Super Rich: Starting the game by going back ten years to buy Bitcoin

"Li Yichen, are you out of your mind?! You're so heartless!"

Ji Yanran stood with her hands on her hips, her chest heaving violently. Her bare feet were on the carpet, and her toes were curled up in excitement.

Li Yichen leaned against the headboard with his legs crossed.

"Not a penny less."

He spoke with great seriousness.

Ji Yanran stared at him for a full ten seconds. From anger to doubt to confirmation—this man wasn't joking.

She opened her mouth, then closed it again.

In the end, he could only manage to squeeze out one sentence: "I don't understand the world of the rich."

She turned and walked away. But as she reached the door, she turned back and pointed her finger at the air, saying, "You should go to sleep. Look at your dark circles, you look like a panda."

The door closed.

The muffled thud of her bare feet on the stairs echoed from the third floor, fading into the distance.

Li Yichen slumped back onto the pillow.

I stared at the ceiling for a while, lost in thought. Then I reached for my phone.

"Ling'er".

The watch didn't move. A chibi-style figure popped out from the screen, holding a stack of virtual files.

"Brother, I've compiled all the company's data during your forty days of seclusion. Would you like to hear it?"

"explain."

"Thor batteries have domestic orders booked up for a year ahead, with production capacity at full capacity and a stable yield rate of 96%. After obtaining authorization, BYD and Ningwang have been aggressively expanding their overseas distribution, with their market share in Europe doubling in two months."

"Where's the chip?"

"We supply 30,000 photonic carrier chips per month, with stable delivery and zero complaints from the higher-ups."

"Where is the Spirit Rider?"

"The cumulative number of vehicles equipped with the Lingyu system on Dami Auto has exceeded 200,000. Last week, CEO Lei spent half an hour at the press conference boasting that Lingyu is 'the smartest driving system on Earth'."

After Ling'er finished counting, the little figure spun around on the screen.

"In summary—everything is on track, brother can rest easy."

Li Yichen held his phone to his chest and closed his eyes.

I can finally catch my breath.

At the same time.

Switzerland. Lake Geneva.

An estate surrounded by iron fences and century-old oak trees.

The study was on the third floor. The curtains were drawn tightly shut. The fire in the fireplace had gone out, leaving only ashes that glowed a dark red.

Three people were sitting around the round table.

Ichiro Tanaka, Executive Vice President of Panasonic's Battery Division. Sixty-two years old. Thin. His nails are meticulously trimmed.

Park Jung-hwan, CEO of LG New Energy. Fifty-five years old. Square face. His tie was tied very tightly, leaving a red mark on his neck.

Samsung SDI President Kim Sang-hoon. Forty-eight years old. The youngest of the three. But at this moment, his hair was a few strands whiter than the other two.

Three financial reports were laid out on the table.

The numbers are alarming.

Panasonic's global market share in power batteries fell from 23% to 14% in just three months.

LG's stock price has halved. Three production lines have been shut down. Two thousand workers were laid off from its European factories last month.

Samsung SDI, North America's largest automaker customer, sent a letter last week terminating its partnership and switching to BYD.

It was all caused by Thor batteries.

To be precise, it was after BYD and Ningwang obtained the overseas license for Thunderobot batteries that they swept the global market with their overwhelming performance parameters.

Tanaka Ichiro took off his reading glasses and wiped them again and again with a handkerchief. He wiped them very slowly.

"How much time do we have?" he asked. His English was heavily accented with Japanese.

Park Jung-hwan sneered. "Tanaka-san, at this rate, in another year, the combined market share of the three of us will be less than ten percent."

Kim Sang-hoon didn't speak. He stared at the untouched glass of whiskey on the table.

The silence lasted for almost a minute.

Tanaka Ichiro put his glasses back on.

"Then there's only one way left."

He looked up and glanced at the other two.

"We obtained the core technology of Thor batteries."

Park Jung-hwan leaned back in his chair. "What do we do? Send someone to steal it? Future technology's security system is so advanced that even a fly couldn't get in."

"I won't steal." Tanaka Ichiro tapped his finger twice on the table. "Tie him up."

Kim Sang-hoon finally spoke. "Whom do you want to kidnap?"

"Ji Yanran, CEO of Future Technology."

Tanaka Ichiro took a file out of his briefcase and pushed it to the center of the table. The cover had a picture of a woman on it—in business attire, with a ponytail and a cool, aloof expression.

"This person is one of Li Yichen's most key executives. All the operational data of the company's business lines pass through her hands. There must be something we need on her computer."

Park Jung-hwan reached out and flipped through the file. He read two pages, then closed it.

"Who did you hire to do it?"

Tanaka Ichiro pulled a black business card from his pocket. It contained only a name and an encrypted contact number.

Iron Curtain Security Group.

"I've got someone in charge." He pushed the business card forward. "The best execution team in the Asia-Pacific region. They've never failed."

Kim Sang-hoon picked up the business card and examined it for two seconds.

"How much?"

"Two hundred million US dollars. Split evenly among the three companies."

Park Jung-hwan whistled. "Sixty-six million. For one person."

"I didn't buy a person." Tanaka Ichiro tapped his finger on Ji Yanran's photo. "I bought a chance to survive."

three days later.

Magic City.

A gray van was parked on the side of the road opposite a residential area in Pudong. The windows were tinted dark, so nothing could be seen from the outside.

inside the car.

