On his birthday, Lin Mo sat up like a corpse.
The sky outside was not yet bright.
The alarm clock on his bedside table had not yet rung.
It was 5:00 AM— a bit too early to wake up.
It couldn’t be helped; a few text messages received at midnight had shattered the composure he had built across two lifetimes.
Lin Mo was dazed for a moment before reaching for his phone to confirm.
Su Ran: “Happy birthday! Am I the first?”
Dad: “I have several big projects to discuss recently and won’t have time to return to the country to celebrate your birthday. As a birthday gift, I’ll take a step back on our bet. As long as Su Ran reaches the top three in her competition, I will agree to your request.”
Lin Xingran: “Little Mo, happy 18th birthday! I’ve prepared a birthday gift for you (actually, Auntie Qiao asked me to give it to you). She heard from Dad that you wanted money for investments, so she specifically told me to secretly send you some. Catch!”
Lin Xinglan: “Happy birthday, Brother Mo! I heard you made up with Dad. When are you moving in with us?”
In his previous life, Lin Mo wouldn’t have felt an ounce of joy upon receiving birthday wishes from this family. On the contrary, he would have smashed his phone and immediately gotten a new number.
However, having lived a second life, certain resentments had inexplicably cleared up. Especially after being a corporate slave for ten years, looking back at the 10 million in pocket money his sister had sent him… to be honest, it really wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t sleep soundly.
Besides that, his younger sister, Lin Xinglan, had also given him a birthday gift. Her gift was a bit special; it was full of cosplay selfies. The troubling part was that the characters she liked were all the scandalous type. Most of them involved outrageous poses, showing this and that— she was practically the queen of thirst traps.
Perhaps poisoned too deeply by the world of anime, Lin Xinglan had an inexplicable obsession with her “elder brother.” Ever since she found out she truly had a brother, no matter how much Lin Mo loathed her, she persevered in trying to please him in every way, almost as if she were addicted to self-punishment.
If Su Ran was the person Lin Mo feared most in his past life, then this outrageous younger sister was a close second.
He got out of bed and washed up. After styling his hair to make himself look twice as handsome, he sat down and waited for breakfast to be delivered.
With a heart full of anticipation, Lin Mo curled up on the sofa. His mind was filled with the special gift Su Ran had mentioned a few days ago, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous.
However, as time ticked away, the doorbell never rang.
His anticipation and nervousness gradually faded, turning into an involuntary gloom and a shallow irritability. Lin Mo pulled out his phone to check the time; it was already nearly 6:30 AM.
She wasn’t coming. She hadn’t informed him in advance, either. It felt like a unilateral abandonment.
Lin Mo shook his head, tossing aside unnecessary thoughts. He opened the account he had set up earlier, transferred nine million into it, and bought Bitcoin with all of it.
The development history of the Bitcoin market was a classic case of rising after an initial dip. 2015 was exactly the stage where market prices were gradually recovering, and they were rising all the way, laying the foundation for the bull market of 2016. Having been reborn into this period, there was no reason to waste energy on other projects.
According to Lin Mo’s estimation, the investment amount could increase by about 1.5 times by the end of the year. If he could get more capital, he could be worth over 100 million by next year. With that money, it would be enough to provide Su Ran with the best material life possible. As for her emotional needs, he could only say he would do his best to satisfy them.
Of course, the beauty of his plans was only superficial. The gravity of reality always produced threats that tore through dreams, and some blows were fatal and irreversible. To ensure a peaceful and smooth future, some things had to be guarded against in advance.
Before heading out, Lin Mo made up his mind and sent a text:
“Sis, help me investigate someone…”
***
By the time he arrived at school, morning self-study had already begun.
Su Ran sat in her seat flipping through a book. When she saw Lin Mo enter the classroom, she only glanced up. There was no smile. No greeting. She was so quiet it was as if she had forgotten his birthday.
Lin Mo gave her a resentful look as she lowered her head to continue reading. He wasn’t sure if she saw it or not.
In any case, Chen Yu saw it. The moment Lin Mo sat down, Chen Yu’s face, which was practically screaming for gossip, leaned over. He whispered urgently, “What happened, what happened? Did you two have a fight? Why? Was someone cheating, or is it a cuckold situation?”
Lin Mo resisted the urge to elbow him and began to ponder what he had done wrong. He had a lunch box yesterday and ate it all. He had replied to the text last night. Was it because he hadn’t replied instantly? Had he not played basketball enough these past two days? Or had Zhou Muyuan said something to her on Saturday? Or was it because he stole a sip of her milk tea on Sunday?
