These past few days…
Winter in Guangzhou was bitterly cold, the kind of chill that seemed capable of drilling straight into your bones.
Lu Changfu pulled his three-year-old down jacket tighter around himself. The zipper had started to stick, and even after he tugged it upward with all his strength, a small section of his neck remained exposed.
The cold wind seeped through the gaps. He shrank his neck, rubbed his hands together, and walked through the factory gates.
The small factory, named “Liren Daily Chemical,” was located in Baiyun District. The factory building was about twenty years old—not new, but not exactly old either.
The factory sat inside a small industrial compound, alongside several other small factories—a hardware-parts factory, a plastics factory, and a factory that produced clothing accessories.
Five years ago, when Lu Changfu had first arrived, the entire compound had been bustling. During rush hours, the entrance would often be jammed with people for quite some time.
Now, it was so quiet that it made him uneasy.
Old Zhang, the security guard, poked his head out of the guard booth. The white mist from his breath quickly disappeared into the cold air.
“Morning, Changfu!”
“Morning, Uncle Zhang.”
Lu Changfu nodded and glanced at his watch. It was 7:55 a.m.
He slowed his steps, his eyes sweeping across the empty factory grounds. The basketball hoop was covered in rust, and the net had long since rotted away. Only a sparse twenty or so electric scooters were parked in the parking area.
There were also more than a dozen cars.
The notice posted on the bulletin board was still from three months ago. The paper had become wrinkled from the rain, and the writing was blurred and difficult to read.
There used to be several hundred workers here.
Lu Changfu remembered that when he had first arrived, the line at the cafeteria could stretch all the way to the entrance. At the end of the workday, bicycles, electric scooters, and motorcycles would be packed together, and the noise could be heard from far away.
Now, all the factories combined had fewer than a hundred workers. His daily chemical factory was in the worst condition of all. At its peak, it had sixty or seventy employees. Now, only a dozen or so longtime workers remained.
“It should’ve gone bankrupt long ago…” he muttered under his breath.
The time clock beeped. Lu Changfu slipped his employee ID back into his pocket and headed toward the workshop.
As he passed the office, he unconsciously slowed down.
Through the half-open blinds, he saw Chen Lili organizing some documents. She was wearing a cream-colored turtleneck sweater that day. Sunlight streamed through the window, outlining the elegant profile of her face.
Her hair was tied into a low ponytail, with a few loose strands falling beside her ears and swaying gently as she moved.
Chen Lili was the factory’s cashier and administrative assistant. She was twenty-four years old and had worked there for more than two years.
There were very few young people at the factory, and a girl as pretty and refined as her was even rarer. Among the workers, she was privately known as the “factory flower.”
However, she was somewhat aloof and didn’t talk much. Aside from necessary work-related conversations, she rarely chatted with others.
Lu Changfu stared at her for a moment, somewhat mesmerized.
“What are you looking at so intently?”
Someone suddenly patted him on the shoulder.
Lu Changfu jumped and turned around, only to see the smiling face of his colleague, Old Wang.
Old Wang was in his forties and had worked at the factory for nearly ten years. He was a seasoned employee who knew how to get by.
“N-Nothing.”
Lu Changfu awkwardly cleared his throat and hurried toward his workstation.
The machines roared inside the workshop, but only half of the equipment was running. The production line was like a sleeping giant python, with most of the workstations empty and the conveyor belt moving in lonely circles.
Lu Changfu was responsible for processing raw materials.
Weighing the ingredients…
Starting the machine, washing the tank… adding water, heating the water… adding ingredients, producing the semi-finished product, taking it out… washing the tank…
Checking the instruments and adjusting the parameters.
He had repeated this routine for five years.
His salary was only 4,500 yuan. In a place like Guangzhou, that was barely enough to get by.
The advantage was that the job was easy. He actually worked no more than four hours a day, had weekends off, and occasionally even got an extra day off.
He spent the rest of his time writing novels in the dormitory. It had been a hobby of his since college and had now become his side business.
“I heard the boss is negotiating with another buyer again.”
