Chapter 430: Going Home for a Matchmaking

On the way out of school, Xu Qianqian asked casually.

"What did you do this afternoon?"

The night was deep, the school path dimly lit and crowded with students leaving after evening self-study, walking home in small groups.

Jiang Nian answered honestly.

"Wrote test papers in the classroom, then played cards with a pretty female classmate."

Xu Qianqian hesitated for a moment, then asked curiously.

"How many test papers did you finish?"

"Huh? Is that relevant?" Jiang Nian turned to look at her and asked back, "Aren't you going to ask about the pretty female classmate?"

"Was playing cards fun?"

"Not really—I cheated," Jiang Nian stuck to honesty, "Won five hands straight, then they refused to play with me."

"Pfft, your daydream's pretty vivid," Xu Qianqian tilted her head and glanced at him, "Why not say you're the Gambling God?"

The two walked out the school gate and crossed through the entrance.

"I'm not the Gambling God—refuse gambling starting from you, me, and him," Jiang Nian said, "Refuse being horny starting from you and him."

"What about you?" Xu Qianqian stared at him with empty eyes.

"I'm fine."

"Who asked you that!"

Chattering all the way, they wandered to the alley entrance. A few steps in, they encountered a drunk man stumbling down the narrow path.

Under the streetlamp, Xu Qianqian instinctively tensed up.

Jiang Nian glanced at the drunk man and thought he was probably a local tenant—this area was famously rundown, packed with old houses.

Neither torn down nor wanted for demolition.

Zhennan was a district-level county, and over the past few years, its security had been quite good; it was rare to see drunkards in the alleys, especially not around New Year.

Jiang Nian pulled Xu Qianqian behind him, and they walked along the side of the passage.

During this time, Xu Qianqian held her breath.

As they passed, she gripped Jiang Nian's clothes—not because she feared the drunk man might attack, but because she feared Jiang Nian might act impulsively.

Drunk men die easily.

Fragile.

Fortunately, nothing happened; Xu Qianqian let out a sigh of relief.

"Scared me to death."

"He's just drunk—how scary is that?" Jiang Nian felt nothing, even a little amused.

"You don't understand!" Xu Qianqian rolled her eyes at him.

She thought to herself: today, the Qianqian Immortal had saved another life—saving one life surpasses building seven-tier pagodas; she had won.

Whatever, too many pagodas to count.

She had a habit: every time she saved a life, she'd adopt a Gou Gou Da in her farm game, then tally them up on weekends.

One good deed a day, her farm was full of Gou Gou Das.

After returning home.

Xu Qianqian da

Da da returned to her room, turned on her computer, logged into the farm game, and confirmed claiming a Gou Gou Da.

Clicked for a long time, typed in a name.

【Jiangkou Escaped Drunk Man】.

"Too abstract—can this stupid game even raise chickens?" Jiang Nian, after washing up, opened the game recommended by Xi Yangyang.

Lü Xuan: "It's pretty fun, highly recommended."

Trusting Xi Yangyang, Jiang Nian decided to try it—after all, Chinese people were born to farm; no farming, no gaming.

After some fiddling, he found it cost money.

"Huh?"

He typed a message to Lü Xuan, telling her a tragic story of a male Gao Zhongsheng, crafting a short sad tale.

"Is he really your friend?"

"Yes," Jiang Nian replied, "His name is Li Hua. To save someone, he now has the intelligence of a three-year-old child."

"How tragic."

"I recommended your game to him too. His only wish before dying was to play this game."

"But he's poor."

howsay, love brother or love game?

Love game!

Perhaps someone will ask—isn't this immoral?

Of course it is!

But! The immoral one is Jiang Nian before he got the game—what does the happy Jiang Nian playing the game have to do with it?

Nothing.

Lü Xuan: "I'll pay for him."

"Really?" Jiang Nian grinned and replied, "Xi Yangyang, you're such a good person—I'll make him kowtow to you someday."

Lü Xuan: "?"

Ding—a notification appeared: game purchase successful.

Jiang Nian ignored Lü Xuan, opening a game on his old computer while wondering if he should get a new one.

After thinking carefully, it wasn't necessary—the usage rate was too low.

The provincial exam was coming soon; there was no rush right now. He figured he'd play for an hour, then do some test papers before sleeping.

A buzz—his phone vibrated.

Jiang Nian was playing the beginner mode when he discovered this thing could be played online. Instantly intrigued, he played while chatting.

Li Qingrong: "Chatting."

"Oh oh, I recently found a really good……" Jiang Nian typed half, then realized something,

Deleted it quickly.

No way—this damn game lets you name your chickens.

