After Reaching Max Level, the Top Student Gives Up and Wins by Doing Nothing

Shi Mo, a hard-driving overachiever in the modern world, died. The System said, "Lie flat until you die, and you can live."

Shi Mo laughed. "That's actually an option?"

When she opened her eyes, she'd gone back to the opportunity-filled 1980s.

System warning: Making money is against the rules! Maintain your lie-flat persona.

Shi Mo watched a ten-thousand-yuan household pass her by and stock subscription warrants about to skyrocket. Her heart bled, and her coffin lid rattled.

But an overachiever's core skill is breaking down rules and learning how to work them.

She bought chicken-blood stones for three mao, famous artists' original works for five yuan, and official-kiln blue-and-white porcelain for ten. What looked like junk to others was national treasure in her hands.

The System's alarms blared, stopped, then blared again, but it still couldn't come up with a single violation.

Shi Mo thoroughly figured out this loophole and started hunting for bargains like crazy, quietly building up a staggering fortune.

But bargain hunting alone wasn't nearly enough to claim the biggest windfalls of the era.

Buying land, hoarding courtyards, investing in the capital markets: every step required paperwork, negotiations, and execution. If she did it herself, she'd cross the System's red line.

She needed a completely controllable legal proxy.

And marriage was the best way to bind their interests together.

Shi Mo announced her criteria for a husband: after marriage, she wouldn't do any housework. The man had to obey her decisions unconditionally, handle all their plans from start to finish, and never interfere in her private affairs. She would take eighty percent of all profits, and he would get twenty.

People called it wishful thinking, but Xie Shiyun's eyes lit up.

He'd fallen for her at first sight when he went on a matchmaking date on behalf of his cousin, but had never found an opportunity. Now that he heard she was looking for a husband, he rushed over with everything he owned. "What's mine is yours. If it's not enough, I'll go earn more."

The most proper and self-controlled son of the Xie family was learning, for the first time, how to throw himself at a woman.

Shi Mo looked at the man before her. His abilities, family background, and execution were beyond reproach, and he was wholeheartedly willing to obey her completely. She made her choice on the spot: him.

After they married, their life became a nonstop dance along the edge of Shi Mo's rules.

Shi Mo curled up on the sofa and tapped a map. "This place will be a development zone next year."

Xie Shiyun smiled as he made a note. "All right, acquired."

"Those run-down alleyways will be demolished within three years."

"Got it."

"There's a mineral deposit under that barren mountain."

"The contract's signed."

Money poured out like water, all of it invested in places that seemed worthless to everyone else.

The once-great business elite had become a henpecked husband. Everyone was beside themselves with frustration. "Xie Shiyun, get a grip!"

The System's meltdown warning went off eight hundred times a day: [You're maliciously exploiting loopholes!]

Shi Mo raised an eyebrow. "I give the orders, he does the work. Punish him."

System: [...]

Xie Shiyun had assumed that signing the marriage certificate meant he'd have Shi Mo all to himself, but it turned out that she was more popular than ever.

A literary master admired her talent, business tycoons respected her foresight, and scions of prominent families were drawn to her bearing. Every one of them was sincere and eager to make a move.

"They're only married. It's not like they can't get divorced."

"It's a fair competition. May the best man win!"

"We can do everything Xie Shiyun does, and more!"

Jealous, Xie Shiyun ground his teeth at night. He kept every suitor at bay while doting on his wife even more, working himself to the bone to carry out all her orders. He was determined to cement his place as her most useful partner and her one and only husband.

Shi Mo's idea of lying flat had never meant sitting around waiting to die.

A novel she wrote on a whim became a nationwide sensation as soon as it was published, making her one of the hottest authors in literary circles. Her screenplay hit the screen and set viewership records that emptied the streets, becoming a classic for generations.

Thanks to her extraordinary eye for spotting countless overlooked national treasures, she was appointed, ahead of schedule, as the youngest core member of the National Cultural Relics Appraisal Committee. She spearheaded an international tour of dozens of lost national treasures, becoming a pillar of the nation admired by countless people.

Her fame grew and grew. She went from being a lazy wife supported by her husband to someone everyone looked up to.

Only when the wasteland became part of a new district, the alleyways were slated for demolition, and a mineral vein was found beneath the barren mountain did the people who'd laughed at her finally realize: they were the fools!

#Testing the limits of the rules#

#Love can wait, but claim your human tool first#

#Just married? My wife says I'm the real husband#

A parallel world. Don't take it too seriously.

Please check out my upcoming story: I Became the Little Widow in an Explicit Novel.

What's it like to transmigrate into a restrictive rural novel set in Northeast China, one that you acted in yourself?

The original owner was vain and greedy. She kept Lin Feng, the village's richest livestock farmer, on the hook while flirting with Jiang Yan, her brother-in-law, a graduate of a prestigious university. She cheated both men out of money and affection, and made life difficult for the heroine, Bai Lianhua, at every turn, before meeting a tragic end.

An Ning: Thanks for asking, but I refuse to follow the original plot. To hell with the fade-to-black smut, and to hell with passionate encounters in the cornfield!

She'd been acting for over a decade before she transmigrated into the book, so she knew the ropes. She could recite the original plot by heart: she knew who'd have bad luck and who'd strike it rich.

She treated the village gossip like background noise.

So what if it was the late eighties? So what if she was in the rural Northeast? She had working hands, two feet, and a brain. How could she possibly starve? Making money was what mattered! Once she had enough saved, she'd leave and never look back, leaving these two bastards and the rotten plot behind!

But before she could make a move, Lin Feng came to her, showing up every few days with meat and grain, plowing fields and building houses, without the slightest attempt to avoid gossip.

The script said Lin Feng was the biggest livestock farmer in Lingshan Village, with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long, powerful limbs. He was the kind of man who could make your knees go weak at first glance. An Ning had thought the description was exaggerated, but now that he was standing right in front of her, she knew the screenwriter hadn't exaggerated at all.

Before An Ning could collect herself, the man cornered her in the courtyard.

Lin Feng gripped her lower back, his breath ragged and scorching, like a beast that had held itself back for too long and had finally let go of all restraint.

"Ningning." Lin Feng's voice was low and almost pleading. "Let me kiss you. Just once. I'll give you anything you want."

His searing warmth came through her coarse clothes, making her whole body shiver. An Ning was stunned.

"Are you crazy?"

"Yeah, I'm crazy." Lin Feng fixed her with a burning gaze. His sharply chiseled face was set with an almost ferocious seriousness. "I've been crazy since the day you married into Lingshan Village."

And what unsettled her even more was Jiang Yan.

The day Jiang Yan came back, the whole village thought his studies had addled his brain.

He was a top graduate of a prestigious university in the provincial capital, yet he turned down a job in the city and insisted on returning to this poor mountain village.

At first, An Ning had thought the Jiang Yan in the script was aloof and proud, and utterly disgusted by the original owner, his promiscuous sister-in-law.

But the Jiang Yan before her seemed like a completely different person from the one in the script.

Late at night, unable to sleep, An Ning went outside for some air. As soon as she opened the door, she stumbled into a warm embrace.

Jiang Yan's features were cool and clear. He wrapped an arm around her waist, his grip making it impossible to pull away.

"Sister-in-law, where are you going at this hour?"

Theme: In the face of strict rules, use your wits to find a new path