Though he didn’t want to admit it, faced with this suffocating reality, Ye Zhen had no choice but to accept his fate.

But accepting fate didn’t mean lying down and giving up. Ye Zhen had graduated from a top American university, having received an international private education since childhood. He was confident that even without his original family background in this parallel world, he could still claw his way back to the top through sheer ability.

To his relief, Ye Zhen discovered that in this world, he at least still held a bachelor’s degree from a top domestic university. It was far inferior to his real qualifications, but it would have to do.

After all, as long as it served as a foot in the door to get companies to notice him, wouldn’t his own talent carry him swiftly up the ranks?

But it wasn’t long before Ye Zhen realized just how naive he’d been.

On the first day of job hunting, before an interview, Ye Zhen ran into another candidate in the restroom.

The man appeared somewhat older than Ye Zhen and greeted him warmly upon seeing him. “You’re here for the interview too?”

Ye Zhen ignored him entirely—there was no need to bother.

Only one person would be hired for this position, and Ye Zhen had no habit of engaging with his future defeated rivals.

The man didn’t seem to mind, though. He simply looked at Ye Zhen and shook his head. “Little brother, this won’t do.”

Who’s your little brother?!

Ignoring Ye Zhen’s hostile expression, the man continued earnestly. “Little brother, I’m telling you this heart to heart because I like the look of you. For an interview, dressed like that—it won’t work.”

Undeterred by Ye Zhen’s look of utter disbelief, the man went on. “When us men go to interviews, we’ve got to wear a thong, and when we walk, we need to just barely, tastefully show a hint of the edge—sexy, but naturally sexy, effortlessly sexy. That way, if some female interviewer happens to like what she sees, wouldn’t she give you extra points and hire you?”

The man looked Ye Zhen over again and shook his head. “Your backside is quite well shaped—what a waste.”

He sighed. “If only the men of our country could unite and learn from the spirit of that campaign our neighboring country calls ‘Brothers Coming,’ we wouldn’t be in such a weak position…”

Having said his piece, the man gave Ye Zhen one more glance and walked off with a heavy sigh.

Ye Zhen glared at the man’s retreating back, vaguely sensing that beyond the swapped identities, something else about this world felt deeply off.

That unsettling feeling was soon confirmed, one after another, in his subsequent job interviews—

“Unmarried, no children, and at this age—that’s awkward, young man. I’m sorry, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but honestly, some of you men have really burned us badly. The moment we hire someone and set them up with benefits, they go get married, have their wife have a baby, and then they want paternity leave, constantly asking for time off saying the kid is sick and needs care at home. For a small business like ours, we really can’t handle that. Seeing an unmarried male applicant like you gives me genuine anxiety now.”

“Twenty-five? You’re already twenty-five and still not married? And with looks like yours, either you’re too picky or you’re too much trouble. We can’t hire you, but as someone who’s been there, let me give you some advice—we men really shouldn’t be so difficult. Don’t get precious just because you’ve got a bit of a pretty face. Once you’re past thirty, you’ll be like overripe fruit left on the shelf.”

“Ye Zhen, is it? It’s not that we can’t hire you, but it can only be as a dispatched contract worker, because you single men tend to be less stable—who knows, you might say you’re getting married and want to go home to be a full-time parent. So for important positions, we don’t consider male candidates.”

“I see you applied for our East China regional president position—did you fill that out by mistake? That’s a core role requiring a big-picture perspective, not suitable for a man. We do have a secretarial assistant position, though, which would suit you well—nine-to-five, no overtime, convenient for taking care of the household. Would you like to consider that instead?”

“Ye Zhen, if we hire you and then you get married, how do you plan to balance work and family?”

…

Three straight days of interviews had nearly crushed Ye Zhen’s ambition and confidence.

Who could tell him why he’d not only inherited Jiang Xiaoyi’s wretched life, but had also landed in this godforsaken world?!

Though the buildings, landmarks, and streets here were all identical to his original world, the standing of men and women here was worlds apart.

Here, while the biological sex characteristics of men and women hadn’t changed—women still bore children—the responsibility of raising them fell entirely on men. Once a wife gave birth, the husband would take up to six months of childcare leave.

