Gu Zhaoping calmly gazed in the direction of the sound, until a virtual panel materialized in the air.
The system’s voice carried a hint of flattery: “Long time no see.”
Gu Zhaoping didn’t respond.
Uncertain of her mood, the system paused briefly before continuing in a conciliatory tone:
“Sorry, I hid things from you.”
“Now that she’s failed her mission, I’m back.”
“Host, rebind with the system, and you can access your personal stats again, exchange for props you need. By the way, we’ve upgraded. There’s a new prop I think you’ll find useful—a trust detector. It can scan anyone you suspect, determining if they’re lying. It’ll be a huge asset in your business battles…”
Gu Zhaoping watched silently, saying nothing.
The system rambled on, then awkwardly stopped.
It tried to explain: “Don’t worry, I’ve always been your system. It was just stolen temporarily through shady means. Ruan Nian kept trying to use props against you, but I never helped her succeed. Oh, and I even planned an accident to benefit you. During a recording, she wanted me to make you absent, so I used an absence prop—but it led to Chairman Gu taking you to a summit. That was my doing. I’ve always been on your side.”
The system’s voice was ingratiating and gentle.
“She’s just an ordinary woman, clueless about using the system, with no prospects. Years passed, and she didn’t complete a single mission. If you were the host, you’d have conquered the business world by now, standing at the pinnacle, reshaping everything. I know that’s what you want most.”
Gu Zhaoping remained still, showing no shock or reaction to its words.
Finally, she glanced at Ruan Nian and asked,
“She failed?”
The system’s voice faltered: “Yes…she failed.”
“What happens when she fails?”
“…Her worldview will collapse. Everyone might vanish, especially her—she’ll face erasure. It’s not personal; it’s because the worldview collapses, and everyone ceases to exist simultaneously.”
“So you’re saying I need to take on missions too?”
“No, no, no, your missions are different from hers.”
The system’s tone was appeasing, quickly displaying a dazzling array of prop lists.
“Her mission was to marry into wealth and become a CEO’s wife. Yours is to dominate the business world, shatter stereotypes about women, and become a world-renowned powerhouse. Right now, you’re facing challenges. Some Yuanqi Tech employees are moles from the former CEO, and it’s hard to root them out, right? I have a prop that can easily identify disloyalty, and it only costs a bit of admiration value. You have plenty of that—people worship and admire you, and it grows constantly. After exchanging, it’ll replenish quickly. For you, I’m a perfect, harmless system.”
The electronic screen flashed rapidly, showing upcoming dangers—from corporate wars to betrayals to clashing with your entire family.
“And as long as this world doesn’t collapse, characters like your friend Fang Yining, Mao Xinci with her daughter just starting senior year, Liang Zhiwei who just signed a contract for a breakout ad campaign… and everyone you’ve met—they can all live again, continuing to exist in this worldview.”
Gu Zhaoping still didn’t move, her eyes fixed on the virtual screen, which displayed lingering information about Ruan Nian.
This didn’t sway her, and the system was starting to falter.
“Ruan Nian used pity value to exchange for your props?”
“Yes, yes, pity value is unreliable, easily lost. But admiration value is different—once harvested, it flows endlessly. You’d essentially have countless superhuman cheats at no cost, achieving even greater heights in this world than the other.”
Seeing Gu Zhaoping ask more, the system assumed she was intrigued and boldly presented a binding option.
The system buzzed with excitement: “Rebind, host. I’ve finally found you. Only a powerhouse like you can maximize my potential. Together, we’ll turn this world upside down…”
A moment passed.
Gu Zhaoping raised her hand, nearing the binding button.
The system grew ecstatic, its light almost blinding!
But as her hand drew closer, she suddenly stopped.
She asked,
“What happens if I don’t bind?”
Though an electronic entity, the system seemed to freeze at the question.
Then it answered coldly: “The worldview will collapse, and everyone will be erased. Host, are you willing to bear that guilt?”
“Or I’ll return to Ruan Nian. This time, I’ll fully oppose you. All props will be used against you. Do you really want that outcome?”
Gu Zhaoping replied crisply,
“No.”
The system paused, then relaxed, adopting a satisfied tone.
“Yes, exactly, host. I’m glad we agree. Let’s rebind. Only as your system can I shine—”
But after the system’s eager, dazzling light flared,
Gu Zhaoping looked up.
Calmly, without a flicker of emotion or hesitation.
Her voice rang out clearly.
“Cancel binding.”
In an instant, the glowing electronic screen glitched.
After a stunned, almost disbelieving silence, the light began to distort, like a TV screen fritzing out!
If the system were human, it would be screaming!
“Why? Are you insane? Without binding, this world will end, and you’ll be erased too! Where’s this confidence coming from?”
“Are you so determined to destroy everything? Willing to let all these people die just to preserve your lone-wolf image? You could save them!”
Gu Zhaoping just watched, unmoving, with no intent to engage.
She observed as the system seemed to break down in its distortion, then, in a spasmodic jerk, it turned and lunged toward Ruan Nian.
“Rebind! Rebind!”
