My wife’s assistant linked a bizarre system to me. Every time I got angry, his bank account would rake in massive amounts of money, directly proportional to my fury. He’d deliberately flirt with my wife, infuriating me so much I had a heart attack in the middle of the night and ended up in the hospital. Meanwhile, his bank account had three million dollars wired in, and he was so thrilled he posted three SnapChat stories. After I was revived, I confronted my wife, but she just sneered at me with contempt: “Oh, so Kyle’s account gets more money the angrier you get? Why don’t you admit he’s just working hard to achieve all this?” “If you had even half of Kyle’s drive, you wouldn’t still be just a project manager.” Later, when he was short ten million to acquire my wife’s company, he deliberately sent me a hotel room number. He wanted me to walk in on them, trigger another heart attack, and die on the spot. But when I woke up, I was back on the day I first saw Kyle with Charlotte. The familiar ache in my chest was exactly as I remembered. This time, I just made them hold each other even tighter: “You two are made for each other. Seriously, just lock it down.”
When I opened my eyes, Kyle Miller was wrapping an arm around Charlotte Peterson’s waist. The scene was so familiar, so vivid, it made my heart clench with a sudden, sharp pain. Sunlight streamed through the coffee shop window, bathing them in a warm glow. Charlotte was beaming, and Kyle’s hand was unmistakably possessive, a blatant declaration of ownership wrapped around her waist. “Mr. Sterling? Are you alright? You look a little pale.” Emily, my secretary, pulled me back to reality. I touched my chest. The agonizing phantom pain from my last life’s heart attack still lingered there. I had died, then I lived again, returning to this crucial moment… The day I first discovered Charlotte and Kyle’s affair. And just half a month prior, Charlotte had tricked me into signing divorce papers, claiming it was for the company’s IPO and stock division. We were in the cooling-off period. “I’m fine.” I took a deep breath. “Let’s go say hello.” In my previous life, when I saw this, I stormed over, furious, demanding Charlotte explain herself. My explosive rage instantly added half a million to Kyle’s account. Charlotte, meanwhile, looked at me like I was insane, accusing me of being “paranoid,” “making a huge deal out of nothing,” and “overly jealous.” This time, I walked towards them with a steady pace, a polite smile plastered on my face. “Charlotte, what a coincidence.” My voice was so calm, it even surprised me. It seems when you stop loving someone, you gain this strange calm. Charlotte visibly stiffened, quickly retreating half a step from Kyle. “Blake? Why are you here? You didn’t tell me?” “My apologies, I had a client meeting.” After saying it, I found it almost laughable myself. Apologizing had become a habit with Charlotte. If her clothes weren’t ironed perfectly, I’d apologize; if the restaurant I booked wasn’t good, I’d apologize; if I failed to make a name for myself, I’d apologize. I chuckled bitterly, shaking my head, then turned my gaze to Kyle and extended a hand. “Mr. Miller, long time no see.” A flicker of surprise crossed Kyle’s eyes; he clearly hadn’t expected me to be so composed. He hesitated before shaking my hand. “Mr. Sterling, good to see you.” I felt the familiar pang in my chest, but this time, my expression didn’t change. I knew this feeling too well. Even after everything from my previous life, I kept telling myself not to get angry. But with the undeniable betrayal staring me in the face, who could really control it? “Buddy, if you like her so much, hold her tighter.” I suddenly reached out, giving them a slight push, forcing them closer together. My voice was cheerful, as if I were genuinely wishing them well. “You two are perfect for each other. Seriously, just lock it down.” Charlotte’s face instantly went chalk white. “Blake Sterling! What are you talking about!” “Just kidding.” I shrugged. “You two carry on, my client’s waiting.” As I turned to leave, I caught Kyle’s expression in my peripheral vision—he looked like he’d just swallowed something foul. Back in my car, I opened my banking app, logging into an account I hadn’t used in ages. The digits displayed on the screen made Emily, sitting in the front, gasp. A nine-figure balance, with a string of zeros after the first digit. “Mr. Sterling, this is…” Emily was my personal secretary, the only subordinate who followed me to this new company. “Just a little something I’ve been saving. Time to stir things up.” I said casually, then dialed an international number. “Mike, I’m ready to take over the Asia operations again.” “Excellent, Blake. Wall Street is ready for its King to return.”
