That morning, after delivering breakfast to her tyrant of a boss, Lu Xun, Qian Wei went back to bed and fell asleep again. Lying in her dorm bed, she realized it had been a very, very long time since she’d been able to drift back to sleep and wake up naturally like this. A new day at nineteen years old had arrived once more, and Qian Wei took a deep breath. She’d never before realized what a luxury it was just to sleep in.

“Some everyday little joys get overlooked, but you only realize how precious they are once you’ve lost them—like right now, curled up under the covers. Every single minute of this, I need to treasure.”

“Only you could make sleeping in sound so high-minded.” Liu Shiyun looked thoroughly unimpressed. “Isn’t that right, Little Meng? We can’t be like Qian Wei. We need to sleep early, rise early, and grow up healthy.”

“Little Meng” was Liu Shiyun’s potted cactus. She’d read some theory somewhere claiming that plants had feelings too, and that if you talked to them regularly and built a bond, they’d grow better—might even give off some kind of biomagnetic field that made their caretaker more beautiful.

Qian Wei glanced at the doting look on Liu Shiyun’s face as she gazed at the cactus. She had no doubt that if the thing didn’t have spines, Liu Shiyun would already be stroking “Little Meng” with the tenderness of a mother.

“What time is it?”

Liu Shiyun checked her phone. “Ten.”

Qian Wei bolted upright. “I need to go to my elective class.”

Liu Shiyun stared at her in shock. “Are you feeling all right? Did you seriously just say you’re going to your elective?”

In her sophomore fall semester, Qian Wei had signed up for a personal finance elective. She’d only chosen it because upperclassmen had told her that the instructor, Teacher Zhang, never took attendance, so you could skip class without worry, and the final exam wasn’t hard enough to fail.

There was no time to explain her sudden change of heart—and honestly no way to explain it. She checked the time, hurried to the convenience store below the dorm, and bought several large bags of food, specifically choosing things that counted as snacks but were still filling enough to make a meal. She stuffed her bag full and ran for the classroom.

She remembered clearly: Li Chongwen had taken this personal finance elective too.

By the time she arrived, out of breath, class hadn’t started yet, thankfully. Qian Wei scanned the room and finally spotted Li Chongwen sitting in the third row, quietly reading some book, his profile calm and pleasant. Li Chongwen was good-looking, with a tall, straight build, and sure enough, plenty of girls’ eyes were drawn to him too—though before long, most of those wandering gazes had settled on someone else.

Qian Wei looked toward the door and saw Lu Xun. In her last life, she’d been so focused on skipping class that she’d had no idea Lu Xun had taken this elective at all.

She snuck a glance at Lu Xun, then looked back at Li Chongwen. She had to admit, Li Chongwen’s features, while lacking Lu Xun’s almost otherworldly refinement, still turned heads at A University’s law school. And unlike Lu Xun—who was aloof, untouchable, carrying an innate air of nobility in both looks and bearing—Li Chongwen was gentle and courteous, warm and polite in everything he said and did, with the kind of soft, boy-next-door charm that put people at ease. Qian Wei honestly felt Li Chongwen deserved better; his personality was a thousand times better than Lu Xun’s, and yet it was someone like Lu Xun who drew all the attention and adoration from the girls. Probably modern female college students all had a touch of Stockholm syndrome.

Lu Xun walked into the classroom with his handsome face held perfectly level, not glancing left or right, his posture tall and graceful. Li Chongwen looked up and smiled, greeting him, and only then did a hint of a smile appear on Lu Xun’s face. He sat down to Li Chongwen’s right, leaving only the seat on Li Chongwen’s left empty.

Qian Wei steeled herself and took that empty seat on the left. It wasn’t shyness—it was purely because the third row was universally recognized as the danger zone. Teacher Zhang loved calling on students sitting in the third row to answer questions… and when he got worked up during lectures, he sprayed spit everywhere, making the third row the prime “splash zone”…

Hearing the commotion beside him, Li Chongwen looked up from his book, saw Qian Wei, and smiled at her—the same smile he always had, warm as a spring breeze. That smile sent a pang of bittersweet ache through Qian Wei’s chest. Lu Xun glanced up at Qian Wei too, indifferent, and said nothing.

