"CHIRP—CHIRP—"
A few chirps brought Xu Shengxia back to consciousness. She slowly opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was a ceiling with peeling paint. A glance around the room revealed a small, sparsely furnished basement.
The chirping came from the room's window, which was half-buried, its lower half level with the concrete ground outside.
Xu Shengxia pushed herself up into a sitting position.
Her eyes scanned the completely unfamiliar environment, a dazed look crossing her face...
'Where am I?'
'How did I end up here?'
'Just a moment ago, I was...'
Xu Shengxia's pupils contracted. She pressed her lips together as she began to remember.
Yesterday was her 25th birthday. It should have been a happy day, but two phone calls had ruined it.
One was from her father, and the other was from her mother.
They had both called earlier, saying they wanted to celebrate her 25th birthday with her.
For their sake, Xu Shengxia had turned down all her friends' invitations, waiting expectantly for them in the massive, empty villa.
But she never expected that what she'd get instead were two phone calls telling her they couldn't make it.
Her father said his new young mistress had just found out she was pregnant. To celebrate the coming of his sixth child, he was taking his pregnant mistress shopping abroad. He told her to be an understanding big sister-to-be and celebrate with her mother this time. He promised he would make it up to her when he got back.
Her mother said her new boyfriend, a boxer, had a match today. She didn't want to miss the chance to cheer him on, so she told Xu Shengxia to celebrate with her father for now. After the match, she and her "little boyfriend" would throw her another birthday party.
After hanging up, Xu Shengxia was so angry she had to laugh.
'So they both think their new lovers are more important than their own daughter, huh?'
'Fine!'
'As if I don't have a lover of my own. I'll go find mine right now.'
In a fit of pique, Xu Shengxia messaged her parents, telling them she was going out to celebrate with her own "little lover" and that they should provide a birthday allowance.
And then... without another word, Mr. Xu and Mrs. Xu each transferred her one million yuan.
Xu Shengxia, now two million yuan richer: "..."
Suddenly, she didn't feel like finding a "little lover" anymore.
She sat alone in the vast, empty villa for a while,
before finally calling up her pack of rowdy friends. She invited them to the mountaintop racing club, planning to welcome her 25th year with speed and passion.
But unexpectedly... as she was speeding her sports car toward the club, a Volkswagen SUV swerved over the line and slammed into her. Her car, which had been driving along the cliff's edge, was sent plummeting—
And just like that, Xu Shengxia and her sports car began to free-fall.
During the free-fall, many thoughts flashed through Xu Shengxia's mind.
Thoughts about whether she would die, thoughts about whether her parents would feel any regret after her death, thoughts about...
Ultimately, all these thoughts were interrupted by a faint, mechanical voice.
[DING! The Consumption Rebate System has detected a suitable host. Does the host agree to bind?]
[Binding countdown initiated... Three! Two! One!]
[DING! No rejection command received from the host. Consent is assumed by default. Initiating automatic binding procedure...]
Before the mechanical voice could finish, the car hit the ground with a deafening explosion. A sharp pain shot through Xu Shengxia's entire body, and she lost consciousness.
When she woke up again, she was here.
'So... did I die and transmigrate?'
'Did that system that automatically bound to me save me?'
Full of questions, Xu Shengxia cleared her throat and couldn't help but ask aloud:
"System, did I transmigrate?"
The next second, a mechanical, electronic voice did indeed reply in her mind:
[Yes, Host. Would you like to learn about the original owner's life?]
"Yes."
Xu Shengxia said without hesitation.
Although she had been heartbroken by her parents right before her death in her previous life,
Xu Shengxia was not a pessimistic person at heart.
Since the car crash didn't kill her but instead allowed her to transmigrate,
she would cherish this chance and live a good life in this new world.
Therefore... she needed to understand the original owner—the person she now was in this world.
[Understood. Transferring the original owner's memories to the host...]
As it spoke, Xu Shengxia's mind flooded with a surge of unfamiliar information.
This world was called the Blue Star World and was 95% similar to Earth, so Xu Shengxia would have no problem adapting.
The original owner shared her name but not her fate. She was an orphan, just one month shy of her eighteenth birthday.
With only a middle school education, she was withdrawn and practically invisible to society. However, she was a diligent and reliable worker. In just two short years of working on an assembly line, she had managed to save up fifty thousand yuan.
With those fifty thousand yuan, her modest life seemed full of promise. But then, unexpectedly... she fell victim to a phone scam.
A scammer called, posing as an official Taobao customer service representative. They claimed she had been selected as a lucky customer and that if she clicked a link on her phone to download an app, she could receive a brand-name, wall-mounted air conditioner worth 6,999 yuan.
The original owner's rental room had no air conditioning, and it was the peak of summer heat. After a lot of smooth-talking from the scammer, her heart was moved.
She followed his instructions and did as he said...
In the end, as you can imagine, she never got the air conditioner, and even the fifty thousand yuan she had worked so hard to save was gone.
When the original owner realized she'd been scammed, she frantically called Taobao, called the bank, called the Emergency Number...
She was in a frenzy day and night, neglecting her job, only to finally get a single sentence from the police:
"Those fifty thousand yuan have already been transferred overseas. The chances of recovery are slim. We hope you can be mentally prepared for that."
After hanging up the phone with the police, not only was the original owner not mentally prepared, but she was so enraged that she couldn't catch her breath. She collapsed on the bed and died.
And that's how Xu Shengxia from Earth arrived.
After receiving all of the original owner's memories, Xu Shengxia couldn't help but sigh with emotion.
She found it hard to comprehend the original owner's rather dramatic life.
But... since she was now occupying someone else's body, she didn't feel it was her place to judge.
So, she could only remain silent, refraining from comment. She extracted the useful information and sealed the rest away.
After extracting the information, Xu Shengxia turned her attention back to the system.
Her current situation was nothing like her previous life. As the "her" who had been scammed out of all her money, she really needed to rely on the system to make a living.
Otherwise, she was afraid she'd starve to death.
So, she spoke to the system again:
"System, give me a rundown of your functions."
System:
[Understood. Explaining the system's rules to the host now.]
The next second, a virtual control panel unfolded before Xu Shengxia.
Text appeared on the control panel in real-time:
[This system's full name is the Consumption Rebate System. As the name implies, it is a system that requires the host to spend money on a designated group of people in order to receive multiplied rebates.]
[The designated group of people refers to the handsome men in this world with a comprehensive appearance score of 80 or higher.]