Chapter Three: Spending Ten Million in One Day
When Chen Yichen woke up the next day, his first feeling wasn't excitement.
It was silence.
An absolute silence.
He opened his eyes and stared at the yellowing ceiling above him, listening to the familiar low hum of the old air-conditioner's compressor.
At this time before, he would have already been rushing to brush his teeth, change clothes, and make sure he wasn't late.
Now his alarm hadn't gone off.
His supervisor wouldn't be looking for him anymore, either.
He didn't even need to know what day of the week it was.
Because from the moment he quit, weekdays and weekends no longer made any difference to him.
Chen Yichen reached for his phone.
NT$24,982,406.
The ten million that had come in after midnight yesterday was still lying quietly in his account.
He stared at the number for several seconds.
Today, he was moving.
The thought suddenly perked him up.
At ten that morning, the real-estate agent called.
"Mr. Chen, the owner has agreed. If you're available, you can sign the contract this afternoon."
"I can move in today?"
"As soon as the payment goes through and the keys are handed over."
"Okay."
"Also, you said yesterday that you wanted to pay a year's rent all at once. Is that confirmed?"
"Confirmed."
"The total, including the security deposit, is NT$3.08 million."
Chen Yichen paused for only a second.
"No problem."
After hanging up, he looked around the room he'd lived in for nearly three years.
A tiny studio apartment.
A single bed.
A wardrobe.
A cheap desk.
Two tiers of plastic drawers.
The extension cord on the wall had yellowed, and the bottom of the bathroom door had gone slightly black from the damp.
He had never seriously thought about how he would leave this place.
Maybe after changing jobs.
Maybe after getting married.
Or maybe after saving enough for a down payment, he would slowly move somewhere better.
In the end, none of those things happened.
He was leaving because one day his account had started gaining ten million dollars every day, and he had suddenly decided he didn't need this place anymore.
Chen Yichen pulled out two suitcases.
Only after he really started packing did he realize how pitifully little he owned.
A few outfits he wore regularly.
His ID and other documents.
Chargers.
His laptop.
A few pairs of shoes.
Some old photos and miscellaneous things.
He was practically done in less than an hour.
He didn't want the mattress he'd used for years.
The desk could go.
The plastic cabinet, too.
He couldn't even be bothered to move the monitor he'd had for five years.
He took a few pictures and sent them to his landlady.
"Auntie, I'm moving out."
She called back almost immediately.
"So suddenly? Don't you still have two months left?"
"It's fine if you keep the deposit according to the contract."
"Did you find somewhere else?"
"Yeah."
"What about the furniture?"
"Leave whatever you can. You can deal with whatever I don't want."
There was a brief silence on the other end.
"You know you might not get your deposit back, right?"
"That's fine."
Before, just hearing that he might lose his deposit would have made him negotiate with his landlady at length.
Two months' deposit came to NT$28,000.
The old him could never have let that money go.
Now he just wanted to get out as quickly as possible.
At eleven-thirty in the morning, Chen Yichen dragged his suitcases downstairs.
When he reached the entrance, he suddenly turned back for one last look.
There was no touching emotional moment.
He simply remembered that when he'd moved in three years ago, all the money he had saved amounted to less than NT$90,000.
After paying the deposit and first month's rent, he had been left with a little over NT$50,000.
He'd sat on the bed and counted it for a long time, afraid his next paycheck wouldn't be enough.
Now he had more than NT$20 million in his account.
And another ten million would arrive tonight.
Sometimes life changed so fast there wasn't even time for a transition.
At 1:40 p.m.
He signed the contract.
The agent explained it page by page.
The owner didn't appear in person; an authorized representative handled everything.
When NT$3.08 million was transferred, Chen Yichen's hand didn't tremble at all.
Yesterday, spending more than four million on a car had still felt like stepping into thin air.
Today, with more than three million going out, only one thought remained in his mind.
It'll be back tonight.
"Mr. Chen, we've confirmed receipt of the payment."
The agent handed him two access cards and the keys.
"These are for the main entrance, elevators, and parking garage. Both parking spaces are on B3. I've marked the numbers for you."
"Okay."
"The management office is staffed twenty-four hours a day, and they can accept packages for you as well."
Chen Yichen nodded.
The agent smiled and asked, "Would you like me to show you around the common facilities one more time?"
"No, I'll look around myself."
Once the door closed, he was alone in the house.
Chen Yichen stood in the entryway without immediately moving farther inside.
He looked at the marble floor beneath his feet.
Then he raised his head and looked into the living room.
When he'd come to see the place last night, the agent had been talking nonstop, so he hadn't truly felt how absurdly large it was.