Qian Wei swallowed down the feeling and pulled out her snacks. She ate a couple of bites herself, then tapped the shoulder of the student behind her, handing out the remaining bags—one for everyone to share. Only after that did she casually set the last bag down in front of Li Chongwen. “Li Chongwen, here.”

He blinked, then smiled. “No need.”

But Qian Wei insisted. “Everyone’s having some. This one’s really good, I bought a bunch of bags, you should try some too.”

In the end, Li Chongwen gave in and accepted the bag.

Qian Wei finally let out a breath of relief. She’d bought that many bags precisely so that handing one to Li Chongwen wouldn’t seem out of place.

Whether by coincidence or not, the bag that ended up going to Li Chongwen happened to be the very last one—there were no extras left. Qian Wei glanced carefully at Lu Xun, sitting beside him. He’d stepped out to take a call right when she was handing out the snacks and had only just come back; he didn’t seem to have noticed. Qian Wei relaxed. Thank goodness Lu Xun couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to what she was doing—otherwise, if the snacks had run out right as they reached him, that would have been mortifying.

Looking at Li Chongwen sitting quietly beside her, his face healthy and rosy, Qian Wei felt a swell of emotion. In her past life, she and Li Chongwen had barely known each other. After graduation, he’d gone on to become a judge. The only interaction she’d ever had with him at work came during one court session—she’d gone to cross-examine evidence for a medical dispute case on behalf of her client hospital, and it happened to be at the court where Li Chongwen worked. Outside the courthouse, she’d been ambushed by a professional group hired by the opposing party to stir up trouble, and they’d moved to attack her. It was Li Chongwen, passing by, who had shielded her—and taken a beating himself in the process. The next thing she’d heard about him after that was that he’d been diagnosed with stomach cancer. It was only then that she learned about his family background: he came from a remote mountain village. Even with a national student stipend, his mother had been bedridden for years, his father was an alcoholic and gambler, and he had a younger sister still in school. He’d had no choice but to work himself to the bone to support the whole family. To save money, he’d been skipping meals and going hungry since college—and over time, that was what had given him stomach cancer while he was still so young.

Li Chongwen was the type with fierce pride. All through college, he’d insisted on supporting himself and never wanted to trouble anyone with donations. Naturally, Qian Wei couldn’t just hand him cash directly. She’d thought it over and over, and the only idea she’d landed on was this—using snacks. It was a natural way to slip him something he wouldn’t refuse. Having been given this second life, aside from getting a head start ingratiating herself with her future boss, she also wanted to change Li Chongwen’s fate. He was a good person. He shouldn’t have to get sick so young.

Having successfully gotten food into his hands today, Qian Wei felt completely at ease—but she’d celebrated too soon. Not long into class, while she sat in the third row zoning out, Teacher Zhang called on her to answer a question.

“You there—tell me, if it were you, how would you manage your finances?”

Qian Wei had no choice but to stand. On this particular subject, she actually had quite a lot to say. “If it were me, without letting it interfere with my studies, I’d work as many jobs as I could and put every cent toward buying property. Even if I had to borrow money, I’d buy—ideally seven or eight units.”

Teacher Zhang pushed up his glasses. “Why would you need seven or eight?”

“Because I believe the average price now, around four thousand yuan per square meter, will climb to forty thousand within seven or eight years.” Qian Wei cleared her throat. “Prices will keep depreciating—what costs fifty yuan a head to eat out today will cost two or three hundred in the future.”

Not just Teacher Zhang—even the other students couldn’t help laughing. To them, what Qian Wei had said sounded like pure fantasy.

