The first time Chen Yichen saw that string of numbers, he thought he was still asleep.
7:12 a.m.
His phone alarm had already gone off twice, but he was still lying in bed, eyes half-open, his hand habitually groping beside the pillow.
He had worked overtime at the company until nearly eleven the night before. After returning to his rented apartment and taking a shower, he had collapsed onto the bed without even drying his hair. His head still felt stuffed with cotton, and even the words on his phone screen looked a little blurry.
He had only meant to check the time.
But there was a new bank notification in the notification bar.
“Account Balance Change Alert.”
Chen Yichen frowned.
His first reaction wasn’t anticipation. It was panic.
Yesterday had been the day his credit card’s automatic payment came due.
There wasn’t much money left at the end of the month to begin with. If another payment had been deducted, he would probably have to survive on convenience-store rice balls until payday.
He opened the banking app.
Fingerprint unlock.
The screen loaded for two seconds.
Then he stared at it without moving.
Available Account Balance:
NT$10,032,648.
Chen Yichen blinked once.
Then again.
“Fuck.”
He sat up.
Not slowly.
His whole body sprang up from the bed as if he’d been shocked by electricity.
The phone nearly slipped from his hand.
He checked again.
Ten million dollars.
Not one hundred thousand.
Not one million.
More than ten million in total.
He knew the thirty-two-thousand-plus part well.
That was the money that had originally been in his account.
After yesterday’s credit-card payment, an internet bill, and rent, he had been left with NT$32,648.
But now there was a “10” in front of it.
Chen Yichen’s first thought was that the bank’s system had malfunctioned.
His second was that it was a scam.
His third was that someone had transferred money to the wrong account.
He immediately opened his transaction history.
The most recent deposit had arrived at exactly midnight.
Amount:
NT$10,000,000.
But the strangest part was that a normal bank transfer would show the transferring bank, the last five digits of the account number, and sometimes even a note.
This one showed nothing.
Just four words.
General Deposit.
“What the hell is a General Deposit?”
Chen Yichen brought the phone closer, making sure he hadn’t read it wrong.
He even exited the app and logged in again.
The number hadn’t changed.
He turned off the internet connection.
Then turned it back on.
Still the same.
Finally, he logged into online banking.
NT$10,032,648.
Every cent was still there.
He sat on the edge of the bed without moving for a full five minutes.
In his entire life, this was the first time he had seen his name and “ten million dollars” on the same screen.
Chen Yichen was twenty-nine that year.
He hadn’t finished college. He had worked in food service, logistics, and inventory management before joining an electronics-parts company as a technician.
Calling him a technician was putting it nicely.
In reality, he wore a cleanroom suit and repeated the same task on the production line over and over.
His monthly salary was NT$41,000.
In months with lots of overtime, it could climb just over NT$50,000.
It wasn’t the lowest salary in the world, but living in Taipei was expensive. Renting a tiny studio apartment cost NT$14,000, and after utilities, his phone bill, insurance, food, and the credit-card debt he had accumulated before, the amount he could actually save each month was pitifully small.
The most he had ever had in savings was NT$140,000.
And that had taken him almost a year to save.
Then his scooter broke down, something came up at home, and he took a trip to Japan with a friend. Almost all of it had vanished.
So the ten million dollars in his account wasn’t simply “a lot of money” to him.
It was a number he had no frame of reference for at all.
He pulled out a calculator and did the math.
At his current monthly salary of NT$41,000, even if he didn’t eat, drink, pay taxes, or spend a single cent, he would have to work for more than twenty years to save ten million dollars.
In reality, he probably wouldn’t be able to save that much in his entire lifetime.
Chen Yichen took a deep breath.
He opened the customer-service hotline.
Then pressed the call button.
But before the call connected, he immediately hung up.
No.
His thoughts began spinning.
If the money had really been transferred by mistake, the moment he called, the bank would definitely freeze the funds.
