Chapter 137: Crazy Thursday

Inside the girl's boudoir.

"He added me on QQ."

"Oh?"

The future Su Lin, today was another day of revisiting his past struggles. There was nothing to be ashamed of — once the first step was taken, there was nothing left to feel embarrassed about.

Earning some points, nothing shameful about it.

But he wouldn't carry his performance art into reality — in front of the camera was life, behind the camera was himself.

The future Su Lin seemed to transform back into that fresh, proper boy; the body's disguise faded, becoming a half-virtual, half-solid form once more.

"Play along with him, see what he's been up to lately." He said to Luo Shengying: "Sit up straight, send a selfie. At this stage, I liked the cute type — no need to pose, just a normal front-facing photo."

"This stage — what do you mean?" The girl's eyes flashed dangerously. "You mean to say now you like the mature type, like that red-haired little whore?"

"."

In youth, one didn't know the value of a mature woman, mistaking a loli for treasure — when did her personality become like this?

Luo Shengying tossed the phone straight to him, saying "You do it yourself."

"OK, OK." The future Su Lin was in high spirits, as if he'd found his fun. Deceiving others came with guilt, but deceiving oneself came with zero pressure.

This was the time to fully embrace the spirit of self-entertainment.

"How much of your strength has recovered?" Luo Shengying played on the computer, opening Naraka: Bladepoint and asking: "This body's physical strength has just been cultivated to Star-Gazing. Without relying on spiritual power, just physical strength alone, I can barely catch a bullet."

"You know I actually don't put much stock in these realms. With so many worlds, the realms are a complete mess — the realms in any universal system don't really mean much to me." The future Su Lin put down his phone: "Let me think — without any other props, a Foundation Establishment evil cultivator who escaped from that Cultivation World ten years from now, I could crush him one-handed."

The evil cultivator from that Cultivation World had killed at least over a hundred people, using soul power to restore his own injuries. He hid among the cities, making it impossible for modern firepower to blanket him with artillery. In the end, it was the righteous sects from his world that pursued him here. That time was humanity's first contact with visitors from another realm, and back then, he was merely a martial artist at the Early Primordial Stage.

Severed limbs and broken arms.

The future Su Lin shifted his attention, forcing himself not to think about the employees in his company who had been dragged into this matter — at least in this world, he could save them.

'There's still some stuff in the system backpack. Sigh, what a shame about my subspace vault… the collectibles inside would've been perfect for early use.'

'At the time, I figured I was about to dissolve into Dao, so I gave them to those youngsters to play with.'

No more dwelling on it — just earn money properly from scratch.

Some things in this world were different. One was that his past self and present self had made completely different choices. Another was…

Every time he caused a stir in the city, showing off in public, the official organization's response was suspiciously fast — as if they'd been prepared in advance. The speed of dissemination and the work of keeping things confidential were too well done.

He'd have to investigate in a while. The pocket watch clearly said it was a return to the past, yet this was a Parallel World? That didn't add up.

The future Su Lin thought about logging into his past browser account — up until last month, the search history was clearly identical.

After that, there was a long gap. In January, there was one search: 'how to cook the books without your friends noticing,' which left him baffled. He later figured out this person must have gone the boutique route — could he be managing some special effects partner's public finances? …No, that couldn't be right either, he himself still abided by the law…

After several months, he'd finally caught him — let me see what's different about you.

The future Su Lin picked up his phone, attempting to have an online romance with his past self.

—————

Su Lin finished wiping himself down and sprawled on the sofa in the Ge You lie pose.

No other reason — browsing the system shop. With some points in his pocket, he wanted to spend them. He'd saved up this much, time to reward himself.

"Dao Immortal Body? Don't really know it." Su Lin began casting his gaze higher.

Three years to Mahayana, five years to Ruyi Zhenxian — not bad, but no rush, no rush.

How about a ten-pull for ten thousand points? A hundred thousand total — a ten-pull might just yield something good.

Su Lin glanced at the contract scroll in his inventory — he'd previously spent a hundred thousand points exchanging things for Old Lu, and another one had appeared.

Let's first see what good stuff is in the cultivation compression pack Old Lu gave.

The script for spiritual energy revival couldn't do without these things.

Buzz buzz—

A notification came from the phone.

Little Luo Xiaoying: "Brother Su Lin, long time no see."

