Eight years have passed, he's still going strong, but his girlfriend is having a mental breakdo

Jiangcheng.

Zhao Hongan held his suitcase with one hand and clutched his chest with the other, his face ashen.

Across from him, his ex-wife Hu Guoqin was aggressive, while his stepson Hu Rui looked fierce.

Zhao Hong'an felt a chill run down his spine:

"Hu Rui! How have I treated you all these years?"

"We paid for your private high school education and gave you a monthly living allowance of 3,000 yuan in college, just in case you felt you were being mistreated."

"We'll give you the down payment for a house, and we'll also provide financial support for your business startup..."

"Although you never called me 'Dad' from beginning to end, I've always treated you like my own son."

"So, in the end, you dared to lay a hand on your uncle? Is this how you repay him?"

Twenty years ago, Zhao Hong'an, a divorced single man, met Hu Guoqin, who came from out of town to open a coffee shop in Jiangcheng.

Hu Guoqin was in her early twenties at the time, divorced and with a son.

The two got together.

Zhao Hong'an had no children in his first marriage. Hu Guoqin, fearing that having a child would cause Hu Rui distress, advised Zhao Hong'an to wait until Hu Rui was older before considering having children.

This delay has dragged on until now.

When we first got married, our family was doing quite well.

Zhao Hongan runs a restaurant that isn't very big, but it's quite well-known locally and business has always been good.

Hu Guoqin became a boss's wife after marrying into the family, and she was very happy.

She was also very good at pleasing Zhao Hong'an, providing him with ample emotional support.

But a few years ago, Hu Rui grew up, and the mother and son encouraged Zhao Hong'an to open a chain store to expand the catering business and leave an industry for their descendants.

Zhao Hongan originally had no ambition, but he couldn't resist the persuasion of Hu Guoqin and her son, so he opened several chain stores.

Zhao Hongan lacked management experience. Managing several stores at the same time was completely different from running a single store, leaving him overwhelmed.

Unfortunately, we encountered those years when face masks were in use again.

Several shops went bankrupt one after another, and half a lifetime's savings were lost.

Over the course of several years, Zhao Hong'an seemed to have aged more than ten years.

Zhao Hongan is 68 years old this year, but looks like he is over 80.

He was getting old, lacked energy and ambition, and after closing his last shop, he prepared to retire.

Unexpectedly, things changed after that.

Hu Guoqin, who used to be completely obedient to him, started to find fault with him in every way.

"Your breath stinks! Get away from me!"

Even if Zhao Hongan had just brushed his teeth, it was no use.

"If you're going to eat, can you please stop making such loud swallowing noises, like an animal!"

"How many times have I told you, you have to sit down to pee! It's splashing outside!"

"I must have had the worst luck in eight lifetimes to marry an old bastard like you. This tiny, dilapidated house, the whole family sharing one bathroom. Why aren't you dead yet! I can't take this much longer!"

"..."

These were all just words Hu Guoqin uttered, completely forgetting that Zhao Hongan originally owned three houses, all of which he lost because he blindly expanded his chain of restaurants a few years ago under her encouragement.

The house we live in now was also bought by Zhao Hong'an, but it's registered under the name of his adopted son, Hu Rui.

The adopted son, Hu Rui, was even more unfriendly, always demanding money whenever they met. He took it for granted when given money and would give them the cold shoulder if they refused.

Zhao Hongan had had enough and had seen through it all.

It's not right if the son isn't my biological child.

It's impossible for him to rely on this mother and son for his old age.

Therefore, even though he was already old and frail, he was determined to sever all ties with the mother and son.

He didn't want his remains to end up in the hands of this mother and son, to be at their mercy after his death.

Zhao Hongan filed for divorce, willing to leave with nothing rather than get rid of this bloodsucking mother and daughter.

In fact, the family didn't have much property left.

The only house they owned was bought for Hu Rui with a down payment. They bought it at a high price back then, but now the price has dropped, so they've lost the down payment.

After the restaurant closed, Hu Rui lost all of his remaining savings of over one million yuan through venture capital investment.