But what if it hadn’t?
Then what exactly was this ten million dollars?
He stared at the screen.
A powerful impulse he had never felt before began to rise inside him.
Should he transfer some money out and test it?
Just one hundred dollars.
If it was fake, it shouldn’t go through, right?
He immediately opened the bank-transfer function and entered his other digital bank account.
Amount: 100.
Confirm.
“Transfer successful.”
Chen Yichen froze.
He switched to the other bank’s app.
There really was an extra hundred dollars.
He transferred ten thousand more.
Success.
One hundred thousand.
Success.
All three transfers went through normally.
No warning.
No error.
Nothing unusual at all.
“Damn…”
This time, he couldn’t stop himself from laughing out loud.
But after less than two seconds, he forced himself to calm down again.
No.
How could something like this be possible?
Ten million dollars falling from the sky?
There was no way something this good could happen.
After thinking it over for a long time, he finally decided to call the bank.
When customer service answered, a woman with an extremely polite voice asked how she could help him.
Chen Yichen licked his lips.
“I’d like to ask about a ten-million-dollar deposit that appeared in my account today. I don’t know who transferred it.”
There was half a second of silence on the other end.
“Certainly. Please hold for a moment while I check that for you.”
The hold music played for about two minutes.
Chen Yichen paced back and forth around the room.
His heart was pounding absurdly fast.
Finally, the customer-service representative came back on the line.
“Mr. Chen, I can confirm that a deposit of exactly ten million dollars was credited to your account shortly after midnight.”
“Right. Where did it come from?”
“The system shows it as a general funds deposit.”
“What does that mean? Who sent it?”
“I’m sorry, but no remitter information is displayed on our end.”
Chen Yichen’s brows drew together.
“None?”
“That’s correct.”
“Can I use the money?”
The representative sounded a little confused about why he was asking.
“Your account is currently in normal status, and the funds have no holds or restrictions. They can be used normally.”
“They won’t take it back?”
“There is currently no reversal or return-transfer request.”
“What if someone transferred it by mistake?”
“If the sender submits a relevant request later, the bank will assist in handling the matter according to the legal process. However, there are currently no unusual flags on the account.”
Chen Yichen was silent for several seconds.
“So the money is in my account right now, and I can use it?”
“Yes.”
After hanging up, Chen Yichen stood in the middle of the room.
He looked down at his bare feet on the plastic floor.
There was a small patch of mold-damaged plaster in the corner.
The air conditioner was an old model provided by the landlord, and every time it started up, it made a sound like a tractor for several seconds.
Yesterday’s leftover Taiwanese popcorn chicken sat on the table.
Beside it was the ID badge issued by his company.
All of these things had looked perfectly normal yesterday.
Now they suddenly seemed a little absurd.
Because there was ten million dollars in his account.
Chen Yichen slowly sat back down on the bed.
Then he opened a shopping website.
For some reason, the first thing he searched for wasn’t a house.
It wasn’t stocks.
It wasn’t any kind of investment or financial product.
It was a car.
“BMW M4.”
He took a look.
More than three million dollars.
In the past, whenever he saw a price like that, his brain would automatically skip over it.
That world had nothing to do with him.
But now things were different.
For the first time, he actually had a completely unfamiliar thought.
Maybe…
Maybe he could afford one.
The sensation made the back of his neck prickle.
He searched for Porsche next.
Then Mercedes-AMG.
After that, he came across a used Lamborghini.
More than ten million dollars.
He immediately snapped back to reality.
“No, that’s still not happening.”
After saying it, he laughed at himself.
Because just yesterday, he hadn’t even been willing to buy a pair of three-thousand-dollar shoes.
And today, he was already complaining that he couldn’t afford a Lamborghini costing ten million dollars.
A person’s standards could change way too fast.
8:05 a.m.
The company supervisor sent a message in the group chat.
“Be at your station on time before nine today. No more tardiness.”
