Chapter Four: After Getting Rich, Time Got More Expensive
When Chen Yichen woke up, his phone showed 10:23 a.m.
The room was very quiet.
No alarm. No call from his supervisor. Not even a message asking, “What time are you getting in today?”
He lay in bed staring at the ceiling. It took a full two minutes before he picked up his phone.
Account balance:
NT$13,416,772.
The number hadn't changed.
The ten million dollars that had appeared at midnight last night was still sitting there, safe and sound.
This was already the fourth time.
If the first time could be called an accident, the second a coincidence, and the third something caused by a mechanism he didn't know about, then after the fourth time, Chen Yichen found it very hard to keep treating this as a temporary phenomenon.
At least for now, it really did come every day.
And it was more punctual than his paycheck.
He didn't get up right away.
In the past, if he was still lying in bed after ten, he would feel an intense sense of guilt.
He always felt that everyone else had already started working while he was wasting time.
Now, he felt nothing of the sort.
For the first time, he even seriously considered a question.
If he didn't have to work, why did people still have to get up early?
That question had never been valid before.
Everyone's life was pushed forward by time.
What time to go to work.
What time to clock in.
What time to take lunch.
What time to get off work.
Even taking time off depended on the schedule.
But now, all twenty-four hours of the day belonged to him.
This freedom was even more addictive than the ten-plus million dollars in his account.
Around eleven, the salesperson from the supercar dealership he had bought from yesterday called.
“Hello, Mr. Chen. Your car can officially be delivered this afternoon. Is that convenient for you?”
“What time?”
“Anytime after two.”
“Okay. Two o’clock, then.”
“Would you like us to send a car to pick you up?”
Chen Yichen paused.
They hadn't mentioned that when he bought the car yesterday.
“Sure.”
“Okay. I'll arrange for it to arrive at your residence around one-thirty.”
“Mm.”
After hanging up, he looked at the screen and smiled.
In the past, he had to go looking for stores whenever he wanted to buy something.
Now, once he spent enough money, someone even came to pick him up when he went to collect his car.
The treatment wasn't earth-shattering, but it was very easy to get used to.
Chen Yichen got up and took a shower.
Then he walked into the dressing room.
All the clothes he had bought yesterday had already been hung up.
Coats costing over a hundred thousand, shoes costing tens of thousands, belts, shirts—all arranged in neat rows.
He looked around, then suddenly felt that there wasn't much here.
The thought startled even him when it surfaced.
A few days ago, all the clothes in his closet might not have been worth a hundred thousand in total.
Now, just one coat was worth more than his entire old wardrobe.
Yet he already felt that the room was empty.
People adapted to new standards at a frightening speed.
1:35 p.m.
A black luxury sedan pulled up at the entrance to the residential complex.
The driver got out and opened the door for him.
“Mr. Chen.”
“Thanks.”
Chen Yichen got into the back seat.
As the car left the underground parking garage, he looked out through the window.
Someone on a scooter was making a delivery by the side of the road.
Someone stood at a bus stop, head down, scrolling through their phone.
Someone in a button-down shirt walked in front of a red light while talking on a work call.
The scenes were exactly the same as they had been four days ago.
But the way he saw them had changed.
It wasn't superiority.
It was a sense of unfamiliarity.
Four days ago, he had been one of those people.
He had been rushing every day.
Rushing to clock in.
Rushing for his paycheck.
Rushing to pay the bills.
As if his life would fall apart if he stopped for even one day.
Now, for the first time, he realized that many things weren't necessities. They were simply things people without money couldn't afford not to do.
The car arrived at the showroom.
The black supercar was already parked in the delivery area.
After having its exterior detailed, it looked even more outrageous than it had yesterday.
The body sat so low it looked glued to the ground.
The light spilling across the paint made the whole car look like a sculpture cast from black metal.
The salesperson and a manager were already waiting beside it.
“Mr. Chen, congratulations on your delivery.”
“Thanks.”
“The car has been registered, insured, and given its final inspection. We just need you to sign a few documents here.”
Chen Yichen sat down and signed the paperwork.
The manager chatted with him for a few moments.
