Prologue:

The rain poured down in sheets, turning the city streets into a blur of grey. Li Wei gripped the steering wheel, her knuckles white as she navigated the slick roads. Her phone buzzed incessantly on the seat beside her, messages and calls from business partners, lawyers, and the occasional family member she hadn't spoken to in years.

She ignored them all. Tonight was supposed to have been a celebration. The finalization of a multi-million-dollar merger that would have cemented her place among the top business magnates in the country. But the victory felt hollow. After decades of ruthless ambition, cutthroat deals, and sleepless nights, she had everything she thought she wanted—money, power, respect. And yet, there was a gnawing emptiness in her chest.

What had it all been for?

The flashing headlights of an oncoming car jolted her back to reality. She swerved instinctively, but the rain-soaked road betrayed her. Tires screeched. The world spun. Metal crunched as her car collided with the guardrail, flipping violently. In that moment, time seemed to stretch, her life flashing before her eyes—boardroom victories, long-forgotten friendships, missed family gatherings, and a string of empty relationships. All of it, meaningless in the face of death.

And then, darkness.

---

Li Wei gasped, her lungs burning as though she had been submerged underwater. She blinked, disoriented, her fingers clawing at the unfamiliar sheets beneath her. She was alive. But something was wrong.

Where was she?

Her eyes darted around the room—small, dusty, barely furnished. She tried to sit up, but her body felt weak, as if it wasn't hers. Panic surged through her. She had been in a car crash, she remembered that much. But this wasn't a hospital. This wasn't—

Her gaze fell on the mirror across the room. She forced herself to stand, her legs trembling as she crossed the room on unsteady feet. When she saw her reflection, the breath left her lungs in a rush. The face staring back at her was not her own.

The woman in the mirror was younger, her face soft with youth but marked by exhaustion. Her hair, tied in a simple braid, hung limply over her shoulder, and her eyes—Li Wei's eyes—were wide with shock. She lifted a hand to her face, and the woman in the mirror did the same.

This wasn't her. This wasn't her life.

Frantic thoughts rushed through her mind. She had heard of this before—those strange stories of people waking up in the past, in someone else's body. Transmigration. And yet… here she was, living it.

Li Wei stumbled back from the mirror, her heart racing. She didn't know this face, this body, or this time. But one thing was clear—she was no longer in the world she knew.

The faint memories of the original owner of this body drifted into her consciousness. The girl whose life she had inherited was also named Li Wei, a poor, timid village girl living in rural China in the 1980s. She was nothing like the woman Li Wei had been in her previous life. No power, no wealth, no connections—just a simple, struggling existence.

But that was about to change.

Li Wei closed her eyes, steadying her breath as a single, sharp thought cut through her panic. This was her second chance. A chance to live again, to build something new, something even greater. The 1980s in China—this was the dawn of economic reform, a time of rapid growth and opportunity, if one knew how to seize it.

And she did.

With her knowledge of the future and her relentless drive, she could turn this humble life into something extraordinary. She had done it once before, in a world where success seemed impossible for a woman like her. And now, in this past, with the entire future spread out before her, she would do it again.

This time, Li Wei would rise not as a ruthless corporate titan, but as something new. Something greater.

Her journey was just beginning.