After a moment, Cheng Mingjiao calmly said, “I’m not giving you a raise because of this.”
Zhang Xiyue put on a regretful face. “Oh. All right.”
The two of them tacitly turned their faces away. One lowered his eyes to stare at the gray concrete beneath his feet, while the other gazed blankly at the tiny insects fluttering beneath the streetlamp.
One of the white insects was larger than the rest. It flew about recklessly, looking as though it wasn’t particularly bright.
Zhang Xiyue: “Pfft.”
Cheng Mingjiao, dressed in a white shirt, turned around sharply. “What are you laughing at?”
Big, reckless, not very bright.
But vigilant.
“Mr. Cheng, do you need a few bodyguards to protect you around the clock?”
Zhang Xiyue didn’t explain. Instead, she quickly came up with a new topic to cover up her slip. As expected, Cheng Mingjiao followed along. “There’s no need.”
“But…”
Zhang Xiyue glanced at the Yang family from a distance. They noticed her gaze and immediately glared back viciously.
Cheng Mingjiao opened WeChat, held down the voice-message button, and said, “Tell all three of them to record a video apologizing and promising that they’ll never dare glare at Cheng Mingjiao again. Otherwise, we won’t accept mediation.”
He released the button and sent the message.
Ding-dong.
The lawyer’s phone rang. He stopped bickering with the opposing counsel and pulled out his phone.
The voice message played aloud at full volume, and everyone heard it.
The lawyer was clearly accustomed to his employer’s sudden whims. After listening, he gave Cheng Mingjiao a gentle smile, then turned around and once again put on his battle face.
The Yang family: “…”
The Yang family’s lawyer: “…”
Zhang Xiyue: “…”
Cheng Mingjiao’s voice message escalated the situation once again. However, they had the upper hand, and it wasn’t long before the other side agreed. The family of three huddled in a corner and, with aggrieved expressions, recorded their apology video.
“They’re nothing but paper tigers,” Cheng Mingjiao said disdainfully.
Zhang Xiyue remembered Yang Fei lying on the ground after Cheng Mingjiao had thrown him over his shoulder, refusing to get up—only to scramble to his feet the moment the police arrived. She had to admit that Cheng Mingjiao’s assessment was accurate.
Still, she had only asked whether he needed bodyguards to change the subject. She hadn’t genuinely been considering it.
Zhang Xiyue let out a sigh of relief.
Cheng Mingjiao: “What were you laughing at just now?”
Zhang Xiyue: “…”
Cheng Mingjiao: “Were you laughing at me?”
Zhang Xiyue: “…No.”
Cheng Mingjiao said nothing. He simply examined her.
Zhang Xiyue kept a straight face. “But it is true that I laughed because I thought of you.”
Cheng Mingjiao’s brows drew together slightly.
Looking at his frank yet stubborn features, Zhang Xiyue was reminded of a child belonging to one of her friends.
The child was five years old. Whenever he saw her, he would repeatedly ask simple questions such as why boiling water was hot and why bananas had to be peeled.
After answering several times, she had realized that the child didn’t actually care about the correct answers. What he cared about was being praised by the adults after every question for being “such a good thinker.”
Ah, praise.
Zhang Xiyue cleared her throat and did her best to sound sincere. “Because I thought about why you offended Yang Fei. I realized that I’m working for a kind and justice-loving boss, which means my future is absolutely bright. That’s why I laughed.”
After hearing her explanation, Cheng Mingjiao’s back—which had been rigid for quite some time—suddenly bent as he deigned to lean against the bench. “You’re overthinking it. I told his wife about him not because of any sense of justice.”
Zhang Xiyue humbly asked, “Then why was it?”
At the mention of the matter, disgust appeared on Cheng Mingjiao’s face. “Cheating is bad enough, but they had to do it right outside the restroom. They made me walk two extra floors before I could find another one.”
Zhang Xiyue: “…”
Delaying the Emperor’s trip to the bathroom—truly a crime deserving the death penalty.
Cheng Mingjiao lazily swept her a glance. His face looked astonishingly handsome beneath the lights. “But you did get one thing right. As my employee, your future is indeed bright.”
