While reconciling the year-end accounts, I noticed something wrong with the company ledgers. After working overtime to fix it, I found an extra penny in the account. I stayed up for another three nights redoing the books, only to discover that the new secretary was transferring a penny into the company account every single day. When I confronted her, she said, "I just saw you staying up late every day crunching numbers, and the money wasn't adding up. I wanted to help." The boss defended her, saying, "Harper is just trying to be nice. Stop being so aggressive." Under the collective condemnation, I became the villain who bullied my coworkers. I was fired from the company and smeared online during Harper's livestreams. Tortured by the backlash, I spiraled into depression and took my own life. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the moment the accounts didn't add up. 1 Staring at the extra penny on the spreadsheet, I furiously smashed my mouse, turned around, and yelled at the rest of the office. "Who the hell is sending a penny to the company account every single day? "With inflation this high, wouldn't you rather save that penny to buy your own coffin?" My coworkers stared at me, jaws dropping. I suppose that's the collective silencing effect you get when the usually quiet person suddenly explodes. After a moment, my coworker Kyle Morgan burst out laughing. "Whoa, Chloe, did you eat gunpowder for breakfast? "Did you get rejected on another blind date? You can't just take it out on us!" Kyle, who had been here for three years, fancied himself a comedian and loved making fun of my failed dates. I kept a straight face and demanded strictly: "Kyle, did you transfer this cent into the account? "It might just be a penny, but it throws off the accuracy of our financial data. The books won't balance, the company's audit will be screwed, and none of us will have an easy holiday season!" I admit I was exaggerating a little. But hearing that he might be held responsible, Kyle instantly dropped his goofy smirk. "Chloe, it wasn't me, I swear." I ignored him and swept my gaze over everyone else. "Whoever did this knows exactly who they are. Don't force me to audit the data line by line. "I'll give you three seconds to step up and admit your mistake. Otherwise, whatever massive fallout this causes, you'll be the sinner of the whole company!" Just as I started counting down, the company's new secretary, Harper Evans, burst through the door in a panic. "Chloe, I-I'm so sorry, I sent the money." As she apologized, she didn't forget to pass out the Starbucks coffees she was carrying to everyone. "I know we all get sick of the free coffee in the pantry, so this is on me. Please, don't be shy!" There's a saying: you can't bite the hand that feeds you. After receiving Harper's coffee, everyone's faces softened into smiles. "How much was this? I'll Venmo you." "You're too sweet. You buy us coffee every other day, I feel bad taking it!" "Harper, your family must be loaded! An intern's salary is barely enough to cover all these treats!" Harper smiled and waved her hands. "It's no fun drinking alone. It's only happy if we all drink together! "And don't worry about my wallet, it can handle it." In less than a month since joining, Harper had maneuvered her way into everyone's good graces with these petty favors. Holding his coffee, Kyle made a passive-aggressive jab. "Harper, if only everyone were as easy to get along with as you. Some people have been here for five years and still haven't integrated into the team." Harper blinked, asking with spectacular tone-deafness, "Who? Is it someone I know?" The people around them covered their mouths, snickering. This exact scene had played out countless times in my previous life. 2 On Harper's first day, Kyle was the one tasked with showing her around. Surprisingly, they found a lot of common ground. For example, they shared a shocking synergy when it came to making fun of me. When I was working late on the year-end books and found the discrepancies, I pulled three all-nighters to recalculate the accounts. I worked until my hair was practically falling out, only to discover that Harper had been transferring a single penny into the account every day. Faced with my confrontation, she cried and said, "I just saw you staying up late every day crunching numbers, and the money wasn't adding up. I wanted to help." All my coworkers took her side. "Newbies are bound to make mistakes. Harper is already trying so hard." Even the boss chimed in: "Harper was just being kind. Don't be so aggressive." Under their relentless accusations, I was branded a workplace bully and subsequently kicked to the curb. No severance package. The boss even withheld my last month's paycheck. Then, Harper started livestreaming online, smearing my name, while my boss and former coworkers jumped in to testify against me. I was officially labeled a toxic workplace abuser. Right at that time, my mother back in our rural hometown fell seriously ill and desperately needed money for treatment. I was being doxxed online, and the hundreds of resumes I sent out vanished into the void. Because we didn't have the money, my mom missed the optimal treatment window. Shortly after, my dad passed away with her. Tortured by depression, I committed suicide. When I opened my eyes and saw the extra penny tacked onto the long string of numbers in the ledger, I just exploded. You either erupt in the silence or perish in it. So in this life, I chose to erupt, and then obliterate the disgusting clique led by Harper