Jiang Lin had only kept up the act of being poor for two days before he felt he couldn’t keep it up any longer.

He was used to a life of extravagance and excess, and simply couldn’t stand having his standard of living and consumption downgraded. After wearing budget outerwear for just two days, he already felt like his skin was being chafed and damaged by the coarse texture of the fabric.

This was truly unbearable.

Jiang Lin quickly switched back to his usual wardrobe.

Given that he clearly couldn’t rough it, it seemed unlikely he’d find a girlfriend who genuinely cared for him rather than his money and status anytime soon. But Jiang Lin had a good attitude about it — his own romantic pursuits might not exactly be described as pure, but that didn’t mean this Ye Zhen would necessarily manage to keep up a “pure” relationship either!

Once the three-month freshness period passed, Ye Zhen would surely find things had grown stale and would promptly break up with his little sweetheart.

So, in the end, Jiang Lin wouldn’t lose — Ye Zhen wouldn’t be able to get married before he did either.

However, half a year later, Jiang Lin discovered his careful calculations had completely fallen apart — not only had Ye Zhen not broken up, he and his girlfriend seemed to be growing even closer, getting better and better together.

When Jiang Lin invited Ye Zhen to his gala in the second half of the year, this insufferable man couldn’t help but gloat: “Jiang Lin, I hear you’re still in a dry spell? Still looking for a girlfriend who genuinely appreciates and treats you well? Didn’t I hear you’ve been looking for half a year already? How come you still haven’t found anyone?”

Talk about hitting a sore spot — Jiang Lin had never found Ye Zhen’s handsome face this punchable before.

That wasn’t even three questions in a row — it was four!

But Jiang Lin wasn’t one to admit defeat easily. He put on an air of nonchalance and took a sip of tea: “Oh, but you know, in modern society, before marriage, anything’s possible. You and your girlfriend might seem pretty stable right now, but who knows — last time I saw her, she’d gotten even prettier, dressed even better too, radiating confidence inside and out. She used to seem a bit timid, but now her whole aura has really come up.”

“I know she’s your girlfriend, but plenty of people out there don’t know that — that time she represented Ruiyi at a collaboration meeting, you have no idea how many people approached her during the coffee break asking for her contact info, trying to hit on her.”

Sure enough, Ye Zhen’s expression turned rather sour.

This naturally spurred Jiang Lin on even more — wherever it stung Ye Zhen, that’s exactly where he’d poke: “I have to say, your girlfriend really is captivating. When she presented the project PPT, she was so professional too, poised and gracious, and good-looking on top of it, with a great figure — especially those bright, striking eyes. Isn’t that exactly the type of partner we successful men in our circle all love? Someone you can bring home who looks good on your arm, and can also be a capable support at home…”

Ye Zhen’s eyes practically shot fire: “Since you knew she was my girlfriend, why didn’t you clear things up for her?”

Jiang Lin spread his hands helplessly: “I’m quite the loyal friend, of course I cleared it up. But there’s no stopping some men who have no shame — once they found out you two weren’t married yet, they got right back to trying, saying that as long as you’re not married, it’s not exactly homewrecking, fair competition and all that, and they wanted to give it a shot.”

Ye Zhen’s expression indeed turned to gritted teeth, but the man held back, and finally forced himself to calm down, looking at Jiang Lin with a smile: “It’s fine. I’ll be getting married soon.”

Well, look at that — putting on a brave face again.

Jiang Lin laughed mockingly: “Your girlfriend’s so outstanding now, she has plenty of options — she might not necessarily need you. How do you know she’ll say yes when you propose? Plenty of outstanding women these days are pretty independent, maybe she’d rather focus on her career first…”

But this time, Ye Zhen wasn’t riled up at all. He looked at Jiang Lin with an expression that was almost pitying —

“Jiang Lin, my girlfriend really is outstanding, and honestly I sometimes feel the pressure of that too, but as for getting married — we really are doing that very soon.”

Ye Zhen pressed his lips together and smiled: “After all, the baby in her belly can’t wait. If we don’t hurry up and get it done, it won’t look so good fitting into a wedding dress much longer.”!!!

