"Happy birthday, President Pei!"
Men and women surrounded Pei Ran, their faces brimming with joy.
Hearing these words again, Pei Ran finally understood what they were saying.
But, President Pei?
The world had changed too quickly. Pei Ran hadn't yet figured out how he had gone from "Manager Pei" to "President Pei."
Had he reached new heights with "Pei" without even realizing it?
"…Thank you?"
Pei Ran replied calmly, and sure enough, those stiffening smiles became lively again.
"President Pei, the cake is here. Make a wish quickly. Although, given your current wealth and happiness, you probably don't have any wishes that require divine intervention. But think of it as a little surprise in life—make a small wish, and if it comes true, it'll be a pleasant little surprise."
A bald middle-aged man grinned so widely it seemed his round body might burst the buttons on his shirt.
He radiated a certain festive cheer.
Pei Ran recognized this as the voice that had "woken" him earlier.
He gave a faint "Hmm," exuding the demeanor of "President Pei."
Sure enough, the bald middle-aged man beamed with joy, as if he had received praise from an emperor.
Before the bald man could say anything else, a family of three approached, immediately pushing him aside.
"Son, happy birthday!"
"Darling, I wish you happiness every day!"
"Brother, I'm starving! I want birthday cake…"
The middle-aged man looked greasy, the middle-aged woman's face was full of silicone, and the younger one, probably only around ten years old, pouted and glared as if to say, "I'm the emperor here, and you servants are so annoying."
Had his "exceptional" family also been swapped for a different variety?
Surrounded at the center, Pei Ran shifted his gaze from these people to the surroundings.
This was likely a villa—spacious, luxuriously decorated, and filled with people.
Like a puppet on strings, Pei Ran blew out the candles, cut the cake, and drank champagne amid the chorus of "Happy Birthday."
Before anyone could smear cake on his face, he made a beeline for the bathroom.
As the protagonist of this "utterly bewildering and inexplicable" event, Pei Ran entered the bathroom door, one hand clutching his chest and the other pressed to his forehead, the blaring suona music that had accompanied his death still echoing in his mind.
Then, as he looked up, he saw himself in the mirror.
And above his head, a line of bright red, oversized text.
Just like an NPC in a game.
He instinctively glanced back at the elegantly decorated walls, but there were no slogans there—nothing that could have tricked his eyes into misplacing the text onto his own head.
His newly acquired body stiffened.
Pei Ran closed his eyes, took a deep breath to steady himself, and then looked back to read the words clearly—
Poshan Daojishi: 99 Days.
It wasn't something like "Abyssal Demon King," which would clearly be an NPC name.
But!
The headache that had been throbbing faintly since earlier finally subsided, stimulated by the word "bankruptcy."
Bankruptcy?
Who!
As his rationality and ability to think returned, as if a buffer had completed, Pei Ran's mind filled with memories that weren't his own.
Great, the mystery was solved.
After the car accident, he had crossed over again—this time into a book.
Same name, same appearance, his current identity is the minor boss in a romance novel—the kind destined to go bankrupt.
Not even a supporting male character, he didn't even get a romantic subplot with the female lead. He was merely a tiny pebble on the path of the main couple's love story, not even significant enough to be called a stumbling block. His main purpose was to highlight the male lead's true domineering CEO aura with the phrase "Tianliang Pei Po."
The original owner clearly couldn't accept this reality. After learning his fate, he quietly vanished without a trace.
Then, this unlucky soul named Pei Ran took over everything.
"Pei Ran"—what a tragic man.
During the few minutes he stared at his reflection in the mirror, Pei Ran's mind was in chaos.
Even though he had been dealing with his endlessly dramatic and absurd life since birth, nothing compared to the overwhelming frustration he felt in those few minutes.
His original body was dead.
His home was in another world.
He had to stay here in this new identity, yet bankruptcy was imminent.
This wasn't a transmigration—it was a cruel joke played on him.
The only reason Pei Ran didn't immediately bash his head against the faucet in this bathroom was the original owner's bank account balance.
Thirty million!
That was just the liquid cash, not counting various assets.
Pei Ran closed his eyes and opened them again. One death, one replacement, and his savings had multiplied tenfold.
