Reborn, I Refused to Save Her Company

In my past life, Sarah Collins' childhood sweetheart tried to develop an electric car on his own, but the battery exploded. The Collins Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy overnight.

Without hesitation, I married Sarah and took over the mess Perry had left behind.

I poured my heart and soul into developing a new generation of intelligent electric vehicles, pulling the nearly bankrupt Collins family back to the top of the industry.

But on the day the company went public, Sarah publicly accused me at the bell-ringing ceremony of murdering Perry and stealing his technical achievements.

The entire Collins family cursed me as ungrateful and treacherous.

Sarah even sent me to prison and watched as I was tortured to death.

When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day Sarah's grandfather decided who would lead the new car project.

He sat in the main seat, his brow furrowed.

"Oren, I've watched both you and Perry grow up."

"But there can only be one person in charge of this new project."

I bowed and refused:

"Old Mr. Collins, my abilities are limited. I really can't handle this. But Perry is talented and will definitely lead the company out of this predicament."

Sarah's grandfather looked alarmed and raised his voice:

"Oren, do you know what you're saying?"

I stood up and looked calmly at Sarah.

"Old Mr. Collins."

"I'm not capable enough to lead the WindRunner project."

"Perry is brilliant and forward-thinking. He's more suitable than me."

"Besides, Sarah would agree with what I'm saying, wouldn't she?"

Seeing how sensible I was being, her eyes turned cold:

"At least you know your place!"

Whether in terms of technical skills or qualifications, I was far more suitable for this position than Perry.

Before today, everyone had assumed I would lead this project, and my marriage to Sarah would naturally follow.

But in this life, Sarah's cold gaze fell on me.

I immediately understoodshe had also come back.

Since you're so determined to save your childhood sweetheart.

Then I won't stand in your way.

Sarah said nothing and quickly left the conference room.

I knew where she was going. At this time, Perry was testing his battery design, and that explosion would take his life.

There was still time for everything.

I stayed where I was, my heart frozen.

Ten years of marriage in my past life couldn't compare to her favoritism toward Perry.

"Oren, do you know what you're saying!"

Old Mr. Collins' cane struck the ground heavily.

I met his disappointed gaze.

This old man who had personally taught me mechanical engineering now looked at me with complete bewilderment.

I spoke calmly:

"Old Mr. Collins, Sarah's heart is with Perry. I won't compete."

Old Mr. Collins and Mrs. Collins exchanged glances.

Thinking of Sarah's resolute departure just moments ago, they couldn't bring themselves to scold me.

I silently returned to my room, packing only a few clothes and a portable hard drive containing the core of the project.

The next morning, an internal company email announced the new personnel appointment.

Perry became the chief director of the WindRunner project, accompanied by a photo of him looking high-spirited.

I put the hard drive in my backpack without any expression.

Close to noon, violent arguing erupted from the office downstairs.

Standing at the end of the corridor, I heard Perry roaring.

"Sarah! You promised me that as soon as I became the director, you'd immediately hand over the German partnership to me!"

"So why is Oren's name still on it?"

Sarah replied helplessly:

"Perry, Oren handled all the preliminary technical communications for that partnership. If we change people now, the Germans will object!"

"I don't care!"

Perry said with dissatisfaction.

"I'm the future of the Collins family! Sarah, do you trust an outsider over me?"

The German partnership was key to the Collins family acquiring the latest generation battery management system.

In my past life, I had secured this partnership and optimized it, which led to the Collins family's new car achieving great success.

Sarah knew this perfectly well.

A few minutes later, my phone rang. It was Old Mr. Collins.

The old man sat in his office, looking exhausted.

"Oren, this matter... I've wronged you."

I suddenly understoodSarah had given the position with the German contact to Perry after all.

I spoke flatly:

"Old Mr. Collins, you don't need to say anything."

"I understand."

Old Mr. Collins looked up at me with complex emotions in his eyes.

He had always treated me like his own grandson.

But caught between his granddaughter's request and the successor he favored, he ultimately sided with Sarah.

From my backpack, I took out the hard drive containing all my efforts and placed it in front of him.

"The hard drive contains all the data and technical plans for the WindRunner project, including materials for coordination with the Germans."