Chen Yichen glanced at the time.
He should have left at 8:20.
Changing clothes, riding his scooter, parking, and walking into the plant grounds would have taken just enough time.
But for the first time, he didn’t immediately get up and prepare.
Instead, he stared at the message for a long while.
In the past, a single word from his supervisor would make him tense up instinctively.
Even with a fever, he would agonize over whether he should take the day off.
Losing his perfect-attendance bonus meant giving up NT$1,500.
Taking one day off meant losing another thousand or so.
The difference was nearly three thousand dollars.
In the past, three thousand dollars had been enough to cover ten days of lunches.
But now—
He had ten million dollars in his account.
A job paying NT$41,000 a month suddenly seemed ridiculous.
Chen Yichen even did the math seriously once.
Ten million divided by forty-one thousand.
Two hundred forty-three months.
Twenty years.
He had already received twenty years of his salary.
“What the hell am I still going to work for?”
The moment he said it, the sheer satisfaction hit him.
Chen Yichen typed directly into the group chat:
“I’m taking the day off today.”
The supervisor replied almost instantly.
“What do you mean, taking the day off at the last minute?”
In the past, seeing that message would have made him start inventing excuses.
Stomachache.
A cold.
Something came up at home.
Today, he couldn’t be bothered.
“Something came up.”
The supervisor immediately replied:
“What?”
Chen Yichen stared at those two characters and suddenly found them hilarious.
How had he never realized before that taking one day off meant being questioned like a criminal?
He simply closed the group chat.
Switched his phone to silent.
Then went to take a shower.
He couldn’t stop smiling throughout his shower.
It wasn’t ordinary happiness.
It felt like several hundred pounds of weight had suddenly been lifted off his body.
Rent?
Nothing to worry about.
Credit cards?
Pay them whenever.
Work?
Go if he felt like it.
His supervisor?
Who cared what he did?
After his shower, Chen Yichen changed into a shirt he normally couldn’t bear to wear and checked the banking app one more time before leaving.
The balance was still there.
Ten million dollars.
He took the elevator downstairs and climbed onto the scooter he had owned for seven years.
When he started it, the vehicle shuddered twice as usual.
Chen Yichen suddenly looked down at the body.
It was covered in scratches.
A small section beside the seat had split open.
The scooter had been with him for a long time, and he had always felt that as long as it still ran, there was no need to replace it.
But today, for some reason, he suddenly found it unpleasant to look at.
“Today’s your last day.”
He patted the handlebars.
Half an hour later, he didn’t go to work.
Instead, he rode into an imported-car dealership.
As soon as the glass doors opened, air-conditioning blew toward him.
Inside was a row of cars so clean they looked like models.
Chen Yichen stood at the entrance.
In the past, whenever he passed places like this, he would only stare for a couple of seconds.
He wouldn’t have dared walk inside.
He always felt that anyone could tell at a glance he was someone who couldn’t afford to buy anything there.
Soon, a salesperson in a suit walked over.
“Good morning, sir. Which model would you like to look at today?”
Chen Yichen had originally planned to say, “I’m just looking.”
That was what he usually said when he walked into a luxury store or department store.
But today, he paused.
Then he pointed at the dark gray car in the center.
“How much is this one?”
The salesperson smiled.
“With all the options, this one is currently NT$4.28 million.”
NT$4.28 million.
Chen Yichen’s heart still skipped a beat.
This was the first time he had truly faced a sum like that.
“Can I sit inside?”
“Of course.”
The moment he sat in the driver’s seat, his first thought was—
This really was different.
The leather, the steering wheel, the buttons, the smell.
Even the sound of the door closing was different.
The salesperson introduced the performance, features, and financing plans beside him.
Chen Yichen barely heard half of it.
He was only thinking:
NT$4.28 million.
He’d still have more than six million left after buying it.
Was he crazy?
He still didn’t know where the money in his account had come from.
And he was already buying a car?
No.
