diff --git a/qlib/__init__.py b/qlib/__init__.py
index 19a7e09af..fe217f491 100644
--- a/qlib/__init__.py
+++ b/qlib/__init__.py
@@ -2,8 +2,7 @@
 # Licensed under the MIT License.
 from pathlib import Path
 
-_version_path = Path(__file__).absolute().parent / "VERSION.txt"  # This file is copyed from setup.py
-__version__ = _version_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8").strip()
+__version__ = "0.8.0.99"
 __version__bak = __version__  # This version is backup for QlibConfig.reset_qlib_version
 import os
 from typing import Union
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 870dca698..508824955 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -6,6 +6,21 @@ import numpy
 
 from setuptools import find_packages, setup, Extension
 
+
+def read(rel_path: str) -> str:
+    here = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
+    with open(os.path.join(here, rel_path)) as fp:
+        return fp.read()
+
+
+def get_version(rel_path: str) -> str:
+    for line in read(rel_path).splitlines():
+        if line.startswith("__version__"):
+            delim = '"' if '"' in line else "'"
+            return line.split(delim)[1]
+    raise RuntimeError("Unable to find version string.")
+
+
 # Package meta-data.
 NAME = "pyqlib"
 DESCRIPTION = "A Quantitative-research Platform"
@@ -14,11 +29,7 @@ REQUIRES_PYTHON = ">=3.5.0"
 from pathlib import Path
 from shutil import copyfile
 
-CURRENT_DIR = Path(__file__).absolute().parent
-_version_src = CURRENT_DIR / "VERSION.txt"
-_version_dst = CURRENT_DIR / "qlib" / "VERSION.txt"
-copyfile(_version_src, _version_dst)
-VERSION = _version_dst.read_text(encoding="utf-8").strip()
+VERSION = get_version("qlib/__init__.py")
 
 # Detect Cython
 try: