Chapter 1: Awakening the Scent of Wealth

Rain hissed down the alley, fine as needles, a barrage of icy silver pricks that found skin without warning. Su Ling was pinned flat against the damp, freezing corner. The rough blue bricks exuded a stubborn mustiness that burrowed straight into her sinuses. Liu Lan clicked along in limited-edition heels, the tips caked in mud. Every step landed with an unapologetic, suffocating weight.

She stabbed a finger at Su Ling’s nose, letting out a sneer that cut through the rain-slick air like a blade. “Look at you. A total disgrace. Honestly, it’s embarrassing.”

“This trash is filthy. Get it in a bag fast. Don’t mess up my path.” Liu Lan swatted the air like she was flicking off a gnat. Su Ling nodded, docile as a lamb, but her eyes were sharp as flint. The second Liu Lan turned her back, Su Ling’s fingers moved like a hawk’s talons, raking over two piles of porcelain shards that looked utterly worthless to anyone else.

Green light pulsed inside her skull. *Blue-and-white fragment. Value: 2000.* *Famille Rose foot. Value: 1500.* Su Ling tucked the “garbage” into the bottom of the trash bag, her movements as smooth as water, seamless and precise. Liu Lan watched every second, but Su Ling’s mask of fragility was watertight. Her stepmother saw nothing.

Su Ling lowered her lashes, eyelashes trembling slightly, mimicking the way rainwater had wetted them. In truth, beneath that cowering posture lay a cold, calculated stillness. Her nose flared, sampling the air. Rain mixed with dust, the cloying sweetness of cheap perfume, and the sharp, sterile chill of Liu Lan’s presence—the scent of someone who believed she was at the top.

Liu Lan’s gaze raked over Su Ling’s torn dress, void of pity. Only relief flickered there, the joy of shedding a “useless” burden. In the shadows, a faint, icy smirk curled the corner of Su Ling’s mouth. *Stepmother, you’re tossing a piece. And that piece is going to be the blade that ends you.*

Inside the Su Family mansion, every light was blazing, bathing the lavish interiors in warm gold. Su Hao stood at the mirror, cooing over his perfect hairdo. He whistled mockingly as Su Ling entered. “Well, well. Back so soon? You look filthy. Trying to bring bad luck into the house?”

Liu Lan sat in the head seat, watching with cold eyes. She idly flipped through a printout of a recent transfer, the paper whispering as it crinkled. Su Ling took the thin stack of “allowance” with steady hands, a glint of something fierce flashing in her pupils. She knew a storm was coming.

“Girl, I’ll take all of that ‘trash.’” Lin Shu’s voice was raspy but carried the weight of authority. Su Ling kept her face neutral, but a cold laugh echoed in her mind. On the surface, she wore a look of startled delight. Lin Shu’s offer was far beyond expectation. She valued not just the ceramics, but Su Ling’s eye. The deal was struck. Cash changed hands.

The moment Su Ling’s fingers touched the bills, a low hum vibrated through her brain. Her scent radius snapped wider. She could now clearly smell the oxidized copper of coins three meters away, held by a vendor. The system’s upgrade—smell-detection scaling with wealth—was confirmed. First bucket of gold, secured.

A cracked coarse porcelain bowl tumbled to her feet, shattering with a sharp crack. Su Ling stumbled, falling hard. Her knee slammed into gravel. Pain flared, blood seeping through. She ignored it, staring at the bowl. Her nose brushed the cool shard, and green light exploded across her retina. *Base value: 300. Premium: 10x.* The Golden Finger was awake, sharp enough to make her shiver.

She wiped the blood from her lip with a handkerchief, using the motion to smooth her skirt. Her fingers moved at lightning speed over the clutter of the stall. The bowl’s glaze was even, the clay body fine. Not from any common kiln.

Dragging the heavy “garbage” through the crowd, Su Ling closed her eyes, feeling the air move. At the alley mouth, the scent was gray, reeking of poverty and decay. But toward the distant business district, a golden band of light pulsed faintly—concentrated Wealth Flow. She opened her eyes, locking onto an old stall deep in the night market, radiating a warm, aged presence.

The rain thinned. Su Ling slipped out of Liu Lan’s line of sight, breaking out of the cordon. She needed to cash in this first windfall before the sun rose.

Back at the Su Family estate, Liu Lan stared at the bank statement. A massive deposit labeled “miscellaneous disposal.” Her brow furrowed tight. The money appeared out of nowhere, huge and untraceable. Suspicion grew like weed in her mind. Thunder rolled outside, a omen of the reckoning to come.

She decided to test Su Ling immediately. She would not miss a single thread. She would drag the snake lurking in the dark into the light.

Su Ling kept a cold smirk in her heart, but her face collapsed instantly. Her eyes reddened, hands clenching the blanket until her knuckles turned white. She dropped her head, voice trembling. “Auntie, I’m not lying… That guy who buys junk said old ceramics have value. The newspapers are out of print. The wood is rosewood… I…”

“I’m new at business. I don’t understand much. I probably messed up the price. I’m sorry…”

Liu Lan did not turn on the light. She relied on the cold moonlight spilling down the hallway, stepping slowly to Su Ling’s bed. Su Ling feigned sleep, breath slow and even, sinking into a dreamless void. Liu Lan leaned down, her skeletal fingers lifting the hair from Su Ling’s pillow, touching the girl’s ice-cold cheek. The motion was gentle, yet it held the pressure of a blade.

