Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

“What’s this?”

A staff member drove her home. The boxes were left in the living room, and the gifts were all piled on the large, solid wood dining table, forming a small mountain.

Ni Bingyan opened a bag and took out a letter first. Before she could finish reading it, Sang Yuan sidled up to her.

‘A fourteen-year-old brat poses no threat at all!’

Little Sang coughed dryly, pretending not to be petty.

“This fan is hilarious! They sent me a bunch of scratch-offs, haha!”

She carried the bag to the sofa, lifted it, and gave it a shake. A pile of festive-looking scratch-offs tumbled out.

“What are these? ‘Blazing Red’? ‘Fortune’s Turn’? ‘Happy Reunion’? ‘Wish Come True’?”

Sang Yuan had never imagined you could give gifts like this!

‘This fan is really something else!’

Ni Bingyan, however, couldn’t help but frown.

“This is so many. It must have cost a lot, right?”

“The price is printed on them. Let’s add it up.”

Sang Yuan suggested, and the two of them sat on the sofa with their heads together and began to calculate.

“Twenty-eight hundred. That’s a bit much!”

“Do you know who the fan is? It’ll be hard to return it.”

Since she’d already accepted it, all she could do was appreciate the sentiment. Making a big fuss to find the fan just to return their gift would be too hurtful.

“So I have to scratch them? What if I win the grand prize?”

‘It was so crowded at the time, I didn’t get a good look at what it was. This is so awkward now.’

“Haha, who gets rich off the lottery? The odds are about as good as seeing a ghost. Win the grand prize? In your dreams! They sent you these for good luck and a bit of fun. Just enjoy scratching them, and their gesture won’t be wasted.”

“You have a point.”

After sorting through the fan gifts, they saw it was dinnertime. The two of them took the lottery tickets and went over to the Sang family’s house, planning to have some fun scratching them with everyone after the meal.

Shui Sulan hadn’t eaten with her in a while, so during dinner, she couldn’t resist asking about her recent work. When she learned that Ni Bingyan had been fishing in London and had caught… *that*, she lost her appetite and ate half a bowl less.

Ni Bingyan was very embarrassed. She hadn’t wanted to bring it up, but Shui Sulan kept prying.

“Ahem, it’s over now, so don’t dwell on it. We’ll just try to be more careful when we go out from now on. And this trip to Taiwan Island should serve as a reminder—it’s time for you to hire bodyguards.”

Ni Bingyan wasn’t the type of celebrity who relied on viral fame, nor did she maintain a “single” persona to attract “boyfriend” fans. Her fanbase was mostly rational, so she had never really considered the issue before. Thinking about it now, Shui Sulan had a very good point.

Every member of the Sang family had bodyguards. Even Sang Yuan was escorted to and from work.

There was a good reason for such caution.

‘Speaking of which, I’m my dad’s sole heir now. He’s accumulated quite a fortune over the years. If someone kidnapped me…’

She sucked in a cold breath.

Sang Jingwen took the bowls into the kitchen, thanked the woman washing the dishes, and came back out. When he heard them talking about bodyguards, he immediately said:

“The quality of people you find on your own can be hit-or-miss. I’ll arrange a couple for you.”

‘My dad has several bodyguards with him now, and Sang Yuan helped find all of them. According to Dad, they’re extremely reliable.’

Now, with an offer from Mr. Sang himself, it carried even more weight. Ni Bingyan quickly nodded and agreed, “Then I’ll have to trouble you, Uncle Sang.”

“It’s no trouble at all. We’re family, don’t be so formal with me.”

Sang Jingwen was very friendly. Seeing the gifts she’d brought on the coffee table, he came over with a cheerful smile to take a look.

“You bring us something back every time you travel for work. You’re so thoughtful. Let me see, what is it this time?”

Neither family was short on money; it was the thought that counted.

They were always delighted to open her gifts.

They also enjoyed bringing things back for Ni Bingyan when they traveled, and over time, it had become a habit.

“Oh? What’s this? Lottery tickets?”