Because of this, women held a natural advantage in their careers. Many management positions only hired women, not men. Men, meanwhile, were expected to be virtuous homemakers, mostly relegated to supporting, auxiliary roles at work—an absolute position of disadvantage.

…

In just one short week, Ye Zhen felt as though an entire lifetime had passed. His whole demeanor felt as though he’d aged ten years, worn down and weary.

If this continued, he’d surely die.

Ye Zhen decided to save himself. No matter what, the fact remained that Jiang Xiaoyi had stolen his life—she owed it to him to take responsibility!

**

While Ye Zhen’s days were miserable, Jiang Xiaoyi’s, on the other hand, were thriving. Beyond inheriting Ye Zhen’s identity and fortune, Jiang Xiaoyi had discovered that in this parallel world, the treatment of the sexes had also swapped!

Over these past few days, she had fully adapted to her new persona!

She hadn’t expected, though, that right after scolding Eunuch Li at the office, she’d come back to the mansion to find Ye Zhen sitting sullenly by the front door. The moment he saw her, the man stood up and, with an air of self-righteous entitlement, tried to shake her down for money—

“Jiang Xiaoyi, give me ten million, and we’ll call it even.”

Jiang Xiaoyi nearly laughed out of sheer disbelief. “So now that you can’t make it on your own, you’ve come to extort me? Asking for ten million just like that? Why don’t you just go rob a bank? What have I ever done to you that I’d owe you ten million?”

Ye Zhen kept his expression grim. “This isn’t extortion.” The man cleared his throat, his voice a bit unnatural but still composed. “I’m soliciting investment. If you invest ten million with me, I can offer you an annualized return of over thirty percent.”

“Ten million might not be much to me these days, but why would I give it to you? I’m not short on money—I don’t need that thirty percent return.”

Ye Zhen pressed his lips together, his face darkening slightly. “You should have around ten billion in assets right now. I’m only asking for ten million—that’s not much.”

This time, Jiang Xiaoyi genuinely laughed. “Well, Ye Zhen, back when you had ten billion, why didn’t you ever give me ten million?”

“…” Ye Zhen seemed to suppress his anger, forcing himself to stay calm. “You stole my life. You owe it to me to take responsibility.”

“Me, take responsibility?” Jiang Xiaoyi’s eyes widened. “Ye Zhen, half a month ago, right here, you were so full of grand ambition, saying you’d go out and make a name for yourself in the world. Was I hearing things? Weren’t you supposedly quite proud and unyielding? What happened—couldn’t find a job?”

Ye Zhen shot back almost instantly, seething. “I found one! You think I’m like you? How could I possibly not find a job?!”

Even now, this man still carried that same air of natural superiority and condescension, and Jiang Xiaoyi’s sympathy for him instantly withered.

“If you found one, then why are you here asking me for money? Try experiencing what it’s like for an ordinary person to earn a living through their own work!”

Judging by his wretched state, it was obvious he hadn’t found anything at all.

Perhaps the distrust on Jiang Xiaoyi’s face was too obvious, because Ye Zhen struggled for a moment before finally caving and explaining.

The man stiffened his neck defensively. “I found one—but I quit!”

Jiang Xiaoyi decided to give him a taste of his own medicine, mimicking Ye Zhen’s old manner in an infuriatingly smug tone. “Ye Zhen, then why did you quit? Why is it that everyone else can manage it, but you had to quit? Clearly it’s your own problem. You should really do some soul-searching.”

“You think I wanted to quit? Look at what kind of hellhole this world is!”

Ye Zhen looked as though he’d been struck right at his sore spot, all his pent-up frustration finally finding an outlet—

“Here, simply being male is a sin! Men are at the absolute bottom of society! I can’t find a decent job at all! Everything I’m offered is secretarial assistant or administrative logistics—one company even said my face was decent enough to make me a receptionist! A receptionist, do you understand?! Is there any greater humiliation than that?!”

