This time, the World Will was extremely generous. Ling Jing’s face lit up with joy when she received her bonus. Even Qin Jingzhou was visibly moved for once. “Looks like I actually got to see my reward.”
He examined his pay and extra red envelope, then asked the World Will with keen interest, “Are you using the Fate you pulled from that Fate’s Son as the bonus?”
The World Will was also in a very good mood. “Don’t want it? I can switch out your reward if you’d like.”
The System couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re far too agreeable.”
The World Will replied, “With one major threat to me eliminated, no show of thanks is too much.” She was even a little pointed as she added, “It’ll be hard to find such capable mission agents in the future.”
It was clear the other side had come for the people. A bit disappointed that she hadn’t gotten any dog food, she figured that, given the mission’s successful completion and the reasonable pay, it was a good deal all around.
Once both sides finished settling accounts, Ling Jing raised an eyebrow. She’d pretty much figured out the big boss’s ways by now—it was all about sticking around for the long haul. At first, she thought she just needed time to get used to it… but okay, she was already used to it.
However she turned it over in her mind, she realized she didn’t dislike the feeling. Still, out of stubbornness, she wanted to properly experience a romance if possible. Since she was always thrown straight into the old married couple mode because of the missions, she felt a little dissatisfied!
So she took the initiative and said, “It always feels like something’s missing with these ancient settings. Why don’t we pick a modern-day mission and do it together?”
Qin Jingzhou smiled. “You choose.”
Ling Jing tilted her head slightly, then browsed her System’s light screen for a mission… picking one with a modern setting and a high payout. “This one.”
Her System accepted the mission and immediately sent the coordinates to Qin Jingzhou’s System.
Qin Jingzhou received the information for the task world from his System and held out his left hand to Ling Jing. “Shall we?”
Ling Jing didn’t hesitate. She placed her hand into his, and gave him a little smile.
She accidentally spent a few moments longer than she meant to studying Qin Jingzhou, having a vague feeling… Well, now wasn’t the time for that. She nodded. “Let’s go.”
The destination was pretty far. Even with Ling Jing’s current Nascent Soul Stage cultivation, traveling there would take at least a month. Qin Jingzhou, on the other hand, could manage it easily with a “teleportation technique within the same universe.”
Ling Jing thought privately, Who wouldn’t want an all-purpose boyfriend? Out loud, she sighed, “Legendary mage really is a cut above the rest.”
After reaching Nascent Soul, she was clear about her own path—she’d made some headway as a rune cultivator.
Qin Jingzhou chuckled. “There aren’t any class restrictions. You can learn this teleportation technique too—it’s not hard.”
Ling Jing perked up and hovered outside the task world, listening intently as Qin Jingzhou broke down the spell. After he finished, her expression turned blank. “It’s not hard, but the cost is huge.” Just to tease him for showing off, she deliberately said, “Did you get all the resources you need for your advancement?”
Qin Jingzhou’s eyes were relaxed. “Still a long way to go.”
Ling Jing smiled and leaned against Qin Jingzhou’s shoulder.
The new task world’s World Will took one look at this affectionate pair and was so excited she nearly burst out, “Fantastic! Finally, there’s hope!”
Because what she was seeing was Ling Jing’s cultivation and the faint traces of Dao resonance shrouding Qin Jingzhou—not to mention the many blessings, visible and invisible, bestowed by other World Wills.
After greeting the World Will, Qin Jingzhou and Ling Jing received their respective mission summaries.
The original plot was a “You run, I chase, you run again, I chase again, misunderstand, reconcile, misunderstand again, reconcile again, and never actually have a good, honest talk” kind of mommy-on-the-run story. The overbearing CEO loved passionately, with all the vintage melodrama, forced romance, and old-school dog-blood plotlines.
Once the male and female leads had exhausted their drama, a cliché but reasonably happy ending awaited them: growing old together.
If the story actually ended there, the World Will wouldn’t have called for outside help or invited them in.
Ling Jing poked her System’s projection screen with interest. “The female lead gets reborn and, looking back on her past life, feels she wasted her best years. Every time she recalls the two male supporting characters who helped her countless times but were later ruined and forced to flee when her vinegar-drunk husband got angry, she feels a stab in her heart. Now that she’s living anew, she wants to treat the supporting male leads better. So the former male lead becomes the main antagonist, the devoted second male lead from the past gets promoted to male lead, and the third male lead is bumped up to second male lead…”
Qin Jingzhou picked up the thread with a smile. “Respect, and best wishes.”
