Chapter 58: Extension of the [Joker Poker] Effect

After Zhai Da returned home, Yu Xiaoli was watching TV, and Lu Wei seemed to be studying in her own room.

Determined to prepare for the college entrance examination, she also put in the necessary effort, regardless of whether it was in a place Zhai Da could see.

Zhai Da rarely sat beside Yu Xiaoli; he hadn't sat on this sofa many times since his rebirth.

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

Zhai Da whispered: "Mom, does our family have any hidden secrets?"

Yu Xiaoli raised her eyebrows strangely: "Did you find the ice cream in the fridge?"

Zhai Da was stunned: "What kind of secret is that? I already finished it, only an empty box is left."

Yu Xiaoli: ...

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

Yu Xiaoli curled her lips: "Your Zhai family, counting from you, has been workers for three generations, and further up, they were poor and lower-middle peasants. Your dad did want to start a business back then, but unfortunately, it ended halfway... what hidden identity could there be?"

"That aunt of yours whom you haven't seen many times did do some business. Is that what you want to say?"

Zhai Da immediately said: "What do you mean 'your Zhai family'? I am one family with you! Wasn't it your decision not to change my surname back then?"

He had been called by this name since he was a child, and he had long had a psychological identification with it. If he were asked to change it now, he certainly wouldn't be willing.

But it was definitely not because his sense of belonging to the Zhai family was stronger than to the Yu family; he was a child raised by his mother.

"I wanted to ask, did my maternal grandfather have any hidden identity back then? For example... a top expert or something? A scientist? What was he doing in the Northwest back then?"

Yu Xiaoli was very surprised by the sudden mention of Yu Lihua, sighed, and said:

"How would I know?"

"You don't even know? Then who would know?"

"Your maternal grandfather took the college entrance exam at 30, didn't go to college, and hid in the Northwest for six or seven years. He only had me when he was nearly forty. How would I know about things before that? And every time your maternal grandmother talked about this, his mouth was like it was sewn shut, and he wouldn't say a word."

"So much so that your maternal grandmother always suspected whether he had someone else outside when he was... you know, that wasn't uncommon in that era."

Zhai Da: ...

Yu Xiaoli was born in '67, the second year after Zhai Da’s maternal grandfather returned to Dongyang County. It was normal that she didn't know about things before that.

At least from the time Yu Xiaoli had memories, Yu Lihua was just a relatively respected technical expert at the Woolen Mill.

"As for the things you are thinking about, I also thought about them when I was young, but... these are meaningless."

She also had a time when she was young and liked to fantasize. Yu Lihua’s life trajectory indeed easily made people think of some things.

"But I am only sure of one thing: the only thing your maternal grandfather left us is this house. Oh, and the bicycle downstairs."

Zhai Da shook his head and took out the thick old notebook: "Maybe there is also this."

He talked about today’s events. There was no need, and it shouldn't be, to hide this kind of problem from his mother.

Yu Lihua flipped through the notebook, saw the familiar handwriting inside, and felt a burst of emotion in her heart...

"It seems there was such a thing. Your maternal grandfather was in poor health in his last two years. After he retired due to illness, he wrote some things at home. It seems I was the one who sent them to the data room at that time..."

Zhai Da’s eyes immediately lit up: "There are several more, right? Mom, do you have any impression of where they are?"

Yu Xiaoli shook her head: "It’s been seventeen or eighteen years... the data room has changed locations three times. I thought they were long gone. To think one was actually preserved... Speaking of which, it turns out your teacher is Factory Manager Liu’s nephew, and Lu Wei was introduced by him. This is really..."

For a moment, she didn't know what adjective to use; anyway, she felt like it had gone in a circle and come back.

Yu Xiaoli closed the notebook and got up, preparing to put it in her room. After all, it had special significance and needed to be protected well.

Zhai Da, however, indicated that he wanted to study it. Yu Xiaoli hesitated slightly, then agreed.

For the next half day, Zhai Da spent it with Lu Wei. He tutored Lu Wei in Chinese and English, and Lu Wei tutored him in math, physics, chemistry, and biology. Occasionally, they also used the [Old Man’s TV] to watch videos.