Hanging up the call, I glanced towards the coffee shop. Charlotte once said she hated rich people and preferred a simple, real life. So, for five years, I had hidden my true identity. I pursued and married her under the guise of being a regular project manager at Zheng Corp, earning just a few thousand a month. At the same time, to revive the nearly collapsed Zheng Corp, I secretly funneled many projects to them. Zheng Corp, from an obscure small company, soared to become the well-known Zheng Group. For Charlotte, I even stopped touching my bank accounts, working diligently, using every penny of my hard-earned salary to please her. But later, her appetite grew, and the luxury items she brought home increased. Yet she seemed to be convinced I was just a poor office worker, not even bothering to tell me the origin of those bags and jewelry. Only later did I discover she was getting hot and heavy with that assistant who profited off my rage. “Emily, look into two things for me.” My voice was eerily calm. “First, the exact relationship between Charlotte Peterson and Kyle Miller; second, Kyle Miller’s financial movements over the past six months.” Three days later, Emily placed the investigation report on my desk. The photos showed Charlotte and Kyle kissing at a hotel entrance. The bank statements showed that every time we argued, a mysterious sum of money would appear in Kyle’s account, its amount directly proportional to my level of anger. “And this.” Emily handed me a USB drive. “Mr. Miller attended a mystic gathering last month. He supposedly sought out some powerful system from a spiritual guru.” I inserted the USB. In the video, Kyle was smugly showing off to a friend: “That fool Sterling gets me rich the angrier he gets! Yesterday, he saw me getting close to Charlotte, and he instantly exploded, giving me half a million!” A sharp pang of pain shot through my chest again, but this time, I smiled. So that’s how it was. This was the thing that killed me in my previous life. An evil system that converted my emotions into money. “Mr. Sterling, what are you planning…?” “Give them enough rope to hang themselves. That’s ancient wisdom, learn it.” I closed my laptop, smiling. The next morning, I stood before my walk-in closet, my fingers tracing the fabric of a long-forgotten custom-tailored suit. Five years. This six-figure power suit was finally going to see the light of day again. As I walked through the company’s revolving doors, the front desk receptionist’s coffee cup *crashed* to the floor. “Mr. S-Sterling?” A new intern in the elevator gaped. “You’re…?” I deliberately tugged at my cuff, revealing the gleaming Patek Philippe watch face. “What? Don’t you recognize me?” The crowded elevator suddenly fell silent. Someone whispered, “That watch alone could buy a house…” “Just a knock-off.” Mr. Hayes, the head of marketing, suddenly sneered. “He even skipped out on splitting the bill at our last team outing. Now he’s trying to act rich?” “Mr. Hayes, perhaps you should focus on explaining that fifty thousand dollars in entertainment expenses from last month.” I smiled, pressing the button for the executive floor, letting their scrutinizing gazes sweep over me. When the elevator stopped on the 38th floor, laughter erupted behind me. “He’s definitely going to get chewed out. Ms. Peterson hates his cheap, struggling appearance!” Pushing open the frosted glass door of the CEO’s office, I saw Charlotte sitting on Kyle’s lap, feeding him strawberries. The moment she saw me, she sprang up as if she’d been electrocuted. “Blake Sterling!” She grabbed a folder and threw it at me. “Who gave you permission to come to the company dressed like that? If clients see us, they’ll think Zheng Corp is so pathetic, our managers can’t even afford decent suits!”