“Bold predictions, I’ll give you that, but I have to say they’re quite far from reality. And this idea of managing your finances by buying up multiple properties—frankly, it sounds like the thinking of someone with no financial knowledge or professional training whatsoever.” Teacher Zhang lifted his chin proudly, spraying spit with pinpoint accuracy across the first three rows. “This is exactly why everyone needs to take this elective. In this course, I will systematically correct the kind of financial misconceptions our classmate just demonstrated. In my view, the real trend and growth opportunity going forward lies in the stock market. Buying property will only tie up your capital…”

Qian Wei couldn’t help grumbling internally: go on, don’t believe me—just wait until seven or eight years from now, when you’ll be crying over this very moment, wishing you’d listened!

The class finally ended in a haze. Qian Wei picked up her bag to leave, then paused and turned to Li Chongwen with total seriousness. “Li Chongwen, remember this: the moment you start earning money, buy property—as soon as possible, understand? You absolutely, absolutely have to remember this! Even if you don’t believe housing prices will rise that much, as a man, you need to prepare a wedding home for your future wife ahead of time! So buy as soon as you can!”

Li Chongwen blinked, too startled to respond. Beside him, Lu Xun glanced up lazily at Qian Wei, but she didn’t wait for a reaction—she waved a hand and slipped away, already headed for the library.

While in school, students often heard the same warning from parents and teachers: “You need to study hard while you’re in school. Otherwise, once you graduate and enter society, you’ll regret it—you’ll wish you’d worked harder and learned more while you had the chance.”

But not once since graduating had Qian Wei ever thought that. If anything, she’d only ever regretted the opposite: “I wish I’d been more carefree while I was still in school, done whatever I wanted. All that rote memorization of pointless things—what a waste of a life.”

Given a second chance at life, spending it on serious studying would be nothing short of squandering it!

Of course, Qian Wei wasn’t headed to the library to study. She was going to apply for a job. She remembered clearly that every September, when the new semester began, the school library posted a batch of work-study positions. In this new life, she was going to work hard and get rich—work part-time jobs, buy property, and live the future dream of collecting rent from bed.

On her way to the library, Qian Wei noticed Lu Xun was heading the same direction. Well, no time like the present to work on her relationship with her future boss. Thinking of the multimillion-yuan cases he’d handle down the road, she figured there was no time to lose in flattering her future boss—if there was no opportunity, she’d have to make one. Step one: get friendly with the future boss!

Lu Xun had long legs and a wide stride; Qian Wei had to jog to catch up.

“Lu Xun, nice weather today, huh?”

Lu Xun didn’t so much as glance at her, let alone respond…

But was Qian Wei so easily defeated? Not remotely embarrassed, she pressed on. “Are you headed to the library to study?”

Silence was Lu Xun’s only reply once again…

“The cafeteria’s got this amazing new pistol-shaped chicken drumstick—same shape and size as an actual gun. Have you tried it? Want me to buy you one?”

“By the way, in the school forum poll yesterday, you were voted the year’s most handsome campus icon, beating out several guys nominated by the arts and drama college in the next city over—and those guys are already being scouted by talent agencies as future celebrities, you know! You beat them by several hundred votes!”

No matter what topic Qian Wei brought up, Lu Xun had clearly decided to ignore her completely.

“Lu Xun! Your shoelace is untied!”

That finally made Lu Xun pause. He glanced down at his shoe on reflex—of course, the laces were perfectly tied. Realizing he’d been tricked, he finally gave Qian Wei a response: a cold glare.

“Boring.”

“Then let’s talk about something interesting.”

“Not interested.”

Qian Wei tried a few more topics, but the ice queen in front of her remained utterly unmoved.

“Lu Xun, there’s dog poop up ahead on the path!”

Having already fallen for the shoelace trick once, Lu Xun this time kept his eyes forward as usual, and then… actually stepped right in the dog poop…

“Qian Wei!” Lu Xun stared at the yellowish-brown stain now on his shoe, his composure finally cracking. His voice was thick with barely restrained fury.

“Didn’t I warn you already?” Qian Wei looked utterly innocent. “I told you there was dog poop up ahead.”