“Ah, finally, time to clock out.”
Jiang Yanyan stretched deeply. She pressed the final checkout button on the supermarket’s register, carefully counted the day’s earnings, and put the money away.
The supermarket in front of her was the entire foundation of her life.
It was a two-and-a-half-story, five-bay building that she had built herself, with red brick walls and white plaster. Sturdy and imposing, it had an air of quiet prosperity.
The entire first floor consisted of five storefronts that she had knocked together and converted into a supermarket. From rice, flour, cooking oil, and salt to snacks and drinks, from daily necessities to small hardware items, the shelves were packed to the brim. It was the neighborhood’s most dependable convenience store.
Behind the supermarket was a spacious courtyard paved with bluestone. There was a side room on either side, and farther back stood an enormous storage shed.
It was usually filled with the supermarket’s backup supplies—rice, flour, oil, toilet paper, laundry detergent, and other consumables. The shed was large enough to ensure that the supermarket would never run out of stock.
The second floor and the half-story attic were Jiang Yanyan’s private space. They contained a bedroom, living room, walk-in closet, and small study, all furnished to create a warm and comfortable home.
From the second-floor balcony, she could look down at the greenery in the courtyard. Beyond it lay her three mu of private farmland, a shimmering fishpond, and, behind the pond, a range of rolling hills.
This was the property her parents had left her. They had passed away when she was young, and rather than go to a big city to struggle, she stayed behind to look after the building, the supermarket, the fields, and the fishpond, living a leisurely, unhurried life.
During the day, she watched the store. Whenever customers came in, she greeted them warmly; when there was no one around, she curled up on the little chair behind the register to watch dramas or read novels. When she got hungry, she picked some vegetables from the courtyard, caught a fish from the pond, and cooked herself a simple meal.
Whenever she had free time, she went to the three mu of farmland to plant vegetables and water them, fed the fish in the pond, wandered through the hills behind the house, planted a few fruit trees, and raised some chickens and ducks.
There was no scheming in the workplace and none of the noisy pressure of the big city. Her days were simple and comfortable. Jiang Yanyan had long since grown accustomed to this life, and she genuinely loved its stability.
Business had been a little better than usual today, and she hadn’t finally gotten a break until after nine in the evening.
Jiang Yanyan pulled down and locked the supermarket’s rolling shutters one by one. She straightened the disorderly goods on the shelves, wiped down the register and the floor, then picked up her small bag and climbed the stairs to the second floor.
After washing up, she changed into soft cotton pajamas and sprawled across the bed. She casually picked up her phone and opened a modern wealthy-family novel she had started a few days earlier but hadn’t finished.
The female supporting character in the novel was named Zhang Yanyan. She was the heiress of Zhang Group, one of Rong City’s four great families. Reserved and low-key, she excelled academically, yet she had fallen in love with the male lead, Song Ze, despite his ordinary family background.
In the end, she was murdered by the male lead and the innocent-looking female lead, Tang Tang, working together. Her parents spent their twilight years in misery, while the male lead and the female lead rode on the power of the Tang family and lived prosperous, successful lives.
Jiang Yanyan grew increasingly annoyed as she read. She muttered a few complaints about the scumbag male lead and the fake-sweet female lead, calling the female supporting character hopelessly love-struck. Then sleepiness overcame her. She tossed her phone onto the bedside table, pulled the covers over her head, and fell asleep.
She never could have imagined that when she woke up, the world would have been turned upside down.
In a haze of semi-consciousness, Jiang Yanyan felt a buzzing in her head, as though countless tiny needles were gently pricking her. Then, a cold, emotionless mechanical voice suddenly exploded deep within her mind:
[Suitable soul detected. Sign-in System 0018 is binding…]
[Binding successful! Hello, host Zhang Yanyan. I am Sign-in System 0018.]
[Transferring to the designated small world… Transfer successful!]
After a string of notification sounds, Jiang Yanyan abruptly opened her eyes.
Instead of the familiar bedroom with its warm wallpaper, she saw an ornate crystal chandelier overhead. The ceiling was high and decorated in an elaborate European style. Beneath her was a soft velvet bed that seemed to swallow her whole, and she was covered by smooth, luxurious silk sheets.
She sat up and looked around.
This bedroom was absurdly large and extravagantly furnished. There was a European-style wardrobe with carved details, a full-length dressing mirror, and an elegant bay window layered with a plush carpet. In one corner stood a leather sofa and a small tea table. Every object exuded the unmistakable scent of money.
An unfamiliar room. Unfamiliar furnishings. Everything was unfamiliar.
