Winter, 1929.
It had snowed all through the night, only letting up to a light flurry by morning. Though the sky had just cleared, the cold remained biting, with pedestrians and street vendors alike walking with their necks tucked in.
Suddenly, a sharp scream pierced the quiet.
"You damn swindler, give me my money back!"
"If you don't pay up, I'll beat you to death!"
Curious onlookers turned to see a burly man gripping the neck of a fortune-teller stall owner, causing the man's prop black sunglasses—meant to feign blindness—to fall off. The fortune-teller's face was red and clenched, as if a punch was imminent.
At a street corner, inside a brand-new, luxurious car.
Su Ning watched the scene and couldn't help but sigh. Truly, they were the Su family, despised by all in the book. Even setting up a stall to tell fortunes could enrage a man described in the original text as simple and honest to the point of madness.
But, this was exactly what she needed.
"Level 4 plot character detected. Host, please proceed to humiliate and oppress the target to complete the 'Wealth Without Benevolence' novice task."
The system's mechanical voice rang out.
Su Ning gazed sorrowfully at the brawny, muscular man—the so-called Level 4 plot character—and let out a soft sigh:
"You're sending me to my death."
Just half a month ago, Su Ning had transmigrated into this book world with a setting similar to the Republican era and bound with the standard transmigrator's golden finger—a system.
This system was highly unconventional, gloriously named "Wealth Without Benevolence."
As the name implied, it required the host to be a wealthy bully who committed misdeeds, rewarding funds for each act of wrongdoing.
The funding pool held a full ten billion!
Most importantly, once all that money was spent, Su Ning could happily return to modern times to be an ordinary, unremarkable rich woman with a billion dollars in her bank account.
It sounded a bit unethical, but also quite achievable. One just had to feed one's conscience to the dogs.
But—
This damned system lived up to its name "Wealth Without Benevolence." It even had requirements for the targets of the host's oppression; they had to be plot characters.
The more significant the character's role, the more funds she would receive for her acts of "wealth without benevolence."
As for the "NPCs" without formal names in the book, even if she bullied them to death, it wouldn't compare to targeting a minor cannon fodder with just two lines in the text...
Screen time decided everything.
"Turbulence in the Capital," a decade-long serialized epic with a world background akin to an alternate Republican era, was composed of multiple interwoven stories. Its world was cohesive, its characters vivid, praised by a certain website as a once-in-a-decade ensemble masterpiece.
Then, a reader left an indignant comment:
'It's certainly an ensemble piece. A group of people gather from all directions, colliding to create the most brilliant sparks of their lives.
Then they die, and die, and die...'
By the story's end, the various characters the author had spent over a million words building—whether protagonist, supporting character, villain, or cannon fodder—all met tragic fates.
Being a "wealth without benevolence" bully in such a world, specifically targeting the book's plot characters to do evil...
Su Ning was afraid she might have the life to get the money, but not the life to spend it!
.........
Blinking, Su Ning took a deep breath and focused her attention on the brawny man's opponent.
This man had three long wisps of beard under his chin and was dressed with an immortal's grace. If not for the fact that he was currently aiming a kick at the man's groin and poking at his eyes, one might truly feel respect for him.
Seeing his underhanded moves, Su Ning felt no annoyance at having her opportunity snatched away. Instead, she grew more and more pleased the longer she looked.
Good, good.
Judging by this glimpse, even Half-Immortal Su, the Su family villain with the least screen time in the original book, fought so dirty and viciously. What more needed to be said about the other Su family villains with more screen time, who drove readers to grit their teeth and curse wildly?
This was precisely why she had come here today.
When it came to doing bad deeds, especially to characters appearing in the book, who could be more professional and adept than the Su family—the villainous clan that ran through the entire narrative?
Discovering such a family in the book, Su Ning was ecstatic.
In that instant, she decided: she would join the Su family.
From then on.
She would be responsible for the "wealth," and the Su family would handle the "without benevolence."
