“You? Are you trying to make me die of anger? Fine, from today on, don’t even think about asking the family for another cent, and don’t even think about borrowing anything from me…”

As he spoke, Mr. Bennett trailed off. This kid had grown up, but it seemed he’d never actually managed to borrow any real benefit from him.

“I won’t say more, but I’ll leave my words here. Don’t come crawling back for help in a few days.” After a pause, Mr. Bennett scolded with a hint of disdain.

Brian Clark hung up the phone.

He knew such rudeness would make his father furious, but he couldn’t care about that now. There was no way he could accept the other party’s demands in the short term.

He was left with just over a thousand yuan in embarrassment. After graduation, his father had arranged a marriage for him—a political marriage between second-generation heirs. He’d never even met the bride, couldn’t accept it, and ended up falling out with his father.

When he realized he didn’t have enough money before, he’d never even thought of asking his family for help.

Now?

Chapter 3 Divine Book, Divine Book!

Under the sunlight in Jiangxia City, in a row of townhouses in the south of the city, after waking up in a daze, James Carter took a long time to finish washing up—not because he was old and slow, but because he was feeling so depressed.

Anyone who was suddenly diagnosed with HIV would find it hard to recover in a short time.

HIV, AIDS, a terminal illness!

It had been over two months since James Carter was diagnosed, and he still couldn’t accept it. He’d gone to seven or eight hospitals in total, including the Jiangxia Provincial Center for Disease Control, getting checked over and over, but it was still positive. The blow had turned this handsome young man into a disheveled tramp.

“Science is advancing. Maybe in another ten years or so, there’ll be a cure. Forget it, I’d better…”

Better find a way to numb myself.

In the past, as the rich second generation of a big corporation, James Carter would numb himself with a life of luxury and debauchery, indulging in all kinds of pleasures. Now, the way he numbed himself was to sit in front of the computer after sobering up a bit and open Qihang Chinese Web to read novels.

The boundless fantasy worlds in online literature were the best refuge for James Carter, who didn’t dare mess around and harm his body in real life.

After spending a few hours at the computer finishing a novel he’d been following, James Carter stretched, went to the gym for a workout, and only after lunch did he start browsing for a new book.

After searching for half an hour, he came across a seedling called [I’m Really Not Joking]. He thought any book with such a goofy title should be interesting, and if it was interesting, it was worth reading. But after reading the first chapter, he found it was just another clichéd urban rebirth story, with nothing that caught his eye.

“Nothing new, and so few words.”

He was about to close the page when, at the very end, James Carter noticed the author had written a PS at the end of the chapter, telling all readers there was a surprise in the “Related Works” section.

With a strange feeling, he clicked on the only chapter in “Related Works,” and found there was only a single period?

No, at first glance it was a period, but on a second look, he saw a bunch of bizarre uppercase number combinations. James Carter didn’t know that if your talent was ordinary, you’d only ever see a period here, and no matter how many times you looked, you wouldn’t see anything else. The Daoist patterns formed by the stacks of uppercase numbers would be invisible to you.

These numbers, arranged in different patterns, formed a palm-sized circle in the center of the page.