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

"We won't let Chief He down."

As soon as he finished speaking, He Zhenchuan burst into laughter and slapped him on the back.

A little after 5 p.m., the group moved to the military district guesthouse.

The door to the private room was pushed open, revealing a table full of hearty dishes—steamed sea bass, braised lion's head meatballs, braised beef, and squirrel-shaped mandarin fish. Two bottles of aged liquor specially supplied by the military region were placed in the center of the table, with a layer of dust on the bottles that no one dared to wipe off.

He Zhenchuan took the main seat, and personally patted the chair to his right twice. "Yichen, sit here."

Li Yichen took a seat.

After a few rounds of drinks, the atmosphere completely relaxed.

Liu Guoliang, holding a cup, walked around from the opposite side, his face beaming with a smile so wide you could fit a peanut in your wrinkles: "Come, come, Brother Li, let me toast you!"

He touched the rim of the glass to the glass, tilted his head back, and downed the rest in one gulp.

hot.

It burned all the way down from my throat to my stomach.

Liu Guoliang slammed his empty glass on the table and, emboldened by the alcohol, lowered his voice: "You'd better speed things up for those two thousand Terminator units."

Li Yichen picked up a piece of beef with his chopsticks and stuffed it into his mouth, saying indistinctly, "Brother Liu, don't worry, when have I ever broken my promise? I'll send it over as soon as my project is finished."

"That's great! Let's do it!"

Liu Guoliang had barely stepped back and his backside hadn't even touched the chair when Xiao Jingshan stood up, carrying a cup and walking over, his gaze intense.

"Yichen, I must toast you with this."

Clink glasses. Cheers.

Gu Shounian followed immediately.

Then came the other high-ranking officers of the Shanghai Military Region—the Chief of Staff, the Minister of Equipment, the Logistics Commander—one after another taking turns to toast. It was like a continuous banquet; one glass after another was clinked, and within ten minutes, at least a dozen glasses were downed.

He Zhenchuan sat on the side watching the commotion, and the more he watched, the more he felt something was wrong.

The boy's face—was only slightly flushed.

His eyes were clear and bright, his hands were steady as always, and he spoke without the slightest ambiguity.

Anyone else in the room would have collapsed under the table after those dozen or so cups of military-supply liquor.

"His alcohol tolerance—" He Zhenchuan clicked his tongue, glanced at Liu Guoliang, and said, "Old Liu, even if all of you at the table took turns pouring him alcohol, you still couldn't get him drunk."

Li Yichen waved his hand with a smile: "It's just that I can carry a bit, it's not a real skill."

The body, modified with genetically optimized serum, metabolizes alcohol ten times faster than a normal person. But this can't be said; one can only pretend not to know.

The conversation gradually shifted from business to personal matters. He Zhenchuan, with peanuts between his fingers, reminisced about his experiences on the northwestern border more than thirty years ago.

"Back then, I was in the same class as Lao Xiao. In the dead of winter, at minus thirty degrees Celsius, there wasn't even a stove in the tent—"

Xiao Jingshan picked up the conversation, his voice much deeper than it had been a month ago: "If it weren't for Yichen, this table would be used as a mourning hall for me today."

As soon as he said it, the whole table fell silent for a full second.

The chopsticks were put down, and the cups were set aside.

He Zhenchuan broke the silence first, raised his glass, and looked at Li Yichen.

"Therefore, this cup is a tribute to our patriots."

More than a dozen cups were raised in unison.

"Respect the country."

Li Yichen felt a surge of heat in his chest. He didn't say anything, and silently finished his drink.

The dinner party didn't end until after 8 p.m.

Although Li Yichen was conscious, he had drunk several dozen cups of alcohol, so it was not safe for him to drive.

Liu Guoliang waved his hand and called over a soldier: "You drive Major General Li's car and take him home."

The young soldier snapped to attention and accepted the order, his eyes fixed on the gold star on Li Yichen's shoulder insignia, his lips pressed tightly together as if welded shut.

At the door, He Zhenchuan shook hands with him one last time. The old general's palm was dry and strong, and he clenched his fist for a couple more seconds.

"I'll be waiting for your surprise in four months."

Li Yichen nodded. He turned and got into the car.

Looking up, the U8 smoothly drove into Tomson Riviera.

The car stopped in front of the villa, and the young soldier jogged around to the back seat and opened the door. Li Yichen got out and thanked him.

The soldier snapped to attention, gave a perfect salute, and said in a clear, crisp voice, "Sir, it's my duty!"

The star of general was reflected in his pupils, and his awe was impossible to hide.

Li Yichen waved his hand, signaling him to go back. The soldier turned and jogged away, disappearing into the night.

Push open the villa gate.

The entryway light was on. The TV in the living room was on, at a moderate volume.

Ji Yanran was nestled on the sofa scrolling through her phone when she heard a noise and was the first to look up—her gaze traveled down his face, past his collar and shoulders, and then settled on him.

military uniform.

Golden star.

The medal on his left breast.

The phone slipped from her hand and slammed onto the sofa cushion. She didn't move, her mouth slightly open, as if she had been paralyzed.

Miao Miao popped out from behind the coffee table, her two short legs pushing off the ground as she rushed over.

"Wow! Bro, you look so handsome today! Like one of those great heroes on TV!"

The little girl circled him one and a half times, then reached out to touch the gold star on his epaulettes.

Li Yichen scooped her up and hoisted her onto his shoulder. "Touch me."

Miao Miao nestled on his shoulder and giggled, her fingers still poking at the star.

Footsteps came from the stairwell.

Li Niannian came down.

Her gaze fell on him—his crisp military uniform and the gold stars on his shoulders. She didn't know much about the details of the military rank system, but she was aware of the basic common sense that one star represented a general.

His steps slowed on the third step. His fingers tightened around the handrail, and his lips parted slightly, but he didn't utter a sound.

Ji Yanran stood up from the sofa at this moment.

I walked up to him, tilted my head slightly, and scanned the gold star and the medal back and forth three times, as if I were looking at a math problem beyond my comprehension.

She spoke.

"Boss, when did you become a major general?"

He paused for a second, then raised his voice by half a beat—

"You didn't buy it online, did you?"

Li Yichen almost lost his composure, and the corner of his mouth twitched violently.

"...General Ji, do you think the military region would let me come out wearing a fake military uniform?"

Ji Yanran looked him up and down, then reached out and poked at the epaulette. Her fingertip paused noticeably when it touched the metal surface—the texture was so realistic.

"Major General...you're only twenty-five." She withdrew her finger, her expression shifting between shock and absurdity. "I've lived for twenty-seven years and I've never heard of a twenty-five-year-old Major General."

Li Niannian added softly from the side, "I've never heard of it either..."

Miaomiao, still perched on her shoulders, tilted her head, looking completely bewildered: "What's a major general? Is he/she very powerful?"

Ji Yanran took a deep breath, bent down, and leaned close to Miao Miao: "Miao Miao, your brother is a general now. A general. The kind who commands lots and lots of soldiers."

Miao Miao's black grape-like eyes widened instantly.

"Isn't that even more powerful than Ultraman?!"

Ji Yanran ignored this probing question. Her gaze returned to Li Yichen's chest.

That medal.

She bent down, leaned closer, and stared for several seconds. Her expression gradually changed—from confusion to recognition, from recognition to confirmation, from confirmation to—

"This is..." She straightened up, her voice trembling, "The highest honor medal of the Great Xia Dynasty? Very few people have ever received that since the founding of the nation?"

Li Yichen hummed in agreement, his expression quite calm.

Ji Yanran stared at his face for a full three seconds.

"Is there anything else I don't know about you?"

"I can't remember right now."

Ji Yanran's gaze shifted, and she noticed the dark red certificate with gold foil tucked under his arm.

"What is this now?"

Li Yichen handed over the certificate. "Take a look for yourself."

Ji Yanran took it and opened it, her gaze falling on the large print on the inner page—

Honorary Academician for Life of the Great Xia Academy of Sciences.

Her fingers gripped the edge of the certificate, her nails digging into the cover. It took her a long time to lift her head; her expression had evolved from shock to a numb calm.

"Major General, highest medal, lifetime academician." She listed them off one by one, the list getting more and more outrageous, until finally she blurted out, "Li Yichen, you've really brought glory to your ancestors! Did your family's ancestral graves emit auspicious smoke?"

"How dare you talk like that?"

"To be honest," Ji Yanran said, raising her chin with undiminished teasing, "having collected all three items by twenty-five, are you planning to gather all seven Dragon Balls and make a wish?"

Li Yichen's head was throbbing from all that verbal sparring.

Hands move faster than brains.

Snapped.

He slapped Ji Yanran on the butt.

Crisp. Loud.

The air froze for 0.5 seconds.

Ji Yanran froze on the spot. Her face burned from the base of her neck upwards, turning bright red to the tips of her ears within three seconds.

Li Yichen's hand was still hanging in mid-air when his mind went blank—it was all over.

I pulled my hand back, then regretted not doing so.

Ji Yanran slowly turned her head.

The things in those eyes—shame, bewilderment, and something else indescribable mixed together.

She didn't say anything.

She just glared at him.

Then he turned around and stomped upstairs. The door to the third-floor apartment was pulled open and slammed shut, the sound echoing down the stairwell.

There was a two-second silence in the living room.

"Pfft—"

Miao Miao leaned on his shoulder, her little hands covering her mouth, laughing so hard her shoulders swayed.

"Sister Yanran is shy! Sister Yanran is shy! Brother, her face is so red when you spank her!"

Li Yichen: "..."

Li Niannian, standing beside her, kept her head down, her shoulders trembling several times, biting her lip to keep a sound from leaking out.

Finally, she raised her head, the forced smile still lingering on her face, and tried to keep her voice steady:

"Brother Li, I'll go make you a bowl of hangover soup."

After saying that, he turned and walked towards the kitchen. His back swayed a couple of times, and when he reached the corner, he finally couldn't hold back—a very short laugh escaped from his nose.

Li Yichen stood in the entryway, a giggling little girl on his shoulder, the sensation of that slap still echoing in his mind.

feel good.