Avoid detours, start by running a nursing home.

(Parallel universe...)

2005, Blue Star, Songhai City, Quiet District...

At 8 a.m., Yu Garden Road...

Zhang Yang stood at the intersection, staring blankly ahead, looking utterly hopeless.

Not long ago, he was a college student living in 2026.

I was lying peacefully in my dorm room, scrolling through short videos and watching videos of girls in black stockings, when I accidentally tapped my phone and suddenly found myself here.

The clothes and shoes on his body were still there, but the Xiaomi smartphone in his hand was nowhere to be found...

What's worse is that when he looked around, although the street names looked exactly the same, the scenery and pedestrians were completely different from what he remembered.

There aren't as many shops, and the decorating styles are completely different. Even the clothes people wear and the hairstyles they have on the street have a retro feel to them.

The most obvious ones were those people who were walking hurriedly while talking on the phone.

Each and every one of them was colorful and oddly shaped, looking rather small and exquisite...

There's no large rear camera module, nor the ubiquitous boxy design...

After finishing the call, he flicked his finger, making a crisp snap, closed the phone case, and stuffed it into his pocket—a very stylish move.

Zhang Yang stood by the roadside, and everyone who saw him was dumbfounded.

Such a retro phone?

So it turns out that not only has the location changed, but the times have changed too?

Please select the method that minimizes detours for you...

"Moving into a nursing home can save you sixty years of detours."

"Joining the security guard job will save you twenty years of detours."

"Joining the dormitory management team..."

He did remember seeing a few options on his phone before, but at the time he thought it was some kind of prank video, so he just clicked on them casually.

I never imagined this would turn out to be such a huge deal...

The most crucial thing is that my Xiaomi Turbo 4, which I just bought for 600 yuan on Xianyu last week, is gone just like that!

I searched for over two weeks before finding one that was in slightly better condition, but it only cost 600 yuan and lasted less than a week...

One hundred yuan a day! Good heavens!

And the more than three thousand yuan in my WeChat Wallet, that was all earned through hard work, day after day.

Now it's all gone! Completely gone!

Just as he was looking around, feeling like crying, he suddenly heard a soft "ding" in his ear.

Then a series of semi-transparent texts, as if printed on a screen, slowly appeared before his eyes.

The "Less Detours System" is now fully integrated...

Your life goal: to move into a retirement home and avoid sixty years of detours...

"Target object search in progress..."

"Object matching complete, location: Changning District, Songhai City..."

"Institution Name: Kang Le Nursing Home... Current Status: Operating..."

"Registration information modification... Legal representative information modification... Modification complete..."

"Transfer of real estate ownership in progress... Transfer completed..."

"Congratulations on entering a nursing home at the age of twenty and becoming its director, successfully avoiding sixty years of detours!"

"You are now in a parallel world, where all previous relationships do not exist..."

Current time point: 2005...

"Please proceed to the target location as soon as possible to complete the handover. The mission module will then be activated."

"A new life, without detours, stay tuned!"

Startled, Zhang Yang was on the verge of tears after he had read the entire long string of text.

"If you're a system, why didn't you say so earlier! Are you kidding me?"

"If I'd known I had to wear protective clothing, I would have preferred to become a dormitory supervisor rather than choose to live in a nursing home!"

"At least the dorm is full of young people. Even if they're all idiots, at least I can have some fun and join in the fun."

"If I'm lucky enough to be assigned to a girls' dormitory, then it goes without saying..."

"What's this now?"

"A nursing home?"

He looked down at his own frail, twenty-year-old college student body: "Entering a nursing home at twenty, everyone there could be my great-grandfather or great-grandmother..."

"You want me to be the dean? How am I supposed to manage them?"

"Will I even be able to find a girlfriend in the future? How am I supposed to live like this?"

"Can't you even negotiate to send me home?"

blah blah...

The system completely ignored him and continued typing line by line in front of him like a typewriter.

"Target information..."

"Kang Le Nursing Home..."

Address: No. 31, Lane 1136, Yu Garden Road...

"Completion date: 1934..."

Total land area: 10.78 mu (approximately 1.65 acres)...

"Nature of real estate ownership rights: Granted; Term of use: 70 years..."

"etc!"

Zhang Yang stared at the words that appeared before him and instantly felt a chill run down his spine.

"Yu Garden Road? A nursing home covering 10.78 acres?!"

He blinked.

"You just said I was the dean?!"

"They even said the property rights have been transferred to my name?!?!"

Hiss!

He gasped.

He certainly knew about Yu Garden Road. It was a place where land was extremely valuable in Songhai City, and most of the houses on this road were old houses built in the last century.

There are garden villas, shikumen houses, and old-style alleyways.

But even the worst lane houses are ridiculously expensive.

If it's a detached garden villa, then it goes without saying that it would cost at least tens of millions or hundreds of millions.

But 10.78 mu?

Regardless of the specifics of the house, its size alone has completely exceeded his understanding of what a "house" is.

He didn't remember exactly how many square meters one acre was, but he did remember that it was roughly equivalent to 1.5 standard basketball courts.