Ye Zhen ignored Jiang Lin’s shocked expression and continued calmly: “Anyway, I won’t chat with you further — I’m busy heading home to be with my wife and kid, unlike you, still all alone with plenty of free time. Next time I get married, remember to give me a big red envelope.”

Having said this, Ye Zhen looked at Jiang Lin again with pity, sighing: “Who knows when I’ll ever get to drink your wedding toast, so I can return the favor of the red envelope money.”

“……”

“I’ll attend your gala. By then, Jiang Xiaoyi will already be my fiancée, so I should properly introduce her status to everyone, just in case some morally bankrupt men are still thinking of wrecking my family and stealing what’s mine.”

“……”

Jiang Lin watched Ye Zhen’s smug figure walk away, absolutely gritting his teeth in fury.

He felt he still couldn’t admit defeat so easily — maybe he should go back to lying low and playing poor a while longer.

But fate didn’t give Jiang Lin that chance — he, Jiang Lin, actually ended up traveling through time!

This time-travel was said to be quite bizarre, coming without any warning whatsoever.

This time, at his gala, aside from the usual dancing, Jiang Lin had rented an entire luxury resort villa and set up a pool party. Because the weather was hot, Jiang Lin had gotten an early start holding a cocktail, soaking in the pool, glaring resentfully across the pool at Ye Zhen and Jiang Xiaoyi — he, Jiang Lin, had never realized just how much of a bootlicker Ye Zhen was deep down.

Just look at him now, running around fussing over Jiang Xiaoyi.

Honestly, Jiang Lin felt somewhat bitter watching this — Jiang Xiaoyi and Ye Zhen really did look genuinely loving together, and Jiang Xiaoyi had indeed grown even more beautiful. Even though she was pregnant, it didn’t show on her figure at all; even with Ye Zhen right there beside her, plenty of people at the party still kept glancing her way.

The pool party proceeded quite smoothly, with no accidents or anything unusual happening. Jiang Lin never expected any time-travel to occur, yet after he went for a swim underwater and climbed back out of the pool, he found that everything had changed…

The moment he emerged from the water, he noticed something was off —

Though the location hadn’t changed at all, something was strange about the men filling this pool…

So many men in the prime of their lives, all wearing swimsuits like that?!

Jiang Lin looked down at his own swim trunks and toned upper body, and found himself deeply confused.

Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing here?

Why were the men here dressed so conservatively? Not only wearing knee-length swim shorts, but also old-fashioned, dully-colored swim tops on top?

If it weren’t for the party atmosphere still lingering around him, Jiang Lin might have thought he’d wandered into a swimming competition — after all, it’s only in competitive swimming that some male athletes choose to wear specialized swimwear to reduce water resistance, but the style of swimwear these men were wearing clearly wasn’t that either…

Before Jiang Lin could even ask, a man lounging nearby on a beach chair with a drink cried out in alarm —

“What is wrong with this man! Is this the kind of place a man like you should even be at?!”

This man was dressed in a conservative one-piece swimsuit, with a bathrobe draped over it despite the heat, wrapping himself up tightly. Seeing Jiang Lin, he shouted with a disdainful expression —

“Attendant, attendant! How did this man get let in here without even wearing proper swimwear? Isn’t this basically indecent exposure? This is a high-class party, how did such a disreputable, sketchy man get in here? Isn’t there a clear dress code?”

What on earth was going on here?!

Jiang Lin had never in his life been insulted like this — he’d never expected to get scolded head-on at his own gala. Just as he was about to argue his case, a bathrobe was thrown over his head to cover his face.

And then, the voice that rang out above his head was Ye Zhen’s —

“Put this on quickly.”

Jiang Lin put on the bathrobe, and sure enough, saw Ye Zhen standing right beside him, the man also wrapped tightly in a bathrobe of his own — Jiang Lin had no idea when he’d put it on — now standing off to the side, looking at Jiang Lin with a pitying expression.

Seeing Ye Zhen, Jiang Lin instinctively wanted to complain to him, but Ye Zhen ignored him and forcibly made Jiang Lin put the bathrobe on first.

Once Jiang Lin was dressed, he looked around, and things only felt more off.

Though the location hadn’t changed, this definitely wasn’t his gala!

