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

Liu Xiaoyu did not answer immediately.

She picked up the Americano in front of her and took a sip. When she put the glass down, her fingers lingered on the rim for two seconds.

Three years ago.

Her throat was dry, and every word seemed to be forced out of her throat.

"After the company ran into trouble, my dad... couldn't handle the blow."

Li Yichen's hand remained on the table, unmoved.

"He suffered a sudden heart attack. By the time he arrived at the hospital, he was already dead."

Liu Xiaoyu's chin twitched slightly. She didn't cry. The tears she shed in the mall had all dried up; now all that remained was a thin, dry calm.

"They tried to resuscitate him for four hours. He couldn't be saved."

Someone was grinding coffee beans inside the coffee shop, the machine humming. The grinding sound came from the bar area, dull, rhythmic.

Li Yichen clenched his back teeth.

A trading company worth hundreds of millions collapsed just like that. With the company gone, the old man was gone too.

Six years ago, he stood in that alley, rainwater soaking his collar, when Liu Qiang's BMW drove out of the alley. He thought the Liu family would always be the same Liu family—guaranteed income regardless of drought or flood, unshakeable.

Three years.

The person and the company collapsed together.

He picked up his coffee and took a sip, the bitterness spreading on the back of his tongue. He didn't say a word. Because with something like this, saying anything would be pointless.

Comfort? A debt of ten million and a father cannot be covered up with a few words of "condolences".

There was a silence of about ten seconds.

Liu Xiaoyu pushed the cup towards the center of the table, then placed her hands together on the surface. She looked up and stared at Li Yichen.

"You still haven't told me."

"Um?"

"Nearly ten million. Where did you get so much money?"

Li Yichen's finger paused briefly on the rim of the cup.

This question will have to be answered sooner or later, but the truth is—"I have a system that gives me 1.6 yuan every second"—if she says that, wouldn't she call the police and send him to a psychiatric ward?

My mind raced for a couple of seconds.

"Cryptocurrency".

Liu Xiaoyu was stunned for a moment.

"I've been trading cryptocurrencies for the past few years and caught a wave of the market." Li Yichen picked up his glass and took another sip, his tone as flat as if he were just saying the weather was nice. "I was lucky and made a little money."

Liu Xiaoyu stared at him for three seconds.

She didn't ask any further questions.

It's not that I'm not curious, it's just that the answer falls right on the line of "not quite normal, but not impossible." In recent years, stories of people getting rich quick through cryptocurrency have been flying around, from delivery drivers to programmers, every now and then a news story pops up about "investing 50,000 and making 50 million."

Believe it or not, that's another matter. At least it makes sense logically.

Liu Xiaoyu raised her head again, took her hands off the table, and placed them on her knees. Her back straightened.

"Yichen, I will pay you back that money."

One word at a time.

They were so serious it didn't seem like they were just being polite.

Li Yichen put down his cup, leaned back in his chair, and rested his arms on the armrests.

"Need not."

"More than nine million—"

"Xiaoyu," he interrupted her. "I really don't need that little bit of money right now. You and your brother have had it hard enough living with debt these past few years. You've finally cleared the debts, don't add more burdens to yourselves."

Liu Xiaoyu pursed her lips but didn't reply.

She wasn't the type to easily owe people things. Ten million was no small sum. Even if Li Yichen said he didn't care, this debt would stay in her heart for the rest of her life.

But she did not continue arguing.

It's not because I've been persuaded. It's because I don't yet have the ability to repay. Fighting would be futile.

Seeing that she didn't say anything more, Li Yichen tapped the handrail twice with his finger.

"By the way—are your mom and brother also in Shanghai?"

"Mmm." Liu Xiaoyu nodded. "After my dad passed away, my mom came to Shanghai with my brother and me. She lives in my apartment."

"Is it the set Uncle Zhao just mentioned?"

"Yes. My dad bought it before his company had that problem. It's over 80 square meters, with two bedrooms and a living room. My mom and I live in one room, and my brother lives in the other."

Li Yichen did the math in her head—a little over 80 square meters, two bedrooms and a living room, for her mother, brother, and herself, three people. It was a bit cramped, but at least they had a place to stay.

He leaned forward slightly.

"Besides Uncle Zhao's debt, does your family owe anyone else money?"

Liu Xiaoyu shook her head.

"That's all. Uncle Zhao is the last one. There were two other families before him, and they only paid off their debts at the end of last year."

Li Yichen's back shifted slightly off the chair.

It wasn't for my own sake.

He was afraid that one or two more creditors might appear. He gave away over nine million without batting an eye, and another ten or twenty million wouldn't be a problem. But what if Liu Xiaoyu refused to accept it?

He said "I'll pay you back" so earnestly just now. If he were to pay off another debt for her, this girl would probably turn against him.

stubborn.

It's been like this since high school. If I got second place in math, I would argue with myself for a whole week, and I would keep working on the wrong problem over and over again until I felt like throwing up.

Thankfully, it's gone.

He picked up his cup and downed the last sip of coffee.

Liu Xiaoyu took her phone out of her pocket, unlocked it, opened her contacts, and stopped at the "Create Contact" page.

She pushed her phone to the center of the table.

"Your number."

Three words, no subject, no predicate, but the meaning couldn't be clearer.

Li Yichen glanced at the blank number field and his lips twitched slightly.

You changed your number and disappeared without a trace back then, and now you have the nerve not to give it to me?

He recited a string of numbers.

Liu Xiaoyu's fingers tapped rapidly on the screen, checking each number she entered, saving it, and then going back to check it again.

