Chapter 1: He was tricked by his parents into joining the Metamorphosis Program in a remote mountain area

Xu Sirui longs for an ordinary life, even though no one would believe it if he said it.

The year he was born, Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep, was born at the Roslin Institute; the 10th European Championship was held in England; and a Boeing 747-100 crashed on Long Island, New York, leaving no survivors. The world was both prosperous and perilous, like every year since ancient times, and like the countless years to come. His father, Xu Zhengkang, had his horoscope taken to a Hong Kong feng shui master. After the master read the divination, he stroked his beard and twisted his brows, an expression difficult to describe.

"But the divination is not good?"

"No."

“But the divination is good?”

"No."

"But the hexagram is ordinary?"

"No."

The master threw out three "No"s in a row and said mysteriously, "I suggest you give him a more ordinary name to calm him down."

No one could explain what "qi" was, but Xu Zhengkang had the awe of a successful businessman for the I Ching. After returning from Hong Kong, he crossed out a number of awesome names like "Tianheng" and "Tianshu", and instead looked up "the most common boy names in China" in a magazine, and finally decided on a name for his child - Si Rui.

Si Rui, three, even the English name is omitted, it just feels a bit weird, just like when Chinese people hear foreigners name themselves "I am three".

From the moment Xu Sirui was born, he displayed remarkable abilities that defied his own aspirations. At two, he could recite Tang poetry, at three, he could calculate addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. At five, he deftly found a disc Xu Zhengkang had hidden under his bed, pointed to the cover, and said to Zhou Tianlan, "That's a breeding game." At seven, he participated in the elementary school Olympiad and, without any specific training, won first prize in the province. This period was undoubtedly a highlight of Xu Zhengkang and Zhou Tianlan's parenting career.

Then, like all precocious children, Xu Sirui gradually felt an indescribable boredom due to his overly smooth life experience.

Learning no longer aroused his interest, and winning the praise and admiration of others also made him feel bored, because it was too easy, and ease always breeds boredom. He began to hunt for another interest or hobby for the rest of his long life.

On December 12, 2004, Sony released the first PSP game console.

Xu Sirui's aunt, Zhou Tianqing, a nomadic fashion designer, had just returned from a field trip to Japan and brought him a PSP-1000 as a gift for his eighth birthday. Later, Zhou Tianlan repeatedly beat his chest and stamped his feet, regretting allowing his sister and his son to have this historic encounter.

It only took a PSP game console for Xu Sirui to fall from a child prodigy to an internet addict. In just a few months, he performed an educational tragedy similar to the story of the tragic death of Zhongyong.

He was late, left early, and skipped classes, darting from internet cafe to internet cafe like a wandering hermit crab searching for a shell. He disregarded school rules and regulations, disobeyed his parents, contradicted his teachers, and divided his classmates. Meanwhile, he used his genius to achieve a balance that gave his parents a headache. If his grades dropped, Xu Zhengkang and Zhou Tianlan would have a legitimate excuse to discipline him. But the strange thing was that on every exam, he managed to score exactly fifth in the class.

Fifth place, Xu Sirui thinks this is the most beautiful ranking of all.

It is not like the first and second place, which need to bear all the expectations of the school leaders and teachers, nor is it like the dozenth place, which will be put under pressure by parents and given encouragement such as "Try harder next time and strive to be in the top ten."

It's just fifth place.

When Xu Zhengkang and Zhou Tianlan were repeatedly struggling over whether they should get their son back on the "right track" in the secular sense, something bigger happened. This incident directly helped them get rid of their entanglement and made clear their determination to send Xu Sirui for re-education.

Someone almost jumped off a building because of him.

There's no need to go into detail about the incident, but its impact was undoubtedly extremely detrimental. The teacher approached the parents and said to them earnestly, "Si Rui is a smart kid, but he's got a very stubborn personality. If he doesn't change his ways, I'm afraid he'll..."

It stops at the point and leaves a meaningful ellipsis at the end.

