Chapter 9 — The Coin No One Believed In
The internet café was loud.
Keyboards clattered.
Gamers cursed.
Screens flashed with meaningless noise.
And in the corner—
Shen Mo stared at a simple interface that almost no one cared about.
Bitcoin.
A digital joke.
A "geek's fantasy."
A currency without a country.
In 2011, people laughed at it.
Shen Mo didn't.
In his last life, he remembered the headlines.
> "Bitcoin breaks $10,000"
"Bitcoin creates millionaires overnight"
"Bitcoin: the greatest transfer of wealth in history"
He exhaled slowly.
"This is not money," he whispered,
"This is time—condensed."
With trembling fingers—but an unshaken heart—
he transferred nearly all his savings.
No applause.
No dramatic music.
Just a quiet confirmation screen.
Transaction complete.
Around him, someone scoffed.
"You're buying fake money?" a student laughed.
"Why not just gamble?"
Shen Mo didn't answer.
Because explaining the future to the blind
was a waste of breath.
---
Chapter 10 — Seeds in Chinese Soil
Bitcoin was the long game.
But Shen Mo needed cash flow.
So he turned his eyes back to China.
He opened his notebook again.
Names appeared—simple, deadly.
A small e-commerce platform still burning money
A ride-hailing startup drowning in regulations
A quiet mobile hardware company obsessed with user experience
At this stage, they were laughed at.
In the future?
They would dominate China.
He invested carefully.
Not too much to attract attention.
Not too little to be meaningless.
Every yuan was placed like a chess piece.
"This one will explode in two years."
"That one will monopolize a city."
"This one…" he smiled faintly,
"…will change how people live."
While others studied textbooks,
Shen Mo studied human greed and patience.
---
Chapter 11 — Profit Tastes Different When You've Starved
Three months later.
The numbers changed.
Slowly at first.
Then violently.
His stock account refreshed.
+37%
+82%
+121%
Shen Mo stared silently.
Not excited.
Relieved.
"So the future still listens to me," he murmured.
His Bitcoin wallet sat quietly in the corner.
Unnoticed.
Unmoved.
Waiting.
Like a sleeping dragon.
He withdrew part of the profit—only what he needed.
Enough to:
Pay for his mother's treatment without stress
Move her to a better apartment
Create a hidden reserve fund
When he handed his mother the hospital receipt marked PAID,
she froze.
"Mo'er… where did you get this money?"
Shen Mo smiled.
"I learned how to be patient."
She didn't understand.
But she hugged him tightly.
And for the first time in two lifetimes—
his chest felt warm, not empty.
---
Chapter 12 — The Difference Between Them
On campus, rumors spread.
"Did you hear? Zhou Kai made money from a risky trade!"
"Lin Xue is dating a senior from a rich family."
Shen Mo heard it all.
And ignored it all.
Zhou Kai chased quick wins.
Lin Xue chased connections.
They were still playing small games.
Shen Mo was building inevitability.
One night, he checked his total assets.
Still not massive.
Still not king-level.
But the direction—
Was irreversible.
"This time," he said softly, closing the laptop,
"I'm not rushing to the finish line."
"I'm buying the road."
Outside, Shanghai's lights flickered endlessly.
Somewhere in the future,
those lights would bow to him.
But tonight—
He turned off the screen,
made soup for his mother,
and slept without regret.
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