No, that wasn’t right. There was a lunch box yesterday and a text last night. Her behavior only started this morning.
‘Wait, it couldn’t be that she discovered I rewarded myself last night, could it?’
‘No, no. That’s impossible. How could she have found out…’
For the next several classes, Lin Mo was somewhat distracted. He felt as if he were overlooking some key point, but no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t grasp the thread.
***
At noon, Chen Yu’s laughter echoed throughout the campus.
“The heavens have eyes, hahahahaha! Oh, God Mo, isn’t this God Mo? Why is there no lunch box today? Oh, it’s rare for you to grace our cafeteria with your presence. It’s truly an honor, haha!”
“Hey, say something. You haven’t even eaten yet, but your face looks like you just ate crap.”
On the way to the cafeteria, Chen Yu was like he’d been injected with chicken blood. His accumulated envy and jealousy from this recent period exploded, fully displaying his wicked sense of humor that “nothing is better than a brother’s breakup.”
It wasn’t until Lin Mo couldn’t take it anymore that he turned around and showed Chen Yu his spending records from that morning.
Suddenly seeing a seven-digit number with six zeros starting with a nine, Chen Yu’s laughter came to a screeching halt. Then, looking like he’d been smeared with filth, he felt so miserable he wanted to die.
During lunch, the entire cafeteria was noisy. Only the area where the two of them sat was deathly silent.
Lin Mo looked around, but this time he couldn’t even find her. Su Ran hadn’t come to eat.
“I didn’t feel it before, but now I realize how terrible the cafeteria food is.”
Lin Mo felt that the food was hard to swallow just thinking about how it was his birthday today.
Chen Yu, thinking about how this animal had money and a school beauty surrounding him, felt the food he had swallowed churning in his stomach. “If you can’t talk properly, sew your mouth shut. Damn it, you’re ruining my mood.”
Lin Mo ignored him and opened his messaging app, finding a friend request. The verification message read: “Hello, Lin Mo. I like you.”
He didn’t reject her immediately. Instead, he placed his phone by Chen Yu’s hand and lamented, “Girls these days are getting bolder and bolder. Anyone who dares to confess proactively must have some looks, right?”
Chen Yu originally wanted to ignore him with cold disdain, but hearing about her looks, he was tempted and glanced over. At that moment, Lin Mo quickly clicked “Reject.”
Seeing the profile picture flash by for an instant, Chen Yu’s face darkened. He gave Lin Mo a cold side-eye and brought out his trump card. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell Su Ran later that you were praising other girls and that your heart was moved.”
Lin Mo laughed. “No wonder your English scores are always failing. Your comprehension skills are worse than a dog’s.”
Chen Yu shook his head calmly. “Not so. It is precisely because I understand so clearly that I know you are the scum of the scum, the dregs of the dregs.”
Lin Mo put down his chopsticks, sat up, and paused, tapping his finger on the table. After a moment, he suddenly asked, “So do you know why you don’t have a girlfriend?”
Chen Yu was waiting to see what nonsense Lin Mo was brewing and was ready to counter it. He didn’t expect this animal to be so vicious, stabbing him right in the heart with his first words.
‘Fine, if you’re going to be heartless, then don’t blame me for being unjust.’
Chen Yu finished his meal in a few quick bites, stood up, and patted Lin Mo’s shoulder. “The taste of a breakup on your birthday isn’t pleasant, is it? It’s fine. This is all a surprise Su Ran prepared for you. Now that I’ve told you, it’s not a surprise anymore. Surprised?”
After speaking, he winked crazily and walked away with a very punchable, provocative look.
‘A surprise…?’
Lin Mo had a bad feeling. He hoped it wasn’t a “scare” instead.
On second thought, how did Chen Yu know something that even he didn’t? Had she told him?
Lin Mo’s eyes lit up. This was actually great news.
***
In the afternoon, it was Su Ran’s turn to be distracted in class.
She sat up straight as usual, but she hadn’t flipped her textbook in a long while, and her pen hadn’t moved. It was as if only her body was present, while her mind was elsewhere.
If one looked closely, they could see her body was somewhat stiff. In particular, her neck would move slightly from time to time, as if she wanted to turn her head to look at something but held back again and again.
Finally, she tilted her head toward the window. It looked like she was looking outside, but she was actually using her peripheral vision to peek at someone behind and to the side.