Modu.
Financial Mansion, Tidal Group Headquarters.
’Another smooth day. Six o’clock, and another 200 yuan in the bag!’
At six o’clock in the evening on the dot, Gu Yizhou, who had been slacking off for most of the afternoon, had his hand on the mouse, ready to press the shutdown button and head home.
BZZT BZZT BZZT—BZZT BZZT BZZT—
Just as he was privately celebrating another day’s 200-yuan wage, his phone, sitting on the desk, buzzed several times in a row.
He picked up his phone and glanced at it. The icon for a WeChat group chat named "Our Loving Family" was bouncing insistently.
He unlocked his phone, casually tapped open the group chat, and was struck speechless by what he saw on the screen.
Mom: "[Link: Officially Certified! Being Single for Too Long Can Harm Your Health!]"
Great-Aunt: "[Link: A Look at Millennials Who Don’t Date—Their Final Destination is a Nursing Home!]"
Seventh Aunt: "[Link: Start Dating Early! If You Wait Too Long, You’re Not Looking for a Husband, You’re Looking for a Live-in Nurse!]"
Third Aunt-in-law: "[Link: Scientific Studies Show That a Good Relationship Leads to a Long and Healthy Life!]"
...
Seeing all these links from his mom and his whole clan of aunts, Gu Yizhou was at a complete loss for words.
The "Our Loving Family" group chat had dozens of members, but besides himself and his older cousin Chen Qingxue, everyone of an appropriate age was either already married or still in school.
However, his cousin was currently studying abroad, so there was no doubt this barrage of passive-aggressive articles from his mom was meant for him and him alone.
Most importantly, this wasn’t the first or second time his mom had sent him this kind of nonsensical, passive-aggressive junk.
Ever since he started his senior year of college, his mother, Chen Dongmei, had for some reason started nagging him daily to find a girlfriend and get married.
At first, she only sent the messages to Gu Yizhou in private chats. But after he started pretending not to see them to brush her off, she began staging a creative campaign of marriage-nagging in the family group chat. She even rallied the whole clan of aunts to join in, earnestly trying to persuade him to find a partner. This baffled Gu Yizhou.
’What’s gotten into Mom!’
’Is this the legendary "Same world, same mom" phenomenon!?’
He just turned 22!
He had only just reached the legal age of marriage. Was it really necessary to be in such a hurry?!
Besides, why find a girlfriend?
Isn’t being single great?
Are games not fun anymore? Has booze stopped tasting good?
’And if worse comes to worst, I’ve still got my left and right hands!’
Why make things difficult for himself by looking for a partner?
Besides, hadn’t the famous literary giant Mr. Lu Xun once said, "Marriage is the tomb of love"?
’Hmm... Lu Xun did say that, right?’
Ugh, whatever. The point still stands!
His mom was trying to push his glorious youth into a pit of fire. How could Gu Yizhou possibly agree to that!
He had been locked in a battle of wits with his mother over this issue for some time now.
Unfortunately, the enemy was too cunning, there were traitors among the masses, and he was hopelessly outnumbered.
The whole situation gave Gu Yizhou a massive headache.
He silently turned off his phone’s screen, pretending he hadn’t seen the messages, choosing silence as a form of quiet protest...
’There’s nothing I can do!’
He currently had no good way of resolving this matter.
He couldn’t just go out and find a random girlfriend to appease his mom, could he?!
In truth, Gu Yizhou wasn’t angry at his mother and relatives’ behavior. He knew they were just concerned about him.
It was just... their way of showing concern was a little unconventional.
But!
It was precisely because of their actions that Gu Yizhou felt the closeness and warmth of a family in this strange new world...
That’s right!
Gu Yizhou was not originally from this world.
He was a top investor from the financial world of a place called Huaxia, on Earth. To describe how badass he was would take pages. He had stepped into the financial circle at 25 with his entire life savings of fifty thousand yuan and immediately began to shine. In one year, his capital multiplied a thousandfold. He then took his initial accumulation of fifty million and started making major waves in the financial world. His investment acumen and trading skills left a host of veteran investors in awe. In just five short years, he became one of the most sought-after top investors in the industry and achieved financial freedom.
Just as he was preparing to retire and enjoy life, he was suddenly in a serious car accident. When he woke up, he found he had been reborn into this world as a nine-to-six, senior-year corporate drone of an intern.
He always felt there was something strange about that car accident. It was most likely a premeditated crash deliberately caused by someone else. His investment methods had been extremely aggressive, and he had offended quite a few people over those five years. That was why he had decided to quit while he was ahead and retire. He just never expected that on the very first day after announcing his retirement, he would bid a final farewell to that world.
But after absorbing and processing all the information about this new world, he became a bit lost. For a while, he couldn’t tell if his memories of Earth from his previous life were a dream or reality.
Because in this world, his name was also Gu Yizhou, and he looked exactly the same as he did on Earth—still just as handsome and dashingly cool.
The only differences were his age in the two lives, and, oh, the fact that the Gu Yizhou from Earth had been an orphan, with no parents, who grew up in an orphanage.
But the Gu Yizhou of this world had both parents and a large, loving, close-knit extended family.
The most important point was that even though it had been less than a year since his rebirth, Gu Yizhou didn’t reject any of it. He even felt as if he truly was a member of this family, which was why he was able to integrate into this world so quickly.
But this was good, too. In his past life, he had been alone since childhood. After growing up, he was solely focused on making money and busy with his career, never once feeling the warmth of a home.
After he finally made his money, before he could even begin to pursue the life he wanted, he died tragically in a car crash. He hadn’t gotten to enjoy even a single day of it!
This current life was actually not bad. Although the family didn’t have much money, their relationships were incredibly harmonious.
’Simple and warm. Isn’t this exactly the kind of life I’ve always been searching for?’
Er... except for his mom’s marriage-nagging, of course!
Marriage-nagging...
The mere thought of it made Gu Yizhou’s head ache!
"Hooo..."
He let out a deep breath and snapped back to his senses.
He glanced down at the 999+ notifications from the group chat. Clearly, his mom and the clan of aunts were already deep in a lively conversation.
He tapped into it and scanned the messages. Two out of every three sentences were about nagging him to find a girlfriend, which left Gu Yizhou speechless all over again. He shook his head with a helpless expression, closed the chat, and put it out of sight, out of mind.
Then, after shutting down his office computer, he slung his backpack over his shoulders and strode out of the office...