Chapter 1 · One Cent. One "Gold Digger"

After a month of breakup, Alex Reed, my ex, Venmoed me some money in the middle of the night.

I was half-asleep, only to find he Venmoed me one cent.

Then his message popped up: [Emily Young, can you stop being such a gold digger? It's been a month since we broke up, and you still can't let go of even one cents?]

He called me a gold digger.

I didn't even bother to reply. I Venmoed the one cent right back to him and blocked him.

The next morning, my roommate shoved her phone right in my face. My photo was pinned to the top of the campus gossip forum, with the caption: [Gold digger made it. Who's riding in the Rolls-Royce with her?]

Three thousand comments were flaming me, calling me shameless.

Alex commented right below: [She was always like this when we were together. She blew through 7,000 dollars of mine in just one month.]

I laughed.

We were together for three months, but he didn't spend a single dollar on me.

He didn't know that the Rolls-Royce belonged to my dad, Richard Young.

My dad was a school board member.

He would find out soon enough.

I would make Alex grovel and swallow that "gold digger" insult.

*****

It was 2 a.m. when my phone lit up.

I squinted and reached for it, and saw a transfer notification.

Sender: Alex Reed.

He was my ex, but we had broken up for a month.

I was so sleepy that my brain wasn't even working, but my finger had already tapped it.

The transfer notification popped open: One cent.

Before I could even respond, Alex's messages popped up: [I'm just testing if you have deleted me. Why did you really take it?]

[Emily, can you not be such a gold digger?]

[It's been a month since we broke up, and you can't even pass up one cents?]

[Alright, taking my money means you're saying yes to getting back together. Even if you're a gold digger, I'm cool with it.]

[By the way, let's have dinner tomorrow. You're picking up the tab.]

I stared at the screen, and all my sleepiness had gone.

Gold digger, he called me a gold digger.

We were together for three months. We split the bill for every meal and every movie ticket, and he even nickel-and-dimed everything, including a bottle of water from the convenience store.

For his birthday, I gave him a pair of sneakers worth 300 dollars.

He tried them on right away and said he loved them. Then he said to his roommate, "Emily must come from a rich family. I should try to milk her for more money."

For my birthday, he gave me a phone case, which was one of those 3 dollars with free shipping. He even made a point to say, "It is personalized."

But it was actually cash on delivery. The shipping was 4 dollars, and I had to cover it myself.

Whenever he gave me snacks, I would buy him something of equal value the next day. I made sure I never owed him even a penny.

He bought me a coffee for 5 dollars, so I sent him 6 dollars.

I never took a single dollar from him for three months.

We broke up because he asked me to lend him 1,500 dollars for a training fee.

I told him I didn't have that kind of money.

His face darkened on the spot. "Emily, we've been together for three months, and I've treated you to so many meals. Now you won't even lend me 1,500 dollars?

"Were you ever serious about us?" he said.

I didn't argue. I just broke up with him.

He kept pestering me for three days.

On the fourth day, he suddenly stopped.

I thought he had finally given up.

But now it looked like he had just changed his approach.

It had been a month since we broke up.

The only thing he ever willingly gave me was one cents.

And then he called me a gold digger.

I transferred him back the one cent with a message: [Tapped it by accident.]

I blocked him right away.

Then I deleted his contact.

I set my phone down by the pillow and rolled over, ready to go back to sleep.

But sleep wouldn't come.

My phone kept buzzing.

A light was glowing from Sophie Shaw's bed. She was my roommate. She sat up, and her phone screen illuminated her face. She looked like she had seen a ghost.

"Emily," she said with her tight voice. "Check the campus gossip forum."

My heart skipped a beat.

I pulled up the campus gossip forum.

The top post had my face front and center.

A clear shot of me, straight-on.

Last Friday evening, right at the school gate, I was caught on camera leaning down to get into a black car.

The Rolls-Royce logo was shining so brightly in the photo.

The caption was: [Gold digger made it. A freshman's shortcut to wealth. Guess who's riding in that Rolls-Royce?]

It was posted at 3 a.m.

It had been five hours up to now.

There were 3,200 comments.

It had also been reposted 1,700 times.

I scrolled down.

The top comment received 3,000 likes: [Isn't that Emily Young? She was the freshman representative who gave the speech at the opening ceremony. I felt something was off about her back then. She is unsurprisingly a gold digger.]

The second comment received 2,800 likes: [The passenger seat of a Rolls-Royce? The guy must be at least in his forties or fifties. No need to spell it out. He is definitely married. A gold digger and a mistress. Debuffs fully stacked. Disgusting.]

The third comment received 2,500 likes: [Her ex is my buddy. He's super honest, but she treated him like an ATM for three months. He spent over 7,000 dollars in just one month because of her, and once she'd used him up, she dumped him.]

The fourth comment received 2,200 likes: [Why is someone like that still around?]

The fifth comment received 2,000 likes: [Girls, let's expose her name. Let the whole country see what a real gold digger looks like.]

The sixth comment: [I know her. She always pretends to be all pure and untouchable in class, like nobody's good enough for her. It turns out that she's actually a gold digger.]

The seventh comment: [So, what's the going rate for a ride in a Rolls-Royce? Hook me up. I want to see what it's like too.]

