It was a bright, sunny morning on the first floor of the bustling hospital.
Cheng Mingjiao was holding a flyer and had just begun to speak when the elevator chimed.
He immediately turned his head. The elevator doors slowly slid open, and Zhang Xiyue, charger in hand, appeared before him completely unharmed.
Their eyes met. Cheng Mingjiao immediately took a step toward her. “What took you so long?”
Zhang Xiyue curved her lips and was just about to explain when she noticed Qing Tian beside him—and the matching flyers in their hands.
In an instant, every hair on Zhang Xiyue’s body stood on end. It was as if she had just seen the steamroller of fate barreling toward her.
When people are suddenly confronted with a massive crisis, it is difficult to come up with a reasonable solution in the blink of an eye. They can only act on instinct.
She was no exception.
So by the time Zhang Xiyue came back to her senses, she had already grabbed Cheng Mingjiao and pulled him out of the inpatient building.
Sunlight filtered through the dense leaves, falling across her in scattered patches. The warm breeze brought by the natural weather swept over them, dispelling the lingering chill from the air-conditioning.
Only after her rationality returned did Zhang Xiyue realize that her fingers were interlaced with Cheng Mingjiao’s.
She had actually dragged the male supporting character away right in front of the female lead.
And Cheng Mingjiao hadn’t even shaken her off. He had simply let her do whatever she wanted.
So…what was she supposed to do now?
Zhang Xiyue slowed down more and more as her rebooted brain raced, trying to think of a reasonable explanation for what she had done.
Before she could come up with one, she spotted the familiar business van.
“Mr. Cheng, I’ll bring the car around.” Without betraying a hint of emotion, she released Cheng Mingjiao’s hand and hurried into the vehicle.
Thud!
The moment the door closed, she let out a long breath. But before she could fully relax, Cheng Mingjiao had already opened the front passenger door and climbed in.
…Huh?
Zhang Xiyue looked at the man beside her, confusion written across her face.
Cheng Mingjiao glanced at her and said irritably, “What are you looking at? Drive.”
Zhang Xiyue’s lips moved. She wanted to ask why he wasn’t sitting in the back today, but considering her bizarre behavior just now, she said nothing. She merely turned on the air-conditioning in silence.
The black business van slowly pulled away from the hospital and merged smoothly into the traffic.
It was already noon, and the streets were crowded with students just getting out of school. Everywhere she looked were youthful faces, packed together in a lively throng.
Inside the vehicle, however, it was deathly quiet.
Zhang Xiyue felt as though a bomb had been buried in her heart. The male supporting character’s chance encounter with the female lead, the hand-holding between her and Cheng Mingjiao on impulse, and the fact that Cheng Mingjiao had remained silent about her dragging him away…
Any one of those things could set off the bomb at any moment.
She wanted to ask Cheng Mingjiao what he and the female lead had talked about just now. Had he fallen in love with her at first sight, as he had in the original novel? Would he suddenly develop the dark urge to lock her up at home?
But she didn’t dare ask. She was afraid of hearing an answer she wouldn’t want to hear—and even more afraid that, by accident, she might reinforce the female lead’s presence in his mind.
Zhang Xiyue felt as though she had walked into a dead end, with a high wall in front of her and pursuers at her back. She could neither advance nor retreat. Just as she was growing increasingly anxious, she suddenly noticed that Cheng Mingjiao was still clutching the flyer.
As everyone knew, to make it easier to keep track of sales performance, every salesperson wrote their name and contact information on the flyers.
While she was waiting at a red light, she glanced over one more time. Sure enough, she saw the words “Qing Tian” between Cheng Mingjiao’s fingers.
Perhaps her stare was too obvious. Cheng Mingjiao, who had been looking ahead, shot her a glance, then followed her gaze downward...
“President Cheng!” Zhang Xiyue suddenly called out.
Cheng Mingjiao gave a start and looked at her, both innocent and surprised.
The light turned green.
Zhang Xiyue cleared her throat and stepped on the gas, keeping her eyes on the road. “Give me the flyer. I’ll throw it away for you.”
She had called his name so loudly, only to offer to throw out his trash—not to explain why she had held his hand earlier.
Cheng Mingjiao gave her a sidelong look. “We haven’t even gotten out of the car. Where exactly are you going to throw it?”
“I’ll put it in the glove compartment for now, then toss it after I take you home.” As she spoke, Zhang Xiyue held out one hand to him.
Cheng Mingjiao relaxed into his seat, the curve of his back settling fully against the backrest. “No need.”
“It’s inconvenient for you to keep holding it like that. Just give it to me.”
“I said no.”
“Just give it to me.”
Zhang Xiyue’s outstretched hand remained there, unwithdrawn.
Cheng Mingjiao gradually sensed that something was off. He gave her a thoughtful look, then refused again. “No.”
Zhang Xiyue: “...”
Oh no. Was he really so taken with the female lead at first sight that he treasured even a single flyer she had handed him?
The thought made Zhang Xiyue regretful.
According to the original timeline, the female lead and the male supporting character weren’t supposed to meet until late August. They should not have crossed paths before then.
Yet she had transmigrated into the world of the novel. And because those days on the mountain had left her with psychological trauma, she had needed to remain in the hospital for a while longer. Cheng Mingjiao, meanwhile, had stayed hospitalized all this time as well...
Her arrival was like the flutter of a tiny butterfly’s wings—seemingly insignificant, yet enough to force the female lead’s meeting with the male supporting character to happen ahead of schedule.
So what was she supposed to do?
According to the timeline, the female lead and the male lead had already met several times. Although they were currently at odds with each other, there was an atmosphere between them that made it difficult for any third party to wedge themselves in.
Wouldn’t that mean Cheng Mingjiao would go off the rails ahead of schedule?
Zhang Xiyue had a headache, but she refused to give up so easily. “Give it to me, President Cheng. Flyers like this are printed with cheap paper and low-quality ink. And after being exposed to the air in a hospital for so long, there’s no guarantee it hasn’t picked up some strange virus. For the sake of your physical and mental health, you should let me throw it away.”
Every word was earnest. Cheng Mingjiao glanced at her again and repeated his answer for the second time. “No.”
Zhang Xiyue: “President Cheng...”
