Lin Xian put down his chopsticks, leaned back in his chair, and fell silent.

On the plate in front of him was a dish of boiled peanuts mixed with sesame paste and gluten.

It was hard to imagine…

How a frail, impoverished rural woman, constantly bullied, could reclaim discarded land, accumulate bit by bit, and raise Zhou Duan Yun by planting peanut after peanut.

This sounded even more tragic than a tearjerker.

But this was the truth.

The truth of a mother's strength.

"Later, did he really win the lottery?" Lin Xian asked tentatively.

"Of course!"

Zhou Le answered without hesitation:

"He definitely won the lottery! Otherwise, how could he suddenly have so much money! You have no idea how rich Zhou Duan Yun was back then!"

"Zhou Duan Yun admitted it himself?" Lin Xian continued to ask.

"He definitely wouldn't dare to admit it, hahaha!" Zhou Le poured himself a glass of wine, drank it all in one gulp, and looked at Lin Xian with a hearty laugh:

"Who would admit they won the lottery? If you dared to admit it, wouldn't everyone rush to your house to borrow money? Back then, everyone in the village said he won the lottery, but he just wouldn't admit it, but the more he denied it, the more we knew it was true!"

"Zhou Duan Yun's life should have taken off from that point," Zhou Le said, picking up a few peanuts and putting them in his mouth.

"That's just how fate is, I guess. When you hit rock bottom, you're bound to bounce back. Zhou Duan Yun got into a prestigious university, won the lottery, and instantly became a popular figure in the village. From then on, no one bullied his family anymore. Instead, when Zhou Duan Yun went to university, many people in the village gave him gifts, hoping that he would be successful in the future and remember them."

"How dramatic," Lin Xian couldn't help but exclaim.

It was too dramatic.

"Didn't you ever suspect that Zhou Duan Yun's acceptance letter was fake? His grades were so bad, how could he suddenly be accepted into a 985 university?"

"Of course, we suspected it at first!" Zhou Le said.

"But didn't our head teacher post a congratulatory message later, saying that everyone in our class got into university, and even listed the names of the schools? How could that be fake?"

…

At this point.

Lin Xian had finally understood this dramatic experience.

By a twist of fate.

The two "lies" that Zhou Duan Yun inadvertently told made the greedy and snobbish villagers believe them, completely changing their attitude towards him and his mother.

From bullying everywhere to treating them like honored guests.

In essence, nothing had changed, but everything had changed.

The world was such a strange place.

If you actually said you won the lottery, the first reaction would be disbelief.

But the more you denied it, the more others would think you were lying.

Lin Xian couldn't guess what Zhou Duan Yun himself thought about these two events… but since he accepted the gifts from the villagers and pretended to go to university…

This meant that he had ultimately and subtly maintained this deception, continuing to deceive everyone.

Did the deception give him a taste of the sweetness of falsification?

Or did the change in the villagers' attitude make him truly understand the hypocrisy of human nature?

Looking at it now.

Zhou Duan Yun was like a person living with a mask on.

And the mask on his face seemed to have more than one layer.

"What happened after that?" Lin Xian asked Zhou Le.

"How did Zhou Duan Yun become successful?"

"I'm not too sure about that…" Zhou Le raised his glass again.

"You know, Zhou Duan Yun's personality was never really compatible with any of us. And back then, many people in the village bullied Zhou Duan Yun and made fun of him. Although I didn't participate in that bullying, I didn't stand up for Zhou Duan Yun either, so we weren't really friends."

"Looking back now, I actually feel quite guilty, after all, we were classmates. I should have helped him. It's just… sigh, that's how people are. By the time you realize it…"

"…it's too late."

"Some things that seemed like huge deals when we were kids turn out to be nothing when we grow up; but some things that seemed insignificant when we were kids… turn out to be huge deals when we grow up."

Thump.

Zhou Le put down his glass, wiped his mouth.

"Lin Xian, you're free this afternoon, come over to my place and hang out."

"I won't go," Lin Xian waved his hand.

"Come on, come on, I'll show you Zhou Duan Yun's mansion!"

"Mansion?"

