Chapter Fifty-Three: The End of Summer

"Lottery? Can that thing really make money?" Obviously, Aunt Sun did not believe it.

Unfortunately, Zhou Ziyang did not offer much of an explanation and simply stepped into the stairwell.

Having lived in this dormitory building for nearly twenty years, his very first impression upon entering the stairwell was that it was dirty, messy, and dilapidated.

Zhou Ziyang had always known how to tailor his words to his audience. To the neighbors, he claimed he had won the lottery.

Naturally, they did not believe it. Knowing his family's background, this clearly looked like he had finally acknowledged his official-turned father.

Seeing Zhou Ziyang driving a black BMW in and out, and hearing rumors that he was going to buy a new house, inevitably turned the neighbors green with envy, prompting them to gossip behind his back: "And to think he used to talk about having backbone! Turns out he just had to bow his head in the end after all."

"Well, what can you expect when he has a father in high office? I heard he's from the Procuratorate, so he must have pocketed a fortune through corruption."

"At the very least, tens of millions."

Returning home in such a high-profile manner was bound to arouse suspicion, but Zhou Ziyang simply didn't care.

The only person who might be affected was that official father of his.

To be honest, though Zhou Guowei had provided him with significant help after he started working in his past life, Zhou Guowei had been entirely absent during his formative years.

Therefore, Zhou Ziyang genuinely held no deep emotional attachment to his father.

So let them be affected. Letting everyone assume his wealth came from his father actually saved him a lot of trouble.

As for his mother, Zhou Ziyang told her he had earned the money by writing web novels.

"You earned money writing novels?" His mother clearly found it hard to believe.

Yet, upon second thought, it was entirely possible.

After all, Zhou Ziyang's essay had been the only one in his entire school to receive a perfect score.

Regarding that essay about his father, his mother Yang Lijuan had only found out later. Naturally, she was overjoyed and relieved, giving her son a thumbs-up and praising him as a good boy.

"That father of yours is no different from being dead!"

Zhou Ziyang truly had no energy to get involved in the grievances of the older generation.

When he was a little boy, he naively thought his father was in the wrong, believing a real man should never be fickle in love.

But as he grew older, having witnessed countless men and women around him, his worldview was completely reshaped, leaving him unsure of how to judge the situation.

If he had to lay the blame, it was Zhou Guowei's fault.

Since he wanted to play around, he shouldn't have chosen a woman with such a stubborn and overbearing temperament like his mother.

And since he had chosen her, he shouldn't have gone straying after other women.

Wanting to have his cake and eat it too—the world just didn't work that way.

Holding this view, Zhou Ziyang resolved that in his future relationships, if things were happy they would stay together, and if not, they would part ways amicably. He would certainly never be like his father, stubbornly forcing two incompatible people to stay together.

When it came to right and wrong between his parents, Zhou Ziyang blindly stood by his mother.

Yet, to be frank, Zhou Ziyang also disliked listening to his mother endlessly nag about ancient history.

Except for his father, his mother had never looked at another man.

This destined her to be imprisoned by her husband for the rest of her life. Ever since elementary school, his mother had taught Zhou Ziyang that good would be rewarded with good and evil with evil, and that Zhou Guowei had committed too many sins and would certainly meet a miserable end!

Yet the reality was that he himself had to toil away in a big city for a whole month just to earn six thousand yuan, while Zhou Guowei's monthly retirement pension alone was twelve thousand.

Moreover, Xia Wei, the woman Zhou Guowei had nurtured, was already making a name for herself in the legal circles of Jinling, charging fees by the minute just for a consultation.

Meanwhile, all his mother could do every day was complain to Zhou Ziyang about what good was any of Xia Wei's success.

"She's not even his biological daughter!"

By now, Zhou Ziyang had been reborn and made something of himself, but whenever his mother spoke, it was always the same old refrain, claiming that Zhou Guowei only wanted to acknowledge him now because he had become successful.

"You must never get too close to him! Take his money if he gives it to you, but don't get involved in anything else!"

His mother lived entirely within her own world; what she really wanted was for Zhou Guowei to crawl before her in tears and apologize.

In her mindset, her ex-husband was living a miserable life, an old man being swindled by a young vixen.

Zhou Ziyang's mother had told him more than once that this woman named Xu Qing didn't truly love Zhou Guowei at all, but was merely after his money.

Zhou Ziyang had long since grown tired of hearing these words.

Even so, whenever his mother spoke, he still had to listen.

Upon learning that her son had written novels and bought a new car, his mother was extremely astonished.

She asked Zhou Ziyang how much money he had made.

"Not much, about two million."

"Ah?" Yang Lijuan was initially in disbelief, followed by a surge of ecstatic joy as she said, "My son is truly amazing!"

Hearing this, Zhou Ziyang only smiled faintly.

At the beginning of August, after returning home to his hometown from Jinling, the people around him gradually learned that he had made a small fortune, though rumors ran wild regarding how he had made it.

The neighbors gossiped that Zhou Ziyang had struck it rich by buying a lottery ticket, though they deeply doubted it, convinced his money was actually handed over by his corrupt, dirty-dealing father!

Such tainted money!

As for his parents' side, the story was that he had earned the fortune by writing web novels.

In his past life, Zhou Ziyang had indeed written web novels, and rather famous ones at that, titled *Rebirth: I Really Didn't Mean to Be a Scumbag*!

At the time, it had created quite a sensation on Yuewen Group.

Aside from his parents, there were his relatives—especially the relatives on his mother's side.