“Mr. Chen, have you driven a performance car before?”
“I just bought one yesterday.”
The manager had been smiling, but he paused when he heard that.
“Yesterday?”
“Yeah.”
“So this is your second one?”
“Mm.”
The salesperson beside him very obviously glanced at the manager.
Chen Yichen saw it.
He was beginning to understand the fun of being rich.
It wasn't about constantly watching people envy you.
It was about casually mentioning something that had already become completely ordinary to you, then watching someone else's expression freeze for a moment.
That contrast easily made people feel like they were no longer living in the same world.
Once the documents were signed, the salesperson handed him the keys.
“Mr. Chen, your car.”
Chen Yichen took them.
The key was very light.
But he knew that this little object represented NT$14.8 million.
He used to think the biggest thing about being rich would be seeing a huge number in his bank account.
Now he realized that wasn't it.
The real impact was when expensive things started becoming everyday items.
A car key was just a car key.
Even if the car was worth over ten million dollars.
He got into the driver's seat.
The engine started.
A deep rumble came from behind him.
Chen Yichen gripped the steering wheel and pressed the gas for real for the first time.
The moment the car shot forward, his entire back was pressed into the seat.
“Damn.”
He couldn't help laughing.
This was completely different from watching videos.
The acceleration, the engine note, the view, the vibrations transmitted through the entire car—all of it made him instantly understand where those ten-plus million dollars had gone.
He didn't dare drive too fast in the city.
But even at a normal speed, attention kept drifting his way.
Motorcyclists turned their heads.
Pedestrians pulled out their phones to take pictures.
A car in the next lane even deliberately slowed down and drove alongside him for a while.
Chen Yichen used to do the same thing whenever he saw a supercar.
Now he was sitting inside one.
The role reversal felt even better than he had imagined.
Four o'clock in the afternoon.
He drove the car back to the underground parking garage of his luxury mansion.
Yesterday's car, which had cost over four million, was parked in one space.
He parked today's car beside it.
The two spaces were just enough.
Chen Yichen stood between the two cars.
He looked left.
Then right.
A very practical question suddenly occurred to him.
“Where am I going to park the next one?”
He laughed at himself.
He used to worry about not having a parking space.
Now he was worried that two spaces weren't enough.
Upstairs, he sat on the couch to rest.
His phone was full of messages.
The old company group chat.
Private messages from coworkers.
And Zhang Jiahao.
Zhang Jiahao got straight to the point.
“Where the hell did you get all that money?”
“You really bought that car yesterday?”
“Dude, don't tell me you actually won the lottery and quit your job?”
After reading them, Chen Yichen replied:
“Dinner tonight?”
Zhang Jiahao replied instantly.
“Your treat?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I'm in.”
At 6:30 p.m., Chen Yichen drove yesterday's car, the one that had cost over four million, to pick up Zhang Jiahao.
He deliberately didn't drive the supercar.
Even he felt that throwing too much out there at once after only a few days would be hard to explain.
The first thing Zhang Jiahao said after getting in was:
“This is really yours?”
“Didn't you ask that yesterday?”
“I still don't believe it.”
Zhang Jiahao touched the center console.
“Weren't you telling me a few days ago that you wanted to wait until your year-end bonus before replacing your scooter?”
“Plans changed.”
“They changed way too much.”
The car pulled away.
Zhang Jiahao stared at him for a while.
“How much did you win?”
“What?”
“The lottery.”
“I didn't win.”
“Then where did you get over four million to buy a car?”
“I had money, so I bought one.”
“No kidding. I know you need money to buy a car.”
Zhang Jiahao frowned.
“I'm asking where you got the money.”
Chen Yichen didn't answer.
It wasn't that he wanted to act mysterious.
He genuinely didn't want anyone to know for the time being.
Once someone found out that he received ten million dollars every day, it definitely wouldn't stop at “a friend knows.”
Besides, he still had no idea how long this ability would last.
“I made it investing.”
He casually gave the answer most likely to end the conversation.
Zhang Jiahao clearly didn't believe him.
“You invest?”
“I do now.”
“You used to be too lazy to even open a stock account.”