His gala always invited plenty of single beautiful women, yet at this pool party, women were scarce and men were plentiful! And the women were all lounging on the beach chairs like distinguished guests, while several men, all dressed in swimwear that seemed to want to cover as much skin as possible, leaned bashfully beside the chairs, one moment peeling grapes for the women, the next fetching them drinks…

“What… what’s going on here?”

Faced with all these unreasonable scenes, Ye Zhen seemed quite calm about it. Beside him stood Jiang Xiaoyi, who also seemed to be treating the situation as if it were completely normal. She simply looked at Jiang Lin, her eyes filled with even more worry and pity than Ye Zhen’s.

Jiang Lin saw her glance at Ye Zhen a couple of times, then heard her sigh: “How’s someone like Jiang Lin going to survive here? He’s got no virtue or moral integrity at all — I’m afraid he’s going to get shamed as a promiscuous man…”???

What?

Jiang Lin thought he’d misheard, and was about to ask, but was interrupted by Ye Zhen, his expression suddenly serious: “Let’s get changed first. I’ll find a place and explain everything to you in detail.”

……

**

Half an hour later, sitting in a café, Jiang Lin was still completely unable to process the painful truth —

“Ye Zhen, is it me or you who’s lost their mind? What kind of nonsense did you just say? This is a society where men are expected to be virtuous and submissive?! Did I hear that right?”

Compared to Jiang Lin’s shock, Ye Zhen, having ample experience with all this by now, was much more composed: “Anyway, this is just how this world is. If you don’t accept it, that’s fine too — live here a couple more days and you’ll get used to it.”

Ye Zhen seemed to have adjusted to all of this quite well; he even laughed as he spoke, then looked at Jiang Xiaoyi, sounding like he was fishing for credit as he flattered her: “Honey, I checked the time — even though I didn’t get to take the Male Virtue EMBA exam last time before we left in a hurry, it turns out this time-travel happened to line up with this year’s new exam session. I’m going to go sign up right away.”

“I just contacted the person in charge of ‘Origin’ — had him calculate it based on the parallel timeline’s formula — and it turns out the timing works out perfectly for me to make it to the EMBA exam before we have to leave. I’m going to try my best to get that Male Virtue EMBA certificate this time, really make it official, get properly certified this time.”

Jiang Lin was utterly stunned. Male Virtue EMBA? He’d lived this long and only ever heard of EMBA programs like Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business or various CEO training programs — he’d never once heard of this ridiculous “male virtue” thing having an EMBA too. Was Ye Zhen joking? And parallel timeline? Wasn’t that only something out of novels?

“Ye Zhen, is this some standing tradition at your gala? Some prank party you set up for me?”

Unfortunately, Ye Zhen didn’t give Jiang Lin the answer he wanted to hear. He just looked at Jiang Lin with an expression growing ever more pitying and benevolent —

“I don’t know either why this time it happened to coincide with a temporal overlap right in the pool, but anyway, since you’re here, might as well make the best of it. Jiang Lin, just try to properly experience life here for a while — didn’t you say before that you wanted to change yourself?”

Ye Zhen said meaningfully: “I won’t say more, but trust me, spending some time here, you’re absolutely guaranteed a complete transformation, head to toe.”

“I won’t say more — I need to get home to my wife. She’s pregnant now, and I need to help handle all her company matters too. I’m going to go work overtime approving Ruiyi’s internal approval workflows. Take care of yourself, good luck.”???

Absolutely ridiculous.

What a joke!

Jiang Lin absolutely refused to pay Ye Zhen any mind. He decided to head out and go back to his own company.

However…

Half a day later, Jiang Lin found himself wandering the streets with a face as dark as thunder.

He’d actually been kicked out by the security guards of his own company!

Clearly it was his own company, yet Jiang Lin discovered that the legal representative wasn’t him at all — it was registered under his sister’s name?! But he was the only son in the family, the sole heir his patriarchal father had designated as the successor!

And even worse, here, not only was his company gone, but his houses, villas, cash assets — all of it, gone too.

As time went on, Jiang Lin grew increasingly aware of just how serious the situation was.