and Kyle. 3 After passing out the coffees, Harper noticed she was one cup short. She pressed her hands together pleadingly and walked up to me. "I'm so sorry, Chloe. Here, you can have my cup." I followed her gesture and pressed her firmly into my desk chair. "Alright. Whoever caused the accounting errors is going to be the one responsible for finding and fixing them." Harper stared at the accounting software, totally bewildered, looking like she was about to cry. "Chloe, I majored in secretarial studies... I don't know how to do this..." I cut her off. "That's fine, you can learn. "Since you have the time to meticulously transfer a penny every single day, you must be extremely interested in the company's financials." With that, I stretched my arms and started packing up my personal belongings from the desk. Kyle frowned and challenged me. "Chloe Bennett, you're just bullying the new girl. How can you hand off such an important task? What if something goes wrong?" He made it sound so noble. But I had long seen through his shit-stirring nature. The best way to deal with someone like him is to drag him down into the mud too. So, I pulled his chair over. "Kyle, aren't you Harper's mentor? Perfect, you two can study the ledgers together." Harper's eyes suddenly welled up with tears. "Chloe, I know you don't like me. I'm just a new intern, I haven't even passed probation, so I wouldn't dare say anything if you bully me. But Kyle is a senior employee. He has so much on his plate already. How can you dump your work on him? "I can work overtime every day, but Kyle has a kid at home. He needs to go back to his wife and child. Could you please not drag the people around me into this? If you have a problem, just come at me!" Harper's feigned resilience drew everyone's sympathy—and their collective resentment toward me. "Chloe, you can't just use your seniority to bully Kyle and Harper. Even I can't stand watching this!" "Seriously. She just sits in the corner all day with a sour face. If you didn't know better, you'd think the company owed her money. Such a buzzkill." "We're all busy. Even the newbies have a lot on their plate. Someone is just using this as an excuse to pawn off her workload. Real calculated." Not too far away, the corner of Harper's mouth twitched up into a faint smirk. If this were the past, I definitely wouldn't have irresponsibly handed off my duties to someone else. But in my previous life, the moment people started criticizing me, the boss fired me under the pretext of workplace bullying. I will never forget that ugly, hypocritical face. At the end of the day, he just wanted to fire me without paying severance. A company like this wasn't worth another ounce of my energy! "Alright. Since all of you want to speak up for them, you can do the work. "I've been working overtime for nineteen days straight trying to reconcile these accounts, practically on the verge of a heart attack. And the reason there are constant discrepancies is because she keeps wiring a penny every day. I'm no saint. I refuse to accept this kind of sheer stupidity that almost cost me my life. "Don't just stand there making cheap comments. Whoever supports them, feel free to pitch in and audit the books!" I rolled up my sleeves, looking like I was ready to brawl. "What's all this noise? Are you done working?" The boss, Mr. Thorne, walked over with a dark expression. Harper's eyes sparkled with tears. "Mr. Thorne, it's all my fault. Chloe gave me her work because she trusts my abilities. I shouldn't have declined." The other coworkers chimed in, instantly painting me as the villain who bullied the new girl. I waited patiently for them to finish before speaking. "Why are you all so focused on me handing off the work, but totally ignoring the fact that she maliciously wired money into the account every day and sabotaged my job? "The workplace isn't her mother. Shouldn't she take initiative to fix the problems she caused?" After Mr. Thorne figured out the situation, he started playing peacemaker. "Alright, alright. Chloe, I know you've been working hard lately. I'll give you a half-day off sometime." I had worked three unpaid weekends in a row, and Scrooge Thorne couldn't even bear to give me a single full day off. Before I could respond, Harper quickly interjected. "Mr. Thorne, Chloe has been working so hard. Give her more time off! I'll cover her overtime!" The boss beamed, praising her as the most outstanding employee he had ever seen. At the same time, he didn't miss the chance to throw shade at the "poor attitudes" of certain veteran employees. Harper smiled and turned to the rest of the office. "You guys don't have to come in this Saturday. It's mostly just sending out client materials anyway. I'll handle all of it." Naturally, the others felt a little embarrassed to agree. But then she added, "I've been interning here for a month now. Just consider it a test. I want to prove my worth. "Please, give me a chance!" With a wave of his hand, the boss approved it. After he left, the coworkers swarmed Harper, praising her to the skies. Kyle even explicitly called her a kind-hearted angel. Harper pulled out a little notepad, meticulously writing down everything they needed help with. "Chloe, do you still need me to help check the accounts?" Harper made a lap before stopping in front of me to ask. Kyle scoffed sarcastically. "You're going to help her? Don't bother. If something goes wrong, she'll just blame you." I calmly countered, "So, you wouldn't blame her, right?" Kyle looked at me like it was obvious. "She's offering to help out of the goodness of her heart. Regardless of the outcome, that intention alone deserves gratitude." His buddy Derek Fisher agreed, "Exactly. Not like some people, who won't even lift a finger to help grab a package." Harper looked overwhelmingly touched, swearing on the spot that she would handle all their tasks perfectly. I felt a bizarre urge to laugh, but held it in. A weirdo who had enough free time to wire a penny into the company account exactly on schedule every day—I wasn't holding my breath for her competence. Let's let these people truly experience Harper's "kindness"! 