CHAPTER 24: CHAPTER 24 GRANDMA WANTS TO HOLD HER GRANDSON!

The next morning, the three girls went out for their part-time job bright and early. They had been hired to cosplay for the grand opening of a large anime-themed restaurant. The restaurant was holding a three-day promotional event, and the pay was three hundred yuan a day. While it wasn’t as much as the thousand a day they could earn at anime conventions, those weren’t held very often. For a multi-day gig, this was a decent offer.

After they left, Sun Dasheng went back to sleep for a while. A phone call roused him at nine in the morning. Lying in bed, still groggy, he picked up the phone from his pillow.

"Who is it?"

"It’s your mother!"

Hey, what’s with the scolding?

But just as quickly, his mind cleared. The caller was indeed his dear old mother, and a smile immediately spread across his face.

"Mom, what’s up? How come you have time to call me? Aren’t you out strolling in the park with your old buddies or doing your square dancing?"

His parents were retired civil servants from a small town. They lived comfortably, even if their pensions couldn’t match those in the big cities. Their finances had only been tight for a few years after he’d asked them for money for a down payment on a house.

These days, what people call ’mooching’ is just being a shut-in at home, one extra mouth to feed. The *real* mooching is when you go off to a big city to make a name for yourself, get married, have kids, and then drain your parents’ life savings to buy a house and a car. Some people even make their parents travel thousands of miles to help take care of their children, getting them entangled in all sorts of family drama. As for sending the kids back to their hometown for school? Not many people who have put down roots in a big city would be willing to do that, right? The pressure on kids nowadays is insane, with all that toxic ’win at the starting line’ philosophy everywhere. The streaming system for middle school placement forces tutoring to begin as early as elementary school. Parents from the 80s and 90s would never want their own children to become ’left-behind kids’ like many of them were, would they?

...

Still, he felt a pang of guilt talking to his mother. Several days had passed since the divorce, and he still hadn’t told his family. He just didn’t know how to bring it up, not after spending so many years singing Lee Li’s praises. For years, she had refused to go home with him for the New Year, leaving him to make the trip alone. He’d always spun various excuses to explain her absence and cover for her. His parents had probably seen through it long ago, but what could they do when their own son was defending her? As long as their son’s family was harmonious, they chose not to make a fuss.

On the phone, his mother asked about how he’d been lately, especially regarding his health. Then, she asked about his plans for the New Year.

"Mom, actually..." he began, finally steeling himself to tell the truth.

"It’s about your divorce, isn’t it? I already know," his mother said, giving him a little shock from the other end of the line. "I was just waiting for you to tell me yourself, but you’ve been hemming and hawing this whole time."

"Mom, how did you find out?"

"Your cousin, Wang Xin, has her on WeChat. She saw it on her Moments feed."

So that’s how. His cousin Wang Xin had come to Shanghai City for university last year. He had been busy at the time, so he’d asked Lee Li to host her.

"Mom, I’m sorry."

"Hush, there’s nothing to be sorry for. Let bygones be bygones. A person has to look forward. Now, listen, a good friend of mine has a niece who works near you. She’s a lovely girl. If you’re free today, go meet her."

Damn! My mother came prepared.

"Mom, I *just* got divorced."

"So what? My son is a catch, with a good job and good looks. If you two hit it off and get married, you can hurry up and give me a big, healthy baby boy. Mom is waiting to hold her grandchild!"

Sun Dasheng could hear one thing loud and clear in her voice: urgency. It’s my own fault, too, for not having kids all these years. Even though they never said anything, I’m sure they had their opinions. Before he could respond, his mother hung up. A moment later, a contact card appeared in his WeChat.

He laughed helplessly and patted his head. Now that I have money, I’ve just been enjoying myself these past few days. Even though his parents lived comfortably and without financial worries, that didn’t mean they couldn’t use some extra cash. His dad had always coveted the high-end fishing rods his buddies used, and his mom envied her friends’ loud, brand-name speakers they used for square dancing.

He thought of his father, who rarely had more than a hundred yuan in his pocket and was reluctant to buy cigarettes that cost more than ten. He decided to call him.

"Dad, it’s Da Sheng. The company’s been doing great. I got a promotion and a pretty big bonus. I’m sending you a million yuan. You and Mom can spend it however you like."

"How much?"

Poor Sun Youzhi, who usually had less than a hundred yuan on him, was stunned by the number.

"You heard me right, one million. The money’s for you to spend freely. Just don’t tell Mom the exact amount. Just say I sent you some cash. You know she can’t keep a secret with that big mouth of hers."

This was a statement Comrade Old Sun wholeheartedly agreed with. He only advised, "You still have your mortgage to think about. You should keep this money to pay it off. Your mother and I don’t lack for anything here."

Sun Dasheng’s eyes welled up. "Dad, don’t worry. The mortgage is already paid off."

The voice on the other end of the line suddenly dropped to a whisper, as if afraid of being overheard. "Da Sheng, tell your old man the truth. Did you rob a bank? Or did you become the company CEO?"

It seemed the promotion story wasn’t enough to fool the astute Old Sun. What kind of company gives you a multi-million yuan bonus just for a promotion?

He had no choice but to tell a different version of the truth. "Dad, don’t worry, the money’s clean. I earned it all on the stock market. But you absolutely cannot tell Mom."

Comrade Old Sun immediately understood. It was his own foray into the stock market that had led to his wife confiscating his bank card. He was the kind of guy who managed to lose money during both the 2007 and 2016 bull markets—truly unsuited for trading, or perhaps, perfectly suited to be a prime "leek" for others to harvest. From then on, the very mention of stock trading was forbidden in their house.

"Alright, I understand," Sun Youzhi said gleefully.

Seeing his son succeed where he had failed filled him with a sense of pride. The money I lost back then wasn’t for nothing! After all, it helped cultivate a successor who can actually make a profit in the market.

After transferring the money to Old Sun, he still had four million yuan left in his account. That would last him a while. Once he upgraded the system to level three, he could cash out his experience points again.

Just yesterday, Lee Li and Wang Jiadong had provided him with a huge influx of points.

[You have been slandered by Lee Li. Grievance Value +200]

[You have been slandered by Wang Jiadong. Grievance Value +100]

[You have received disdainful looks from your classmates. Grievance Value +100]

[You have been mocked by passersby. Grievance Value +10]

His current status panel read:

Name: Sun Dasheng

Level: 2 (100/1,000)

Grievance Value: 840

Withdrawable Amount: 8,400,000

They really are my personal EXP fountains, living up to the name. The poor passersby had only contributed 10 points in total. It was probably because their casual taunts didn’t affect him much. After all, when he was falsely accused of being a creep on the subway, the onlookers had given him 100 points.

He was just a hair’s breadth away from leveling up.

Just then, his gaze fell on the contact card in his WeChat. His eyes lit up. A blind date... she could probably contribute some points. However, knowing the system’s typical antics, strangers give next to no points. I’ll have to find a way to get to know her first, and only then can I start farming her for Grievance Value.