In the restaurant, Kai Jun sat nervously at a table for two. He was dressed impeccably in a well-fitted suit, crisp white shirt, carefully knotted tie, and a matching vest. Despite his modest circumstances, he managed to look quite sharp and presentable today.
Before arriving at the restaurant, he had taken special care with his appearance. He had taken a long, thorough bath, visited the barber for a fresh haircut, meticulously shaved his beard, trimmed his nails, and even attended to details as small as trimming his nose hair. From head to toe, he had groomed himself completely, leaving nothing to chance.
The reason for his unusual attention to detail was simple: today, his cousin had arranged a blind date for him.
It was a somewhat pitiful situation—Kai Jun was already thirty-two years old this year, and he still hadn't found a romantic partner, let alone gotten married or had children.
There were reasons for this prolonged bachelorhood, the primary one being poverty.
Kai Jun's family background was ordinary at best. His parents were both farmers who had worked the land their entire lives. It had already been extremely difficult for them to put him through college, scraping together every yuan they could. As for luxuries like buying a house or a car, he knew better than to even consider asking them for help with such things.
Kai Jun's own job was equally unremarkable, and his salary was nothing to boast about. In an attempt to supplement his income, he wrote online novels part-time after finishing his regular work hours. However, he apparently lacked the talent for it—few people ever read the stories he wrote, and the meager earnings certainly couldn't add up to much.
All of this meant that even after graduating from college several years ago, he still had no car and no house to his name. But in today's society, people were brutally realistic. Without a certain material foundation—without property and assets to show—he simply couldn't attract the attention of eligible young women.
The second reason is his appearance.
To be honest, Kai Jun is not particularly ugly, but he is not handsome either. In general, he is just an ordinary person—with an ordinary appearance, an ordinary height, and an ordinary build. He's the kind of man who would disappear into a crowd, indistinguishable among other people.
But modern society places immense value on physical attractiveness. Not only do men openly pursue beautiful women, but women also freely express their preference for handsome men. In this environment, being plain-looking has become something of a liability for a man. Coupled with his lack of money, his situation seems almost hopeless.
Because of these circumstances, Kai Jun didn't start dating until he was 27 years old, and has been struggling through the dating scene for five years now. Although he has gone on dates with more than forty different women during this time, not a single relationship has worked out.
After the first meeting, most girls quickly learn that he has no car, no house, and only an ordinary job. Once they know this, they never give him a second chance.
Initially, he had hoped to find a woman who was intelligent, beautiful, understanding, agreeable, and virtuous—someone to share his life with. But after enduring so many harsh rejections and facing reality time and time again, his ideals have been completely crushed. His standards have dropped so drastically that now his only requirement is that she be a woman—any woman at all.
The person his cousin is introducing him to today is a divorced woman, 35 years old, with two children from her previous marriage. She doesn't have a stable job and makes a living by doing various odd jobs whenever she can find them.
Although her circumstances are far from ideal, his cousin has assured him that this woman desperately wants to remarry. She genuinely wants to find a reliable, down-to-earth man to settle down with and build a stable life together. For this reason, his cousin is confident that this blind date will finally be successful.
Though Kai Jun has never wanted to become a stepfather to someone else's children, he also cannot bear the thought of spending the rest of his life alone. Whenever he imagines growing old with no one to rely on, no one to care for him when he's sick, no one to comfort him in difficult times, and the possibility of dying alone in his room with no one even noticing—these thoughts make his chest feel tight with anxiety and despair.
So he still came today, and to show his sincerity, he arrived fifteen minutes earlier than the agreed-upon time.
Time passed by slowly, every minute and every second. Kai Jun glanced at his watch and saw that the scheduled meeting time had come and gone, but the lady hadn't arrived yet.
Kai Jun was not angry. This wasn't unusual in his experience.
He had been on more than forty blind dates over the past few years, and not one of the women had arrived on time. The most extreme case was when someone showed up more than four hours late. That lunch appointment had turned into an awkward dinner instead, and the two movie tickets he had purchased for their afternoon date had expired, wasted. The memory still stung a little.
So he had learned to be patient. He ordered a cup of tea and continued to wait.
He waited for another fifty minutes. Nearly an hour had passed since their scheduled meeting time, and the lady still hadn't appeared.
Kai Jun finally couldn't help himself. He picked up his phone and called his cousin, the one who had arranged this blind date. "Cousin, the person you introduced to me hasn't shown up yet. Could you please call her for me and ask if she's lost or if something happened?"
"Okay, no problem." His cousin immediately agreed, her voice reassuring. "Jun-ah, don't worry too much. It's normal for girls to be a bit late for a blind date. You know how it is—they need time to get ready."
