"Grandpa, can I go?" Fang Zhiyi asked carefully.
"Go, why wouldn't you?"
Receiving a positive reply, Fang Zhiyi felt reassured.
Almost identical to the original timeline, Wang Hao introduced Chen Yao to him, his face full of smugness.
In the past, Fang Zhiyi's mind would have been entirely focused on Chen Yao, but today was different. He knew his grandpa's spirit was inside his body, and he wondered what his grandpa would think.
"I'm a good bro to you, right? I specifically introduced her to you. This meal is on you today," Wang Hao said, throwing an arm around Fang Zhiyi's shoulder.
Fang Zhiyi nodded. Looking at the table full of food, he muttered to himself. He didn't have much money right now and wasn't sure if it would be enough.
Chen Yao took a phone call and left in a hurry. Fang Zhiyi didn't mind. Because of his grandpa's high demands, the little savings he once had were gone, leaving him completely broke. His mind was entirely preoccupied with paying the bill.
"I have a few more friends coming over. Let's drink a bit longer," Wang Hao said, his face brimming with smugness.
Fang Zhiyi suddenly stood up. "Alright, I'm going to the restroom."
Wang Hao didn't suspect a thing. He just waved him off, pondering how to get Fang Zhiyi to fork over some money to compensate him later. He had extorted quite a bit from that thug, but one could never have too much money.
Seeing his rowdy friends arrive, Wang Hao generously told them to order whatever they wanted, since there was a sucker paying the bill today.
But to his surprise, Fang Zhiyi never came back after leaving.
By the time the group was drunk, Wang Hao was stopped by a waiter.
"My buddy already paid the bill!" he slurred.
"I'm sorry, sir, but no one has paid for this table," the waiter said politely.
"What? This kid actually pulled a disappearing act on me?" Wang Hao's face darkened. Looking at his friends, he gritted his teeth. "How much?"
"The total is 13,538 yuan. We'll round it down to 13,500 yuan."
"What!" Wang Hao was shocked. "What did we even eat?"
The waiter maintained a smile. "Your food bill is 3,000 yuan. You also ordered three bottles of aged liquor, which are 3,000 yuan each, and there's also the beer..."
Wang Hao remembered that halfway through, the waiter had indeed brought in three bottles of liquor, saying a friend had ordered them. He had assumed it was Fang Zhiyi and had secretly mocked the sucker for trying to show off.
"Fang Zhiyi!!!"
At that moment, Fang Zhiyi sneezed. "Grandpa, why didn't we take the liquor?"
"Oh? You're finally catching on?"
"No, I just thought that given your personality, you definitely would have taken the liquor and left Wang Hao with the bill..."
"You son of a... phew." The voice seemed to hold back a curse. "Don't take advantage of things you shouldn't. He invited you to eat, the friends are his, and they drank the liquor. No matter how you argue it, you aren't the one who should pay. Understand?"
Fang Zhiyi nodded. After a moment, he said melancholically, "But this means I won't be able to face Wang Hao anymore..."
"What good is associating with that kind of person? Huh?"
Fang Zhiyi lowered his head and didn't speak. His phone rang again. He thought it was Wang Hao calling again, but looking down, he saw it was Zhong Jiafa.
"Beautifully done! Have you finally grown a brain, kid?" Zhong Jiafa's voice took Fang Zhiyi by surprise.
"Hahaha, that idiot called to borrow money from me. As if I'd lend it to him! He's a degenerate gambler. This is exactly what you should do. Where are you? Let's grab a drink."
The person on the other end didn't give him a chance to refuse, so Fang Zhiyi could only agree. To his surprise, his grandpa didn't stop him.
Fang Zhiyi met up with Zhong Jiafa. For once, Zhong Jiafa didn't scold him. Instead, he opened a bottle of beer for him, and the two chatted as they drank.
"There's seriously something wrong with your brain. I've wanted to say this for a long time. The more I look at you, the angrier I get. I thought you just had no backbone! That idiot called you in the middle of the night to buy cigarettes and deliver them, and you actually went!" Bringing up this topic made Zhong Jiafa a bit worked up again.
"We're all friends..."
"Pfft, you treat them like friends, but they treat you like a fool!"
Fang Zhiyi wasn't happy about this. Although he was honest and naive, he couldn't stand hearing his childhood friend call him a fool.
"Only this childhood friend of yours actually looks out for you." His grandpa's voice abruptly echoed in his mind, making Fang Zhiyi swallow the retort he was about to make. "Think about it carefully. In this world, just because you treat others well doesn't mean they'll treat you well in return. Your kindness has to be given to the right people, otherwise, you really are a fool."
He thought back carefully. It seemed that only when he was with Zhong Jiafa could he say whatever was on his mind without fear of offending him. Spurred on by the alcohol, Fang Zhiyi recalled everything that had happened since his grandpa appeared. Was he really just a naive sucker?
Seeing him stay silent, Zhong Jiafa cursed affectionately and then raised his glass. "Congratulations on finally wising up!"
Fang Zhiyi also raised his glass. Just as he was about to say a few words of thanks, Zhong Jiafa suddenly put his glass down. "Hold on, let's settle something first."
Fang Zhiyi turned his head and saw a few people on motorcycles parking and walking toward them. Wang Hao was strikingly at the very front.
"Fang Zhiyi! After I treated you as a friend, you actually played me?" He looked furious.
"Wang Hao, I..." Fang Zhiyi tried to say something, but Zhong Jiafa cut him off: "Friend? Friend my ass! Do you really think he's a fucking idiot?"
"There's no need to be so blunt," Little Hei commented.
"Zhong Jiafa, this has nothing to do with you. I'm looking for him!" Wang Hao pointed at Fang Zhiyi. He couldn't accept being screwed over by a sucker; he had lost all face.
Zhong Jiafa chuckled. "I was the one who told you he was here. Do you want to guess why?"
Wang Hao was confused. "What are you trying to say?"
Zhong Jiafa stood up and grabbed the small stool from under him. Almost simultaneously, the customers sitting at several nearby tables all stood up, looking at Wang Hao and his group with unfriendly expressions.
Fang Zhiyi was stunned. He truly hadn't noticed what connection these people had with him.
"Zhong Jiafa, don't think you're such a big deal just because you've been running with gangs for a few years!" Wang Hao's face turned somewhat pale.
"You degenerate gambler, I only put up with you before because Zhiyi thought you were his friend. I've never considered you a friend! I've wanted to beat you up for a long time!" Zhong Jiafa charged forward directly, and the people from those tables rushed out alongside him.
On the street, a chase unfolded. Fang Zhiyi stood frozen in place, holding his glass.
"Grandpa, what's going on?"
"If people want to help you, you have to be worth helping. If you can't even think straight yourself, who can you expect to help you? Not everyone who speaks nicely to you is a friend; sometimes, the ones willing to scold you are the real ones."
Fang Zhiyi stood stunned for a moment. He slowly brought the glass in front of him and said solemnly, "Grandpa, a toast to you."
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
tions: attribute allocation, analysis, proficiency, and simulation. Specializing in mechanical alchemy, from crafting sorcerous battle armor to handcrafting mechanical maidens, his mechanical legion conquers endless realms... Relying on his wits, he begins with a student-teacher romance, wins over a female director, enslaves a female assassin and a underworld queen, becoming the husband of a Grand Duchess... He enslaves the Goddess of Magic from the divine realm, developing his power simultaneously in both the Wizard World and the Realm of Gods...