More than 10 acres... that's at least the size of 15 basketball courts...

Cough!

Zhang Yang raised his fist and coughed, covering his mouth with it.

"Speaking of which, respecting the elderly and caring for the young is a fine tradition of the Chinese nation, and it must be carried forward!"

Bluemi phone? WeChat Wallet?

What is that?

go back?

Who wants to go back?

I don't care who it is!

I'm not going back! I'd rather die than leave!

I'm going to be the director of this nursing home today!

Are you kidding me? The property rights of a house on Yu Garden Road that occupies 10 acres of land!

If we put that in the future, it would be at least a dozen small goals, right?

With this house, what do mobile phones and wallets matter, and what do dormitory managers matter!

Will I still have trouble finding a girlfriend in the future?

I'm afraid my girlfriends will have to worry about not being able to find me in the future!

As for the talk of parallel worlds and the fact that past relationships no longer exist...

What a joke! I was an orphan, I didn't have any social connections before!

Thinking about his life before he turned twenty, Zhang Yang clenched his fists.

An orphan like him is able to go to university thanks to the help of kind people and the government; otherwise, he would probably have been killed long ago on the other side of the ocean.

Online sources say that Songhai is like two cities, one for the poor and one for the rich.

I used to live in that poor village...

He could only catch glimpses of how the other city was a dazzling, bustling metropolis through those videos.

What do you mean a meal costs thousands of dollars? What do you mean a simple rice paddle at the supermarket costs several hundred dollars? What do you mean a small bottle of vinegar costs 9999 dollars?

And then there are those people showing off their luxury homes—large apartments, large villas, large gardens…

Before, he could only drool over the screen.

There's a 10.78-acre house sitting there, waiting for him to take it over...

Isn't he just the director of a nursing home? Isn't his job to take care of a few elderly people and keep them happy?

From today onwards, I am their grandson!

Honey!

They'll be even more enthusiastic towards them than those selling health supplements!

Compared to a house on 10 acres of land on Yu Garden Road, what is this?

This is no big deal!

With that thought in mind, he took a step and walked down Yu Garden Road.

More than half an hour later...

"Holy crap!"

Zhang Yang stood in front of a large arched iron gate, looking up in astonishment.

Inside the iron gate was a four-story building with a pointed roof; from the outside, it looked like a small castle.

The reason for saying this is that, apart from the terrace on one side and the pointed roof in the middle, the other side of this house really does resemble a city wall, with battlements.

Coupled with that house that looks dozens of meters wide, doesn't it really resemble a small castle?

With a gurgling sound.

He swallowed hard.

This house is so big, it'll be... mine from now on?

This system is simply... amazing!

"Oh dear! The dean is here!"

Just as he was standing at the door in a daze, he suddenly heard someone shout from inside the house, and then saw an old man who looked to be about 50 years old with half-white hair rush out.

The other person rushed over, pulled open the iron gate, and bowed with a beaming smile: "Dean, why didn't you call first before you came?"

"We weren't prepared either, otherwise we could have welcomed you."

"Um...it's nothing, I just came to take a look..."

Zhang Yang replied somewhat awkwardly and followed him into the courtyard.

I was secretly quite amazed.

I was just thinking about things like the property rights of the house and my own identity, and I don't know how the system is handling it.

It would be funny if things went wrong and some kind of blunder occurred.

Before he could even open his mouth, the other person had already recognized him.

And they were incredibly enthusiastic; even if I was dressed in cheap clothes from a street stall, their attitude didn't change at all.

This system deserves a five-star rating!

"Come, come, Dean, this way! We've been waiting for you for so long!"

Just as he was lost in thought, the other person led him around half of the house to the front.

Zhang Yang froze on the spot once again.

If the house in front of him was already surprising enough, then standing here looking at the garden lawn in front of him, his mind went completely blank.

A lawn almost the size of a football field...

Green grass...

This is mine too?!

He stood there dumbfounded, his heart pounding like a drum.

Sure enough, those capitalists from the old society knew how to enjoy life; they could even fence off such a large plot of land in the city center to create a garden.

"Dean, what's going on...? Director Liu is still waiting for you upstairs."

The old man who was leading the way was about to go up the stairs when he realized that Zhang Yang was still behind him, so he quickly turned around and called out to him.

"Ah? Oh, coming, coming."

Coming to his senses, Zhang Yang quickly responded, and while following him up the stairs, he said somewhat absentmindedly, "This lawn is huge..."

"Yes, the elderly people in the courtyard like to sunbathe on it when the weather is nice."

The other person smiled and answered, then led Zhang Yang up the stairs and into the front hall.

Behind him, Zhang Yang looked up curiously at his surroundings, becoming more and more shocked as he looked.

The towering vaulted ceiling, the crystal chandeliers emitting a soft glow, the glossy wooden floors, and the timeless furnishings scattered throughout the corridors and rooms.

A hand-cranked telephone, a phonograph, oil paintings hanging on the wall, a celadon porcelain vase, a table lamp glowing with an orange light...

Every corner seems to tell a story of how extraordinary this place is.

This doesn't look like a nursing home at all.