Talk is talk.
Laughter is laughter.
But living together? Impossible.
Who would be so eager to push for that?
It would look like both Father Cao and Cao Cheng were being taken in as live-in sons-in-law, making them easy targets for ridicule.
Though Father Cao claimed that Aunt Ren was beautiful and kind-hearted—even going so far as to suggest Cao Cheng move in with them, saying they were "family now"—who knew if that was just polite talk?
Words spoken during the honeymoon phase are mostly nonsense.
What if their relationship soured later, and the father-son duo got kicked out? That would be humiliating.
Besides,
Cao Cheng wasn’t the same person he used to be. Setting aside the "system" for now, he had a "century’s worth of experience" under his belt.
With memories spanning two lifetimes, living under someone else’s roof wasn’t ideal.
The future held too many secrets.
So…
Living independently was the better choice.
Naturally, he wouldn’t actually indulge in the fantasy of a "daily life surrounded by beautiful older sisters," even if Aunt Ren’s looks suggested her four daughters were likely stunning.
But…
No rush.
Fine grains should be chewed slowly.
"Give me 100,000 yuan!"
"How much?!"
Just before Father Cao left, Cao Cheng revealed his true intentions.
Father Cao was stunned, losing his composure as he shouted, "Why don’t you just rob me? 100,000 yuan? Do I even look like I’m worth that much?"
[Ding~~ Negative emotions +11]
Hah—
Mention money, and he gets angry?
Definitely his real father.
Cao Cheng laughed—the kind of laugh that comes when you’re at a loss for words.
"I want to start a business," Cao Cheng said.
He wouldn’t explain everything to Father Cao, not when the man was about to remarry into a wealthy family in Zhonghai. If certain memories got out, it could spell trouble.
Right now, if he told people about his "dream," they’d just laugh it off.
But if he turned those dreams into reality later, they wouldn’t be laughing anymore.
Too much risk.
With a stepmother in the picture, even a biological father could turn into a stranger. Better to be cautious.
And the "system"? No way he’d mention that.
Hand it over to Father Cao?
Yeah, right.
"You want to start a business?!"
"What kind of business needs 100,000 yuan? Weren’t you studying computer science? Didn’t you land a job at some tech company with a starting salary of several thousand a month? Why throw that away?" Father Cao didn’t understand any of this. To him, Cao Cheng was just being impulsive.
If he weren’t in such a hurry to leave, he’d have sat Cao Cheng down for a serious talk.
"Don’t worry about the details. Just give me the money," Cao Cheng said.
"I don’t have it."
"Yes, you do."
"……"
For some reason, under Cao Cheng’s calm, unreadable gaze, Father Cao hesitated. The lie he was about to tell died on his lips, and he switched gears: "Did you peek at my savings?"
Cao Cheng smiled without answering.
Father Cao cursed, "Damn you, you little ingrate. That’s my retirement fund—only 180,000 yuan total!"
[Ding~ Negative emotions +3]
"So I left you 80,000."
"Besides, you’re about to get married. If you don’t give this to me now, it’ll become shared marital assets. If you divorce later, she could take half. Sure, she’s rich and might not care, but we’re poor. Isn’t it better to keep some savings?"
Cao Cheng added, "And once I make money, I’ll pay you back with interest. Even if your sugar mommy kicks you out someday, I’ll take care of your retirement."
"Like hell I believe that. I don’t even trust myself!" Father Cao snorted. "Stop jinxing me. I’m not getting divorced."
"Sure, whatever makes you happy."
[Ding~ Negative emotions +3]
Father Cao grumbled, his dignity long gone.
But in the end,
he agreed to hand over the 100,000 yuan.
Call it hush money.
No—
More like a "don’t bother me" fee.
He was genuinely eager to start his new life with his soon-to-be wife.
……
Father Cao left.
Off to Zhonghai to become a live-in son-in-law.
Back in the old apartment in Sanjiang City, Cao Cheng was alone.
Well, not entirely alone.
There was also a newly issued bank card on the coffee table.
With a full 100,000 yuan inside.
In 2006, that was serious money.
It wasn’t enough for Cao Cheng to go all out,
but
there was plenty he could do with it.
The memories from his "dream" were vivid.
Every detail played back in his mind like a high-definition movie—clear, frame by frame.
Anything he’d glimpsed in that dream,
no matter how briefly,
could now be recalled in 1080p, with options to fast-forward, rewind, pause, or zoom in.
The only downside?
In his dream life, he hadn’t paid much attention to stocks. He wasn’t an investor.
So while he knew roughly when bull and bear markets occurred—mostly from news reports in his "past life"—he couldn’t pinpoint specific stocks.
He only remembered some leading stocks, hot sectors, and a few notorious "meme stocks" that made headlines.
But
that was enough.
No need to be greedy.
With a general direction, even a fool could make a fortune.
Take the liquor industry over the next two decades, for example.
Moutai would dominate.
Even someone clueless could buy shares now, hold them for ten years, and become a billionaire.
It was that simple.
Then there were sectors like new energy (in about a decade), real estate, semiconductors…
And according to his memories, this year was basically a free win. Next year would bring a historic bull market—the peak for the next twenty or thirty years.
Also,
gold.
How much was gold per gram this year?
Around 100-something yuan.
Thirty years later? Over a thousand.
And beyond that,
there were even more opportunities.
Like the universal AI system.
That alone could revolutionize industries—healthcare, gaming, transportation, communications, manufacturing, aerospace…
Sitting on the couch, Cao Cheng lit a cigarette.
Slowly, he organized the chaotic thoughts in his mind.
It didn’t take long to sort them out.
They say
those who’ve "died once" care less about money.
Cao Cheng’s response? Bullshit.
If you’ve died once, you know you’ve got to make money early.
Earn soon, enjoy soon.
Ideally, let others earn while you enjoy.
The dream might’ve been a dream, but it felt like a full lifetime. Close enough to "dying once."
So
if his past self struggled to make ends meet, this time around, he’d live lavishly… as a billionaire.
Otherwise, what was the point of that dream?
And that wasn’t even counting the memories.
Just this slapdash-named "system" alone seemed like a golden ticket to success.
Father Cao had contributed 17 points of emotional energy.
Pathetic.
If Father Cao weren’t lovestruck, today’s haul could’ve hit at least 50 points.
According to the system, a single draw cost 100 points.
The possible rewards? Just four words: "Anything and everything."
Sounded too good to be true.
But Cao Cheng wasn’t skeptical.
In 2006, web novels were rare on Earth.
But in his dream, they exploded in popularity—especially two decades later, when they started influencing global pop culture.
Was there any web novel trope he hadn’t seen?
Plenty got adapted into TV shows. You’d have to live under a rock to miss them.
So instead of doubting, he was curious.
Maybe this system really could deliver.
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
