Chapter 3

Liu Xun took a taxi straight to Yuzhong District. He already had a plan for his 2.8 million yuan in seed money.

In Qingdu in 2010, the average urban monthly income was around two thousand yuan. His money was a fortune, enough to start a business in the university district. But freshman year was about to begin, followed immediately by two weeks of military training. He’d have no time to run one.

That left investing. In the stock market!

A year into his first job in his previous life, a coworker had convinced him that trading stocks was a shortcut to changing his fortunes. He’d put in fifty thousand yuan, chased rising prices and sold on dips, and nearly lost his shirt.

Later, he’d devoted himself to studying the market, only to discover that it didn’t seem to follow any rules at all.

Hong Kong stocks fell, US stocks rose, and China’s A-shares fell: the explanation was that A-shares were following Hong Kong. Hong Kong rose, the US fell, and A-shares fell: now they were following the US. Both Hong Kong and the US rose, and A-shares still fucking fell: this time they were charting their own course.

After ten years in the market, breaking even had remained a distant dream. But things were different now. With his memories of the future, it was like taking an exam with the answer sheet in hand.

He’d thoroughly researched the nonferrous metals sector in 2020. This month, Guangsheng Nonferrous Metals was the undisputed king. From September that year through mid-October, its shares would surge from 31 yuan to more than 100 at their peak, more than tripling in value.

It took years for an apartment to double in price. Open a KFC and, even if it was packed every day, it would take nearly two years to recoup the investment. In the stock market, he could triple his money in a month and a half, earning an average of roughly 120,000 yuan a day. Anyone could see which to choose.

At Southwest Securities, he opened an account and signed the ST agreement. The whole process went smoothly and took three hours. By the time he finished, it was two thirty in the afternoon.

Sitting in the brokerage’s waiting area, Liu Xun downloaded an early version of the Tonghuashun trading app. With half an hour left before the market closed, he kept 100,000 yuan aside and put the remaining 2.7 million into Guangsheng Nonferrous Metals.

When he was done, he leaned back and let out a long breath. He didn’t intend to sit idle, though. He’d pinched pennies all his previous life; now he wanted to know what it felt like to shop.

He took another taxi to Jiefangbei and headed straight for the Armani store. In his previous life, he wouldn’t even have dared cross its threshold. Now he walked in with an easy stride.

The sales staff at a luxury store like Armani really were professional. Despite his ordinary clothes, the associate showed no outward trace of disdain. She greeted him with a smile and politely introduced the season’s new arrivals.

Liu Xun said he was just looking and went to the racks. According to his own tastes, he picked out four simple T-shirts, two pairs of well-cut casual trousers, and a pair of German army-style sneakers.

As he headed for the register with the clothes, two familiar figures caught his eye. Two young women were walking arm in arm through the store, stepping so carefully and breathing so quietly that they seemed afraid of damaging something they couldn’t afford to replace. Their eyes held a mixture of curiosity and unease.

The pretty girl on the left wore a short floral dress that barely covered her thighs, leaving long, pale legs exposed. She was Cai Lingling, the beauty of Liu Xun’s high school class.

“Why is she here…?”

His head began to ache again as memories of his years spent chasing her flooded back. She’d been the girl he adored in high school. He’d pursued her from school through graduation, only for her to marry an older man with a Mercedes.

His family lived in Yubei. Cai Lingling was the reason he’d come to the university district a day before registration. In his previous life, he’d chased her like a fool for seven whole years. Perhaps having a devoted admirer fed her vanity as the class beauty; whatever the reason, she’d kept him dangling, neither accepting nor turning him away.

Three days ago, she’d said on QQ that she wanted to get familiar with the university district early. He’d eagerly followed her and paid for her hotel room. Last night, he’d arranged a careful confession at a restaurant, only for her to brush him off, saying she had to focus on her studies when college began.

She’d always been like that: perfectly happy to accept his gifts and enjoy his attention, but never willing to give him a straight answer.

The ordinary-looking girl on the right was her best friend, Zhang Chun. The two were inseparable.

Liu Xun wanted nothing more to do with either of them and intended to walk around them. But sharp-eyed Zhang Chun grabbed Cai Lingling’s arm.

“Look! Isn’t that Liu Xun?”

Cai Lingling followed her gaze and looked startled. But her first thought wasn’t to wonder why he was here. It was that he’d been ignoring her on QQ.

“Liu Xun, I sent you so many messages! Why didn’t you reply? Someone bought me in Slave Market”—the friends-trading game on QQ Space—“and you didn’t even buy me back!”

He didn’t so much as lift an eyelid. He tried to walk past, but the two women stepped in front of him from either side as if they’d rehearsed it.

“Liu Xun, why are you ignoring me?”

He stopped and gave her a faint, amused smile. “Looks like you have plenty of buyers. You won’t miss one more, will you?”

Her face stiffened. Then she raised her voice. “What is that supposed to mean? Is this because I turned you down last night? I told you, I’m just starting college. I’m not ready for a relationship. Why can’t you be patient?”

“Then find someone patient enough to keep chasing you. Get out of my way.”

“You… How can you be like that? You’re not allowed to park your car at my place anymore!” She glared at him, apparently never expecting that response. She meant the parking game on QQ Space.

“Fine. It’s a deal.”

Zhang Chun, who’d been enjoying the show, finally noticed the clothes in his hands. She looked him up and down and burst out laughing.

“Liu Xun, do you think this is some cheap clothing shop by the universities? Do you have any idea how much these cost? Are you sure you want to buy them?”

“Doesn’t that depend on you?”

She blinked. “What does your buying clothes have to do with me?”

“Exactly. What the fuck does it have to do with you?”

Liu Xun was losing patience. He’d long known Zhang Chun was no good. She’d always tagged along with Cai Lingling to sponge meals and milk tea off him. To his face she praised him; behind his back she gossiped to Cai Lingling, complaining that he clearly hadn’t washed his hair and smelled as he walked past, or that he was stingy for giving Cai Lingling a birthday present worth only a hundred yuan.

He’d been a fool in his previous life. Now that he’d been reborn, why the hell should he put up with her?