On the premise of already having sufficient self-awareness and self-discipline, and having found the correct method, in fact, the effect of the [Old Man’s TV] on Zhai Da was no longer great. He no longer needed external forces to make himself "addicted to learning."

Lu Wei didn't need to be mentioned; she almost had no distracting thoughts. Once she decided to work hard with Zhai Da, she wouldn't have any more hesitation.

At 10:00 PM, Zhai Da went to the bathroom to take a shower first. When he came back and saw the back figure in front of Lu Wei’s desk, he was a bit dazed for a moment.

Recalling when he was at Mr. Shen Rui’s house, he saw his maternal grandfather’s back figure like a "hallucination."

That should be the "resonance" the system mentioned. It seems to be an effect that all [Notebook] type equipment has.

He hadn't studied [Lu Wei’s Math Notebook (1)] less before, but it seemed he had never triggered it... Was it because of the bloodline bond...

Would there be more times? Could he see more scenes of his maternal grandfather? Zhai Da wasn't very sure.

By the way, find a time when he was alone, and he could try to see if the three [Lu Wei’s Math Notebooks] could be synthesized...

And Lu Wei’s "alexithymia"...

Zhai Da received too much information today, and his brain was a bit messy.

Lying on the bed, he picked up his phone, and there was a text message from "Literary Girl."

Lu Siwen said in a very surprised tone that the blog post from last night had already soared to 13,000 views...

And it was still growing.

This number far exceeded the proportion a blog should have. After all, "Bed Explorer" originally had less than 3,000 followers, and a blog wasn't like a short video that had traffic pushing.

Even because of the huge number of views, it pushed up the number of followers for "Bed Explorer," which was currently at 5,000 followers.

What made Lu Siwen quite surprised was that from the comments, 30% were attracted by that tongue-twisting and philosophical phrase, and the remaining 70% were actually asking about the playing cards in that photo...

Just one blog post, twenty-some characters + one photo, if calculated according to the price previously agreed upon with Xinglang, he had already earned 1,300 yuan.

Although it was cruel, Zhai Da couldn't help but take out the monetary unit of measurement to compare in his heart.

It was exactly Lu Wei’s monthly salary.

This was obviously something worth being happy about. This money was equivalent to earning it while lying down.

He didn't even move a bit.

Even the publishing and contacting were done by Lu Siwen.

Confirming that [Joker Poker] could really, to a certain extent, extend its own effect using photos as a carrier, Zhai Da planned to fleece the wool in batches.

That text was just one of the many copywritings he had accumulated in his past life, coming from the talented and famous "Retard Bar."

In the present of '08, "Retard Bar" was still just a communication section for psychiatrists, and a bunch of philosophy masters hadn't emerged yet. These contents could basically be used as his original work. Of course, not using the content of Retard Bar was also fine, after all, the key point was [Joker Poker].

This set of operations could allow him to earn some start-up capital in a short period of time, as long as Xinglang didn't go back on their word.

Considering that Lu Siwen was busy running around, although it was out of her own sense of participation, Zhai Da couldn't not do the right thing, so he replied to Lu Siwen’s message and made two important instructions.

1. Urge Xinglang to implement the reward mechanism into a contract. Although the other party might feel it was troublesome, with the good results of the first blog post, it shouldn't be difficult to push the process forward. They had the motivation for this.

As for if he brushed it too much in the future, it would depend on Xinglang’s character.

2. The income generated by this round of "Bed Explorer" would be split 80/20 with Lu Siwen, just consider it a joint operation.

It was the same ratio as when he split the "pit-father fee" with Lu Wei originally.

This was called treating everyone equally.

He knew Lu Siwen didn't lack money, and he also knew that if he didn't mention it, no one would, and he could continue to white-fleece Lu Siwen’s labor.

But for some reason, the earthy boss Yu Donglai appeared in his mind during the day.

If his ability was limited and he couldn't achieve common prosperity, then at least the step of distribution according to labor had to be achieved.

The earthy boss had received a notification, why couldn't he, a reborn person, do it?

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