Entrance of Jianghan District Civil Affairs Bureau.
Yang Hao tucked the freshly acquired divorce certificate into his jacket pocket, then took out his phone to open the Kangaroo Delivery Rider app and tapped to go online.
Because of the divorce, he hadn't received a single order since this morning.
"You can't just keep delivering takeout forever, you should find a stable job!"
"Besides, Xixi is getting bigger, and having a dad who delivers takeout will embarrass her."
Li Manshu stood with her feet clad in stilettos, legs wrapped in tight jeans, and her khaki Gorillaz trench coat left open, revealing a white knit sweater underneath. Her figure was graceful, showing no signs of having given birth.
She stood atop the stairway while Yang Hao stood below, forced to look up at her.
It was just like the dynamics at home before their marriage ended.
"There's no shame in earning money honestly without stealing or robbing."
"Xixi will understand me," Yang Hao replied indifferently.
He didn't feel much hatred towards the woman he had shared six years of his life with, who had also given him a lovely daughter.
He just thought he had been blind and had misjudged her.
After all, it had been Li Manshu who pursued him relentlessly in the beginning.
Six years prior, the 29-year-old Yang Hao owned two hotpot restaurants each spanning two hundred square meters.
The restaurants were bustling, and his annual income was between six and seven hundred thousand, making his life quite comfortable.
It was also that year that he met Li Manshu, who was working part-time at one of his stores.
She was young and beautiful, seven years his junior, and she made the first move on him.
Yang Hao, who had reached marrying age, quickly fell for this industrious, sensible, and gentle "younger sister."
The two soon became an item, and Li Manshu went from part-time waitress to the proprietress of both hotpot restaurants.
Not long after their marriage, Li Manshu became pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl the following year.
At 30, Yang Hao felt like a winner in the game of life.
A small success in business, a beautiful wife, and a newborn princess.
To provide better living conditions for his wife and daughter, he set about expanding his hotpot restaurants. After a period of research, he finalized three more locations, increasing the number of his stores to five.
He became the owner of five hotpot restaurants and envisioned expanding his business nationwide, aiming to become a well-known national hotpot chain like Haidilao.
However, a sudden "disaster" changed everything.
Initially, Yang Hao didn't think much of it, believing it would soon pass, even feeling happy to spend more time at home with his wife and daughter.
But the disaster wasn't as simple as he imagined. He clenched his teeth and survived the first year, the second year, but ultimately succumbed in the third year.
All five hotpot restaurants went out of business, his savings were completely gone, and he was left with a bank loan.
Then he noticed that his once gentle and virtuous wife had changed.
She became harsh and critical.
She became mercenary.
The admiration and respect she had for him vanished.
Occasionally, she would mock him with sarcastic remarks.
For survival, Yang Hao started looking for a job, but with just an ordinary bachelor's degree in an era where academic qualifications were severely depreciated, even young graduates struggled to find employment. And there he was, a 35-year-old "worn-out guy," too old for many jobs that set the hiring cutoff at the age of 35—he couldn't even get past that barrier.
To make money, he had no choice but to deliver takeout.
Meanwhile, Li Manshu, a married woman with outstanding appearance and demeanor, found herself a decent job.
Consequently, their domestic status underwent a dramatic reversal.
A month ago, Li Manshu unsurprisingly proposed a divorce.
Yesterday marked the end of the one-month cooling-off period, and today Li Manshu couldn't wait to summon Yang Hao to collect the divorce certificate!
She was the perfect embodiment of the phrase "When danger appeared, every man for himself."
Only to say that sharing wealth is easy but enduring hardship together is much harder.
When you enjoy an affluent material life, 90 or even 99 percent of women can stay happily by your side.
But when material life is scarce, that percentage drops dramatically.
There are definitely women willing to share both the bitter and sweet with a man; unfortunately, Li Manshu wasn't one of them.
Ding!
Monopoly-Game System installation successful...
Host: Yang Hao
Age: 35
Height: 182cm
Weight: 192 kg
Wealth Value: -215,000
Health Index: 68
Intelligence Quotient: 78
Combat Power: 65
Skills: None
Main Quest Progress: 0%
Ding!
You have a new mission!
As a Monopoly Game personage, you should have a healthy body. The host's weight is detected to be excessive, posing potential health risks.
Mission Content: Lose weight
Mission Reward: The host will be rewarded 100,000 for each kilogram lost. If the host's weight drops to 150 kg, the progress of the main quest will increase by 1%!
This...
The sudden alert in Yang Hao's mind startled him.
A Monopoly-Game?
The one I often play?
Yang Hao hurriedly checked his phone only to find that the Monopoly-Game he had always had on his phone had vanished!
"If you weren't Xixi's father, I wouldn't bother saying another word to you!"
"Last piece of advice, for Xixi's sake, get a more respectable job!"
Beep beep beep...
At this moment, a black BMW parked by the roadside started honking its horn repeatedly.
As the driver's window rolled down, a man wearing gold-rimmed glasses waved at Li Manshu.
"You better watch yourself!"
Without staying any longer, Li Manshu left these words behind and walked toward the BMW 5 Series.
Ding!
You have received a new order.
At the same time, the familiar voice of the Kangaroo Delivery came from Yang Hao's phone.
He instinctively glanced at the order information: the pickup spot was a cake shop one kilometer away, and the delivery neighborhood was less than two kilometers from the pickup place—a prime order.
Right now, Yang Hao couldn't be sure whether the Monopoly-Game System was real or fake, but he still had to live his life. He took a deep breath and then mounted the electric bicycle parked beside him.
"Brother, don't worry."
"I'll take good care of Manshu!"
The man with the gold-rimmed glasses stuck his head out of the driver's seat, saying smugly.
Hmph!
Ptui!
Yang Hao couldn't be bothered to argue with such a person. As the electric bike started, he spat directly at him.
Damn!!!
The distance between the two was quite close, and the thick old phlegm that Yang Hao vomited directly landed on the man's nose.
The spit dribbled down, slowly reaching his lips.
Li Manshu hurriedly took out a tissue to help wipe it off.
"What kind of manners!"
"What the actual fuck are these manners!"
"Fucking shit!!!"
After wiping off the phlegm that almost flowed into his mouth, Shen Mingshan burst into curses.
"Dear, let's not stoop to his level."
"A filthy delivery guy, what manners can he have."
Li Manshu hurriedly comforted him on the side.
"You must have been blind to have chosen such a man," Shen Mingshan sneered, then grabbed a wet wipe to clean his face.
"I was young and foolish at that time..."
Manshu whimpered, with a look of pitiable reminiscence.
"Alright, alright, let's not talk about the past. I'll take you out for a big meal to celebrate!" Shen Mingshan lewdly pinched the woman's soft and elastic breast, intentionally displaying a provocative expression, then started the car.