Must-Read Chapter (Essential Reading)

I went back and checked the earlier comments.

I found that some readers think the family, or specifically Feng Ju, didn't do anything wrong, and that the protagonist is simply too useless and should just obey the family's arrangements to support his genius sister.

Ugh.

Perhaps my description was too subtle, but that father was gaslighting the original host, and the sister is a total green tea bitch!

Surely nobody actually believed what the sister said, right? Things like, "I'll soar high in the future, and I'll take you up there with me, brother."

That's just putting on an act, my brothers.

It is just like someone borrowing money; once they get the cash, they will definitely beat their chest and swear they will pay it back. Who would ever tell you in advance, "I'm never going to return this, and your money is down the drain"?

Human beings are creatures that wear masks to perform.

You can't just believe whatever a character says within the story. You need to think a little about the character's purpose in saying those words in that specific context, and whether they actually mean it.

Just think about it a little bit, please.

After all, I really don't want to write those silly, obvious villains who literally walk around with a sign plastered on their foreheads saying, "I am a bad guy, and I am tricking you."

Real villains are much better at acting, aren't they?

However, Feng Ju is indeed a very important character. To prevent any further misunderstandings, I went back and edited the text to make his psychological manipulation of the original host much more straightforward.

In short, Feng Ju's attitude toward the original host is: You are a good-for-nothing loser, and you should be eternally grateful just to eat a mouthful of my food. From now on, you will work like an ox or a horse to subsidize the household and support your sister.

It is just an investment, after all~

This mindset itself isn't necessarily problematic, but relationships among family members shouldn't be governed by such a cold, utilitarian atmosphere. There are some things you might do, but you just don't say them out loud like that, right?

Previously, I wrote things implicitly adhering to this logic, but now I've had Feng Ju spell it out and revised it.

I won't be changing the other characters, so when you are reading, please try to ponder the true intentions and stances of the characters.

Well... being forced to go back and revise earlier chapters at this stage is a last resort. Smart readers should be able to guess what Old Tree plans to write next. Mum's the word—just read between the lines, read between the lines.

More importantly, this book is entering the fourth round of recommendations this week. I sincerely hope everyone will read the newly updated chapters today, tomorrow, and the day after—please keep reading, reading, and reading!

By "reading," I mean clicking through to the latest chapter, staying on the page for about a minute, and flipping to the very last page. That counts as a valid read.

Whether we can make it to the Sanjiang recommendations depends entirely on all of you. Old Tree is kowtowing to you in gratitude!