With a wealthy relative like her, the Su family could play the villain even more thoroughly, bullying plot characters with greater force. In the process, she could conveniently complete her tasks.
Moreover, not being on the front lines meant attracting less hostility.
She could even stage a redemption arc from time to time.
She was just too rich, too soft-hearted, too attached to the blood relatives she had finally found.
For the sake of her family, she would just have to painfully clean up their messes.
How to clean up?
With money! Heaps of money.
This way, she even had a place to spend it...
Over here, the old Taoist known in the Jianghu by the nickname Half-Immortal Su was completely unaware that a wealthy relative was about to fall from the sky. At the moment, he was inwardly lamenting his misfortune—
The brawny man had stubbornly endured the physical pain, suppressed Half-Immortal Su, and landed two fierce punches, crying and roaring simultaneously:
"I'll beat you to death, you fraud! Wuwuwu... You tricked me, saying Xiao Taohong was my destined match. I gave you a silver dollar to perform a ritual, and you said I'd have three children in two years, a son and a daughter to make a 'good' character."
"That... that's not wrong."
"Right, didn't Xiao Taohong just give birth to twins yesterday? It's a great joy we haven't heard of in years."
Bystanders who knew a thing or two chimed in from the sidelines.
Su Ning was also curious. It sounded like Half-Immortal Su was a divine fortune-teller. Why was the brawny man giving him trouble?
Then she heard the man's aggrieved voice:
"Joy my foot! I've only known Xiao Taohong for six months!"
Su Ning: ...
Well, he deserved the beating then.
At this point, Half-Immortal Su desperately strained his voice to explain:
"Everyone's body is different. Six months isn't impossible for a birth! Besides, with twins, it's normal for them to come a bit earlier."
This only infuriated the brawny man further:
"You're still quibbling! I've known her for six months, but we didn't do that as soon as we met! I haven't even touched a single finger of hers! How could I be the father?!"
The crowd around them howled with laughter.
"Giving birth in six months isn't unheard of, but without even touching her... Miss Xiao Taohong couldn't have conceived by immaculate conception, could she?"
The neighboring stall owner who wrote letters for others chuckled, throwing in a classical phrase.
Others didn't understand what "conceived by immaculate conception" meant, but they could guess, which made them laugh even harder.
They added fuel to the fire with their comments.
Some even shouted for the brawny man to hurry up and hit him.
They were all familiar faces on the same street, yet no one blamed them for standing by or kicking a man when he was down. The truth was, Half-Immortal Su was deeply unpopular.
Even a rabbit doesn't eat the grass by its own burrow.
But this old scoundrel not only ate it, he gnawed it all clean.
The reason no one had mustered the courage to fight Half-Immortal Su before was the fear that beating the old one would bring the young ones.
The Su family's eldest son was a skilled fighter, a notable figure on these streets.
Half-Immortal Su inwardly cursed his bad luck. It seemed today's beating was unavoidable. He closed his eyes, but after a few seconds, instead of a fist, something cool landed on his face.
He reached up to touch it.
Heavy, gleaming silver coins, imprinted with someone's portrait.
Even dazed from being choked, Half-Immortal Su could recognize them at a glance—
Silver dollars! One silver dollar!
No, more than one. Just from what he could see, seven or eight silver dollars were scattered around. No wonder he'd heard a clinking sound earlier; he thought someone had thrown pebbles.
Half-Immortal Su's eyes darted.
Without changing expression, he stuffed the silver dollars into a hidden pocket in his sleeve.
If it falls from the sky or is picked up from the ground,
once it's in his hand, it's his. No one should think about getting it back!
Over here, the brawny man's moment of hesitation caused by the coin shower attack passed. He was unsure whether to continue hitting when he heard a cool, pleasant female voice:
"I'll pay his debt for him."
"Is ten times compensation enough?"