Back then, teachers' status wasn't as delicate as it is today. Parents wouldn't report them to the point of resigning over ambiguous student comments. Xu Zhengkang and Zhou Tianlan took this matter very seriously. They worked overnight to come up with a plan, and Zhou Tianlan ultimately approached Xu Sirui, saying, "Your aunt is currently on a field trip in Province G. Afterward, she plans to stay with us for a few days. Since you don't plan to attend classes anytime soon, why don't you go to Province G to pick her up? She doesn't know the way."

It was no secret that Zhou Tianqing was directionally challenged. She had done Xu Sirui a favor by sending him a video game console thousands of miles away, and he agreed without hesitation.

It takes more than an hour to fly from Beijing to Province G. After getting off the first-class cabin, the staff of their branch in Province G had already sent a special car to pick him up. Xu Sirui didn't even have to carry his luggage himself as he was escorted to the car in good condition.

Heading west.

**

Xu Sirui longs for an ordinary life. When ordinary is broken down, it means common and ordinary, meaning there is nothing special about it.

Yes, nothing strange about it.

At 6:05 p.m., he stood alone on the mountain path, wondering why he was out of the ordinary and standing in such a strange place.

**

The incident happened five minutes ago.

When the driver drove deep into the mountains and woke him up from his sleepy state in the back seat, he couldn't help but ask, "Where are we? Are you sure you're not driving in the wrong direction?"

The desolate mountains and wilderness were so silent that he would believe anyone who came here to kill someone and hide the body.

"That's right, Master. This is the address Madam gave me."

Artists often have eccentricities. Zhou Tianqing's hobby is to explore obscure corners of the world, euphemistically calling it field research. This desolate mountain landscape doesn't quite fit her style, but if you consider it as "no one cares," it makes sense. Xu Sirui, half-believing, pushed open the car door and stepped out. "Forget it, I'm going to get some fresh air."

He stood on the mountain road, stretched his muscles and bones which were sore from sitting for a long time, lowered his head and sent a text message to Zhou Tianqing on his mobile phone: "Where are you? I'm here." A photo of the scene was attached.

The signal was poor in the mountains, and the text message took ages to load before it could be sent. It was the end of March, and the spring chill was still overwhelming. He wrapped himself tightly in his Moncler down jacket, feeling a sense of foreboding.

Murphy's Law always works wonders in times of misfortune. The driver suddenly poked his head out of the driver's seat and said apologetically, "Master, please don't blame me. I was just following orders..."

"What?"

He didn't understand.

The driver obviously didn't expect him to understand. He yelled "Excuse me," and with a flick of his wrist, he shifted the car into R gear, stepped on the accelerator, and with a drift, he flew out of his sight at a speed comparable to a doomsday escape, disappearing at the end of the mountain road in an instant.

Everything was like an absurd fast-paced movie. For three seconds, Xu Sirui's mind was blank. His brain worked slowly and finally came to an obvious but confusing conclusion - he was abandoned by the driver in this desolate mountain.

"……Depend on."

Why?

First, he ruled out kidnapping. The driver was, after all, a distant cousin of his, and his entire family worked at his branch office. There was no reason to kidnap him. Secondly, considering the other party's words, "acting on orders," whose orders were they following, and what were they doing? He looked down at his phone and instinctively dialed Zhou Tianlan's number.

The signal was stuck for a long time before it was reconnected. Zhou Tianlan's voice on the other end of the phone was intermittent, as if a machine was sentencing him to death: "Ruirui, baby, Mommy is sorry... But you're really addicted to the internet. For your future, Mommy can only do this. Please don't blame me... This is all for your own good... We, as parents, are also very thoughtful..."

"Get to the point." He frowned and stopped her aimless lyricism.

"The point is... the show... is being recorded... you're going to reform yourself there... experience... life... when you're done, mom and dad will come pick you up... beep—"

The call was cut off and he didn't understand a word.

Xu Sirui put down his phone and was about to replay the video when he saw a group of people rushing out from the nearby mountain, as if they had been lying in ambush.

Alone in the desolate mountains, at dusk, Xu Sirui was startled like a frightened bird by the sudden appearance of this group of people. He took five or six steps back before he could stand firm. He saw clearly that who was running towards him was...

