Chapter 1

"Hey, Xiao Jiang is back!"

"What did you buy that looks so delicious?"

As soon as he walked into the neighborhood, a few elderly ladies who were sunbathing called out to Jiang Hai loudly.

Jiang Hai, who was carrying something, heard the ladies and smiled, nodding at them.

"It's fish I caught by the river." He showed them his catch of the day.

"Xiao Jiang, did you talk to your wife about what I mentioned last time? What does she think about it?" One of the ladies slowly walked over and cautiously asked Jiang Hai.

"Uh, I talked to her about it. She said she would consider it, but she didn't give me a clear answer." Hearing the lady's words, a hint of embarrassment flashed across Jiang Hai's face, but he still managed to say it.

"Oh... these rich people, they always have so many issues. But no matter how many issues they have, they are still rich, aren't they? Hehe!" The lady patted Jiang Hai's arm and laughed. Jiang Hai smiled awkwardly and then returned to his home. As he opened the door with his key, the smile on his face, which seemed somewhat fake, disappeared. He sighed, looked at the spacious five-bedroom, three-living room house, and smiled bitterly. He carried the bucket to the kitchen. As he passed the living room, there were three not-so-large wedding photos on display. The two people in the photos, the man was handsome, and the woman was extremely beautiful. Although it was a wedding photo, the woman's face showed no smile at all.

Every time Jiang Hai saw this cold, icy face, he felt a headache. This was not the life he wanted.

"What's the point of thinking so much? Finally, I've finished all the recent tasks. I need to find a job and earn money quickly. Once I pay off what I owe her, I can apply for a divorce." He laughed self-deprecatingly and slowly said. Then, he mustered up the courage, walked into the kitchen, picked up the knife and scissors he had prepared, and started to clean the fish.

Jiang Hai was born in 1988 and is 27 years old. He was born in the capital city of the northernmost province of Huaxia, Ice City.

Speaking of his life, it could be considered a mix of a mundane and somewhat exciting life. To be precise, before he was 26, his life was mundane, just like most people. He was a mischievous child, and because he was an only child, his family spoiled him. His father and mother were ordinary employees of a state-owned enterprise. Although they didn't have much money, they at least didn't worry about their basic needs.

Then he went to primary school, middle school, and high school. After graduating from high school, due to his poor academic performance, he attended a wildcat university, studying the legendary all-purpose major, financial management. During his four years of university, except for the first year, he probably attended about thirty classes in total over the next three years. Most of his time was spent watching anime in the dorm or playing games at the internet cafe, as the school's internet was not very good.

Fortunately, it was a wildcat university, and during exams, he could pass with a payment of 200 yuan per subject, which saved him a lot of brain cells.

At the age of 23, after graduating from university, he was arranged by his family to work at a trading company.

His daily life was simple and mundane, but everything changed in the third year of his work, when he was 26. First, his father died in an accident, then his mother, unable to bear the shock, fell ill and was hospitalized. His girlfriend, upon learning about his family's situation, decisively broke up with him and ran off with a department manager at the company. Due to this relationship, Jiang Hai also resigned from the position he had worked hard for three years to achieve. To treat his mother's illness, he sold the family house, but the money for the surgery was still not enough. At the most critical moment, his current "wife" appeared and "lent" him 400,000 yuan to help his mother complete the surgery, with the condition that he had to "marry" her.

The surgery was successful, but unfortunately, his mother had no will to live and passed away a year after the surgery, which was just last month. The death of his parents left Jiang Hai in deep sorrow, but after the grief, life still had to go on. The world would continue to turn, no matter who was gone, and this was an unchanging truth.

If he wanted to start anew, Jiang Hai had to find a way to pay off the money he "owed."

Speaking of his wife, she was not an ordinary person. Her name is Qi Li, and they could be considered childhood friends.

They grew up together, and their parents worked at the same factory.

However, his current "father-in-law" went into business in 1992. There were good times and bad times, but by 2000, he had achieved success in business and moved his daughter and wife to the capital.

