My Boss Dies Again

Chapter 1 Bad Omen

    Toni Smith was sweating somehow when she woke up.

    The room was cold and dry, making her nose feel cold, her throat burned, and her bones ached.

    She glanced at the clock beside her bed, which read 6:40 am.

    She had slept for a total of eight hours. By all rights, she shouldn't feel this tired after that much sleep, but she still felt weak and dizzy, as if she'd been lost in an extremely long dream and had struggled to free herself and come back to reality.

    Going to the gym after such a long time yesterday shouldn't be the reason. She had only jogged for an hour and a half and done a few exercises with her personal trainer. She didn't even use the exercise equipment.

    She couldn't explain why she felt so tired at all.

    Toni was a former athlete, and she had become a white-collar worker soon after she left her training team. With the intelligence inherited from her parents and the influence of her surroundings during childhood, she quickly got used to her job. She was being diligent and hardworking and was quickly promoted to regional manager within three years, which meant she'd started sitting in an office for eight hours every day.

    If it weren't for her nemesis in the company pulling a quick one on her sometimes, making her stamp her feet with rage, and providing her with exercise, her body would probably have aged a lot faster.

    On the way from her bedroom to her bathroom, she accidentally stubbed her toe on the corner of the wall in a daze. Stimulated by the refreshing pain, she became completely awake.

    After opening the bathroom heater and becoming enveloped in warmth, Toni's frozen toes and her entire body slowly warmed up.

    She tied back her hair and prepared to wash up but suddenly stopped when she reached for the mouthwash cup.

    The handle of the mouthwash cup was facing right.

    Toni looked at it in disbelief.

    The handle of the mouthwash cup was facing right again.

    Toni had obsessive-compulsive disorder. Whether it was her office, home, desktop, or bathroom, all of her things had to be neatly arranged according to some rules she'd formulated. Even the slightest bit of mess would make her feel uncomfortable. The front part of her slippers had to face outwards before going to bed. After she woke up, her quilt had to be folded up into three layers. Her books were all sorted by color, and the handle of her mouthwash cup had to be facing left.

    She never misremembered these little details. Every time she finished brushing her teeth, she had to confirm the direction of the cup handle. After several inexplicable changes in its direction, she took note of it and adjusted it every time. She was 100% sure that the cup handle faced left.

    This was not the first time that she'd noticed the cup handle facing in the opposite direction, but she couldn't remember when it had done it last time. Recently, she had become immersed in competing for the lucrative post of General Manager of the North China Region, and her memory for other things was fading fast.

    Toni filled up the mouthwash cup with water and turned on her electric toothbrush. However, she couldn't look away from the cup amid the "buzz" of brushing her teeth.

    Someone sneaked into my house and moved the mouthwash cup.

    When this thought came to her, she really gave herself a good scare. Toni quickly rinsed out her mouth with water, washed her face, and changed her clothes. She didn't even have an appetite for breakfast and went out straight away.

    The more she thought about it, the sicker she felt, and she became more fearful. Toni locked the door twice and stood in the doorway staring blankly for a while before opening the door and entering again. As the lights went out, the room became cold and quiet, as if the intruder was watching her from somewhere. She looked around every corner of the house vigilantly, checked all the windows after making sure that no one was hiding, took out a piece of paper and tore off a long strip, and glued strips of Scotch tape onto both ends. She stepped back outside the door, stood up on her tiptoes, and glued the two ends of the strip of paper to the top of the door and the wall. The strip was very narrow and thin, and it was up high, so it would be hard to notice unless someone was paying special attention to it.

    Her apartment was on the 16th floor, and the entire building had 28 floors. It would therefore be too difficult to climb in through the windows. If someone opened the door and entered when she wasn't at home, she would know as soon as she came back.

    Toni rushed to her company with a load of things on her mind. The candidate for the General Manager of the North China Region was about to be announced at the Monday morning meeting, which was today. She could not be late.

    It just so happened that the more important the matters on her plate more, the more difficult it was for her to proceed. Dozens of families in the high-rise apartment building had literally filled the elevator and caused the morning rush hour. Toni's apartment was on the middle floor. After three trips, the elevator was still overloaded and failed to stop on her floor. In the end, she gritted her teeth, stamped her foot in anger, and walked to her car on B2, hurriedly rushing to her office.

    The congestion and noise along the way made her unable to think about what had happened earlier. While moving slowly through the morning traffic, Toni was used to listening to the news in the morning. She turned on the radio, listening to the international news, while the car in front suddenly jerked forward. She didn't keep up, and an Audi from the next lane suddenly jumped in between her car and the car in front, with half of it boxing her in, blatantly trying to cut in front of her. There was a man and a woman in the car, who turned and glanced at her. The woman whispered something in the man's ear, who just continued to stare at her. The car in front moved again, and Audi aggressively cut in front of her.

    What a douche.

    Toni recognized the man and the woman in the car. The woman sitting in the front passenger seat was Monica Wilson, her ex-girlfriend.

    Toni wanted to change lanes to head forwards, but the left and right vehicles followed the traffic closely, so there was no room to overtake. She despised overtaking herself, so she had no choice but to keep braking and pressing the accelerator frequently behind the Audi.

    Her cell phone suddenly beeped, and a WeChat message from Monica appeared on the screen.

    "Why didn't you change your shabby Peugeot after you got promoted to manager? Are you going to head back to visit your father's grave next year on Memorial Day? Can you take me with you?"

    Toni deleted the message right after reading it and added Monica to her blacklist.

    She finally arrived at her office, but her car broke down downstairs. Toni trotted to the office after calling for help.

    Luckily, she wasn't late.

    She greeted her colleagues and walked quickly into the office. As soon as she entered, Cathy, her assistant, rushed in and said in a panic, "Boss, you're finally here!"

    Toni closed the door and asked, "What's so urgent?"