At lunchtime, Old Wang leaned over and spoke quietly. The stir-fried cabbage and pork in his lunchbox glistened with oil.
“This time, it sounds like he really intends to sell.”
Lu Changfu picked at the food in his own lunchbox—sliced pork with green peppers and scrambled eggs with tomatoes, the cafeteria’s standard fare.
He didn’t think much of it.
“We’ve been hearing that for three years. Isn’t the factory still here?”
“This time is different.”
Old Wang lowered his voice, nearly spitting out a grain of rice as he spoke.
“The boss’s son has settled abroad. The old couple wants to move there and retire. The factory building belongs to them. If they sell it, they can cash out a huge sum. It’s better than wasting their time here.”
Lu Changfu’s chopsticks paused.
If the factory really went bankrupt, based on his years of service, he could receive around 20,000 to 30,000 yuan in compensation.
But then he’d lose this easy job—four hours a day, weekends off, and plenty of time to write novels.
Where would he find another job like this?
He glanced at the notification that had appeared on his phone’s lock screen.
It was a payment notification from Tomato Novel: 7,800 yuan in royalties.
Combined with his factory salary, his total income last month had been 12,000 yuan.
If he lost this stable job, relying solely on writing novels would make things rather tight.
Writing income was unstable. He might earn 7,000 or 8,000 yuan this month, but next month it might drop to only 3,000 or 4,000.
“Changfu, your mom is turning fifty today. Remember to give her a call…”
His phone vibrated.
It was a WeChat message from his father, Lu Jianguo.
Lu Changfu stared at the message for several seconds before replying:
“Okay.”
He hadn’t forgotten. The problem was that making a phone call wasn’t easy either. The thing parents cared about most was their children’s marriage.
Lu Changfu was already twenty-eight and still unmarried. In his small hometown county, a man who hadn’t settled down by this age was already labeled as someone who “had something wrong with him.”
Every time he called home, he inevitably had to endure a long lecture.
His mother, Peng Jiali, could start by talking about how someone next door had just had a second child, then move on to how his maternal aunt’s daughter had gotten married last year and was already pregnant this year. In the end, she would always arrive at the ultimate question:
“When are you going to bring a girlfriend home?”
It wasn’t that Lu Changfu had never been in a relationship.
He had dated someone in college, but they broke up after graduation. After he started working, he had gone on several blind dates. Either he wasn’t interested in the woman, or she thought he was too poor.
After a while, he couldn’t be bothered anymore and put all his energy into writing novels.
At least in the world of novels, he was in control.
There was nothing to do that afternoon.
Lu Changfu wrote novels on his computer in the dormitory. He wrote simultaneously on three platforms: fantasy novels on Tomato, urban novels on Shuqi, and historical novels on Qidian.
Managing multiple books was exhausting, but it helped spread the risk. If one book failed, he still had another.
Four-thirty.
A bold idea suddenly popped into Lu Changfu’s mind.
Today was his mother’s fiftieth birthday.
What if… what if he could make her happy?
Even if it was only for a little while?
He remembered his mother’s repeated sighs during their phone calls. He remembered his father’s words:
“Your mom’s blood pressure has been high lately. The doctor said she can’t keep getting angry.”
He thought about the small amount of savings in his account, the readers’ messages urging him to update his novels, and the rumors that the factory might shut down…
Lu Changfu went to the office.
“Lili! Can you help me with something?”
Chen Lili turned around and looked at him in confusion.
Her eyes were bright, with dark brown irises that resembled a pool of water in autumn.
“What is it?” she asked, her voice cool and distant.
Lu Changfu suddenly became tongue-tied.
The impulse he had felt moments ago faded, and the reality of the situation came rushing back.
He and Chen Lili weren’t close. At most, they were acquaintances who nodded at each other when they crossed paths.
His request might be too abrupt.
But he had already called out to her.
“Well… today is my mom’s fiftieth birthday.”
Lu Changfu gathered his courage.
