Chapter 7

"At a time like this, who could even think about eating?" Qin Rong slowly swallowed his last bite of food before continuing.

And yet you're eating so calmly. Qin Yi rolled his eyes at Qin Rong's unruffled expression. Ever since childhood, his older brother had always been incredibly composed. He had never seen a second expression on his brother's face besides calm gentleness. But he wondered whether his brother's expression would change after hearing news of his death.

Qin Yi thought about it idly.

Seemingly noticing Qin Yi's distraction, Qin Rong gave him a calm glance and asked, "Where did you put the lottery ticket yesterday?"

"In my school uniform pants pocket," Qin Yi answered immediately.

"Oh! Mom washed that set of school uniforms while you were bathing yesterday." Qin Rong nodded and spoke with complete calm. Since Qin Rong liked cleanliness, they had bought two sets of school uniforms to alternate between, and Qin Yi had naturally bought two sets as well.

"What? Then where's the lottery ticket?" Mother Qin, who had seemingly appeared from nowhere, demanded furiously.

Qin Rong lowered his head and blinked, then silently turned and went into their bedroom. Before long, he came back out holding something the size of a business card.

"Is this it?" Qin Rong asked calmly.

Mother Qin took the lottery ticket and handed it to Father Qin.

"Wait a moment, I'll make a call." Father Qin took the ticket to the living room sofa and called Zhao Laifu.

"Hello, Old Zhao! Were the winning lottery numbers you mentioned XXXXXXXX?" Father Qin asked with a serious expression.

After a while, Father Qin put down the phone with a dazed look on his face. Then he turned his head extremely slowly, staring blankly at everyone before speaking slowly—

"It really won five million!"

Upon hearing that, Qin Yi's first thought was to pull over the calm-looking Qin Rong and ask, "Brother, aren't I amazing?"

Qin Rong silently watched the ecstatic Qin Yi. After a long while, he said, "I didn't believe what the psychology teacher at our school said before, but now I'm starting to believe him."

"The psychology teacher? What did he say? Does it have anything to do with me winning the lottery?" Qin Yi tried hard to recall what Qin Rong's school psychology teacher looked like as he asked.

"He said..." Qin Rong drawled, "People with low IQs usually have incredibly accurate instincts. I didn't believe it before, but now I do."

Huh? What did that mean? Qin Yi stared wide-eyed in disbelief. He was insulting him, wasn't he? Right?

Seeing Qin Yi's innocent, wide-eyed expression, as adorable as a little animal's, the amusement in Qin Rong's eyes gradually deepened.

Behind them, Father Qin and Mother Qin were enthusiastically discussing how exactly to spend the five million...

A week later, with Zhao Laifu's help, Qin Zhenguo successfully and discreetly collected the five-million-yuan grand prize. After taxes, however, only four million remained. Even so, for the Qin family, whose bankbook held only a few hundred thousand yuan, it was still a considerable fortune. At Qin Zhenguo's decision, Mother Qin prepared a hundred-thousand-yuan red envelope for Zhao Laifu. At the family thank-you dinner afterward, Zhao Laifu declined it a few times before accepting the red envelope with a satisfied smile. From then on, he became even more attentive to the Qin family's affairs.

With such a substantial amount of capital, Qin Zhenguo decisively brought in a batch of high-end equipment. The result was that he easily opened up the southern market. Some seafood unique to the south also gradually began appearing on the Qin family's dining table.

As the lottery ticket's true owner, Qin Yi received the same benefit as Qin Rong—an additional five yuan in daily pocket money. However, Qin Yi did not care much about it. In a closed-off little school without even a snack shop, having money was useless anyway.

And now, this fellow who could not spend money even if he had it was sitting at his desk, racking his brains as he scribbled away.

"Qin Yi, what exactly are you doing?" Andre asked in confusion from within the space.

"I'm writing a song," Qin Yi replied absentmindedly. More precisely, he was recording songs, trying to recall the more popular hit songs he had heard in his previous life.

"What are you doing that for? You said before that we couldn't build a temple because there was no money, but didn't you win the lottery and get a sum of money a few days ago? Why aren't you using that money to build a temple? Have you forgotten your promise to me?" Andre's questions came one after another.

"It's not that I forgot. It's that the society I'm currently in won't allow us to do that. Forget building a temple—even if we spread your so-called faith a little, the government might come knocking tomorrow." Qin Yi spoke carelessly.

"Why?" Andre was instantly puzzled. "We wouldn't harm their interests at all. I only want to gather enough Faith Power to go home."

"Because they won't allow any force to threaten their rule. Otherwise, society would fall into chaos," Qin Yi explained casually.

"Like heretics?" Andre seemed to half understand.

"You could put it that way," Qin Yi replied perfunctorily.

"Oh." Andre sounded somewhat dejected. "But will the method you mentioned work?"

"I don't know, but I can try my best." Qin Yi sighed helplessly. A week earlier, he had already sent the song "Invisible Wings" to an entertainment company focused on record production, but there had been no response so far.

"Qin Yi, what are you doing?" Sun Zhicheng, drenched in sweat, entered through the classroom's back door. "Why didn't you go play soccer during PE?"