“Zhang Xiyue, don’t even think about it.” Cheng Mingjiao let out a cold snort. “Cheap paper, strange viruses—do you take me for a three-year-old? Do you really think I don’t know what you’re thinking?”
Zhang Xiyue knew he was perceptive, but she hadn’t expected him to be this perceptive—to see through her ulterior motive so easily.
She felt a little guilty, and her gaze drifted uncontrollably to his face. But when she caught the faintly smug look there, she suddenly felt that what he thought he had figured out might not be the same as what she had actually been thinking.
Zhang Xiyue fell silent for a moment, then asked casually, “Then tell me—what am I thinking?”
The moment the words left her mouth, the traffic light turned red.
She stopped the car and turned to meet Cheng Mingjiao’s gaze.
The red light lasted seventy-five seconds. The two of them spent a fifth of that time staring at each other before Cheng Mingjiao awkwardly looked away and gave a quiet huff. “You were just planning to take that flyer and get a cheap medical checkup.”
Zhang Xiyue: “…”
Of course.
Cheng Mingjiao didn’t notice her speechlessness and continued lecturing her.
“These low-cost medical checkup packages are obviously a scam. First, they lure you in with a cheap price. Then, during the examination, they make you anxious—or add several hidden procedures without consulting you, so you end up paying more before you even realize it.”
“Even if this clinic is legitimate and doesn’t use any of those tricks, its equipment definitely can’t compare with that of a major hospital. And its reports may not be recognized elsewhere. If they really find something wrong, you’ll still have to go to a major hospital for another examination. In the end, you’ll be paying twice.”
“As my executive assistant, you need to have a certain level of discernment. If you can be fooled by a scam that anyone can see through at a glance, how can I trust you with the business? If you’re really under financial pressure and don’t want to spend the money on a major hospital, just tell me. I can pay for you. Why did you take my hand just now?”
The countdown on the red light ended, and Cheng Mingjiao fell silent as well.
Zhang Xiyue stepped on the gas and continued driving. It took her a while to realize what he had said in that last sentence.
After a stretch of silence, Zhang Xiyue cleared her throat. “I…I wasn’t planning to get a checkup.”
Cheng Mingjiao’s eyelid twitched, and he turned to look at her unhurriedly.
Zhang Xiyue tightened her grip on the steering wheel, choosing her words carefully as she spoke. “I’ve had quite a few tests done these past few days. There’s no need for me to have another full checkup so soon.”
Cheng Mingjiao found that reasonable and gestured for her to continue.
Zhang Xiyue’s thoughts flowed more smoothly now. With a smile, she said, “I know this kind of medical clinic isn’t reputable either. I only asked you for the flyer because I was worried you might get scammed.”
Some things didn’t need too much explanation. All it took was a vague hint, and a clever person would fill in the rest of the truth on their own.
Sure enough, after a long silence, Cheng Mingjiao asked, “You took my hand and led me away because you were afraid I’d get scammed?”
After the initial tension, Zhang Xiyue had already regained complete control of her emotions.
She didn’t correct his description of what had happened. Instead, she openly admitted it. “Yes.”
Cheng Mingjiao narrowed his eyes. “In your eyes, am I really that easy to deceive?”
Everyone knew that the Emperor was most confident in his intelligence—and his emotional intelligence came second.
Zhang Xiyue didn’t offer much explanation. She simply said four words: “Concern clouds judgment.”
Cheng Mingjiao fell silent.
His emotions once again became restrained, and he stopped arguing. Zhang Xiyue knew she had convinced him.
She tentatively reached out, pinched one corner of the flyer, and slowly began pulling it free.
Cheng Mingjiao’s eyes flickered, but he didn’t stop her.
Extracting the flyer was like defusing a bomb. Fortunately, it finally landed safely in Zhang Xiyue’s hands.
She quickly crumpled it into a ball and let out a deep, relieved breath.
“Try to rein in your concern,” Cheng Mingjiao suddenly said. “It’s excessive—and far too obvious.”
Zhang Xiyue: “All right, President Cheng.”
She agreed readily, but Cheng Mingjiao merely let out a soft snort, clearly unconvinced that she could pull it off.
After taking the flyers, Zhang Xiyue felt a little more optimistic and dared to probe indirectly. “President Cheng, what were you doing just now when I went upstairs to get the charger?”
Cheng Mingjiao looked puzzled. “What could I have been doing? Waiting for you.”
“Didn’t you happen to meet anyone or come across anything interesting?” Zhang Xiyue asked again.
Cheng Mingjiao paused and said nothing.
Hmm? Something was off.
Zhang Xiyue’s alarm bells began to ring.
Afraid he might keep replaying his first meeting with the female lead, she hurriedly changed the subject and started rambling about everything under the sun.
Watching the streets pass by outside the window, Cheng Mingjiao thought that Zhang Xiyue might like him even more than he had imagined.
After all, human beings tended to become more talkative when courting a mate.
Half an hour later, Cheng Mingjiao got out of the car and returned to his detached villa.
An hour later, Zhang Xiyue parked the car and returned to her rented apartment.
She hadn’t been back in so many days that returning now felt like waking from another lifetime.
Zhang Xiyue collapsed onto the sofa, not wanting to move a muscle.
She lay there for a very, very long time before finally dragging her exhausted body into the bathroom, washing away the hospital smell completely, and changing into fresh pajamas before returning to the bedroom.
Then she lay down again.
She stayed there until nightfall, until her stomach began to growl, before plugging in her phone to charge and ordering takeout.
With nothing to do while she waited for the food, she opened her computer.
It was newly purchased and had cost more than ten thousand yuan.
Although she had been in this world for quite some time, she had never truly considered herself one of its people. So she had never saved any money, spending whatever she wanted and always preparing to return home at any moment.
…Even though her progress in winning him over was still at zero.
Once the computer booted up, she first logged into a paid knowledge platform, intending to apologize to a client.
Her salary was high enough that she didn’t need the extra freelance work at all, but she had been working with this regular client for a long time and had developed some degree of attachment to him… Well, that feeling might have been one-sided.
In any case, reviewing his contracts was something she could do on the side, and besides, he paid generously.
Money from a fictional world was still money, and Zhang Xiyue certainly wasn’t going to turn it down.
