Chapter 1: A Pit Bought for One Yuan

Dinner was a simple spread: four dishes, one soup.

The restaurant light was a warm yellow, casting a faint haze of steam over the table. Li Wan set the soup bowl down next to Li Xiang, handle pointing right, aligned with military precision.

"Xiaoxiang, your father is in a good mood today."

Li Xiang speared a piece of greens, not looking up. "Yeah."

"Chengnan Project. The company got the deal." Li Wan sat down opposite him, elbows resting on the table edge. "Parcel No. 3. One hundred and seventy thousand square meters."

"Congratulations."

"Dad’s health isn’t great." She smiled, but there was no warmth in her eyes. "I can’t keep my eyes on everything. You need to go handle it."

Li Jianguo slammed his chopsticks on the table, the ceramic bowl clattering with a sharp ring. "Your mother is talking to you."

"I heard you." Li Xiang pushed his bowl forward. "What kind of project is it?"

"Urban renewal." Li Wan said. "We put in three hundred million up front. We’re still in negotiations with seven holdouts, and there’s a two-hundred-million development loan due next month."

She spoke slowly, letting each word drop one by one, like she was reciting a list she had memorized ages ago.

Li Xiang laughed. "That’s not a project. That’s a trap."

"Watch your tone." Li Jianguo frowned, his brows knitting into a tight knot.

"Three hundred million in, seven holdouts, two hundred million loan due next month." Li Xiang put down his chopsticks and looked at him. "Dad, tell me yourself. Is that a trap or not?"

Li Wan sighed. It was a light breath, just loud enough for the other two at the table to hear. "I told you. Xiaoxiang can’t take the heat."

Li Jianguo didn’t reply. He lifted his soup and took a sip. The spoon hit the bowl wall with a ding.

Those three words had spun around the room and landed right in Li Xiang’s ear.

"I can’t take the heat." He repeated it back, lifting his gaze to her. "Then who do you want to take it?"

"I’d obviously love for you to step up." Li Wan picked up a brown paper bag from her chair and slid it across the table. It made a soft swish against the wood. "So I came up with a plan."

Li Xiang pulled it out.

Three pages. The title was long, he only really caught the last line—*Project Operations Responsibility Agreement*.

"I will personally bear the losses." He read it aloud. "In full."

"Formalities." Li Wan said. "Company procedure. We have to go through this."

"Formalities." Li Xiang put the paper back on the table, pressing his finger against the corner. "What about the profits?"

"Profits go to the company, naturally." Li Wan smiled gently. "You’re family. Do you think we’d shortchange you?"

Li Xiang looked at her.

Thirty-eight. Kept up. Always speaking in that soft, gentle tone. Six years since she’d married his dad.

"What if I don’t sign?"

"Not signing is fine too." Li Wan picked up a piece of fish for Li Jianguo, her movements light. "The board meets tomorrow morning. Dad is going to announce who is taking over this project. If you don’t take it, I’ll have to let Old Zhou and the others step in."

She paused. "But to be fair, you’re just a vice president. One point two million a year, doing absolutely nothing. The board is going to have questions."

Li Jianguo drank some soup, said nothing, eyes fixed on the rim of his bowl.

Li Xiang stood up. "Let me think."

"Before tonight." Li Wan said. "The meeting is at nine."

* * *

11:00 PM. The study.

Only one desk lamp was on, casting a pool of light over half the table. There was a knock on the door, then it opened before he could even answer.

Li Wan walked in with a cup of milk, set it on the corner of the table. Condensation had formed a ring on the glass.

"Dad’s asleep."

"Mm."

"Xiaoxiang, let’s cut the crap." She pulled out a chair and sat down, hands folded on her knees. "You’re twenty-nine. You have a title as VP at the company, but nobody down here respects you. With your dad around, you can muddle through for a few more years. Without him—"

"Just say it."

"Sign this one, and I’ll give you five million on top." Li Wan looked at him, her gaze steady. "You can go abroad to get a degree, or start a small business. Leave the domestic mess to us."

Li Xiang leaned back in his chair. "Does my dad know?"

"Dad’s illness... you know more about it than I do." Li Wan said. "He won’t last until next year."

The room went quiet for a few seconds. Dust motes floated in the lamp light.

"The Chengnan Project," Li Xiang suddenly spoke up. "Whose is Dingsheng Building Materials?"

Li Wan’s hand, holding the milk, stopped mid-air.

"It’s your brother’s." Li Xiang continued. "The contract price is forty percent higher than market rate, signed for three years. Eighty million of that three hundred million went straight into his pocket."

"You investigated me?"

"Just did." Li Xiang glanced at his phone. "Took twenty minutes."

Li Wan put the cup down. The bottom hit the table with a clack. She was still smiling. "So what? You found something. The contract was signed by your dad."

"Which is why I’m signing."

Li Wan froze.

"But I’m not signing this one." Li Xiang pushed the three pages back. "I want to sign a contracting agreement. Strip the project off the company books. Transfer it to me personally for one yuan. I take the gains, I take the losses. On my own."

"You’re crazy."

"Didn’t you call it a trap?" Li Xiang smiled. "I’m jumping in."

Li Wan stared at him for a long time.

