What Was Bound to Come Came at Last (Please Vote!)

What Was Bound to Come Came at Last (Please Vote!)

In the car.

"Split the money evenly?"

Emmett stroked the Franklins, looking utterly intoxicated. After a long while, he finally glanced at Adam and asked tentatively, "A thousand each?"

"Of course."

Adam smiled. "How else did you want to split it?"

"Works for me, no objections!"

Emmett quickly raised his hand and snickered. "Hehehe, Adam, we owe it all to you~"

His tone and expression were thoroughly sleazy.

"Yeah, it's all thanks to him!"

Juno chimed in with a smile.

Adam's mouth twitched. How could he not understand Emmett and Juno's implication? He simply could not be bothered to explain.

Why should he ever need to explain himself to others?

Early morning.

Ding!

Wisdom +0.005!

Ding!

Wisdom +0.005!

The Wisdom Points provided daily by Juno and Little Sheldon arrived on schedule. Adam was in high spirits as he refreshed the system panel.

Wisdom: 114.6 (100 normal, 120 excellent, 140 genius, 180 super genius)

Strength: 180 (100 normal, 200 strong, 500 super strong, 1000 not human)

Endurance: 310 (100 normal, 200 excellent, 500 Just You Show, 1000 not human)

Speed: 160 (100 normal, 200 excellent, 500 Just You Show, 1000 not human)

Lifespan: 35.04 (die young, 80 normal, 100 excellent, 150 Just You Show, 200 not human)

Other: Locked

"Huh? Why did my Endurance increase? And there wasn't even a system notification? How strange."

Adam glanced over his attributes, then paused at the Endurance line. He studied it for half the night but still could not figure it out. Fortunately, he was open-minded, and eventually let it go.

Forget it. If I can't figure out the pattern behind Endurance growth, then so be it. There are too many unknowns and mysteries in this world. The most important attributes are still Wisdom and Lifespan.

With that thought, waves of sleepiness washed over him. Adam's eyelids grew heavy, and he soon fell into a deep sleep.

The next day.

"Why are you smiling like that?"

Little Sheldon frowned at the beaming Emmett.

"Because I'm happy."

Emmett grinned. "Sheldon, you really missed out by not going last night."

"Why?"

Little Sheldon was puzzled.

"Forget it, Emmett."

Adam cut in. "Do you really think Sheldon cares about that little bit of money?"

In Adam's memory, Sheldon had always viewed money as something that only needed to be enough. What impressed Adam most was how, when Penny was short on cash, Sheldon had voluntarily brought out his piggy bank and told Penny to take whatever she wanted.

Not to mention that in the United States, where money came first, where fathers and sons or husbands and wives could not even talk about money, and where splitting bills among friends was the norm, even in East Country, people willing to lend money to friends on their own initiative were few and far between.

And Penny had gone from being too embarrassed to take any, to being too embarrassed to take much, to taking handfuls at a time. Sheldon's expression had never changed from beginning to end. That level of sincerity outclassed quite a few of those "few and far between."

"What money?"

Little Sheldon's eyes lit up.

Emmett smugly recounted what had happened the night before. To Adam's astonishment, Little Sheldon hesitated for a while before saying seriously to Adam, "I've thought about it. If there's another event like this next time, I'll join too."

"Uh."

Adam stared at him in surprise. "Why?"

In settings like that, Little Sheldon would either be disgusted and at a loss, or turn around and flee—or even faint on the spot. Adam found it hard to imagine what could possibly motivate him.

"I need money."

Little Sheldon frowned. "I owe my dad two hundred dollars. I need to earn money and pay him back."

"What did you do?"

Emmett cried out theatrically.

"It's all because of my Vulcan Hearing."

Little Sheldon frowned.

Emmett and Juno: "..."

How could they possibly know the Vulcan Hearing joke from Star Trek?

"You didn't take apart your refrigerator, did you?"

Adam had guessed it.

"Huh? How did you know?"

Little Sheldon said in surprise, "When I got home yesterday, I could still hear the noise coming from our refrigerator. It was driving me crazy, but my parents said they couldn't hear anything. I couldn't stand it anymore, so I took the refrigerator apart according to the manual."

"And then you couldn't put it back together, right?"

Emmett looked at Little Sheldon as if he were an idiot.

"Of course not."

Little Sheldon refused to accept that. "If it can be taken apart, then it can definitely be reassembled. I just temporarily lack the proper tools."

"Too bad your dad didn't buy that explanation, right?"

Juno could not help laughing.

"Yes."

Little Sheldon said gloomily, "He was very angry and even yelled at me, so I have to earn money and pay him back."

There was one more thing he did not say: he had been so frightened that he cried. As someone who considered himself an adult, he found that deeply shameful.

"That's perfectly normal."

Adam silently mourned for Little Sheldon's father. "That's only because it was you. If it had been your brother, your dad would've beaten him already. The refrigerator was sitting there perfectly fine, and you just had to take it apart. Two hundred dollars! Do you know how much Lone Star Beer that could buy your dad?"

Little Sheldon's family of five—two adults and The Three Little Ones—relied entirely on his father to support them, so they naturally had to watch every penny. Now, a brat had suddenly wasted two hundred dollars. It would have been strange if his father had not lost his temper.

It also made Adam strongly doubt Little Sheldon's practical skills. Adam believed Sheldon was unbeatable in theory, but if he could not even put a little refrigerator back together, could he really build an atomic power device that was countless times more complicated than a refrigerator?

"..."

Little Sheldon opened his mouth. After a long while, he sighed. "That makes sense! I understand now why my dad got angry."

For an old drinker who could measure anything by how much Lone Star Beer it could support, there was nothing that could not be compared in units of Lone Star Beer.

Lunch break.

After eating, Adam, Juno, and Little Sheldon went to the library to spend the rest of their break.

Emmett naturally split off from the group. He used to go practice street dancing to show off, but now he roamed around everywhere under the name of Fruit Hard Candy.

Unfortunately, he was not handsome enough, and he was not the lead singer—just the drummer. Every time, he went full of excitement and came back disappointed, yet he never tired of it.

The library.

"Hi, Sheldon. What do you want to read today? Quantum mechanics, liquid rockets, astronomy?"

The librarian was a plump older young woman who knew Sheldon very well.

She knew those advanced science books were Little Sheldon's favorites.

"Quantum mechanics, then."

Little Sheldon happily took the book and went off to enjoy his happy life.

Adam, meanwhile, previewed his coursework. Before his Wisdom Points reached the genius threshold of 140, he needed to work hard enough to maintain a GPA of 4.0 in every subject.

"Hiss."

Adam caught sight of Juno from the corner of his eye. When he saw her pull a thick volume from her shoulder bag, he involuntarily sucked in a breath.

"What is it?"

Juno looked at Adam strangely.

"Nothing, nothing."

Adam's heart raced. He shook his head repeatedly and lowered his gaze to his book, but he could not focus on it at all.

What was bound to come had finally come.