Jiang Yanyan’s heart sank. She instinctively reached toward the bedside table, but her phone and familiar pillow were nowhere to be found. Even the scent in the air was different—a faint fragrance from an aromatherapy diffuser instead of the clean smell of her usual laundry detergent.
“Who is that? Who was speaking just now?” Jiang Yanyan suppressed the panic rising in her heart and spoke in a low voice. Her tone was slightly hoarse from sleep, but it still carried an unmistakable calmness.
She had lived for twenty-five years. She might not have been good at many things, but she had developed the ability to remain calm in a crisis. Even when faced with an unfamiliar situation, she would not lose her head.
[Host, I am Sign-in System 0018. I am inside your consciousness.]
The mechanical voice sounded again, clearer this time, though its tone remained cold and emotionless. [I have successfully bonded with you. From now on, I will take you through various small worlds to complete sign-in missions.]
Jiang Yanyan frowned. “Travel between worlds? I was sleeping at home. Why would I suddenly travel somewhere? And when did I ever agree to let you bind with me?”
[Zzzt… That’s right, Zhang Yanyan.]
[Our scan detected that your soul has a 100% compatibility rate with the original host of this small world, so you were transferred here to take over the original host’s life.]
“What? Zhang Yanyan? That’s the youngest daughter of the Zhang family, my neighbor from back home. Did you get the wrong person? My name is Jiang Yanyan!”
[Jiang Yanyan?]
A sharp burst of static suddenly tore through the air. System 0018’s mechanical voice immediately fell out of rhythm, its panic unmistakable.
[Unknown error detected… Data comparison failed… Binding target mismatch!]
After a pause of two seconds, the system’s voice finally lost its initial icy detachment and became somewhat awkward and flustered.
[Apologies, host. I made an error during verification. The target souls had similar names and overlapping locations, so I mistakenly bound myself to the wrong person.]
Jiang Yanyan’s heart gave a sudden jolt. She immediately thought of the novel she had been reading before bed.
“So where exactly have you sent me?”
System 0018’s voice dropped half an octave, losing some of its mechanical quality and gaining a hint of guilt. 【The original host, Zhang Yanyan, is the heiress of Zhang Group. The current story point is the end of the gaokao. In one week, you’ll enroll at Tengyuan University, where you’ll give a speech as the freshman representative. That will also be the first time you meet the male lead, Song Ze.】
Jiang Yanyan was so furious that she nearly laughed.
She had been perfectly happy running her supermarket and living a quiet, stable life. Yet after going to sleep, she had been forcibly bound to this ridiculous system and tossed into a novel to play a cannon-fodder female supporting character?
What kind of international joke was this?
“I refuse,” Jiang Yanyan said without the slightest hesitation. “I want to go back—to my own world, my supermarket, my courtyard, my fields, my fishponds… I don’t want to stay in this lousy little world.”
【I’m sorry, Host. Once the binding takes effect, it cannot be undone. After transmission is complete, you cannot return to your original world.】 System 0018’s tone grew more urgent. 【Please accept reality and settle into your life in this small world. All you need to do is complete the daily check-in.】
“Can’t return? Can’t undo the binding?”
Jiang Yanyan’s voice lowered, and a dark glint flashed through her eyes. “You forcibly bound my soul without my consent and dragged me here from my original world. And now you’re telling me I can’t go back? Do you realize that this is an illegal binding? I’m filing a complaint with your administration department right now.”
Although she was only an ordinary supermarket owner, she knew a thing or two about reason and fairness. This system was clearly taking advantage of its abilities to manipulate the soul of an ordinary person. It was completely outrageous.
The moment it heard the word “complaint,” System 0018 panicked completely. Static crackled, and its voice was filled with urgency. 【Don’t! Host, you absolutely mustn’t! Once a complaint is submitted, I’ll be recalled and reset immediately. I won’t even be able to preserve my core data!】
“I couldn’t care less whether you get reset.” Jiang Yanyan raised an eyebrow, her tone utterly indifferent. “Either send me back to my original world, or we can both go down together. You choose.”
She had calculated that the system couldn’t possibly give up on its bond with her, nor did it want to meet the fate of being destroyed. After all, a system’s very purpose was to bind itself to a host and carry out missions. If the matter reached the administration department, it would never come out ahead.
System 0018 fell silent for a full three or four seconds. The urgency in its mechanical voice gradually faded, replaced by helplessness. 【It was my work error, and I caused you losses. Within the limits of my authority, I can offer you appropriate compensation.】
“Of course it was your error,” Jiang Yanyan replied. “The person you were supposed to bind wasn’t me in the first place.”