As she logged into the backend, Zhang Xiyue figured that after being offline for so many days, she would probably have a mountain of unread messages waiting for her.
But when she opened the chat window with the client, she found only one message—and it had been sent the night before she left for Lanlan Mountain.
It was an intern contract.
Zhang Xiyue didn’t open the contract right away. Instead, she apologized first:
Sorry, something happened to me over the past few days, and I haven’t been online. Is it still in time?
She had assumed the other party wasn’t online, but a reply came almost immediately:
No need to look at it anymore.
Zhang Xiyue opened the contract anyway. After giving it a quick read, she replied:
There are loopholes in Clauses 9 and 15. If you sign it, it would amount to tacitly exempting the employee from liability for leaking confidential information, which would put you at a serious disadvantage.
She clicked Send.
Then she sent another message:
It’s been so long—the contract has probably already been signed. If there’s still time, you can ask a lawyer to draft an addendum and amend it, so there won’t be any problems later.
The other party didn’t reply. After a brief silence, they transferred eight hundred yuan to her.
Zhang Xiyue didn’t accept the payment. Instead, she replied: I wasn’t asking you to pay me.
The gray avatar showed that he was typing, then went still. After a long while, it started typing again.
Zhang Xiyue waited patiently.
A minute later, he sent: Accept it.
Zhang Xiyue laughed despite herself. Really, you don’t have to.
The other person started typing again.
Zhang Xiyue suspected he might be socially anxious. Otherwise, even an online conversation wouldn’t be this difficult for him.
At long last, the person who struggled so much with conversation sent another message—but this time, it was another transfer.
2,000 yuan.
Zhang Xiyue raised an eyebrow. What’s this?
The other person replied: You won’t need to review any more contracts for me.
Zhang Xiyue paused. Is it because I haven’t replied to your messages lately?
The other person: No.
The other person: I’m not going back to the company.
Zhang Xiyue: You quit?
The other person began typing, deleted it, then started typing again.
Zhang Xiyue continued to wait.
After a long while, he finally replied: Something like that.
Such a vague answer, in the adult world, was as good as a denial.
So he hadn’t quit. He’d been fired.
Putting that together with all the traps she had found in his contracts, Zhang Xiyue became certain of her original suspicion—
He’d been bullied at the company.
Back when she had first arrived in this world, she’d been penniless. She had relied entirely on the money he paid her to get by until things finally started looking up.
Zhang Xiyue wasn’t so grateful that she owed him her life, but she did want to lend him a hand.
After thinking for a long time, she replied: You’re so generous with your money that your family must be fairly well-off. If you can afford to spend the time and money, you could sue them directly. I have copies of all the problematic contracts. If necessary, I can help prove that the company deliberately set traps for you. You probably wouldn’t get much compensation even if you won, but at least you’d get to vent your anger.
The other side fell silent for even longer this time.
By the time Zhang Xiyue’s takeout arrived, he finally replied: No need.
Thirty seconds later, he added: Thank you.
Zhang Xiyue didn’t push the matter. Don’t mention it. If you ever need anything, feel free to contact me.
The other person seemed not to know what else to say. After a while, he transferred 20,000 yuan to her.
Zhang Xiyue: “…”
He really wasn’t short on money.
Three transfers sat there in a neat row. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but she still didn’t accept them.
The conversation ended there. Even after the transfers expired, the other person never sent another reply.
Zhang Xiyue didn’t message him again, either. By mutual, unspoken agreement, their professional relationship had come to an end.
She closed her laptop and began enjoying her takeout—and the weekend that was just around the corner.
She had been discharged from the hospital on Friday, so she still had two days to rest.
There was nothing more comfortable than lying around. Sure, she had spent most of her time lying down in the hospital too, but being able to turn over and see her boss was still different from turning over and finding only herself there.
She felt genuinely happy.
At the same time, Cheng Mingjiao was having a much less pleasant time.
After closing his phone for what had to be the eight-hundredth time, he looked at Guo Fengnian, who was sprawled in a hanging chair playing a game. “Keep it down. You’re noisy.”
Guo Fengnian immediately shut his mouth and muted the game for good measure.
But Cheng Mingjiao wasn’t satisfied. “The tapping on the screen is noisy too.”
The corner of Guo Fengnian’s mouth twitched as he lightened his movements.
Cheng Mingjiao kept going. “Can you stop breathing?”
Guo Fengnian finally snapped. “Why?!”
Cheng Mingjiao’s expression was icy. “Because you were disturbing me.”
Guo Fengnian: “...”
Breathing wasn’t snoring. How was that noisy?
Indignant, he turned to Liang Xiao, hoping to find an ally.
Liang Xiao immediately looked off into the distance.
Unfortunately, fast as his reaction was, it did him no good.
“What are you looking around for?” Cheng Mingjiao picked a fight with him.
Liang Xiao: “... Is looking also a crime now?”
Cheng Mingjiao: “Yes.”
Liang Xiao: “...”
Guo Fengnian burst out laughing. His back no longer hurt, and his legs no longer felt weak.
One of his favorite things about Cheng Mingjiao was that he treated everyone equally.
Unfortunately, before he could finish enjoying himself, Cheng Mingjiao set his sights on him again.
Speechless, Guo Fengnian desperately fired brainwaves at Liang Xiao, trying to use invisible antennae to convey the principle that if one of them suffered, they all suffered.
Whether Liang Xiao received the signal or not, he took the initiative to speak to Guo Fengnian. “Fengnian, has Xiyue contacted you these past couple of days?”
Guo Fengnian had no idea why he had suddenly brought up Zhang Xiyue, but from the corner of his eye, he saw the biting look on Cheng Mingjiao’s face replaced by curiosity. He immediately answered, “No.”
“No?” Liang Xiao sounded surprised. “Then who have you been playing games with all this time?”
Guo Fengnian was speechless. “Bro, do you think I don’t have any other friends?”
Out of the three of them, he was obviously the most popular.
Liang Xiao nodded. “She hasn’t asked you to play games, and she hasn’t asked Youyou either. She must be busy.”
“Could be. A lot of people are busier on weekends than they are on workdays,” Guo Fengnian agreed.
Cheng Mingjiao checked his phone again. Though there was still no message, he felt a little better than before.
Someone’s profile picture sat perfectly still, while more than eighty group chats kept spitting out new-message notifications.
