Although Jiang Xiaoyi hadn’t slept well the night before, she was in extremely high spirits right now — after two years of relentless effort, the startup comic studio “Chuyuan,” which she’d had her eye on, had finally received online approval last night from Director Liu. It was about to receive the company’s incubation funding!
This was the first project she’d successfully gotten approved in her two years on the job — her first real success!
What did this mean?
Didn’t it mean that Jiang Xiaoyi, who’d had over twenty years of bad luck, had finally endured enough humiliation to start her lucky streak?!
With this dream of a turning fortune cradled in her heart, Jiang Xiaoyi hurried energetically toward Ruiyi Tower.
In that short stretch of time, she’d already planned out the rest of her life in her head — once the paper version of the approval document finished its signature process with the boss, and the investment incubation agreement with the “Chuyuan” studio was signed, all that was left was to wait for the year-end performance bonus.
With that money, Jiang Xiaoyi could not only pay off her parents’ debts, but also afford to rent a nicer place.
The “Chuyuan” studio she believed in would also get an investment to get through its current crisis, letting the comic project she was betting on keep moving forward.
Once “Chuyuan” rose and grew, Jiang Xiaoyi wouldn’t just become a well-known cultural investment incubator with a sharp eye for talent — she’d finally turn her life around, live in wealth and glory, rise steadily in status, have admirers on either arm, and be nothing but happy…
Since she had only five minutes left before clock-in, Jiang Xiaoyi didn’t have time to work out the finer details of this daydream — she practically sprinted, forcing her way into the elevator.
As long as she made this elevator, this month’s perfect attendance bonus was safe!
Usually at this hour, there weren’t many people left in the elevator. But for some reason, today, right as Jiang Xiaoyi rushed in and was about to close the door, a group of people filed in behind her one after another — all in sharp suits.
Were they partners coming for a meeting?
She didn’t have time to think much about it before her attention was caught by the last person to enter — the only one dressed casually.
Almost instantly, the face in Jiang Xiaoyi’s daydream of admirers on either arm gained detail.
This one!
Once she had money, this was the one she’d keep on her right arm!
Monday, Wednesday, Friday would be him. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, someone else.
Not only was he handsome, his build was good too — the only issue was that his expression was a bit sour, and the whole aura around him screamed “expensive to keep,” like he might toss her a nasty look at any moment.
Jiang Xiaoyi worked in the Project Incubation Department at Ruiyi, an entertainment investment company under the Ye Family Group. Ruiyi owned an entire cultural and entertainment industrial park, with its main duty being investment attraction for the industry — so it dealt with the entertainment world often, and it wasn’t unusual to see minor influencers show up at the company.
So this was probably some minor influencer.
Good-looking, sure, but he seemed rather bad-tempered, probably difficult to deal with.
Jiang Xiaoyi had only been idly thinking this — right now her mind was entirely on the perfect attendance bonus. Unfortunately, the elevator seemed determined to work against her: it was overweight, and the doors were jammed, unable to close!
Based on past experience, at times like this, someone just needed to step out.
She herself had entered first, so naturally, one of the people who came in after her should be the one to step out automatically.
Yet no one in the elevator moved. It was as if everyone was locked in a standoff, waiting to see who would give in first.
Especially the last man who’d entered — he showed absolutely no awareness that he should be the one to leave!
This wouldn’t do!
In three more minutes, Jiang Xiaoyi would lose her perfect attendance bonus!
Sorry, buddy! No matter how good-looking you are, you can’t compete with the very real three hundred yuan of the attendance bonus!
Jiang Xiaoyi looked at him gently: “Excuse me, could you let me through? The elevator’s overweight — I’ll get off and take the next one.”
Normally, after saying this, the other party — being the last man to arrive — would take the hint and step aside for the next elevator; there was no way to keep pretending otherwise.
But to Jiang Xiaoyi’s surprise, the man froze for a moment, glanced at her, and showed not a trace of gratitude on his handsome face. Instead, he wore an expression suggesting that it was only proper for Jiang Xiaoyi — who had arrived first — to yield her spot. Then he calmly walked out of the elevator as though it were only natural, gesturing for Jiang Xiaoyi, who had been blocked in by his tall frame and long legs, to come out: “Oh, you can get off now.”
The man glanced at her again, frowning slightly, and added, “Hurry up, I’m in a rush.”???
Did this man have zero self-awareness as a gentleman? How shameless could he be? What terrible manners!
Watch me fix your thick skin!
This was the moment she’d been waiting for!
The instant the man stepped out of the elevator, taking the bait, Jiang Xiaoyi immediately mashed the door-close button like mad, and shut the doors right in front of his disbelieving eyes.
