Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

Luo Tiantian ran a large dessert shop. It had been over a decade since she graduated from college, and her high-end custom floral cakes were famous throughout Beijing.

This morning, Luo Tiantian woke up early as usual. After making breakfast for her husband and son, she drove to the fruit market to pick out the freshest, highest-quality fruit.

Halfway through picking her fruit, the shopkeeper’s wife started arguing with the shopkeeper:

”All you do is buy lottery tickets! It was fine before, buying a few Super Lottos a day. I just treated it like you had a smoking habit. But did I spoil you rotten? How dare you buy these fifty-yuan scratch-offs! Are you tired of living this life or what?!”

”If we could get rich from this, why would I have to work from dawn till dusk? I might as well just go home, lie flat, and wait to become a rich man’s wife! Go on, hurry up and buy your scratch-offs!”

”And you dare to keep a secret stash of money from me! I’ll teach you to keep a secret stash! I’ve been too easy on you, haven’t I?!”

The shopkeeper was still the same man as he was a decade ago, scared to death of his wife. But his nerve had clearly grown a lot; at least now he dared to talk back a little.

”No, that won’t do! The only reason our family’s life keeps getting better is all thanks to your day-in and day-out leadership! If you went home to lie flat, I wouldn’t even be able to do the accounting right. What would I do then? As for the lottery tickets, it’s just my one little hobby... I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t frequent prostitutes, I don’t gamble, and I don’t do drugs. I don’t get my hair permed, I don’t go fishing...”

”Speak! Where did you get that secret stash?!”

Seeing that her husband was utterly unrepentant, the shopkeeper’s wife grew furious. She snatched a nearby rag and started smacking him on the butt with it.

”I’ll teach you to be unrepentant! I’ll teach you!”

”I’ll talk! I’ll talk! I sold half the cardboard boxes in the warehouse! Only half!”

”You’re still not being honest!”

”When I was washing your clothes yesterday, I found seventy-eight...”

”And what else?”

”Honey, honey, give me a break! Everyone’s watching! What if I win one day? Didn’t that celebrity just win a million yesterday?”

Just as a gambler’s heart flutters when they hear someone won a fortune, a lottery player can’t help themselves when they hear someone hit the jackpot.

No one is willing to admit they just have bad luck.

Even if facts prove that they do, they’ll never accept it.

’Maybe... my luck will turn tomorrow?’

”Still making excuses!”

Seeing that the couple was about to break into a full-blown physical fight, Luo Tiantian, who had already finished picking her fruit, felt very awkward.

”Ma’am, how much is it?”

Luo Tiantian was a regular customer. The shopkeeper’s wife couldn’t be bothered with disciplining her troublesome husband anymore. She quickly turned around, a smile on her face:

”Just a moment. I’ll weigh everything for you. You’re an old customer, so I’ll give you the cost price!”

Luo Tiantian only cared about the quality of the fruit and didn’t ask for much else, so she just waited with a smile.

While the wife was calculating the bill and taking the money, the husband was waving the two scratch-offs in his hand, chuckling to the acquaintances around him:

”Don’t you guys laugh at me. Behind closed doors at home, who knows if I’ll be kneeling on a durian or a washboard! Hey, this is me loving my wife, you know? Don’t listen to that ’henpecked’ nonsense. If things really got serious, who’s to say who’s afraid of whom?”

The wife just smiled as she punched numbers into the calculator.

Luo Tiantian found it amusing but didn’t say anything.

The bystanders, however, quickly started chatting with the husband.

It was more entertaining than watching a play, especially so early in the morning.

After she paid, the husband was ordered by his wife to load the fruit baskets into her car.

Luo Tiantian thanked him, thought nothing more of the little episode, and went to buy a few other things the shop needed before hurrying to open up.

She had received two orders for birthday cakes yesterday. Both were from regular clients, so she had to make them personally.

Besides her, the shop had several other employees, so she wasn’t needed for the day-to-day operations.

She just needed to stay in the back kitchen, breathing in the sweet aroma of desserts and using her art student skills to create one pricey, high-end custom cake after another.

She was halfway through making a cake when the phone rang.

”Mimi, can you see who’s calling?”

The young assistant peeked over. ”Sister Tiantian, it’s your husband.”

Luo Tiantian’s husband ran a chain of bookstores he had inherited from his parents. His work hours started later, so he was always the one to drop off and pick up their son.

’For him to call at this hour... did something happen to our son?’

Forgetting the cake, Luo Tiantian quickly pulled off her gloves to answer the phone.

”What’s wrong with our son?”

”Nothing’s wrong with our son.”

”You scared me to death! If nothing’s wrong, I’m hanging up. I’m busy!”

”Hey! Wait, wait, wait! Did you take our son to the airport yesterday to see a female celebrity?”

Luo Tiantian immediately felt a pang of guilt.