Every file on this hard drive embodied countless nights of my hard work.

Watching my calm face, Old Mr. Collins' lips moved, but he couldn't say a word.

I stood up and bowed deeply to him.

"Old Mr. Collins, I will never forget your years of guidance."

At that moment, Sarah and Perry burst through the door.

"He agreed?"

Sarah didn't even look at me, asking Old Mr. Collins directly.

Old Mr. Collins nodded, and Perry moved to take the hard drive.

But I suddenly spoke.

"Wait a moment."

Perry immediately stared at me warily:

"Oren, what are you trying to pull now?"

I shook my head and pulled out a document from my pocket.

"This is the most important Battery Safety Agreement from the German partnership. I just finished organizing it yesterday and haven't added it to the hard drive yet."

Perry took the document, and as he looked at the strict terms and data, his expression changed.

"This agreement has extremely high standards. If any single item doesn't meet specifications, the Germans will revoke the technology authorization, and our tens of millions in upfront investment will go down the drain."

My tone was flat.

"With your design, meeting these agreement standards shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Perry's face flushed red, but he still stubbornly snorted.

"Stop fear-mongering. It's just a safety agreement. I can handle it in no time."

I said nothing more.

Perry's approach of sacrificing safety for performance was basically a ticking time bomb.

Sarah spoke coldly.

"You can leave now."

"From today on, the Collins Group and you, Oren, are completely unrelated."

I was about to leave when Perry stopped me.

"Wait!"

"Since Oren is no longer the project director, he's not part of the Collins family anymore, right?"

"According to the rules, everything he's currently using belongs to the Collins family. Before he leaves, shouldn't he return everything?"

"Sarah, am I right?"

I turned around and ignored Perry's smug face, looking only at Sarah.

"Is this what you want?"

She stood there, her eyes briefly evasive.

But in the end, she acquiesced.

When Old Mr. Collins heard this, he angrily smashed the cup beside him on the floor.

"Oren has been with the Collins family for eight years. Even if he's not my granddaughter's husband, he's still like half a grandson to me!"

"Grandpa!"

Sarah finally spoke, but only to defend Perry.

"Perry's right. Since he's leaving, we should settle accounts clearly to avoid trouble later."

I looked at her and suddenly smiled.

"Old Mr. Collins, since this is Sarah's decision, I'll listen to her."

"But if we're settling accounts, then I need to settle mine too."

"I joined the Collins family at twenty and learned technology from you. Until today, exactly eight years."

Perry scoffed disdainfully.

"So are you trying to take credit for that?"

I glanced at him and continued:

"In my second year at the company, I improved the production line process, saving the group over three million dollars annually."

"In my fourth year, the chassis tuning plan I led secured the largest municipal procurement contract that year for the Collins family."

"In my sixth year, to solve the motor overheating problem..."

I listed them one by one.

With each item I mentioned, Sarah's face grew paler.

"All of this added togetherover eight years, the profit I created for the Collins family has long exceeded everything the Collins family gave me."

Sarah's lips were pressed tightly together.

She certainly knew the weight of these achievements.

In my past life, the Collins family had relied on these accumulated gains to come back to life under my leadership.

"The Collins family supported me for eight years, and I worked my life away for the Collins family for eight years."

"The effort I put in is enough to repay Old Mr. Collins' cultivation."

"From now on, we owe each other nothing."

But Perry sneered mockingly.

"That sounds nice, but the car you drive, the house you live inwhich of them is actually yours?"

He stepped forward and pointed at the car keys in my pocket.

"This Mercedes was provided by the company, right?"

He then pointed at the watch on my wrist.

"This Patek Philippe must be worth close to a million, right? Could a poor kid like you afford it?"

Finally, he pointed at the documents on the desk.

"And that apartment in your nameGrandpa gave you that too, didn't he?"

"All of thesewhich one doesn't belong to the Collins family?"

I let him mock me, keeping my gaze on Sarah the entire time.

But she remained silent.

"Sarah."

I couldn't help but ask her.

"On my birthday that year, the promise you whispered in my earhave you forgotten it all?"

Finally, she squeezed two words through clenched teeth.

"I forgot."

I had thought that returning to this life, my heart had already died.