That damn Ye Zhen hadn’t been lying after all — he really had traveled to a parallel timeline!

Jiang Lin refused to give up. Fortunately he still had his phone, so he immediately dug up his own father’s number and dialed it. But before he could even get the word “Dad” out of his mouth, his father’s furious roar came through the phone —

“You worthless brat, you still have the nerve to call me?!”

“Have you seen the news about how many times you’ve violated male virtue standards?! If it’s not rumors about you and this woman, it’s another one — you’ve nearly ruined the Jiang family’s reputation! I’ve frozen all your cards! Go reflect on yourself properly, and don’t you dare call me ‘Dad’ again until you’ve passed the Male Virtue EMBA certification!”

……

Jiang Lin never even got a word in before his father hung up on him.

But soon, Jiang Lin realized this time, the old man meant business — all his credit cards turned out to be supplementary cards under his father’s account, and now they’d all been frozen!

Jiang Lin never expected that after trying to fake being poor before, he’d now become genuinely poor through time travel…

He started calling up his former “good friends” —

“Hey, Vicky, it’s me — I’m… hey, hey, hey! I’m not done talking yet!”

“Mary, it’s Jiang Lin…”

Jiang Lin had always considered himself quite generous back when dating these former “good friends,” and he’d always gone for the obedient, sweet type. But he never expected that with the shift in timelines, the situation here had completely reversed —

“Jiang Lin? Didn’t I already tell you not to contact me anymore? Remember what you told me back when we started dating — that you were still a virgin? Turns out you’d already been around the block, how disgusting!”

“What? You want to borrow money from me? Jiang Lin, are you kidding me? I already paid you compensation for lost youth back when we broke up, and we agreed you wouldn’t bother me again. Blocked.”

“You’ve already dated so many women, and now you still want to come demanding I take responsibility for you? Jiang Lin, you know, a man like you who’s already been ‘used,’ no woman is going to take you seriously. Stop calling me, I have a new boyfriend now, a proper graduate of a male virtue program — don’t harass me anymore, or I’ll call the police!”

……

Jiang Lin made call after call, and aside from a pile of harsh “greetings” thrown his way, he got nothing at all.

With no other options left, Jiang Lin finally, relying on memory, found his way to Ye Zhen’s villa, only to…

Jiang Lin knocked on the door for a long while with no answer, but it did draw the attention of the property staff —

“Who are you? What’s your name? Visitors to this community need to register. Please go register at the security office.”

“The owner of this house — surname’s Ye, right?”

The security guard immediately grew alert upon hearing this: “You’ve got the wrong place. This is Boss Jiang’s house — the owner isn’t surnamed Ye.”

Boss Jiang???

“Jiang Xiaoyi?” What kind of world was this, where this huge villa had become Jiang Xiaoyi’s?

The security guard frowned: “You know Boss Jiang?”

Jiang Lin thought quickly: “I’m also surnamed Jiang — I’m Boss Jiang’s older brother. Don’t believe me? Look.” As he spoke, he pulled out his ID.

After checking his ID and confirming his surname really was Jiang, the security guard, though still somewhat suspicious, no longer tried to chase Jiang Lin off. He registered Jiang Lin’s ID information and gave him a visitor’s pass, then reluctantly walked away, looking back several times.

Though he was allowed to stay in the community, Jiang Lin still couldn’t get into the villa.

With no other choice, Jiang Lin had to ask Ye Zhen for help, and dialed his number with a mix of anxiety and hope, practically tearing up the moment the call connected —

“Bro! I’m at your villa gate — when are you coming back?”

Unfortunately, Jiang Lin’s hopes were immediately dashed — Ye Zhen’s response was cold and merciless —

“I brought my wife back to her parents’ place. She finally gets to see her mom and dad in this timeline, so we’ll be staying at her parents’ place for a while, not going back to the villa for now…”

Ye Zhen was only halfway through his sentence when a middle-aged woman’s robust voice came through the phone: “Son-in-law, come help me pull weeds in the yard! Who are you on the phone with, is it some shady character?!”

In an instant, Ye Zhen, who’d just been treating Jiang Lin with such cold indifference, did a complete one-eighty, his tone turning gentle and dutiful: “Yes, Mom, it’s just a scam call trying to sell something. I’ll hang up right now and come pull weeds for you.”???

