Chapter 1: Where’s the Money? Where’s My Money?

“I want a dowry of 300,000 yuan, not a cent less! I’m not concerned about the money, I just want to know how important I am to you. Also, you can’t put your mom’s name on the deed for the apartment, it needs to be in my name.”

In a window seat of a Cafe in Shencheng.

38 year-old Jiang Qin suddenly felt like the face of the woman he was planning to marry looked a bit unfamiliar.

They had met through a matchmaker and had been together for over half a year. Since neither of them were young anymore, there was no time to drag things out any longer, so they had recently been discussing marriage.

To be honest, Jiang Qin didn’t have strong feelings for her, and he believed she felt more or less the same.

After all, approaching forty, was getting married and having kids really about love anymore?

It was just about not wanting to grow old alone…

But he didn’t say anything, just silently sipped the water in his cup and looked out the glass display window, his ears automatically blocking out her voice.

He felt like this thing called life was actually pretty shitty.

Because his parents said knowledge changes your fate, he had studied hard since he was little, thinking he would definitely end up wealthy and distinguished, an extraordinary person.

But after starting work, he realized he couldn’t even be considered an ordinary person.

In early 2016 when he first entered the workforce, he was forced to drink excessively by clients at a banquet and ended up in the hospital, unable to see his grandmother who raised him one last time before she passed.

In 2019, his project imploded and he had to take the fall, holing up in a rental eating instant noodles for five months, unable to distinguish reality from dreams.

His next job was pretty stable, but very far from where he lived. He worked his liver to the bone, holding his pee for two rounds just to save up for a car.

In 2022, he finally bought the car but discovered he couldn’t afford the gas and there was no end to his urination.

After turning thirty, he found rent was increasing faster than his salary, so he desperately saved money and informed his parents of his plan to buy a place in Shencheng.

From that day on, meat never appeared on his parents’ table again.

But he still couldn’t scrape together enough for the down payment, so his dad secretly started working nights as a rideshare driver on top of his day job and nearly had a stroke from it.

Did poverty really have anything to do with laziness?

Jiang Qin had been pondering this question for years.

He felt he had been diligent enough, completely living up to his name.

But where was the money?

Who ended up making all the money?

When he was little, his parents had solemnly told him that as long as he was willing to work hard, he would definitely stand out from the crowd.

But the reality he discovered after growing up was that as long as you’re willing to suffer, there will always be endless suffering.

Now, his matchmaking partner wanted a 300,000 yuan dowry.

“Jiang Qin, are you listening to me?”

“Yeah, I’ve been listening the whole time.”

“Then why aren’t you saying anything? I’ve been talking for so long my throat is hoarse and you don’t even care!”

Jiang Qin put down his water glass and after a long silence said: “Let’s just forget about getting married.”

The woman was stunned for a moment before erupting in anger. “What do you mean by that?”

“Nothing, I just feel really tired and want to go home and sleep.”

“Jiang Qin you coward, no wonder you’re thirty-eight and no woman wants you!”

Ignoring the woman’s raging, Jiang Qin strode out of the Western restaurant and aimlessly walked along the street.

When he passed a construction site, he saw a banner hanging on the wall that said “laborers are the upper class”.

He lit a cigarette, took a couple puffs then burned a hole in the banner.

He didn’t really hold a grudge against that woman, and even felt her demands were pretty normal.

She was already thirty-five, what’s wrong with being a bit realistic?

He was just pondering a question.

When would days like these come to an end?

Those who’ve never done manual labor desperately tout that laborers are the upper class, while those who have always labored don’t dare say anything, they can only nod in agreement. Yeah sure, right, right.

But in what way was he part of the upper class?

In this life he’d only scored two pairs of Air Jordans and they were knockoffs made in China. You call that upper class?

As for love?

Jiang Qin wasn’t even sure if such a thing existed.

He had been on some matchmaking dates, met some girls introduced by friends. Any of them he could make do with, but the saddest part was it would only be making do.

Looking back on his life, there were way too many regrets…

Jiang Qin sighed, took out his phone from his pocket, wanting to find a friend to have a drink with. But when he opened it, he saw 4 text messages.

A credit card payment overdue notice, A warning that his Phone bill was overdue and a message random scam message: “Hey baby I’m nearby, I am all alone at home today.”

Finally the last one… it was from his direct manager, using sincere language to tell him that the company’s profits haven’t been good lately and they hoped employees could voluntarily take a pay cut to help the company weather this difficult time together.

Jiang Qin instantly lost any interest in drinking and continued smoking under the building under construction.

In this day and age, if you want money you absolutely can’t work as an employee, because the distribution of resources in this society is inherently unfair.

But thinking of his age, Jiang Qin couldn’t help but laugh.

It’s a bit unrealistic to go start a business at 38 right?

The past couple years his back has been wrecked. He has cervical spine issues, his nerve pain problems come and go more frequently than his need to pee.

Dragging this decrepit body to start a business, even if he succeeds he’ll already be fifty. What’s left to enjoy in life at that point?

If only he could start over. No matter what work, just don’t be an employee. If he can be a rich woman’s boy toy then be a boy toy.

If that doesn’t work out then start a business. Firmly believe money lost can be earned again, but with your conscience gone you’ll earn even more.