I didn't expect that at this moment, those two words would still stab with sharp pain.

I forcibly suppressed the dull ache in my chest and began removing the watch from my wrist.

Old Mr. Collins suddenly stood up.

"Oren!"

"Don't do this!"

"Old Mr. Collins."

I interrupted him, placing the watch on the desk.

"Rules are rules."

The car keys, apartment keysI took them out one by one and placed them next to the watch.

Finally, I took off the expensive suit jacket I was wearing, folded it neatly, and placed it on the desk.

Only a thin white shirt remained.

Perry's face showed vengeful satisfaction.

Sarah finally couldn't stand it and called out to me.

"Enough! Stop taking things off!"

I looked at her calmly.

"From now on, I'm just me."

"I, Oren, am no longer your fianc."

As I walked out of the office with my backpack, the hallway outside was packed with employees watching the spectacle.

On the company's internal forum, news of my removal had been pinned to the top.

My colleagues' pointing and whispering felt like needles stabbing into me.

"Look, that's himthe guy who tried to climb into the Collins family is finally being kicked out!"

"He actually thought he could live like royalty. Should've known his place from the start!"

"Without the Collins family, he's nothing!"

I dragged my heavy steps through the crowd.

Just as I walked out of the group's main entrance, a black Rolls-Royce stopped in front of me.

The window lowered, revealing a serious middle-aged man's face.

"Are you Mr. Oren?"

"We're from the National Automotive R&D Center."

"Our director would like to invite you over for a conversation."

I got into the black Rolls-Royce with my backpack.

The car drove smoothly toward the outskirts of the city and stopped in front of a heavily guarded building.

A weighty sign hung at the entrance: National Automotive Research and Development Center.

The middle-aged man led me through the corridors to a spacious office.

An elderly man with graying hair sat behind the desk.

When he saw me, he immediately stood up and extended his hand warmly.

"Mr. Oren, hello. I'm Dr. Thomas, the director here."

I was somewhat flattered and quickly shook his hand.

"Dr. Thomas, hello."

"Please sit. Don't be nervous."

Dr. Thomas gestured for me to sit.

He personally poured me a cup of hot tea and got straight to the point:

"We've been following you for quite some time."

"We've heard about every project you've done at the Collins family."

"Especially your several patents in battery safetythey're very forward-thinking."

My heart trembled slightly.

Dr. Thomas looked at me with eyes full of appreciation.

"So when the Collins family announced Perry as the project leader, we were surprised."

He sighed.

"Perry's designour institute evaluated it too."

"To pursue extreme performance and range, he sacrificed the most basic safety redundancies."

"To put it bluntly, that's not an electric carit's a bomb on wheels."

"We can't understand why the Collins family would make such a foolish decision."

I remained silent, not explaining the grudges with the Collins family.

"The Germans aren't fools either."

Dr. Thomas continued.

He took out a document from the drawer and pushed it in front of me.

"This is an internal email the Germans sent us. They've already commissioned us to conduct a final safety assessment of Perry's design."

"Once the assessment fails, they'll immediately terminate the partnership and demand substantial breach-of-contract penalties."

I opened the document. The Germans had long since developed doubts about Perry's abilities.

The only reason they hadn't immediately withdrawn their investment was that they were waiting for an official, convincing justification.

And the research institute's assessment report would be the final straw that broke the camel's back.

"The Collins family is in for a major fall this time."

Dr. Thomas shook his head.

"But that's not what we want to see."

"Our automotive industry needs steady progress, not this kind of suicidal recklessness."

He looked at me with burning intensity.

"Mr. Oren, the nation needs you."

"On behalf of the research institute, I formally invite you to join us."

"We're preparing an entirely new project."

"The goal is to develop the world's safest and highest-performing next-generation power battery."

"I hope you'll serve as chief engineer for this project."

Dr. Thomas stood up, his tone solemn.

"As for compensation, we can offer you triple your current salary."

"And provide you with an independent research lab and expert apartment."

"Whatever resources you need, the nation will fully support you."

I barely hesitated.

"Dr. Thomas, I'm willing."

In my past life, I exhausted myself for the Collins family, only to be rewarded with ruin.

In this life, being able to serve my country was more than I could ask for.