The Lazy Civil Servant's Everyday Comeback

Chen Yan was the most unremarkable civil servant at the municipal bureau, so stingy she would take a longer route back to the office just to avoid paying for the elevator.

Divorced and raising a six-year-old daughter alone, she saw her salary disappear every month, her life stuck on repeat.

Every day meant buying groceries at the morning market, taking her daughter to sports practice, collecting her school enrollment notice, filling out public complaint forms, and working overtime on reports. She was so ordinary she seemed invisible.

Then, while sorting through old files, she unexpectedly gained a golden finger.

It let her predict the little joys coming in the next 24 hours: which vegetable stall would have discounted eggs, which locker would hold a package, or which coworker would treat everyone to milk tea.

From then on, she began to “snag bargains” with pinpoint precision: stocking up on good deals, helping the neighbors save on electricity, and even adding twice as much shredded chicken to her mother’s cold noodles.

While everyone else was rushed off their feet, she had dinner before prime time and still had time to play three rounds of ping-pong with her daughter.

Once overlooked, she became the most popular “money-saving lucky charm” in the residential compound.

Her bosses competed to have her as a project partner, and by the time her ex-husband regretted leaving, it was too late.

In the future, she would not only save enough for her daughter’s overseas education fund, but also use her knack for careful budgeting to build the most heartwarming everyday legend in the city.