“She has always wanted me to bring a girlfriend home. I know this is very presumptuous, but could you help me out? Pretend to be my girlfriend and call my mom to wish her a happy birthday?”
Chen Lili’s expression changed from confusion to suspicion. She took half a step back and slightly furrowed her brows.
“What are you trying to do?”
“No, no!”
Lu Changfu hurriedly waved his hands, speaking faster.
“Just ten minutes. I’ll give you 1,000 yuan! We can find a café, sit together, and make the call. Just… just act a little affectionate. Once the call is over, that’s it. I absolutely won’t ask for anything else!”
His face reddened as he spoke.
One thousand yuan was no small amount to him. It was almost a week’s salary.
But when he imagined the smile that might appear on his mother’s face, he felt it would be worth it.
Chen Lili bit her lip and didn’t answer immediately.
Her eyelashes were long, casting a small shadow over her eyelids when she lowered her gaze.
Lu Changfu knew that she had been short on money recently. Two months earlier, she had broken up with her boyfriend of more than three years. The breakup had caused quite a stir at the factory, and he had heard that she had even been tricked out of a sum of money.
“Ten minutes, one thousand yuan?” Chen Lili confirmed.
“That’s right! Cash. I’ll give it to you as soon as the call is over.” Lu Changfu took ten hundred-yuan bills from his wallet to show his sincerity.
Chen Lili’s gaze shifted back and forth between the money and his face. Finally, she nodded. “Alright. But only for making the phone call, and there’s no physical contact.”
“Of course, of course!” Lu Changfu breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much!”
Half an hour later, they were sitting in the corner of a ramen shop near the factory.
Business was average, and there were barely any customers even after five in the afternoon. Lu Changfu chose the innermost seat, with his back facing the entrance.
Chen Lili sat across from him and took out a mirror from her small bag to touch up her lipstick. Her lipstick was a muted rose color, very natural, which made her complexion look even fairer.
“Remember, my name is Chen Lili. I’m twenty-three years old and work as a copywriter at an advertising company. We’ve known each other for three months.” She expressionlessly repeated the script Lu Changfu had made up. “We were introduced by a friend. We got along well and are slowly getting to know each other.”
“Right, right. That’s it.” Lu Changfu nodded, his palms slightly sweaty. He took a deep breath, made a “start” gesture, and then called his mother via video.
The call rang five times before it was answered.
His mother, Peng Jiali, appeared on the screen. The familiar living room could be seen in the background, with a family photo of the three of them sitting on the TV cabinet.
“Mom, happy birthday!” Lu Changfu forced a smile and moved the phone slightly toward Chen Lili. “I’m with my girlfriend. She wants to wish you a happy birthday too.”
He turned the phone toward Chen Lili. She immediately put on a sweet smile, and her voice became much softer.
“Hello, Auntie! Happy birthday! I wish you good health! I’m Chen Lili, Changfu’s girlfriend.”
Peng Jiali’s expression quickly changed from surprise to overwhelming delight. Her eyes lit up.
“Oh my! Lili, right? Changfu has never mentioned that he has a girlfriend! How long have you two been together? How did you meet? Lili, where are you from?”
A barrage of questions came flying at them.
Lu Changfu hurriedly turned the phone back toward himself. “Mom, we haven’t been dating for very long. We wanted to make sure things were stable before telling you.”
As he spoke, he gathered his courage, reached out, put his arm around Chen Lili’s shoulder, and pulled her slightly closer.
Chen Lili’s body visibly stiffened for a moment, but she quickly adjusted her expression and cooperated by leaning toward Lu Changfu. She even took the initiative to move her face a little closer, making the two of them look extremely intimate on camera.
Her hair brushed against Lu Changfu’s cheek, carrying a faint scent of shampoo.
“Good, good, good!” Peng Jiali smiled so widely that the corners of her eyes crinkled. “Lili is so beautiful! She looks so gentle and sensible! Changfu, you really are something. How could you not tell us about such a big thing earlier?”
Lu Jianguo also squeezed into the frame. His dark face rarely showed such a bright smile.
“Lili, right? Hello, hello!”