If I recommend it to the monitor, tomorrow I might see a chicken named after me. That's not happening!

"How's it feeling sitting in the front row?"

Li Qingrong: "Bad."

"I'm not used to it either, but there's nothing I can do—

sit in front of you." Jiang Nian offered a casual comfort, then named his chicken.

【Li Hua】.

Pfft—looked better the more he stared. Posted it in the group.

Buzz!

Li Qingrong: "The person in front of me is a trash can."

Jiang Nian rubbed his chin, pondering the Son of Heaven's meaning.

"Should I go in?"

"No.

Good thing it's not telling me to sit on a trash can."

He didn't know when the monitor slept, so he chatted half-heartedly, combining gaming with group chatting.

The happy daily life of a boys' high school—stealing moments of leisure in the night.

Class Three group chat (no traitors version).

Old Man Niu: "@Alpine-flavored Toe, Chi Shi, Chi Shi—who let you name your chicken after your dad! (Husky pointing at person) Delete it!"

Jiang Nian: "I'll raise it, I'll raise it."

Brownie Cake: "@Al……Jiang Nian, what the hell kind of name is that?"

Jiang Nian: "(pointing at person) Shut up."

After a stretch of chatting and playing, he snapped back to reality—it was midnight.

A buzz.

Li Qingrong: "Asleep?"

Jiang Nian jolted awake—he'd gotten hooked on the game. He checked his phone; his reply to the monitor had been sent ten minutes ago: "Not yet, doing homework." He put down the game and focused entirely on chatting with the monitor: "What are you doing?"

"Looking at apartments."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian jolted fully awake.

The New Year was two weeks away; Li Qingrong's parents would be returning soon. The signs pointed to her actually running away from home.

He typed: "Found one yet?"

"No."

Jiang Nian lost all interest in doing test papers. He propped his chin on his desk. The small desk lamp cast a dim glow, illuminating his face like jade.

"What kind of apartment do you want?"

"Anything's fine."

The monitor saying "anything's fine" didn't mean it actually was.

He searched on his phone for a while and found nearly all listings online were posted by agents, mostly three-bedroom apartments.

Zhennan was a small county; only a fraction of homes were listed online.

They looked decent, but the prices were a bit high.

They couldn't compare to the monitor's home, but they were clean and spacious. Still… all were too far from school—not ideal for commuting.

The closer ones were near the North Gate… pitch-black streets.

No matter how you looked at it, they weren't safe.

Jiang Nian thought it over and decided to walk around beside the school this week—see if he could find a decent apartment, repay a favor.

After replying to the monitor, he had no urge to do test papers. After hesitating, he turned off the light, got into bed, and lay quietly under the covers.

Time to claim the reward.

As he opened 【Ex-Wife's Memory Fragments】, Jiang Nian wondered: if he searched for an apartment while activating both Precision and 【Lucky Draw】 at once?

Drowsy, his eyelids grew heavier.

Like a movie beginning, the scene ahead remained dark—but he heard thunderous echoes all around him.

"I'm going out for a few days."

A middle-aged man's voice—muffled, weary, with suppressed anger on the verge of explosion.

"Again?" A woman's shrill voice cut in. "Is there even a man left in this house? Does it even look like a home?"

Jiang Nian, as if wearing immersive audio gear, felt the 360-degree surround sound. He couldn't help but sigh—this damn system had upgraded again.

"Oh." The man's voice replied.

The scene slowly brightened—a dim, cramped room, revealing the furious face of a middle-aged woman.

The perspective was from behind the man, watching as the woman kept walking forward. An aggressive viewpoint, pressing in step by step.

The man was forced to retreat, yet remained silent.

Until the man's back pressed against the wall, trapped in a dead end. He knocked over the dried cowpeas hanging on the calendar, which clattered to the floor.

Watching this, Jiang Nian felt a faint flash of insight.

This must be the ex-wife's perspective, a cinematic memory sequence. While delivering information, it also represents the ex-wife's stance.

From this, one can infer the ex-wife's thoughts from the memory imagery.

For instance, right now, in her eyes.

The woman was the dominant party, while the middle-aged man was driven into a corner. The shattered dried beans might represent a line of defense.

"Can you leave me alone for a bit?" the man asked.

"Stop putting on an act!"

Buzz!

The perspective shifted; the ex-wife seemed to have moved to a position between the two. In the frame, the man and woman occupied equal space.

But neither ever turned to look at her, meaning the two still couldn't stand together because of "her."

"You're sick!"

With a clatter, the man roared angrily. Then he turned and walked off, knocking over the thermos's hot water as he strode away.

Clatter, clatter— the space fell silent.

No one helped.

