Chapter 3
The moment I walked into the house, I could feel the doom and gloom hanging in the air.
Dad sat on the couch smoking while Mom scratched her head staring at the computer screen.
ཅ་ཌ་རྦ ྃ་རྗ F
When they saw me come in, they exchanged glances and forced fake smiles.
Just as they were about to speak, I waved them off.
“Don’t bother acting. I already know about the business problems.”
My parents ran a traditional manufacturing business that got hammered by the internet boom. They’d bet everything on one project, and now that project had gone south.
Their cash flow was about to dry up completely, leaving them with two choices.
Option one was to go all-in and gamble everything one more time.
Option two was to liquidate everything, pay off the debts, and shut down for good.
In my past life, my parents couldn’t let go and chose to gamble.
They lost everything down to their last penny. Dad was already stressed and chain-smoked himself straight into lung cancer.
Mom tried to make a comeback, but every bit of money she earned went straight to paying off debts. They could barely survive.
So this time I was going to be brutally direct and tell them how it would end.
Dad, Mom, stop struggling. You’re already behind the times, and the factory business will never recover.”
AI was developing too fast and completely destroying traditional industries.
My parents couldn’t wrap their heads around this new reality, so their downfall wasn’t surprising.
When they heard I wanted them to close the business, they both panicked. “What do you know? You never cared about family business before.”
‘Exactly! I asked your Uncle White and Uncle Green, and they all said if we want to take the risk, they can help us out.”
Yeah, those uncles really did help.
Later they became regular fixtures at our door collecting their debts.
I smiled bitterly.
‘Come here, Mom and Dad. Let me tell you why I’m saying this.”
curled up on the couch and told them everything about my past life.
No point hiding anything from the people closest to me.
After hearing everything, my parents were deeply moved.
Especially Dad-he was actually crying.
“So sweetheart, you spent those ten-plus years washing dishes to pay off debts? And died alone in a hospital because you couldn’t afford treatment?”
He grabbed my hands, his whole body trembling. Mom stayed quiet, looking down for a long time.
Finally, she looked up with an expression that was half laughing, half crying.
“Alright, this time we’ll listen to our daughter. No more gambling.”
My parents started wrapping up the family business.
Thanks to over ten years of experience, after paying off debts and covering losses, they actually had a few hundred thousand left over plus a villa.
After signing the sale contracts, my parents stood in the factory lobby looking wistful.
“We worked our asses off our whole lives, and it feels like we’ve got nothing to show for it. This factory, this land, all this equipment-it all belongs to someone else now.”
I linked arms with both of them.
“Dad, Mom, don’t worry. Having you both alive is worth more than anything.”
Getting out of the traditional manufacturing game now only cost us a few million.
If we’d kept grinding it out, we’d never recover.
With no work to do, my parents suddenly had way too much free time.
They seemed a bit lost, not knowing what to do with themselves.
I pulled out the few million I’d saved and put it in their hands.
“Dad, Mom, this is everything I’ve saved up since I was little. It’s all yours now.”
“Even though my past life was pretty miserable, I got to see how fast the world was changing.”
The factory failed because you were always so busy working, you never had time to learn new things. If you jump into new projects blindly now, that’s risky
too.”
‘So here’s what I’m thinking-take this money and get MBAs. Learn some new stuff. Then when the right opportunity comes along, we can make a comeback. Sound good?”
My parents looked at me in surprise, then smiled.
‘Wow, Isadora really has grown up. That’s some solid thinking.”
‘Alright, Mom and Dad will listen to you. Time to go back to school.”
I struck while the iron was hot and found them elite business programs that same night.
Two days later, they flew to New York to start classes.
After firing a few unnecessary staff members and sorting out security, I finally went back to the house I shared with Derek.
Turns out he was already back, sitting on the couch reading documents.
When he saw me, he closed the file and stuffed it into his laptop bag.
He got up to head into his office.
ignored him completely, took a shower, and started watching video editing tutorials in the bedroom.
One of my friends was an influencer who said the internet was blowing up right now.
didn’t have many other skills, but I could definitely fake a glamorous lifestyle to fool people.
So I figured I’d learn how to make vlogs-maybe I’d go viral.
was deep into watching tutorials when Derek pushed open the door and stood behind me.
He asked, “Want to?”