Ye Zhen’s eyes reddened with fury. “A talented investment manager like me, and they wanted me as a receptionist! Finally, one company offered me a position as director of the investment department. I thought they finally recognized my worth. I worked myself to the bone, put in overtime every single day, and doubled the entire department’s performance in one week. I thought I’d surely get promoted and made permanent—but instead, what I got was a room key from my female boss, telling me she appreciated me and was giving me a chance to sleep with her!”

“She’s old enough to be my mother, and she groped my backside! She said the very reason she hired me was because my behind was so shapely.” Ye Zhen grew angrier the more he spoke. “What kind of workplace is this? Not only discriminating against men, but blatantly sexually harassing them too! And this old woman even tried to comfort me, saying if I could get her pregnant with a daughter, she’d divorce her husband to be with me, all while cursing her husband for only giving her a bunch of worthless sons…”

“I refuse to continue in a job that strips away every shred of my dignity like that!”

“What kind of world is this?! Here, we men don’t even have basic dignity! I got groped five times in three days just for not making it into the men-only subway car! Five times!”

Ye Zhen seemed to have half a month’s worth of pent-up frustration built up—

“And you! That run-down apartment I’m living in now—that was your place before, wasn’t it? It’s the twenty-first century, and buildings like that being allowed to exist should be a crime!”

“Why do you get to live in this huge mansion while I’m stuck in that dump?”

Ye Zhen’s face carried a look of “just let the world end already,” continuously hurling soul-searching questions at Jiang Xiaoyi—

“The problem is, even that dump isn’t cheap rent. I drained every last cent of cash I had just to pay off the back rent, and I had to endure the landlord’s dirty looks for days before I could barely move in. And then what?”

“Then, night after night, the young couple next door kept going at it all night long. Downstairs, some old lady’s cat—apparently not neutered—kept yowling in the middle of the night. It leaks when it rains, and it ruined the one custom-tailored suit I brought with me from before I crossed over! The stairwell always reeks of dogs relieving themselves everywhere!”

Ye Zhen pointed at his own nose. “To protect my sense of smell, I’ve had to hold my breath and breathe through my mouth. Do you know what happens from long-term mouth breathing?”

“It causes your cheeks to sag and your chin to recede!” Ye Zhen pointed at his own face. “Just imagine a work of art like my face being ruined—can you really live with yourself? Watching beauty be forcibly destroyed right before your very eyes?”

The man cleared his throat, saying shamelessly, “You should show some sincerity and offer some money to help preserve what little beauty remains in this world.” He paused, then looked at Jiang Xiaoyi. “If ten million is too much, a million would do too.”

“…”

Though the ten million had suddenly shrunk to a million, Jiang Xiaoyi remained unmoved.

“Just a million!” Seeing Jiang Xiaoyi’s lack of response, Ye Zhen grew a little anxious. “I’ll pay you back with interest within half a year! For a million, you’d get to swap lives with me—what do you have to lose? If it weren’t for your terrible luck, would I have ended up like this?”

So, in the end, Ye Zhen believed all this misery was somehow Jiang Xiaoyi’s fault?

“Ye Zhen, ‘fate is just an excuse for the weak’—remember that? You taught me that. What, now that it’s your turn, suddenly there’s a double standard?”

“Every bit of the life and gender treatment you’re experiencing now is exactly what I used to endure. Why is it that I could survive it, but you can’t? There are countless people in this world living a hundred times worse than you, and you don’t see them going around extorting people for money, do you?”

Now that fortunes had reversed, it was Jiang Xiaoyi’s turn to hold her head high—

“You’re a single young man, with a bit of decent looks I suppose, and you rashly show up at my door asking for money. Do you have any idea what implications that carries? Is that something a proper, decent man would do? Do you have no respect for socialist male virtue?”

Having endured Ye Zhen’s “I’m only tormenting you for your own good” theory during her time as his temporary assistant, Jiang Xiaoyi now decided to hand it right back to him, word for word: “Ye Zhen, I hope you understand my good intentions. Right now, you’re asking me for money, and if I give in, you’ll start taking it for granted, and eventually you’ll lose your ability to survive independently. Next time, forget about some wealthy woman old enough to be your mother groping your backside—even one old enough to be your grandmother, you’ll just have to endure it!”

“So, for your own good—forget a million, I won’t give you a single cent!”

…