Little Luo Xiaoying: "Heard from family you've been off growing crops, haven't seen hide nor hair of you for half a year."

Little Luo Xiaoying: "Still busy lately?"

Ah, little cousin.

Su Lin quickly changed the contact name first. Normally it wouldn't matter, but there was a useless friend's stage name also called Little Luo Xiaoying among his contacts — it was making him unable to keep a straight face.

Su Lin: "Not anymore, just finished being busy."

Luo Shengying: "Work stuff?"

Su Lin: "More or less, going to work for the boss."

Luo Shengying: "That does sound tough. This is the adult world, huh? So all that stuff about 'just get into college' and 'it'll be fine once you start working' is all fake."

Su Lin: "Can't be cynical about school. Studying really is useful."

Ten-some minutes later.

"Haha, cousin you're so funny. Want to come out for a late-night snack tonight? My treat."

"【Image】"

Above was a selfie of a girl leaning against the windowsill, staring at the camera, smiling sweetly against a twilight sky where black met blue.

Pretty nice, Su Lin thought.

Among the little brats who'd clung to him during past trips back to the old hometown, had one of them grown up to look like this?

It couldn't be the chubby girl, right? That'd be too much of a gag. Wait, no — the chubby girl's surname was Zhou.

"Let's skip it today, I've got some things on. Catch up at the old hometown during New Year." Su Lin replied.

In a bit he had to purchase some things and find a place to post works from Cultivation Chat Group — Song Shuhang was already talking. This guy had indeed read quite a lot of works, and the time was 2019, which saved some effort.

The future Su Lin looked up and typed a question mark.

What's going on here? This is a cute girl asking you out for a late-night snack, right? No way — a free late-night snack and you're not coming?

【QQ Red Packet】

The future Su Lin clicked in, completely baffled.

【0 yuan】

Su Lin: "Today is Crazy Thursday, QQ-ing you fifty, Happy New Year~."

Luo Shengying finished a game and asked, "How did it go?"

"Today's the Colonel Chicken Nuggets, I don't like it."

"What did you say?"

Song Shuhang: "I found your name — Zhang Chulan, you're the protagonist of an anime called Under One Person."

Zhang Chulan: "The heck?! I'm the protagonist?!"

Zhang Chulan: "You mean I'm also a character from some work? You didn't get it wrong, did you! Could it just be someone with the same name?"

In Song Shuhang's world, inside a three-story villa, in front of Song Shuhang, Senior Bai, and King Dou Dou, text was continuously being written in the void like a holographic projection.

This was text that Song Shuhang had actively projected through a spell as his brain received the information.

King Dou Dou shoved a laptop right into Song Shuhang's face, displaying a character introduction for Under One Person.

Song Shuhang: "Heir of the Celestial Master Mansion, employee of Biyou Village's Nahanda. Raised by his grandfather Zhang Huaiyi to become a Stranger, he has practiced the Celestial Master Mansion's Jin Guang and Yang Five Thunder since childhood, and is the inheritor of one of the Eight Strange Techniques, the Qi Body Source Flow."

Zhang Chulan: "Holy crap, it really is me!"

Song Shuhang: "On the surface he seems lazy and easygoing, loves to snark, but in truth he's meticulous and possesses a temperament far beyond ordinary people — sometimes, to achieve his goals, he'll even do some shameless things."

Zhang Chulan: "Stop! Bro, that's personal privacy!"

Zhang Chulan collapsed flat on his back in the room Biyou Village had arranged for him, staring at the wooden ceiling, expression blank, his thoughts churning inside his head.

'This is the worst-case scenario.'

'Not only do other people's worlds have works featuring those protagonists, but even my own background has been stripped bare, not a stitch left.'

'Although to most people in this group I probably don't amount to much, for me, the one piece of information asymmetry I could exploit is also gone — right now I'm truly like a blank sheet of paper.'

He got up from the bed and thought it over carefully.

"But it's not necessarily a bad thing — it also means—"

"I can learn the future in advance!"

Song Shuhang: "Known by his nicknames: Shameless Face, Moonlight Streaker, Zhang the Virgin, Bare-Butt Knight, Unshaken Bi Lotus."

Zhang Chulan: "Bro, I beg you, stop reading, I'll kowtow to you."

Zhang Chulan covered his face and squatted on the ground, crying without tears.

End of chapter