I guessed right.

At that very moment, behind the Fox family's place in the Back Hills, screams erupted from a broken-down thatched hut.

"Quinn Mason! You useless piece of trash! I told you to dig that hole in the Back Hills—why the hell didn't you go!"

Jade covered her swollen, beaten face and shrieked.

Quinn clutched a liquor bottle, eyes vicious as a wolf's. "Shut your goddamn mouth, you nasty bitch! Keep yelling and I'll chop you up!"

In my previous life, Quinn dug up that gold mine because I noticed the vegetation on that stretch of mountain was abnormal. I was the one who dug through county records and geology books, confirmed the general location, and only then persuaded him to try.

And by that time, Quinn had already quit drinking. His temper had mellowed.

The current Quinn was just an irritable drunk.

Jade only remembered "there's gold in the Back Hills," but she didn't know exactly where. She forced Quinn to dig around like a headless fly. Other than unearthing a pile of rotten rocks, there wasn't jack shit.

"Impossible… it was obviously right there…"

Jade curled up in the corner, staring at the bare walls of the broken house. Then she thought of me "going to the city to enjoy the good life," and regret crashed over her like a wave.

But she still wouldn't give up.

"As long as I dig up that gold… as long as I dig up that gold, I'll grind Evelyn Fox under my heel!"

She was gambling.

She just didn't know the dealer had already changed.

I was doing extremely well in Seaview City.

Flipping electronic watches earned me my first bucket of gold, and my assets multiplied more than tenfold. But I knew this kind of speculative hustle wouldn't last.

I registered my first trading company and started doing clothing wholesale properly. Bell-bottoms, mirrored sunglasses, batwing tops—whatever was trendy, I sold it.

Soon, everyone in the wholesale market knew there was a sharp-eyed "Ms. Fox."

Even though I was only twenty.

While I was busy counting money, things back home had gone completely to hell.

The village chief's son was crippled. Sure, the state-owned factory paid out a bit, but this was lifelong disability. He needed ongoing hospital treatment, burning money every single day.

The more Village Chief Abbott thought about it, the angrier he got.

This slot had originally belonged to the Fox family—it was Evelyn Fox who sold it to them! Even though it was Derek smoking that caused the accident, desperate people always need a scapegoat.

So Abbott rounded up a bunch of relatives and stormed the Fox family's place.

"Pay up! Make your Evelyn Fox get her ass back here!"

"It's all that jinx's fault! If she hadn't sold the slot, would my son have ended up like this?"

My parents had never seen anything like this. They wanted to find me, but I'd already vanished without a trace.

With no other choice, they went to find Jade. After all, she was their only hope now. And even though the Quinn she'd married was poor, at least he had strong arms.

That day, Quinn was forcing Jade up the mountain to haul rocks. Her hands—once fair and soft—were now covered in blood blisters.

The moment my parents saw her, they demanded money without so much as a greeting.

"Jade, your sister—that bitch who deserves to be cut to pieces—ran off! The village chief's going to tear down our house! Hurry up and give us some money!"

Jade almost laughed from the sheer absurdity.

"Money? Do I look like I have money?"

She pointed at the drafty roof, then at the torn cotton jacket on her body. "I can't even eat my fill, and you're coming to me for money?"

Mrs. Fox's expression soured instantly. "Back then you were the one who insisted on marrying over here no matter what! You said Quinn would make a fortune! Where's the fortune? Where's the gold? Are you hiding money because you don't want to give it to the family?"

This was human nature.

When you can bring them benefits, you're their precious darling. When you're useless, you're a liar.

Jade had no way to defend herself. She looked at her parents' greedy, disgusted faces, and felt the string in her heart stretch to the breaking point.

Right at that moment, the Postman pedaled up on a heavy old bicycle and hollered at the foot of the mountain:

"Letter for the Fox family! From Seaview City!"

Everyone froze.

I'd sent it.

Inside was fifty dollars and a photo of me in front of a Seaview City landmark. I was wearing a trendy Hong Kong-style blouse, hair in big bouncy waves, smiling with the kind of confidence that said I owned the place.

The letter was simple:

"Dad, Mom, I'm doing pretty well in Seaview City. Gold is everywhere here—if you're willing to bend down, you can pick up money. Take these fifty dollars and buy some meat. Don't miss me too much."

That letter was an atomic bomb dropped into a cesspit.

It detonated.

