Chapter 1 Who Can I Complain To?

Brightlake Park. The sparkling surface of the lake reflected the blue sky and white clouds.

It was a rare day of good weather, but Chen Feng’s mood had sunk to the bottom of the lake.

The diagnosis report in his hand had been crumpled into a ball, but he hadn’t thrown it away.

He was only 29 this year, and he didn’t want to die. But fate had played a cruel joke on him.

Late-stage brain tumor!

Chen Feng still remembered the doctor looking at him with sympathy, gently telling him to go home, eat what he wanted, drink what he wanted, do what he wanted, and just relax.

A doctor’s sympathy was truly a rare thing.

A bitter smile tugged at the corner of Chen Feng’s mouth. He looked up at the sky, and in a daze, he thought he saw a shooting star streak across the sky, gone in an instant.

“Hallucinating again,” Chen Feng laughed at himself.

Lately, he had been suffering from frequent headaches, followed by nausea, vomiting, and hallucinations.

So today, he took a day off to go to the hospital for a check-up, and this was the result he got.

Just then, his phone rang. It was his wife, Shen Lin.

“What is it?” Chen Feng asked in a flat tone.

“I have a company dinner tonight, so I won’t be home for dinner,” Shen Lin’s voice was pleasant, soft and gentle, but her personality was not gentle at all.

“Oh.”

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing. By the way, haven’t you always wanted to divorce me? I agree.”

“What did you say?”

“I said I agree to the divorce. I’ve thought it through. There’s no point in me clinging to you like this.”

“Did you… hear something?”

Chen Feng was stunned for a moment, then a certain green thought popped into his head, and he continued in a cold voice, “Yes, I heard. So, let’s part on good terms and go our separate ways.”

“You don’t believe me?” Shen Lin’s tone also turned cold.

“This isn’t a matter of whether I believe you or not. It’s that there’s no need, understand? We don’t love each other anymore. Tell me, how much time have we spent together these past few months? How many times have we eaten at home together? How many times have we made love?” Chen Feng questioned with some agitation.

“…You’re right. Maybe I really don’t love you anymore. You’re no longer the dashing, high-spirited Chen Feng. You’re just a greasy, middle-aged man who complains all day, gets by, and has no ambition.”

A surge of anger rushed to Chen Feng’s head, and he wanted to curse out loud, but in the end, it turned into a long sigh. He was about to die, so what was the point of complaining about fate?
Chen Feng had come to terms with it.

“Say whatever you want. Take a leave of absence now. I’ll go home, get our documents, and we’ll go to the Civil Affairs Bureau,” Chen Feng said wearily.

There was silence on the other end for a few seconds before she asked in a low voice, “Have you really thought this through? I can give you two more months. As long as you change some of your bad habits, maybe we can still…”

“No need,” Chen Feng interrupted her, his tone firm. “Let’s get a divorce. What’s the point of forcing ourselves to be together when there’s no love left? We don’t have children or any property anyway. I’m letting you go to find your own happiness. A woman like you won’t have trouble finding someone else.”

“…Alright. I’ll go ask for leave now.”

Two hours later, the two of them, each holding a divorce certificate, parted ways at the entrance of the Civil Affairs Bureau.

Shen Lin gave him two days to move out of the house they lived in.

The house was rented by Chen Feng’s parents for them as their marital home. They had paid three years’ rent in one go, and they had already lived there for almost two years.

Because it was very close to Shen Lin’s workplace, it was also considered a form of compensation from Chen Feng to her. Chen Feng chose to move out of this “home” he had lived in for nearly two years.

Chen Feng also left all the appliances and furniture in the house to her.

Anyway, he felt he was going to die soon, and he couldn’t take these things with him, so he left them for Shen Lin. After all, they had loved each other once.

And back then, Shen Lin had almost fallen out with her parents to marry him. In the end, it was because Chen Feng had no money, no house, and an ordinary job.

He had always felt guilty about this.

Taking the initiative to divorce her this time was also a kind of compensation. A divorced woman sounded better than a widow. He didn’t want to be a burden to her.

Chen Feng didn’t take a car, walking all the way back to his place. He planned to find a cheaper place to live tomorrow and move out. More than half an hour later, when he reached his street, a sudden gust of wind swept through, blowing the leaves from the plane trees on the roadside.

Plastic bags, scraps of paper, and dust rose with the wind, blowing straight at Chen Feng.

Chen Feng subconsciously raised his hand to shield his eyes, and a piece of paper happened to blow onto his hand. He grabbed it and saw it was a freshly scratched lottery ticket, and it had a car symbol on it.

Chen Feng was a bit stunned. He had played scratch-off tickets before. They were simple; if you won a prize, it was marked directly on the ticket.

For example, 10 yuan, 100 yuan, 1000 yuan.

And the scratched ticket Chen Feng was holding not only had two ¥100 prizes, one ¥500, and one ¥1000, but also a picture of a car.

This was a winning ticket, and a grand prize winner at that. And it probably wasn’t a fake.

But who the hell would scratch this ticket and then not want it? Or did someone just throw it away?
After a brief internal struggle, Chen Feng obediently held the ticket and waited by the side of the road.

Chen Feng decided that if someone came looking for it and could correctly state the prize amounts and the car on the ticket, he would return it to them.

Again, he was about to die. He didn’t want to lose his integrity at the end of his life. He hadn’t been a good person in his life, but he didn’t want to die as a bad person either.

So, he stood by the road and waited obediently. He waited for more than half an hour, but no one came looking for it, let alone asked about it.

After waiting for another ten minutes or so, Chen Feng couldn’t hold it in any longer and went to the nearest public restroom. Then, following the lottery station number written on the ticket, he found one on this very street. Chen Feng used to be a frequent customer.

Many people in the shop were buying scratch-off tickets, but it seemed like few were winning big prizes.

Chen Feng spent 20 yuan on two tickets. He casually scratched them, and the first one won 1530 yuan, the second won 2000. This immediately drew envious and jealous looks from everyone in the shop.

“Your luck is just off the charts.”

“Yeah. Damn, I spent 2000 on four packs, my fingers are sore from scratching, and I only won a few hundred.”

“There’s just no comparison.”

“Brother, how about I pay for the tickets, you scratch them for me, and we split the winnings fifty-fifty.”

“Right, brother, your luck is really good today. Help me out, if I win, I’ll give you half.”

…

Chen Feng had originally come here to see if anyone had lost a lottery ticket, not expecting to win himself. It really felt like “you can’t grow flowers when you try, but you can grow a willow tree without trying.”

He used to be a lottery enthusiast and had been buying for years, but the biggest prize he had ever won was 20 yuan.

He hadn’t bought any in the past few months, and he wasn’t expecting to win this time, but a casual purchase turned into a damn win. Who could he complain to?

(End of Chapter)