CH 1

Chapter 1 – Divorce

Edited by CxZ

In the game《My Ten Ex-Fiancés》, Yuan Zhanqi is precisely the cannon fodder who will stumble onto the male lead’s, Yan Jingxi, path. It is only when the player chooses the path of the protagonist, Yan Jingxi, will there be a chance for him to show up, and his appearance has always produced negative responses. Most of the players’ comments about him in this game are “This green tea1”, “I hate Yuan Zhanqi”, “Quickly get rid of the cannon fodder”, “Just because of him I can’t make any progress in-game”, “Shameless”, and more.

1Slang for someone who is seemingly innocent/charming but is actually calculating and manipulative.

In the modern danmei novel《My Ten Ex-Fiancés》, Yuan Zhanqi was the assistant of the protagonist, Yan Jingxi. Due to his parents’ identities and behaviors,  he received even more labels and was not liked by the characters in the novel. He also did not receive any sympathy from the readers outside the novels, he was unconditionally destined to be a tragic character. If he disappeared, no one would care.

For Yan Jingxi, Yuan Zhanqi was nothing more than a profit-driven marriage pawn. He had a rich dad who always received and gave green hats2 to others, as well as had a mother with a formidable family backing, yet is engaged in debauchery. It just so happened that Yan Jingxi needed the Yuan family’s resources, and Yuan Zhanqi fell for him at the dinner banquet.

2Slang for cheating, whether it’s cheating on (giving green hat) or got cheated on (receiving green hat)

Although Yan Jingxi had rejected Yuan Zhanqi’s confessions twice, Yuan Zhanqi continued to yearn for Yan Jingxi, who was like a poppy, unforgettable. Even if the other party had repeatedly emphasized that he doesn’t like him.

Later, this matter was found out by the parents of both parties.

Which was considered to be good as they favored arranged marriages.

Yan family: No matter how you look at it, Yan Jingxi is not at a disadvantage. You can leave if you don’t like him after a few years of marriage. Son, for the benefits and interests of the family and career, endure it for the time being.

Yuan family: Like Yan Jingxi? But the other doesn’t have any interest in you? It doesn’t matter, get married first, and then slowly get along, affections can grow over time. Mom and Dad will help get what you want.

It was well known that Yan Jingxi did not like Yuan Zhanqi, everyone knew that he had a white moonlight3 in his heart. That person is his poppy flower, is his antidote, and what he can’t get is always the best.

3White moonlight often refers to first love, childhood love, or cherished one

In Yan Jingxi’s eyes, who is Yuan Zhanqi? When his family passes over the difficult situation, he is nothing. He (YJX) will bravely pursue his white moonlight, pursue his poppy flower, pursue his antidote.

However, Yuan Zhanqi had hope for Yan Jingxi, his way of thinking was simple-minded. What of business marriages? As long as they’re married, they can get along for a long time. As long as Yan Jingxi can see his merits. As long as Yan Jingxi gets used to his presence. He will have the chance to replace the white moonlight in Yan Jingxi’s heart. Yuan Zhanqi even dreamt of their future family’s day-to-day routines, dreaming that they will have two children, dreaming of building a perfect and happy home.

Alas, a fantasy will remain a fantasy because it is unrealistic; all the fantasies that supported him to continue the marriage had all come down to one sentence:

“Yuan Zhanqi, let’s divorce.”

Yuan Zhanqi’s tragedy was clear, Bai Yueguang had won the ultimate victory.

Because Bai Yueguang was the sole male protagonist in《My Ten Ex-Fiancés》.

*******

The sun shone brightly up above, the sunburned pedestrians rushed into the air-conditioned room, many were complaining that it was already autumn in September so how come the weather was still hot as hell.

When Yuan Zhan came out of the Qintian building, he put his hands in the pockets of his slacks. People who didn’t know would think that he was posing for a street photoshoot. Only he himself knew that just now, he had come out of the Qintian building with chills all over his body, and it was not from the air conditioning, rather it was that that place had now become his former workplace.

Yuan Zhan had graduated and joined the company the year Qintian was founded. He was a video game streamer for Qintian, specializing in large-scale live game broadcasts, and often received invitations from the game organizers to give commentary for the game “The World of Magic”. He also worked together with famous streamers on several large-scale gaming competitions. At the same time, worked part-time as the product manager for the men’s e-sports club.

His commentary style was known for being witty and relaxing, and would leave many classic and interesting quotations.

However, in recent years, client-sided games have not been prosperous. Recently, mobile games and some interesting web-based games have become popular. For this reason, his live streaming performance had been declining over the years, and the company had also spent a lot of money to attract some special young streamers. While they brought considerable benefits to the company with their performance. His performance did not rise, but fell. The boss began to be in a foul temper when looking at him, constantly being in disagreements. Many times at the meetings, older employees would get accused of not being motivated, which was insinuating.

There was no way that Yuan Zhan didn’t know that the boss was talking about him.

However, a person’s style and likes are not so easy to change.

Just last month, his contract with the company was about to expire. The head of the Human Resources (HR) department, who was familiar with him, quietly informed him to tell him that the boss won’t be renewing his contract. In the future, everyone will split up.

After staying in Qintian for nearly five years, the company’s initial earnings were supported by the old employees. Yet, now to say that the contracts would not be renewed, really causes one to feel bitterly disappointed.