At that moment, Jiang Nian heard the sound of a heartbeat. The camera also gradually zoomed in, focusing on that fallen thermos.

A magnetic female voice rose as narration.

"I'm just like that fallen thermos— no one cares."

Jiang Nian suddenly perked up, not because he enjoyed watching domestic gossip, but because he had finally heard the ex-wife's voice.

All too familiar— a mature older-sister voice.

Time

Three months apart, and he was hearing the ex-wife's voice again. He felt a touch of sentimentality, still remembering how very young the system had been back then.

Not long after the opening, he had memorized the faces of the ex-wife's parents. And hearing the ex-wife's voice— the information density was decent, relatively speaking.

As for the ex-wife's family issues, one could only say they weren't surprising.

Monkey see, monkey do.

Parents are always a child's best teachers— the good and the bad alike get learned, and slowly one becomes a copy of one's parents.

So, dating someone from a dysfunctional family gets a big thumbs-up.

Go ahead, date one— guaranteed silence.

Jiang Nian skimmed through; the rest was scattered memories of adolescence, desks and chairs he couldn't tell belonged to which building's class.

As expected, the location was probably Zhennan Middle School.

Receiving love letters, being confessed to.

Part-time jobs after the college entrance exam, going to college...:::. Holy crap, looking at the scale of the university. It didn't seem like a second-tier school— more like a top-tier one.

How does one tell the difference?

In the memories, the ex-wife's roommate had a heartbreak and jumped.

The entire dorm got guaranteed postgrad spots.

Seeing this, Jiang Nian— though he knew it was hellish and impolite— still couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing. What kind of guaranteed postgrad spot costs a roommate's life?

The memories began fast-forwarding from here, which also meant the ex-wife seemed to have little interest in those six or seven years of college life?

Or perhaps it was too utterly unremarkable, leaving no real memories behind.

After graduation, the ex-wife, with her excellent resume, successfully landed a job at a large advertising firm.

In the interview, she caught the eye of the female boss of the Human Resources Department and became a small-time rookie in the Marketing Department.

The Sales Department folks were quite arrogant?

This proved that group really was arrogant— to have left such a deep impression on the ex-wife, a woman who was herself so cold and unfeeling, was truly something.

Work mistakes, getting scolded.

Silently cleaning up the mess, pulling overtime..... starting to do grunt work. Taking the initiative to learn, joining new projects again, sitting in on budget meetings.

In the ex-wife's perspective, even when being scolded by her superior, the frame didn't shake; the comeback shot didn't shake either.

This meant she didn't care.

Seeing this, Jiang Nian couldn't help but draw a sharp breath. He thought to himself that this woman was truly ruthless— ruthless to others and to herself.

The memories kept advancing until, at a certain moment, they stopped.

The frame trembled.

"Are you okay?"

Hearing that, Jiang Nian froze.

He heard his own voice. Even though it had grown a bit deeper and hoarser in adulthood, he still recognized it.

That's right— it was himself.

But....... clearly he and the ex-wife had met through a matchmaking arrangement, yet the memories obviously hadn't progressed to the matchmaking and engagement stage yet.

Progress.

He estimated the ex-wife was probably around 25 at this point.

A workplace rookie, slowly finding her footing.

The scene before him shifted, and sure enough, his own face came into view. Looking at the appearance, there was no obvious difference— just a bit younger than twenty-eight.

Jiang Nian had seen his own face at twenty-eight; his looks hadn't changed much.

Looking at his eyes, they didn't seem as clouded.

So, rounding to the nearest whole number—

He could only roughly guess a number—his future self might be twenty-six, or also twenty-five. In other words, before the blind date, he had met his ex-wife.

"I'm fine." His ex-wife reached out her hand and was pulled up. "You too…"

"I quit."

"Oh." His ex-wife fell silent for a few seconds. "Thank you."

His ex-wife's words proved one thing—she had an impression of his future self. Perhaps they were at the same company, but that wasn't right either,

... couldn't reach.

In any case, they should have run into each other often going to and from work.

From his ex-wife's perspective, she watched the retreating back of his future self without moving. After a few seconds, she finally turned and entered the elevator.

Ding!

Memory resumed double speed once more, the city's work hours rolling by rapidly. Faces came and went in succession, new people replacing old at the workstations.

Jiang Nian noticed carefully that the department's turnover rate stayed at roughly thirty percent.

Until one day, she also handed in her resignation.

The woman from the Human Resources Department sat across the desk, stared at her for a long while without speaking, then stood up and walked toward her.

"And the reason for resigning?"

"Going home for a blind date."

Hearing this, the woman in her business suit stared at her oddly.

"What kind of joke is that?"