Chapter 94: Butterfly Effect

Before leaving, Cao Sheng stuffed a thousand yuan into his grandmother's cotton-padded jacket pocket.

It was a small token of his filial piety.

Few people had been good to him since childhood; besides his parents, his grandmother had treated him the best. Before his rebirth, he had had no chance to show her filial piety before she passed away.

Now that he had money, he naturally wanted to fulfill his filial duty.

This New Year, Cao Sheng's family was much livelier than in previous years.

Relatives who rarely visited his family in the past suddenly seemed to remember they had such a relative; besides his uncles, aunts, cousins, and female cousins coming to the door, there were also various distant relatives like Great Uncle, Second Grandmother, Third Aunt's Husband, and others, bringing gifts to pay New Year's calls at his home.

One relative said he had held him when he was a child; another said Cao Sheng had peed on his neck when he was young; a third said he had liked Ah Sheng since childhood, liked him from the bottom of his heart, but in fact, in Cao Sheng's memory, he had absolutely no recollection of this relative.

He was somewhat surprised that these relatives' news was so well-informed.

One after another, they even knew his novel had been published and had appeared in quite a few news reports.

Some of these suddenly visiting relatives had come with ulterior motives.

Nothing more than borrowing money for various reasons.

Cao Sheng avoided these matters whenever possible, mainly leaving them to his parents to handle; if a relative asked him directly, he would say he had used his manuscript fees to build a house and that writing novels actually didn't earn much money.

On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, Cao Sheng, who could no longer bear the waves of relatives coming to the door, bid farewell to his parents early in the morning and left with his luggage.

As he left, he wore a bitter smile.

He thought: If my fame grows even larger in the future, I'm afraid I won't be able to return to my hometown during festivals.

Afternoon.

He returned to the house on Binjiang Road in Huizhou.

Seeing that every house on the entire street was pasted with Spring Festival couplets and there were remnants of firecrackers in front of the doors, while his own courtyard gate was completely empty, he couldn't help but feel a sudden chill of loneliness.

The hometown was excessively lively, while here it was cold and desolate.

Entering the courtyard, he put down his luggage and began cleaning.

After finishing, he took a shower, changed into clean clothes, and then went out to find a supermarket.

On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, many shops had not yet opened.

But the supermarket should already be open.

He found a supermarket that was operating and went in to shop.

Spring Festival couplets, firecrackers, various ingredients; it was the New Year, so he should buy some wine. Thinking this, he pushed the shopping cart toward the liquor section.

But as he approached, he saw a familiar figure.

"Big Brother! Want some wine?"

"Big Brother! Come take a look! Kouzi Jiao, a famous brand! The price is very favorable!"

Wei Dongming, wearing a red vest, was promoting baijiu to people.

Cao Sheng was very surprised.

He remembered Wei Dongming's hometown was not in Huizhou; during such a big New Year, why was Wei Dongming not celebrating at home, but here promoting baijiu?

In his impression, Wei Dongming's family background was quite good.

Hesitating for a moment with his steps, Cao Sheng still pushed the shopping cart over.

"Hey! Fourth Brother!"

He called out; Wei Dongming had failed to keep the previous Big Brother, was sighing with his head down, and suddenly heard Cao Sheng's voice. He turned around in surprise, saw Cao Sheng, and Wei Dongming's expression changed slightly; his mouth opened and closed, forcing out a smile. "Yo, Third Brother? You're here to buy things? Happy New Year! Why did you come back so early? Didn't stay a few more days in your hometown?"

Cao Sheng pushed the shopping cart two steps closer, arriving right in front of Wei Dongming. "I was about to ask you! During such a big New Year, why didn't you go home to celebrate? How come you're selling wine here?"

Wei Dongming gave a self-mocking smile and said with his head down, "Nothing, I just suddenly felt that going home for the New Year wasn't very meaningful; it's better to take advantage of this winter break to exercise myself."

Pausing for a moment, he looked up at Cao Sheng and said with a complex expression, "Cao Sheng, I've recently started to understand why you don't date; I've also suddenly felt that dating isn't very meaningful. It's more practical to exercise my ability to earn money."

Cao Sheng: "..."

At this moment, Cao Sheng seemed to see Pang Yunhai from the original timeline, who had been dumped by women twice in succession.

Back then, Pang Yunhai had said he would never date again; after graduation, he devoted himself entirely to entrepreneurship and making money, not chasing women for seven or eight years.

Thinking of Pang Yunhai, Cao Sheng suddenly remembered something: in the original timeline, Pang Yunhai was dumped by his long-distance girlfriend before the semester even ended, but in this current timeline, he had never heard that Pang Yunhai had been dumped.