Now that everything was quiet, he realized the place was almost unrealistically spacious.
The living room had an entire wall of floor-to-ceiling windows.
Outside were high-rises and the city.
The sofa was wider than his old bed.
The kitchen had an island.
The master bathroom was even three times larger than the bathroom in his entire old studio apartment.
There was also a small room he had absolutely no idea what to do with.
Chen Yichen set his suitcases down in the middle of the living room.
Then he did nothing.
He simply sat down on the sofa.
A few seconds later, he suddenly laughed.
"This is my house?"
No one answered.
He looked around again.
"Fuck, this is kind of ridiculous."
He took out his phone and snapped a picture of the view through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
At first, he wanted to post it to his story.
But after opening the app, he stopped.
Before, he might have taken pictures when he bought a new pair of shoes or ate a nice meal.
Now that he was actually living in a place like this, he didn't know whether he should post it.
If everyone suddenly found out he was living in a place that rented for NT$220,000 a month, there would definitely be a lot of questions.
Where did the money come from?
Did he win the lottery?
What kind of business was he in?
Was he borrowing money to pretend to be rich?
He thought about it, saved the photo, and didn't post it.
For now, it was better to keep a low profile.
At least until he figured out how long this money would continue.
At three in the afternoon, Chen Yichen discovered a problem.
The house had furniture, but no daily necessities.
There was no new bedding.
No bath towels.
No shampoo.
The refrigerator was empty.
The wardrobe held only the dozen or so outfits he'd brought from his old place.
In a house like this, they looked so shabby it was almost funny.
So he went downstairs.
For the first time today, he didn't start by thinking, "Where can I buy this cheapest?"
He drove straight to a department store.
Bedsheets.
NT$120,000.
A comforter.
More than NT$80,000.
Two pillows, nearly NT$30,000 each.
Chen Yichen stood in front of the counter, staring at the price tags.
If someone had told him before that a pillow cost NT$30,000, he would have thought the buyer was insane.
Now the sales clerk asked him, "Would you like to lie down and try it, sir?"
He sat down for a moment.
"Sure. Two of them."
The clerk froze for a second.
Then came bath towels.
Scented products.
Tableware.
A coffee machine.
Speakers.
A robot vacuum.
Red wine glasses.
Even a fully automatic ice maker he had no idea whether he'd ever use.
He bought it simply because he thought it would look good beside the kitchen island.
By the end, the department store had even arranged a personal assistant to handle delivery for him.
"Mr. Chen, everything can be delivered by seven tonight."
"Everything?"
"Yes."
"Okay."
"Also, would you like us to arrange bed-making service for the bedding set you just purchased?"
It was the first time Chen Yichen had heard that buying bedsheets could come with someone to make the bed for him.
"Sure."
"Of course."
The credit-card total came to NT$637,820.
Chen Yichen looked at the number and suddenly felt a little disappointed.
Only a little over six hundred thousand.
He had actually started thinking that way.
Standing on the department store's first floor, he finally began to understand what "ten million every day" really meant.
The money an ordinary person worked ten years to save, he got in a single day.
Even if he stayed in five-star hotels every day, ate at high-end restaurants, and bought designer brands, he might still not be able to spend ten million.
Unless he bought cars.
Bought a house.
Bought jewelry.
Or other even more expensive things.
Chen Yichen looked down at the time.
4:20 p.m.
There were still more than seven hours before the day ended.
A slightly crazy idea suddenly popped into his head.
Should he try actually spending ten million today?
Not because there was any rule requiring it.
He simply wanted to know.
If ten million came into his account every day, did he really have the ability to spend all of it in one day?
The thought suddenly filled him with interest.
He went to the luxury-goods floor first.
In the past, Chen Yichen rarely entered stores like these when he visited a department store.
It wasn't that he was afraid.
He simply knew there was no point in looking.
Today, he walked in for the first time without checking the prices.
A jacket cost NT$180,000.
"I'll take it."
A pair of shoes cost more than NT$70,000.
"These, and the ones beside them."
A belt cost NT$28,000.
"I'll take both the black and the brown."
He hadn't originally been interested in bags, but a travel bag caught his eye.
NT$210,000.
He bought it.
At the watch counter, one watch cost more than NT$600,000.
He put it on and looked at it for a moment.
The clerk spent ages explaining the options, then asked whether he usually preferred sporty or dress watches.
Chen Yichen thought about it.
"Give me both."
More than NT$1.4 million.
By six that evening, he had already spent more than NT$3 million.
But he was still a long way from ten million.
Chen Yichen began to find it interesting.
Spending money wasn't as easy as he'd imagined.
A meal cost at most a little over a hundred thousand.