Kyle slowly wiped strawberry juice from the corner of his mouth. “Don’t get upset, Charlotte. Blake’s outfit is probably rented.” He walked over and squeezed my suit fabric hard. “Tsk, tsk, it’s a pretty good replica, actually.” Charlotte suddenly sneered. “I knew it looked familiar! Mr. Mike Sterling, from Sterling Corp, wore that exact style at the finance summit last week, didn’t he?” She reached out and tugged at my tie. “You shameless thing, wearing a knock-off to my company, trying to parade around and con people!” I looked at Charlotte, her face red with fury. “Did it ever occur to you that it might be real?” Charlotte scoffed. “You had to save up for half a year just to buy me a five-thousand-dollar bracelet. Do you even know how much a real one of these costs?” Kyle also stood up and pushed me. “Didn’t Charlotte tell you not to come near her office? Why are you clinging to her like a stray dog? No wonder you’re still just a petty project manager after all these years.” I pulled out a folder. “Wait, you two will be interested in this.” I placed the folder on her desk. “Sterling Corp is very interested in the smart campus project. They’re willing to invest eighty million.” Charlotte’s eyelashes trembled violently. “You know people from Sterling Corp?” “He probably knows a janitor there?” Kyle burst out laughing. “Don’t try to act like a big shot! He couldn’t even afford the seafood buffet at the last team outing!” Charlotte echoed his laughter from beside him, and I suddenly found it incredibly ironic. Five years. Charlotte still didn’t know I was allergic to seafood. The CFO happened to walk in to deliver reports and sneered when he heard the conversation: “Mr. Sterling’s paychecks are still controlled by Ms. Peterson, where would he get money for designer brands?” Charlotte seemed to regain her composure, her heels clicking as she strode towards me. “Listen, take off that cheap fake outfit right now!” She suddenly ripped open my suit jacket. “Don’t embarrass yourself here anymor…!” She stopped abruptly, seeing the Patek Philippe watch on my wrist beneath the suit. “This watch?” she asked, incredulously. Kyle saw it too. He leaned in to examine my watch. “This fake is pretty convincing. Did you steal it from a client?” Charlotte, as if waking from a dream, pushed me out of the office: “Take your fake watch and fake suit, and get out!” I looked at the room full of clueless people. Just wait. Soon enough, you’ll know who’s real and who’s fake. A few days later, it was the company’s annual gala. I stood in a corner, holding a glass of champagne. The rented suit’s sleeve was already fraying, but I had no choice but to wear it. Charlotte had specifically texted me last night, demanding I “don’t wear your cheap junk and embarrass me.” If she knew that the “cheap junk” she disdained was a custom-tailored suit she couldn’t afford with three years of her salary… I wondered what her expression would be then.
“Now, please welcome the best project team of the year to the stage!” The host’s voice boomed. I adjusted my tie. I had pulled four months of all-nighters, averaging three hours of sleep a day, to complete this smart campus project that Sterling Corp was eyeing for investment. I’d finished it just before the deadline. Although it was credited to the team, everyone knew the core solution came from my hands. All to make my grandfather proud. “Let’s welcome the project lead, Kyle Miller! From today, he’s promoted to Director!” Applause thundered. My champagne glass, half-raised, froze in mid-air. On stage, Kyle, dressed in a custom-tailored suit, was bowing gracefully. On the large screen displaying the project summary, my name was listed last, marked as “material compilation.” “And a special thanks to my amazing partner.” Kyle suddenly blew a kiss towards the audience, and the camera promptly cut to the main table, where Charlotte was covering her mouth, giggling coyly. My heart clenched painfully. I fumbled for a pill and swallowed it. Just then, a microphone was thrust in front of me. “Mr. Sterling, as a team member, what are your thoughts?” The host was clearly unaware of the situation. “I hear you pulled several all-nighters?” The entire room fell silent. I saw Kyle’s narrowed eyes and Charlotte’s suddenly changing expression. “It was all thanks to Director Miller and Ms. Peterson’s excellent leadership.” I put on a perfectly timed expression of humility. “I just helped out a bit. Nothing worth everyone’s attention.” Kyle immediately beamed, and Charlotte’s expression shifted from tense to subtly contemptuous. She elegantly stood up, her high heels clicking. “My Blake,” she said, leaning intimately on my shoulder, her voice carried through the microphone to the entire room, “his biggest strength is knowing his place.” Her fingers dug hard into my shoulder blade. “After all, being a kept man is a real skill, right?” Laughter, like a tidal wave, crashed over me. I maintained my smile, the metallic taste of blood filling my mouth. I hadn’t even realized I’d bitten the inside of my cheek. Kyle’s phone buzzed with a notification. He glanced at it, a wild grin spreading across his face. I knew what it was. My rage was being converted in real-time into numbers in his account. “Oh, right,” Charlotte said, turning back as she walked away. “Tomorrow’s our wedding anniversary. I booked a table at a Michelin-starred restaurant.” Her red lips curved into a smirk. “Don’t be late.” Of course, she wouldn’t show up. Last life, I waited four hours that day, only to receive a text from Kyle. It contained a hotel room number. I had gathered evidence of their affair, but my heart couldn’t take any more shocks. I died right outside that hotel room, becoming the laughingstock of the entire city. But this time, I had a surprise prepared. The next evening, I used half a year’s savings to buy Charlotte the Cartier necklace she had admired in a store last week. I waited at the restaurant until closing.
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