Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

You can get tired of anything if you have too much of it, even beautiful people.

A person’s worldview, temperament, and behavior are all heavily influenced by their upbringing.

Luo Xiaoou came from a poor family and grew up without her parents. As a result, her worldview was limited and she was timid, always paralyzed by fear. It wasn’t just that her family looked down on her; she herself knew she wasn’t good enough.

After her grandfather brought her home, his method for fixing this was simple and blunt.

It might be difficult to give someone from a poor background the natural poise of a person raised in wealth, but it’s quite simple to make them unafraid of any situation.

Previously, buying a house was a goal she thought would take a lifetime to achieve.

So her grandfather took her out to buy houses.

After buying dozens of them in a row, she became so overwhelmed with choices that by the end, she was utterly sick of house-hunting and no longer found houses the least bit special.

Following this pattern, all her grandfather had to do was keep spending money.

Luo Xiaoou used to think wearing overly expensive clothes was a terrible sin.

So her grandfather took her on endless shopping sprees.

At first, she was thrilled and wanted to try on every single outfit. But eventually, just hearing her grandfather say, ”My dear granddaughter, go try this one on,” was enough to make her feel dizzy.

For the sake of her sanity, she learned a trick from her grandfather: just summon the bespoke tailoring team to the house. They would take her measurements, and she would simply pick out designs from a catalog. When they were ready, someone would deliver the clothes, washed and pressed, and hang them in her closet.

At first, whenever she saw an antique, she felt an urge to place it on an altar and worship it.

So her grandfather replaced everything she used daily with antiques.

The bowl she ate from, the spoon she used for soup, the plate that held her food... an entire set of red-glazed enamelware, supposedly imperial porcelain from the Qing Dynasty.

In her grandfather’s words, these items were ”relatively new,” valued only for their beauty.

A solid gold handbag, a Kesi silk qipao, a headpiece adorned with kingfisher feathers... she wore this entire ensemble just to play with the cats in the courtyard. It was all supposedly part of her grandmother’s dowry.

From large items like the canopy bed in her bedroom to small ones like the incense she burned before sleep, and even a simple pot of seal paste—once she learned their market value, her scalp would tingle with numbness.

One night, she groggily woke up for a drink of water. As she reached for the cup on her nightstand, her grip failed, and it fell to the floor with a CRASH.

She switched on the light and looked down. ’Oh, it’s the one from the Ming Dynasty. At least it wasn’t the blue-and-white porcelain one I like more.’

One week she’d be tired of the Chinese style, and the next, everything would be switched to European. Items were casually referred to as ”exclusively for the imperial court” or ”handcrafted by master artisans.” Anything less than a century old wouldn’t even dare show its face.

’The plot is as Mary Sue as it gets, but honestly, filming a role like this is incredibly fun~’

’This must be what it’s like when a protagonist from one of those power-fantasy novels steps into the real world!’

Ni Bingyan felt that since joining this production, she had been learning so, so much every day.

She had never realized before that her own daily life was also quite the Mary Sue fantasy.

For example, the ancient books and paintings belonging to her Old Ni Family weren’t things an ordinary family could possess.

Her dad would let her look at them casually, and she never thought much of it. If she wanted to read one, she’d just pull it out for a glance. If she had to leave while halfway through a book, she’d simply roll it up and stuff it in her bag.

’Thinking back now,’ she mused, ’those are antiques too. Treating them like that was a bit disrespectful.’

”Are you getting used to life here? If there’s anything you don’t like, you must tell your grandpa.”

One day, a smiling Grandpa Luo called Luo Xiaoou over and asked kindly about how she was settling in.

Luo Xiaoou had grown accustomed to her new life, but...

”It’s just shopping every single day. It feels so meaningless.”

She was now brave enough to voice her own thoughts.

”Haha, it’s good that you find it meaningless! If all you do is spend money without earning it, you’ll get bored quickly. We need to learn how to make our lives more meaningful.”

”Achieving financial freedom by relying on one’s ancestors isn’t a real ambition. It truly is meaningless. I want to achieve financial freedom on my own!”

With her grandfather’s guidance, Luo Xiaoou felt as if the door to a new world had opened. All the things that had been confusing her recently suddenly became clear.

’So, deep down, I’ve also been longing to realize my own self-worth.’

Seeing her clench her fists, her eyes filled with aspiration, Grandpa Luo chuckled and said:

”Achieving financial freedom? What a low-level goal in life! Come, my dear child, come with Grandpa and see a bit of the world.”

And so, Luo Xiaoou followed her grandfather to an automated toilet paper factory owned by their family.

”Do you know why I brought you here first?”

Inside the clean, tidy workshop, automated machinery hummed away while workers in hard hats and uniforms occasionally walked by to perform inspections.

Luo Xiaoou and her grandfather, also dressed in work attire, entered accompanied by a staff member.

Hearing her grandfather’s question, she obediently shook her head. ”I don’t know.”

”Because it’s the closest one to our house, hahaha!”

Grandpa Luo clearly had a sense of humor, and the accompanying staff all laughed along with him.

The Luo Family was in the business of sanitary products, daily chemical goods, and personal care items. Their enterprise was so massive that this factory, which produced a million rolls of toilet paper a day, wasn’t even the tip of the iceberg.

Besides its proximity to their home, what other reason could there be for him to bring his granddaughter here for an inspection?

”I thought you were going to tell me this is where our family got its start.”

”How long ago was toilet paper invented? Our family was already wealthy by then, so how could this be where we made our fortune? You should take a good look at our Luo Family’s genealogy records later.”

Luo Xiaoou nodded and continued to follow her grandfather on the tour.

After spending over an hour touring the factory, the two returned to their car, where her grandfather began to question her.

”My dear granddaughter, let me ask you: what are your thoughts after seeing this factory?”

Luo Xiaoou was only eighteen. She didn’t even understand why he was asking, so she simply said the first things that came to mind.

”The factory is very clean.”

”Modern paper mills are highly automated, so of course they’re clean.”

”Yes, and the workers’ procedures are very standardized.”

”Their procedures are always standardized. Knowing we were coming just made their performance all the more perfect.”

”Are the employee benefits good? I noticed all the workers were smiling.”

”Our family’s benefits are indeed top-tier compared to similar factories, but that’s not why they were smiling at us.”

Seeing that she was consistently missing the point, her grandfather sighed in resignation.

”You’re a very keen observer. But that’s not the lesson I want you to learn.”

”Grandpa, what is it you want me to know? I’ll be sure to remember it.”

”I want you to understand what our responsibility is as entrepreneurs.”

”Responsibility?”

The young Luo Xiaoou’s eyes were filled with confusion.

’Don’t all rich people just focus on making more money?’

’Aside from being responsible for yourself and making as much money as possible, what other responsibilities could there be?’

”Once you have a certain amount of money, it becomes secondary. Think about it. How many jobs has our factory created for society? How many families does it indirectly support? How much have we paid in taxes to the country? And how much convenience have our products brought to people’s daily lives? These are the things I want you to understand.”

This was a perspective Luo Xiaoou had never considered before. She was stunned into silence.