Chapter 44: For Better or Worse

“I don’t even know how to say this!” Lin Xia rubbed his fingers over the lottery ticket. “There’s one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.”

“What a coincidence—I’ve got one good and one bad news too!” Chu Zhu rolled his wrist, half-jokingly. “The good news is, once you say it, it’s out there; the bad news is, if you keep teasing me, I’m going to have to beat you up.”

“Oh!” Lin Xia shrank his neck and sighed. “The bad news is, I won—but only third prize!”

“Looks like someone changed a digit at the last minute!” Chu Zhu nodded. Makes sense, perfectly reasonable!

But then he sensed something off, his gaze sharpening. “What kind of bad news is that? What’s the good news then?”

“The good news is, I bought fifty tickets!” Lin Xia suddenly grinned mischievously, reclining in the gaming chair. “So I can redeem a hundred and fifty thousand…”

Chu Zhu blinked, speechless as he stared at Lin Xia. Fifty tickets? Are you planning to empty the entire prize pool?

To be fair, if the goal was simply to win five million, Chu Zhu thought it might still be possible—after all, fishing requires bait, and fishermen sometimes show mercy.

But hoping to claim the entire prize pool? That’s just laughable.

“Of course,” Lin Xia pulled out his phone with a worried look, “considering taxes! Let me check the tax rate…”

“That’s fine. If I remember correctly, if a single ticket’s prize is below ten thousand, there’s no tax. So the full hundred and fifty thousand should be yours.” Chu Zhu thought for a moment. “Anyway, congratulations!”

“…Congratulations my foot! I’m still working for you, aren’t I?” Lin Xia rolled his eyes but let out a long breath. At least his financial pressure had eased considerably!

“I’ll go claim the prize tomorrow. By the way, do you want to come with me?”

“No interest.” Chu Zhu waved him off. Lin Xia wasn’t surprised and nodded frankly. Then he asked, “Back to the dorm, or to the new place you rented?”

“If I have a choice, I’ll pick the place where I can sleep peacefully!” Chu Zhu paused slightly, then took out his phone. He first messaged the dorm leader, then mentioned it to the counselor.

Soon after, he saw messages from two coach friends, marked with 27+ and 46+ unread notifications.

“It’s amazing they can say so much without me replying once!” Chu Zhu sighed but still opened the messages to skim through them. His expression then grew strange.

“What’s wrong?” Lin Xia had been watching his reaction closely.

“They want to contact my parents to ‘talk things over’!” Chu Zhu laughed and finally replied to both, “Go ahead if you want! But just a heads-up, it won’t work.”

Ignoring their instant responses, Chu Zhu continued chatting briefly with the counselor and dorm leader. After turning off his phone screen and pocketing it, he stood and headed out of the internet cafe.

Naturally, Lin Xia followed and settled the bill on the way.

“About your family’s situation… well, your uncle and aunt… it’s complicated.” Lin Xia’s expression was subtle. He knew well that due to Chu Zhu’s strange dreams since childhood, his family’s attitude toward him wasn’t like that of a normal household.

High emotional intelligence: relaxed and free.

Low emotional intelligence: afraid to intervene, fearing it might drive Chu Zhu mad.

“Let’s go! Wait,” Chu Zhu suddenly realized, “I should go back to the dorm first; I need to grab some things.”

“All the bedding is ready! Hmm, judging by your expression, that’s probably not what you need. But never mind, I’m sleeping at the dorm tonight anyway, so we can walk together.”

Lin Xia raised an eyebrow.

“You only rented a place with one bed?” Chu Zhu’s interest piqued. “If there are several rooms, I wouldn’t mind sharing!”

“Man!” Lin Xia’s face twisted in disgust. “Listen to your cultivation method—nuclear radiation and all that. Even if you agreed, I wouldn’t dare live with you! Besides, you must have some secrets you can’t even share with me…”

Chu Zhu remained silent.

Lin Xia took a deep breath, massaged his face, and spoke with unprecedented seriousness: “Zhuzi! No, Chu Zhu! I want you to take something seriously.”

“Although I already know a lot, there are some extremely sensitive matters… I hope you won’t tell me about them. Everything you do tell me, I will understand that if it ever leaks, there will be consequences—but those consequences won’t be irreparable!”

“I don’t know what you’ll go through or do in the future, but I have a feeling it might be beyond imagination! Maybe someday I’ll get dragged into it and captured… tortured mercilessly!”

“Let me warn you, I definitely won’t endure that kind of torture! Before they even use seduction tactics, just seeing the other side pull out pliers will probably make me surrender immediately… You need to be mentally prepared.”

Chu Zhu paused, looked deeply at Lin Xia, then nodded noncommittally. “I understand.”

Of course, Chu Zhu wasn’t really worried about Lin Xia getting into trouble. Or rather, if he, someone who could travel to the future, knew a part of future history, and could prepare accordingly, couldn’t protect his best buddy—then he’d be utterly useless.

…

“Dragon! I’m going to play.”

As soon as he returned to the dorm, Chu Zhu heard his roommates shouting. He rolled his eyes, ignored them, climbed to the top bunk, took down his laptop, grabbed a notebook from the drawer, and packed some toiletries and personal items.

“Well, I’m off! See you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow,” Lin Xia waved.

…

Lin Xia’s rented apartment was right next to the school—a classic one-bedroom, one-living-room, one-bathroom layout. Though compact, it was fully furnished and had a cozy feel.

“It really feels more secure!” Chu Zhu flopped onto the wide, soft bed, yawned, closed his eyes for a moment, then muttered, “Though I’ve gotten used to hearing my roommates gaming… it’s a bit strange not hearing it now!”

Rubbing his cheek, Chu Zhu sat at the desk, pulled out his notebook, and flipped through scattered notes.

“Next, it’s time for an experiment!” Chu Zhu found a blank page and wrote with a serious expression:

“Tomorrow, communicate openly with Principal Li Quanyuan, confess everything about myself, restart running, and give it my all! Break human records completely, and use this record to prove the truth of my condition! Then, submit the formula for purifying nuclear radiation to the state, seeking the country’s help to guide the future and avoid the post-disaster future as much as possible!”

Then Chu Zhu tore the paper from the notebook, lit it with a lighter without hesitation, ground the ashes into powder, and flushed it down the toilet—he wasn’t actually planning to submit it. He just wanted to test whether doing so would cause a butterfly effect that might alter the future. If it did…

After washing up, Chu Zhu lay down on the bed, closed his eyes, and whispered, “Let’s see if this will make the future better… or worse.”