A wicked curve hooked Liu Lan’s lips. Her fingertip slid down Su Ling’s cheek to her neck, no pressure, but it coiled like a cold snake. “Nothing wrong. Just checking if my good daughter sleeps soundly.” The tone shifted. She unfolded a crease-free note, holding it up. “I want to reconcile this account with you.”

Liu Lo moved behind her, pressing her hands on Su Ling’s shoulders. The grip was firm, unresisting. “I hate riddles. So you perform it for me. Tell me. Besides the broken bowls, what else did you touch? The repair records for that used electric scooter. And who did you meet at the second-hand market last night?”

Gu Tingzhou sat in the dim monitoring room, eyes fixed on a corner of the screen. In the alley surveillance, the moment Su Ling fell, her pupils shifted. It wasn’t blur. It was a laser lock. He was cold and untouchable in the financial world, yet this anomaly sparked a flicker of interest. Outside the screen, his finger tapped the desk, thoughtful.

Su Ling snapped her head up. Tears swam in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She stared into Liu Lan’s face, mixing broken fear with pleading. “Auntie, I just wanted to prove that even without the Su Family name, I can survive on my own. I know I did poorly. Punish me. Hit me. But don’t call me a liar…”

Su Ling’s gaze landed on the note, heart slamming against her ribs. It was an itemized list of the “junk” sale. Broken bowls, a half-box of damp newspapers, moldy wood scraps. But next to the prices in Liu Lan’s copy, red ink had circled stark, shocking exclamation marks.

“Auntie, I didn’t meet anyone…” Su Ling’s voice choked, her body shaking. It was real fear, masked by acting. “I just… asked for prices. I was scared. I didn’t dare make contact. Those bowls? I picked them up at the alley mouth. The rain soaked them. I thought they were garbage…”

That single “hit me” struck a gap in Liu Lan’s defenses. She stared, her gaze scraping the bone. In Liu Lan’s mind, Su Ling was a timid, lowly substitute. This posture of accepting punishment looked more like a prey’s camouflage in the corner.

Su Ling held her kneeling pose until the footsteps faded into the distance. Only then did the taut nerves in her body slacken. She slowly lifted her head, looking out the window. The rain had stopped. A crack in the clouds let a beam of cold moonlight spill through, hitting the spot where she knelt, coating her face in silver frost.

“Messed up?” Liu Lan huffed, tucking the note away and standing. In the moonlight, her shadow stretched long, threatening to swallow Su Ling whole. “Su Ling, you weren’t like this before. You used to be dumb as a tree stump. Couldn’t even do arithmetic. Now you’ve learned how to set traps.”

This was a play of open cards. Su Ling’s heart skipped a beat. Last night, she had indeed slipped to the second-hand market, not to buy, but to confirm a bronze vessel wrapped in cloth mixed into the junk. It was a bait she left intentionally, testing how fast Liu Lan’s information channels moved.

On the way back, Su Ling deposited some funds into an anonymous account, using the rest for high-end testing tools. The rain washed the streets, and it washed the revenge plan clean in her mind. She was no longer a mule ready for slaughter. She was a hunter with a Golden Finger.

Su Ling sat up obediently, spine ramrod straight, bracing herself for the whip that would follow. Liu Lan went to the desk, opening a drawer to pull out a sleek paper knife. The blade glinted cold in the moonlight.

A microscopic smile twitched at Liu Lan’s mouth. Su Ling noted it. The trap was sharp, but it was still within her control. As long as she didn’t expose the core mechanics of the system, Liu Lan was just a caged eagle.

Across town, in a high-rise, Gu Tingzhou set down his teacup. The screen froze on Liu Lan’s cold back and Su Ling’s kneeling posture. His finger tapped the desk, the rhythm stuttering for a second.

Cold water sprayed down, rinsing her hair. She stared into the mirror, looking at the disheveled woman with the deep, unyielding eyes. The smirk on Su Ling’s reflection was colder than the moonlight outside.

The voice was soft, like a lover’s whisper, yet it made the hair on Su Ling’s neck stand up. She opened her eyes slowly. In her pupils, Liu Lan’s face was distorted, ugly and sharp in the shadows.

Su Ling bit her lower lip until it bled. She couldn’t expose the bronze vessel. If she did, the plan would collapse, and Liu Lan would suspect a mastermind behind the scenes.

Su Ling stood up, dust on her knees. She brushed her skirt, movements mechanical, stiff, as if the submission never happened. She walked to the bathroom, closed the door, and locked it.

“This junk,” Liu Lan’s voice dropped to a metallic whisper, “sold for fifty thousand at a street stall? Are you sure this isn’t fraud?”

“Auntie?” Su Ling rubbed her eyes, voice hoarse and dazed from sleep, looking weak and lost. “What’s wrong? It’s so late…”

“Interesting.” He murmured to himself, a sharp glint in his eyes. “That snake… she’s tougher than I thought.”

Liu Lan paused, fingers stroking the spine of the paper knife. Suddenly, she released it and turned to the door.

Su Ling didn’t hesitate. She pressed her knees together and slowly sank to the cold floor.

Liu Lan had found out. Her network of eyes and ears was far more complex than Su Ling had guessed.

Late at night, the door to the Su Family master bedroom pushed open soundlessly.

“Get up.” Liu Lan’s tone was cold.

The door slammed shut.

“Lingling, are you asleep?”

“No bed for you tonight.”

“Kneel down.”

Outside, a dull rumble of thunder rolled across the sky. The rain had stopped, but that eerie energy hinted that the real game was just beginning.