But then she remembered Ni Bingyan was a woman, so she had no reason to fear her famously jealous husband. Luo Tiantian immediately puffed out her chest and said righteously:

”What about it? Our Bingbing is such a good kid. If you’re going to be a fan of someone, shouldn’t it be someone like her?”

As if feeling that wasn’t persuasive enough, Luo Tiantian launched into a rapid-fire defense before her husband could even reply:

”Our son is so sheltered, he doesn’t know what an outstanding girl is like. What if he starts dating early and falls for some little delinquent? I have to broaden his horizons, don’t I? Haven’t you seen how much his grades have improved in the last six months? His teacher even called me last week to say his academic performance has skyrocketed!”

When his wife had suddenly started following a celebrity, and even brought their son along, he hadn’t been used to it at first. But he saw that the two of them were different from those rabid fans. The most they did was plant some flowers in the garden, and they always remained rational, so he didn’t interfere.

He never expected them to cause such a huge stir this time.

”That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m asking you, did you give her scratch-offs?”

After waking up early and dropping their son off, Luo Tiantian’s husband was sitting in his office at the bookstore, sipping tea and scrolling through the news on his phone. That’s when he saw that Ni Bingyan was searching for the fan who had given her the scratch-offs so she could claim her prize.

Netizens’ comments on the matter were polarized.

Some thought she had noble principles and hadn’t lost her moral compass in the face of money. Others thought she was a total idiot for turning down free money.

In just a few hours, the internet had descended into a chaotic argument.

A poll started by a major web portal, ”If you were in Ni Bingyan’s situation, would you do the same thing?” had already garnered over two million votes.

A million-yuan lottery prize, which was still eight hundred thousand after taxes, was a huge sum of money for most people in the country.

Even though he and his wife both ran businesses, their monthly net profit rarely reached eight hundred thousand.

Luo Tiantian’s husband thought about it for a moment, then cast a vote in agreement.

’Money is nice, but if it’s not rightfully yours, taking it will only leave you with an uneasy conscience.’

’What Ni Bingyan did was the right thing.’

’A good man should only spend money he’s earned himself. Once you get used to spending windfalls like this, it’s hard to live a down-to-earth life anymore.’

The odds of winning the lottery were what they were, and only so many people ever won big. This time, not only had someone won, but it was also a very popular celebrity. The story was naturally newsworthy.

Furthermore, the ticket had been a gift. After winning, instead of secretly cashing it in, she was searching for the person who gave it to her, which made it even more controversial.

Many people liked to pull out their phones for a quick look on their way to work, and after reading, they couldn’t help but share their own opinions.

That’s why, by nine o’clock, the hashtag #NiBingyanScratchOff had already hit the trending topics.

Luo Tiantian’s husband had just been idly surfing the web to kill some time, but as he scrolled, he came across photos from the airport yesterday where fans had greeted Ni Bingyan.

The scratch-offs came in a booklet, like a pamphlet. While other fans’ gifts were easily identifiable, it didn’t take long for someone to find Luo Tiantian and circle the plastic bag she had stuffed into Ni Bingyan’s hands.

The news was everywhere. To avoid legal risks, her face was blurred in the photos, but as her husband, Luo Tiantian’s husband recognized her in an instant.

”Yeah! You have no idea, those things are so festive! Things like ’Luck is Turning’ and ’In the Spotlight.’ Ay, our Little Ice Candies have had some bad luck lately, so I had to do something to wash it away.”

Speaking of which, Luo Tiantian’s profession was quite trendy—her fancy cakes were highly sought after by fashionistas—but she herself was a bit superstitious. She consulted the almanac before doing anything important and would even go to the temple to burn incense on special days.

Hearing her say this, Luo Tiantian’s husband wasn’t the least bit surprised.

Besides, a few thousand yuan wasn’t a huge amount of money for her.

”Did you know? She scratched off the grand prize last night. She went to the police station overnight to file a report, trying to find you. What do you think you should do?”

”Huh? Why is she looking for me? She’s the one who scratched it. What’s it got to do with me?”

After saying that, Luo Tiantian couldn’t help but get excited.

”Look at what I did! I said I was sending her good luck—is that good enough luck for you? HAHAHA! I’m such an ordinary little genius! A few thousand yuan for a million-yuan effect!”

’His wife was in her forties, yet she was still so naive and adorable. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.’

He sighed on the other end of the line.

”The problem is, she doesn’t want to accept it! If it were you, and someone gave you over eight hundred thousand yuan for no reason, would you take it? You have to go deal with this!”

”You have a point... But I already gave it to her, didn’t I? How can I take it back? It’s not worth the embarrassment over that little bit of money! If I really went to get it back, my conscience wouldn’t be able to handle it. Wait... Old Li, don’t tell me you’re tempted, are you? Let me make this clear, we can’t take that money! If you try anything funny, I’ll get mad at you!”

”What are you thinking? Don’t you know what kind of person I am? I’m asking you what we should do about this. You gave her a gift, not a burden!”

”You have a point! Let me think...”