Lin Xian became interested.

"When was it built?"

"It was just finished last year. After Zhou Duan Yun became successful, he bought all the surrounding neighbors' house plots and built a nine-story mansion for his mother! It's like a damn castle!"

Lin Xian was indeed a little curious. Moreover, he hadn't chatted enough with Zhou Le and wanted to know more information about Zhou Duan Yun.

Currently, he only had some understanding of Zhou Duan Yun's experiences before university, but the years after that were still a blank slate.

How did he become successful?

And why did he become successful?

Zhou Le didn't know that Zhou Duan Yun's lottery ticket and acceptance letter were fake, but Lin Xian knew. He clearly knew that getting rich with lottery money as seed money was another complete lie.

Lies, lies, lies.

Zhou Duan Yun was covered in lies.

Everything was fake, but there must be something real, right?

"Alright," Lin Xian waved to the waiter to pay the bill.

"Then let's go to your place and hang out."

…

The village where Zhou Duan Yun and Zhou Le grew up was very remote. First, they took a wobbly bus for an hour, and then they took a taxi to get there.

Before even entering the village.

From far away, Lin Xian saw the nine-story castle!

Really…

This size and scale could no longer be described as a villa. It was truly a castle.

The exterior was even comparable to Chu Shan He's private club in terms of splendor. Of course, the interior difference would definitely be huge.

"How is it, spectacular, right?"

After getting out of the car, Zhou Le pointed to the magnificent castle with a hearty laugh.

"Zhou Duan Yun's family's status in the village is completely different now. After Zhou Duan Yun became successful, he didn't forget the villagers and helped everyone a lot. He also built roads and temples for the village and led everyone to make money. Now, in everyone's eyes, Zhou Duan Yun's status is even higher than the village chief's!"

"That's for sure," Lin Xian thought to himself. In such a snobbish place, whoever can make everyone money is their dad. That's just how it is.

After Lin Xian and Zhou Le got closer, they discovered that the castle's huge courtyard had almost no signs of decoration. It was all flat, fertile land, and a thin, white-haired woman was bending over to work.

"Auntie!"

Zhou Le was obviously very familiar with her. He walked to the courtyard wall and shouted directly.

The white-haired woman was wearing clean but slightly faded clothes, with her hair neatly combed. She raised her head.

Seeing Zhou Le, she smiled, her wrinkles squeezed together.

"Oh, Le Le."

"Lin Xian, this is Zhou Duan Yun's mother." After introducing Lin Xian, Zhou Le looked at Zhou Duan Yun's mother again.

"Auntie, this is a high school classmate of mine and Zhou Duan Yun's. We just happened to be passing by and wanted to say hello!"

Hearing that he was Zhou Duan Yun's classmate, the old mother's eyes lit up immediately!

She quickly stood up, wiped her hands on her apron, and opened the courtyard door.

"Oh, you're Zhou Duan Yun's classmate! Quickly, quickly, come in and sit down!"

"No need, Auntie," Lin Xian waved his hand…

He had only intended to take a quick look and chat with Zhou Le. He had no intention of entering Zhou Duan Yun's house at all.

But he didn't expect Zhou Le to greet her directly.

Zhou Duan Yun's mother was very enthusiastic, so Lin Xian and Zhou Le had no choice but to go inside and sit down.

The house was very clean, but it was too big and lacked a sense of life.

"Auntie, didn't you have a lot of servants before?" Zhou Le asked, turning his head.

"I'm not used to so many people in the house," Zhou Duan Yun's mother smiled and handed them two glasses of water.

"I let them go after the new year. I'm more comfortable by myself. It's just that this house is too big… it's very inconvenient to clean."

Lin Xian held the water and looked around the living room.

It was indeed very luxurious and must have cost a lot of money.

Various paintings and calligraphy were hung on the walls, but in the most conspicuous place in the living room… there was a framed, wrinkled A4 printed paper, which was very out of sync with the luxurious atmosphere of the house.

Lin Xian stood up and walked over…

Looking closely, it was as he had guessed.

What was framed inside was a copy of the Hunan University acceptance letter.