“You pinned Xiyue,” Guo Fengnian said. At some point, he had wandered over and craned his neck to look at Cheng Mingjiao’s phone.
Cheng Mingjiao immediately locked the screen. “What’s it to you?”
“You really should pin her,” Guo Fengnian said, tearing open a bag of chips. “You’ve got, what, eight hundred people added on WeChat, plus all those group chats. If you’re not careful, her conversation will disappear into the pile. Finding her again would be a pain.”
Cheng Mingjiao had not wanted him looking at his phone, but upon hearing that, he immediately unlocked it with disdain. “How could it be a pain? Even if I didn’t pin her, I could find her right away.”
Then he opened his contacts. At the very top was AAAAA Zhang Xiyue.
“...Whoa. Five-A Xiyue!” Guo Fengnian exclaimed.
Cheng Mingjiao gave a quiet snort.
Guo Fengnian pulled out his own phone and showed him his contacts list. “I only gave my mom one A.”
Cheng Mingjiao had to compete over everything. “My mom only has one too.”
Remembering their conversation at the hospital that day, Guo Fengnian sighed emotionally. “If Xiyue knew she was five A’s in your contacts, she’d be over the moon.”
“You can’t tell her,” Cheng Mingjiao said at once, his expression stern. “She’ll get carried away.”
Guo Fengnian nodded and sighed. “Poor girl.”
Of all the people she could have fallen for, she had to fall for an emotionless, humanoid high-performance robot.
“How is she pitiful?” Cheng Mingjiao disliked that description. It made it sound as though liking him was some kind of misfortune.
Just as Guo Fengnian was about to explain, his phone suddenly buzzed.
The two of them lowered their heads at the same time, and saw that a new unread message had appeared beside Zhang Xiyue’s profile picture.
From her.
To Guo Fengnian.
She had sent a message.
The atmosphere around Cheng Mingjiao instantly turned icy.
As luck would have it, Guo Fengnian lowered his head at that exact moment. After glancing at the message, he slid his phone over to Cheng Mingjiao. “She’s asking if I’m with you.”
The chill around Cheng Mingjiao vanished. Guo Fengnian happened to look up again at just the right moment, completely missing his fleeting change of expression.
“I’ll reply, ‘Yes,’” Guo Fengnian said as he typed. When she responded with an exclamation, he added, “She’s asking if there’s anyone else.”
Cheng Mingjiao immediately grew alert again. “What does she mean by that? Is she checking up on me?”
“She’s probably worried there might be another girl,” Guo Fengnian analyzed.
Cheng Mingjiao nodded. “I knew it. She’s checking up on me.”
He was somewhat displeased. This woman really was good at pushing her luck.
He had merely stopped explicitly rejecting her for the time being, since her acute stress disorder had just gotten better. And now she had already begun invading his life with absolutely no sense of boundaries.
Guo Fengnian was just as stumped by Zhang Xiyue’s message. “What should I say?”
“Tell her the truth, then tell her that if there’s anything she wants to know, she can just ask me directly,” Cheng Mingjiao said haughtily.
Guo Fengnian thought over his wording before sending the message.
Cheng Mingjiao picked up his own phone.
Guo Fengnian leaned over. When he saw the name of one of the contacts, he asked, “Is that the famous jewelry designer?”
“I think so,” Cheng Mingjiao replied casually.
Guo Fengnian said, “They sent you a message five minutes ago… You’re commissioning a piece of jewelry? It’s not your mother’s or your grandmother’s birthday anytime soon.”
“It’s for Zhang Xiyue,” Cheng Mingjiao said.
Guo Fengnian froze, then repeated, “For Zhang Xiyue?”
Was it Zhang Xiyue’s birthday?
“Is that not allowed?” Cheng Mingjiao shot back.
“It’s not that it’s not allowed… Didn’t you say you wanted to distance yourself from her? Why are you giving her jewelry now?” Guo Fengnian asked, utterly confused.
“Does distancing myself from her mean I can’t give her anything?”
Guo Fengnian fell silent.
Just listen to yourself. Do you even hear how ridiculous you sound?
“And besides, I’m not giving her a present,” Cheng Mingjiao explained. “It’s just something to remind her what she needs to do. Functionally, it’s no different from a memo.”
Guo Fengnian was completely baffled, but since Cheng Mingjiao showed no intention of explaining further, he tactfully stopped asking.
The two of them continued waiting for a message.
But Zhang Xiyue never came to Cheng Mingjiao directly.
“She’s shy,” Cheng Mingjiao concluded.
Guo Fengnian agreed.
The two of them played off one another, putting on an entire performance for the phone.
The only audience member in the room spoke up mildly. “Are you two leaving out some of the plot?”
When Cheng Mingjiao had first told Guo Fengnian that Zhang Xiyue liked him, it had only been to sort out his own thoughts. He had never intended to make her secret crush common knowledge, so even when Liang Xiao asked, he gave no answer.
Guo Fengnian also knew that this involved the girl’s pride and private feelings. He glossed over it with a vague response and let the matter drop.
Seeing how suspiciously secretive the two of them were acting, Liang Xiao knew they were clearly up to no good, so he simply stopped asking.
Just like that, Monday arrived.
The eight o’clock alarm had not even gone off when Cheng Mingjiao got out of bed.
He washed up quickly and hurried toward the door, only to turn around and hurry back in. He changed out of his pajamas and into a suit, then combed his hair back, revealing his smooth forehead and handsome brow.
Only after everything was in order did he make his way downstairs at a leisurely pace.
When he reached the second floor, the house was still silent. The moment his slippers touched the carpet on the first floor, he heard the faint clatter of a spatula.
He cleared his throat—not too loudly, not too softly. The person cooking instinctively turned around, and the moment she saw him, her whole demeanor became stiff and restrained.
“Good morning, Mr. Cheng.” She forced a faint smile. “Why are you up so early today?”
What was that supposed to mean? Did she actually remember what time he woke up and came downstairs every day?
Cheng Mingjiao almost reminded her to tone it down, but then he remembered that none of his previous reminders had worked. In the end, he decided there was no point wasting his breath.
Still, there were other things he needed to say. “You asked Guo Fengnian about me on Sunday?”