It was a sum he might never have earned in a lifetime of slaving away as a corporate drone.
He could adapt to his circumstances.
After all, he wasn't hung up on returning home. The so-called family he had there was better off without him, and this was a clean break.
But just three months—not even a hundred days—and he was about to lose it all. How could he accept that?
Pei Ran clutched his chest, feeling like he needed some emergency heart medication.
Someone save him—no, save his money.
"What's the big deal? Why call for help? No one's coming to save you."
A somewhat familiar male voice sounded outside the bathroom.
Every word precisely hit Pei Ran's sore spots, and it wasn't over yet.
"Don't be so serious. We're all colleagues. More interaction, more understanding—it'll be good for our future work together, don't you think?"
Pei Ran lowered the hand clutching his chest. In an instant, his entire posture straightened like a sharpened sword.
His eyes turned icy.
A potted plant nearly as tall as a person stood at the bathroom entrance, blocking the view inside and out.
Pei Ran took long strides and stepped into the outer area.
He immediately ran into a man and a woman.
The man, with a half-bald head and a rotund figure, was the same one who had earlier showered him with flattery.
The young woman, forced into a corner, had her back to Pei Ran, so her face wasn't immediately visible.
However, he could see a stainless steel fork from the dining table clutched in her hand behind her back.
While watching this "counterattack" scene might have been entertaining, Pei Ran felt he needed an outlet for his frustration right now.
"What benefits? Care to elaborate?"
Pei Ran crossed his arms and stared at the bald middle-aged man.
Zhou Guoren's perverted smile had just surfaced, his mind clouded by alcohol and lust. He thought Shen Mianmian had responded to him.
"Promotion, a raise, thirty years less struggle—aren't those benefits enough…"
He looked at Shen Mianmian, who turned her gaze toward Pei Ran.
"Mr. Pei…"
This was an exceptionally soft and beautiful face, one that would immediately bring to mind the phrase "a pear blossom bathed in rain."
Truly worthy of being the female lead, her appearance was absolutely divine.
Pei Ran's gaze lingered on the "female lead's" face for an extra two seconds, already recognizing her.
As for Zhou Guoren's face, it had already turned pale.
Pei Ran raised an eyebrow: "There's actually such a benefit as 'working thirty years less'? I'd quite like that too. Why don't you get to know me as well?"
Zhou Guoren's expression shifted repeatedly, cold sweat already beading on his forehead.
"President Pei, this is all a misunderstanding. I just happened to come to the restroom with Xiao Shen and casually chatted a bit… Xiao Shen, isn't that right?"
The expressionless Pei Ran then turned his gaze toward Shen Mianmian, the female lead in this novel world.
One of the fundamental reasons for his impending bankruptcy.
Shen Mianmian might appear soft on the outside, but the fork hidden behind her back indicated she wasn't truly that kind of pushover.
A Cinderella-type female lead, whose only sore point was a lack of money, with most of life's hardships stemming from it.
This was precisely to give the male lead, who was loaded with cash, room to shine.
Otherwise, when encountering scum like Zhou Guoren, she would have long since slapped him across the face, leaving no chance for him to repeatedly seize opportunities to harass her.
Now that she had the chance, she seized it precisely.
"President Pei, Manager Zhou just said he wanted to know my measurements, and if I didn't know them, he could personally help me measure them."
Pei Ran: "…"
Pah, this old lecher!
Right at the restroom entrance, he really should go in and see what a disgusting sight he was.
"So that's the kind of 'getting to know'…"
He trailed off, pausing for two seconds, seemingly not angry. Zhou Guoren's eyes suddenly lit up.
Perhaps President Pei shared the same thoughts as him—after all, Shen Mianmian was so beautiful…
Just as he thought he still had a chance, Pei Ran asked Shen Mianmian, "You probably have things like WeChat messages that Manager Zhou wanted to use to 'get to know' you, right?"
Shen Mianmian, who had been tense like a hedgehog, suddenly looked at Pei Ran in surprise.
"Yes, I have all the WeChat messages Manager Zhou has sent me since I joined the company, as well as recordings of him demanding to 'deeply understand' me at work, and recordings of his drunken calls to me in the middle of the night."
Anyway, she wasn't afraid of Zhou Guoren knowing about this, so she didn't mind saying it out loud.
