A heavy snowfall this winter suddenly caught fire.

William Clark was at home with Little Clark, watching the news. The news only reported it as a fire, with the specific cause still under investigation, suspected to be improper storage of flammable and explosive materials inside the mall.

If the people at the scene could only learn about everything through videos, then William Clark felt he was probably one of those who knew the truth.

Even the man in the black trench coat and Edward Carter hadn’t realized how much William Clark had already deduced.

From this fire, William Clark sensed a trace of unease. He felt he was just an ordinary person—even if he had some unusual abilities, it was enough to quietly enjoy them on his own. What if that other world was too dangerous?

But for some reason, he always felt that when that bizarre world arrived in the future, no one would be able to stay uninvolved.

If that was really the case, then he had to master the secrets within his own body as soon as possible.

He had to hurry.

Now, the negative emotion income in his hand had already reached as high as 2,493, more than enough to buy a starfruit.

Should he buy two, or just one and use the rest to try the lottery?

Besides wanting to know what kind of help the starfruit would give him, William Clark also wanted to know what other things could come out of the lottery system.

Chapter 12: I’ll Take a Bite, You Listen

At night, William Clark sat on the sofa, accompanying Little Clark as she watched the replay of the Spring Festival Gala, while pondering how to spend his negative emotion points. Although over 2,000 seemed like a lot—at least more than before—William Clark still felt he should be cautious in deciding how to spend this money.

Right now, the system’s shop only showed one item. Who knew what else might appear in the future?

And he didn’t know how those things would show up.

On TV, the host said with a beaming smile, “Voting for my favorite CCTV Spring Festival Gala program of 2010 will end at midnight tomorrow. We hope everyone will cast their precious vote enthusiastically. Next, please enjoy a performance by magician Liu Qian.”

William Clark glanced at Little Clark: “You’ve watched this three times already and still aren’t tired of it? What’s so good about the Spring Festival Gala…”

“Mind your own business.” Little Clark didn’t even take her eyes off the TV screen.

William Clark opened the chat app on his domestic smartphone, keeping an eye on the class group, ready to snatch red envelopes at any moment. There were still a few generous classmates in the class.

Suddenly, he saw a male classmate send a message: “I’m home. Everyone, be careful on the road.”

“I’m home too, haha!”

William Clark looked up and suddenly noticed that Little Clark was no longer watching TV, but instead staring at his phone: “They didn’t invite you to the class gathering again, did they?”

William Clark said indifferently, “They know I don’t have the spare money to split the bill with them. It’s normal not to invite me.”

Little Clark gave him a look of disdain: “And you can just put up with that?”

“You don’t know how expensive daily necessities are until you manage a household. When you turn sixteen, you’ll have to go to school too, and tuition will be a big expense.” William Clark said seriously, “If we don’t save money now, we’ll be in trouble then. Electricity costs money, water costs money. If it weren’t for the fact that we can still grow some vegetables in the yard, we wouldn’t even be able to afford vegetables in winter.”

William Clark leaned back on the sofa, resting his head, wondering when he’d ever be able to make some money.

“William Clark, let’s buy a lottery ticket?” At the mention of the lottery, Little Clark’s eyes lit up. Ever since she saw the news about someone winning tens of millions, she’d been like this.

“That’s all rigged, you know.” William Clark looked disdainful. “The lottery is just a tax on the poor.”

“What if we win?” Little Clark was unconvinced. If others could win, why couldn’t she? “Then I could buy lots of potato chips.”

In Little Clark’s eyes, money was just for food. At this stage, her favorite thing to eat was potato chips.

Hearing the words “potato chips,” William Clark got up and went to his room, took out a bag of tomato-flavored chips, tore open the package, took out a thin chip, and put it in his mouth, crunching away.

Little Clark stared at him: “William Clark, are the chips crispy?”

William Clark glanced at her and said casually, “Oh, I’ll eat another one so you can listen.”

“Negative emotion from Little Clark, +299…”

Pfft, William Clark almost spat out the chip in his mouth. Why did she have such a big grudge…

“Here, here, I bought these snacks for you this morning. They were meant for you anyway.” William Clark handed the chips to Little Clark. He had taken some time in the morning to go to the mall on Shachang Road. Actually, it wasn’t far from where they lived—just three bus stops away.

After checking out the scene and finding nothing unusual, he came back and bought a bag of her favorite chips for Little Clark.

This kid’s biggest problem was that whatever food was advertised on TV, she wanted to eat it. Lately, there had been a lot of potato chip commercials…

The two of them depended on each other. Occasionally being able to make Little Clark happy made William Clark feel quite content.

Besides, it was so simple to make this little girl happy—just give her something tasty.

For most people, happiness was getting harder and harder to find, simply because their desires kept expanding.