Chapter 196: The Phoenix Man Who Soared Before the Apocalypse (1)

His name was Shen Xiuyan.

He was a Phoenix Man.

Just a few simple words, yet Shen Xiuyan couldn’t help but curl his lips in disdain.

The original owner of this body had been born in a remote mountain village deep in the countryside.

From a young age, he understood that the only way out was through education, so he threw himself into his studies with everything he had.

Fortunately, the original owner was both smart and driven. Step by step, through sheer determination, he managed to get accepted into one of H Country’s top universities—Q University.

His family were just ordinary farmers. Even the tuition for college had been scraped together with great difficulty.

Naturally, when he went off to school, they couldn’t afford to give him much for living expenses either.

Back then, the original owner was actually quite content. At least he had made it out and could finally see the world beyond his village.

He was filled with longing for the outside world.

But reality wasn’t as beautiful as he had imagined. Before this, the best place he had ever been was the county town where he attended high school.

Compared to the glitz and glamour of B City, that county town seemed shabby and insignificant.

From the moment he set foot in B City, his plain and worn-out clothes drew plenty of attention.

Standing next to people dressed in designer brands and luxury fashion, he felt inferior for the first time in his life.

But he had a strong sense of pride.

After gradually witnessing the splendor of the outside world, he realized that feeling inferior wouldn’t get him anywhere. Everything he wanted, he could fight for with his own two hands.

So he pulled himself together and continued down the path of education.

At that point, he had already gained a bit of a reputation on campus.

Though his clothes were outdated and rustic, his intelligence was undeniable. He was top of the class in every subject—a bona fide academic genius.

Plenty of people came to him for help with their studies, so he wasn’t exactly unpopular.

By chance, he met a girl in the library who had come to ask him some questions.

One thing led to another, and the more they interacted, the more familiar they became.

At that sweet, youthful age when even the air seemed tinged with romance, sparks quickly flew between them.

By their sophomore year, the two had officially become a couple.

Though the original owner still didn’t have much money, being in a relationship made him start paying more attention to his appearance.

He cut the hair that used to hang over his eyes, and once the malnourished yellow tinge faded, his handsome features were revealed.

That’s right—he actually had a very attractive face.

Even paired with faded jeans and a crisp white shirt, his good looks and natural charm were impossible to ignore.

For a time, the girls at school went wild over him.

His self-esteem soared.

It all seemed like the perfect beginning.

Shen Xiuyan was quite satisfied with how things were going. He often fantasized about graduating with his girlfriend, getting a job, getting married, and buying a home of their own in the city.

But reality hit him hard. When senior year came and it was time to job hunt, he finally discovered that his girlfriend’s background was far from ordinary.

She was the only daughter of Su Group, the leading enterprise in B City.

The massive gap in their social status rattled him to the core, and his pride was put to the ultimate test.

If that were all, it might have been manageable. But what happened next was even harder for him to accept.

Every year, thousands of students graduate. Even though he was a top student and excelled academically, landing a good job wasn’t as easy as he’d hoped.

After all, there were plenty of talented people out there, and employers often preferred candidates with experience.

His best option would have been to find a decent, ordinary job first, then look for better opportunities later. What was so bad about that?

But the original owner couldn’t accept the idea of working a mediocre job. Deep down, he carried a sense of superiority. Even if he didn’t say it out loud, others could see the ambition in his eyes.

At this point, Shen Xiuyan couldn’t help but shake his head. With a population of 1.4 billion in H Country, was it really so hard to admit you were just an ordinary person?

A “plated” country bumpkin who made it out of a mountain village—what gave him the right to believe he was destined to become a soaring golden phoenix?

After venting his thoughts, Shen Xiuyan had no choice but to pinch his nose and keep reading.

Just as he expected, the cost of living in a big city was high, and housing prices were even worse. With graduation looming and the cheap dorms soon to be off-limits, if the original owner couldn’t find a decent job, he’d have to pack his bags and return home.

His girlfriend noticed his growing anxiety and used her connections to help him land a job.

Instantly, his pride flared up again. He believed she looked down on him deep in her heart.

But the job offer was too tempting to pass up. Giving it up for the sake of pride felt like too much of a loss.

So while he grumbled inwardly, on the surface he put on a reluctant face, acting like he had no choice but to accept the offer she’d arranged.

And so, the original owner took on a prestigious job while secretly resenting his girlfriend for supposedly looking down on him.

At one point, he was even so angry that he considered breaking up with her. But then something unexpected happened.

When he first started the job, he was constantly picked on. But once his coworkers found out he was dating the Su Family’s heiress, all the trouble vanished overnight. Not only that, but people started going out of their way to curry favor with him.

The original owner thoroughly enjoyed the attention.

So of course, breaking up was out of the question. Instead, he acted all lovey-dovey with the girl while secretly sneering at her in his heart.

As they reached the age where marriage became a topic, the Su Family began to pressure them. The girl brought him home to meet her parents.

Naturally, Father Su looked down on this poor wage-earner. His daughter deserved someone from a family of equal standing, someone who could give her the life of a true heiress.

But his daughter was set on her choice. And with only one precious daughter, Father Su could only grit his teeth and accept it.

The two of them got married without a hitch, but the original owner wasn’t happy.

Though his wife was kind and his father-in-law treated him politely enough, he still felt dissatisfied.

Out in public, he was the golden phoenix. But at home, he was always the one with the lowest status.

Even if no one actually thought less of him, the overwhelming sense of disparity made him feel humiliated for no reason.

Fortunately, thanks to his identity as the Su Family’s son-in-law, he could still enjoy a certain level of prestige outside the home.

Families more powerful than the Su Family looked down on him, even sneered at him. A textbook Phoenix Man—no one could understand why the Su Family had chosen such a son-in-law.

But families below the Su Family’s level all tried to cozy up to him. These people dabbled in everything, and they introduced him to a whole new world.

It also taught him just how important money and power really were.

— Translator’s Notes —

• Phoenix Man: A Chinese slang term referring to a man from a poor rural background who achieves success through education or marriage, often while maintaining a strong sense of pride and sometimes developing complex attitudes toward his origins and new social status.

• H Country: A fictional country designation commonly used in Chinese web novels to represent a setting similar to modern China while allowing creative freedom.

• Q University: A fictional elite university name, likely modeled after China’s top universities like Tsinghua University (which uses ‘Q’ as an abbreviation).

• B City: A fictional major city designation, likely representing a capital or major metropolitan area similar to Beijing.