Her mental calculator was clicking away at high speed. If the project was stripped out, the hole on the books went with it. The company would be clean. No one would ever dig up that eighty-million Dingsheng payment again. As for Li Xiang, a rich kid who couldn’t even read a balance sheet, taking over a dead-end project? He wouldn’t last six months.

In six months, he wouldn’t even have that one point two million a year.

"Fine." She said. "Bring it up yourself at the meeting tomorrow."

"I’ll bring it up."

Li Wan stood up, walked to the door, then turned back. "Xiaoxiang."

"Mm?"

"What would Dad think if he knew you bought a three-hundred-million company project for one yuan?"

"He’d praise me for being filial." Li Xiang said. "For lightening the company’s load."

* * *

9:00 AM the next day. Board meeting.

The conference room curtains were half-drawn. Seven people sat around the long table. Li Jianguo was in the center, Li Wan to his right.

Li Xiang handed out the printed agreements, one copy for each person. The pages hit the table, one after another.

"Chengnan Project. I’m taking it as a personal contract. Valued at one yuan. Profits and losses on me."

Silence in the conference room.

"Xiaoxiang, what are you doing?" Li Jianguo coughed twice.

"Practicing my hand." Li Xiang sat back down. "Mom suggested it."

Li Wan chuckled. "I support it. Young people need to take a fall to learn where it hurts."

"But there’s a condition." Li Xiang turned to the last page. "I form the project team myself. All existing suppliers get re-bid."

Li Wan’s smile froze on her face.

"The Dingsheng contract expires next month." Li Xiang said. "Not renewing."

"Dingsheng has been with us for three years." Li Wan opened her mouth, her pace slower than before. "Quality, delivery times. No issues."

"Price was the issue." Li Xiang slid a stack of papers over. "Same spec cement. Market price is 380 a ton. Dingsheng charged 530. Over three years, a procurement volume of 120 million, that’s an extra 3.6 million spent."

The CFO flipped through the stack quickly, then stopped. He looked up at Li Wan, then back down.

"I’m not saying if anyone on our side is involved." Li Xiang looked up. "But I’m not doing this deal."

The room was so quiet you could hear the AC humming.

Li Jianguo took the paper, read three lines, his face darkened. "Wanwan, what is this?"

"I’m looking into it." Li Wan’s voice was still steady. "Maybe someone downstairs reported the wrong price."

"Then find out." Li Jianguo slapped the paper on the table. "Stop it for now."

Li Wan’s fingers curled slightly under the table.

She turned to Li Xiang, smiling. "Xiaoxiang has grown up."

"Thanks, Mom."

"However." She paused. "A billion-dollar plate on your back. Don’t come crying to me if you lose."

"Relax." Li Xiang clicked his pen cap shut. "I don’t cry."

When the meeting broke up, Old Zhou was waiting at the door. He lowered his voice. "Boss Li, are you really taking it?"

"I am."

"That plot of land... it’s a hassle."

"I know." Li Xiang patted his shoulder. "That’s why it’s cheap."

—

After the meeting, Li Xiang didn’t go back to his office.

He sat alone in the underground parking garage for thirty minutes. It wasn’t busy up top, but the lights overhead flickered in and out. He read the file on his phone again.

A public notice from the city planning bureau. Posted three days ago.

Metro Line 9 station location adjusted. Parcel No. 3. Station established.

The original line was supposed to run past an old intersection two kilometers away. Now it had been shifted here.

He flipped his phone face down on his knee and let out a short laugh.

In the garage, that laugh echoed.

The trap he bought for one yuan.

Was the land above the trap.

—

At night, he went back to his own apartment.

The fridge had half a bottle of water in it. He didn’t turn on the lights, leaned against the sofa, and scrolled on his phone. Neon lights bled through the window, flashing in and out.

He stumbled upon a book recommendation.

Four big characters on the cover: *Rebirth: The Reversal*.

First paragraph of the blurb—“*Villain* Li Xiang, relying on family money, runs rampant. Three years later, his family is ruined, the *Protagonist* sends him to prison, and he ultimately dies at the hands of his ex-wife.”

Li Xiang smirked.

"Same name."

He scrolled down and read two chapters.

The Li Xiang in the book was also a rich second-generation, also had a stepmother, and also had a mountain of bad debts.

"Is the author stalking me?"

He shoved the phone face-down against his face and closed his eyes.

The screen’s glow leaked through his fingers.

When he opened his eyes again, the ceiling was wrong.

It wasn’t his apartment. It was the office ceiling. Blinding white grid lights, row after row.

He was standing in a hallway.

Gray carpet under his feet. To his right, a dark wooden door with a nameplate that read: *Meeting Room*.

His hand was already on the handle.

Someone called to him from behind.

"Boss Li. Everyone’s here. Just waiting for your word."

Li Xiang’s brain buzzed.

He wanted to say "Who am I," wanted to say "Where is this," wanted to say "You’ve got the wrong person."

But his mouth moved first.

The sentence rolled out of his throat on its own, not a word off:

"This deal? I’m not doing it."

He froze on the spot.

The door opened.

At the far end of the long table, a person was sitting there. They looked up at him.

Li Xiang knew that face.

Ten minutes ago, it had been on his phone screen.

It was the cover of that book.