Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

Sang Yuan sprinted all the way home. As he pushed open the courtyard gate, his heart was still pounding wildly.

’He wasn’t ready to talk to her yet.’

Yayuan had fifty homes, each one specially designed by a world-class architect, giving every residence its own unique style.

Unlike Ni Bingyan’s rustic little courtyard, the Sang family’s residence was the crown jewel of the neighborhood. It was not only several times larger than hers, but it also boasted an understated and sophisticated classical Chinese style.

Upon entering through the main gate and passing a brick spirit screen carved with the character for ”fortune,” one would find an exquisite courtyard. Through a grove of vibrant green bamboo, a corner of a lotus pond was visible.

A few late-blooming lotuses stood tall and graceful, with plump seed pods standing guard beside them like silent knights.

The clear water rippled, and from beneath the drooping lotus leaves, a pair of mandarin ducks emerged.

On the rockery beside the pond stood an octagonal pavilion. From the moment Sang Yuan had rushed out, Mrs. Sang had been sitting there, trimming a pot of chrysanthemums. She chose that spot because its high vantage point near the entrance gave her a clear view of the area outside the main gate.

When she saw him in the distance, sprinting back as if a dog were on his heels, Mrs. Sang’s heart leaped into her throat. As he drew closer along the covered walkway, she couldn’t help but call out to him from across the pond, her brow furrowed in disapproval:

”Where’s your hat? Didn’t I tell you to stay warm since you have a cold? You’re still running a fever! And you just had to go out in the rain, insisting on wearing a raincoat to go... What on earth were you doing?”

The old couple had known about Ni Bingyan’s move even before their son did. They’d recently had a premonition that something was about to change. Unsure how to face her, they had even gone to stay on Putuo Mountain for a while, only returning the day before.

Their son had moved out long ago for the sake of his work, so his recent, sudden return only intensified their premonition!

She couldn’t shake the illusion that time was rewinding, pulling her back to over a decade ago.

The memory of those dark days still filled her with a lingering dread, compelling her, a powerful businesswoman, to do all sorts of ridiculous things—not just nagging her nearly thirty-year-old son about wearing a hat, but even stooping to surveillance.

”Mom!”

Sang Yuan was utterly exasperated.

Anyone would be exasperated if, at nearly thirty, their own mother still watched them like a hawk.

But just as he cried out, his vision swam with stars, and he lost control, his body collapsing to the ground.

Mrs. Sang instantly dropped her shears and scrambled down from the rockery, screaming as she ran, ”Honey!”

No matter how many storms she had weathered in her life, it was impossible for a mother to remain calm when something happened to her child.

Hearing her scream, Mr. Sang, who was practicing calligraphy in the nearby waterside pavilion, threw down his brush and vaulted out through the wide-open window.

”Don’t panic! Don’t move him! Go call the driver. I’ll check on him!”

He had started training in household first aid ever since his daughter was born. Decades of practice made him far more level-headed in a crisis like this.

The couple had been childhood sweethearts. They studied abroad together in the eighties—he in mechanical engineering, she in economics. Upon their return, they married. Instead of entering politics as their families had planned, they ventured into the home appliance industry and started their own business.

Mr. Sang led a research team in developing new technologies that drastically reduced the energy consumption of home appliances, saving the country an incalculable amount of energy over the years.

Mrs. Sang, with her sharp, straightforward personality and keen business sense, handled marketing. Over the decades, their company grew massive, even successfully branching out into other industries.

The two worked in perfect sync, building a massive business empire. Most people assumed Mrs. Sang was the assertive one, but when a real crisis hit, it was the seemingly mild-mannered Mr. Sang who was the steadier of the two.

Seeing her husband at their son’s side, Mrs. Sang felt a sense of stability return and immediately called the driver.

This son had been a constant source of worry for them.

Outsiders just thought he couldn’t find a girlfriend, a fact that was a headache for his family. What they didn’t know was that ever since his first year of high school, he’d been suffering from a strange illness, one they couldn’t mention to anyone.

At first, it was just frequent low-grade fevers. Later, he would occasionally fall into a deep sleep, not waking for a day or two. When he did wake up, he would be ravenous but otherwise perfectly fine.

The family wanted for nothing, so they took him to see the most renowned doctors across the globe, but to no avail.

Every single medical report said he was as strong as an ox. There was nothing wrong with him at all!

But then, after a while, he would fall into another one of his long slumbers without any warning. How could that be a sign of good health?

The whole family was so worried they could barely eat or sleep. In just two short months, they became haggard beyond recognition.

During that period, rumors swirled through their industry that the family’s cash flow had dried up and they were on the verge of bankruptcy. Even the elders from both sides of the family called to ask if they were in trouble and needed a helping hand.

As the situation grew more dire, Sang Yuan finally swallowed his embarrassment and told them that when he slept, he was actually dreaming the entire time.

