That's Right, I Got Myself a Powerful Sugar Daddy!

After living in the interstellar world for twenty years, Shen Qi finally awakened his S-rank ability, [Scorpion Tail].

He successfully made his way from a poverty-stricken slum in the harsh Radiation Zone 10 to the bustling Imperial Capital.

All the good qualities Shen Qi had managed to hold on to had been worn away during his years in the slums.

Making up for lost time, he gleefully offended a whole bunch of people.

Not long afterward, his [Scorpion Tail] ability failed to evolve, dropping straight to F-rank. F-rank commoners weren’t qualified to stay in the Imperial Capital.

Heartbroken, Shen Qi was about to leave the Imperial Capital in disgrace, dragging his little suitcase along as everyone mocked him.

Just then, the empire’s Third Prince came to find him.

Supposedly, he and the Third Prince were related by blood.

The Third Prince had undergone an ancestral mutation and was the most powerful person in the imperial family.

“Brother, what took you so long?”

Shen Qi, still there and looking thin and frail, gazed at him through tear-filled eyes. “I missed you so much, Brother. They’ve all been bullying me!”

He was so lucky!

The people who had been about to celebrate his misfortune: …

The empire’s Third Prince, Lu Shi, was the empire’s strongest and most righteous man. But when his life was in danger, he was betrayed by his own kin and realized his entire life had been one enormous lie.

When he awoke again, he was ten years in the past.

Lu Shi had crawled out of hell. His eyes darkened as he resolved to take revenge on everyone.

He heard that the [Scorpion Tail] wielder had failed to evolve and was about to be thrown out of the Imperial Capital.

Remembering the infamy of the [White Scorpion] five years later, Lu Shi got up, intending to take in a fake little brother.

After all, blood ties were the least valuable thing to him.

[Host, you are not the Third Prince’s cousin. This is all part of his scheme.]

[He’s counting on your future achievements.]

The symbiotic System whispered like a devil: [But all those achievements are fake!]

[Based on our predictions, in five years the cruel, deranged Third Prince will kill you when you’re no longer useful to him!]

Shen Nian kicked out the person at his feet who had mocked him and exclaimed with delight, “What?! Does that mean I can do whatever I want for the next five years?!”

Great! He loved his big brother so much!

1. [Looks frail on the outside, but is actually cunning and devious; fiercely protective; pretty little scorpion] VS [Even after turning dark, he’s not the heartless one in the relationship; maxed-out abilities; loves hearing his sweetheart call him big brother, silly lion]

2. This story has a lot of original worldbuilding. All the names and places are made up.

The patriarch of the prominent Tang family in the capital suddenly died of an illness. His will specified that the person taking his place would not be the beloved eldest or second son.

Instead, it would be the Tang family’s third young master, Tang Tian, who had been sent overseas as a child and had never appeared in public.

According to his file, the youngest Tang heir was twenty-four, had returned from studying abroad with a PhD, had an impressive résumé, and was taciturn and difficult to approach.

System: “Host, do you remember your character?”

Tang Tian: “I remember, Uncle.”

Looking at his eight-year-old Host, the System paused before asking, “Do you know what ‘character’ means?”

Tang Tian obediently shook his head. “No.”

System: …

The Wealthy Families is an urban novel about the power struggles, changing generations, and tangled relationships of the four great families in the capital: the Jiang, Gu, Zhao, and Tang families.

After the old patriarch’s death, the Tang sons fought each other for the family fortune. The group was swallowed up and carved apart by the other families, while the three Tang brothers either died or went mad. None of them had a good ending.

However, an accident at the Temporal Transit Bureau caused the Tang family’s youngest son to disappear into a time tunnel. To keep the world running smoothly, the higher-ups brought in an actor with the same name to take his place.

The System assigned to him burst into tears. “Damn those bosses!”

You never told me this actor was only eight!

Work was work, so the System gritted its teeth and gave its eight-year-old Host the appearance of a twenty-four-year-old. It then reminded him:

“Host, remember, you’re a cool patriarch! Talk less and do more.”

Tang Tian nodded solemnly, then put his hands in his pockets and seriously played the cool guy. “Don’t worry, Uncle.”

System: …

I can’t stop worrying, but he’s so well-behaved!

It was only natural for an eight-year-old to make mistakes while acting.

Still, even if his acting was bad, it wouldn’t affect the outcome of the plot about the brothers turning against each other. Everything would surely end as planned.

Who could have expected that the Host’s acting really would be flawless?

Except, for some reason, the Tang brothers weren’t turning against each other at all. The eldest and second brother would gladly go through fire and water for the Host.

System: …

How did the Host pull that off?

Theme: Be content with what you have and find joy in it.