“Hello, Uncle!” Chen Lili greeted him obediently.
“When are you two coming home to visit?” Peng Jiali asked. “Are you coming home for the New Year? We’ve already tidied up the room!”
Lu Changfu felt Chen Lili secretly pinch his waist, signaling him to end the call quickly.
He hurriedly said, “For the New Year. We’ll definitely come home for the New Year!”
After a few more pleasantries, the call finally ended with his mother repeatedly reminding him to treat the girl well.
Lu Changfu let out a long sigh of relief and immediately released his arm from around Chen Lili as if he had been burned.
“Sorry, I overstepped,” he said awkwardly. He quickly counted out ten hundred-yuan bills from his wallet and pushed them toward her. “Thank you. Really… thank you so much.”
Chen Lili took the money, carefully counted it, and put it in the inner compartment of her wallet. She gave Lu Changfu a complicated look.
“Your mom really cares about you.”
“Yeah.” Lu Changfu gave a bitter smile. “I’m twenty-eight and still unmarried. Back in my hometown, I’m already considered a leftover bachelor. They’re anxious.”
Chen Lili was silent for a few seconds before suddenly saying softly, “My parents are pressuring me too.”
Lu Changfu froze. This was the first time Chen Lili had ever talked to him about something personal.
“Then how did you—”
“We broke up.” Chen Lili interrupted him, stood up, and picked up her bag. “I’ve taken the money. That’s the end of this. Don’t ask me to do this kind of thing again.”
Her tone had returned to its usual detached manner.
“Of course, of course.” Lu Changfu hurriedly nodded as he watched her leave the ramen shop. Through the glass window, Chen Lili’s figure soon disappeared around the corner.
He remained seated, staring blankly for a while.
His mother’s happy laughter still echoed in his ears. It had been a long time since he had heard her this happy.
That one thousand yuan had been worth it—at least it had allowed his mother to believe that, on her fiftieth birthday, her son had finally settled down.
His phone vibrated. His mother had sent a series of voice messages.
Lu Changfu played them, and Peng Jiali’s excited voice came through.
“Changfu! Lili is such a good girl! She has such a sweet voice, and she’s so pretty too! You have to treat her well! You must bring her home for the New Year! Oh, right, your dad asked me to ask you—when are you planning to get married? How much should we prepare for the bride price? Our family may not be wealthy, but we still have to follow the proper traditions…”
Listening to her, Lu Changfu felt a mixture of emotions.
Just then, a sharp electronic sound suddenly rang out in his mind:
[Ding! Effective filial behavior detected!]
[Filial Piety System activating… 10%… 50%… 100%! ]
[System activation successful! Host bound: Lu Changfu.]
Lu Changfu abruptly stood up. The legs of the chair scraped against the floor with a harsh sound.
The other customers in the shop looked toward him. He quickly sat back down, his heart pounding wildly.
What was that sound? Was he hallucinating?
[This system exists to promote traditional Chinese filial piety and reward acts of filial devotion… The host has expressed filial piety by making his mother happy, meeting the activation requirements.]
The voice was cold and mechanical, yet as clear as if someone were speaking directly beside his ear.
[Initial activation reward: 1 million RMB. The funds have been deposited into the host’s bank account. The source of the funds is legal and compliant. Please use them without worry.]
[From now on, 100,000 RMB in pocket money will be issued every month, provided that the host continues to make his parents happy. Specific rules will be released through missions.]
[Special reminder: If the host can allow his parents to hold a grandson or granddaughter, an additional reward of 10 million RMB will be granted.]
Lu Changfu sat frozen in his chair, his mind completely blank.
His trembling hands pulled out his phone. He entered the password incorrectly three times while trying to unlock it.
After finally opening his banking app, he checked his balance.
The number displayed on the screen made him stop breathing for a moment.
Balance: 1,082,347.21 yuan.
Yesterday, when he had checked, the balance had been 82,347.21 yuan.
Now there was an additional one million.
A full one million.
He exited the app and logged in again.
It was still the same.