Before Jiang Lin could even protest, Ye Zhen hung up the phone without another word.

“……”

Amid the long stretch of dial tone, Jiang Lin felt like he couldn’t even catch his breath.

At this moment, along the road in this upscale villa district, a group of stray cats wandered by in twos and threes, each one round-bellied and thick-limbed with sleek fur. Jiang Lin watched this group of plump cats stroll casually down the path, familiar with the route, before climbing the villa steps. Following the trail of these plump cats, Jiang Lin discovered that in a small corner outside Jiang Xiaoyi and Ye Zhen’s villa, there sat a feeding bowl for stray cats, filled with generous portions of cat food.

Jiang Lin’s frustration reached its peak in that very instant —

Even the stray cats had food to eat! He, Jiang Lin, had nothing!

Hungry and humiliated, but unable to just beg on the street, and seeing that Ye Zhen wasn’t going to bother about his wellbeing at all, Jiang Lin was just about to trudge away from this villa district when he saw a flashy sports car approaching in the distance.

Jiang Lin didn’t even know what came over him — in that split second, as if possessed, he made a shocking decision!

Though it was his first time doing such a thing, Jiang Lin proved remarkably gifted, rushing dramatically in front of the sports car and staging an epic, artful case of insurance fraud.

Since the car was moving fairly slowly within the community, Jiang Lin had accurately estimated the other driver’s direction and speed before staging his fall.

Just as he’d planned, he wasn’t hurt at all, but he threw himself onto the ground with theatrical flair as if gravely injured, then struggled to get back up several times as if too weak to move, before finally clutching his chest as though he’d suffered a heart attack.

The moment he’d leaped out, the car screeched to a stop. The car door opened, and out stepped a girl from inside the red car —

Fair skin, long flowing hair, big bright eyes, tall figure — stunningly beautiful, except…

She wore a cold, stony expression.

Though flawless in looks, this expression was completely not Jiang Lin’s type, in fact almost the exact opposite of the sweet, docile type he liked — that face was way too aloof!

But she looked oddly familiar?

Jiang Lin frowned and looked her over again, and suddenly recognized her.

Wasn’t this Xu Mengting?!

Seemed like some kind of younger sister of Ye Zhen’s! And a celebrity too.

Xu Mengting had actually come to the villa to help Ye Zhen pick up some daily necessities, and never expected to get hit with an insurance fraud attempt right at the villa gate. She’d been ready to march over aggressively to confront whoever was reckless enough to try scamming her in a community like this, but the moment she looked down at him, she paused —

“It’s you?”

Xu Mengting’s attitude left Jiang Lin puzzled — could it be…

Even though back in the original timeline, he’d never actually met Xu Mengting in person, could it be that in this timeline, he and Xu Mengting were already acquainted?

If they were already acquainted, that would make things easier! After all, he was Ye Zhen’s buddy, and this was Ye Zhen’s sister — surely he could borrow some money from her if he couldn’t find Ye Zhen himself!

Xu Mengting’s attitude only reinforced Jiang Lin’s assumption. He watched as she took out a business card from her handbag and handed it to him —

“If you’re in trouble, call this number. It’s one of my side projects — they’ll arrange food and lodging for you. Just mention my name, and I’ll cover all the costs.”

So they really did know each other!

Jiang Lin nearly teared up with gratitude — he’d never expected Ye Zhen, useless as he was, to have a sister with such genuinely good character!

Even though she gave off a cold, aloof vibe and seemed hard to get along with, Jiang Lin had never felt so moved before, and immediately grabbed Xu Mengting’s hand —

“Little sister, from now on, you’re my real little sister.”

But Xu Mengting clearly wasn’t moved at all. She pulled her hand back, her expression still cold, though her tone carried a hint of pity: “Your foundation is pretty weak — you probably won’t graduate in a year or two. Given where you’re starting from, you might need to repeat the program a few times.”???

Jiang Lin was a bit confused, but quickly turned optimistic again: “Then, little sister, could you treat me to a meal? You know, your brother and I go way back.”