"I've already given up on the China Men's National Football Team," Qin Yi said as he looked at Sun Zhicheng.

"Huh?" Sun Zhicheng was utterly baffled.

"Nothing. I'm not feeling well and don't want to go outside," Qin Yi said casually.

"Oh, right. I just came from the school gate, and the old man in the guard room said there was a letter for you. I picked it up for you on the way." Sun Zhicheng suddenly remembered and pulled a wrinkled letter damp with sweat from his school uniform pants pocket, handing it to Qin Yi. "I saw that it was sent from Hong Kong. Do you have relatives there?"

"Mm." Qin Yi had a rough idea what it was about, but he could not say anything about it yet, so he merely gave a vague response.

"If you're not feeling well, go see the school doctor. I'm going to play ball first." After getting Qin Yi's confirmation, Sun Zhicheng did not press further. He quickly stuffed his removed school uniform into the desk compartment and hurried out in a tank top and shorts.

Inside the classroom, Qin Yi looked at the letter in his hands, feeling somewhat hesitant.

"What's wrong? You've received a reply from that record company. Why aren't you happy?" Andre found it strange. Why was the person he had chosen so indecisive?

It just feels a little wrong to plagiarize, Qin Yi thought guiltily.

Qin Yi silently persuaded himself again. Forget it. It's only 1995 now. Who would know? There's no point thinking about it. In the end, he was still a selfish person. Given a second life, such unusual experiences, and such wealth, who could resist?

His slender, long fingers deftly opened the envelope. Inside were only three thin A4 sheets, covered in a long-winded message. The general meaning was that they had reviewed the song Qin Yi had written, thought it was of good quality and full of potential, and wanted to sign a contract or something. Their contact information was enclosed, and the letter also stated that they would soon send someone to S City to meet Qin Yi and discuss the contract in detail. Qin Yi skipped all the useless formalities and went straight to the end. One song, sold for the absurdly low price of ten thousand yuan. Such a thing would have been impossible in later years. But Qin Yi had nothing to complain about now. He only wanted to use this method to enter that circle. As for money, he had never considered it.

"You've already written songs for the record company, but my Faith Power hasn't increased," Andre spoke after a moment.

"Well, maybe it's because I'm not famous yet. Once the record company chooses someone to record the song and releases it to the market, maybe the Faith Power will increase then," Qin Yi said uncertainly.

"All right. I can only trust you." Andre fell silent for a moment before speaking helplessly. "But I still think being a performer can't earn Faith Power."

He added.

Qin Yi could not be bothered with him. He casually put the letter into his schoolbag, slung it over his shoulder, and got up to head toward the teachers' office.

"I'm sorry, but I feel especially unwell today. I want to go home and rest." Qin Yi stood before the desk, making a pitiful face. Large beads of sweat rolled down the contours of his delicate face and disappeared beneath the collar covering his neck. His pained expression was unmistakable.

"What's wrong? Have you informed your parents?" His homeroom teacher, Chen Mingfang, asked nervously. She was only twenty-six or twenty-seven and had only recently started teaching a class. Naturally, she did not want anything to happen to one of her students.

"I already called them. My dad said I should go home first, and once he's done with work, he'll take me to the hospital." Qin Yi spoke. The lie was clumsy, but it was more than enough to fool this newly appointed homeroom teacher.

"All right, then go home now. Be careful while walking, and watch out for cars when crossing the road." Sure enough, Chen Mingfang easily approved Qin Yi's leave slip.

"Mm! I'll be careful. Thank you, Teacher." Qin Yi obediently bent at the waist in thanks, then left Chen Mingfang's office. On his way out, he even politely pulled the door shut behind him.

He walked weakly all the way out through the school gates. Once he turned the corner, Qin Yi's expression sharpened, and he immediately became energetic.

"You actually lied? You actually used me to lie?" Andre said irritably from within the space. Qin Yi had actually made him use fire magic inside the space to heat things up, and since Qin Yi's soul was connected to the space, he naturally ended up drenched in sweat as well.

"It was only to make things more convenient for everyone," Qin Yi soothed him casually. Ten minutes later, Qin Yi returned home without incident.

He went straight into his bedroom. Qin Yi first washed off the sweat in the bathroom, then changed into dry cotton pajamas and sat down at his desk.

"I said before that I'd take the middle school entrance exam with Qin Rong next week. There won't be any problems with the other subjects, but I really don't remember much about Chinese. Most of Chinese consists of memorization and dictation, especially poetry. I have an idea, and I need your cooperation." Qin Yi spoke.

"What idea do you have this time?" Andre's tone was extremely helpless. A dignified divine son like him had actually fallen so low as to use his palace to help a commoner cheat.

Qin Yi smiled when he heard that. Then he tossed all his middle school Chinese textbooks into Andre's space at once. "I'll put the Chinese textbooks in your space. When the time comes, I'll ask you for the answers, and you can tell me directly in my consciousness."

"In principle, that's possible. But there's one major problem." Andre used wind magic to flip through the books scattered across the palace floor as he spoke.

"What?"