“I wouldn’t call it asking about you.” Zhang Xiyue had known he would ask her directly, so she had prepared an answer first thing that morning. “I just wanted a general idea of your whereabouts, so I could show up promptly whenever you needed me.”
In truth, she was afraid he would have another episode of lovesickness and suddenly go lurk around the hospital waiting for the female lead. That was why she kept tabs on his movements, ready to intercept him at any moment.
Cheng Mingjiao repeated the messages Guo Fengnian had sent her. “Next time, just ask me directly.”
“All right.” Zhang Xiyue continued cooking.
“What are you making?” He walked toward the kitchen.
Zhang Xiyue hurriedly nudged the trash can, which contained the packaging from the prepared meals, toward a corner, then casually positioned herself in front of it.
“Century egg and pork congee, and pan-fried buns,” she explained.
Cheng Mingjiao came to stand beside her. The ready-made pan-fried buns in the pot were sizzling, while the cutting board, pots, bowls, and everything else were spotlessly clean.
He fell silent.
Seeing his expression, Zhang Xiyue’s heart began to sink. “Mr. Cheng…”
“How about I give you a raise?” he interrupted.
Zhang Xiyue blinked. “I… what?”
“Making a Chinese breakfast like this is too much trouble.” Cheng Mingjiao glanced at her. “The process is complicated, and it creates a lot of dishes. You should get a raise.”
Zhang Xiyue let out an awkward laugh. “Ah…”
“The company has a strict salary-increase policy, and I can’t break the rules just for you. So I’ll have the extra amount transferred to you from my personal account. How about an additional ten thousand a month?”
He was actually consulting her about it.
Zhang Xiyue gave a strained smile. “There’s no need. It’s all part of my job.”
“Then make it twenty thousand.” Cheng Mingjiao made the decision for her, but added a disclaimer first. “Don’t read too much into it. I’m simply giving an employee a reasonable bonus. If Zhou Ce didn’t fob me off with bread and eggs every day, and instead made a complicated breakfast like yours, I’d give him a raise too.”
The implication was clear: she was no different from any other employee.
Zhang Xiyue completely missed the implication and instead thought of something else: So he knew Zhou Ce had been fobbing him off all along.
Should she tell Zhou Ce that using prepared meals could earn him a raise?
Forget it. Better not to.
Even if she told him, he still wouldn’t dare serve the Emperor ready-made meals. All he could do was regret that twenty thousand yuan had once been placed right in front of him, yet he hadn’t had the nerve to take it.
The eventful yet ultimately uneventful morning came to an end, and the two of them went to the company together.
Cheng Mingjiao hadn’t been to the office for a while, so once he arrived, he plunged straight into a series of meetings.
Zhang Xiyue accompanied him throughout. Watching him conduct himself at the conference table with clear logic and decisive authority, she was relieved that he was finally beginning to look like a proper CEO.
At the same time, she once again found herself wondering how he could possibly have ended up being driven into such helplessness by the male lead’s revenge.
Over this period, she had also gained a more detailed understanding of Cheng Mingjiao and the Cheng family.
Setting aside Cheng Mingjiao’s attitude toward work, the Cheng family alone was an immovable presence in Phoenix City. Several generations of the family were spread across every field, and their accumulated influence was far from ordinary.
The male lead, on the other hand, was an up-and-coming industry tycoon—a rising star. Though his momentum was fierce, he had neither a powerful background nor anyone substantial to rely on.
Judging solely by their identities, even if Cheng Mingjiao went bankrupt, even if he lost everything, he shouldn’t have been driven into complete helplessness by the male lead, should he?
Could something have happened to his family as well?
That didn’t make sense either. Even a dying camel was bigger than a horse. Three months wasn’t nearly enough time to wipe out the Cheng family so completely that they couldn’t even protect one of their younger members.
If she had to offer an explanation, the only possibility was that the male lead’s protagonist aura was simply too powerful.
So she absolutely could not let him fall for the female lead, absolutely could not let him get entangled with her, and absolutely could not let him offend the male lead.
Zhang Xiyue quietly watched Cheng Mingjiao, once again holding a motivational meeting for herself in her mind.
Under her gaze, Cheng Mingjiao suddenly stumbled halfway through his speech.
This had never happened before.
He—
had actually stumbled over his words.
The usually flawless Cheng Mingjiao found the mishap unbearable. He immediately swept his cold gaze across the room.
Everyone avoided his eyes, pretending they hadn’t noticed a thing.
Cheng Mingjiao pressed his lips together and continued.
After three or four consecutive days of work, he finally finished dealing with all the accumulated affairs. Cheng Mingjiao then started folding paper airplanes again.
Zhang Xiyue had no idea what to do with him. The only consolation was that he hadn’t gone crazy and sought out the female lead, nor had he suddenly transformed into an overbearing CEO and ordered her to find every detail about the female lead within three minutes.
That first encounter with the female lead had been like a pebble tossed into a lake. Though it had caused a brief ripple, the surface soon returned to calm.
Zhang Xiyue realized that her standards for him had become remarkably low. As long as he didn’t have a meltdown, that was good enough.
She pinched the bridge of her nose and sat at her workstation, handling the tasks she was supposed to handle.
After all, an executive assistant had plenty of work besides accompanying a boss who refused to do his job properly.
The fifth time Cheng Mingjiao looked at her, she was still keeping her head lowered as she checked the figures.
He clicked his tongue.
Zhang Xiyue didn’t hear him.
He stood up and took a couple of steps.
Zhang Xiyue didn’t look up.
Unable to bear it any longer, he went over to her workstation.
A shadow fell over her. Zhang Xiyue was just about to raise her head when a glittering hair clip landed on the documents in front of her.
Looking at the brilliance cast by the various gemstones on the clip, Zhang Xiyue knew without having to think that it was extremely expensive.
She silently lifted her head and looked up at Cheng Mingjiao. “Mr. Cheng, what’s this?”
“It’s for you. Put it on,” Cheng Mingjiao said condescendingly. “It can remind you at all times not to be a picky eater.”
Zhang Xiyue looked at the hair clip again.
It was a carrot made of gemstones, about the size of her thumb.
It shimmered and sparkled in a dazzling array of colors. Even if she pried off just a little of it, it would be enough to buy several trainloads of carrots.