The eighth comment: [@Emily Young, why don't you show yourself? Tell us, how'd you manage to score a ride with that sugar daddy?]

I scrolled through, reading each comment.

Out of 3,200 comments, nobody even wondered if the photo was fake.

No one said, [What if that's just her dad's car?]

Everyone was trashing me.

Everyone was having a blast tearing me apart.

Then I spotted a familiar profile picture. That was Alex.

Chapter 1

After a month of breakup, Alex Reed, my ex, Venmoed me some money in the middle of the night.

I was half-asleep, only to find he Venmoed me one cent.

Then his message popped up: [Emily Young, can you stop being such a gold digger? It's been a month since we broke up, and you still can't let go of even one cents?]

He called me a gold digger.

I didn't even bother to reply. I Venmoed the one cent right back to him and blocked him.

Three thousand comments were flaming me, calling me shameless.

Alex commented right below: [She was always like this when we were together. She blew through 7,000 dollars of mine in just one month.]

I laughed.

We were together for three months, but he didn't spend a single dollar on me.

He didn't know that the Rolls-Royce belonged to my dad, Richard Young.

My dad was a school board member.

He would find out soon enough.

I would make Alex grovel and swallow that "gold digger" insult.

*****

It was 2 a.m. when my phone lit up.

I squinted and reached for it, and saw a transfer notification.

Sender: Alex Reed.

He was my ex, but we had broken up for a month.

I was so sleepy that my brain wasn't even working, but my finger had already tapped it.

The transfer notification popped open: One cent.

Before I could even respond, Alex's messages popped up: [I'm just testing if you have deleted me. Why did you really take it?]

[Emily, can you not be such a gold digger?]

[It's been a month since we broke up, and you can't even pass up one cents?]

[Alright, taking my money means you're saying yes to getting back together. Even if you're a gold digger, I'm cool with it.]

[By the way, let's have dinner tomorrow. You're picking up the tab.]

I stared at the screen, and all my sleepiness had gone.

Gold digger, he called me a gold digger.

We were together for three months. We split the bill for every meal and every movie ticket, and he even nickel-and-dimed everything, including a bottle of water from the convenience store.

For his birthday, I gave him a pair of sneakers worth 300 dollars.

He tried them on right away and said he loved them. Then he said to his roommate, "Emily must come from a rich family. I should try to milk her for more money."

For my birthday, he gave me a phone case, which was one of those 3 dollars with free shipping. He even made a point to say, "It is personalized."

But it was actually cash on delivery. The shipping was 4 dollars, and I had to cover it myself.

Whenever he gave me snacks, I would buy him something of equal value the next day. I made sure I never owed him even a penny.

He bought me a coffee for 5 dollars, so I sent him 6 dollars.

I never took a single dollar from him for three months.

We broke up because he asked me to lend him 1,500 dollars for a training fee.

I told him I didn't have that kind of money.

His face darkened on the spot. "Emily, we've been together for three months, and I've treated you to so many meals. Now you won't even lend me 1,500 dollars?

"Were you ever serious about us?" he said.

I didn't argue. I just broke up with him.

He kept pestering me for three days.

On the fourth day, he suddenly stopped.

I thought he had finally given up.

But now it looked like he had just changed his approach.

It had been a month since we broke up.

The only thing he ever willingly gave me was one cents.

And then he called me a gold digger.

I transferred him back the one cent with a message: [Tapped it by accident.]

I blocked him right away.

Then I deleted his contact.

I set my phone down by the pillow and rolled over, ready to go back to sleep.

But sleep wouldn't come.

My phone kept buzzing.

A light was glowing from Sophie Shaw's bed. She was my roommate. She sat up, and her phone screen illuminated her face. She looked like she had seen a ghost.

"Emily," she said with her tight voice. "Check the campus gossip forum."

My heart skipped a beat.

I pulled up the campus gossip forum.

The top post had my face front and center.

A clear shot of me, straight-on.

Last Friday evening, right at the school gate, I was caught on camera leaning down to get into a black car.

The Rolls-Royce logo was shining so brightly in the photo.

The caption was: [Gold digger made it. A freshman's shortcut to wealth. Guess who's riding in that Rolls-Royce?]

It was posted at 3 a.m.

It had been five hours up to now.

There were 3,200 comments.

It had also been reposted 1,700 times.

I scrolled down.

The fourth comment received 2,200 likes: [Why is someone like that still around?]

The fifth comment received 2,000 likes: [Girls, let's expose her name. Let the whole country see what a real gold digger looks like.]

The sixth comment: [I know her. She always pretends to be all pure and untouchable in class, like nobody's good enough for her. It turns out that she's actually a gold digger.]

The seventh comment: [So, what's the going rate for a ride in a Rolls-Royce? Hook me up. I want to see what it's like too.]

The eighth comment: [@Emily Young, why don't you show yourself? Tell us, how'd you manage to score a ride with that sugar daddy?]

I scrolled through, reading each comment.

Out of 3,200 comments, nobody even wondered if the photo was fake.

No one said, [What if that's just her dad's car?]

Everyone was trashing me.

Everyone was having a blast tearing me apart.

Then I spotted a familiar profile picture. That was Alex.