"Our Ruolan has real promise! She'll definitely not fall short of the wealthy sons and daughters!" With the lines of her eyes relaxing noticeably, Mother Miao Hanchu, watching her beautiful daughter excitedly celebrating, felt as though she had aged ten years younger. "But as for our family's situation..." Father Gao Caisheng wasn't as joyful as his wife and daughter. He smiled gently, only for that smile to fade almost immediately. Before he could finish speaking, his phone in his pocket rang. Gao Caisheng answered it, and within just three seconds, his face turned pale as paper, and he stood rigid, like a puppet. "What's wrong, Caisheng? Are you unwell?" Seeing Gao Caisheng's pale complexion, Miao Hanchu, aware that he had been working tirelessly lately without adequate rest, became concerned about his health. Gao Caisheng didn't respond—he simply stared blankly. Daughter Gao Ruolan shook her father's shoulders vigorously, saying, "Dad! Quickly tell me! What's happened?" "Daughter, I've lost my job!" "The company just called to tell me I don't have to come to work tomorrow!" Gao Cai shivered, looking deeply concerned. The mother-daughter pair, who had been filled with excitement just a moment ago, now turned worried. "Then I'll just go work part-time!" Gao Ruolan spoke with determination, unwilling to let family matters derail her studies. After years of hard work in high school, she had finally earned a spot at the university she had always dreamed of. "Ruolan, do you really think working part-time will be enough? I've found out that Saint Dorothy Mary Business School is a prestigious institution with unusually high tuition fees—just the entrance fee alone amounts to 80,000 yuan. With the current job market tough and your salary not very high, how many years will it take for you to save up that amount? But if you're willing, there's still hope!" Gao Cai, gazing at his daughter's delicate face, stammered slightly as he said the last sentence. Something was wrong! Gao Ruolan grasped her father's arm tightly and said, "Speak up, Dad!" "Hehe!" "Gao Caisheng beamed with joy, pulled out a letter from his pocket, and handed it to Gao Ruolan, saying, 'This is a letter left by my classmate Zuo Tianpei. He also learned about our family's financial difficulties and has given me a UnionPay card! He even told me the PIN!' Gao Ruolan snatched the envelope right away, didn't even glance at it, tore it into pieces, and with her bright eyes wide open, angrily said to her father, 'Dad! How do you treat your daughter? Please take the card and return it right away! I don't want it!' Zuo Tianpei was Gao Ruolan's male classmate during high school. His father is a senior banker at a well-known bank, and the family is well-off. Zuo is skilled in singing and playing musical instruments and is beloved by girls as the school's romantic 'song prince.' But Zu Tianpei was only interested in Gao Ruolan. Yet, flowers may have feelings, while water flows without intention. Gao Ruolan was entirely focused on her studies. Though she was a beauty at the level of the school's top student, she was truly an ice-cold, composed woman—refusing all suitors, and even leaving some of them with bruised noses and swelling cheeks thanks to her well-practiced taekwondo skills from her uncle. Though she had never physically confronted Zu Tianpei, she consistently treated him with cold indifference, leading her to believe that Zu Tianpei had given up on her. Unexpectedly, now he was coming to court her father. "Hey! Your father is currently unemployed—finally someone has stepped in to help you, and yet you don't appreciate it! What do you think you are, exactly? Zu Tianpei is quite a good boy—many girls have pursued him, but he's never been impressed. You, on the other hand, have someone who clearly likes you, and yet you're so ungrateful! This card—you won't take it, I'm taking it!" Gao Cai was furious, his face flushed and his neck red. The two were in Miao Hanfu watched her parents facing off with sharp intensity, sighed, and said, "Though our family is poor, we are poor with dignity. If someone loses their self-respect just for money, then what's the point of living? Tomorrow, I'll start selling goods at a stall—help Lan'er earn her tuition!" Gao Ruolan and Miao Hanfu exchanged a quiet,默契 smile. It was clear that mother and daughter were now united. Gao Cai, feeling his frustration nowhere to go, erupted, "Alright! If you both insist on dignity, then