Chapter 1: A New Life at Sixteen

“Li Xingya, sixteen years old, is a high school student.”

Inside the dimly lit room.

Facing the woman dressed like a gangster sitting on the opposite sofa, Li Xingya swallowed hard.

“But you clearly claimed to be twenty-five online.”

“Before… before I really was twenty-five!”

Li Xingya said with a stiff upper lip.

“I’m not lying to you.”

“Ha?”

Accompanied by the woman’s extremely unfriendly and impatient question, Li Xingya’s body visibly trembled.

“I’m sorry!”

‘No surprises… I’m going to die today.’

***

Dying and being reborn?

That kind of thing sounds like something reserved for a protagonist in a novel, right?

Whether it’s crossing into another world with a golden finger to achieve grand ambitions,

or keeping your memories and returning to childhood, using your knowledge of the future to seize the initiative step by step and become a business tycoon—

Either way, it’s enough to make anyone yearn for it.

But Li Xingya’s transmigration was off.

She had transmigrated to… the third day after her own death. There was no golden finger. All she had was a new identity named “Li Xingya.”

And a debt of two million.

Two million!

What, you ask how this two million came about?

Li Xingya didn’t know. She hadn’t received any memories from this body.

All she knew was that the original owner of this body had committed suicide.

Even after Li Xingya scoured her phone and searched every corner of the cramped rented room, she couldn’t find any record of the debt.

She only found many expensive cosmetics, brand-name clothes, a bunch of pill bottles, and a diagnosis certificate for severe depression.

Now she knew why the original owner had killed herself.

Li Xingya didn’t want to live either.

In the three days that followed, the reborn Li Xingya never saw any of the original owner’s family.

Judging from her living environment, Li Xingya guessed that the original owner probably had no parents.

That was fine. In her previous life, Li Xingya had also been born in an orphanage, so it saved her the trouble of adapting to a new family.

Then, on the fourth day,

this woman came to her door.

A woman around twenty years old.

This incredibly beautiful woman was a full head taller than Li Xingya.

***

“Um…”

Li Xingya, who had once been a man and still retained some masculine pride, looked up.

“Hm?”

The woman let out a cold nasal sound.

At this rate, maybe a fist would end up connecting with Li Xingya’s face next…?

Come to think of it,

Li Xingya’s body was quite frail, barely reaching one meter sixty-five.

If it came to a fight… she was sure she couldn’t beat this woman.

Her only advantage was that she was very pretty. Extremely pretty.

Li Xingya: “…”

Faced with the risk of getting punched, Li Xingya fell silent again.

At Li Xingya’s reaction, the woman furrowed her brows almost imperceptibly.

“Why did you stop talking?”

Her cold question felt like a sword thrust straight at Li Xingya.

Li Xingya didn’t like this woman… she wasn’t feminine, she was cold and impersonal, like an icy block of ice.

Finally, she took a deep breath and tried to adopt the demeanor she’d used when interacting with people in her previous life.

“Um… could you ask the others in the room to leave first? Please.”

‘Hmm—that should count as pretty imposing, right?’

Sigh, she couldn’t be blamed, really. Her current situation was that she was being forced to sit on the sofa, surrounded by men who were—no, they were definitely gangster thugs, wearing black sunglasses and black suits.

Being able to speak under these circumstances, Li Xingya felt she hadn’t lost in terms of presence.

The woman studied Li Xingya for a moment, probably thinking such a small frame posed no threat, so she waved her hand to send the others out.

When the cheap door of the rented room slammed shut with a bang, and only the two of them remained, Li Xingya’s body visibly relaxed.

“So, you—no, may I ask exactly who… who are you?”

Li Xingya carefully chose her words.

But in Li Xingya’s view, this question, which should have had no flaws, seemed to step on the woman’s tail.

The woman’s beautiful brows quickly knitted together, and the murderous intent in her eyes, even through her sunglasses, made Li Xingya’s bones chill and her hair stand on end.

“Li Xingya!”

“Yes!”

Her past life as a corporate slave made Li Xingya instinctively respond the moment her name was called.

“Are you… messing with me?”

The woman’s voice had lost all trace of patience.

But faced with this situation, Li Xingya felt wronged too.

She hadn’t done anything. She didn’t even have this body’s memories.

She could only freeze for a moment, then answer,

“I’m not messing with you… really.”

These words seemed to drain the last of the woman’s patience. She lunged forward, leaning over the small table between them, and grabbed Li Xingya’s collar.

She was using so much force.

So much that Li Xingya felt a tightness around her neck, as if someone were choking her.

Only thanks to the masculine pride still holding out inside her did she manage not to scream or cry.

“Just now, when I said you claimed to be twenty-five online, you clearly responded,” the woman said slowly.

“Now you’re pretending to have amnesia? Li Xingya, do you think this is funny?”

Li Xingya forced a weak smile.

“No, that’s not it… I, I think, I think this could count as some kind of coincidence? As for whether it’s funny, that would depend on the specific situation… maybe?”

Before her transmigration, Li Xingya really was twenty-five.

She didn’t know what the original owner had discussed with the other person.

Li Xingya had just instinctively responded to that question.

The woman sighed, and in an instant, her tone became much calmer.

“Do you like a little dark room? The kind where once you’re locked inside, no one will find you for ten days or half a month?”

Such a calm tone, but it spoke of something far more terrifying.

“Ahaha… you’re not joking, are you?”

Li Xingya waited for the woman’s answer.

During the long wait, she suddenly realized that this was really no joke.

Li Xingya said,

“You know what? Actually, I’m not Li Xingya.”

Since it wasn’t a joke, she had to cut ties with the identity of “Li Xingya” and sever all connections with this dangerous woman.

“Novels, right? You’ve read novels, haven’t you? Or TV shows—even movies would work? In short, I’m actually a reincarnator! The real Li Xingya died four days ago. Whether it was from depression or the two million debt, I can’t say for sure, but I think it might have been a bit of both.

Anyway—I’m not the real Li Xingya.

So can you not drag me into whatever happened between you two?”

Li Xingya had made it very clear.

But what awaited her was the woman’s emotionless smile.

“First pretending to have amnesia, and now pretending to be reincarnated…?”

It was over.

The woman didn’t believe her at all.

When you think about it, who would believe something like that?

Faced with Li Xingya’s repeated absurd tests, the woman’s patience finally ran out.

“Li! Xing! Ya!”

She lowered her voice, each word like a growl.

And Li Xingya responded instinctively:

“Yes!”

Her body went rigid.

“I’ll tell you right now!”

The woman yanked Li Xingya’s collar and grabbed her slender wrist.

“Even if you really have amnesia, even if you are some inexplicable reincarnator,

You still owe me two million, and you have to pay it back—our relationship, you can’t just unilaterally cut it off!

Back then, it was you who personally and solemnly said you’d be my girlfriend! It was you who pretended to be a ‘twenty-five-year-old’ urban beauty online to trick me…

Sister Li Xingya!”

“Huh?!”

At that moment, Li Xingya’s masculine pride was finally no longer enough to help her face all of this.