During usual interactions, Zhou Ziyang and his mother were always in a completely subordinate position.

Sharing a meal often meant enduring unsolicited lectures.

And they couldn't even show any annoyance.

Showing annoyance meant they were "narrow-minded and emotionally unstable."

Having lived two lives, regardless of how far he would go in this current one, Zhou Ziyang remembered all too well how, back in his childhood, those relatives had constantly lectured him, claiming he was overly sensitive, had no sense of humor, was socially isolated, and disliked interacting with others.

They even criticized Zhou Ziyang's mother for not knowing how to raise a child.

Later, when Zhou Ziyang grew up and secured a slightly influential government job, whenever he attended family gatherings, those same relatives would suddenly praise him: "Ziyang, you're such a fine, handsome young man!"

"Lijuan, you've raised such a successful son!"

Back then, people would still make teasing remarks, but Zhou Ziyang would simply smile coolly and fire passive-aggressive barbs right back at them.

They certainly wouldn't accuse him of lacking a sense of humor anymore.

Instead, they praised him for being witty.

Occasionally, when the atmosphere became awkward, someone would lose face.

For instance, a certain aunt with whom he had a poor relationship would snap, "You child, why are you holding grudges?"

"Me? Holding a grudge?"

"What kind of grudge could there possibly be between the two of us? Right, Auntie?"

Zhou Ziyang sneered inwardly.

Zhou Ziyang had possessed this exact personality since childhood. In his past life, when he got into an ordinary university, all the relatives showed up for his graduation banquet, but back then he knew nothing and simply ate what was put in front of him.

Whenever his mother told him to toast someone, he stood up and poured the drink.

In this lifetime, however, within just a few days, Zhou Ziyang had driven back in a BMW.

His mother happily showed it off to the entire neighborhood.

Once everyone was well-fed and satisfied at a family gathering, someone finally couldn't help asking, "Ziyang! What kind of novels do you write to make this kind of money? Can you bring my younger cousin along and teach him?"

Hearing this, Zhou Ziyang chuckled softly. "Uncle-in-law, you actually believe that? I just tell outsiders those stories to cover my tracks."

"Without my dad, how could I possibly make that kind of money? Right, Uncle-in-law?"

There wasn't a single word of truth coming out of Zhou Ziyang's mouth, though he had no intention of maliciously scamming anyone either.

In August, he bought a second-hand duplex apartment with a small courtyard in his hometown's small county, costing him a total of 800,000 yuan.

Mainly because decorating the apartment in Jinling would have required too much effort and thought; buying a second-hand place and moving in after a simple cleanup felt much more practical.

Before he knew it, September had arrived.

In his past life, Zhou Ziyang had spent his entire summer vacation lying around at home, doing nothing except playing video games and reading web novels. At the time, he had followed a very long urban fantasy novel called *Pure Love and Ambiguity*.

Reading that novel back then had been truly immersive; even at two in the morning, he couldn't resist flipping to "just one more chapter," telling himself he would go to sleep right after, only to keep reading until the eastern sky grew pale, yet still feeling unsatisfied with the phone in his hand.

He truly wished he could be like the protagonist, Yang Ming, surrounded by romantic encounters and blessed with peach blossom luck wherever he went.

Reflecting on that novel now, Zhou Ziyang still felt it was quite entertaining. He had no idea how many chapters he had read, though eventually, when the plot shifted to fighting biomechanical robots, he simply couldn't take it anymore—it was pure, unadulterated nonsense designed to milk money from readers.

In this reborn life, Zhou Ziyang's daily routine was pretty much the same.

As expected, a lazy slacker remains a lazy slacker.

The only difference was that he had bought a house with a courtyard and raised a Border Collie.

The rest of his time was still spent curled up in his room reading web novels.

In the year 2015, two novels were particularly popular: *Rebirth of a Perfect Era* and *Commoners' Return*.

By early September, the endless chirping of cicadas seemed to have grown noticeably weaker.

The edges of the camphor tree leaves in the residential compound were beginning to turn yellow.

The sun, however, remained fierce.

Zhou Ziyang spent his days like this—eating watermelon at home, reading novels, and occasionally dropping into the freshman group chat.

Must be said, the freshman chat groups were an absolute goldmine of entertainment.

Especially that guy Qi Tao, who acted like the king of showing off, even posting pictures of himself swimming in the group chat.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Wang Na and Qi Tao seemed to be heating up rapidly; some people could already tell they were engaging in online romance.

Zhang Dapeng checked into the group chat religiously every day at nine.

Complaining that the factory manager was truly bullying people by only paying him fifteen yuan an hour and occasionally deducting from his wages.

"Those guys from Xuhuai don't dare to cross them! I heard they get paid twenty yuan an hour!"

Zhou Ziyang didn't just lurk; he would occasionally chime in with a few brief remarks.

For instance, when Qi Tao showed off his photography, chatted about luxury cars like BMWs, Audis, and Ferraris, or flaunted his Tissot watch.

Zhou Ziyang would always play along enthusiastically, replying in the group chat: "Impressive."

After doing this a few times, Qi Tao developed a very favorable impression of this mysterious person who didn't talk much but always supported his ego.

By early September, everyone was about to leave for school.

Qi Tao privately messaged Zhou Ziyang: "Bro! We're in the same class, and we've been chatting in the group for so long. I'll have a word with the teacher and see if we can get assigned to the same dorm room, what do you think?"

"Whatever works, I don't mind," Zhou Ziyang replied.