Seeing his mistake, Ni Bingyan quickly explained, “This is a gift a fan gave me today. I was planning for us all to scratch them for fun later. The gift I prepared for you and Auntie is this one.”

Ni Bingyan opened a box and took out a decorative piece woven from rush grass.

It was a fisherman in a conical hat, with a lively, wiggling fish hanging from his raised rod.

Her eyes had been completely captivated the moment she first saw it.

‘Sang Jingwen also enjoys fishing, so he’ll probably love it.’

Today, however, the gift failed to capture his attention.

“Scratch-offs? This fan of yours is a real character! Come on, come on! We’ll put the gift aside and scratch these first!”

Shui Sulan thought it was fun, too. She quickly grabbed a few silver coins from a cabinet and handed them out.

“It’s not much fun to buy these for yourself, but they make for a very creative gift!”

“And that’s not even the most unusual thing!”

Sang Yuan chimed in sourly from the side.

“Some fourteen-year-old kid spent half a year growing a bouquet of roses for her, and now she treasures them so much she put them in a vase in her bedroom! Hmph.”

Knowing he wasn’t truly jealous and was just being a clown, Ni Bingyan found it hilarious.

Shui Sulan shot her son a sideways glance. “Look at other people’s sons! So young and already knows how to make a girl happy. Unlike my son, who can only stand here making sour comments! No class, no grace!”

‘My daughter-in-law is a celebrity; of course, there will be tons of people who like her. If the boy hadn’t been so young, Ni Bingyan probably wouldn’t have accepted the roses.’

‘If you’re going to get worked up over every little thing, you might as well go live in a pickle jar!’

Seeing him get shut down, Ni Bingyan laughed until tears nearly came to her eyes.

“My fans are adorable, and they’re always so thoughtful. Every kind gesture should be cherished; it’s part of a happy life! I have my standards; I don’t accept just any gift. You don’t have to be so sour.”

“I’m not sour! Hurry up, this ‘Blazing Red’ one has a great name. Come on and scratch it! It’s for a million! Just thinking about it is exciting!”

“You want a million? Here, look at your watch, count the seconds… CLICK. There, you’ve got it.”

Knowing she was flattering him, Sang Yuan got a little embarrassed.

“It’s not that exaggerated!”

‘A million a second? How much would that be in a day?’

‘No matter how much money I make, I wouldn’t dare boast like that.’

“Hahaha!”

At this, the whole family burst into laughter.

Amid the laughter, Ni Bingyan scratched off the first ticket.

“Not bad, fifty bucks! We broke even on this one, wow!”

With such a huge pile, it would take her forever to scratch them all by herself.

After she scratched the first one, the other three started to help.

After a while, when only one ticket was left on the coffee table, the three of them stopped and let Ni Bingyan scratch the last one.

She didn’t refuse. With a yawn, she expertly scratched it off.

The experience was like eating hand-pulled mutton.

The first bite, you think, ‘Wow! So fresh! So tender! I could eat a whole sheep!’

By the tenth bite, it’s, ‘Huh? I think I’m getting full.’

After a couple of big pieces, all you can think is, ‘It’s just okay.’

And by the time you’re stuffed to the gills, you’re probably swearing you’ll never eat it again.

They didn’t have a ton of scratch-offs, but scratching them one by one, the total winnings didn’t even cover the cost. Even Sang Yuan, who saw his wife through a thousand layers of loving filters, couldn’t help but think, ‘Ugh! We’re finally done!’

The older couple looked up at the clock, thinking about taking a bath soon.

Sang Yuan looked up at the clock, thinking his wife’s bedtime was approaching. ‘Should I go for a goodbye kiss when I walk her home?’

Ni Bingyan looked up at the others, then back down at the ticket she had just scratched.

She looked back and forth several times, finally catching Sang Yuan’s attention. “What is it?”

“Can you look at this? How many zeros are there? I think my eyes are playing tricks on me.”

The three members of the Sang family instantly perked up and crowded around to get a look.

After looking, they stared at each other in disbelief.

She really was a human good-luck charm, winning the grand prize just from scratching lottery tickets.

One million!

That was enough to buy a huge house in many smaller cities.