Six people.

They were all Westerners, but their clothing and style blended perfectly into the local culture—windbreakers, jeans, sneakers. They looked no different from white-collar workers in foreign companies.

The man in the passenger seat was codenamed "Shadow." Forty-one years old. A retired member of the 2nd French Foreign Legion Parachute Regiment. Amber eyes. A jawline so sharp it could cut paper.

He stared at the map on his laptop. Several red routes were clearly marked—Ji Yanran's three usual routes from the company to home.

"The target leaves home at 8 a.m. and returns between 6 and 7 p.m. every day." Shadow's English was heavily accented with French. "No bodyguards, just a driver."

He switched to another page. (Screenshot from surveillance footage)

"These two areas are blind spots for surveillance cameras. The section is 400 meters long. That's enough."

A bearded man in the back row raised his hand. "When are we going to make our move?"

Shadow closed the notebook.

Three days later.

Meanwhile, the target being targeted—Ji Yanran herself—is working overtime at the company's new headquarters.

She knows nothing.

Li Yichen didn't know either.

He is enjoying a rare period of leisure.

That afternoon, he took Xiao Yuqing to a shopping mall in Lujiazui. Xiao Yuqing's jewelry store, "Qingchenge," was doing booming business, with monthly sales already exceeding two million.

As they left the mall, Xiao Yuqing linked arms with him and suddenly tilted her head to look at him.

"Little Li".

"Um?"

"Could you... find another friend to help me out?"

Li Yichen was drinking milk tea. He didn't swallow properly and choked on half of it.

"cough--"

Xiao Yuqing patted his back. "Are you alright?"

"It's nothing, it's nothing." Li Yichen wiped his mouth with a tissue and changed the subject. "Let's go check out that new sushi restaurant across the street."

the next day.

He invited Liu Xiaoyu to dinner.

Throughout the meal, Liu Xiaoyu stared at him with that brooding gaze. She poked at the rice in her bowl with her chopsticks, but didn't put it in her mouth for a long time.

Li Yichen pretended to be stupid. He buried his head in eating fish.

On my way home in the evening.

Ling'er's holographic projection jumped out of the watch and squatted above the steering wheel. Her two little legs swung around, and she rolled her eyes.

"Brother, your harem has all complained to me."

Li Yichen was drinking water from a thermos.

"What are you complaining about?"

"I'm complaining that you have too much energy."

puff--

He sprayed a mouthful of water onto the steering wheel.

"What nonsense are you talking about!"

Ling'er had already retreated into her watch, leaving only a string of silvery laughter behind.

Two more days passed.

3 PM. Pudong Riverside Promenade.

Li Yichen sat alone by the river, fishing. A folding chair was propped up on the embankment, and a parasol was spread out. The fishing rod was resting on its stand. The river surface shimmered, and a gentle breeze carried the scent of water.

He closed his eyes. Unusually, he wasn't thinking about anything.

The phone rang.

Caller ID: Liu Ruyan.

Li Yichen pressed the answer button.

"President Li!" Liu Ruyan's voice was louder than usual, unable to contain her excitement. "Lingxiao-1, overall progress is 80%! With that holographic projection for real-time 3D modeling, plus the collaborative computing of the Lingxi system—"

She paused for a moment.

"In another two weeks, we can have our first shot."

Li Yichen stared at the floating buoy on the river and his lips trembled slightly. A slow smile spread across his face.

"Tell everyone involved in the research and development."

"The day the test launch is successful—each person will receive a million-dollar bonus."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

Then came Liu Ruyan's barely suppressed laughter. After the call ended, cheers from the fifty-odd people in the office echoed through the walls and down the corridor.

Ten minutes later, the phone rang again.

Gu Shounian.

Li Yichen answered the call. "Brother Gu."

"Brother Li." Gu Shounian's voice was casual, as if he were chatting with someone. "I need to ask you about something—a few days ago, an unidentified flying object was discovered over the Donghai Shenwu. Its speed exceeded Mach 3, and its acceleration exceeded the limits of human endurance."

He paused for a moment.

"Are you aware of this?"

Li Yichen's heart rate instantly soared to 160.

But his voice remained unchanged.

"What UFO? I've been fishing these past few days, how would I know anything about those?"

Gu Shounian didn't press further. "Fine. Pretend I didn't say anything."

It's over.

Li Yichen put down his phone and wiped his forehead with the hem of his T-shirt.

Regarding the armor—we can't take any more risks for now.

Six o'clock in the evening.

Li Yichen packed up his line. He was lucky; he'd caught seven or eight bass.

Carrying the fish bucket back to the villa, he asked Zhou Dahai to prepare a whole fish feast.

"Yanran should be back soon," he said to Uncle Zhou. "Make a couple more of her favorite dishes."

It's 6:30. The dishes are served.

Ji Yanran did not arrive.

七点。

Not there yet.

7:15.

Li Yichen glanced at the clock on the wall. The second hand ticked away.

She usually gets home no later than 6:30 PM, but if she has to work overtime, she will let us know in advance.

The cell phone suddenly rang loudly.

Caller ID: Chu Feng.

Li Yichen pressed the answer button.

Chu Feng's voice burst from the receiver—urgent, trembling, and filled with a panic he had never heard before.

"Boss! Mr. Ji... Mr. Ji is in trouble!"