2009.
Handong Province, Jingzhou City, Handong University.
“Qian-ge, wake up quickly! We’ll be late for class! The Vice Dean is teaching today, and he’s going to take attendance!”
Pei Qian awoke from his dream, rubbed his eyes, still confused about who was calling him.
Didn’t I rent a one-bedroom apartment? Who came into my room?
Opening his eyes, he saw a long face occupying almost his entire field of vision.
“Ma Yang?”
Pei Qian was stunned, almost thinking he was dreaming.
“Hurry up! I’ve already called you to get up. Don’t blame me if you miss the attendance check.” Ma Yang’s long face quickly disappeared from Pei Qian’s view as he turned and hurriedly left the dorm room.
Wait, dorm room?
Pei Qian instantly became fully awake, springing up from bed like a startled fish.
University dormitory, six-person room!
He was still in the lower bunk near the door. He remembered how, in winter, the door wouldn’t close properly, leaving a small gap that let in drafts. Pei Qian had complained about this countless times back then.
The only two remaining roommates in the room were also packing up their things, about to leave.
“Hurry up, Qian-ge! If we rush, we can still make it. Otherwise, we won’t dare answer for you during roll call. Getting caught by the Vice Dean would be terrible.”
These two roommates also hurriedly left the room.
Pei Qian couldn’t help but pinch himself a couple of times.
Ouch… his cheek hurt!
Is this real? Isn’t this from university times?
The Vice Dean’s class… with attendance… that must be freshman year…
2009?!
That means he had gone back ten years!
Pei Qian felt anxious for a moment but quickly accepted this fact.
After graduating from university in 2013, he had drifted through two industries, job-hopped through many companies, encountered extremely annoying bosses, and experienced workplace infighting.
In short, he had been a corporate slave.
Encountering time travel was certainly a delightful surprise. Being able to return to ten years ago and start over was something many people would dream of!
Pei Qian was now fully awake, sitting up on his bed.
What should he do next?
Should he report the situation to the Time Management Bureau?
Would he be executed on the spot, silenced to keep the secret?
Or… should the first thing after time travel be attending class?
That would be insane!
His memories from ten years ago were already quite blurry, but Pei Qian vaguely remembered that in his freshman year, he had skipped many classes, including the Vice Dean’s, but hadn’t failed the Vice Dean’s course.
Although the Vice Dean claimed to take attendance, he had never actually done so.
Instead, there was a seemingly easygoing young male teacher who never took attendance but suddenly did so once at the end of the semester, counting it toward the final grade.
“I don’t want to take attendance; I just want to get to know everyone.”
That’s what he had said.
Even now, Pei Qian felt deeply tricked when he thought about it. After all, he had been too young then and had complete trust in this amiable teacher.
Just then, a transparent light screen suddenly appeared before Pei Qian, with lines of text continuously displaying.
[Wealth Conversion System binding with host…]
[Binding successful.]
[Host: Pei Qian]
[Please read the system’s instructions.]
“What’s going on?!”
Pei Qian was startled, then immediately filled with wild joy.
Indeed, time travel must come with a system—this was the cheat code!
Stay calm, stay calm, this is all standard procedure, nothing to be overly excited about.
Pei Qian quickly composed himself and began to observe the text information on the light screen.
[Wealth Conversion System]
[Profit/Loss Conversion Ratio: To be determined]
[System Funds: 50000]
[Personal Assets: 443]
This was a generic template.
Below the template, there was an area similar to a dialog box for displaying dynamic information, which should be the “instructions.”
[Wealth Conversion Rules:]
[Every period of time, the system will provide the host with a certain amount of system funds, which can only be used for normal business activities of the company and cannot be squandered.]
After a certain period, there will be a settlement. The profit or loss relative to the system funds will each be converted at a certain ratio into personal assets that you can freely dispose of.]
[Special note: To encourage the host to focus on work, the host cannot directly issue salaries to themselves through the company account.]
[Next step: View detailed rules]
“Oh? This system is incredibly profitable!”
“You provide me with funds and then share money with me? What a conscientious system!”
Pei Qian instantly understood the function of this system.
Although both “system funds” and “personal assets” were “money,” they were two completely different concepts.
The display showing personal assets of 443 meant that Pei Qian currently had only 443 yuan in total, which he could freely use.