As the elevator rode upward, Jiang Xiaoyi finally felt a small thrill of victory.
Did he think being thick-skinned and shameless could beat a working woman?
Foolish!
The working class is invincible!
**
Despite the little elevator incident, Jiang Xiaoyi still managed to clock in before the attendance window closed and keep her perfect record.
The moment she got to her desk, before she even had time to marvel at her own luck, she saw her direct supervisor, Li You’ai — who at this hour would normally be sipping tea and watching some melodramatic family soap opera — bustling around anxiously instead.
“Eunuch Li never misses his TV drama at this time. He’d outsource even his bathroom breaks if he could. What on earth happened to make him break his routine like this?”
The office gossip queen, Wang Yani, leaned in and lowered her voice: “Inside info: Director Liu lost the palace power struggle and was kicked out of upper management overnight, exiled to some powerless subsidiary. The Ye family’s crown prince has taken over today. Eunuch Li, being an old official from the previous dynasty and shameless as ever, is of course rushing to wash off the old and welcome the new master…”
Wang Yani smirked and added, “Truly, eunuchs may be ironclad, but dynasties flow like water. And he’s even surnamed Li — I bet he’s really descended from the leftover bloodline of Li Lianying after he was castrated.”
Li You’ai wasn’t the least bit “loving” (you’ai), despite his name. Rather, because of his habit of stepping on subordinates while flattering superiors, and going to shameless lengths to please them, people had privately nicknamed him “Eunuch Li.” He wasn’t entirely ignorant of the nickname either, yet far from feeling ashamed, he treated it as an honor — believing it reflected the widely acknowledged excellence of his service to the boss.
Right now, he stood in the print room with his hands on his hips, throwing a fit —
“Jiang Xiaoyi?! You finally showed up! You’re eight seconds late! Our Director Ye’s time is worth at least a hundred thousand yuan a second! You just cost him eight hundred thousand yuan this morning! Do you feel sorry for our Director Ye at all? Hurry up and get to work!”
Wang Yani rolled her eyes, unable to stand it, and whispered to Jiang Xiaoyi, “I heard Ye Zhen is super handsome. Do you think my outfit today is good enough? I wonder if with a little effort I could become the crown princess. If I take over the East Palace, the first thing I’ll do is drag Eunuch Li out and have him executed…”
Jiang Xiaoyi wasn’t in the mood for jokes though — she only cared about one thing: “So the projects Director Liu had approved before…”
An eternal truth — once the person’s gone, the tea goes cold.
Wang Yani said sympathetically, “Anything that had only finished the OA process but wasn’t yet signed by Director Liu is all going through re-approval by the new Director Ye.”
She finished, then patted Jiang Xiaoyi’s shoulder with heartfelt concern. “You offended Eunuch Li before, and that’s why he sabotaged several of your projects. Now that Director Ye has taken over, this is your chance. If you can make a good impression on him today, getting approval could be a matter of minutes.”
Jiang Xiaoyi found this reasonable and made a decision on the spot —
This new Director Ye — she, Jiang Xiaoyi, was going to butter him up with her very life!
**
Jiang Xiaoyi even went to the bathroom to touch up her makeup, and stood on high alert for most of the day — only for the promised meet-the-new-boss session to get cancelled!
Eunuch Li stormed into the main office area with a dark expression. “Director Ye isn’t coming today, something came up last minute — but before he left, he said he was very displeased with our department!”
“Director Ye thinks our department’s staff have terrible manners!”
Eunuch Li looked as if he might drop dead from anger any second. “So now I absolutely must find out who among you has such poor manners! To leave such an impression on the new boss! Whoever it is, confess right now!”
Of course, no one did.
Eunuch Li sneered. “Fine, no one’s confessing? Then you’ll all report on each other. Vote for who you think has the worst manners in the department. I’ve printed out the department roster — mark it anonymously, and Jiang Xiaoyi, you’ll come count the votes in front of everyone.”
……
Jiang Xiaoyi and Wang Yani exchanged glances, thinking Eunuch Li was truly asking for it.
Sure enough, not long after the vote count began —
Jiang Xiaoyi opened a slip of paper: “Li… Li You’ai…”
Eunuch Li glared at her. “Why are you shouting my full name? Say Director Li!”
Jiang Xiaoyi promptly complied: “One vote for Director Li.”
“……”
She opened the second slip: “Two votes for Director Li.”
“……”
“Three votes for Director Li…”
……
Sure enough, in the end, Eunuch Li won by popular demand, receiving a unanimous vote as the person with the worst manners in the entire department…
Naturally, Eunuch Li was furious at this outcome. “Leaving such a bad impression on the new boss — this is serious! This is no joke!”
