Chapter 2000: Chapter 1903: The Reply Poster

Everyone decided Zhang Chao was lying, but due to Zhang Chao’s insistence, no one felt it right to persuade further, so they all followed Zhang Chao into the internet café.

However, they all held onto the idea that Zhang Chao needed a reality check, thinking that Zhang Chao must have been too suppressed by household trifles and started spouting nonsense after getting drunk.

Yet, when Zhang Chao casually found a computer in the internet café, booted it up, skillfully opened the homepage of the Haijiao forum, logged into his account, and clicked on the post he had previously browsed and replied to, everyone’s face showed a look of shock.

Because Zhang Chao’s account nickname was exactly the same as the name of the person who suggested digging diamonds at Volcano Park in the post mentioned by Huo Sining at the press conference before; each character was identical, with absolutely no chance of it being a knock-off.

Now, everyone was stunned, what Zhang Chao said turned out to be true!

With a proud smile appearing on Zhang Chao’s face, the bunch of guys who looked down on him just now and thought he was bragging, were now dumbfounded seeing the evidence he showed?

"Oh boy, so it was you who replied to that post!"

"Wow, I didn’t see that coming, Chaozi, turns out you got such unique insight and suggestion, huh?"

"Something about this doesn’t add up, though. So many people are following the thread’s developments online, asking about your situation, even I and Tiendan were guessing recently who the person who replied was, never thought it was hidden among us!"

"If I hadn’t seen this kid entering the account and password, even if it was right in front of me, I wouldn’t believe it was this kid who did it, either!"

"I don’t believe it either, Chaozi, you haven’t been to America, how do you know about the diamond digging in that state?"

A buddy raised a doubt, Zhang Chao’s face instantly reddened, somewhat sheepishly scratching the back of his head, before awkwardly laughing and explaining:

"Actually, I didn’t know either. I just read an article in an old magazine last year which mentioned a themed park in Oregon State, America, specifically for diamond digging. It said that as long as you pay for the entrance ticket, you can go in to dig diamonds, and you can keep the diamonds you find."

"You guys know my family’s situation. I’m desperately in need of money now, wish I could split a dollar into two, and even today’s street food, if it weren’t for you guys treating me, I wouldn’t dare to come."

"So when I saw that article, I remembered that info, and even daydreamed that if this Volcano Park was in our Huaxia Country, in Fucheng, how great it would be, then I’d go in every day, spend some ticket money to dig diamonds. I don’t believe it; I couldn’t dig out a big diamond. By that time, maybe I’d strike it rich, and I’d have money for my dad’s treatment."

After hearing Zhang Chao’s words, everyone fell silent and became sorrowful.

Though their family conditions weren’t wealthy, they were way better compared to Zhang Chao.

A few years ago, before Zhang Chao’s family incident occurred, they attended a middle school together, hence a group of them spent every day wilding out, cutting classes for internet fights, and not many genuinely attended school.

Yet last year, Zhang Chao’s family had an incident; his father became bedridden, his grandma stressed herself into passing away suddenly, and Zhang Chao’s mom ran off with someone, leaving Zhang Chao alone to support the family.

It was during that time that Zhang Chao suddenly applied for school dropout, and found a job as a handyman nearby, earning about a thousand yuan a month, with nothing left after his father’s medical bills and living expenses each month.

The buddies all saw this, so everyone understood Zhang Chao was having a tough time, often inviting him for BBQ skewers and beers, but would never let him pay.

Now hearing Zhang Chao’s heartfelt words, everyone couldn’t help but sigh deeply. Technically, Zhang Chao was still one of the younger ones among them, merely seventeen, yet bearing such a heavy burden. No wonder this kid keeps thinking about striking it rich day after day.

Perhaps, only by striking it rich could he relieve the family’s hardship and put down the heavy burden in his heart.

Sensing the uncomfortable atmosphere, perhaps realizing he shouldn’t have said those things, Zhang Chao laughed self-deprecatingly, using feigned ease to break the awkwardness:

"Honestly, when I replied to that post, I never intended to give the poster any advice, I was just messing with the poster."

Upon hearing Zhang Chao say this, everyone shifted their attention to him, a buddy, not understanding, instinctively asked, "Messing with? What do you mean?"

Zhang Chao shrugged and said:

"Just literally, honestly, after reading that article, I looked up information on Volcano Park online. The data said that since opening, only a few managed to dig diamonds there; so I knew unless luck was extraordinarily high, it’s practically impossible to find diamonds in that park."

"The poster used a very anxious tone when posting this, after reading it, I had one thought, I thought this poster must also be someone crazy about getting rich, so I deliberately proposed the diamond digging suggestion at Volcano Park, actually to trick the poster, but didn’t expect, unintentionally, it indeed allowed Huo Sining and her team to dig up diamonds."

Nobody expected there was such a story behind this, everyone was speechless, looking at Zhang Chao with even more sympathy.

A buddy suddenly remembered something, looking at Zhang Chao and said:

"Come to think of it, this is a good thing, recently I saw people on Weibo checking your account info, looks like they’re trying to find you, Chaozi. I think if you just release your info, you might go viral on Weibo because of this, maybe even become an internet celebrity."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Chao’s eyes couldn’t help but brighten: "Can this work?"

The buddy said, "Why not? Though you jokingly replied back then, regardless, that’s still helping that Miss Huo, right? I saw Miss Huo’s Weibo followers are over ten million; if you could connect with her on Weibo, it might attract a bunch of fans, turning into a big influencer, and you could make money using that platform. I reckon with Miss Huo’s character, she won’t refuse to reciprocate!"