Xu Mengting’s face showed genuine confusion: “What do you mean, ‘your brother’? How could you possibly know Ye Zhen? My brother wouldn’t associate with friends who lack male virtue. Though I’m a proponent of equal rights, and I don’t support stigmatizing men either — but you making up such claims about my brother is a bit much.”

Jiang Lin was stunned: “What? Weren’t you helping me because you recognized me as Ye Zhen’s friend?”

Xu Mengting’s expression showed genuine bafflement: “I’m helping you because I keep seeing you on the trending topics. Aren’t you the one always caught up in rumors with this starlet or that model, always getting scolded online as some kind of playboy?”

“……”

Xu Mengting cleared her throat: “Of course, I don’t disrespect you or discriminate against you for that. I don’t think a man who’s dated a lot of women is somehow ‘used goods’ or ‘damaged.’ But what you just did — trying to scam my car, then forcibly claiming kinship and calling me your sister — that really is a bit much.”

“……”

“Anyway, regardless, I do believe men like you deserve equal employment opportunities and fair, non-discriminatory treatment, so I’m giving you a chance. I hope you’ll seize it properly.”

Xu Mengting resumed her cold demeanor, then pulled out her wallet and handed Jiang Lin a few bills: “Take this, get a cab to the address I gave you. Stop living off your looks and being a gold-digger — start fresh, be a decent person, society is still willing to accept you.”

“……”

Jiang Lin watched, dumbfounded, as Xu Mengting walked into the villa. She emerged shortly after, presumably having retrieved whatever Ye Zhen had asked her to grab, then gracefully returned to her sports car and drove off with a press of the gas pedal.

So the business card she gave him…

Jiang Lin looked at the bills in his hand with complicated feelings, then lowered his gaze to the business card Xu Mengting had given him.

The bold text on the card nearly knocked Jiang Lin flat on the spot —

“Stray Men’s Rescue Center — A Refuge for Abandoned, Homeless Men Facing Social Stigma”

……

Jiang Lin hadn’t actually had a heart attack when he faked his fall earlier, but now he genuinely felt like he might. He stared wide-eyed at these words on the card, feeling his chest tighten as if he really couldn’t breathe…

So he’d really sunk to the level of being a homeless man nobody wanted? This treatment seemed worse than what the stray cats got!

And what was even worse was the text on the back of the card — Jiang Lin flipped it over, and the words on the back nearly finished him off completely…

Beyond rescue services, we also offer training programs to help stray men get back on their feet: free Male Virtue EMBA training, flower arranging, cooking, organizing, and other essential skills training for the modern man…

Be a good socialist man — reject oppression, be independent and self-reliant!

Xu Mengting Equal Rights Center Foundation, welcoming all men abandoned by society! Giving you the home you’ve always dreamed of!

To all of you once blinded by money and desire, once lost — the Xu Mengting Equal Rights Center Foundation will never give up on you, never abandon you. Upholding the dignity of modern men.

We also provide legal aid for men who have experienced sexual harassment or been shamed as promiscuous. If interested, please call our hotline…

……

Jiang Lin felt his scalp go numb reading this.

What kind of absurd nonsense was this?!

Jiang Lin nearly fainted from sheer rage.

But what made him even more furious was that, with his pockets now completely empty, following the address on Xu Mengting’s business card to this so-called Stray Men’s Rescue Center was truly his only remaining option…

What kind of oddball was Ye Zhen’s sister?! Running a rescue center for homeless men — that’s not something an ordinary person would even think to do.

A woman like that — no matter how pretty she was, who would dare marry her!

This was absolutely nightmare-level stuff!

Ye Zhen had said the original world could still be returned to. Jiang Lin thought to himself resentfully — as long as he gritted his teeth and endured for a while longer, he’d eventually make it back to his original world, and when he did, he absolutely, positively would not get to know this Xu Mengting.

**

But reality turned out nowhere near as pleasant as Jiang Lin had hoped. He’d originally thought he could laze around and freeload off the Stray Men’s Rescue Center for a while, but it turned out Xu Mengting was anything but a pushover.