“People change.”
“In four days?”
Chen Yichen smiled.
“Then just assume I got lucky.”
He had made the reservation that afternoon on a whim.
It was a high-rise restaurant with a view.
The set meal and alcohol for two came to over forty thousand in the end.
When Zhang Jiahao saw the price, he almost closed the menu.
“Damn, over ten thousand per person?”
“Eat.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“My treat.”
“Even if you’re paying, I still think it’s expensive.”
Chen Yichen didn't rush him.
He simply remembered his old self.
There used to be a barbecue restaurant near the company where a meal cost over eight hundred. He had told his coworkers several times that he wanted to go, but they never did.
The reason was always:
“Spending over eight hundred on one meal is such a waste.”
Now the same thing was happening to Zhang Jiahao, except the price had become over ten thousand.
Halfway through dinner, Zhang Jiahao asked:
“You're really not going to work at all now?”
“Mm.”
“Then what do you do all day?”
Chen Yichen paused.
“Buy things.”
Zhang Jiahao laughed outright.
“Fuck, who makes shopping their whole life?”
“Why not?”
“Travel. Start a business. Find something to do.”
“Why do I have to do anything?”
Zhang Jiahao looked at him.
“Wouldn't you get bored if you didn't do anything?”
Chen Yichen cut off a piece of steak.
“I’m not bored yet.”
“What about later?”
He didn't answer immediately.
Because he had actually thought about it too.
Cars.
Houses.
Designer brands.
Luxury watches.
The thrill of these things was already fading.
On the first day, seeing ten million dollars had kept him awake all night.
On the second day, buying a car worth over four million had made his hands tremble.
Yesterday, after spending NT$14.8 million on a supercar, he had already been able to pay calmly.
The threshold for excitement was rising rapidly.
And this was only the fourth day.
After dinner, Zhang Jiahao stood outside the restaurant looking at the bill.
“Forty-six thousand.”
“Mm.”
“We used to go for stir-fried dishes and think fifteen hundred for the two of us was a lot.”
“I remember.”
“You changed so fast.”
Chen Yichen looked up.
“How?”
“Now forty-six thousand looks to you about the same as four hundred and sixty used to.”
That made Chen Yichen fall silent for a moment.
Because Zhang Jiahao had hit the nail on the head.
He no longer had any real sense of what “over forty thousand” meant.
To someone who received ten million dollars every day, forty-six thousand was only 0.46 percent of a day's income.
Later that night, Chen Yichen sat alone in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.
It was 11:15 p.m.
He didn't turn on the TV.
He simply opened the calculator on his phone.
Ten million a day.
Three hundred million in thirty days.
3.65 billion a year.
18.25 billion in five years.
36.5 billion in ten years.
If this really never stopped—
then he didn't need to “become a billionaire.”
Time would push him into that world all by itself.
He didn't have to do anything.
He just had to stay alive.
For the first time, Chen Yichen had a very strange thought.
His time used to be cheap.
A few hundred dollars for an hour of overtime.
A full twelve-hour day in exchange for a few thousand.
Now it was different.
Every day that passed, he gained another ten million dollars.
So his time had suddenly become more valuable than anything else.
Waiting one month was three hundred million.
Waiting one year was 3.65 billion.
He didn't need to take risks.
He didn't need to start a business.
He didn't even need to invest.
He only had to wait.
11:59 p.m.
Chen Yichen placed his phone on the table.
He didn't refresh the screen.
Nor did he stare at the time like he had the previous few days.
Midnight.
His phone buzzed once.
He picked it up.
General Deposit: NT$10,000,000.
Balance:
NT$23,104,587.
The fifth time.
Right on time again.
Chen Yichen stared at it for three seconds.
Then he dismissed the notification.
He didn't smile.
He wasn't excited either.
This time, the ten million dollars only made him think:
Of course it came.
He suddenly realized that he was getting used to something the overwhelming majority of people in the world couldn't imagine experiencing even once in their entire lives.
Receiving ten million dollars every day.
And the scariest part wasn't that he was becoming rich.
It was that he had already started to feel—
Ten million dollars wasn't that much after all.
Not Mom