I'll go and return the money!" The largest book and audio-visual library in Gao Family Village attracted a large number of visitors—men, women, young and old—creating a vibrant cultural atmosphere. Gao Ruolan carefully searched along a row of audio-visual shelves, moving from one end to the other, from front to back, from top to bottom and vice versa, meticulously scanning every shelf. After about twenty minutes, her eyes lit up, "Found it! Finally found it!" As she was about to reach for the audio-visual disc she had been searching for, she accidentally bumped into the shelf due to excitement, causing several discs that hadn't been placed back in their original positions at the far end to fall down and land on the floor. Fortunately, none of them broke. Gao Ruolan picked them up and put them back in place. When she turned around to retrieve the disc she had been looking for all along, she found it was gone. Her eyes quickly locked onto a handsome young man—none other than Gao Liang—who was holding exactly the disc she had been seeking. Gao Ruolan followed him, speaking firmly, "This one is mine! Return it to me!" "Is it yours? Does your name appear on it?" Gao Liang held the disc up in front of her, his tone cold and composed. "I selected it just now. I didn't want the discs at the other end to fall, so I went to retrieve them and found you had already taken it!" Gao Ruolan stared at the disc, her heart stirred. "Oh?" Gao Ruo Lan looked at Gao Liang, shrugged, then glanced at the disc, and spoke firmly, without yielding: "This one was chosen by me the moment I arrived." With that, a smile of pride spread across her face. "It's mine!" Gao Ruo Lan exclaimed, growing urgent. "It's mine!" Gao Liang raised his voice. "You can go buy it somewhere else!" Gao Ruo Lan gently reminded Gao Liang. "I'll only buy it here, and only this one!" After saying this, Gao Liang turned to walk away without looking back. "Stop! Today I'm in a good mood! You've disrupted my good spirits!" Gao Ruo Lan became angry—she had never seen anyone so unreasonable. At school, it was always she who overlooked others, yet no boy had ever dared treat her this way. "Today, I'm in a good mood too—it's you who've disturbed me!" Gao Liang stood his ground, facing off against Gao Ruo Lan. The two continued arguing, drawing a large crowd of onlookers. One handsome young man and one striking young woman, each refusing to yield, made quite a spectacle. Gao Ruolan no longer cared about her graceful ladylike demeanor—she charged straight in to claim the item. Gao Liang, however, showed no courtesy at all, making it impossible for her to succeed. Gao Ruolan felt both embarrassed and furious, her chest rising and falling with agitation. Her elegant anger was truly captivating, and she truly lived up to her status as a campus beauty—nearly 99% of the crowd’s attention was fixed on her, leaving her deeply uncomfortable. A beauty had just stumbled! Gao Ruolan clenched her teeth, her bright eyes swiftly outshining Gao Liang time and again. This display proved effective, sparking strong reactions among the male spectators. One of them stepped forward and said to Gao Liang, "A grown man should never compete with a beauty for something. If he truly wants it, he should at least offer some compensation!" "Highlight casually produced several hundred-yuan bills and coldly said to Gao Ruolan, 'As a gesture of sympathy, I'm paying you for your mental distress!' 'Hmph! Isn't it just because you have money that you're so superior? You've ruined my good mood—can you really make it up to me?' Gao Ruolan didn't take the money; instead, she was particularly attentive to the disc. She wouldn't let go, and thus once again fought for it against Highlight. 'No! I'm not giving it! See what you can do!' Highlight didn't know why, but he just wanted to push her. Gao Ruolan employed her taekwondo skills, hoping to win without touching the disc, but she was mistaken—she found Highlight far from easy to handle. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't reclaim it. This had never happened to her before. Frustrated, she was about to deploy her best move when she noticed an elderly woman had stumbled aside to avoid their argument. The woman was clearly elderly and in poor health, and had fainted instantly. Gao Ruolan wanted to go up and offer her support, and thus woke the old lady beside her. Gao Liang, however, remained completely indifferent, as if nothing had happened. Gao Ruolan looked at him with disdain. The first thing the old lady noticed upon waking was Gao Liang’s neat, well-dressed suit. Her eyes brightened instantly, and she clutched his legs tightly, refusing to let go, shouting, “Take me to the hospital now!” Gao Liang remained unmoved, and in the midst of everyone’s expectant gaze, he simply produced a one-hundred-yuan bill and tossed it to the old lady. To his surprise, the old lady only cried out louder, “Oh, oh, oh!” Then, pulling a few bills from his pocket at random, he said, “Here’s five hundred—should be enough!” Turning his eyes to Gao Ruolan, he said sharply, “Today’s been a real disaster—you’re truly a bad omen!” “A disaster! It’s only because of you that I’ve had my share of misfortunes for eighteen lifetimes!” Gao Ruolan responded with equal determination, standing her ground. Just as the two were arguing fiercely, the housekeeper Chen Jiangliu arrived, sweating profusely and saying, "Xiaolong, I finally found you!" "What's the matter with you? I'm not a three-year-old child! What do you want me to do?" Gao Liang had slipped out of the house secretly. His first action upon leaving was to purchase a videotape set on taekwondo training materials. If his parents found out, it would be disastrous. Since recovering his health, his parents had firmly refused to let him be exposed to any taekwondo-related activities. "Xiaolong, will you just think of me? The chairman has repeatedly instructed me to stay with you around the clock!" Chen Jiangliu looked somewhat distressed, gazing at Gao Liang with a pitiful expression. It was clear that being a housekeeper wasn't easy—both the lord and the lord's son had to be attended to, and one had to avoid offending either. Gao Ruolan stood by, looking at Gao Liang with a look of disdain and remarked, "I thought you were something special. Turns out, you're just a child who never grows up in You...” Gao Liang couldn’t bear it when people treated him like this. In his heart, he thought: “I’ve been reborn into this world with thousands of years of cultivation—how could a common woman possibly look down on me?” So he was deeply offended and raised his fist, ready to strike. “Xiaolong! She’s a woman—why don’t you fight her?” Chen Jiangliu caught Gao Liang by the arm, and though Gao Liang struggled, he remained visibly displeased. Chen Jiangliu guided him toward the car parked outside. Behind them, Gao Ruolan whispered, “May the heavens protect me so I never meet you again!” Unexpectedly, Gao Liang turned sharply, his expression stern, and said firmly, “You’re a bad luck star—I most certainly don’t want to see you again!” With that, he and Chen Jiangliu walked off. Gao Ruolan stood there, clenching her fists, her face flushed with frustration. Li Zhen Dong looked coldly at the butler Chen Jiangliu and said, "Old Chen! What was Xiao Long doing just now?" Gao Liang quickly gave the butler a glance, and immediately, Chen Jiangliu assumed a look of deep frustration, stammering, "Sir, the young lord is so ambitious—he went to the library!" "Oh?" Li Zhen Dong's eyes suddenly brightened. In his memory, Gao Liang had always been the most reluctant to go to the library, especially when reading—he always suffered headaches as soon as he saw books. But his son was quite perceptive; as long as he didn't slack off and stayed proactive in his studies, everything would be fine. "What are you holding in your hands, Xiao Long?" Li Zhen Dong noticed that his son seemed to be holding something tightly, as if completely absorbed in it. Without waiting for Gao Liang to answer, he gestured for Chen Jiangliu to bring it over. This proved quite a challenge for Chen Jiangliu. He had been absolutely unwilling to retrieve it—on the way back, the young lord had repeatedly instructed him not to tell either father or mother about the purchase of the taekw So, reluctantly, he took the item from Hao Liang, not daring to look at it, his hands trembling slightly as he presented it to Li Zhen Dong. He thought, now he was truly in trouble—having offended both the young lord and the elder—he was certain he’d be reprimanded. Unexpectedly, Li Zhen Dong looked at it and burst out laughing. "Xiaolong! I didn’t expect you to be so eager to learn. Since you’ve shown such genuine interest in business, it seems our Li family truly has a promising future. Here—this is your admission letter. Just a few days from now, I’ll take you to register!" When Hao Liang saw the admission