Chapter 1

Kirsten Fox, my colleague, said her slide deck had suddenly crashed, so I lent her my flash drive out of pity. She turned right around and copied the entire user growth plan I'd spent three months building, then accused me of plagiarizing her.

My boyfriend of two years publicly took her side, scolded me in front of everyone, and even stripped me of my position.

Branded with the stigma and with nowhere left to turn, I went to the riverbank and threw myself in.

When I opened my eyes again, I'd been reborn—back to ten minutes before my promotion defense presentation.

Kirsten smiled at me and said, "Aileen, mind if I copy your slides off your drive? We've got pretty much the same ideas anyway."

This time, she wasn't going to touch a single thing of mine.

1

Nine in the morning in the Operations Department, and I sat at my desk in a daze.

I'd actually been reborn!

Kirsten's voice pulled me back to reality. "Aileen, did you hear me?"

"My presentation just crashed all of a sudden, and I didn't bring a backup. Could you copy your plan over to me?"

"I'm only going to use it as a reference. I'm definitely not copying the whole thing."

I took a deep breath and said flatly, "No."

Her smile froze instantly, and she put on a wounded look. "Aileen, how can you be like this?"

"Aren't we usually the best of friends? Just let me copy it—it's not like it costs you a piece of your flesh."

"Besides, this is for our whole department's performance!"

I laughed, plugged the flash drive into the computer, and a folder full of plan files popped up on the screen. "You don't even know what the core of the plan is, and you've got the nerve to talk about department performance?"

The keyboards at the desks around us went quieter, and several glances turned our way.

Kirsten's face couldn't quite hold its composure. "I… I basically know it. It's just user growth, right? We talked it over together before."

I clicked open the core data page and pointed at the model diagram on the screen. "Then tell me—for this lower-tier market conversion model, what percentage is the seven-day retention threshold set at?"

"How many days is the redemption period for the referral bonuses?"

"At which order does the first-order subsidy hit its break-even point?"

With every question I asked, Kirsten's face went a shade paler.

Her eyes darted away, and she said guiltily, "I… how would I remember details that fine? They're all just rough numbers, aren't they?"

I gave a cold laugh. "You can't even answer the core parameters, and you still have the nerve to claim our general ideas are pretty much the same?"

"Kirsten, if you want to do a plan on your own, then do it. Stop always reaching out to copy other people's work."

"Why should my work become a stepping stone for you?"