It's saved.

She stared at the three characters "Li Yichen" on the screen for two seconds.

The corners of her mouth turned up slightly.

It's a very small curve. But the relaxed feeling that emanates from within is impossible to hide.

She's been searching for him for so many years. She's tried changing his phone number and moving to different cities. After graduating from university, she asked six or seven high school classmates for help, but none of them knew where Li Yichen was.

The number is in my phone now.

Eleven digits, written in black and white.

This time, she wouldn't let him get away again.

Thinking of this, she paused and tapped her finger on the phone case.

A picture flashed through my mind—

The girl who was standing next to Li Yichen on the second floor of the mall just now. She wore a floral sundress, had long, flowing hair, and was holding his arm.

That girl has a beautiful smile.

Liu Xiaoyu took her phone back and placed it on the table. She unconsciously rubbed her fingers together on the surface.

She looked up.

"Yichen".

"Um?"

"That girl from earlier—"

She paused at the end of her sentence, as if a thorn was stuck in her throat.

Who is it?

It paused for a moment.

"Your girlfriend?"

Li Yichen was pushing the empty cup toward the edge of the table.

The hand stopped.

My scalp tingled.

A tingling sensation started at the back of his head and spread all the way to the top of his head. It was about that question. The one question he least wanted to answer, yet she was the one who asked it.

A series of thoughts raced through my mind—

To tell the truth? To say, "Yes, she's my girlfriend"?

Liu Xiaoyu's face had turned noticeably pale. From the first moment she saw Xiao Yuqing, that cautious tension was written all over her body.

If we could get another confirmation from him—

No.

But saying "it's okay" isn't quite right either. What happened between him and Xiao Yuqing that night was real. He's not the kind of person who would just sleep with someone and then deny everything.

From that moment on, Xiao Yuqing belonged to him.

He didn't want to think about Xiao Yuqing sleeping in someone else's arms. Just thinking about it made his chest feel tight.

but--

Liu Xiaoyu was also someone in his heart.

I didn't have a single relationship during my four years of university. It wasn't that I didn't have the opportunity, but that I couldn't. Every time a girl got close, the image of her in her school uniform with a ponytail would pop into my mind, along with the rain in the alley and that phone call at 11 pm that night.

I haven't looked for a job in the two years since graduation.

To say that he has truly let go of Liu Xiaoyu is an overstatement—a person who has truly let go wouldn't go six years without touching a relationship.

As for Xiao Yuqing—

Isn't that caused by adrenaline?

Okay, the more I think about it, the more confused I get.

Liu Xiaoyu's gaze was still fixed on his face.

"Yichen?"

She called out again.

Li Yichen came to his senses.

A thin layer of unease lingered in her eyes as she stared at him. There was also a hint of pleading, a desire she didn't want him to see.

He opened his mouth slightly.

"no."

Two words came out.

Liu Xiaoyu's shoulders were visibly slack.

"That was my college classmate." Li Yichen picked up his empty glass and pretended to take a sip; the glass was empty, bottom facing up. He put the glass down and added, "She was also my deskmate."

My deskmate.

I added those two words on purpose.

To make the phrase "college classmate" sound more plausible—close but just friends.

After listening, Liu Xiaoyu let out a sigh of relief.

The breath was light, but it left a distinct arc as it came out of her chest. Her fingers stopped rubbing the table, and she relaxed from her tense state.

Her intuition told her that the relationship between that girl and Li Yichen was more than just that of classmates.

The way they linked arms was so natural, it didn't seem like ordinary friends.

But she didn't want to delve into it.

At least not now.

After searching for so many years, she still deeply loves the person in front of her. As long as he is not married and does not wear a ring—she had just secretly checked, and his left ring finger was clean—she will not give up.

She smiled.

It wasn't a forced smile; it was a genuine laugh. The dried tear tracks at the corners of her eyes were squeezed together by the laugh lines, making her look a little disheveled, but the light in her eyes shone brightly.

Looking at the smile on her face, Li Yichen felt a mix of emotions.

It tasted sour. It tasted astringent. And there was an inexplicable sense of guilt about it.

Li Yichen, what a guy.

He lies to his ex-girlfriend without batting an eye, while his current girlfriend is still sitting in her car downstairs waiting for him.

Scum.

He's utterly despicable, crystal clear.

No—this is the system's fault. If the system hadn't made him billions, he'd still be delivering food, still riding that beat-up electric scooter all over the place. A delivery rider earning five or six thousand a month wouldn't have gotten into all that mess.

Without the system, there's no money. Without money, there would be no story of "keeping" Xiao Yuqing. Without this arrangement, there wouldn't have been that night. And without that night—

He no longer has to stand here in a dilemma.

Therefore, the system has to take the blame.

He mentally and decisively shifted the blame onto the person in question.

Deep in my mind, the system panel, which had been quiet all day, suddenly jumped up.

A line of text appeared.

I'm not taking the blame for this.

Li Yichen's lips twitched.

Liu Xiaoyu was looking down at her coffee and didn't notice the fleeting look of confusion on his face.

She put down the cup and wiped the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Yichen, are you busy tonight? Would you like to come over to my house? My mom definitely wants to see you."

Li Yichen tapped his finger on the table.

There's still someone sitting in the car downstairs.

"Not today, let's do it another day. You should go home and rest first."

His words were cut short.

My phone vibrated in my pocket.

He took it out and looked at it.

Xiao Yuqing.

There were only four words on the screen—

"You're dead."