Jiang Qin took a deep breath, rubbed his sore neck, and couldn’t help glancing up.

Hm?

What’s that dark shadowy thing? And it’s coming right at me?

“…”
His conscious fading in and out with the sound of doctors speaking and an echo of a tv in the background.

“Give him a shot of adrenaline, quickly!”

“…”

“Bzzz… Welcome the new Olympics, be civilized, set new trends!”

“…”

“Where’s Director Liu? Ask if the operating room is ready yet, hurry!”

“…”

“Bzzz… My door is always open, waiting for you with open arms.”

Jiang Qin suddenly felt his vision was a bit dazzling, his ears a bit noisy, his skin a bit burning hot and his mind a bit hazy.

Amidst the blurriness, he saw a very pretty young girl, probably seventeen or eighteen years old.

She was wearing a puffy floral dress, revealing a small section of fair, smooth calves. Pert nose, red with delicate lips, slender and curled eyelashes, and a pair of bright limpid eyes.

Jiang Qin smiled.

In all these years of diligently working to help his boss earn money, upgrade his car and villa, he had never even dreamed of such a beautiful girl.

Such a beautiful girl, she’d probably cry for a long time if you hurt her, right?

“Jiang Qin, I really don’t want to be friends, sorry.”

Jiang Qin couldn’t smile anymore

‘Huh?’

He found the young girl before him was becoming more and more vivid and clear.

The floral print on her puffy dress was chrysanthemums. She stood gracefully on the red plastic track, using her snow-white arms to lightly shade her eyes from the sunlight.

But even so, the scorching weather still made this lively and beautiful young girl display a hint of irritation.

“If you don’t say anything I’ll take that as agreement. We’re still good friends, right?”

Jiang Qin’s brow began to furrow, a grave look flashing through his eyes.

He knew this girl, the class beauty Chu Siqi from his high school days. She should already be married by now, right?

From high school through university, he had pursued her for seven years and nearly had his belief in life rejected into oblivion by her.

Actually, Jiang Qin wasn’t a hopeless simp, and couldn’t bring himself to relentlessly harass her either.

But the problem was Chu Siqi constantly inserted herself into his life under the guise of friendship, telling him to do this and that, not allowing him to date other girls, occasionally giving him a bit of hope, tossing him a couple candies. It really left teenage Jiang Qin in quite a bind.

She was full of excuses such as:

“I’ll consider being your girlfriend after freshman year of college!”

“I didn’t expect sophomore year coursework to be so heavy. Let’s talk about it junior year.”

“Junior year I have a lot of competitions to take part in, I don’t have time to date.”

Until the second semester of junior year, when she walked in hand-in-hand with a tall, skinny guy, wearing matching couple outfits.

That day she was all gentleness, eyes shining like the starry river, smilingly asking her boyfriend if she was cute.

After that, he encased his heart in concrete and never had any thoughts of dating again. That’s why he had the story of halfheartedly finding someone to marry at thirty-eight.

The concept of a “backup” didn’t exist yet in ’08. It wasn’t until the internet developed more later on that Jiang Qin realized, turned out he was just her backup.

She just hadn’t found someone suitable yet, so she kept him at arm’s length the whole time. If she was in a good mood she’d joke around a bit, if she wasn’t then she’d ignore him completely.

Put bluntly, to her he was just a tool to pass the time when she was bored.

The past flashed before his eyes, but Jiang Qin felt a bit dizzy at this moment, and his ears were ringing.

The South City High School from his memories, this is the class beauty in her youth.

Was this… rebirth?

Or was he dreaming?

If it was rebirth, then where was the ding? Why was there no ding? Where is my System?!

Jiang Qin stretched out a trembling hand, grasping at air a couple times. No virtual screen was activated.

Was this a fake rebirth? They didn’t even give him a system, what a scam.

“Jiang Qin, did you hear what I said? I really don’t want to date right now.”

“Okay, whatever you say.”

Jiang Qin casually responded, then immediately closed his eyes, wanting to see if he could activate a cheat system with his mind. But unfortunately, he failed. There really was no system.

Hearing his straightforward answer, Chu Siqi was a bit unexpectedly taken aback. Jiang Qin’s attitude was full of indifference, making her feel like she had punched cotton, suddenly powerless.

“Did you not hear me clearly? I just rejected you!”

“I heard, I’m not deaf.”

“Then… then do you have nothing to say to me?”

Jiang Qin accepted the reality of not having a system, his gaze falling on Chu Siqi’s hand. “What’s that thing you’re holding?”

Chu Siqi haughtily raised the envelope in her hand. “This is the love letter you just stuffed at me. I already said I don’t want it but you still gave it to me. Don’t write anymore next time.”

“Can you give it back to me? I have a use for it.”

Jiang Qin didn’t wait for her to agree before taking the love letter back himself. He took out the page inside, crumpled it into a ball and stuffed it in his pocket. Then he spread the envelope out again, laying it flat on his knee, and swiftly wrote a couple lines.

‘Never work a job if you can avoid it, latch onto a wealthy woman if possible.’
‘Money can always be earned back, but lose your conscience and you’ll earn even more.’
‘Never be a corporate drone!’

Editor:

-Shencheng is another name for “Shanghai”. I’ll mass change it at a later date.

– 300,000 yuan converts to around $41k/£33k