A film crew?

The leader was a middle-aged man in his forties, with a shrewd look on his face, a beer belly bulging from his suit. He led a group of dusty-looking photographers, all armed with cameras, running toward him. He extended his right hand as if to shake his hand, a smile etched across the wrinkles of his face. "Hello! You must be Xu Sirui, the son of Delicious Food Co., Ltd., right? I'm Yang Ji, the producer and director of the second season of "Swap Lives." This is our crew. Nice to meet you!"

Xu Sirui has severe mysophobia, so severe that he feels like vomiting when touching a stranger's skin. He turned sideways and calmly avoided his hand.

Yang Ji wasn't embarrassed. He took his hand back and rubbed his bald head. He chuckled and explained, "Your parents signed you up for our variety show. I'm sure you've heard of it. Our show is based on the theme of 'urban-rural exchange,' giving children from the mountains a chance to leave the mountains and giving city dandies the opportunity to reform in the countryside. This season, your replacement is a good boy from the mountains, about your age. He's already flown to your home. He'll be pretending to be you and experiencing city life for a semester. Correspondingly, you'll be pretending to be him and experiencing mountain life for a semester. I hope you can change your ways and start a new life."

“……?”

What bullshit is this guy talking about?

Xu Sirui had indeed heard of the program "Exchange Lives", which is a large-scale urban-rural exchange variety show that has become very popular this year.

Just a day ago, when he skipped classes to play games in an Internet cafe, he heard the girl sitting next to him enthusiastically talking about the finale of the first season of "Swap Lives", saying how touching and tear-jerking it was. He sneered at the sound of it.

"Gimmick, script, routine, capital-driven sensationalism, anyone who wants to watch it is a fool."

When one of the girls plucked up the courage to ask him, "Si Rui, have you seen "Swap Lives"? ", he gave the above answer.

The girl blushed at his words, and after hesitating for a long time, she managed to squeeze out a sentence: "Okay... everyone is watching, I thought you would like it."

Time returns to this moment.

Xu Sirui never thought that the program he had mocked so harshly the day before would actually come to him today - or perhaps it should be said that he never expected his parents to send him to such a boring variety show.

Do they really think that they can turn him into a sunny and upright boy by training him in variety shows?

Over there, Yang Ji was looking through the contract signed by Xu Zhengkang and Zhou Tianlan, trying to prove that he was not a bad person, when he heard Xu Sirui say coldly: "I don't accept it."

"What?"

"My parents signed the agreement with you. It was their own business. They didn't get my permission. I personally have no intention of participating in your program. Please don't waste your energy."

"But the contract has been signed. Whether you like it or not, the show has already started. If you withdraw now, you will have to pay a large penalty."

"Then go ask my parents for it."

Xu Sirui rolled his eyes, put his hands in his pockets, turned around and walked away in a very disposition.

Are you kidding me? How could he really waste an entire semester experiencing the life of the poor in such a remote place?

Unfortunately, he lived in a big city with strict security, and didn't know that there were still some people in this world who believed in using force when soft tactics didn't work, and would drink a glass of wine if they didn't accept it. He had only walked a dozen meters when he heard Yang Ji shouting from behind: "Chase him! Tie him up and take him to the mountains!"

Xu Sirui: “…?”

The author has something to say:

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Prepayment:

① "Raising It" [Hive Consciousness | History of Taming the Extraterrestrial] Stockholm Extraterrestrial x Emotionally Apathetic Human

②《The Princess is Dead》【Enemy Literature|Heroine's Counterattack|Empress's Ascension】Smiling Tyrant x Greedy Careerist

③《Sisyphus》【A sadistic love story|Inferiority is a man’s best dowry】Loyal bodyguard x hedonistic lady

After this book is finished, I will pick the one with the highest collection from the pre-collection and start publishing it first. If you like it, you can click to collect it to help start the work.

Of course, as long as the pre-collection is released, it means that it will definitely be written! It’s just a matter of time.

Thank you little angels for your support [Please]