His hands trembling even more violently, he immediately called the bank’s customer service hotline and followed the prompts to check his balance.
The mechanical female voice reported the exact same amount.
“Is… is this real?” he murmured.
He pinched his thigh. The pain was real.
It wasn’t a dream.
It wasn’t a hallucination.
He really had one million yuan.
“Sir, would you like anything else?” a server came over and asked.
Lu Changfu suddenly snapped back to reality.
“No, that’s all. The bill, please.”
He scanned the QR code and paid 28 yuan.
When he walked out of the ramen shop, his steps felt almost weightless.
The winter sunset had dyed the sky orange-red. The cold wind blew against his face, yet he felt hot all over.
What could he do with one million yuan?
Make a down payment on a small house in the suburbs of Guangzhou?
Buy a decent car?
Or… quit his job and become a full-time novelist?
His mother sent another voice message.
“Changfu, I just showed Lili’s photo to your aunt. She immediately said that the girl has such a good face! When are you two…”
Only then did Lu Changfu remember—during the video call, his mother had taken a screenshot.
The picture of Chen Lili leaning against his shoulder had probably already spread throughout the family group chat.
The system notification sounded again:
[Host, please take note: System rewards are based on your parents’ genuine happiness. Happiness created through a fake relationship is limited and may result in backlash. Please handle the situation carefully.]
Lu Changfu’s smile froze on his face.
A fake relationship… Could the system tell?
He stared at his mother’s WeChat profile picture on the phone—a photo of Peng Jiali taken in a park, smiling so happily that the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes had gathered together.
If she found out that Lili was merely a “temporary actress,” the girlfriend he had hired for ten minutes with one thousand yuan…
His phone vibrated, and his father sent him a message as well: “Son, you have good taste! Treat her well. Bring her home for New Year, and Dad will cook some of his specialties for you two!”
Lu Changfu leaned against the roadside railing, suddenly feeling that this one million yuan was like a hot potato.
He could tell his parents the truth right now, but would the system take back the reward?
He could continue hiding the truth, but could he really keep the secret forever? Besides, Chen Lili had already made it clear: “Just this once.”
What was even more troublesome was that his mother had already started planning the wedding.
The cold wind blew past, making Lu Changfu shiver. He tightened his down jacket and headed toward the factory dormitory.
When he passed an ATM, he somehow found himself walking inside. He inserted his card and checked his balance.
The string of numbers on the screen was glaringly real.
He withdrew ten thousand yuan in cash. Holding the thick stack of red banknotes in his hand, he could feel how real they were.
This wasn’t a dream or a prank. He really had suddenly gained one million yuan.
Back at the dormitory, Lu Changfu locked the door, placed his bank card and the cash on the table, and stared at them for a full ten minutes. The dormitory was only a dozen square meters, with a bed, a desk, and a wardrobe. It also had a private bathroom and a small balcony.
Because there were few workers at the factory at the moment, he had a room all to himself.
Outside the window was the factory’s nighttime scenery. A few streetlights stood isolated in the darkness, while the low rumble of machinery came from the distance—it was the hardware factory next door working overtime.
He turned on his desktop computer. The document on the screen contained the chapter of his novel that he needed to update today.
The blinking cursor seemed to be mocking him. For the past five years, he had racked his brain every day to write more than ten thousand words, yet even in his best month, he had only earned a little over thirty thousand yuan.
And now, one million yuan had simply appeared out of nowhere.
Why did he write novels?
At first, his dream had been to become a writer. Later, it became a way to earn some extra money. Eventually, it had simply become a habit.
But now…
His phone vibrated again. This time, it was a WeChat message from Chen Lili:
“Don’t tell anyone at the factory about what happened today.”
Lu Changfu replied, “Don’t worry. I won’t.”
After thinking for a moment, he added, “Thank you. My mom is very happy.”
Chen Lili replied with an “Mm” and said nothing else.
Lu Changfu put down his phone and looked back at the computer screen.
