3: 3

Dean was frowning.

"Cece, they're obviously just trying to walk all over us."

I gave a small shake of my head.

"There's no point squaring off with them. It won't cost us more than a few minutes anyway."

And with that, I pulled Dean over to the sofa in the corner of the lobby, and we actually sat down.

Seeing how agreeable I was, the smugness on Ida's face faded a little.

She narrowed her eyes and kept looking me over, her gaze full of probing.

I knew right away what she was thinking.

In our last life, the two of us had fought over this very apartment until we were both red in the face, neither willing to give an inch.

Yet this time, I was handing it over on my own.

Too out of character.

She was starting to wonder whether I'd been reborn too.

Sure enough, before long she came clicking over on her heels to stand in front of me.

"Cecily, weren't you dead set on buying this place before? So why is it suddenly no big deal to let it go?"

As she spoke, she stared hard into my eyes, as if trying to catch some crack in my expression.

But I acted like I noticed nothing at all and asked back with a smile,

"What? Don't tell me you don't want it anymore?"

"That works out perfectly. Just hand it over to us, then."

And I waved a hand at the agent.

"Hey, Louis, my cousin says—"

"Shut up!"

Ida bristled in an instant.

"Who said I don't want it!"

She glared at me, vicious.

"Cecily, not in this lifetime. Don't you dare take anything of mine again!"

I spread my hands, helpless.

"It's really hard being a person."

"I want it, you're not happy. I don't want it, and you're suspicious. What exactly do you want from me?"

Ida was left with nothing to say.

She stared at me for a long moment, and the wariness in her eyes finally began to drain away, bit by bit.

Of course.

If I really knew there was gold and cash hidden inside those walls, how could I possibly hand the apartment over to her so easily?

At that thought, she let out a quiet breath of relief.

Then she pulled Fergus off to the side at once and started conferring with him in a low voice.

"The second the contract's signed, I'm calling my cousin's renovation crew."

"Tomorrow's Sunday, no work then, so we smash the walls first thing the day after."

Fergus nodded.

"Right, no more dragging it out. The longer we wait, the more can go wrong."

Ida dropped her voice further.

"And another thing—we move in tonight, take turns guarding the master bedroom, and don't let a single soul near it."

The two of them thought they were being discreet, never realizing I could hear every word.

I almost laughed out loud.

They actually planned to take turns keeping watch through the night.

Genuinely terrified someone would carry the gold off.

Pity.

They could guard against people. They couldn't guard against the system.

Dean noticed the corners of my mouth kept curving up and couldn't help leaning in.

"Cece, you've been really off today."

"Come clean. Are you sitting on some scheme?"

I shook my head, smiling.

The secret of the system, I would never tell a soul.

Even though, after I died in my last life, Dean had nearly thrown everything away trying to get justice for me.

But with something like this, the fewer people who knew, the safer it was.

"What scheme? I just suddenly realized there's a better place out there."

Dean's eyes lit up at once.

"Where? Let's go see it right now."

I pulled up the map and pointed at that stretch of run-down old houses in the old east-side district.

Dean took one look and just froze.

"Babe, you sure? That place is even more of a wreck than the one back there. Can people actually live in it?"

"If your mom finds out we're using it as our marriage home, she'll break my legs."

I smiled and pressed a finger to my lips.

"So don't tell them yet."

"When the demolition comes through, we'll give them a surprise."

Dean's eyes went wide.

"Demolition?"

He was about to press further when I reached over and covered his mouth.

"Shh. It's a secret. Don't ask so many questions!"

4: 4

The moment their contract was signed, I moved fast and sank every last dollar I had into those five houses in the old east side.

If my memory was right, those five would be worth at least ten times what I paid. My cut alone would come to ten million, easy.

Which meant that from here on out, every luxury car and every mansion I bought would have a nice, tidy explanation.

That night, the family group chat, quiet for so long, lit right back up.

Aunt Fern Acevedo fired off the first shot: a sixty-second voice message, her smugness practically leaking out of the screen.

【Day after tomorrow, six o'clock sharp, the Emperor Room at the Ocean Palace. Nobody be late! My Vivi says buying a wedding home is a big deal, and she wants to share the happiness with everyone!】

The chat exploded.

