Time passed as Zhou You spent his days buying, buying, buying, buying, and buying.
Happy times were short, but earning money was exhilarating. Every day brought income, every day he watched his assets double and triple. This kept Zhou You in a state of high excitement throughout the period.
During this time, Zhou You had practically visited every welfare lottery and sports lottery outlet in Luzhou, big and small. The Luzhou of now wasn't like the old Luzhou; it was just beginning to develop and hadn't yet taken on the appearance of a future new first-tier city.
When he first came to Luzhou for college, Zhou You noticed the city was too small. It didn't feel like a provincial capital at all—more like a big county town, not even a slightly bustling, populous city.
Later, a new leader came in and pushed through bold reforms, laying the foundation for development. Otherwise, Luzhou would probably still be an obscure provincial capital in central China.
In fact, back in 2014 or 2015, Luzhou was even rated the happiest city. At that time, the people of Luzhou were indeed quite happy—salaries were around four to five thousand yuan, and housing prices were also about five thousand yuan. You could buy a square meter with a month's salary—can you imagine that? An ordinary young person could save up for a down payment after a few years of work.
Later, salaries stayed at four to five thousand yuan, but housing prices shot up to thirty to forty thousand. Ordinary people could no longer afford a home on their wages. In 2016, Luzhou even topped the list of Asia's fastest-rising housing prices, directly wiping out the happiness index of its residents.
The South Africa World Cup lasted a month, and it was Zhou You's busiest time. He threw himself into buying lottery tickets, spreading out his funds to avoid unnecessary trouble.
I have to say, making money for yourself is tiring, but it's also joyful. What woke him up every day wasn't an alarm clock, but the sound of money flowing in.
For that month, he left early and returned late every day, even making Big Head curious about what Zhou You was so busy with.
Big Head asked, "Zhou You, aren't you tired watching the World Cup every day?"
"Tired? How could I be tired? I'm excited, okay? Do I look tired at all?"
"I really haven't seen you this excited before. Is the World Cup that good?"
"Good? How could it not be good? This is the most important World Cup of my life," Zhou You said happily.
"Alright, but don't forget, the dorm supervisor is urging us to leave," Big Head said gloomily.
"What are you afraid of? Your family's local—you've already sent your luggage home."
"I'm worried about you, okay? Do you need me to help you move?"
"No need, I don't have much stuff. I'm busy lately, so I'll just tell the dorm supervisor I'll move out a bit later. We're still at the same school anyway," Zhou You said casually.
Zhou You still hadn't decided whether to stay in the temporary housing, rent a place outside, or just buy a house outright. With the money he had now, he could buy a house directly, but he hadn't figured out how to explain the source of his funds.
When he came back the next day, Zhou You brought the dorm supervisor a bag of fruit and mentioned that he had signed a contract with the school to become a teacher, so he might need to move out a little later.
The dorm supervisor looked at him and said, "No problem. The school requires everyone to leave by the end of July at the latest. We need to have the dorms ready before the new students arrive."
"Okay, ma'am, I won't hold you up. I'll probably be around mid-August."
Buying a house was simple, but most were still bare shells, and it took a long time from getting the keys to finishing the renovation. Plus, most new houses were pre-sales, meaning you wouldn't get them for two or three years. From a comfort perspective, he preferred buying a house to living in the temporary housing.
On July 11, the World Cup ended, and Zhou You felt at ease. Looking at the balances in his four bank cards—ICBC, Agricultural Bank, Postal Savings, and China Construction Bank—he felt a deep sense of satisfaction. The total came to over 43 million yuan.
In his past life, he could never have earned that much money, unless there was massive inflation and the government printed a ton of currency. But then, the purchasing power of that money would plummet.
Residents had always been held hostage by inflation, with an annual rate of about 10%. That meant if you did nothing, your money would lose that much value every year. And that didn't even account for the fact that if you didn't buy a house in the following years, your money would depreciate even faster.
In the first year, you could pay in full; in the second year, it became a down payment; in the third year, you couldn't afford it. From a villa to a townhouse to a high-rise—you'd watch your money shrink, and the psychological blow would be crushing.
You did nothing wrong—you just bought a house a few years later, were born a few years later, or graduated a few years later. And then you couldn't afford a house, left behind by the train of the times.
Isn't that ridiculous? What did you do wrong?
That's why many little pinkos get beaten down into little cynics once they enter society.
Reading, studying, and learning require thinking; otherwise, your head gets filled with crap. They tell you to eat shit, and you eat it, thinking it's grain, meat, or a delicacy.
Zhou You had suffered enough of that in his past life, naively believing he could buy a house through hard work and struggle. Every time he saved up enough, housing prices would jump. He'd get close again, and they'd jump again, until he finally had to rely on his parents.
At first, relying on parents was a derogatory term. But as housing prices skyrocketed, it became a compliment—because it meant you had parents to rely on, you had six wallets. Many young people didn't have six wallets, so they had to give up.
Gradually, marriage rates dropped, birth rates dropped. A cliff-like decline.
Forget it, he couldn't keep thinking about it. The more Zhou You thought, the angrier he got.
That was the downside of reading too much—you knew too many things, but you couldn't change anything. Like when people ask what's the use of reading—even if you know, what can you do? You still can't change it.
That statement was actually true. In many cases, you can't change things. You read a lot, understand a lot of principles, but still can't live a good life.
Because to live a good life, you need to be ruthless, thick-skinned, and black-hearted. Many people can't do that. It goes against their conscience, their moral sense, social ethics, and public decency. It's very hard.
People used to believe in karma and retribution. They feared doing evil because they'd go to hell after death. But as feudal superstitions were dismantled and science advanced, the beast inside many people was unleashed. They did evil freely, caring only about their glory in life, not the flood after death.
And now, with globalization, you could do evil here and live there. China's Yan Wang couldn't reach the Western God. Rituals and music collapsed, and the world declined. If Confucius saw this scene now, would he compare it to his own era?
People are still people, but once constraints are gone, what's the difference from beasts?