Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

A few years ago, seeing their son getting older and that his strange illness wasn’t affecting his daily life, the old couple started pressuring him to get married.

But their son told them that in his dreams, he had not only married Ni Bingyan but also had two children with her. He said their family was incredibly happy, so he could never see eye to eye with any other woman, and they shouldn’t waste their efforts.

Hearing this, the couple was very happy and gave up on the idea of playing matchmaker for him.

Still, they couldn’t help but be curious. They asked their son, ”What year did you get married? Are the two kids boys or girls? Which one is older? What year were they born? Are they twins?”

Sang Yuan got a headache from all their questions and could only make up an excuse, saying he hadn’t dreamed about those details yet. The couple knew he was reserved and didn’t like to treat these matters as gossip, so they dropped it.

From then on, however, they began to look forward to the day their son and daughter-in-law would finally be together.

When that day came, they could close their eyes for the last time and die happy.

But then Jiang Laoer came out of nowhere and didn’t even treat her well! It was infuriating!

Yet when the old couple intentionally or unintentionally brought this up in front of their son, he remained surprisingly calm. Every time, he would cryptically tell them that this wasn’t *her*, and that it was best to treat her as a stranger for now.

He even said, ”If he treated her well, what would there be for me to do?”

’That makes so much sense!’

The old couple was immediately convinced, and their anger subsided.

Having been tormented by this strange affair for over a decade, they had long since grown used to it.

A while ago, for some crazy reason, all the major websites started advertising web novels in all sorts of ways.

Mrs. Sang, who never read novels, accidentally clicked on one.

It was a novel about the entertainment industry where the protagonist was reborn into the body of someone with the same name. At first, she found it rather plain and unremarkable, but as the story unfolded, she found she couldn’t put it down.

By the time she had read a good chunk of it, wiping away tears, she looked up to see dawn was already breaking outside.

Thanks to this novel, Mrs. Sang finally came up with a bold theory about her son and daughter-in-law’s situation.

’It’s just reincarnation and transmigration, isn’t it?’

’The information transfer must have been faulty. My son was reborn, but not all at once, which is why he knows some things in advance. As for my daughter-in-law, maybe she hasn’t transmigrated over yet?’

With part of the mystery in her heart solved, she was so happy that she even gave two monthly passes to the author, named 33 Degrees, and left a comment encouraging her to keep writing well.

Although reality might not be exactly like a novel, having an explanation put her mind at ease.

In any case, her son had long stopped falling into comas. Aside from being unable to accept another woman as his wife, his daily life was no different from anyone else’s.

As parents, all that mattered was that their child was healthy. Things being what they were, what more could they ask for?

’But... the child we’ve watched grow up... where will she go after my daughter-in-law arrives?’

This wasn’t something they could prevent, just as they couldn’t decide when their daughter-in-law would arrive.

Mrs. Sang felt uneasy for a long time. It was only after spending more than half a month at Putuo Mountain praying for blessings that her heart settled down a little.

She never expected her son’s illness to act up again!

When he suddenly came down with a fever yesterday, she should have been prepared! To think that after so many years, she had forgotten about this!

They rushed him to the hospital, and after a series of tests, they, as expected, still couldn’t find anything wrong.

Since it wasn’t a physical problem, the old couple felt relieved. Thinking they hadn’t seen their grandson in a long time, they took the opportunity of his uncle’s hospitalization to call their eldest daughter’s family over.

When Sang Mu and her family of three hurried to the hospital, Sang Yuan was in a dream, reliving the events leading up to his death in his previous life.

There is a great terror in the space between life and death. That memory was too painful and had been buried in the deepest recesses of his soul.

The specifics of Ni Bingyan’s origins were also a secret he dared not speak of, even in his sleep.

Today, he had come face to face with Ni Bingyan, and she had spoken to him. The shock of it all made him suddenly remember.

It all started with a major project. He got arrogant and didn’t listen to his wife’s advice to take it one steady step at a time. He tried to hit the jackpot with one big move, but one wrong step led to many more. In the end, he declared bankruptcy. The company was over a hundred billion in debt, and his personal assets had to be auctioned off to cover it.

When he realized things were going south, he forced his wife to divorce him.

He had wanted to leave a sum for his wife and children by dividing their marital assets, but she was furious, thinking he was having an affair and using it as an excuse for divorce.

In the end, she took nothing but the two children and told him to get lost, to get as far away from her as possible.

It wasn’t until the company declared bankruptcy and the vast business empire came crashing down that she realized something was wrong.

While she was frantically searching for him, he felt too ashamed to face his wife and children. He hid away on a famous Taoist mountain they had once visited together, hoping to calm himself before seeing her again.

Just as he was trying to figure out how to resolve his debts and plot a comeback, a massive earthquake struck the area.

