It’s January now, and William Brooks vaguely remembers that the stock market crash started around this time. He doesn’t know exactly which month it ended, but he does know one thing: the A-shares dropped even lower than the Olympic lucky number, 2008.

A bear market isn’t scary—the scary part is the momentum of the decline.

“How do you know all this? Does someone in your family trade stocks too?”

Mary Foster asked the question she cared about most. She’d only ever heard about stocks when her relatives chatted at home. To be honest, she didn’t really understand it, but looking at the boy in front of her—judging by his clothes, his family didn’t seem particularly wealthy—how could he know so much about stocks?

“Sort of.”

At this point, William Brooks felt he’d said enough. He’d said what he needed to say; whether the other party listened or not was up to them. But William Brooks also knew in his heart that the chances of the The Foster Family changing their fate were slim. After all, to become the richest family in the county, you had to have a gambler’s heart—how could they be so easily swayed by a child’s words?

In another month, the investors would be even more like gamblers who’d lost everything, thinking only about how to win it back, and it would be even less likely for them to stop so easily.

William Brooks left, riding away on his new Sunra electric scooter. Mary Foster watched William Brooks’s departing figure, the slanting sunlight casting a mysterious aura over him.

The scooter moved slowly along the route home. Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar surroundings, William Brooks felt as if ages had passed in his mind.

These self-built houses by the river would be torn down in a few years, replaced by rows of commercial apartment buildings. Even this somewhat dilapidated road would become a six-lane asphalt street in a few years. William Brooks knew all these changes clearly. This special feeling was like someone replaying a movie they’d already seen.

“How could I have forgotten about this?”

Thinking about the demolitions and construction, William Brooks suddenly remembered: this year, his family had spent money to buy an apartment in the county, supposedly to save for his future wedding. Such is the love of parents—they were already thinking about their child’s marriage at this point.

William Brooks had a younger sister, three years his junior, who was in her first year of middle school. The reason they were four grades apart was because, right after William Brooks’s year, elementary school was restructured to have six grades instead of five.

“Sarah Brooks should still be at school now. She’s a boarding student and only comes home on weekends.”

William Brooks attended high school in the county, and Sarah Brooks was also in the best middle school in the county, ranking among the top students in the whole school.

Half an hour later, looking at the three-story self-built house in front of him, William Brooks’s eyes grew a little moist. After parking his little electric scooter, he shouted loudly, “Mom, I’m home!”

“So early? School’s out already?”

Mrs. Brooks came out of the house, surprised to see her son home at this hour.

“The school had a power outage today, so we got out early.”

“I see. Then hurry up and go do your homework. I’ll call you when it’s time for dinner.”

Mrs. Brooks didn’t suspect anything, holding a piece of paper in her hand that looked a bit like a newspaper. Seeing the paper, William Brooks paused, then realized: what his mother was holding wasn’t a newspaper, but a lottery ticket sheet.

Lottery tickets were all the rage in southern towns at this time. The odds had countless rural folks hooked. Even by 2019, many people were still playing.

“Mom, give me a hug.”

“What’s gotten into you? Go do your homework.”

Mrs. Brooks looked at her son in confusion. William Brooks didn’t explain. After a moment, he let go of his mother with a satisfied look. Only at this moment did he realize the benefit of being reborn. At this time, his mother’s face still had few wrinkles; the ruthless knife of time had not yet touched her.

“Mom, don’t worry. From now on, your son won’t let you worry or be troubled because of me again.” William Brooks silently promised in his heart.

Having been reborn, making sure his family could live a happy and carefree life was something he had to do. That was William Brooks’s thought at this moment.

Chapter 4: Never Seen Anyone So Shameless

The room hadn’t changed much from what William Brooks remembered from his previous life. The biggest difference was that there weren’t as many books in the room as there would be in the future.

Sitting on the stool, pen in hand, William Brooks pushed aside the Huanggang mock exam papers on the desk. He’d forgotten most of this stuff; even if he tried now, he wouldn’t be able to do it.

He found a blank notebook, placed a Xinhua Dictionary next to it, and began writing down some key numbers.

763, 788, 324, 476, 879…

This was a kind of code. At this moment, William Brooks felt like an underground operative from wartime, with each number corresponding to a character on the matching page of the Xinhua Dictionary.

He did this because he was afraid someone else might see what was in his notebook—the contents were just too shocking.

Only by making sure the code was something only he could understand could William Brooks truly feel at ease.

But this method of copying was naturally inefficient. By the time Mrs. Brooks called him for dinner, William Brooks had only managed to write up to the events of 2010.