Since then, the two families gradually lost contact, except for occasional phone calls during holidays. Today, the company run by the Qi family has a market value of several billion yuan, though not all of it belongs to them, it is close. Qi Li has grown into a graceful and beautiful woman, rivaling even the most famous celebrities, and in some ways, surpassing them.

She graduated from a prestigious university in the United States and can be considered an elite among elites. The one thing she might have done wrong in her life led to her marriage with Jiang Hai.

This information was something Jiang Hai had heard, and the real situation, given his current status, Qi Li probably wouldn't tell him. The story is similar to a prime-time drama about the conflicts in a wealthy family.

When Qi Li was in school, she had a boyfriend. Upon returning to China, she found out that this boyfriend was the son of a rival company. Despite this, they continued to love each other. One day, Qi Li inadvertently revealed a piece of information about her company's investment, which the son passed on to his father. As a result, Qi Li's company suffered a loss of several billion yuan.

The company's assets shrank by almost half, and Qi Li's father died of a heart attack upon learning the news.

From then on, the once loving couple became enemies. Qi Li wanted to take over her father's company, but the company's elders would not agree to her taking over. In their eyes, a woman was just a woman, and her father had died of anger over her relationship with that man. Who could guarantee that this woman wouldn't ruin the company?

To take over the company, she needed a token of loyalty. Her mother came up with a plan: marriage, or rather, a fake marriage.

By getting married, she could officially cut ties with the son of the rival company.

Jiang Hai was the one chosen for this fake marriage. After the marriage, Qi Li only stayed one night, and they slept in separate rooms. The next day, she left home and took over the company. After a year of development, she had stabilized the company, but Jiang Hai had lost all his initial hopes for their relationship.

His only thought now was to earn money quickly, pay off what he owed her, and start anew.

This was his only goal!

"Ouch!" It proved that sometimes, one cannot be distracted when doing certain tasks, such as cleaning fish. Jiang Hai had caught the fish by the river, and as anyone who has fished there knows, they are all small wild fish. There are no large fish. In Ice City, the fish caught by the river are mostly small carp or white fish, which are small but tasty. These fish are not scaled, and some people eat them with the innards. Jiang Hai preferred to squeeze out the innards. While doing so, he found a small white ball in the fish's innards. He didn't know what the ball was made of, but it was sharp. Without noticing, Jiang Hai's hand was cut by the ball, and it started bleeding.

"Damn, this is really bad..." Looking at his bleeding hand, Jiang Hai cursed under his breath. He picked up the small ball to see what it was, but before he could finish, the ball disappeared. Jiang Hai's eyes rolled back, and he fainted on the ground.

At the moment he fainted, the cut on his hand slowly disappeared. A small white light rose from Jiang Hai's body. If he had been conscious, he would have noticed that this white light was the small ball he had just held.

The ball floated in the air and, with a series of cracking sounds, broke open like an egg. With a light sound, a white, worm-like creature emerged from the eggshell and immediately entered Jiang Hai's body.

As Jiang Hai's body trembled, a large snake tattoo slowly appeared on his skin.

At the same time, Jiang Hai's consciousness was experiencing a very strange scene.

He felt as if he had turned into a dragon, a large and powerful dragon. This dragon's strength was immense, and its power was unparalleled. Most importantly, this dragon was the leader of all dragons, leading them in battles against the legendary phoenix and qilin, causing endless turmoil in the world.

Finally, the war drained the potential of the three races. At this moment, some people dressed as Taoist priests appeared before him, accusing him of his crimes and trying to subdue him. He tried to resist, but the leading Taoist priest was too powerful. He was subdued and pressed under a large mountain. Over the years, he felt his strength waning and his life fading until he finally perished, leaving only a trace of his essence, which seeped into the groundwater and left the cave.

This essence was the small white ball, which had drifted for a long time before being obtained by Jiang Hai.

When Jiang Hai woke up the next day, the fish he had left out had started to smell.

But he had no time to worry about the fish. Instead, he stared blankly at the tattoo on his body.

"Could it be that everything in the dream was real?"