“Breaking into high society…”

Su’s dad frowned.

He certainly wasn’t a fool.

It took more than being an ordinary nouveau riche to make a name for yourself in this new city and build a thriving business. So even if people looked down on Su’s dad as a nouveau riche, at the very least he was a… capable nouveau riche!

Ability shaped your vision, and vision shaped your ambitions.

Naturally, Lao Su—capable, farsighted, and ambitious—began to doubt the daughter who, until recently, could hardly be called reliable.

“You?”

He even gave a disdainful, almost smug snort.

There was no way his good-for-nothing daughter—whose head was full of romance, dating, idol-chasing, and ways to annoy him—could pull off what he’d failed to do all these years!

No chance!

It was like playing Dou Dizhu: he had the two jokers in his hand, while the player before him still had seventeen cards. No matter how you looked at it, there was no way he could beat all seventeen of them in one go.

“You think you can take out my seventeen cards in one move?”

If this girl actually pulled it off, he’d eat the coffee table right in front of him!

Su Tong’s gaze wandered. She lifted the teacup, then set it down again. At last, she gave the middle-aged man before her a fleeting glance and let out a quiet sigh.

“Of course. I’m all you need.”

Su’s dad simply couldn’t believe his good-for-nothing daughter could pull off something this big, so he couldn’t help sneering at her:

“Oh, give me a break. I know exactly what you’re like. All you do is chase after some celebrity or find ways to annoy me. You don’t study properly, and your head’s full of that stuff. What could you possibly accomplish?”

“Oh.”

Su Tong nodded.

She wasn’t questioning what the middle-aged man had said. She’d just learned a few things from him.

Chasing idols. Annoying him. Not studying.

Those three clues were enough to sketch out the conflict between the body’s original owner and the middle-aged man—and to explain, more or less, why their relationship had gotten so bad.

Well, she was a teenager.

The girl lifted her eyes to the middle-aged man before her, thoughtful.

So maybe this dad of hers wasn’t all that bad. Maybe he’d just been so angry before that he’d lost his temper and thrown every nasty thing he could think of at her?

Maybe he was actually a good person?

She had no idea what was going on, so she might as well give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

Only then did she speak, her voice soft and distant:

“Since you don’t believe me, why don’t we make a bet?”

“A bet?”

“I bet I can find a way to get you into high society. If I win, you can never bring up a marriage alliance with me again. Deal?”

“…”

Su’s dad leaned back with a strange look on his face, as if he were barely holding back a laugh.

“A bet?” he asked. “You’re sure you want to bet against me?”

Where had this silly girl gotten the nerve?

Back in the day, Su Jianguo had turned twenty yuan into thirty-seven million. He’d clawed his way up through one business venture after another, and wasn’t his success down to his bold, careful “gambling skills”?

So what was this supposed to be?

“Fine.” He tried to keep his smugness in check. “If you insist on walking straight into the line of fire, don’t blame your old man for being ruthless. If I win, you stop chasing celebrities and focus on your studies!”

“Fine.”

Su Tong nodded.

Either way, she had nothing to lose. After all, she’d already planned to study hard after being reborn. And as for idol-chasing… what was so great about trainees who could only sing, dance, and rap?

She was a beautiful girl who could make her idol debut at any moment herself.

Wasn’t being in love with yourself way better?

At the thought, Su Tong smiled with her lips pressed together. Looking at the middle-aged man, she said casually:

“Lao Su, find me a map of our city.”

“Oh!” Su’s dad instinctively pulled out his phone and started following his daughter’s instructions. But as soon as he searched for a map, he realized what she’d called him and glared at her. “What did you just call me? ‘Lao Su’? You should call me Dad! You little brat, have you gone off the rails?”

“Sure, Lao Su. Got it, Lao Su.”

Su Tong readily played along.

While Lao Su was still fuming, she reached over and swiped his phone. After checking the time, she ran her fingers over it twice, a wave of nostalgia washing over her.

The Kidney Six. That familiar yet unfamiliar feel…

Once her nostalgia had run its course, she opened the map, narrowed her eyes as she recalled the details, then set the phone down on the coffee table, screen facing Lao Su.

“The screen’s a little small, but it’ll do for now. If anything’s unclear, we can get a bigger map later.”

Su Tong said, pointing to the western outskirts of the city.

“This spot is your best stepping stone into high society, Lao Su.”

Su’s dad immediately frowned suspiciously.

“A stepping stone? That godforsaken stretch of the western outskirts has no business opportunities. It’s just a small city. There’s nothing out there but land, and probably hardly anyone living there. What could it possibly be good for?”

“The land is exactly what matters.”

The girl sighed inwardly as she spoke.

If she hadn’t been reborn, she never would’ve guessed that this worthless patch of land would one day become such a hot commodity.

Life sure had a way of turning things around.

But Lao Su didn’t have a reborn person’s foresight, so he had no idea what was going on. His suspicions only grew.

“Are you messing with your dad? Land in the western outskirts is dirt cheap right now. It’s all wasteland, with no practical value. You couldn’t give it away for free—no one would take it!”

“That’s because they have no vision. They’re idiots!”

Lao Su fell silent. After a moment, he said in a low voice:

“I get what you mean… but did you just call me an idiot too, you little brat?”

“…Anyway, we absolutely have to buy up this land.”

Su Tong played dumb, then abruptly zoomed in on the map and pointed to a spot, her expression turning serious. “This spot will be the key stepping stone in the future!”

“…Why?”

Lao Su finally asked.

All traces of joking had vanished from his expression, replaced by the ruthless edge the so-called upper class looked down on him for.

The upper class prided themselves on elegance. Even when they got physical, they tried to keep up appearances. But Lao Su, a futures tycoon who’d clawed his way up from humble beginnings, didn’t care for such niceties. On the road to success, those who cared too much about appearances had long since become a meal for the so-called country bumpkins.

Su Tong nodded in approval.

“Government support. At the start of the new year, the city’s going to begin its redevelopment, and the subway plans will follow. But that’s not all. The western outskirts are close to the provincial capital, and with all the investment coming in, they’ll build a new commercial district there. The economic center will shift west. All of this will happen within three years at most.”

“How can we confirm that?”

“You can look into that yourself, Lao Su. I’m just giving you the idea. You handle the execution.”

Su’s dad lowered his head and fell silent, his eyes fixed on the map. His right hand slowly tightened until the veins on its back stood out.

“Hoo…” He let out a long breath, then suddenly looked up. “But I’m afraid a project like this won’t be enough to get me into high society, will it?”

Su Tong gave a faint laugh, as if she’d expected that question.

Just as she thought.

“Of course. This alone won’t be enough to earn their respect…” she said softly. Then she slowly rose to her feet, hands behind her back, a faint curve at the corner of her mouth. “But this is only the beginning—short videos, livestreaming, esports, e-commerce, real estate, film and television, entertainment… Our opponents aren’t the upper class. And our journey…”

“Is to the stars and the sea!”

[To be continued]