“To this point, it’s just the female lead falling for someone new after her rebirth,” Ling Jing continued with a smile. “But here’s the issue. If she doesn’t pick her husband from her previous life, her genius child will never be born. That genius child happens to be this world’s Fate’s Son and is the key to taking the world down a technological path. So I’ve been given two choices: either find a way to get the female lead to rethink her decision and reunite with her ex-husband so the genius child can be born, or find someone else for the role.”
Qin Jingzhou understood at once. “The two Fate’s children both have to willingly come together for the genius child to be born.”
In the original plot, while the female lead did run away after getting pregnant, the fact remained that she and her child’s father had fallen in love at first sight and truly loved each other.
In her new life, the female lead switched affections and, using her rebirth knowledge, supported the former second and third male leads with things like patent technology and visionary investment advice.
Even so, the new male lead (who was the previous second male lead) still didn’t have enough Fate to surpass the female lead’s ex-husband. His qualification as a main lead relied solely on the female lead’s support. Even if the ex-husband had now become the main antagonist and made countless decisions that drained his Fate, the balance still didn’t tip.
Ling Jing spoke up again. “After reading the whole plot, I really don’t like the female lead. I have no desire to put in the effort to change her mind. Let her go wild with her second chance and enjoy being a prophet who controls the whole situation. Bag seventy or eighty small wolf pups if she wants—I totally get it. But to abuse all her ex-friends and family after she gains power, like her ex-husband’s half-sister or her helpful cousin, while keeping this entanglement with the ex-husband… What kind of twisted move is that?”
Qin Jingzhou quickly flipped through his plot summary and agreed the female lead was beyond saving. “We ought to make two brand-new Fate’s children, then.”
Unlike the last world’s Prince Chu, here, the male and female lead’s Fate came mostly from the World Will itself.
If the World Will could freely give Fate according to the rules, she also had to reclaim it by the rules. If she’d just grown tired of the female lead, she could have revoked her Fate’s Son status at any time—no need to shell out for outside help.
Ling Jing grinned brilliantly. “I like this plan!”
Having reached an agreement, the two of them entered the task world together, then separated to take up their disguises.
This time, Qin Jingzhou’s identity was the original male lead Gu Sheng’s biological father, named Mi Jingzhou.
The original host and Gu Sheng’s mother divorced when Gu Sheng was young. The separation was not pleasant, but money wasn’t the reason. Not long after, both the original host and Gu Sheng’s mother remarried. The original host had a daughter with his second wife, while Gu Sheng’s mother never bore another child.
When Gu Sheng was twenty-five, his biological mother and stepfather died in a helicopter crash at sea. Both perished on the spot.
Gu Sheng’s mother had been an only child. After she passed, Gu Sheng’s grandfather was left to bury his own daughter, and after arranging her funeral, he fell apart entirely. Thus, Gu Sheng took over the Gu Group, which was worth hundreds of billions.
As for the original host, he divorced his second wife when their daughter was eight. That part was also unpleasant and, again, not about money. Just as Gu Sheng had chosen to live with his biological mother, the little girl went with her own mom without hesitation.
When the girl turned seventeen, her mother died in a car accident… and relatives pushed her back to the original host.
As for the original host himself, he simply died of a heart attack. Like the deaths of his previous two wives, it was purely an accident, with absolutely no human causes. On this point, Qin Jingzhou could vouch completely.
Once the disguise was in place, Qin Jingzhou sat up and checked his surroundings. Confirming this was a world with absolutely no magic—technological progress was the only path of advancement.
After adjusting his expression, he opened the bedroom door and went out to look at his increasingly anxious daughter seated on the living room couch.
One glance was enough for Qin Jingzhou to see she was a gentle, sensible girl.
And in the original story, after her father died, this poor girl had been set up and forced to get plastic surgery by the female lead, and tormented as a stand-in White Moonlight for the third and fourth male leads for a full decade...
When her father appeared at the door, Mi Xiaoxiao visibly relaxed. She looked nervously at her unfamiliar father. “The order… What should I do? You took a hundred thousand deposit… I heard the other party has some kind of incredible background…”
Qin Jingzhou searched the original host’s memories and found the relevant details. “You mean the custom-built mechanical arm? Have them come over. I need to take some more measurements.”
To cultivate a brand-new Fate’s child... I think my daughter will do just fine.