Today, Qintian’s boss held a two hours long conversation with him and gave him two choices. One was to renew the contract but he would have to take a pay cut while the other was to directly terminate the contract. On the surface, Qintian’s boss acted like he was very reluctant to part with this talent of his. Had it not been for the HR department head, who let him know the boss’ actual thoughts, then today when Yuan Zhan listened to the boss’s complete analysis of the company’s current situation and his grievances, he would have chosen the first option: to renew the contract and reduce his salary.

If that was the case, he would really be quite foolish.

After leaving Qintian, Yuan Zhan spent a month playing around.

A month later, Yuan Zhan began to search for games to stream in fields that he was not familiar with. After several years of live streaming he had accumulated a lot of fans. Although he left the company, it was only losing his fixed pay and bonuses. He could still start all over again, there was anger, but it should not be regarded as a major matter, who has not met a few scumbags in their lives.

After turning on the computer, he didn’t know what type of games he should stream. Before, he used to do live streams or video commentary. Now, he can stream or record according to his own preferences, but he didn’t have any specific idea yet. So he had the smart idea of seeking out his fans for their opinions on Weibo, and asked them which game they would like to watch him play.

The fans were incomparably resourceful and full of ideas, they provided Yuan Zhan with a variety of games. Among them, the most recommended was a popular story-based single-player game on the Jinjiang game platform.

In the past, his broadcasts were all combat games, he seldom touched simulation games and dress-up games. He always thought that female streamers play more of those types of games.

However, his fans unexpectedly wanted him to stream or record story-based games.

After developing a path for his growth, Yuan Zhan became more and more popular. At the same time, the Jinjiang game platform also began to ask him to stream games on their website, with fees being negotiable.

What type of games does the Jinjiang website have the most of?

Danmei4.

4Boy’s Love (BL) (❛◡˂̵ ̑̑✧)

What type of danmei is the most popular?

Strategy to capture all the male interests.

After he started to stream the game on the Jinjiang game platform, Yuan Zhan earnestly stressed to his fans that he was 100% straight. Stating that he played the game precisely to find a girl for the protagonist and must take the correct route.

Later, Yuan Zhan became even more popular. The more he could avoid getting to the danmei ending, the more he could play.

It was said that there is a game with romance as its main content, altogether there are 30 endings. Only one leads to the danmei ending, no player has ever completed it before, but the one who was known as a 100% straight male, Yuan Zhan, had played it.

With more and more fans joining in, Yuan Zhan could only stare at the screen in silence: . . .

He was most afraid of the sudden silence in the air.

However, the screen of the live video was full of 233333335 and 666666666

5 233 (èrsānsān) represents laughter, is similar to the 哈哈哈 (hā hā hā)

6 666 (liùliùliù) represents 溜溜溜 (liūliūliū) meaning amazing, awesome, excellent, etc.

On this day, Yuan Zhan had just finished a live broadcast of a cultivation game and no longer asked his fans for recommendations. He randomly picked a game in the Jinjiang game center, called《My Ten Ex-Fiancés and Me》.

Yuan Zhan told his fans: “I just randomly selected a game, looking at this name, it seems like a strategy game where the female lead would capture her fiancés.”

However, the barrage7 on the screen reads:

7On-screen comments during live streams.

[ZhanZhan, you are too naive.]

[《My Ten Ex-Fiancés and Me》 looks so familiar, hehe, cheering on ZhanZhan!]

[It sure is a ‘female host’, ZhanZhan is as naive as always.]

[I quickly searched up this game, it was adapted from Jinjiang Literature City novel《My Ten Ex-Fiancés and Me 》]

[ZhanZhan is as naive as always +1]

[My family ZhanZhan is amazing!]

[I’ve read this novel. Hahahahaha, there really are indeed ten fiancés. All are dashingly handsome with overbearing identities, just don’t know which one ZhanZhan will end up capturing?]

[This novel is very popular, I just finished it!]

[ZhanZhan, there is no such thing as a female lead.]

Yuan Zhan began to talk as he walk through the storyline and then came across someone that could be captured: “I’m the one who wants to capture the girl, this Yan Jingxi jumped out of nowhere and got in the way. I don’t want to increase my affection for him so I must choose the bad options.”

Another wave of barrage appeared on the screen.

For several days, Yuan Zhan live-streamed regularly at a fixed time. What he didn’t expect was that the live stream of the game 《My Ten Ex-Fiancés and Me》 went wild. On the third day, he was on the Weibo hot search.

Today was the seventh day of his live stream of the game. It has been a full year since he left Qintian. Now, things are different from the past. Some time ago, his former boss asked him if he wanted to return to Qintian. The salary offered was several times higher than when he had left. 

Che! He had nearly six million fans now, it was impossible to return to Qintian now that he found a workstyle that suits him.

He was about to turn on the computer and start the live stream. The game had just opened to the scene he saved yesterday. The interface showed two handsome men sitting face to face, one with a calm expression and one with a painful expression, with a sentence shown at the bottom of the interface.

“Yuan Zhanqi, let’s divorce.”

Yuan Zhan lived in an old community of more than ten years of age. Although the green environment was good, the lines of the buildings were often unstable. Yuan Zhan’s computer screen suddenly went black and the room immediately became pitch-black.

“Why is there a power outage again?”

Yuan Zhan got up and looked for the mobile phone that had just been placed next to the coffee table.

In the midst of his strides, he saw a black lump beside his feet and quickly realized it was a pure black cat. Yuan Zhan quickly moved to the right, losing his footing in the process. His body fell towards the coffee table, making a loud “bang!” sound.

In the darkness, there was a dark red bloodstain on the floor along with an unconscious Yuan Zhan.