4 During my rare weekend off, I bought a comprehensive full-body health checkup package online for my parents back home. They were reluctant to go. "Sweetheart, why are you wasting your money on this? Use that five hundred dollars to buy yourself something nice to eat. "Be safe living alone in the city, don't skimp on food and drinks. If you're short on cash, don't be afraid to ask us." Hearing my parents' voices, my emotions completely broke. I covered my mouth, sobbing until I couldn't catch my breath. My parents were farmers. They worked themselves to the bone year-round, barely earning enough to scrape by. But they were only ever stingy with themselves. In my past life, when my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she refused to waste money on treatment. After she died, I found their entire life savings hidden under their bed back home. My aunt told me it was the dowry they had painstakingly saved up for me over their entire lives. Even the living expenses and medical bills I had wired them later on were in there, completely untouched. "Mom, Dad, I'm doing great in the city. You're the ones pinching pennies all year. "You have to go to this checkup. It's already paid for and non-refundable." After catching up with my parents, I wired some money to my aunt. "Auntie, please take my parents to the city for their checkups this weekend. "Oh, and the checkup was sixteen thousand, not five hundred. Don't let that slip, okay?" With my parents' health checkups arranged, a huge weight lifted off my chest. After all, being reborn wasn't just about revenge—the most important thing was my parents' health. 5 Time off is always brief. Soon, the dreaded Monday arrived. But I knew there were people dreading it far more than me. The first was Derek, who was the first to arrive at his desk. The moment he opened his laptop, he froze. Harper had deleted all the draft copies of his design blueprints, leaving only the final version. Suppressed with rage, Derek asked her, "Harper, what the hell? I just asked you to send the final version. Why did you delete all the others?" Harper smiled. "Your desktop was way too cluttered, and you were running out of storage. What's the point of keeping the old drafts? "Derek, I'm not trying to nag, but you really need to develop better organizational habits. Keep your desktop clean!" Derek had a meltdown. "But the client just emailed me! They want to choose between the first two initial drafts. "Wait, they should still be in the recycling bin." Derek frantically opened his trash bin, and his expression instantly spiraled into sheer despair. Harper looked a bit sheepish. "Um, I emptied the recycling bin while I was at it." Derek's vision went black. He looked like he was about to pass out. Meanwhile, I strolled past him, holding my coffee, looking refreshed and radiant. "Derek, what's wrong? Somebody help, Derek is dying!" Harper grabbed a massage gun off a desk and jammed it right into Derek's philtrum. The next second, Derek resurrected on the spot. "Ahhh! That hurts like hell!" I sat quietly at my desk staring at spreadsheets, but I was practically bursting a lung trying not to laugh. "Harper, is there something wrong with your brain?!" While howling in pain, Derek tore into Harper. She pulled out a little handkerchief and apologized, sobbing pitifully. Derek just got angrier. "Cry, cry, cry, that's all you know how to do! If apologizing worked, we wouldn't need prisons for murderers, would we?" Excellent. It seemed our office finally had someone capable of rational thought. I twirled a pen in my fingers and continued enjoying the show. Shortly after, the others trickled into the office. Kyle walked in just in time to hear Derek cursing. He marched right up and punched Derek in the shoulder. "Why the hell are you yelling at her? Can't you see Harper's crying?" Derek started venting his misery. "I revised those drafts so many times they were unrecognizable, and now the client suddenly wants the very first version. I don't even remember what the original looked like!" Kyle sighed. "I'm not trying to blame you, man, but you should back that stuff up. You left it on the desktop, Harper thought it was trash and cleaned it up for you. That makes sense, doesn't it? "Forget it. She's just a new girl fresh out of college, don't hold it against her. I'll help you redraw it later." Soothed by his buddy, Derek's anger gradually subsided. But this was only the beginning. That afternoon, Kyle was dragged into a meeting room by the department manager, who had just returned from vacation. The manager screamed at him for two solid hours. "What happened? What did Kyle do to get ripped a new one?" Everyone was eating up the drama. The unofficial group chat was flooded with hundreds of messages in minutes. And none of them realized that Harper, who had excused herself to the bathroom, had been missing for half an hour.
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