However, Zhao Hong'an never expected that when he was about to leave home after the divorce was finalized, his adopted son Hu Rui would actually attack him just because he had a few words with Hu Guoqin.

"Repay you? Everything you've given me was earned by my mother with twenty years of her youth!"

"My mother has to put up with all this for me, you old bastard. You should be grateful for the law, otherwise, given how you bully my mother every day, I would have killed you!"

Hu Rui's eyes were wide open as if he wanted to kill someone.

Zhao Hongan could hardly believe his ears.

He practically gave his heart to them, and this is what he got in return?

In Hu Rui's eyes, his normal marital intimacy with Hu Guoqin was nothing more than his mother being bullied and submitting to injustice...

There is no solution to this.

Zhao Hongan felt utterly hopeless.

His vision blurred, and he felt waves of heart palpitations.

He is old.

He has several underlying medical conditions, so it wouldn't be surprising if he suddenly died one day.

Zhao Hong'an was too weak to argue with Hu Rui, nor did he want to.

He dragged his suitcase and walked outside.

Behind him, there were hurried footsteps. Hu Rui seemed unwilling to give up and wanted to hit him again.

Hu Guoqin stopped her, saying, "It's not worth it, baby. If you kill someone, you'll go to jail. As long as you know how hard your mother works and understand her grievances, that's enough..."

Her voice was choked with sobs, and with a bang, the door slammed shut.

In the empty corridor, Zhao Hong'an felt not loneliness, nor confusion about the rest of his life, but liberation.

"What a pity about my life. I thought my life was so amazing that I didn't need any explanation, but I never expected that I would end up as a simp with nothing."

Yes, Zhao Hong'an has a cheat code; it's the simp-returning-system that's all too common in online novels these days.

His misfortune struck twenty years ago.

As soon as Brother Tongzi appeared, he was given his first task.

At that time, he had only known Hu Guoqin for a short time when the system notified him that because he and Hu Guoqin had become quantum entangled and formed a bond, he was bound as the target of his counterattack. He could get ten times the return for spending on Hu Guoqin. Winning over Hu Guoqin would be considered a successful counterattack and he would receive a special reward.

Zhao Hongan chose to marry Hu Guoqin, a divorced woman with a child, partly because he had been influenced by reading Qiong Yao novels when he was young.

"You've only lost a leg, but Zi Ling has lost her love!" This was the guiding principle in Zhao Hong'an's worldview.

The other half is because of this tenfold return system.

Unexpectedly, after issuing the first task, the system became as if it were dead, and never made a sound again.

If it weren't for the gray panel in front of Zhao Hong'an that only he could see, he would have doubted whether there was any "Master Tong" at all, and whether it was all just his imagination.

Now, Zhao Hong'an has given up on any other thoughts.

"I don't know how many more years I have to live."

"Luckily, I persisted in paying social security back then, and now I receive my money every month, so I won't starve to death."

Zhao Hongan pays his own social security contributions.

Hu Guoqin strongly objected to this, trying to persuade him every time he paid, arguing that raising their son was better than paying social security; the money paid into social security went to those currently receiving pensions, and it was uncertain whether they would even be able to receive it in their future retirement. Their son, on the other hand, was practically right there beside them…

Zhao Hongan also considered stopping his social security contributions, but when he went to the social security window to inquire, he learned that if he stopped, he could only get back 40% of the money he had paid before.

Zhao Hong'an couldn't bear to lose money, so he insisted on paying the lowest rate for fifteen years.

Now, this lowest level of retirement pension has become his basic livelihood guarantee.

Zhao Hong'an felt a lingering fear when he thought back to how he almost listened to Hu Guoqin.

I almost got scammed again.

I only realized when I got old that paying social security is better than raising a son... at least, better than raising an adopted son.

"I don't have much time left, from now on I'll live only for myself. To hell with the simp system! To hell with the tenfold return on gifts!"

Although Zhao Hong'an had nothing, he felt more relaxed than ever before.

Just as he felt his state of mind had improved, a thought popped into his head: the panel that had been gray for twenty years lit up, and lines of white text slowly appeared.