She smiled.
That bastard—did he really think she hadn’t noticed that the female lead had been wearing a little carrot hair clip that day?
Seeing her smile, the corners of Cheng Mingjiao’s lips lifted as well, though he was also a little troubled.
He had given it to her out of simple kindness as her boss, but what if she misunderstood?
After much deliberation, Cheng Mingjiao decided not to tell her that he had personally handled everything from designing the hair clip to selecting the gemstones.
While his thoughts raced in circles at his desk, Zhang Xiyue was sitting at hers, smiling so brightly that her eyes curved into crescents.
A second later, she accepted it with an expressionless face. “Thank you, President Cheng. This is far too valuable. Wearing it to work might give people the wrong impression, so I’ll just wear it when I’m off.”
Did he think he could use her as a display stand for his budding romantic feelings? In his dreams, bastard.
When he heard that she wouldn’t wear it to work, Cheng Mingjiao was a little disappointed. He had initially wanted to argue with her, but seeing her constantly caress the hair clip, he guessed she must be so moved that she was about to cry. After thinking it over, he nevertheless returned to his own desk.
“Zhang Xiyue.” He called to her from his office chair.
Zhang Xiyue looked up.
Cheng Mingjiao said, “There are tissues on the tea table.”
“?”
He had already lowered his head, gentleman that he was, and refrained from looking into her eyes.
Zhang Xiyue was completely baffled. Then she looked at the carrot hair clip in her hand, and felt her teeth begin to itch.
Her nerves, which had finally relaxed, tensed up again because of a gemstone hair clip.
To prevent Cheng Mingjiao from having any further opportunities to run into the female lead, she racked her brains to recall the original story and identify the places the female lead visited most often during this period. Every day during working hours, she kept a close eye on Cheng Mingjiao and did everything she could to prevent their paths from crossing.
As for after work, she either messaged Cheng Mingjiao, using all sorts of methods to determine what he was doing and whether there was any risk of him encountering the female lead, or tried to extract information from Guo Fengnian without being too obvious.
She did her best to keep her actions discreet, but Cheng Mingjiao, whose emotional intelligence and intellect were both exceptionally high, still noticed something was off.
After she once again tried to find out where he was going from Guo Fengnian, Cheng Mingjiao fell silent for a long while before saying, “I shouldn’t have given her that gift.”
“Ha! You admit it was a gift?!” Guo Fengnian sprang up as if he had just caught him red-handed. His abrupt movement made his chair scrape loudly against the floor, and everyone else in the private room turned to look at them in unison.
It was a gathering of people from their social circle.
Cheng Mingjiao had never been interested in such gatherings, but Guo Fengnian and Liang Xiao were coming today. He didn’t want to stay home alone, so he decided to come along.
He was naturally eye-catching, and he was seated in the place of honor. With Guo Fengnian acting so excitable beside him, he immediately drew a number of curious questions from the others.
Cheng Mingjiao shot Guo Fengnian an unhappy look. Guo Fengnian gave an awkward laugh and brushed it off. Once the others had resumed their conversations, he lowered his voice and said, “What exactly are you playing at? You don’t even like her, yet you gave her a gift?”
And he had even claimed it wasn’t a gift, but merely something like a reminder.
What kind of memo costs over a million?!
“Does not liking someone mean you can’t give them gifts?” Cheng Mingjiao countered.
Guo Fengnian: “…Listen to yourself. Does that sound like something a normal person would say?”
Cheng Mingjiao frowned slightly, irritated because Guo Fengnian didn’t understand him.
Guo Fengnian sighed. “Mingjiao, this isn’t right.”
Cheng Mingjiao looked at him.
“If you don’t like her, then stop stringing her along.” Seeing that Cheng Mingjiao was about to argue, Guo Fengnian immediately sped up. “I know you didn’t mean it that way, but that’s the result, isn’t it? You saw it yourself. Ever since she accepted your gifts, she’s become much more energetic. It’s obvious she’s started to hope again.”
The private room was filled with noisy voices, yet every word he said pierced Cheng Mingjiao’s ears.
Cheng Mingjiao suddenly grew irritable. “Then what am I supposed to do? Her stress response…”
“She’s recovered,” Guo Fengnian interrupted.
Cheng Mingjiao fell abruptly silent.
“She’s recovered,” Guo Fengnian emphasized again. “Xi Yue is cheerful now, independent-minded, smart, and knows her boundaries. She doesn’t have any psychological scars left, either. She can completely handle a polite rejection from you.”
Cheng Mingjiao’s expression turned grim. The others in the private room had no idea what was going on, but the voices of their conversation gradually quieted.
In the increasingly oppressive atmosphere, Guo Fengnian patted him on the shoulder. “Mingjiao, if you really don’t like her, you need to make a clean break.”
Cheng Mingjiao’s eyelids twitched, indicating that he had heard him.
At tonight’s gathering, Cheng Mingjiao drank a little more than usual.
Liang Xiao had merely stepped out to socialize for a while, but by the time he returned, Cheng Mingjiao was already slightly tipsy.
He looked at Guo Fengnian. “Did he get dumped?”
“How could he?” Guo Fengnian instinctively denied it. “You don’t understand anything.”
The Young Master was merely feeling inexplicably troubled because he didn’t know what to do with an employee who had been through hardship alongside him.
“You actually have a conscience sometimes. You’re almost human,” Guo Fengnian said with a sigh. He tried to put an arm around his good friend’s shoulder, but the man’s shoulders were too broad from training, so he settled for linking arms with him instead.
Cheng Mingjiao was too annoyed to object.
Liang Xiao looked from one to the other. “Have you never been in a relationship?”
“What’s it to you?” Guo Fengnian immediately became defensive.
Liang Xiao smiled and said nothing.
The dinner gathering continued until half past nine. While everyone else was still having fun, Cheng Mingjiao was ready to go home and sleep.
Everyone who had come tonight knew his schedule, so no one dared urge him to stay.
“I’ll get someone to drive you,” Guo Fengnian said drunkenly.
Cheng Mingjiao waved him off. “My assistant is coming to pick me up.”
“Xi Yue?”
“Of course not,” Cheng Mingjiao retorted.
His executive assistant was indeed expected to be available whenever he called, but for a late-night drinking session like this, he would never ask a female employee to come pick him up.