In the document, the protagonist of his novel was facing a choice—whether to accept a dark power and gain invincible abilities at the risk of losing himself, or to stick to his principles and possibly be killed by his enemies.
He suddenly smiled.
Wasn’t he facing a similar choice himself?
One million yuan, one hundred thousand yuan every month, and if he got married and had children, another ten million yuan…
But the condition was that he had to make his parents “truly happy.”
And right now, he only had a fake girlfriend and a charade that could fall apart at any moment.
“Let’s keep things stable first,” he muttered to himself. “At least this month, I’ll get the one hundred thousand yuan first.”
He opened the document and began typing.
Strangely, his thoughts were exceptionally clear today. His fingers flew across the keyboard, and ideas poured out like a spring.
Usually, whenever he suffered from writer’s block, he would spend half a day thinking things through. But now, everything flowed smoothly.
After writing for an hour, he stopped and checked the word count—4,200 words.
Normally, he could write at most 2,000 words in that amount of time.
Was his excitement responsible for the increase in efficiency? Or…
[System Notification: To assist the host in better fulfilling his filial duties, the efficiency of the host’s brain activity has been slightly enhanced. Current enhancement: 15%.]
Lu Changfu froze.
There were additional benefits like this?
He tried recalling the information he had read yesterday, and sure enough, he remembered it much more clearly. He then mentally calculated a complicated math problem, and his speed was noticeably faster than usual.
“This system…” He shook his head, unsure whether he should be happy or worried.
At ten that night, Lu Changfu finished updating his novel and lay down on his bed.
His phone screen was still lit, displaying the balance page of his banking app.
He stared at it for a long time, until his eyes began to ache.
He had to work the next day, so he forced himself to sleep.
But the moment he closed his eyes, he saw his mother’s happy smile, felt the sensation of Chen Lili leaning against his shoulder, and heard the system’s cold notification voice.
In the middle of the night, he had a dream.
In the dream, he was wearing a suit and standing on a wedding stage. The bride was wearing a red veil over her head.
The emcee said, “Groom, you may lift the veil now.”
He reached out to lift it, but beneath the veil was the system’s cold, mechanical face. In an electronic voice, it said:
“False relationship detected. Rewards revoked.”
He woke up in fright, drenched in cold sweat.
It was still dark outside. There was still more than an hour before the factory’s wake-up bell would ring.
Lu Changfu sat up, reached for his phone, and the screen’s light was painfully bright in the darkness.
There was an unread WeChat message from his mother, sent in the middle of the night:
“Son, Mom can’t sleep. I’m just too happy… Lili is such a good girl. You have to cherish her. If you don’t have enough money, tell Mom. Our family can afford the bride price.”
Lu Changfu stared at those words, and his eyes suddenly grew hot.
He remembered how poor his family had been when he was little. His mother would always put the meat into his bowl and say that she didn’t like eating it.
He remembered how, whenever he left home for university, his mother would secretly stuff money into his suitcase.
He remembered how, after he started working, whenever they talked on the phone, his mother would always tell him, “Don’t work too hard. Your health is important,” while at the same time, she couldn’t help urging him to settle down and start a family…
Perhaps this one million yuan wasn’t just money.
Perhaps it was an opportunity for him to make up for all the years he had made his parents worry about him.
The sky outside gradually began to brighten, and the outline of the factory emerged through the morning mist.
Lu Changfu got out of bed and walked to the window.
In the distance, the road cleaners had already started working.
He made a decision.
First, he would keep things stable with Chen Lili, at least until the New Year.
During that time, he would do his best to make his parents happy and obtain the system’s rewards…
And at the same time… find a way to turn the fake relationship into a real one?
Although Chen Lili was cold toward him right now, at least she didn’t hate him…
And she needed money. That could be his breakthrough point.
As for the future…
He would take things one step at a time.
The wake-up bell rang.
Lu Changfu changed into his work uniform, carefully put away his bank card, and pushed open the door of the dormitory.
Cold air rushed toward him, but he felt a warmth growing inside his heart.
A new day had begun.
And his life, beginning with that phone call yesterday, had completely changed.