Chapter 1

I woke up and realized I was lying in my bedroom from eighteen years ago. My SAT admission ticket was right there by my hand.

It had been eighteen years, but those exam questions felt as fresh as if I had just seen them yesterday.

I thought about how I ended up back here. I had literally worked myself to death just to save up for my younger brother's future wedding fund.

That is right. In my past life, I was nothing more than a sacrificial lamb for my brother.

Whenever I refused to help him, my parents would cry and scream. They used every moral trap to guilt-trip me until I finally gave in.

This time, I will not surrender. I am going to live for myself.

1

After filling out the application for the university I actually liked, I handed the form to my counselor. I then rushed to the small flea market behind the school.

In my previous life, I saw a large blue-and-white porcelain bowl here. It was mixed in with a stack of cheap soup bowls, sold as a set of ten for fifty dollars.

Later, someone bought it and turned it around for tens of millions. It eventually went to an auction house and fetched a record price of over a hundred million.

I hurried to the market and pulled out all the cash I had. I bought that entire stack of ten bowls immediately.

I pretended to check them one by one. When I saw the specific blue-and-white bowl among them, my heart nearly leaped out of my chest.

I gathered the bowls and started to walk away.

"Hey, young lady, could I take a look at the bowls you just bought?" an old man with a cane called out, catching up to me. "I would like to buy them."

I recognized this old man. He was the one who had sent that bowl to auction in my past life, making a fortune that shocked our small town.

Our town had many hidden treasures that people had not discovered yet. Fortunately, I knew exactly where they were.

"Sir, I bought these for fifty bucks. Were you planning to offer me fifty for them?" I stopped in a quiet spot near the local police station and looked him in the eye.

There was a small station right here. Even if someone tried to rob me, I was not afraid.

The old man noticed me looking at the station and could not help but smile. "You are a cautious child. How about this? We can sit on the steps of the police station while I take a look."

"Of course," I said. I walked over and sat down on the steps.

I had every reason to be cautious. I was not actually eighteen. I was in my thirties when I died.

The old man sat beside me. "Can I see it now?"

I reached into the stack and pulled out the specific porcelain bowl. "Be careful not to drop it. A Ming Dynasty blue-and-white piece this perfect is hard to find."

"Oh? Haha!" The old man laughed. He pulled a magnifying glass from his pocket and studied the bowl. "You can tell the difference between Yuan and Ming porcelain?"

"I am not an expert, but this feels like early Ming to me. Look at the spacing, the carved details, and the flat chrysanthemum patterns. The center of the flower has a grid pattern."

I pointed to one of the flowers. "Flower center with a grid pattern. Usually, these do not have year marks, but this one actually does."

The old man flipped the bowl over to check the mark on the bottom and nodded. "You say you are not sure, yet you listed every characteristic of Ming porcelain. Since you identified the era, I will give you ninety million for it."

Ninety million!

My palms started to sweat. "Sir, I am just an outsider. Based on the color, I can only guess it is early Ming. I do not know the specifics."

"You guessed correctly. Follow me to the bank," the old man said, handing the bowl back to me. "Do you have your ID?"

"Of course. I just finished my exams today." With ninety million so close, I started to calm down.

After getting my new bank card, I checked the balance at the ATM twice. There were so many zeros.

The old man did not leave. He made a call and summoned a younger man who arrived with a specialized case. They carefully packed the bowl away.

The old man followed me as I walked. "Rory Lowell, where did you learn all this?"