No matter how recklessly he bought clothes, how many could he buy in one day?
It wasn't as if he could buy a hundred jackets and pile them up at home.
He sat in a restaurant, eating steak while searching online.
"Supercars in Taipei available for immediate delivery."
After looking for a few minutes, he laughed to himself.
In the end, he still had to rely on cars.
At 7:30 p.m., Chen Yichen drove the new car he'd picked up yesterday to another imported-car showroom.
This time, it wasn't an ordinary performance car.
Even the cheapest car in the showroom cost more than ten million.
A sales representative walked over.
"Hello, sir. Do you have an appointment?"
"No."
"Which model would you like to see?"
Chen Yichen swept his gaze around the showroom.
In the end, his eyes stopped on a black two-door sports car.
It sat so low it was practically scraping the ground.
The lines of its body looked like nothing that belonged on an ordinary road.
"How much for that one?"
"This vehicle, with the selected options, is currently NT$14.8 million."
Chen Yichen fell silent for two seconds.
It was more than today's ten million.
He suddenly found it hilarious.
A few hours ago, he'd still been wondering how to spend ten million.
Now one car had solved the problem.
"Can I take delivery?"
The salesperson froze.
"You mean this exact vehicle?"
"Yes."
"If we complete the paperwork and payment today, the earliest delivery would be tomorrow afternoon."
Chen Yichen walked closer.
He circled the car once.
Then he climbed inside.
The interior sat very low.
The view was completely different from yesterday's car.
He didn't even need a test-drive.
He didn't actually know that much about cars, anyway.
He simply wanted to own it.
For the current Chen Yichen, that reason was enough.
"I'll take it."
The salesperson confirmed once more. "Mr. Chen, are you sure you want this one?"
"Yeah."
"How would you like to pay?"
"In full."
This time, he had no psychological barrier whatsoever.
He didn't even take a deep breath when entering the transfer amount.
NT$14,800,000.
Transfer successful.
Only when he saw the confirmation screen did Chen Yichen finally process what had happened.
He had originally only wanted to spend ten million today.
Instead, this one car alone had cost him NT$14.8 million.
Add in the rent, furniture, clothes, watches, and meals.
His total spending for the day was close to NT$20 million.
The more than NT$24 million that had originally been in his account instantly dwindled to just a few million.
At 10:50 p.m., Chen Yichen returned to his new home.
Everything the department store had delivered had already been arranged.
The bed was made.
The refrigerator was packed with groceries from the upscale supermarket delivery he'd ordered on the way.
The new speakers were playing music in the living room.
After showering, he sat in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows wearing only a bathrobe.
The watch he'd bought today sat on the table.
Beside it were the car keys.
One set was for yesterday's car.
The other was for the supercar he'd just signed for today.
Although the car hadn't been delivered yet, he'd already received the keys.
Chen Yichen placed his phone on the table.
Current balance:
NT$3,416,772.
He stared at the number.
More than three million.
Three days ago, that would have been an amount he thought would be nearly impossible to save in his entire lifetime.
Now it actually seemed a little low.
For a moment, he even felt insecure.
Only three million?
But then he glanced at the time.
11:57 p.m.
He smiled.
There was no need to worry.
He'd have more in three minutes.
The feeling was even more incredible than having twenty million.
Because what truly made a person feel secure had never been how much was currently in the account.
It was knowing that more would definitely come tomorrow.
11:59 p.m.
Chen Yichen lifted his wineglass.
He wasn't nervous.
He wasn't praying.
He wasn't even constantly refreshing the banking app like he had the past two days.
He simply sat there, watching the city.
Midnight.
His phone vibrated.
The screen lit up.
General Deposit: NT$10,000,000.
Balance:
NT$13,416,772.
Chen Yichen picked up his phone and glanced at it.
Then he set it back on the table.
This time, he only smiled.
Ten million.
A number that had once been enough to change his entire life.
Now it was merely a notification that appeared on schedule every night.
He turned to look at the two sets of car keys beside him.
Then he looked out the window.
For the first time, he felt that he hadn't spent enough today.
If money really was going to keep coming every day, then buying cars, renting luxury homes, and purchasing expensive watches might be only the most basic way to play the game.
He started wondering.
What else was there that his former self hadn't even dared to imagine, but that he could now simply throw money at?
Chen Yichen leaned back against the sofa.
Tonight, for the first time, he no longer asked why this money had appeared.
He began looking forward to tomorrow.
Because he had discovered that what truly became addictive wasn't being rich.
It was the feeling that—
suddenly, when it came to most of the things in this world with a price tag, he no longer had to ask himself whether he could afford them.