Metamorphosis

"I'll call him and ask him to come eat with us," Chen Rongrong said, taking out her phone.

"Why ask him?"

Shen Ding felt hostile toward Zhou Yuwen. He thought Chen Rongrong cared a little too much about him.

Chen Rongrong ignored him and dialed Zhou Yuwen's number.

Beep...

Beep...

Beep...

For some reason, Zhou Yuwen didn't answer, and Chen Rongrong found herself growing anxious with every beep.

Then the call finally connected.

Zhou Yuwen's voice was noncommittal. "Hello?"

At that moment, Chen Rongrong suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. She smiled and asked, "Zhou Yuwen, where are you?"

"I went home." Zhou Yuwen's answer was calm.

"The college entrance exam just ended. Why did you go home?" Chen Rongrong said with a laugh. "We're going out to eat in a bit. Want to come?"

Zhou Yuwen turned her down.

Even when Chen Rongrong practically wheedled, "Come on, please? The college entrance exam is finally over! Let's all have some fun together! Just think of it as keeping me company. I'm begging you."

Chen Rongrong wheedled into her phone.

Beside her, Shen Ding's brows were twisted like a pretzel.

But Zhou Yuwen still refused. "No, you guys go ahead. I have a few things to do."

"Oh... okay."

Chen Rongrong was a little disappointed.

"Yeah, have fun."

"I'm hanging up."

With that, Zhou Yuwen hung up.

Chen Rongrong's disappointment was written all over her face, and Shen Ding could see it. He said, "Don't worry about him. We'll have fun on our own. What do you all want to eat?"

"I want hot pot!"

"I want pizza!"

Shi Zhenzhen and Dong Xue spoke up. Although Chen Rongrong felt a little upset at being turned down by Zhou Yuwen, she quickly recovered and joined them in discussing what to eat.

How could Zhou Yuwen have time to keep these kids company and indulge in pointless socializing? He had far too much to do.

On May 20, Zhou Yuwen had put his entire 150,000 yuan into Zhongchao Cable, which was priced at 1.63 yuan at the time.

By June 9, it had reached a high of 3.12 yuan that day.

He sold it all.

His total profit was 91 percent.

His 150,000 yuan had grown to 286,500 yuan.

And because Zhou Yuwen had changed his update schedule last month, his total writing royalties had come to 15,000 yuan.

Altogether, he had 300,000 yuan.

The month after June 12 would mark the arrival of the stock market's great nightmare. For a full month after that day, a thousand stocks would hit their daily down limit. Even if Buffett came over, he'd lose everything down to his underwear.

If Zhou Yuwen wanted to steal more money from the stock market, he would have to wait until a month later.

Although the market would still be half-dead a month later, the baijiu sector would at least take a roundabout route to save the nation, stubbornly holding up a corner of the A-share market.

Zhou Yuwen remembered clearly that Luzhou Laojiao would surge ahead in July, rising 70 percent in a single month.

While there was still time, Zhou Yuwen made preparations to use leverage.

He would use his 300,000 yuan in assets as three million and make 2.1 million yuan in one go.

Before then, Zhou Yuwen had to think of other ways to make money.

The little county town was peaceful and leisurely in midsummer.

The blazing sun roasted every corner of the town equally.

The plane trees along the roads were lush and green, and the chirping of summer cicadas filled the air.

Zhou Yuwen's home was a small, rundown apartment in a building twenty years old.

It had two bedrooms and a living room, and it was on the second floor.

A tall, leafy plane tree stood a short distance outside the window.

Zhou Yuwen still remembered that last summer vacation after his final year of high school.

He had stayed in his little room just like that.

There had been no lively gatherings, nor any childhood sweetheart in denim hot pants, her long legs bare, calling his name from downstairs.

From beginning to end, there had only been Zhou Yuwen. Every morning, he got up, grabbed a large jug of mineral water, turned on his computer, and read novels.

Zhou Yuwen remembered that the most popular novel that year was called Rebirth of the Perfect Era, written by Gongzi Muge. It was said that the author had originally worked in the internet industry and, after finishing the novel, invested his royalties and made several hundred million yuan more.

Zhou Yuwen remembered the novel well. He recalled that its female lead was named Su Yingxue.

She had seemed all right when he first started reading: beautiful, a white moonlight, nothing more.

But after the second female lead, Zhao Ziqiu, appeared, Su Yingxue became more and more irritating to read about. He felt that her character was nothing but a chicken rib, completely unrelated to the main plot, yet she would still be dragged out to pad a couple of chapters whenever nothing else was happening.

He reckoned that, later on, even the author couldn't make sense of her. He had placed Su Yingxue too high at the start, and by the later stages, he was caught between writing her and leaving her out.

Authors who wrote urban novels during this period all had that problem.

Rebirth of the Thief had the same problem.

The two works belonged to the same period, and the authors couldn't stand each other. In one chapter of Rebirth of the Perfect Era, Zhao Ziqiu's parents were outside while she took the protagonist upstairs to sleep with him, stifling herself because she didn't dare cry out.

Then, around the same time, Rebirth of the Thief devoted a chapter to denouncing that behavior, saying it showed disrespect for one's elders and demonstrated just how uncultured anyone capable of doing such a thing was.

Zhou Yuwen had read both novels at the time. He had been laughing happily at the beginning, but the further he read, the more frustrated he became. He thought that if he ever wrote an urban novel himself, he would definitely write a completely different kind of white moonlight.

Why did a white moonlight have to be placed on a pedestal, beautiful and perfect in every way? Zhou Yuwen was determined to do the exact opposite.

Later, when he wrote a novel and couldn't come up with a name, he simply used Su Yingxue as the model for a character.

That was how listless Zhou Yuwen had been in his previous life. Apart from staying home and reading novels, there really seemed to be nothing worth mentioning.

Now that he had been reborn, he watched the numbers constantly jumping on the stock trading software on his computer.

Zhou Yuwen felt he couldn't waste his time making money. He had more things to do.

So, over the next few days, Zhou Yuwen not only kept up his running and workouts, but also signed up for guitar lessons and began learning an instrument and singing techniques from scratch.

Learning these things might not be much use to an ordinary person. At most, it would give them a slight advantage in choosing a partner in college.

But Zhou Yuwen's head was full of excellent songs and scripts. It would be such a waste not to bring them out and turn them into money!

In this life, he was determined to experience a different kind of life.

He got up at seven every day, ran, ate breakfast, and then wrote his novel in the morning. In the afternoon, he went to guitar class.

He didn't know whether it was because of his rebirth, but Zhou Yuwen had a vague feeling that his five senses and talent seemed far superior to other people's.

It was difficult to explain.

But if he had to explain it, it was probably the power of his soul.

After all, having been tempered by two lifetimes, Zhou Yuwen's soul was bound to be stronger than an ordinary person's. Likewise, he learned things faster than others.

More importantly, it took no effort!

In the past, whenever he learned something, he would fish for three days and dry his nets for two.

But in this life, because he could easily grasp the basics, he didn't find it boring.

The results were visible not only with the guitar, but also with running and working out.

Zhou Yuwen remembered that he was supposed to be around 180 centimeters tall, but after exercising and getting into shape, he measured himself again and found that he had grown another three centimeters.

His body grew increasingly filled out.

He also slowly began to gain confidence...