Chapter 1: The System Arrived Too Early
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Zhen Nan was a small county town in the south, its late summer unbearably hot.
Jiang Nian had just returned home and opened the refrigerator door. A wave of cold mist hit his face. He rummaged for a while and finally found a few slices of bread left from breakfast. He took a few reluctant bites, and only after something settled in his stomach did he feel somewhat revived.
His phone vibrated with a buzz—a call was coming in.
It was Le Zhi, the class’s life committee member, a flashy boy whose face was dotted with acne. This guy had added everyone in the class on QQ, claiming it was to promote unity, but in reality, he was just hungry for attention from the girls.
“Jiang Nian, Zhou Yuting is asking people out to hang. She told me to ask if you want to come?” Le Zhi’s tone was tinged with coaxing. He’d once confessed he liked Zhou Yuting.
To be honest, there weren’t many boys in class who didn’t like Zhou Yuting—including Jiang Nian himself.
Zhou Yuting had a delicate, oval face and willowy brows, a slender waist, and long legs. Beneath her summer school uniform, her figure was as soft as the gentle ridges of springtime hills. She was smart, wealthy, and served as the class academic committee member.
“No,” he replied.
“Really not going? Still hung up about her birthday party?” Le Zhi tried to persuade him. “Come on, she didn’t mean anything by it, it was just a joke.”
The mention of that birthday party made Jiang Nian bristle with anger.
Recently, Zhou Yuting had celebrated her birthday with a small dinner—six or seven people in all. Out of goodwill, Jiang Nian had volunteered to go to a nearby convenience store to buy some Vitamin C drinks. When he returned, he overheard Liu Feipeng and a few girls mocking him.
“Bet he just used that as an excuse to ditch us. Honestly, our table did order a bit too much. Maybe he thinks we’re splitting the bill—doesn’t know Da Peng is covering everything tonight.”
“Yeah, and he kept saying how good that cheap drink was, as if we needed his measly contribution.”
“Haha, he’s such a nice guy—right after the dog, of course.”
Laughter erupted among them, and Jiang Nian, standing outside the room, felt a bitter discomfort. He even heard Zhou Yuting laughing—despite how well they usually got along, she hadn’t said a word in his defense.
From then on, Jiang Nian saw through it all—what a bunch of lowlifes.
If not for Zhou Yuting’s birthday, he wouldn’t have wanted to go at all. So what if she was rich? Her sense of superiority was built on stepping over others; pretty on the outside, rotten within.
If he were rich, he wouldn’t even look twice at someone like Zhou Yuting. He’d really misjudged her—damn, so this is what they really thought of him!
“No, let them have their fun,” Jiang Nian said with a cold laugh.
Le Zhi replied, “Alright, I’ll let the beautiful Miss Zhou know.”
Jiang Nian put down his phone and sank onto the sofa with a long, quiet sigh. The world had really changed—when did kindness start making you a clown?
His chest rose and fell in frustration. When you’re poor, you get bullied for it; when you’re rich, everything you do is right.
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At the peak of his anger, a sudden chime rang out in his mind. A translucent panel floated before his eyes, line after line of white text slowly appearing.
“At eighteen, you got into an ordinary second-tier university. After graduation, you joined a large company, working overtime until your liver gave out, running errands until your legs cramped, but never receiving a promotion or a raise.
At twenty-eight, your parents, full of concern, persuaded you to go on blind dates, worried about your lack of success. To protect your pride, they carefully handed you a bank card.
At thirty, the bride price ballooned to 588,000 yuan. Gritting your teeth, you took out loans of 1.34 million yuan for a house and car. The five wedding gifts cost 80,000, the gratitude gift 128,000, the name-changing fee 30,000, and the getting-on and getting-off gifts 66,000.
At your wedding, when the emcee asked the bride if she was willing to marry you, she said no. In that moment, your ears rang, and as you looked at her face, she seemed almost a stranger.
At thirty-two, you still got married, though you and your wife were distant and disconnected. The hotel was grand, the guests numerous, and everyone’s face beamed with smiles.
The bouquet was tossed high, like a white dove dancing in the air.
At thirty-five, you lost your job, and your wife grew increasingly dissatisfied. You had no children; each health check-up brought worse news, and your fights became more frequent.
At thirty-eight, your suitcase rolled across the floor as your wife, face cold, called you useless. Your shattered phone lit up with a call from your parents, ringing endlessly.
In the ruins of your life, you bowed your head and lit a cigarette.
Host: Jiang Nian, Divorce Comeback System loaded…
Do you have the courage… at this age of uncertainty, to begin… turning your life around?”
Sitting on the sofa, Jiang Nian stared at the text in his mind, utterly stunned.
Divorce? At thirty-eight?
What?
Wait… was this panel talking about him? Jiang Nian—the name matched. He sat there, dazed for more than ten minutes, goosebumps rising on his skin.
Suddenly, he jerked his head up as a realization struck him.
“No way, I’m only eighteen!”
Seriously, did this system arrive too early?
He stared at the last line of text frozen on the panel: Do you have the courage… at this crossroads of thirty or forty… to begin turning your life around?
He reached out, and faintly saw two choices: Yes or No.
There wasn’t much to hesitate over. If the system was fake, he’d just treat it as a game of simulated life. If it was real, he had even less reason to refuse.
Jiang Nian knew well how humble a person could become because of poverty. He considered himself lucky—at least his parents were there to bear the burdens of life, and his standard of living wasn’t bad.
But what about the future? What if he couldn’t support his parents one day?
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In this world, you could be incompetent, but you couldn’t be penniless. Hard work didn’t always pay off; choose the wrong path and one misstep could lead to ruin.
He chose: Yes!
The panel gave a buzz and then displayed a new line of text.
“Divorce Comeback Game loaded. Host: Jiang Nian, male, age: 38.
Your marriage has failed. At the crossroads of your late thirties, you remember your childhood friend. After marriage, you lost touch with her, and there’s been no news since.
Reestablish contact with Xu Qianqian. Reward: 300 RMB.”
After reading, Jiang Nian couldn’t help but sneer. Why was this system so verbose?
But it didn’t matter, as long as there was money involved.
Reconnect with his estranged childhood friend, Xu Qianqian. Hmm… He paced the living room for a while, then opened the front door and gazed at the apartment across the hall—Xu Qianqian’s home—falling into thought.
Well then…
Bang, bang, bang!
Jiang Nian knocked on the door with all his might. “Xu Qianqian, what are you doing?!”
Before long, hurried footsteps sounded behind the door, and before the person appeared, a crisp, spirited voice called out.
“Get lost, Jiang Nian! Are you looking for trouble?!”
With a swoosh, the door swung open, revealing a dainty, fuming face.
A lovely girl appeared, about one-sixty tall, dressed in a pale yellow knit top, her chest pronounced as if hiding some secret treasure.
Her eyes were lively, her skin fair, brows arching like distant mountains, long hair tied neatly with a band. He’d never noticed before, but she was already a budding beauty.
Unfortunately, the two had never gotten along, their relationship souring sharply since middle school.
He’d stolen Xu Qianqian’s ice cream, set her pet turtle free in the sewer.
When Xu Qianqian caught a slight cold, he’d insisted on carrying her to the hospital princess-style, causing her to miss an exam—thanks to which, Jiang Nian got his only first place in class ever.
With such a list of misdeeds, Jiang Nian figured he should be grateful that Xu Qianqian hadn’t killed him by now.