“In short, anyone who voluntarily signs up to participate in this training program will have all their food, lodging, and medical expenses covered by our foundation — you won’t need to worry about living expenses for the next six months. But, once accepted, you must sign a training agreement. If you drop out midway, you’ll face compensation penalties, and afterward, you’ll be permanently blacklisted from the rescue center and barred from any future assistance.”

Xu Mengting’s face was beautiful as a painting, yet her tone was calm and unyielding: “I didn’t set up this rescue center on some impulsive whim. My intention in running this center is to support men who’ve faced unfair treatment, and I’m willing to offer temporary relief services to men in difficult circumstances, but I have no interest in attracting men who see my charity as an opportunity to leech off me under the guise of being disadvantaged.”

“That’s why the training program will operate on a regular assessment system. Anyone who fails three consecutive assessments will have their training privileges revoked.”

Xu Mengting’s gaze swept over all the men present who’d come to fill out assistance applications: “So I hope you’ll all treasure this opportunity. There are countless disadvantaged men in society who don’t get fair treatment, but my foundation’s resources to help are always limited — if this precious training opportunity gets wasted on even one person, then some other man, struggling yet hoping to change his fate, will lose out on the chance to be helped.”

“You should know, our male virtue courses aren’t about teaching men to be docile and homebound — they’re about teaching you independence and giving you a skill to stand on your own. Beyond the traditionally ‘suitable’ skills for men like flower arranging and cooking, we also offer a lot more, including financial courses and legal courses. We encourage every man to shine in his own position.”

……

Though Xu Mengting came across as extremely cold and hard to approach, the light in her eyes as she said all this, and the care and sense of responsibility toward disadvantaged men evident in her words, left Jiang Lin somewhat impressed despite himself.

Through his own firsthand experience and Ye Zhen’s explanations, Jiang Lin had come to understand the gender dynamics of this world. Back when he’d enjoyed all the privileges of being male in the original timeline, he’d never once considered what those disadvantaged women went through — now, having personally experienced the difficulty of being oppressed, he finally understood just how rare someone like Xu Mengting truly was.

She approached her advocacy work with genuine dedication — it wasn’t just about donating money. Whenever she had free time, she would personally come to the rescue center, and for some of the younger boys who’d suffered harm, she would personally comfort them and provide psychological counseling, even obtaining a professional psychological counseling license to be more qualified for it.

For a currently popular female celebrity, this was truly remarkable.

Jiang Lin was someone who acted on his feelings, and he immediately decided to pursue his own happiness. Except…

Except when Jiang Lin tried using his usual playbook for pursuing women on Xu Mengting, she remained completely unmoved.

The roses Jiang Lin scraped together money to buy, his attempts to invite her to a movie, dinner, a concert, or an exhibition — all of it was coldly rejected by Xu Mengting —

“Sorry, I’m not interested in any of that.”

Once or twice was fine, but after several times, Jiang Lin wasn’t just frustrated — he started feeling resentful too, and couldn’t help but complain: “Do you look down on me?”

Having been thoroughly beaten down by this world’s ways over the past month, Jiang Lin had gradually adapted and accepted this world’s values, and now, his sense of grievance felt genuine too: “You keep saying you support men’s equal rights and wouldn’t look down on a man with my kind of romantic history, but when it comes down to you personally, you clearly can’t accept a man like me at all.”

Jiang Lin grew more aggrieved as he spoke: “But it’s not like I wanted this either — sure, I was young and reckless before and dated a lot of people, but they were all just casual dating, nothing more. I’ve always been quite cautious about entering a real relationship, never that casual about it. And sure, if you all consider that being ‘casual,’ then fine, I’m willing to turn over a new leaf, be a good person, and pursue a pure relationship — yet here, it seems that’s just not accepted at all.”

Jiang Lin’s grievance was genuine — although he’d had a rich romantic history back in his original timeline, he’d never actually applied a double standard of being lenient with himself and harsh with others. He never minded if the women he dated also had rich romantic histories, believing that men and women should be equal when it came to romantic history, and he’d never expected the women he dated to be a blank slate.

Jiang Lin had also never used his family background or status to pressure anyone through sleazy tactics — every time, if he was interested, he’d approach it openly and directly.

