Chapter 1: Thirty Years of Being a Beast of Burden for All Living Souls

"The bride price is 150,000. Before the wedding, you must buy a house and add my name to the deed. You can pay the down payment first, and have your parents cover the monthly mortgage."

"As for a car, I’m not picky about the price or brand, as long as there is one!"

"Oh, right, one more thing: after we get married, I won't be living with your parents. At most, we can only live together for a short period."

"And after we have children, your mother must help take care of them!"

"My family is providing a dowry of 100,000 yuan, which will stay in my hands for me to decide how to spend."

"We’re both from the same hometown, the same county. You should know these conditions aren't excessive!"

"What do you think? If you’re okay with it, we can try dating and get married by the end of the year. If you can’t meet these conditions, let’s not waste each other's time!"

In a hot pot restaurant in Chang'an.

Wang Donglai looked at his blind date, Huo Xiaoli, and gave a bitter smile.

Asking himself honestly, Wang Donglai didn't think the conditions Huo Xiaoli proposed were excessive.

However, he had no way to meet them.

The bride price wasn't expensive; it was standard.

Buying a house was also expected; one couldn't exactly rent forever after getting married.

As for the car, not being picky about the price or brand was already quite reasonable.

All these conditions combined were very logical and normal.

But!

As soon as Wang Donglai thought about his family's situation, he already had his answer.

He didn't speak, silently picking up his water glass to take a sip, his gaze lowered.

When Wang Donglai made this gesture, Huo Xiaoli across from him seemed to understand.

"I understand. In that case, let’s hope we meet again if fate allows!"

"I took the day off with great difficulty, so I’ll head back to get some rest now!"

"Goodbye!"

Huo Xiaoli didn't utter any harsh words. Instead, she offered a polite smile, said these words, and stood up to leave before Wang Donglai could even respond.

"Phew!"

After Huo Xiaoli left, Wang Donglai let out a long, heavy sigh.

Today’s blind date was the niece of his father’s classmate.

Because they were from the same county, their fathers were the same age and shared mutual acquaintances, and they both worked in Tangdu, this blind date had been arranged.

Huo Xiaoli was a nurse at a Grade A tertiary hospital in Tangdu, though she wasn't a permanent staff member—just a contract worker.

As for Wang Donglai, after graduating from university, he had been working in content moderation at a branch of a major internet tech company in Tangdu.

If it weren't for the fact that the internet company Wang Donglai worked for was so famous—having produced several massive, household-name national apps—he wouldn't have even gotten this blind date opportunity.

According to his father, Huo Xiaoli’s uncle—his father’s classmate—was likely to be promoted further in his position as a section chief.

If he married Huo Xiaoli, even if things didn't go well at work in Tangdu, he would have a "temple to worship at" back in their small county.

As for the conditions for the marriage, Wang Yanxing knew them all and had told Wang Donglai not to worry or be afraid; as long as he liked the girl, they would scrape together the money even if it meant selling everything they owned.

When Wang Donglai learned about this blind date, he felt it was all incredibly messed up.

He had never been a serious student growing up. He wanted to play, but didn't dare to completely abandon his studies, so he just did enough to get by.

He barely passed the score threshold for high school, avoiding vocational school.

Once he started high school and lived in the dorms, he let himself go, reading novels day and night.

Compared to others who were addicted to staying up late and skipping class to go to internet cafes, Wang Donglai’s novel-reading was actually not that bad.

By his third year of high school, after wasting two years, he saw the college entrance exam approaching with no hope of getting into a university, so he considered dropping out.

But after his father took him to a construction site for a day, he returned to school.

He wanted to give up novels and study hard for a year to get into college, but he found he simply lacked the perseverance.

He couldn't understand the lessons, his reactions were slow, and he had no willpower.

He only scored four hundred-something on the college entrance exam, barely passing the threshold for a third-tier university.

In college, he failed three or four courses and never thought about what kind of work he would do after graduation, just taking things one step at a time.

When urged to take the civil service or public institution exams to get an "iron rice bowl," he felt he was talented and destined for greatness, yet he was too arrogant and lazy to study or review, and too disdainful to take the exams.

After graduation, he sent out dozens of resumes and spent a month in a small room in an urban village without any progress.

Tangdu had the most universities and the best-educated population in the five northwestern provinces.

A third-tier university degree meant nothing to anyone.

Fortunately, the ByteDance moderation branch opened in Chang'an and needed to hire on a large scale.

Wang Donglai was lucky enough to catch the second wave and submitted his resume.

Even so, if he hadn't said during the interview that he was willing to work the overnight shift, he probably wouldn't have had the chance to join.

The salary wasn't high: a base of two thousand, plus two thousand in subsidies and one thousand in performance bonuses.

It looked like he could make over six thousand yuan, but it required working twenty-five days a month, most of which had to be night shifts.

A night shift subsidy was only a few dozen yuan, adding up to a few hundred a month.

The salary sounded decent when told to others, and since the company was a famous internet giant, outsiders thought Wang Donglai was doing quite well.

But only Wang Donglai knew that there were thousands of moderators in the base, all outsourced, and while they hired every month, dozens of people quit every day.

Trading youth and health for money was no different from working in a factory in the south.

The only difference was the slightly better pay, better benefits, and a better-sounding job title.

In fact, the money Wang Donglai had earned over the past two years was enough to cover the bride price with some left over.

But coming from a rural background, his father’s money hadn't come easily. His university tuition had been a national student loan—eight thousand a year, thirty-two thousand for four years—plus his younger sister’s tuition, totaling sixty-four thousand.

After starting work, Wang Donglai paid off a portion of the debt every two months; it took him over a year to pay it all off.

With a thousand thoughts in his mind, Wang Donglai sighed.

He took his phone out of his pocket, found his father’s number, and called.

"Dad, the blind date is over. We aren't a match."

Concise and to the point, Wang Donglai didn't say much else.

A slightly cautious voice came from the other end of the line. "Why aren't you a match? Did she propose some conditions, or did you not like her?"

"There’s no 'why.' We just aren't a match. I’m still young; I’ll work for a few more years and save some more money before getting married."

Wang Donglai knew what his father was thinking, but he couldn't accept it.

He couldn't let his parents carry a mountain of debt just for his wedding.

And it was clear that even if he did get married, he would be living a miserable, hand-to-mouth existence.

Living in Chang'an was hard enough, let alone starting a family and raising children.

"You're already thirty. Your job outside isn't stable, and you have to stay up all night, which is bad for your health. If you married Huo Xiaoli, I could swallow my pride and go to my old classmate. We’d be family, and he would definitely find you a better job, get you into a better unit as a temp. Then you could work while studying for exams. You still have five years; there’s still a chance."

Listening to the voice on the phone, Wang Donglai felt a surge of emotion, and his eyes grew sore.

"Dad, let's not talk about this. I'm going to eat now. I'll talk to you when I get back!"

Without waiting for a reply, Wang Donglai hung up.

He placed his phone on the table and reached out to grab his water glass, but his hand trembled, and he spilled water onto the phone. A jolt of electricity surged through him, and a sudden feeling of the world spinning overcame him.

The next second, he lost consciousness completely.

Please add to your library.

(End of chapter)