notice his father had given him, he looked utterly helpless, his face expressing profound distress. Clearly, he had lost interest in studying. In his memory from his previous life, three years of high school had felt like a cage—himself like a caged bird, unable to fly freely. For someone who always cherished freedom, could it be any less painful? Father Li Zhen Dong, of course, had sensed his son’s thoughts. So, he cleared his throat and spoke in a warm, persuasive tone: "Xiaolong! Considering your love for learning, here’s a credit card with 10 million yuan. As long as you enroll, you can spend it however you like. When it’s gone, hand it over to me. If you perform well, I’ll even add more! How does that sound? Are you interested in studying?" Originally, Hao Liang wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about money. But now, he had been reborn as Zhu Bajie—someone whose nature was inherently fond of wealth. Seeing 10 million, his heart danced with joy. Thinking about my old pig's journey west, all the valuable possessions I had were just my master's jade bowl—yet even that, no matter how precious, wouldn't amount to one hundred million! At best, it was around ten million. Honestly, being reborn into this affluent family in the Gao household, in the most prosperous home of the village, feels absolutely fantastic! No worries about food, clothing, housing, or daily expenses—this is even better than being a pure-temple messenger! Seeing this one-hundred-million-yuan credit card, Gao Liang's eyes shone brightly. He took it, in front of his mother and elder sister, and said to his father, "Thank you, Dad! I'll study hard at school. You don't need to worry about me anymore!" Though he said it with words, his parents were deeply touched and held Xiaolong's hands, saying, "What a wonderful son! I always knew Xiaolong would make it. Our family's business will surely rest on your shoulders in the future!" Sister Li Qingxue, who knew Xiaolong's character inside out, understood perfectly that he was just putting on a show. So she smiled quietly, all to herself. Dong Lingyun instructed the housekeeper Zhang Ma to tidy up Xiao Long's room. When Xiao Long entered the luxurious room, he plugged the taekwondo DVD into the player. The large screen on the wall displayed the taekwondo footage, and Xiao Long quickly began practicing. At that moment, his sister Li Qingxue suddenly entered. Xiao Long hadn't had time to turn off the TV, and to his surprise, Li Qingxue said, "Xiao Long, since we're siblings, I won't tell our parents about your secret taekwondo training. But from now on, just don't go to the taekwondo studio anymore! You don't know that a year ago, during a competition, you suffered an unexpected injury—our parents have been deeply worried. Otherwise, they'd make you promise that you'd never marry!" "It was indeed an accident. If it hadn't been, I would have definitely won first place. Older sister! You're always so busy with work, acting like a man—you never give anyone a chance to pursue you!" Gao Liang looked at his poised and elegant sister and gave her a playful glance. "Go! Go! Go! Who says no one's interested in me Li Qingxue smiled happily. "What? Have you taken a fancy to another unlucky one again?" Gao Liang asked. "Not telling you! It's a secret!" Li Qingxue played coy. At that moment, Gao Liang presented her with a bracelet, which she absolutely loved—transparent and crystal-clear, radiant and brilliant. "Big sister! Wear her! Whenever something happens from now on, you might just turn bad luck into good!" Gao Liang said as he fastened it on her. Li Qingxue looked blissful. This younger brother truly knows how to care. The two had always been close, like close friends who shared everything. She fondly handled the bracelet believed to bring good fortune, beaming with joy, and leaned in close to Gao Liang's ear to say, "Xiaolong! Don't worry—about your taekwondo training. I won't tell your parents. But you must promise to stay safe!" "I knew you'd always have my best interests at heart!" Gao Liang was thrilled to hear that. "It's getting late now, Xiaolong! Go rest early!" "I still have to go to work tomorrow! You'll be going to school soon too!" Li Qingxue said, checking her watch. Gao Ruolan's uncle, Miao Dayong, comes from a relatively well-off family and runs a taekwondo academy in Gaojiachang City, earning a solid income. Gao Ruolan often goes there to practice taekwondo when she has time.