Having largely grown up abroad during his adolescence, Jiang Lin’s mindset was also more Westernized. For girls he found somewhat interesting, after making his interest known, if they clicked, he’d casually start a “dating” relationship with no pressure attached — just dating, and during the dating period, anything was fair game, including hugging, kissing, even going further. But when it came to entering an actual committed relationship, establishing exclusive status, he was extremely cautious about that.

Though others might see his behavior as thoroughly “playboy,” in Jiang Lin’s view, there was a huge difference between a relationship and dating — during the dating stage, the other person wasn’t yet his girlfriend, so it was reasonable and appropriate to be casually dating multiple people at once. After all, wasn’t it only by dating and getting to know several people that you could figure out what kind of girlfriend you actually wanted, and which type suited you best?

However, back in China, Jiang Lin’s way of thinking was almost never accepted — even though every time he’d dated someone, both parties had ended things amicably, understanding they simply weren’t a match, he’d still constantly get criticized behind his back. And now, in this society, his reputation was even worse.

Now, wanting to pursue Xu Mengting, it seemed he was about to face rejection over this again…

Xu Mengting clearly hadn’t expected Jiang Lin to say all this to her. She paused, and just as Jiang Lin was bracing himself for her to come up with some polished excuse to turn him down, he heard Xu Mengting speak clearly and formally —

“Since dating is equal for both parties, with no coercion and no deception involved, and neither side is at a disadvantage, then even if things go further, since both parties are consenting adults, and no one loses out either way — if that’s the case, then I don’t think your past romantic history was wrong.”

Was this… a sign of hope?!

Jiang Lin’s eyes lit up.

“But.” Unfortunately, Xu Mengting didn’t continue along the script playing out in Jiang Lin’s head. She pressed her lips together and glanced at Jiang Lin. “I prefer men who are more family-oriented and homebound.”

“It’s not a judgment of you — you’re just not my type. I looked over the application info you filled out when you applied to our rescue center — your hobbies and how you spend your free time are all things like going out to bars, that sort of thing. Your usual eating habits are mostly takeout or eating out too, but when I’m not working, I like staying home, and I only really enjoy simple home cooking — I don’t much care for going out unless necessary.”

Xu Mengting was beautiful in a way that felt distant and refined, carrying a kind of elegant coldness about her, but as she got to this point, she gave Jiang Lin a smile, her eyes focused on him, her tone growing gentler: “But please know, I’m not rejecting you because of your romantic history, not because you’re not wealthy, not because of what you did in the past, and not because you’re not good enough. You should believe that you’re good just as you are, and you’ll keep working to become even better.”

“It’s just that we’re not compatible.” Xu Mengting smiled. “But you’ll definitely find a girl who’s right for you, and you’ll be happy eventually.”

……

Jiang Lin had only really had a fair amount of interest in Xu Mengting to begin with, but he was the type to give up easily — he’d assumed that after being rejected, he might feel a bit down for a while, but would quickly get over it and shrug off this little episode.

Yet, to his surprise, after Xu Mengting finished saying all this and left, Jiang Lin’s heart started pounding uncontrollably.

Now, with no money, no power, and a bad reputation weighing him down, this Xu Mengting, who seemed so cold and hard to approach, had shown him a kind of even-handed gentleness he hadn’t expected.

For the first time, Jiang Lin found himself wanting to pursue something not to compete with or one-up Ye Zhen, but out of genuine, self-motivated desire — he wanted to start a serious relationship, and even without a guaranteed outcome, he wanted to give it his all, without worrying about the cost or the result.

Going to bars? That had only ever been to kill boredom anyway. If it meant just staying home with Xu Mengting, the two of them together, Jiang Lin felt he could handle that just fine.

Takeout? He wouldn’t order it anymore. As for the home cooking Xu Mengting liked, couldn’t he just learn to cook it himself?

Having made up his mind to pursue Xu Mengting, Jiang Lin decided to settle in and take things slow.

He’d originally only come to this rescue center intending to freeload off its benefits, but now he’d made up his mind, and signed himself up for the free cooking sub-course under the Male Virtue EMBA training program.

That trash Ye Zhen was apparently close to passing this exam — could he really not manage it himself?

Jiang Lin refused to believe it!