Chapter 4

Standing outside the locked door, I could hear Dad asking from inside what happened.

"Nothing, Dad. Hazel was just trying to threaten me into giving her gold, but I refused."

Then came Dad's loud curses through the door.

I didn't want to listen anymore.

Over the next few days, I went to work as usual. The gold market was booming, the charts were entirely green, and everyone was celebrating the gold bull run.

During a break, I habitually opened my gold investment app to see how much my portfolio had grown.

But the moment I saw my balance, my blood ran cold.

I was down fifty grams.

I rubbed my eyes, thinking I was hallucinating. The market was skyrocketing. Even if I had made some terrible mistake, the total value might fluctuate, but how could the physical weight of my holdings just vanish?

I immediately opened the transaction history. My hands began to shake.

The log showed that just ten minutes ago, a "sell" order had been executed. Fifty grams of gold had been liquidated, and the funds had been transferred to an unfamiliar intermediary account, disappearing without a trace.

"This is impossible. I was in a meeting ten minutes ago! My phone was in my purse the whole time!"

I immediately called customer support.

"Hi, I need to report unauthorized transactions! My account just had fifty grams of gold liquidated without my consent! This has to be a system glitch or a hack!"

The representative’s voice was calm and professional.

"Ma'am, we have verified the transaction logs. The trade was executed from your registered device and passed both your transaction password and face recognition verification. From our end, this was a authorized transaction. There is no system error."

"But I didn't do it! I swear!"

"I want to file a complaint! Your security is flawed!" I was on the verge of tears.

"Ma'am, if you believe your identity has been stolen, we highly recommend you file a police report. We will cooperate with the investigation. We will get back to you within three business days."

As I hung up, a chill ran down my spine.

My registered device? Facial recognition? This was insane.

Distracted and terrified, I couldn't focus on work anymore.

To calm my nerves, I aimlessly opened TikTok.

Right at the top of my feed was Chloe's live stream.

The caption screamed in bold letters: **"GRATEFUL FAN DAY! SELECTING LUCKY WINNERS FOR LIVE GOLD MANIFESTATION!"**

Hoping to see what kind of game she was playing, I tapped in.

On screen, Chloe was wearing an elaborate, expensive outfit, sitting in the middle of our living room.

"Guys, the gifts you're sending are insane! To show my appreciation, I'm going to pick a lucky viewer right now and manifest some gold straight into their investment account! Who wants to go first?"

The chat was flying by. Soon, she connected via video call with an ecstatic male fan.

"Oh my god, Chloe! I only have ten grams of gold in my account. Can you really make it grow?"

Chloe gave a sweet smile to the camera. "Of course. Watch closely, everyone. Time to witness a miracle."

She pointed her slender index finger toward the screen and whispered, "Manifest!"

In the next second, the fan screamed.

"What the hell?! Oh my god! It actually worked! I just got an extra fifty grams! Fifty grams of gold out of nowhere! Chloe, are you a literal goddess?!"

I sat frozen.

Because at that exact moment, a push notification popped up on my phone.

*Your gold investment account has successfully liquidated 50g of gold.*

Before I could even process this bizarre "synchronized debiting," my phone rang. It was an unknown number.

It was the medical center where I had my annual company checkup.

"Hello, Miss Hazel. Your lab results from last week are in. We detected a nodule on your thyroid. While it currently appears to be a benign tumor, we highly recommend you schedule a follow-up immediately to monitor it and ensure it doesn't spread."

A sudden realization struck me like a bolt of lightning.

I looked at Chloe's smug, triumphant face on the screen, and then down at the debit notification from my bank.

So that was it!

There was no such thing as the Midas touch, and no wealth was being created out of thin air.

I grabbed my car keys and bolted out of the office.

I started the engine and slammed my foot on the gas pedal.

I had to hurry. I had to get to that place immediately! Only there could I solve this nightmare.

While waiting at a red light, I mounted my phone on the dashboard. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her stream had reached number one on the platform.

Chloe’s face was flushed with excitement as digital gifts flooded her screen.

"Guys, fifty grams was just the appetizer! To thank our top gifter for sending one hundred TikTok Universes, I'm going to do something massive!"

"Next, I'll select a few super-lucky winners to manifest fifty pounds of gold! Who's ready for the challenge?!"

The chat went absolutely feral. The comments were moving so fast they were a blur.

A wave of disgust washed over me. I pulled over, tapped on the chat, and quickly typed a message:

*【Manifesting gold? Chloe, stop lying. I know exactly what you've been doing.】*