa have any hidden identities back then? For example... a top expert or something? A scientist? What was he actually doing in the Northwest all those years?"

Yu Xiaoli was very surprised by the sudden mention of Yu Lihua. She sighed and said, "How would I know?"

"Even you don't know? Then who could possibly know?"

"Your grandpa took the college entrance examination at thirty, didn't go to university, and instead holed up in the Northwest for six or seven years. He didn't have me until he was nearly forty. How could I know anything about what happened before? Besides, whenever your grandma brought it up, his mouth would zip shut and he wouldn't say a single word."

"So much so that your grandma always suspected whether he had someone else on the outside during the 'Up to the Mountains and Down to the Villages' movement... You know that wasn't uncommon in those days."

Zhai Da: ...

Yu Xiaoli was born in 1967, which was the second year after Zhai Da's grandfather returned to Dongyang County. It was normal that she was unclear about things prior to that.

At least from the time of Yu Xiaoli's earliest memories, Yu Lihua had simply been a relatively respected skilled technician at the woolen mill.

"As for those things you're imagining, I used to think about them when I was young too, but... none of that has any meaning."

She had also had her youthful, imaginative phase, and Yu Lihua's life trajectory indeed easily made people think of certain things.

"But I'm only sure of one thing: the only things your grandpa left us are this house, and oh, the bicycle downstairs."

Zhai Da shook his head and pulled out the thick, worn-out notebook. "Maybe there's this as well."

He recounted the events of today. There was no need, nor was it appropriate, to conceal such matters from his mother.

Yu Lihua opened the notebook and saw the familiar handwriting inside. A wave of emotion washed over her heart...

"It seems there is such a thing. Your grandpa's health was poor during his final two years. After taking medical retirement, he did write some things at home. Back then, it seemed I was the one who took them to the data archives room..."

Zhai Da's eyes immediately lit up. "There are several more volumes, right? Mom, do you have any idea where they might be?"

Yu Xiaoli shook her head. "It's been seventeen or eighteen years... The data archives room has changed locations three times. I thought they were long gone. To think a single volume was actually preserved... By the way, so your teacher is Director Liu's nephew, and Lu Wei was introduced by him. This really is..."

For a moment, she didn't know what adjectives to use. Anyway, it felt like going full circle and ending up right back where they started.

Yu Xiaoli closed the notebook and stood up, intending to put it in her own room. After all, this had special significance and needed to be properly protected.

Zhai Da, however, expressed that he wanted to study it a bit. After a brief hesitation, Yu Xiaoli agreed.

...

For the remainder of the day, Zhai Da spent his time with Lu Wei. He tutored her in Chinese and English, while Lu Wei tutored him in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology. Occasionally, they also watched videos using the [Old Man's Television].

Given that he had already fully developed self-awareness and self-discipline, and had found the correct methodology, the [Old Man's Television] no longer had much practical utility for Zhai Da. He no longer needed external forces to make him "obsessively study."

As for Lu Wei, needless to say, she had almost no distractions. Once she decided to work hard alongside Zhai Da, she would never harbor any hesitation again.

At 10:00 PM, Zhai Da went to the bathroom to take a shower first. Returning, he caught sight of Lu Wei's back in front of her desk, feeling a momentary sense of trance.

He recalled how, while at teacher Shen Rui's home, he had hallucination-like visions of his grandfather's back.

That must have been the "resonance" mentioned by the system, seemingly an effect inherent to equipment in the [Notebook] category.

He had previously studied [Lu Wei's Mathematics Notebook (I)] quite a bit, but it had never seemed to trigger... Was it because of the bloodline bond?

Would there be more occurrences? Could he witness more scenes of his grandfather? Zhai Da wasn't entirely certain.

Right, when he had some time alone, he could test whether the three [Lu Wei's Mathematics Notebooks] could be synthesized...

And then there was Lu Wei's alexithymia...

Zhai Da had received too much information today; his mind felt somewhat chaotic.

Lying in bed, he picked up his phone. There was a text message from the "literary maiden."

Lu Sisheng expressed in a very pleasantly surprised tone that the blog post from last night had seen its read count soar to 13,000...

And it was still growing.

This figure far exceeded the normal proportions for a blog, considering that "Explorer under the Quilts" originally had fewer than 3,000 followers, and blogs didn't rely on algorithmic traffic pushes like short videos.

In fact, due to the massive readership, it had conversely boosted the follower count of "Explorer under the Quilts," which currently stood at 5,000 followers.

What surprised Lu Sisheng somewhat was that judging from the comments, thirty percent of the people were attracted by that tongue-twisting yet philosophical phrase, while the remaining seventy percent were actually inquiring about the playing cards in the photo...

A single blog post, twenty-odd words plus a single photo—at the price previously negotiated with Sina, it had already brought in 1,300 yuan.

Cruel though it might be, Zhai Da couldn't help but mentally compare it using the unit of monetary measurement.

It happened to be Lu Wei's monthly salary.

This was clearly something worth celebrating; this money was tantamount to earning while lying flat.

He hadn't even lifted a finger.

Even the publishing and communication were entirely handled by Lu Sisheng.

Having confirmed that the [Joker Playing Cards] could indeed, to a certain extent, project their own effects using photographs as a medium, Zhai Da intended to endlessly harvest wool in batches.

That piece of text was merely one of the many copywriting accumulations from his past life, originating from the notoriously talented and famous "Mental Deficiency Bar" (Ruozhi Bar).

Back in the present year of 2008, the "Mental Deficiency Bar" was merely a communication forum for psychiatrists and had not yet spawned hordes of philosophical masterminds. This content could basically be used as his original work—though using non-Ruozhi Bar content would also work just fine, since the crucial point was the [Joker Playing Cards].

This set of operations could allow him to earn some starting capital in a short period of time, provided Sina didn't change its mind.

Considering Lu Sisheng running around busily—even if it stemmed from her own desire for participation—Zhai Da couldn't just sit back and act like a deadbeat. Therefore, he replied to Lu Sisheng's message and issued two important instructions:

1. Urge Sina over there to formalize the reward mechanism into a contract. Although the other party might find it troublesome, with the excellent performance of the first blog post, pushing the process forward shouldn't be difficult; they had the motivation to do so.
As for whether he would eventually drain Sina dry, it would depend on Sina's integrity.

2. Split the revenue generated by "Explorer under the Quilts" this round with Lu Sisheng on an 80-20 basis, treating it as a joint venture.

This was the same proportion he used when splitting the "father-scamming fee" with Lu Wei in the beginning.

This was called treating everyone with a bowl of water held level.

He knew Lu Sisheng wasn't short of money, and he knew that if he didn't bring it up, no one else would, allowing him to continue freeloading off Lu Sisheng's labor.

For some reason, however, the image of Yu Donglai, that earthy boss from earlier in the day, flashed through his mind.

If his capabilities were limited and he couldn't achieve common prosperity, he should at least execute the principle of distribution according to work done.

Even an earthy boss had received the memo, so why couldn't someone who had been reborn?

Was he afraid he wouldn't be able to make more money in the future?