"I know. I understand." Kai Jun nodded to himself, then hung up the phone.
A few minutes later, his phone rang.
Kai Jun hurriedly answered it, hoping for good news.
"Jun-ah..." His cousin's voice sounded dejected, apologetic even. "She says she won't be coming today."
"Why not?" Kai Jun asked, genuinely confused. "Did something come up? Is it a temporary emergency, or..."
"Well..." His cousin hesitated, clearly uncomfortable with delivering the message. "She says that you don't have a house or a car, and your salary isn't very high. She thinks your conditions are too poor, that you wouldn't be able to support her and her two children properly. So she decided not to bother coming."
The cousin let out a long, sympathetic sigh.
Kai Jun froze when he heard this, the words hitting him like a physical blow.
Even a woman who was divorced, had two children from her previous marriage, and didn't even have a formal job—even she thought that his conditions were too poor. She looked down on him.
His dignity, his self-respect, his face—it felt like it had all been trampled into the mud and ground beneath someone's heel.
For a long moment, Kai Jun sat there in the café, surrounded by the cheerful chatter of other patrons, feeling utterly hollow. All hope, all motivation, seemed to drain out of him.
"Jun-ah, don't think too much. Your cousin will help you find someone better. You are honest, hardworking, and filial—God will not treat you badly." His cousin was afraid that he would be overwhelmed by despair, so she quickly tried to comfort him.
At that very moment, beyond the Nine Heavens, a beam of light invisible to the naked eye passed through layers of obstacles and descended, striking Kai Jun's crown directly.
Immediately, Kai Jun heard a crisp sound reverberating in his mind.
"Ding! The Heavenly System of Love and Marriage has been bound! This system is dedicated to matching the marriages of all beings across the heavens and myriad worlds, helping lovers finally get married!"
Kai Jun was taken aback and almost thought he was hallucinating from the stress.
But then he realized that there was actually a translucent light curtain floating in his mind, and the writing on the light curtain kept flickering and shifting.
Kai Jun focused his attention and looked carefully. He saw text scrolling across the light curtain display: "Rajesh Koothrappali hopes to find a lifelong companion; Arwen hopes to be with Aragorn for a lifetime; Jon Snow does not want to disappoint Daenerys's love; Harry Potter doesn't want to hand over Hermione to others..."
In addition to the scrolling names, a flood of information poured into Kai Jun's mind all at once.
It turns out that this marriage system was created by Eros himself. Because there are too many people across the heavens and myriad worlds who are desperately eager for successful marriages, and He himself is stretched too thin to handle all the requests alone, He created this system to extend his reach.
The system will automatically seek out and find the most suitable host and helps him to receive and complete these tasks. Once the host accepts the mission of a help-seeker, the host's consciousness will possess the body of that help-seeker and remain there until the wish is fulfilled, only then returning to their own body.
During this period, in case of danger, illness, injury, or even death, the host will bear the consequences alone, which has nothing to do with the system's protection. However, if the task is completed successfully, the host will receive a certain reward based on the difficulty. If the task is overfulfilled or completed with exceptional results, additional excess rewards will be obtained.
After receiving and processing all these messages, Kai Jun's heart was pounding wildly in his chest.
As a part-time web novel writer, how could he not have read countless system novels before?
It can be said that every person who has been blessed by receiving a system, no matter how destitute, incompetent, or pathetic he was before, can immediately turn his life around. If he wants talent, he'll gain talent; if he wants power, he'll gain power; if he wants money, he'll gain money; and if he wants women, he can have as many women as he desires.
"Okay, it's finally my time to stand up and rise above." Kai Jun clenched his fists tightly and said with determination.
He realized with growing excitement that this marriage system was his golden opportunity to change his fate once and for all.
"Jun! Kai Jun! Don't scare your cousin like this—please don't do anything foolish!" At this time, his cousin's increasingly eager and worried cry sounded in his ears, breaking through his thoughts.
Kai Jun snapped back to his senses and turned to her with a genuine smile. "Cousin, I'm fine, really. Don't worry about me. She didn't like me—well, that's her loss, not mine. I won't feel sorry for her anymore."
"Well, it's good if you figure it out." Seeing him say that, my cousin breathed a sigh of relief, her tense shoulders finally relaxing. She gave him a reassuring smile and said, "Okay, don't worry about it too much. My cousin will help you find it."
"Thank you, cousin. I really appreciate it." Kai Jun smiled warmly, a hint of gratitude lighting up his eyes. "I'll treat you to dinner another day to make it up to you."