As soon as Guo Fengnian heard that it wasn’t Xi Yue, he waved him off, signaling that he could leave.
Cheng Mingjiao left alone. A few people who wanted to curry favor with him tried to come over and see him out, but one look at his expression was enough to make them think better of it.
He had just stepped out of the club when he realized that it was pouring rain outside.
Cheng Mingjiao stood beneath the covered walkway, lost in thought. A doorman asked whether he needed someone to drive him home.
He declined and took out his phone to call Li Dong. Just then, a familiar figure came running through the rain, holding up an umbrella.
“President Cheng!”
Cheng Mingjiao looked up at the sound of her voice. Zhang Xiyue came running toward him, smiling as she went, not paying the slightest attention to the fact that the lower half of her trouser legs was soaked through.
“Mr. Cheng!” Zhang Xiyue hurried onto the covered walkway and, panting, folded up her umbrella. “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, Mr. Cheng. I’ll bring the car around right now.”
It was already summer. Even with the rain pouring down, the weather was still hot.
Her hair had been tousled by the run, and a few strands clung to her face. Dampness—the distinctive scent of a rainy day—clung to her whole body, leaving her looking somewhat disheveled.
Remembering what Guo Fengnian had said earlier, Cheng Mingjiao suddenly felt displeased. “Didn’t I tell Li Dong to pick me up?”
“Assistant Li had an upset stomach, so I came in his place.” As it happened, she had been shopping nearby and was just about to head home when she saw Li Dong’s plea for help in the group chat.
The club was a long way from the city center. It would have taken everyone else at least an hour to get there, and since she happened to have nothing else to do, she simply came over.
Zhang Xiyue smoothed down her hair and was about to go get the car.
“Is Li Dong really unwell?” Cheng Mingjiao asked.
“Hm?” Zhang Xiyue hadn’t heard him clearly, but she looked at him with a bright smile, her usual good-natured self.
Cheng Mingjiao’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He turned his face away. “Forget it.”
“?”
Who had upset him this time?
She didn’t understand, but she was used to it. She went down to the underground parking garage and brought the car around.
Cheng Mingjiao opened the door without a word and deliberately took the back seat.
He had been sitting in the passenger seat these past few days.
Sure enough, Zhang Xiyue noticed.
Cheng Mingjiao decided that if she asked about it, he would tell her outright that he already knew she liked him, then solemnly reject her.
But Zhang Xiyue said nothing. She simply drove silently into the curtain of rain.
She was forcing herself to hold it together.
Cheng Mingjiao gazed quietly out the window.
He had always held his liquor well, but perhaps there had been something unusual about the alcohol tonight. Sitting inside the closed car, even with the air-conditioning on, he felt a heavy, stifling drunkenness rising within him.
Drunkenness dulled the mind while magnifying certain sensations.
For instance, the dampness Zhang Xiyue had brought in from the rain now seemed to envelop him completely. He could even picture her hurrying over through the downpour just to spend a little more time with him.
And then there was her silence. It seeped into the air, making his breathing gradually turn bitter.
The entire drive was unbearably quiet.
Cheng Mingjiao could stand it no longer. “Put on some music.”
So Zhang Xiyue opened NetEase Cloud Music.
Melancholy music filled the car, and Cheng Mingjiao’s drunkenness surged even more violently.
Zhang Xiyue suddenly felt like eating instant noodles.
A rainy day like this called for sitting in an air-conditioned room and digging into a steaming bowl of instant noodles—with two eggs cracked into it.
Lost in the thought, she drove on. Amid the singer’s heart-wrenching wails, she entered the villa district where every inch of land was worth a fortune.
Cheng Mingjiao sat quietly in the back seat. During the brief pause between two songs, he suddenly spoke.
“Starting tomorrow, go back to the assistants’ office. Have Li Dong accompany me.”
Zhang Xiyue paused slightly and instinctively glanced at him in the rearview mirror.
Cheng Mingjiao’s eyes were lowered. He wasn’t looking at her.
“Did I do something wrong?” she asked softly.
“No. It’s just a normal personnel adjustment.”
Zhang Xiyue said nothing.
Cheng Mingjiao took a quick look at her and thought she seemed a little sad.
The sad Zhang Xiyue, meanwhile, was distracted, thinking that once she got home, she ought to add another sausage to her instant noodles.
Since her progress in winning him over was stuck at zero no matter what she did, she might as well celebrate her escape from this sea of misery first.
Silence fell over the car once again.
Cheng Mingjiao stole several glances at Zhang Xiyue. After thinking for a long while, he decided to say something else. “Actually, you don’t have to…” He suddenly stared ahead. “Why are they back?!”
Zhang Xiyue paused and looked toward the villa up ahead. A young couple was carrying a large dog and hurrying toward their house.
They were Cheng Mingjiao’s neighbors.
Because they kept a dog that loved barking, Cheng Mingjiao had once offered to buy their house for twice its market price. They had refused, and the two households had been at odds ever since.
“Technically, there’s a garden and a road between the two houses. Even if their dog barks, it’s not loud enough to count as a disturbance. But the Emperor still thinks it’s noisy. He often goes over and knocks on their door at five in the morning. The two sides have a terrible relationship, but neither is willing to compromise. In short, they’re locked in a never-ending feud.”
Whenever Zhou Ce brought up the matter, he wore an expression of profound weariness.
When Zhang Xiyue had temporarily taken over as Cheng Mingjiao’s executive assistant, her long-term duties—besides making Cheng Mingjiao breakfast on weekdays—included filing regular complaints against the neighbors. The couple had been vacationing abroad for some time, however, so she had been temporarily relieved of that particular responsibility.
This was the first time she had seen anyone next door.
Cheng Mingjiao had already been in a bad mood, and seeing them only made things worse. He immediately pulled out his phone. “I’m going to call the property management—”
Zhang Xiyue quickly stopped the car and cut him off. “Mr. Cheng, this is their home. The property management has no right to stop them from coming back.”
Cheng Mingjiao clearly knew that. He simply needed somewhere to vent his irritation. “Then what am I supposed to do? I can’t exactly storm into their house, snatch the dog away, and send it to the other side of the planet on my private jet, can I?”
Zhang Xiyue: “...That probably wouldn’t work.”