Under the winter sun, the young girl leaning against the car door frowned and threw out another handful of banknotes, which fluttered down in the air, dazzling to the eye:
"If not, then twenty times."
Stunned. The burly man was stunned.
The onlooking stall owners and passersby were stunned.
Their eyes chased the falling banknotes while still stealing glances at the silver dollars on the ground.
Most people here had never seen so much money in their entire lives.
The top-class rickshaw pullers on the street, the ones who owned their own rickshaws, pulling day and night, were lucky if they could save two or three dollars a month after food and expenses.
The burly man was just such a rickshaw puller.
His reason for making trouble, aside from anger at being cheated, was largely for that one dollar.
The man who had been ferocious just moments ago now didn't even dare raise his head before the young girl.
Su Ning wasn't bad-looking, with pale skin and distant, cool eyes. Whether she smiled or not, she gave off a sense of detachment. As her former friends would say—
a poor wretch who, paradoxically, had the face of someone who had enjoyed immense wealth and grown weary of everything.
Though she stood here, it seemed as if an endless distance separated her from everyone else.
No one spoke or moved, and the scene fell into silence.
"Enough, enough."
Half-Immortal Su was the first to react. His body went limp, he slipped from the burly man's grasp, and scrambled on hands and knees to swiftly pick up the silver dollars and banknotes from the ground.
Seeing him start to collect the money, the burly man finally snapped back to reality. He first snatched the money from Half-Immortal Su's hands, then glared at the others to deter them.
Only then did he cautiously look at Su Ning, carefully choosing his words:
"Young lady, why are you paying for this old swindler?"
"That's none of your concern."
The girl's tone was flat, though inwardly she sighed with relief. Thankfully, that act of showing off was over. Who could have guessed that the seemingly high-and-mighty rich person everyone saw was actually down to her last twenty dollars!
There was no other way.
She had arrived in this world in her own body.
The damned system, to make her actively complete the novice mission, was as stingy as a miser, providing only the hotel for lodging and not a single penny more.
Didn't it think? With not a cent in her pocket, how was she supposed to be a tyrannical rich person?
Even these twenty dollars came from painfully pawning her watch.
To wait for the perfect moment to "reunite" with the Su family, she had stubbornly survived on plain flatbread for half a month, her jaw muscles sore from chewing.
Who knew how she endured it!
"Ding. Detected host using money to insult a Level 4 plot character, acting as a tyrannical rich person. Novice mission completed."
"Reward: ten thousand dollars in cash, deposited into system storage."
There was a note in small print below: can be exchanged for equivalent gold, silver, or common currencies like US dollars, British pounds, or German marks.
Su Ning finally understood what it meant to hear heavenly music that clears the ears.
What did ten thousand dollars mean in this era?
The Peiping Grand Hotel she stayed in was the top hotel in all of Peiping. The luxury suite on the top floor, including three meals a day, cost only eight hundred dollars a month!
Everyone saw the wealthy young lady glance at the grimy Half-Immortal Su, study him for a moment with that aloof, polite expression, and then break into a perky, elated smile:
"Let me introduce myself. My name is Su Ning. My father is Su Huaishan."
The others were puzzled.
But Half-Immortal Su, whose eyes had been darting around nonstop, froze.
Su Huaishan. The name was both unfamiliar and familiar.
Unfamiliar because he searched his memory and couldn't recall anyone by that name.
Familiar because, many years ago, the younger generation of the Su family in the southern city all used "Huai" as their generational name.
As the eldest grandson of the main line, he wasn't called Half-Immortal Su either.
He was called Su Huaiyu.
It meant "a gentleman harbors jade," signifying virtue.
The ways of the world are as unpredictable as flowing clouds. The once-powerful Su family had vanished like smoke. The "gentleman harboring jade" his elders had hoped for now huddled by the street, engaging in fraud and trickery.
He thought he had long forgotten all the former splendor.
Only now did he realize it wasn't forgotten. He just didn't dare think about it, didn't dare remember.