His dreams were strange. He could remember everything from them with perfect clarity upon waking, but the dreams themselves were always fragmented. Most of the time, the pieces didn’t connect, and it took immense concentration to assemble them into a coherent order.

He must not have believed it himself, because he conducted a few experiments in secret.

He made a few investments based on information from his dreams, and every single one was wildly profitable.

Only then did he become certain: the things happening in his dreams were very likely real.

Faced with such a bizarre thing happening to their own son, the couple, despite their complete bewilderment, tried their best to accept it.

They asked him what he dreamed about.

He said he dreamed of a woman. A very beautiful woman.

Back then, Sang Yuan was only a freshman in high school, just at the age where romantic feelings begin to blossom. On one hand, he had his homeroom teacher watching his every move to prevent any puppy love. On the other, he had a girlfriend like a Little Fairy whom he met in his dreams. It left him feeling ashamed all day, yet he couldn’t help but yearn for those meetings.

With a Little Fairy living in his dreams, every other girl seemed plain and uninteresting in his eyes. Forget about puppy love; he felt that even a second glance was a waste of time.

Aside from his studies, the only thing that brought him joy was making money.

’If I want to marry her, I have to save up a good amount of money, don’t I?’

Hearing this, the couple breathed a sigh of relief. They praised him for being so responsible.

Young Sang Yuan also breathed a sigh of relief.

’As long as Mom and Dad stopped worrying, what was a little social suicide to him?’

’In ancient times, plenty of fifteen-year-old boys got married. What did he have to be embarrassed about?’

But in the next moment, his parents’ eyes lit up as they peppered him with questions. ”Do you remember your girlfriend’s name? What’s her job? Who’s in her family? Where’s her hometown? Did you two get married later? How many kids did you have?”

Geez, so many questions! It was enough to kill a guy!

Brother Sang was carrying too much on his young shoulders.

At that point, his dreams had only progressed to the dating stage. All he knew was that his girlfriend was from Rongcheng City, she was an actress named Ni Bingyan, and she was a few years younger than him. He knew nothing else.

The couple latched onto this information as if they’d discovered a priceless treasure. They thought they had finally found the miracle cure to restore their son to normalcy.

They had initially just decided to give it a shot. If it didn’t work, they were already planning to take their son to a psychiatrist.

To their surprise, a quick search actually led them to the person!

And that’s what made the situation so bizarre.

Their son had never even been to Sichuan, yet he knew of a girl in Rongcheng City and described her basic details with near-perfect accuracy!

The girl’s family ran a private kitchen, so for someone determined to find her, getting a glimpse wasn’t too difficult.

They traveled all that way only to find that the girl was not even eleven years old. She hadn’t fully blossomed yet, but she already possessed an air of peerless beauty.

On the day they saw her, she was wearing a traditional cyan blouse and skirt, standing on a small bridge and gazing at the half-bloomed lotus flowers. Her aura was exceptional, the very picture of a well-bred young lady from a good family. They were utterly charmed by her at first sight.

Just as they were mulling over whether they should approach Ni Guangli to arrange a childhood engagement—to let the two children get to know each other and see if it might cure their son’s strange illness—their son suddenly started scratching his head in agitation, repeating over and over, ”It’s not her! It’s not her!”

”But the Ni family only has one daughter! Didn’t you just say she looks a lot like the grown-up version of herself?”

Mr. Sang, with his background in research, didn’t have much patience for such mystical matters. He was a man who believed in facts his entire life, so he couldn’t wrap his head around his son saying it was her one moment and not her the next.

Sang Yuan couldn’t figure it out either back then!

Whenever he tried to think about it too deeply, his head would grow dizzy. In the end, all he could do was stubbornly murmur, ”It is her, but at the same time, it isn’t.”

They had hit another dead end.

Terrified that something might happen to their son, the couple followed his wishes from then on. They wouldn’t disturb the girl, nor would they pay her any undue attention.

Because, as he had said, the timing was wrong.

If they disrupted the rhythm of events, it could spell disaster.

It wasn’t just them; Sang Yuan himself didn’t know what the right time was. He was simply acting on instinct.

Over the years, as their son’s business ventures became increasingly successful, their alarm only grew.

Because it meant his dreams were still continuing. He just no longer fell into the long, disruptive slumbers of his childhood.

Otherwise, no matter how much of a genius he was, how could he possibly only ever make profits without a single loss?

He must have known the general trends of the future, always staying on the right path, to achieve such results.

Plenty of people in both their families were in business, and not a single one could boast such a record.

They didn’t dare ask about the girl or even mention her in front of their son. But the girl grew up and became an actress.

In her free time, Mrs. Sang loved watching TV dramas, while Mr. Sang preferred movies. Now that they were retired and had more time on their hands, they would occasionally see her on screen. It was the same face from her childhood, a face they would remember for the rest of their lives. How could they not pay attention?

They never went out of their way to ask, but they heard through the grapevine that the girl was now with the second son of the Jiang Family.

For the old couple, this news was a bolt from the blue.