Whoa!
Not only did Pei Ran widen his eyes slightly, but Zhou Guoren's drunkenness completely vanished.
"President Pei, Xiao Shen, it's all a misunderstanding…"
Pei Ran: "Make two copies of everything. Send one to me and one to Manager Zhou. If there are any more misunderstandings, Manager Zhou can explain them point by point tomorrow."
Zhou Guoren didn't know exactly what kind of person this President Pei was, but one thing he could see in his eyes:
It's over. He was finished.
Only when Zhou Guoren left, utterly dejected, did Shen Mianmian finally let her guard down.
"Thank you, President Pei."
In the female lead's eyes at this moment, Pei Ran practically shone with brilliance… Their company's boss was actually a good person!
Similarly, Pei Ran looked at Shen Mianmian the same way.
This was a person equated with thirty million—a veritable moving gold mountain.
"…No need."
As the two locked eyes, Pei Ran suddenly felt that his thirty million might still be salvageable.
Wasn’t the root cause of the worst possible outcome right here?
Then he would treat both the “symptoms” and the “root cause”—earnestly raising the female lead’s favorability, clinging to the protagonist’s golden thigh—wouldn’t that work?
This could be considered an unintended benefit.
For a moment, Pei Ran had indeed considered staying away from the main cast, but the female lead was now in his company, and it seemed she had suffered more than just a little mistreatment there.
If he let her leave now, even if he wasn’t the one firing her, the grudge would already be formed.
So, by this calculation, he had no way out.
While Pei Ran was lost in thought, Shen Mianmian thanked him again and then left.
Watching the female lead disappear from sight, he turned and glanced at his reflection in the nearby windowpane. The bright red “99” above his head was still 99.
Hmm, chest pain.
Clutching his chest, he returned to the original owner’s home—one of the city’s upscale residential complexes, a spacious three-hundred-square-meter flat. Living here was nothing short of luxurious.
The original owner’s parents and younger brother hadn’t returned yet, leaving him alone.
The old butler at home heard the commotion and came out.
“Sir, you’re back?”
The elderly man in butler attire had a certain novel-like charm about him. He appeared to be in his sixties, full of vitality.
According to the novel’s setting, this butler had been working for the Pei family since they rose to prominence. Over time, he developed an attachment and stayed on as the butler.
Aside from the butler, there were four maids in the household, handling tasks like cleaning, cooking, and picking up the children.
As soon as Pei Ran entered and settled on the sofa, the old butler brought over a glass of honey water.
This was just a moderately wealthy small business owner, not even on the rich list, yet he carried himself like a tycoon.
Truly a self-destructive CEO destined to ruin himself.
On his first night in this world, Pei Ran, overwhelmed with exhaustion, drifted off to sleep with the lingering “funeral dirge” still echoing in his mind.
When he woke up the next morning, he was still somewhat groggy.
It wasn’t until he followed the original owner’s habits and stumbled into the bathroom, lifting his eyes to see his reflection in the mirror—topped with a bright red countdown—that he snapped awake in an instant.
How did the original owner go bankrupt?
Because of the female lead, he caught the male lead’s attention.
Then, through a scheme, he botched an investment project, severing the cash flow and leading to the company’s acquisition and change of ownership.
When he lost everything, not even a ripple was heard.
And the person who ruined the investment project was named Pei Yucai—the biological father of this body.
With a mind unusually clear after waking, Pei Ran quickly freshened up. After confirming that Pei Yucai had already “diligently” gone to the company, he headed straight there as well.
So what if it was bankruptcy? He already knew where he would stumble. All he had to do was nip any unfavorable factors in the bud beforehand.
Shen Mianmian was the “root cause,” and he hadn’t yet figured out how to address her, but Pei Yucai, the “symptom,” would be much simpler to handle.
He, Pei Ran, would save himself!
Bankrupting him wouldn’t be that easy!
After a good night’s sleep, Pei Ran was fully energized.
A working man wouldn’t be defeated so easily.
[Author’s Note]
Shen Mianmian: I actually got the female lead's script!
Pei Ran: I just want to tear up the script, tear it up!
Don't worry, there's absolutely no ambiguity between the two.