It roared, practically dragging Ruan Nian, trying to rouse her.
This person, no matter what she endured, always traded with it, forcing it to pull out its last trump card to help her.
Now, it had no choice but to rebind with her—she’d surely agree.
Ruan Nian slowly emerged from her daze, her vacant eyes regaining focus, still staring blankly at it.
The system said,
“I can give you a new batch of pity value. Quick! Rebind with me! Hesitate any longer, and this world will collapse—you’ll all be erased!!”
Ruan Nian lowered her head, her eyes vacant, lost in thought.
The system grew frantic: “What are you hesitating for? Do you really want to die? Don’t you want your chance to marry into wealth?”
Marry into wealth?
Ruan Nian fell silent.
Hadn’t she tried hard enough?
She bent her knees and stood up from the ground.
The system froze, staring at her in disbelief.
Ruan Nian suddenly said clearly,
“I don’t want it.”
Her words fell, and silence blanketed the room.
The system’s flickering screen stilled.
Ruan Nian gazed ahead with hollow eyes, murmuring,
“Why do I have to win over Gu Zhaoye? Who sent me here in the first place? Why does my survival depend on Gu Zhaoye loving me? Why? On what grounds? Why should I accept that if he doesn’t love me, I have to die? Can’t I live even if he doesn’t love me?”
The system let out a piercing screech, a grating wail that made one want to cover their ears, but it kept shrieking.
In that moment, Ruan Nian seemed to snap awake briefly.
She quickly glanced at Gu Zhaoping, then fell back into confusion, pointing at her fiercely: “Why? Gu Zhaoping doesn’t have to please anyone, yet she can still trample over Gu Zhaoye! She can still call the shots! Why doesn’t she have to die if Gu Zhaoye doesn’t love her?!”
But as she spoke, Ruan Nian broke down in tears, helpless: “I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! What do I do? I don’t want to win him over, but I don’t want to die!”
Sinking into her pain, she ignored the system’s distorted screams, crying louder, clenching her fists and crouching on the ground, sobbing hysterically, her gasps turning into shrieks: “I don’t want to die!”
As her cries—filled with fear, regret, and defiance—grew louder, morphing into screams, the system’s light screen flickered with chaotic glitches, then went completely blank!
Startled by the piercing noise, Ruan Nian looked up, seeing only Gu Zhaoping’s unmoving back before the electronic screen.
She seemed petrified, confused: “Are we dead?”
After a long pause, Gu Zhaoping finally said,
“No, you won’t die.”
Ruan Nian was bewildered: “It’s a system! It controls the whole world! I failed my mission, and the entire worldview collapsed!”
Gu Zhaoping studied the screen for a moment.
She reached out, parting the electronic fog before her.
Then, as if confirming something, she let out a soft laugh.
“It lied to you. You just didn’t see what it really was.”
Amid the abstract digital code, the system’s long-hidden name was revealed.
[Social Consciousness Simulation].
“This system controlling you is merely a manifestation of patriarchal ideology.”
Gu Zhaoping pinpointed the root of its collapse.
“It only needed to plant the idea that Gu Zhaoye’s affection defines your worth and tell you others envy you. Then you’d willingly chase his love, never feeling coerced. It gave you the ability to trade values for affection, but in truth, it tied your worth to a single dimension—being chosen by a man—through quantified metrics like pity and conquest values. This is a CEO romance novel, isn’t it?”
She turned to Ruan Nian.
Ruan Nian’s pupils shrank, nodding dazedly.
“These sweet stories seem like women’s fantasies of perfect love, but they’re cultural tools of patriarchal domestication,”
Gu Zhaoping said calmly.
“No need for power or control—just sway his emotions, and you’re a winner. His tears and regret are worth more than gold. Everything you touch is second-hand power, revocable at his whim, and you’re supposed to be grateful for it. It makes you abandon competing with them, instead picking one to depend on, using the false concept of love and the hollow institution of marriage to alienate competitors, fracturing women internally, fighting over their attention and this laughable thing called love.”
All along, what the system and Gu Zhaoye gave Ruan Nian was the same—
Unconditional indulgence that stripped her of ability and autonomy, pitting her against Liang Zhiwei, Fang Yining, even Gu Zhaoping.
She traded so many values, yet reaped only one thing: Gu Zhaoye’s pity.
Ruan Nian trembled violently, staring at her.
“If it truly could enforce punishment or erase the world, it wouldn’t be the one panicking. Those who can’t stay indifferent are stakeholders. It’s that fragile.”
Gu Zhaoping gazed calmly at the distorted system: “So fragile that once you stop believing in the value system it built, it crumbles, worthless.”
Likewise, patriarchal narratives are just as fragile.
When women reject their value system, that logic collapses faster than anything.
Ruan Nian stared at Gu Zhaoping’s back, mouth agape, trembling, speechless.
She cried fiercely, her sobs turning silent, choked by gasps.
Looking at Gu Zhaoping, she felt instinctive fear, unsure what terrifying thing she was facing, yet realizing it couldn’t be worse than the system.
At that moment, the nearly collapsing system, in its warped voice, kept repeating: “Ruan Nian, confirm binding? Ruan Nian, confirm binding? Ruan Nian, confirm binding?”
It was like a horror movie scene, chilling to the bone.
Ruan Nian screamed in terror: “It’s mutating!”
She crawled toward Gu Zhaoping, whose unflinching stance against the system inspired instinctive trust: “Gu Zhaoping, President Gu, help! Save me! You’re the only one who can!”
Gu Zhaoping closed her eyes and shook her head.
She turned, hands on her knees, bending slightly, pointing at the twisting light, saying word by word: “Only you can save yourself. Now, reject it.”
The light grew larger, more distorted, an abstract flame closing in on her.
Ruan Nian screamed, scrambling back as the system kept pressing: “Ruan Nian, rebind? Ruan Nian, rebind?”
How could she save herself?
She’d really be erased!
Memories of everything she’d endured flooded her mind.
Something was pushing her to the brink.
Finally, Ruan Nian tore her throat raw, screaming in collapse: “No, I won’t bind!”
As if resolved, trembling, she closed her eyes and shoved the light away: “Go to hell!”
In near despair, Ruan Nian squeezed her eyes shut.
But after a long silence, amid her screams, all she saw was fragmented light scattering like shards.
She flinched in fear.
After a long while, Ruan Nian looked up, realizing the shrieking system was gone.
Gu Zhaoping stood surrounded by glowing fragments.
What?
Ruan Nian was dumbfounded.
It was gone?
The system?
Didn’t it swear that her mission failure would erase the entire world?
Yet now it was the one erased?
Gu Zhaoping caught a fragment, examined it, and said,
“See? I rejected it, and it’s unscathed. It fears you more than those who never trusted it. It fears Fang Yining. It fears Mao Xinci. It fears the masses who’ve turned against it. It fears the awakening of those who once fervently believed in its narrative system.”
Ruan Nian froze in shock.
The surrounding space began to loosen, and the people who had been frozen, unaware of anything, started to move again as if nothing had happened.
Gu Zhaoping, as if the ordeal had never occurred, left Ruan Nian’s side and strode toward Gu Zhaoye.
By the time Ruan Nian snapped back to reality, Gu Zhaoye was already sprawled on the ground, beaten down by her.
At first, she flinched, startled.
But seeing Gu Zhaoye’s contorted face as he looked up at her, seemingly pleading for rescue, Ruan Nian sat dazed on the floor, stunned for a long moment.
The room buzzed with guests, and the rising clamor finally flooded her ears.
She slowly released her hands from her ears, staring blankly at Gu Zhaoping, who had thrown a crisp punch.
Then she drew her gaze back.
Something seemed to click within her.
Slowly, amid the chaotic crowd, she propped herself up from the ground, stood, and walked to Gu Zhaoye’s side.
With a fierce stomp, she brought her foot down hard.
Amid the chaotic screams, Ruan Nian felt the disbelieving stares of those around her.
The shrieks blurred, and someone pulled her back, but those sensations felt distant, as if her heart held only a newfound thrill and an urgent strength to act.
All she could see was Gu Zhaoye’s bruised and swollen face, and with each kick, her heart felt lighter.
Finally, she looked up and saw Gu Zhaoping’s retreating figure, heading toward the reporters, arms spread, saying something.
Ruan Nian could almost sense her words.
Gu Zhaoping was simply handling the sudden chaos at the engagement banquet with her usual calm, unflustered by the disruption.
“Ladies and gentlemen, my apologies. My brother has been unwise. We’re dealing with family matters now, so please excuse us.”
Her voice was steady, unwavering amid the clamor.
The puzzle was easy to piece together.
She didn’t belong to another world.
When Theodore mentioned that the old Gu Zhaoping had once said she didn’t care for birthdays but preferred celebrating days of real achievement, she had sensed it.
The former Gu Zhaoping was undoubtedly her.
The so-called “system” was full of lies.
She deduced it had turned to Ruan Nian because she herself was too unyielding to fall into its trap, so it had cast her aside.
The system had tailored a trap for her, too.
Had she traded with it, her own agency would have been stripped away.
Those exchanges would have become proof of her reliance on external tools, gradually siphoning her real abilities into the system’s hands, until it pulled the rug out from under her.
This was their age-old trick.
A mere flicker of doubt could lure her willingly down a destructive path.
But there was a difference.
Gu Zhaoping glanced back. Fang Yining, holding a lamp, was about to smash it on Gu Zhaoye when she saw Ruan Nian eagerly rush up to kick him, leaving her dumbfounded.
Then, reacting, Fang Yining joined in.
Amid the chaotic screams, Gu Zhaoping closed the manor’s gates and smiled faintly.
It was that simple.
When female characters no longer needed “being saved” to validate their existence, the fabricated system—a puppet of patriarchal narratives—lost its foundation to survive.
Gu Zhaoping had always believed this.
The strongest prison was never external shackles but the cage of internalized beliefs.
And the ones to break it were often those who had once been trapped within.