“So they’re allowed to disturb me?” Cheng Mingjiao was breathing heavily now.
He was difficult to deal with, but he was usually quite even-tempered. This was the first time Zhang Xiyue had ever seen him so furious.
She had no idea how to calm him down. All she could think of was to ask, “Mr. Cheng, would you like some instant noodles? The kind with two eggs and a sausage?”
Cheng Mingjiao: “?”
Twenty minutes later, he was sitting at the long table, staring at the steaming bowl of instant noodles. His mood suddenly settled.
He must have gone mad to be eating such a large bowl of junk food at bedtime.
Cheng Mingjiao lowered his head and slurped up a mouthful of noodles.
Mmm. Delicious.
“Mr. Cheng, take your time. I’m going home now.” Zhang Xiyue said goodbye.
Without looking up, Cheng Mingjiao said, “The rain’s too heavy. Stay here tonight.”
“Okay.”
She agreed far too quickly.
Cheng Mingjiao froze, suddenly feeling that this was dangerous.
“Stay in the guest room on the first floor. And don’t go anywhere near the stairs or the elevator,” he reminded her sternly.
“Okay.”
She agreed just as readily, as if she didn’t care what conditions he imposed so long as she was allowed to stay.
Cheng Mingjiao looked at her again, wondering whether he should take it back.
But in the end, he decided against it. He had already dealt her a harsh blow by sending her back to the assistant’s office. Kicking her out now would only make things worse.
In a mood resembling regret, he ate an entire bowl of instant noodles before going upstairs.
Zhang Xiyue washed the bowl, glanced at the few packets of instant noodles that remained, and decided against making one for herself.
After Cheng Mingjiao went upstairs, he found himself wondering what Zhang Xiyue was doing downstairs. Then he grew annoyed at the thought of the dog barking again in just a few hours. Several emotions took turns surfacing, until he finally fell into a sound sleep at half past eleven.
He slept deeply and did not wake until his alarm went off.
As usual, he lay in bed for a while, slowly coming to his senses. Then he suddenly realized that something was wrong…
Why hadn’t the dog next door barked this morning?
A flicker of confusion passed through his eyes. He washed up, changed clothes, and did his hair, just as he did every workday morning, before finally heading downstairs.
But Zhang Xiyue was nowhere to be seen on the first floor.
Was she still asleep?
He knocked on her door. “Zhang Xiyue, get up.”
There was no response from inside.
Cheng Mingjiao said, “Hurry up. We have a meeting today.”
Still no answer.
He threatened, “If you don’t get up, I’m coming in.”
The person inside remained silent.
Cheng Mingjiao frowned, pondering how best to wake her, when his phone suddenly rang.
It was a message from Zhang Xiyue:
*President Cheng, are you up? Give me a moment. I’ll be right in to make you breakfast.*
His eyes shifted slightly. He walked straight across the spacious living room and pushed open the front door.
The low wall around the yard did nothing to block his view. The moment he opened the door, he saw Zhang Xiyue standing outside the neighboring villa.
The couple next door and their dog had Zhang Xiyue surrounded, as if they were about to attack her from both sides.
Cheng Mingjiao couldn’t stand by and watch. Forgetting that he was still wearing house slippers, he strode across the yard and down the path, then pulled Zhang Xiyue up from the ground.
Zhang Xiyue, who had been playing with the dog, was caught completely off guard and yanked upright. When she saw him, she hurriedly pushed him back toward their house, afraid he might say something outrageous.
“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. We have something to take care of, so we’ll be going now.” As she walked, she continued apologizing to the couple next door.
The neighbors had long-standing grievances with Cheng Mingjiao and never gave him a friendly look, but they still said goodbye to Zhang Xiyue.
Cheng Mingjiao was always perceptive. In an instant, he realized that the truth was probably quite different from what he had imagined.
Zhang Xiyue was a traitor.
He drew a deep breath and was just about to voice his accusation when Zhang Xiyue pulled him into the living room.
“Did you sleep well last night?” she asked.
Although Cheng Mingjiao was displeased, he still answered, “It was all right.”
“Were you disturbed?” Zhang Xiyue asked again.
The words were already on the tip of his tongue, but then he caught the hint of smugness in her eyes. Only afterward did he realize that his good night’s sleep had probably been thanks to her.
Zhang Xiyue’s eyes curved into a smile.
“After you went upstairs last night, I went to talk to them.”
“When they heard that I was your assistant, they wanted to shut the door in my face. But I’m pretty capable, you know. I patiently helped them calm down, and once they were composed, we talked about the dog.”
“You can hear it from so far away, so it must be even noisier in their house. I asked, and sure enough, they haven’t been sleeping well either. But the dog is family, so of course they can’t just abandon it.”
“Their dog is already five years old. A dog that age shouldn’t be barking all night for no reason. Its health report looks normal too, so it’s either dealing with some psychological issues or it picked up a bad habit when it was young.”
“They said it never barked like that before they moved here, so it’s probably psychological. I found a very well-known pet doctor online and paid extra for a house call at night. The diagnosis was anxiety. Starting today, the dog will be seeing the doctor regularly, so it probably won’t keep barking at night.”
Zhang Xiyue smiled brightly as she rattled off the whole story, but Cheng Mingjiao only noticed her wrinkled clothes and the dog hair clinging to them.
Seeing that he remained silent, Zhang Xiyue assumed he was angry that she had taken the liberty of showing kindness to his enemy. So she began soothing him without missing a beat. “Of course, most of the credit still goes to President Cheng’s guidance. If you hadn’t recognized my psychological trauma in time last time, I might never have realized how important mental health is…”
“The dog only started seeing the doctor today,” Cheng Mingjiao cut her off. “So why didn’t it bark once last night?”
Zhang Xiyue paused, unsure whether she should tell him the truth.
Cheng Mingjiao had already guessed. “You stayed up all night taking care of that mentally ill dog.”
Zhang Xiyue: “…”
Why did that sound so strange?
Cheng Mingjiao turned his face away and stared at the painting by the entrance for a long while before looking back at her.
She was still a complete mess, covered in dog hair and looking utterly exhausted, yet she was still smiling at him.
“You win.” He took a deep breath and solemnly declared her the victor.
Zhang Xiyue: “?”
