Chapter 1: Let’s Get a Divorce

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Moon City was not particularly cold in early November. Xu Shujian sat on a wooden boardwalk stretching out over Qionghai. A gentle breeze drifted across the lake without pause, and the water rolled ceaselessly toward the shore. He wore only two light layers.

If he looked up, he could clearly see the paths traced by the drifting white clouds.

A sound came from behind him, but Xu Shujian did not turn around.

“Here.”

Song Yue handed him a folded envelope from the side.

“Thank you.”

Xu Shujian reached out and took it.

This was already his second day in this world, and he was still adjusting—to an identity separated from his own by an entire lifetime, to being the husband of a wealthy heiress who had inherited her family’s fortune.

Xu Shujian thought that even if one’s songs went viral again through TikTok, and one switched from producer to performer, accepted an appearance, and had a few drinks to celebrate, that hardly counted as a mistake, did it?

And this was how he had crossed into another world? He was married now? Married to a rich woman who had claimed him and kept him around until she grew tired of sleeping alone?

Absurd!

Xu Shujian opened the envelope. It contained a notice.

“Xu Shujian, your score on the marriage test is seventy points. You are not the lowest-scoring contestant in this test!”

He glanced at it, then folded it shut again.

Yes, he and his wife, Song Yue, were taking part in a divorce reality show in this world, a program titled *Let’s Get Divorced*.

They had arrived at noon and completed the first segment: an examination concerning their marriage. There were twenty questions in total, worth one hundred points altogether. Some questions were mutual, while others were one-sided.

For the mutual questions, each spouse received the same paper. Matching answers earned points; mismatched answers earned none. The one-sided questions tested how well each person understood the other’s thoughts. Xu Shujian had scored seventy-five points on those.

The questions covered every aspect of marriage: a partner’s closest friend, important anniversaries, the habits they found most unbearable, the greatest pressure their partner was currently facing…

Xu Shujian had answered entirely according to those scattered memories. He had not deliberately tried to guess Song Yue’s answers, nor had he intentionally answered incorrectly. Even so, he had still scored seventy points.

Xu Shujian felt that his predecessor had truly loved Song Yue.

“Why so gloomy? Regretting it already?”

Song Yue had not followed his example and sat on the wooden boardwalk. There were no benches here, and sitting down would leave her legs dangling over the lake. It was not very high, but it was hardly graceful.

Qionghai was not a sea but a relatively large lake, though the locals called it a sea.

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The show was called *Let’s Get Divorced*, which meant that one person had to be the one who proposed ending the marriage. Between Xu Shujian and Song Yue, Xu Shujian was the one who had made the proposal.

Following the program’s long-standing tradition, the story unfolded from the proposer’s perspective.

“Gloomy?”

“What do you think? When I came over, the two young women from the production team were staring this way with furrowed brows. They looked positively heartbroken for you.”

Xu Shujian turned his head and glanced up at Song Yue, smiling without much concern.

He was gradually accepting the reality of his changed identity. There were complications, but the circumstances were not entirely bad. He, too, had arrived at a turning point in life.

In this world, before meeting Song Yue, Xu Shujian had been an entertainer. He had debuted at sixteen and served as both the group’s vocal centerpiece and its visual ace. Put another way, he was the best-looking and best-singing member of the group. He was also a top star, the kind whose popularity had earned him a place on the nationally televised Spring Festival Gala.

Once the group’s development had reached its limit, its members began branching out into different fields: singing, variety shows, television dramas, films, and more.

Then came the question of how to divide the profits. They had identical contracts and identical shares, yet the value generated by each member’s individual development varied. Even after several adjustments, none of the members were satisfied with one another, and the fans were even less satisfied.

“My favorite is the most popular! He’s always carried the group. Why should he drag those useless freeloaders along?”

Song Yue began entering Xu Shujian’s world with increasing frequency during that period. She was a beautiful, fair-skinned heiress—and the leader of his fanbase.

If there was going to be a fight, then each side would have to rely on its own abilities.

The turmoil lasted for a full year. With Song Yue’s help, Xu Shujian successfully terminated his contract, and the two of them gradually came together.

She was beautiful, spent lavishly, and stood unwaveringly by Xu Shujian’s side. Back then, Xu Shujian had been so captivated by Song Yue that he had completely lost his head.

But once he left the machinery of the entertainment company and acquired the label of someone who had turned against it, the road ahead became exceptionally difficult.

After the two married, his career encountered further obstacles. Xu Shujian felt that he had already earned plenty of money, so he might as well return to the family and take charge of the household.

At first, the two had indeed been inseparable. But then Song Yue’s family suffered a crisis, and as their daughter, she gradually took over the family business. She grew busier and came home later and later. Without either of them realizing it, the balance between them began to shift.

On top of that, Song Yue’s family had never fully accepted Xu Shujian. A highly educated heiress to a publicly listed company had run herself ragged for an entertainer. If the relationship had led to future success and profits, that might have been acceptable. Instead, over time, he had become little more than a mascot. After ten years, their feelings had long since changed beyond recognition.

By the time they agreed to appear on *Let’s Get Divorced*, the two of them had not seen each other for more than six months.

Xu Shujian had just been pondering his predecessor’s state of mind. Facing Song Yue, he truly felt as though she were both familiar and strange—the same way he himself felt now.

“You scored seventy, and I scored eighty. Satisfied?”

Song Yue spoke again, a faint smile on her face. She seemed relaxed, as if she were only joking.

In the eyes of the outside world, Song Yue had always been the dominant party in their marriage. After all, it appeared that Xu Shujian had been the one to abandon his career and “disappear from public view.”

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In reality, Song Yue saw things differently. She felt that her husband had never understood her, just as the question she had asked suggested.

Didn’t you always say that you loved me far more than I loved you?

Then why did you score lower than me on the marriage test?

Objectively speaking, surely I could not bear all the blame for the failure of this marriage, could I?

Of course, the question had been a joke. Since they had both decided to part ways, it no longer had any meaning.

“You seem a little nervous,” Xu Shujian replied.

“Nervous?”

Xu Shujian nodded. “According to my memories, it’s been a long time since you spoke to me in that tone.”

The smile slowly faded from Song Yue’s face.

“Let’s be rational. Back then, I took you away from the screen. Now I’m returning you to it. Don’t waste your time and energy.”

Xu Shujian smiled. A few amusing thoughts came to him.

In a failed marriage, it seemed that the person who wanted to leave more often had to force the one who did not want to leave into making the first declaration.

Just as three months earlier, when the production team had clearly approached her first, yet she had sent them to him instead, saying that if he agreed, she would agree as well.

She had hinted so plainly that his predecessor had no choice but to nod.

After he did, his predecessor truly resolved to leave Song Yue. For the past three months, he had not slackened for a single day. He had exercised, practiced his voice, and written songs.

Deep in his subconscious lay an overwhelming desire to prove himself.

He wanted to tell Song Yue that filming the show was his home ground. Xu Shujian had not truly been unable to survive in that industry; he had simply chosen love of his own accord. At the same time, he wanted an answer.

If… if Xu Shujian were still the dazzling Xu Shujian of those years, would Song Yue be willing to make some compromises in their relationship?

The closer the show drew, the more restless his predecessor became. Then, after another night of drunkenness, a different soul had arrived here the day before filming began.

Xu Shujian stretched.

Perhaps this really was heaven’s kind arrangement. His arrival, compared with his predecessor’s return, did seem to make things easier.