Chapter 1

Hao Ren, as his name suggests, is a good person.

He lives in a small, obscure northern city, which could勉强 be considered near the capital if Beijing were to build a 20th or 30th ring road. He is a thoroughly ordinary person, and if all the "good person" cards in the world were counted phonetically, he might勉强 be considered famous. No one recognizes him on the street, and he has spent over twenty years with a square, ordinary face that is only slightly more masculine. His life goal is to be a good person, and apart from that, he has no other distinguishing features—this is who he is.

It is now the sweltering months of May or June. Although the weather in the north is cooler, walking on the street under the scorching sun during the day can still be quite frustrating. Therefore, the bustling city center is filled with a constant flow of vehicles, but there are few pedestrians to be seen. Among these few is a tall young man with a plain appearance, wearing a white T-shirt and gray pants. Hao Ren holds several sheets of paper in his hand, choosing to walk in the shade of trees or buildings. The honking of cars and the chirping of cicadas on the trees are quite annoying, but these chaotic sounds do not seem to affect the young man's mood. He just walks silently, occasionally fanning his already damp clothes due to the heat, and then looks at the papers in his hand—two of which are job advertisements, and the other is a promotional flyer he received from a girl at the square. The flyer features a beautiful girl with a radiant smile, and below it is a large headline: Jinrong Women's Hospital, specializing in...

Hao Ren thinks that students these days are becoming less and less dedicated. When he used to hand out flyers, he would never give such things to men who clearly looked like bachelors. However, regardless of that, this hard paper flyer is quite suitable for fanning.

"Two more places, if it doesn't work out, I'll give up," Hao Ren mumbled, looking at the last two job advertisements. Fortunately, these two places are close to each other, so he can quickly complete his "task" for the day. One of them is right ahead, an advertising company that looks unimpressive from the outside, but its sign is quite loud: Galaxy Media Cultural Development and Promotion Company. Just from the name, it sounds like a company that will go bankrupt within half a year. Hao Ren was drawn to the name, not to apply for a job, but to see what kind of extraordinary person could come up with such a magical name.

He walked several hundred meters to get around the road barrier and then ran under the scorching sun to the front of this particularly impressive advertising company. To his surprise, the company had indeed gone bankrupt. The sign was still hanging, but the glass door had a notice of closure, dated two days ago, while the job advertisement in his hand was from four days ago... This is truly a world of rapid change. Do companies really need to hire new employees to calm their nerves before going bankrupt?

He crumpled the job advertisement and threw it into a nearby trash can, then looked at the last one and crumpled it into the same place two seconds later, reflecting on whether he had been blind when he selected these things a few days ago. The bus company was hiring an office clerk, requiring someone between 25 and 40 years old, who is hardworking, computer-literate, and has work experience, with a preference for women.

He came to the city center with great enthusiasm, just to see how bright the glass door of an advertising company that was hiring employees two days before going bankrupt would be, which was really a waste of time.

Hao Ren, male, likes women, 25 years old, no bad habits, the advantage is that he is not picky about food, currently single, with few relatives and friends, lives alone in an old house left by his parents in the southern part of the old city. Like most young men, his life goal is to earn over ten thousand yuan a month at the age of 25, marry a beautiful wife, and ideally have a car. Since he can't take care of his parents, he at least needs to live well enough to not disgrace his family. Now, he has completed one-third of these life goals: he is 25 this year.

This is truly a sad story.

He came to the city today to look for a job, but he actually doesn't have an urgent need for a source of income: as mentioned earlier, Hao Ren lives in an old house left by his parents, and he should thank the older generation for leaving him this property, which is quite large—a two-story old house that has been converted into a structure similar to a family rental apartment.

For many years, Hao Ren has relied on renting out rooms for a living. However, since his place is so remote that it might take several decades to wait for the old house to be demolished, the rental income is just enough to support his life as a single man, but not enough to make him rich.

To be fair, with this stable income, Hao Ren doesn't really need to look for a job, but being idle for too long makes him a bit pretentious. He always feels that he should try a little harder and broaden his life path. More importantly, his old house is so remote that it is almost detached from human civilization. Since the last couple of migrant workers moved out of the rental house, there has been no one to rent it for half a year. Looking at the empty two-story "apartment" for several months, Hao Ren realized that unless the city planning tilts towards his area, he might really have to find a job to survive.

He studied the city planning for three days at home and concluded that the possibility of his neighborhood turning into a commercial center overnight is very slim. Considering that he, as a man, cannot let himself go to waste, he finally decided to find a job first, at least to have an income to maintain his life.

After all, he used to work hard to earn tuition fees, and in this clear and just world, how could he starve to death?

However, fate does not follow one's will, and his first day of job hunting... was basically just a waste of time.

Thinking about it won't help, so Hao Ren stretched and decided to rest under a tree in a small park by the roadside. He would wait until the hottest part of the afternoon was over, then find a small restaurant to fill his stomach and take a bus home. Fortunately, this is a small northern city that is hard to even call a third-tier city. Despite the rapid economic development, it still retains a bit of the leisure and openness of a small place: the city's public land planning is quite good, with green trees and plenty of small parks in the city center for rest.

He found a piece of paper to clean the bench and then lay down casually, using the flyer with the logo of the women's hospital and the beautiful girl to cover his face and block the sun. He rested without much care. Of course, he didn't dare to fall asleep, as there are more and more thieves these days, and even good people can be victims. Although he didn't have much valuable stuff, it would still be bad if someone took it. He just planned to doze off for a while to cool off.

But just as he lay down, it seemed like less than a minute had passed when the sunlight filtering through the edges of the flyer became dim, as if someone had come to stand beside him. Hao Ren looked up in surprise and was shocked to find that the sky was already filled with the setting sun, and a petite and slender woman was standing next to him. Her silhouette perfectly blocked the setting sun, and because of the backlight, he couldn't see her face clearly, only a faint outline of a short-haired, slim girl.

"Hey, you're awake?"

This unfamiliar girl seemed very friendly, waving and greeting him casually. Hao Ren sat up quickly, first looking around in surprise to confirm that it was indeed sunset. He had only planned to doze off for a while but ended up sleeping for half a day. Then he had the chance to carefully examine the stranger in front of him. At this moment, the girl seemed to finally realize that her position in the backlight made it hard to see her face, so she smiled and slightly turned her body to let him see her clearly.

A very beautiful girl—this was Hao Ren's first impression.

She was dressed quite coolly, wearing a tight white short-sleeved shirt with a slightly childish plastic dog decoration on the collar, and dark shorts with casual shoes, looking like a college girl who had skipped class to go shopping. The friendly girl had shoulder-length short hair, possibly because she liked sports, her skin had a slight tan, healthy and full of sunshine. Her face was beautiful and charming, and what caught the eye most were her lively big eyes, more vibrant than any pair of eyes Hao Ren had ever seen, as if the entire person's energy and spirit were radiating from those eyes.

Behind her was a large, heavy-looking suitcase.

Seeing the slightly dazed Hao Ren, the short-haired beautiful girl broke into an unusually bright and silly smile (although it might not be appropriate to call it a silly smile, Hao Ren indeed thought it was). The smile was clean and pure, something that seemed rare to see on girls of her age these days. She rummaged in her small bag for a long time and finally pulled out a crumpled piece of paper, handing it to Hao Ren: "Excuse me, do you know where this place is?"

Hao Ren slapped his face to wake himself up, not caring about the impulsive girl for the moment, and looked at the address on the paper... Oh my, isn't this my home?!

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