Chapter Seven: The Considerate Nan Li

"Honey, Mom, I'm heading to work."

The next morning, Zhou Chen rose feeling refreshed. After enjoying the breakfast prepared by his mother-in-law, Zhao Na, he set off for the office. Huanhuan was taken to school by Nan Li, while Chaochao was dropped off at kindergarten by his grandmother.

As he drove, Zhou Chen’s mind drifted back to the events of the previous day. Having transmigrated into a parallel world based on the television series *A Love for Dilemma*, he found himself blessed with both a son and a daughter, and a charming, lovely wife. The mere thought filled him with happiness.

A full day had passed, and Zhou Chen had already completely adapted to his new identity. Though he knew he hailed from another world and that a system had brought him here, until the day he left, his identity remained Xia Junshan—Nan Li’s husband and the father of Huanhuan and Chaochao. That was an immutable fact.

Last night, he and Nan Li had fallen asleep in each other's arms; everything felt so natural. Before drifting off, he had broached the subject of investment. As he expected, Nan Li opposed it immediately. No matter how well he pampered her, she had no intention of compromising on such a significant matter.

However, Nan Li’s refusal was gentle. She first argued that investment was inherently unstable, prone to swallowing up capital, and far too risky. Even when he countered with the promise of high risk yielding high rewards, Nan Li remained unmoved; she was content with their current life and had no desire to gamble with their stability.

To dissuade him from the idea of investing in Bitcoin, she broke down their current household finances. First were the children: between school, food, clothing, and their frequent weekend outings, the annual expenses for the two kids alone exceeded one hundred thousand. Then there was the mortgage on their current home—a property they had worked hard to purchase together. Though bought years ago, they were still paying off a monthly mortgage of over ten thousand. When combined with their general living expenses, despite the couple earning a combined annual income of several hundred thousand, they were not the type to save aggressively. Thus, after a dozen years of marriage, their total savings amounted to only eight or nine hundred thousand.

According to Nan Li, this money was their emergency fund. No one could guarantee when a crisis might arise, and if that capital were locked away in an investment, what would they do if disaster struck?

In the end, Zhou Chen was persuaded. Even in his original life, he had been an adult for over twenty years; he knew Nan Li’s logic was sound. She was a woman who truly knew how to manage a household. Yet, Bitcoin offered returns of several times their investment. It was one thing not to know, but now that he did, would it not be a disservice to his "future knowledge" to pass it up? Driven by the potential for profit, he expressed his confidence to Nan Li once more, hoping she might reconsider.

To his surprise, after a moment of contemplation, Nan Li smiled and told him she would support him, but they could only withdraw half of their savings; the other half had to remain untouched. Having already given up hope, Zhou Chen was stunned by her consent. Though it was only half, he felt deeply the weight of her compromise. He understood that she didn't believe he could make money, but because they were a married couple, she couldn't bear to see her husband disappointed, so she had gritted her teeth and taken a step back to indulge him.

He had never experienced such a soul-deep connection. In that moment, he felt immense gratitude toward the system for turning him into Xia Junshan and gifting him such an empathetic wife. He secretly resolved to be an even better husband than the original Xia Junshan—if anyone dared to bully his wife, Nan Li, he would make them regret it.

He transferred four hundred thousand from the family account to his personal card, though he didn't plan to buy Bitcoin immediately. He remembered that the massive surge began at the end of March, which was also when the price hit its relative low. Since it wasn't even mid-month yet, there was no need to rush. However, four hundred thousand was a relatively small amount; for a guaranteed win like this, the more capital, the better. Yet, he couldn't think of a way to source more funds. The family account was out of the question—that forty percent was already a special grace from Nan Li.

At work, Zhou Chen followed his usual routine. As a renowned architect at the design institute with a small team under his wing, he left the mundane tasks to his subordinates, focusing only on coordination and major design concepts. He had always been somewhat puzzled by his own lack of busyness. Based on his understanding of architects, they were usually swamped, with late nights and overtime being the norm. Why was his schedule so light? Was it because of his seniority as a lead designer?

Upon reflection, he realized this wasn't the case. When Xia Junshan first joined the institute, he, too, had been incredibly busy, often burning the midnight oil. But as his status and efficiency grew, he could complete in one hour what took others two. Most clients approved his designs on the first try, with very few needing revisions. That was why he could afford to be relaxed now.

His morning was spent reviewing blueprints and refining the designs submitted by his team. The day passed quickly, and by afternoon, there were no major tasks left. Still, since he was on the clock, he had to remain at his desk. Bored, Zhou Chen habitually began browsing the web to catch up on current events. After an hour of reading news, he clicked over to a web novel site.

As the largest novel platform in this parallel world, Qiyue Net was quite impressive. The night before, he had been reading the top-ranked novel on the sales charts, an urban fantasy piece. According to the comments, it had held the number one spot for a long time. The plot was engaging, but more importantly, the author was a machine, churning out over twenty thousand words a day and nearly eight hundred thousand a month. With a compelling story, solid prose, and a massive update schedule, it was no wonder it was popular.

After reading with great interest for over an hour, a flash of inspiration hit him. *Right! If I want to make some extra money, why not write a novel?*

It required no upfront investment and carried no risk; the only costs were time and energy. He had plenty of both. If he dedicated a few hours each day to writing, it would certainly be manageable. As for creativity, was that even a problem? He had an entire world of content behind him. The developmental trajectories of the two worlds were remarkably similar, and the massive hits from his original world would likely be just as successful here.

Excitement surged through him. He could see the potential returns of a novel in just two months. He had the time, and two months was a wait he could afford. If he could generate income, he could catch the most explosive period of the Bitcoin market.

"This is a great idea. I’ll do it."

He opened a document, ready to begin, but what should he write? He couldn't write based on his own ideas; to make money, he had to be a "literary plagiarist"—a transporter of stories. If he were to copy the hits of his original world, they had to be bestsellers—stories that left a deep impression on him and that he could remember vividly.

Before transmigrating, he had been following two books: *Great Song’s Night Watchman* and *Mysterious Recovery*. As a veteran reader, he usually preferred completed books with high word counts and rarely followed daily updates for many titles. He followed these two because the *Night Watchman* had a clever, witty plot, and *Mysterious Recovery* pioneered a unique, eerie genre that he found fascinating. Without a doubt, both were massive hits; if released in this world, they would likely be just as successful.

Since he had followed them closely, he could still recall the general plot arcs. While his own prose might not be perfect, by following the templates, he could certainly reconstruct them to a high degree. Making money shouldn't be difficult. The only challenge was choosing which one to start with, as both teetered on the edge of being "404’d" (censored).

After careful consideration, he decided on *Great Song’s Night Watchman*; *Mysterious Recovery* felt a bit too risky. Having made his decision, he couldn't help but sigh, "It’s so hard being an ordinary person like me. Coming to a parallel universe two years in the past, and my only way to make money is buying houses, Bitcoin, and ghostwriting novels. How truly pathetic."