September, Long City.
At the downtown “Poison” Café, Shen Ci sat in a corner by the window, resting her cheek on one hand as she stared blankly outside.
The sunlight was just right, and she had returned to an age when she had not yet become a venomous woman.
Just half an hour ago, at sixty-five, she had finished her last shift and officially retired with honor. Yet after dozing off for only a moment on the bus home, she opened her eyes and found herself back at twenty.
Youthful and radiant.Curves in all the right places.Tight skin, brimming with arrogance.Solid conditions—she didn’t even wear glasses.And she had a boyfriend.
Everything was so unbelievable, but she accepted it quickly and calmly.
As someone who had explored the aerospace field for years and achieved some academic success, the ability to quickly accept the unknown was her gift.
When she woke, she was still on the bus, and the vivid memories from her past life resurfaced. She remembered this day clearly—Li Xiao’s mother had arranged to meet her at this café.
Li Xiao was her boyfriend.
The next second, the gleaming glass reflected the graceful figure of a wealthy lady. Shen Ci sat up straight, eyes falling on her as she slowly took a seat.
Before Shen Ci could speak, the woman lifted her proud chin, pulled a check from her orange Hermès Kelly bag, and laid it down before her.
“Here’s ten yuan. Leave my son!”
What the hell?
Shen Ci froze. That wasn’t the line she remembered.Last time, wasn’t it one hundred thousand?How did it become ten?And for ten yuan, she actually went through the trouble of writing a check?
“I know how girls your age think—you want to climb up, take shortcuts. But you need to understand, you and my son are people from two different worlds. Different classes cannot be forced together.”
As she spoke, Li’s mother stared at Shen Ci’s beautiful face for a few seconds, then let out a disdainful snort. “You are indeed quite pretty, but that’s only enough to fool a simple-minded boy like my son. You can’t fool me.”
It took Shen Ci a moment to recover from the shock of “ten yuan.” She only caught half of the woman’s words.
Who was simple-minded?Her son?Li Xiao, simple?
Shen Ci couldn’t help but laugh coldly. Li’s mother frowned beneath her sunglasses, displeased. “What are you laughing at?”
“Nothing. Just thought of something funny.”
Like how laughable she herself once was.
She had once believed Li Xiao to be innocent and pure. After all, how could a rich young master, pampered from birth, have ill intentions?
It wasn’t until the academic paper she had painstakingly worked on for two years was stolen and published under his name that Shen Ci realized how badly she had been duped by her own obsession with looks.
Because of that paper, he gained fame and smoothly entered the nation’s top research institute.
While her protests and cries for justice sank without a trace in the face of the Li family’s immense wealth.
Later, through her own efforts, she finally became his colleague—and direct subordinate.
But guilty people are the quickest to develop paranoia. In Li Xiao’s eyes, she was like a ticking time bomb, ready to explode at any moment.
So during their time working together, Li Xiao used his position to make her life hell. In the end, through a dirty two-hundred-million-yuan maneuver by the Li Group’s investment arm, she was kicked out of the team.
That year, she was twenty-nine, unemployed.
But real gold fears no fire. Gold will always shine.
She didn’t give up. With her years of research experience and results, she wrote another paper that shook the industry. Soon after its publication, she entered the “National Space Exploration Research Department.”
She worked diligently all the way to sixty-five, never married, and finally retired with honor after a lifetime in space exploration.
“Auntie, I think you’re right. He and I are not the same kind of people.”
Shen Ci gently pushed the ten-yuan check back. “And I don’t need the ten yuan either. I may not be wealthy, but I’m not so poor as to need this.”
Her reaction caught Li’s mother off guard. The woman pulled her sunglasses down to her nose and stared at Shen Ci intently.
Shouldn’t she be crying and swearing her love for Li Xiao, insisting no one could separate them?
That was what Shen Ci had done the last time.
“Too little? I’ve looked into your background. For a family like yours, ten yuan is not insignificant. Are you just trying to stall me? Don’t play games with me!” Li’s mother slid her glasses back up, her tone frosty.
Shen Ci smiled faintly. “You’re overthinking it, Auntie. I will break up with Li Xiao. I promise you.”
“I don’t agree!”
The sudden roar came from the side. Li’s mother jumped in fright, but Shen Ci only curved her lips in amusement.
Same timing as last time. Back then, Li Xiao had suddenly appeared, declaring firmly that they would be together no matter what. He had reasoned with his mother until she relented out of love for her son.
Li Xiao strode quickly to Shen Ci’s side, pulled her into his arms, and said with conviction, “Mom, I won’t break up with Shen Ci!”
“Xiao! Would your mother ever harm you? I’m doing this for your own good!” Li’s mother cried out in anger and panic.
She had almost succeeded, and now her son’s sudden appearance might ruin everything!
But Shen Ci, expressionless, removed his arm from her shoulder. Under his confused gaze, she stood up, looked him in the eye, and said, “Li Xiao, I’ve had enough. Let’s end this.”
“W-what do you mean?” Li Xiao asked blankly. “What do you mean by ‘had enough’?”
Shen Ci smiled. “Just what it sounds like. You—I’ve had enough of you.”
The confusion on Li Xiao’s face turned to shock, then fury.
“Shen Ci, this is no time to be impulsive, no time to joke!” he hissed.
Shen Ci studied his face. She had to admit, seeing it again, he was handsome—whether with furrowed brows in doubt, wide eyes in shock, or flushed cheeks in anger.
Handsome.
But the longer she looked, the stronger the wave of disgust that rose in her.
She turned her eyes back to Li’s mother. “Auntie, I have this little quirk. I only like playing at secret romances with rich second-gens. Since you’ve exposed me, I find it meaningless now.”
“Oh, and by the way—Li Xiao and I never slept together. We booked a room once, but he couldn’t get it up. Don’t know if he was nervous or just incapable. I suggest you take him to the hospital sometime. After all, he’s still young.”
“The coffee’s on me.”
With that, Shen Ci turned and walked to the cashier, leaving the mother and son frozen in their seats, faces dark with rage.
“Hello, I’d like to pay for table 5.”
“Hello, miss. That’ll be seven li five. I’ll scan you.”
Shen Ci squinted in confusion. Did she hear wrong? Seventy-five?
“Payment successful: seven li five!”
The electronic voice chimed from the register. Shen Ci instinctively looked at her WeChat screen—“Payment successful: 0.0075 yuan?”
Seven li five?
As in yuan, jiao, fen, li—the “li”?
Her eyes went wide, more shocked than at coming back to life.
Such an obscure currency unit!