Zhang Xiyue obligingly smiled.
By the time they left the police station, it was already eight in the evening.
Zhou Ce, who had rushed over after receiving the news, took the keys from Zhang Xiyue with an expression of deep suffering and prepared to drive the Emperor home.
“You can take a taxi back. It’ll be reimbursed,” he told Zhang Xiyue before hurrying after Cheng Mingjiao.
Zhang Xiyue rubbed her brow. Only after they had left did she call a car home.
Her first day on the job ended like that. By the time Zhang Xiyue had showered and collapsed onto her bed, she felt as though she had already worked for Cheng Mingjiao for eight hundred years.
She lay spread-eagled for a while before opening the group chat titled “What on Earth Does the Emperor Want?”
She had only been away for a few hours, but the group already had more than ninety-nine unread messages.
As Zhang Xiyue scrolled upward, she accidentally poked Fangfang.
Fangfang replied instantly: Home already?
Zhang Xiyue: Mm.
Fangfang: So, how does it feel to go out on business with the Emperor for the first time and end up at the police station?
Apparently, everyone already knew.
Zhang Xiyue sighed and replied with a string of ellipses. Fangfang immediately sent a pitiful emoji.
The others began copying her.
Zhou Ce was the last person to leave the station. He directly ruined the emoji chain with a single line of text: Could it possibly be worse than my situation? I’m still at the hospital.
Zhang Xiyue paused. Just as she was about to type, Li Dong beat her to it.
Li Dong: What are you doing at the hospital?
Zhou Ce: Accompanying the Emperor while he gets treated.
Fangfang: The Emperor is injured?
Zhou Ce: Yep. Two superficial scratches. They would’ve healed if we’d arrived a little later, but he insisted on having them thoroughly disinfected and demanded a full-body examination. If the Empress Dowager hadn’t called to stop him, he would’ve gotten a rabies shot too.
Fangfang: Tsk.
Li Dong: Tsk.
…
Zhang Xiyue: Tsk.
They chatted until ten, then she turned over and fell asleep.
She slept soundly through the night, and morning came again.
Although Cheng Mingjiao hadn’t mentioned firing her again the previous night, Zhang Xiyue still felt a moment of worry when she arrived at the turnstiles beneath the Yuhuang Building. What if her employee card had been deactivated?
Fortunately, it worked when she swiped it the next second.
If Monday had merely been a rehearsal, then Tuesday marked the beginning of her real working life.
The assistant’s job in a fictional world was no different from an assistant’s job in the real world. If anything, the division of labor was clearer and her colleagues were friendlier. Everything could be described as going smoothly.
Unfortunately, while the work was proceeding smoothly, the mission was another matter.
Contrary to what she had initially expected, even after becoming Cheng Mingjiao’s assistant, she didn’t have many opportunities to interact with him.
Aside from showing up quite early on Monday, Cheng Mingjiao came in during the afternoons for the next few days. Once there, he either stayed in his office the entire time or stopped by briefly before taking Zhou Ce to the research and development base.
Before she knew it, Zhang Xiyue had been working at the company for five days.
In those five days, she had only seen Cheng Mingjiao three times. On one occasion, she saw him sitting upright at his desk and assumed he was handling some important matter.
Only after she approached did she discover that he was folding paper airplanes out of contract pages.
…He was spectacularly irresponsible.
Ever since Zhang Xiyue had entered the world of the novel, she had gained a progress bar in her mind for making the yandere become more ambitious. It normally remained invisible, but whenever she concentrated, it would briefly appear.
On the day she first arrived, the progress bar had read zero.
Now, it still read zero.
She had good reason to suspect that Cheng Mingjiao spent all day folding paper airplanes, which was how he had managed to transform himself from a social elite into an unemployed yandere in a mere three months.
This left her anxious and frustrated, yet completely helpless.
After all, she and Cheng Mingjiao weren’t familiar with each other yet. If she rashly urged him to apply himself, he might take her for a lunatic and fire her.