When the earthquake hit, he was sitting cross-legged on the mountaintop watching the sunrise. The mountain shook, throwing him straight off a cliff. His skull cracked open on the spot.

Words sometimes seem so pale. The terror and despair carved into his very soul were truly indescribable!

Even though his consciousness was still immersed in the memories of his past life, his body began to tremble uncontrollably.

Thinking this episode was like the previous ones, where he would be fine after sleeping for a day or two at most, his family wasn’t overly worried.

But when he suddenly started shaking, so violently that the hospital bed began to CREAK, Sang Mu turned pale with fright and ran to find a doctor, in such a hurry that she ran right out of her high heels!

The old couple, however, remained calm. The mother instructed her son-in-law and grandson to hold him down, while the father found a wooden chopstick for him to bite on, afraid he would bite his own tongue.

Doctors filed in one after another and began trying to save him.

Meanwhile, Sang Yuan, breathing through an oxygen mask, was experiencing the most heart-wrenching moment of his past life.

He saw himself floating lightly beside his own corpse. After waiting for a very, very long time, just when he thought he would remain that way until the end of time, he saw her—his wife, her face caked in mud, trekking toward him despite the danger of aftershocks.

Dark clouds covered the sky that day. It was a spring day with a fine, drizzling rain.

She must have searched many places; her shoes were worn through.

Her hair was a mess, like a bird’s nest, and she looked utterly exhausted.

When she found him, she was silent for a moment, then tears streamed down her face.

She covered her mouth, sobbing so hard the veins on her neck bulged. She bit down hard on her arm, drawing blood, before she could control herself enough to force out a complete sentence.

She said, ”Husband! I’m here... to take you home! Before... it was always you... who came to get me. Now... now it’s my turn... to come... to come get you...”

She wasn’t afraid. Crying, she threw herself over his body and began to dig him out from between the rocks. An hour passed, then two...

The soil was mixed with gravel, withered branches, dead leaves, and thorns. Her fingernails, usually so well-manicured, were all bent back and broken. Her delicate skin was torn, and her fresh blood mixed with his, which had long since congealed.

The sight of bright red and dark red mixed with the brownish mud stung his eyes!

He wanted to scream, ’Go! My love, you have to go! It’s dangerous here!’

But no matter how frantic he was, she wouldn’t leave!

Because she couldn’t hear a word he was saying.

This was, without a doubt, the greatest distance in the world.

His wife was a practical person, but deep down, she possessed the unique romanticism of an artist.

They had once chatted under the stars about who would die first when they got old.

Every time, she would say, ”It has to be me.”

”Otherwise, when you’re gone—

”I’ll call you, but no one will ever pick up and say ’Hello?’ with a smile;

”When I finish work late, there’ll be no one waiting to pick me up;

”When we visit relatives, it’ll just be me, holding the children’s hands;

”When I’m tired or feeling wronged and want to complain like I always do, the words will leave my mouth, only for me to realize there’s no one left to listen;

”I won’t be able to sleep in the winter when my feet are cold, because there won’t be a warm embrace for me to lean into;

”And I’m a coward; I’ll be scared when I have nightmares;

”From then on, there will be no one to share my joy, no one to accompany me in my loneliness. No one to remind me to put on more clothes when it’s cold, and no one, late at night, to remind me... to remember... to eat...”

As she spoke those words, tears would stream down her face without her even realizing.

And then he would say, ”Alright, then. You can go first.”

Then she would jump up, laughing and crying as she playfully hit his shoulder.

He never imagined that in the end, he would be the one to go first.

And to leave so suddenly, in such a wretched state, leaving the one behind utterly heartbroken.

There were still aftershocks on the mountain. Pebbles of all sizes rolled down, hitting her. One even scratched her face, but she didn’t throw herself into his arms to whine like she used to when a rose thorn pricked her hand.

”Only people who have someone to dote on them have the right to be delicate! When you’re not around, I can haul cement!” she had once told him.

And so now, her will was as strong as tempered steel.

She wanted to dig him out, and he stayed by her side, watching her.

She couldn’t hear him speak. He couldn’t hold her.

He watched her stumble and struggle, tying his stiff body to her back, and inch by inch, climb out of the ravine.

Her profession required her to maintain a very low body fat percentage. Logically, she shouldn’t have had that much strength, but she somehow performed a miracle.

She climbed for a day and a night. Her hands were raw, her shirt was torn, and her pants were shredded.

Finally, she succeeded in carrying him up to a section of the broken mountain road.

The sun tore through the dark clouds, its light shining down on the earth. Her pale lips were dry and chapped. In a daze, she heard a WHIRRRR sound coming from the sky.

She looked up, and the sunlight was blinding.

She raised a hand to shield her eyes.

A drone was flying overhead.

”Husband, the sun’s up...”

He heard her say.