【Oh my, I always knew your Vivi would go far. Somewhere that pricey, and she just offers to treat everyone like it's nothing!】

【Right? The Ocean Palace is the most expensive seafood place in town. A single table runs fifty or sixty grand. Looks like I'll be riding Vivi's coattails tonight!】

Aunt Fern floated right up on the praise.

Then she made a point of tagging my mother and sent another voice note.

【Sis, you and Cecily especially have to come. I mean, you've never had seafood this good, have you!】

【Vivi and I are both so grateful to you and Cecily. This house, if Cecily hadn't stepped aside for us, we never would've gotten it!】

She leaned hard on the word stepped aside, the mockery dripping off it.

She stopped just short of saying outright that we couldn't afford it.

My mother's temper snapped in an instant. Her palm cracked down on the table.

"That Fern. I don't care how she's belittled me all these years, but now she's dragging you down to lift herself up. This is too far."

She wanted to call Aunt Fern and rip into her. I stopped her.

"Mom, there's nothing to be mad about. The seafood's free either way, so why wouldn't we take it? If we don't go, we're just letting her win."

That won her over, and she replied in the chat that we'd be there.

Seeing that I'd actually agreed, Aunt Fern got even smugger.

Not half an hour later, she dumped more than a dozen photos into the chat.

In them, the run-down little place had already been smashed to pieces.

And the wall in the master bedroom had a big hole hacked straight through it.

The last photo caught only a sliver of something golden in the corner of the frame.

She pulled it back right away, but I'd already seen it.

They'd broken the wall open.

Sure enough, the system in my head, silent for two days, finally spoke.

【Ding! Target wealth detected as exposed. Three hundred gold bars, fifty million in cash.】

【Current status: transferable.】

【Does the host wish to transfer immediately?】

I looked at the screen, my finger pausing for a beat.

No. Transferring now would be no fun at all.

I hadn't even gotten my free seafood yet.

The next day, the Emperor Room at the Ocean Palace.

Every last one of the Fox family, dozens of people, had turned up.

King crab, lobster, bluefin tuna, packed across the whole table.

Aunt Fern smiled so wide the creases on her face all bunched together.

"Everyone dig in tonight, there's plenty!"

"And meals like this? From now on there'll only be more of them!"

Ida had gone even further, decked head to toe in designer labels, the newest luxury bag on her arm, and she rose to her feet with the wind at her back.

"Actually, there's another piece of good news for everyone tonight."

"We've set the wedding for the tenth of next month, and the reception's booked right here in this banquet hall. We hope you'll all come back for it."

The whole room erupted. Every relative got up to toast them, heaping on compliment after compliment.

A few were curious how Ida had come into so much money.

She waved a shy little hand.

"It's nothing, my boss just took a liking to my work, and I made a bit on my own investments!"

That set them all off praising Ida again.

Her smile only got brighter. She toasted each of them in turn, then bent slightly and leaned close to my ear.

"Cousin, do you believe people have past lives and present ones?"

I raised my eyes and looked at her, calm.

She let out a soft laugh.

"In your past life, this house was yours. So all the gold and cash inside it were yours too."

"But this life? I bought it first."

"So that fortune became mine, naturally."

"You know, when the demolition crew broke the wall open, I was so excited my hands were shaking."

"Three hundred whole gold bars, and tens of millions in cash."

"And the first person I thought of was you."

She paused on purpose, savoring the look on my face.

"I just kept thinking… what if all of it was supposed to be yours, but in the end you had to watch it turn into mine."

"Wouldn't you regret it so much you'd want to die?"

She finished and straightened up, pleased with herself.

"Too bad, though. This life, you don't get the chance."

"That gold and that cash are all mine now. You were born to be poor!"

And right then, in my head, the cold mechanical voice slowly began to speak.

【Ding! Target wealth detected.】

【Three hundred gold bars, fifty million in cash. Does the host wish to transfer immediately?】

I met Ida's eyes, so full of triumph.

The corners of my mouth curved up, slow.

Then, quietly, in my heart, I gave the word.

【Confirm!】

【Transfer immediately!】