Jade stared at the glamorous, glowing version of me in the photo, then down at her own mud-caked hands covered in blood blisters. Her eyes turned so red they looked ready to bleed.

"Why… why!"

She'd been reborn!

She'd stolen the cheat code!

So why was I living even better than last time?

While she was here choking down scraps and chaff, still being squeezed by her parents to pay off debts?

"It's all lies… The gold has to be in the Back Hills!"

Jade snapped.

She shoved her parents aside, grabbed Quinn's hunting rifle, stormed back into the house, and aimed it at him where he lay drunk.

"Get up! Go dig for ore! If we don't find gold today, I'll die right in front of you!"

She was certain that once they struck gold, all her problems would vanish.

She was certain that the fortune from her past life was waiting in that cave.

Unfortunately, memories lie. Especially when jealousy blinds you.

People's memories can be ridiculous.

Jade only remembered that Quinn and I had gotten rich, and that the Back Hills were involved. But she forgot that the mine's structure was treacherously complex.

In my past life, I'd gone in inch by inch, rope tied around Quinn's waist, testing every step. We only dared chip away tiny amounts at a time, always bracing with wooden stakes.

And Jade now? She was a gambler who'd lost her mind.

She forced Quinn to grab explosives and a pickaxe and head straight for what looked most like a "gold mine entrance." In reality, it was an abandoned limestone cave with rock layers that had long since destabilized.

"Dig! Dig until you drop!"

Jade stood at the cave mouth, still clutching my photo. She tore it to shreds.

Quinn was drunk, but a hunter's instincts screamed danger.

"Woman, something's wrong here… the rocks are crumbling…"

"Shut up! Evelyn got rich in Seaview City! Are we supposed to beg while sitting on a gold mine? Dig!"

She kicked him square in the back.

Rage flared through Quinn. Fueled by alcohol, he swung the pickaxe down hard.

Rumble—

Not the sound of gold.

The sound of a mountain collapsing.

The rock ceiling caved in like crumbling tofu.

In that split second, Jade saw Quinn lunge toward her and shove her toward the entrance.

It wasn't love.

Pure survival instinct—finding something to brace against, using it to launch himself out.

Too late.

Boulders crashed down.

More than half of Quinn's body was crushed to pulp. He died instantly.

Jade had been pushed partway out, but her left leg was still pinned beneath a boulder weighing several hundred pounds.

Only her shrieks echoed through the valley.

By the time villagers pulled her free, the leg was destroyed. Comminuted fracture. Nerve death.

Amputation.

When Jade woke, she was lying on a clinic bed.

Her left leg was gone.

"My gold… where's my gold…"

She murmured to herself.

The nurse looked at her like she was crazy.

"Gold, my ass. Your man is dead, the house collapsed, and you're a cripple now. The cops still have to investigate whether you used illegal explosives."

Jade was struck like lightning.

In my past life, I married Quinn Mason and became rich.

In this life, she married Quinn Mason and became a widow and a cripple.

Why?

This script wasn't right!

At that moment, I was in my office in Seaview City, signing a factory construction contract.

Tyler Chavez poured me a cup of coffee.

"Ms. Fox, your hometown called. They said your younger sister had an accident."

I blew on the steam rising from the coffee, my expression calm.

"Oh, got it. Send two hundred dollars back. Consider it… a gift."

Two hundred dollars.

It bought out the last of the sisterly bond between us.

But this was only the beginning.

A person like Jade, as long as she still had breath in her body, wouldn't stay quiet.

Sure enough, after she was discharged, she was sent back to our parents' home.

Village Chief Abbott was pressing hard for repayment. Dad and Mom sold the pigs and chickens, even the food rations, and it still wasn't enough.

The three of them squeezed into a broken house that leaked when it rained, staring at each other in despair.

Jade looked at her empty pant leg, then thought of the address in my letter.

Seaview City.

Older sister.

The richest person.

These words fermented wildly in her mind.

"Dad, Mom."

Her gaze turned vicious.

"Evelyn made a fortune in Seaview City. She's the eldest daughter—she should pay this debt! She should support us!"

"We'll go find her! If she won't give us money, we'll make trouble at her company! We'll destroy her reputation!"

The moment my parents heard it, their eyes lit up.

That's right!

The eldest daughter has money!

The whole family agreed instantly.

They sold off the last of their belongings, bought three standing-room tickets to Seaview City, and came charging toward me.

I stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of my office building, looking at the bustling crowd below.

I sneered.

Come on.

Since you want to play, I'll play big with you.