This was probably the most precious thing in Zhou Duan Yun's mother's eyes among all the works of famous masters in the house… because Lin Xian found that the other picture frames were covered with a layer of fine dust, obviously because they hadn't been wiped for a long time.

But only the glass frame with the acceptance letter was clean and bright, without a trace of dust. It was obvious that it was carefully wiped every day.

Lin Xian stood here, looking at the acceptance letter that he knew was fake…

He didn't know how long Zhou Duan Yun's mother stood here every day, and how many years she had been proud.

"Which university did you graduate from?" Zhou Duan Yun's mother asked, looking at Lin Xian.

"Auntie, I'm from Donghai University."

"Donghai… that should be quite far from Hunan University, right?"

Lin Xian nodded.

This distance was very close for some people, but for Zhou Duan Yun's mother, it was very far.

Perhaps she had never left this village.

Perhaps in her eyes, Hunan University was the best university in the world.

"Did Zhou Duan Yun come back for the New Year?" Lin Xian asked, turning his head.

"Not this year."

Zhou Duan Yun's mother shook her head.

"It's mainly because he's been busy this year, so he didn't have time to come back. Actually, he usually comes back every year, not just for the New Year, but also often comes back to see me."

Speaking of Zhou Duan Yun, the white-haired woman was very proud.

"My son is very filial. He often calls me, buys me things, and sends me a message every night before going to bed to say good night… I've asked people in the village, and none of their children ever insist on saying good night to them every day!"

"Every day?"

Lin Xian was a little surprised to hear this.

"Every day?"

Lin Xian admitted that he couldn't do this…

Of course, he knew very well that if he sent his mother a good night message every day, his mother would definitely not find it annoying and would definitely be happy.

But… for some reason, it felt a little awkward.

In this regard, Lin Xian still admired Zhou Duan Yun.

He believed that, to some extent, insisting on saying good night to his mother every night was even harder than building a nine-story castle for her.

"Yes! Really! Look!"

Seeing Lin Xian's surprised expression, Zhou Duan Yun's mother was even happier. She took out her phone directly from her pocket, opened her WeChat chat page with Zhou Duan Yun, and handed it to Lin Xian.

"Look, he really sends it every day!"

Lin Xian took the phone. On the left side of the screen, Zhou Duan Yun's white chat box really sent a message every day saying, "Mom, good night."

Sometimes it was, "Rest early, Mom." Sometimes it was, "I'm going to bed, Mom."

Lin Xian quickly swiped the chat history up.

Perhaps because Zhou Duan Yun's mother didn't know how to use the phone very well, the chat between the two was actually very formulaic. Basically, there was no other information besides saying good night to each other.

The format was also very neat.

It was basically one sentence on the left and one sentence on the right.

It was estimated that WeChat was just a machine for saying good night to each other for the two of them. If there was really anything, they would just call directly… Who would chat with their mother on WeChat all day? Anyway, Lin Xian wouldn't.

"He really does send good night every day…"

Lin Xian's speed of swiping up the chat history was already very fast, so fast that there were even afterimages, and he couldn't see the specific content clearly.

But these chat boxes were very short, so they must still be saying good night to each other.

Lin Xian was very curious, when did this start?

As if there was magic, he still quickly swiped up the chat history, just wanting to see when this saying good night to each other started.

"I wait for his good night every day before I sleep!"

Zhou Duan Yun's mother smiled very happily. She held her hands and looked at Zhou Le.

"So I often tell Le Le… Zhou Duan Yun is the best child in the world!"

The chat history on Lin Xian's side had already swiped to 2021…

There was still a screen full of good nights!

It seemed… that he couldn't scroll to the end.

Suddenly.

Among a group of quickly swiping short chat boxes, two long chat boxes suddenly popped up!

Lin Xian suddenly stopped his finger and scrolled back.

He was very curious.

It had always been very short good nights, how could there suddenly be such a long chat?

Scrolling back twice, Lin Xian found the two long messages that Zhou Duan Yun had sent—

October 17, 2021, 16:26

Mom, I can't escape… quickly call the police to protect you! The person who killed me is Ji Xin Shui!