In the blink of an eye, it was Friday evening. After clocking out, Zhang Xiyue turned around and looked at Fangfang and the other two, who were gazing at her expectantly.
She couldn’t help laughing. Raising one hand like a little tour guide, she announced, “Let’s go!”
The others cheered and ushered her out.
They had arranged this dinner three days ago. Zhou Ce was still busy attending to the Emperor, and no one knew when he would be back, so the four of them went to the barbecue restaurant first.
“Come on! Let’s congratulate our Xiyue on making it safely through the week when she was most likely to get fired. From now on, may everything go smoothly!” Fangfang raised her beer, her voice loud and cheerful.
Sun Nian and Li Dong joined in. “May everything go smoothly!”
Zhang Xiyue smiled and clinked glasses with them, chatting about gossip amid the smoke and sizzling grease of the barbecue.
Zhou Ce joined them halfway through. The moment he walked in, he downed three large glasses of beer with a miserable look on his face. Then the conversation turned to Cheng Mingjiao.
Having known him for so long, Zhang Xiyue hadn’t seen him act crazy again. Little by little, she had lowered her guard around him. Still, she carried her electronic stun device with her whenever they met.
Today was no exception.
As the conversation grew livelier, Zhang Xiyue hugged her glass and quietly leaned against the corner, listening to them complain about Cheng Mingjiao.
When they got particularly worked up, she couldn’t help asking, “If the pressure is really that bad, why don’t you quit?”
She had been forced to approach Cheng Mingjiao in order to return to her own world. But what reason did they have?
The room fell silent.
Zhang Xiyue was already slightly tipsy and wasn’t reacting as quickly as usual, but she still sensed that something was wrong. “…Did I say something inappropriate?”
“No,” Zhou Ce coughed and answered on everyone’s behalf. “There are two reasons we haven’t quit. First, we get along so well with all of you that we’re afraid we won’t find colleagues this great at our next jobs. Second…”
He stopped halfway and looked awkwardly at the others. They all looked embarrassed, signaling for him to continue.
Zhou Ce really couldn’t bring himself to say it. In the end, he said vaguely, “You’ll know on June first.”
June first?
Children’s Day?
What did this have to do with Children’s Day?
Zhang Xiyue didn’t understand. But thinking of Cheng Mingjiao’s sickly, obsessive persona, she guessed that they might have been coerced into staying and working for him.
Yes, that had to be it.
The dinner didn’t end until ten. The group staggered outside.
As the guest of honor, Zhang Xiyue took the initiative to pay the bill, only to be told that it had already been paid.
Confused, she turned around and met Fangfang’s sly gaze.
As if knowing what she wanted to ask, Fangfang explained, “Assistant Zhou paid. Don’t be shy about it—he can get reimbursed.”
…This could be reimbursed too?
Zhang Xiyue was speechless for a moment, then went to find Zhou Ce and thank him. But just as she stepped out of the barbecue restaurant, she saw him plop down onto the ground.
Li Dong and Sun Nian burst out laughing beside him. Fangfang, who had hurried over, joined in as well.
After sitting on the ground amid the laughter for a while, Zhou Ce said calmly, “Call an ambulance.”
Zhang Xiyue: “…”
An hour later, the examination results came back.
“Coccyx fracture. He’ll need to rest for two to three months.”
Upon hearing the diagnosis, Zhou Ce suddenly buried his face in the pillow, his shoulders trembling as though he were crying.
No one had expected such an accident. Zhang Xiyue and the others gathered around the hospital bed, unsure how to comfort him.
In the end, Fangfang, being a secretary herself, was the first to speak. “Assistant Zhou…”
“I can finally take a break!” Zhou Ce suddenly raised his head, crying tears of joy. “I can finally get away from that Tyrant for a while!”
Fangfang: “…”
Li Dong: “…”
Sun Nian: “…”
Xiyue: “=_=”
After his wild celebration, Zhou Ce immediately began composing a sick-leave text message.
Watching his fingers fly across the screen, everyone suddenly realized they were facing a serious problem—
If Zhou Ce took sick leave, who would replace him as the Emperor’s new slave?