Jiang Xiaoyi really wanted to say, we’re not joking at all, you genuinely are the person we all consider to have the worst manners in the department…
But of course, Eunuch Li would never admit it. He flew into an embarrassed rage and lectured everyone all over again, then stormed out. Not long after, he stomped back into the main office with a grim face —
“I just sacrificed my good looks to go dig up information from HR! I’ve figured out the whole story. This morning, Director Ye personally witnessed our department’s staff completely disregarding basic elevator etiquette! He said our department’s employees have terrible manners!”
Fearless as ever, Wang Yani spoke up: “But Director Ye doesn’t even know us… how would he know it was our department?”
“Because Director Ye deduced from the floor button pressed that it must be our floor!” Eunuch Li was shaking with rage. “If we don’t find this person today, none of you are going home!”
Originally, without knowing the details, Jiang Xiaoyi hadn’t thought much of it. But now, hearing the words “elevator etiquette,” it suddenly clicked for her like a bolt of enlightenment —
“Director Li! I think I know!”
Hadn’t she squeezed into the elevator that morning and run into that shameless, ill-mannered man? Thinking back on it now, Jiang Xiaoyi recalled that the man hadn’t pressed any floor button when he got on — which meant his destination was already among the floors selected, and among the suited men accompanying him, one of them looked clearly like an industry elite — perhaps that was Ye Zhen himself, and Director Ye had witnessed the whole thing!
Thinking it over more carefully, aside from the top floor — where only the boss and important partners would go — the only other floor selected had been hers, the Project Incubation Department. That ill-mannered man heading to the top floor? Obviously unlikely, so he was very possibly heading to the same floor as her…
In her two years working at Ruiyi, Jiang Xiaoyi truly had never encountered such an ill-mannered man before.
To make it home on time, Jiang Xiaoyi immediately reported everything she knew to Eunuch Li: “Director Li, I think it’s this man! Because our department is actually full of well-mannered people, we’d never do something like fighting over an elevator like that! He might be an outside visitor here for a meeting on our floor, and Director Ye mistook him for one of our own!”
This theory made a lot of sense, and Eunuch Li was delighted. “Good, as long as it’s not one of ours! Jiang Xiaoyi, do you remember what this person looked like? Find this person for me and explain clearly to Director Ye that it’s not someone from our department!”
That was no trouble at all for Jiang Xiaoyi — she’d graduated from art school with a major in illustration and comic design, and had strong drawing skills. She immediately sketched a portrait of the man.
Wang Yani clicked her tongue in amazement nearby. “This guy is so handsome, I’d forgive his bad manners…”
Eunuch Li scoffed. “You young people don’t understand anything. When picking a man, you should go for someone mature and charismatic like me — can looks fill your stomach? Jiang Xiaoyi, draw faster! Scan it once it’s done and send me the digital file — I’ll post it on the internal company forum to crowdsource leads and clear our department’s name! Whoever this client was that got invited in, their manners are just too poor! We absolutely cannot invest in this person’s project!”
Even though she disliked Eunuch Li, at certain moments she and the Project Incubation Department were still one and the same — her project approval was still hanging in Director Ye’s hands. She absolutely couldn’t let her own department get on the boss’s bad side first.
Jiang Xiaoyi handed in the work at lightning speed, then finally exhaled in relief, giving herself a mental pat on the back for her quick thinking. She checked the time — almost lunch break — and clicked open the company’s internal gossip group chat, where a few female colleagues from HR were chatting enthusiastically —
“Our new boss is so handsome!”
“I just glanced at him once, seriously, not a single flaw! I’m switching my fan loyalty from my idol to our boss!”
“Quick quick quick! This is a photo I snuck! He left early today for something urgent, next time he comes for a meeting I’ll get better shots!”
……
Bored, Jiang Xiaoyi clicked open the sneaked photo — and then her whole world fell apart —
“This is Director Ye?!”
“Yeah!”
……
Staring at the photo of that handsome but clearly “expensive to keep” face, Jiang Xiaoyi felt her vision go dark.
She sprang up and rushed over to Wang Yani. “That portrait I just drew — has Eunuch Li not uploaded it yet?”
Wang Yani wasn’t in that internal gossip group, so she had no idea of the truth, and answered blithely, “Already posted! Eunuch Li was super angry, his wording was really harsh — said, reported by colleague Jiang Xiaoyi, crowdsourcing leads online, seeking information on this ill-mannered scumbag man…”
At this point Jiang Xiaoyi felt she was thoroughly doomed. There was only one thought left in her mind —
I am not long for this world.
Eunuch Li, on the road to the underworld, you won’t be lonely — I’ll be right there with you.