The 50,000 yuan was system funding. According to the system, this money could only be used for business activities, such as starting a company.
After a period of time, whether he made a profit or suffered a loss, the corresponding portion would be converted at a certain ratio into personal assets, which Pei Qian could then spend freely!
“Exciting! Let’s look at the detailed rules.”
Pei Qian continued to click on the light screen to view more.
[The host must engage in normal, reasonable, legal business activities with certain technical content.]
[The following behaviors are all violations, please note.]
[Profit category:]
[1. Large-scale property acquisition or property speculation.]
[2. Purchasing digital currency, participating in Ponzi schemes, illegal fundraising, and other illegal activities.]
[3. Profiteering, reselling goods, disrupting market order.]
[…(Click to expand the remaining 97 violations)]
[Loss category:]
[1. Doing charity or transferring company property to others as gifts.]
[2. Procurement, hiring employees, renting office space, and purchasing office supplies at standards far above market prices.]
[3. Passive work, excessively low efficiency, failure to create any value over an extended period.]
[…(Click to expand the remaining 97 violations)]
[Supplementary clause: The host may not disclose or hint at the existence of the system itself or this challenge to anyone, in any way.]
[The system reserves the final interpretation right regarding the definition of violations.]
[Next step: Randomly generate profit and loss conversion ratios]
“The rules are quite rigorous.”
Pei Qian reviewed the 200 violations, and several plans that had crossed his mind were rejected one by one.
Property speculation, purchasing digital currency, and other similar activities were prohibited by the system.
Normal investment and financial management behaviors were allowed, but given the general annual rate of return, it would likely be difficult to satisfy Pei Qian’s needs.
The 200 detailed violation rules not only restricted the “profit” activities Pei Qian could engage in but also limited the “loss” activities he could undertake.
In short, all underhanded methods were forbidden.
Pei Qian continued clicking on the light screen to proceed to the next step.
[Randomly generating profit and loss conversion ratios…]
[Profit conversion ratio is 100:1, Loss conversion ratio is 1:1]
“Wait a minute, this ratio…”
Pei Qian looked carefully and found that there seemed to be a bug.
Isn’t the loss conversion ratio a bit high?
If he lost all the system funds, they would be converted into personal assets at an equal rate!
Even losing money would be incredibly profitable!
“Randomly generating such a favorable conversion ratio? I must be incredibly lucky!”
“It’s a pity that the profit conversion ratio is a bit low, but it doesn’t matter. Losing money is much easier than making money!”
Pei Qian felt that his luck had exploded!
[Final step: Please name your company (click here to input)]
Pei Qian thought for a moment and mentally entered into the input box: Tenda Network Technology Co., Ltd.
The meaning was “Meteoric Rise to Success.”
He hoped that Tenda Company would quickly go yellow (fail)!
[“Tenda Network Technology Co., Ltd.” registration complete.]
After completing the final step, the text information on the light screen disappeared, returning to the initial state of the panel.
[Wealth Conversion System]
[Host: Pei Qian]
[Profit Conversion Ratio 100:1, Loss Conversion Ratio 1:1]
[Next Settlement Time: 14 days later]
[Note: If there are any unreleased products one week before settlement, the settlement date will be postponed, with the postponement time determined by the system.]
[System Funds: 50000]
[Personal Assets: 443]
Pei Qian examined the meaning of this note.
One week before the settlement, Pei Qian couldn’t have any unreleased products.
This was reasonable.
Without this rule, Pei Qian could invest all company assets into production just one day before settlement, reducing system funds to 0, essentially exploiting a loophole.
With this rule, Pei Qian had to launch all his products to generate profit at least one week before settlement, regardless of whether he made money or lost it—this step couldn’t be skipped.
“One less way to exploit loopholes, but it doesn’t matter.”
“So, the next thing to do is to turn the system funds of 50,000 into 0, and then turn the personal assets of 443 into 50,443.”
“Isn’t it just about losing money within the rules? I don’t think that’s difficult,” Pei Qian said confidently.
Normally, start a company, create value, and develop products.
And then, as the company’s boss, Pei Qian just needed to let the direction deviate slightly, heading down the wrong path.
Wouldn’t that work?
Successful startups were extremely rare, while failed startups were abundant. Which had the lower threshold was obvious!