He should wait at least a little longer.
He got out of the car.
The salesperson still asked politely, “Sir, would you like me to put together a financing plan for you?”
Chen Yichen was preparing to leave.
His phone suddenly buzzed.
He took it out.
It wasn’t a bank notification.
Just a message from a friend.
But for some reason, he opened the banking app as well.
NT$10,032,648.
The number lay there quietly, unchanged.
At that moment, a powerful feeling suddenly seized him.
If the money really disappeared tomorrow, he would definitely regret doing nothing today.
This was the first time in his life he had ten million dollars.
He should at least do one thing he had never dared to do before.
Chen Yichen raised his head.
“If I buy it today, can I pay directly?”
The salesperson froze for a moment.
“You can, though a large credit-card charge depends on your limit. You can also make a bank transfer.”
“I’ll do a bank transfer.”
The salesperson’s expression immediately changed.
“Sir, are you paying the full amount?”
“Yes.”
“No financing?”
“No need.”
This time, the way the salesperson looked at him was obviously different.
Chen Yichen learned for the first time that saying “No financing” could really change someone else’s attitude in an instant.
He signed the documents, confirmed the options, and made the payment.
NT$4.28 million.
His hand was still trembling slightly as he entered the amount.
The moment he pressed confirm, he even suspected the system would display an error.
It didn’t.
“Transfer successful.”
Account balance:
NT$5,752,648.
Chen Yichen stared at the line of text.
He had just spent more than four million dollars.
The largest purchase of his life.
Yet he still had more than five million in his account.
The most absurd part was that he didn’t regret it.
Instead, he felt the exhilarating rush of breaking through some kind of wall.
12:40 p.m.
He walked out of the dealership.
The car couldn’t be delivered immediately; the license plate and insurance still had to be arranged.
But the salesperson escorted him all the way to the entrance and even called him a car.
Chen Yichen sat in the back of the taxi and looked out the window.
People on the road were still rushing to work.
Delivery riders waited at red lights.
Buses were packed with people.
Some wore uniforms. Others carried breakfast.
None of these scenes were any different from yesterday.
Only his life seemed to have suddenly been split in two.
His phone lit up again.
The supervisor had sent him a message.
“You were absent without notice today. The company will record this as an unexcused absence.”
Chen Yichen read it for several seconds.
This time, he wasn’t angry.
He even found it funny.
Slowly, he typed a line:
“Then record it.”
He sent it.
Turned off his phone.
And leaned back in his seat.
For the first time in his life, he wasn’t afraid of losing a job at all.
11:58 p.m.
Chen Yichen returned to his rented apartment.
During the day, he had gone shopping at a department store, bought two jackets that cost more than NT$20,000 each for the first time in his life, and eaten a teppanyaki dinner that cost more than NT$10,000.
All day, he had felt as if he were living in a dream.
But what he truly cared about was still the money in his account.
He didn’t know what would happen when he woke up tomorrow.
Would the bank suddenly notify him that the funds had been credited in error?
Would the police come knocking?
Or would the remaining five million suddenly disappear?
11:59 p.m.
Chen Yichen sat on the edge of the bed.
He stared at the banking app.
The seconds ticked by.
23:59:57.
58.
59.
Midnight.
Nothing on the screen changed.
He let out a breath and laughed at himself.
Of course.
How could something like this possibly—
His phone buzzed.
A bank notification popped up.
A deposit has been credited to your account.
Chen Yichen’s smile froze.
He tapped it open.
12:00 a.m.
General Deposit.
NT$10,000,000.
New balance:
NT$15,701,263.
The room remained silent for a long time.
Chen Yichen stared at that string of numbers.
Then he slowly raised his head.
This time, he finally understood.
Yesterday’s ten million dollars hadn’t been an accident.
Today’s ten million dollars wasn’t either.
If there was another ten million tomorrow—
Then he truly wouldn’t have to go back to the life he’d been living.