Instead, Wei Dongming had lost all face because of pursuing Ai Qian, fought with all his roommates, and was now not even going home for the New Year, but selling wine here.

The four words "Butterfly Effect" flashed through Cao Sheng's mind again.

He felt that the fates of Wei Dongming and Pang Yunhai seemed to have swapped.

For a moment, he was both surprised by Wei Dongming's change and puzzled as to why Pang Yunhai in this timeline had not yet been dumped.

"When do you get off work?"

Cao Sheng asked.

Wei Dongming: "I get off work at four-thirty, what's up?"

Cao Sheng smiled. "Then it's almost time. Come drink at my place later! During such a big New Year, eating alone isn't very fun. How about it? Can you give me this face?"

Giving face...

Those were the words Wei Dongming had used previously when inviting Cao Sheng to eat on Ai Qian's behalf.

Today, Cao Sheng used them to ask Wei Dongming.

Wei Dongming was somewhat surprised; he also knew his relationship with Cao Sheng was average. Now that he had fought all his dormitory roommates single-handedly, although he hadn't fought Cao Sheng, he figured that since he had offended everyone in the dorm, could Cao Sheng, his former roommate, still be close to him?

"Sure! I'll get off work in a little while, so can you wait for me here for a moment?"

Wei Dongming agreed with a very complex mood.

Evening.

In the dining room of Cao Sheng's house, Cao Sheng and Wei Dongming were eating hot pot; there was wine on the table, Kouzi Jiao, which Cao Sheng had bought to support Wei Dongming's business.

At first, the atmosphere between the two was still somewhat unnatural.

After all, they truly had no personal friendship, and moreover, in the past, Wei Dongming had been jealous of Cao Sheng's good looks and looked down on Cao Sheng's rural background.

Cao Sheng had previously sensed Wei Dongming's attitude toward him, knew he and Wei Dongming could never become friends, and thus always maintained a distance.

But after a few cups of wine went down, the atmosphere at the table relaxed.

Wei Dongming spoke more, while Cao Sheng became a listener, occasionally interjecting a couple of sentences.

Wei Dongming said he seemed to have grown up overnight.

Suddenly, he had no interest in romance anymore; he wanted to make money, wanted to make a lot of money, to make Ai Qian regret it, and to make Pang Yunhai, Guan Zhi, and all the other roommates regret it too.

As he spoke, he even mentioned that he had previously looked down on Cao Sheng from the bottom of his heart, but from today on, Cao Sheng was his friend, the only friend in the entire dormitory.

Listening to Wei Dongming, Cao Sheng gradually felt that Wei Dongming wasn't so annoying anymore.

Yes, he had indeed disliked Wei Dongming quite a bit in his heart before.

Wei Dongming's disdainful glances at him—Cao Sheng wasn't blind; in the original timeline, he and Wei Dongming shared a dorm room for two and a half years, and he could feel the disdain in Wei Dongming's occasional looks and the barbs hidden in his words.

It was just that he didn't want to have conflicts with his roommates, so he endured whenever he could.

But the dislike in his heart toward Wei Dongming had always been there.

This was also the reason why, previously, he had had no psychological burden about using Wei Dongming as a prototype to shape a character in the outline of "Divine Tomb."

What psychological burden could there be in shaping a character in a book based on someone you dislike?

But today, he felt Wei Dongming didn't seem so annoying anymore.

So, he raised his wine glass as a gesture and said, "Fourth Brother! There is something I would like to ask for your opinion on."

Wei Dongming also raised his wine glass, chuckled lightly, and said, "What is it? Speak!"

Cao Sheng said, "Here is the situation: I want to use you as a prototype to shape a character in my new book, adapt your pursuit of Ai Qian and the fight between you and Pang Yunhai and the others, and write it in. If you mind, I will drop this idea. Do you mind?"

Wei Dongming frowned slightly, lowered his head to think for a moment, and when he raised his head again, he asked, "Can you write a better ending for me?"

Cao Sheng was surprised. "What kind of ending do you want?"

Wei Dongming smiled. "It doesn't need to be a very good ending; I just hope that when you write this character, you write that he finally turns over a new leaf, loses interest in love and romance, and focuses solely on making money. Is that okay?"

Cao Sheng asked, "Just that? Do you think such an ending is good?"

Wei Dongming nodded. "I think it is very good!"

Cao Sheng asked, "You really don't mind me writing these things about you in the novel?"

Wei Dongming laughed helplessly. "What is there to mind? Let alone the fact that we are friends now, even if we weren't friends, you are a novelist; using people around you as prototypes for characters in your novel is very normal, isn't it? Which writer doesn't do this? Lu Xun even wrote in his book that Xiang Lin's wife stood there like a compass!"