Ye Zhen had originally thought that once he returned to Ruiyi, he would surely be flawless and thoroughly in his element at work. But reality turned out to be the complete opposite.

For several days in a row, he was run ragged by Jiang Xiaoyi’s orders. Every day he was clearly busy, yet at the end of each day, he felt as though he had accomplished nothing. The duties of an assistant were nothing like what he used to do—almost every day was spent running errands and doing miscellaneous chores, all basic, auxiliary work that required no professional skill whatsoever.

Ye Zhen looked down on the content of his work with disdain. A man of his caliber, and Jiang Xiaoyi actually had him printing and binding documents! What a waste of talent!

But then, the first time Ye Zhen stepped into the print room, he discovered a new problem—

He had absolutely no idea how to use the printer.

Yet everyone else in the company seemed to know how.

A man with his kind of pride would, of course, never ask someone else such a foolish question.

Printing, photocopying, double-sided scanning, setting up wireless network email delivery, complete binding sets…

Fortunately, after fumbling around for half an hour, Ye Zhen finally figured out the basic operations—only to run into yet another problem.

That was when Jiang Xiaoyi’s nagging phone call came in, the woman demanding an explanation: “Tom, is your document printed yet or not?! It’s been an hour already! Printing that little bit should take ten minutes, tops!”

Ye Zhen glared at the printer, pressing his lips together: “It’s jammed. I’m looking for the number of the engineer who can repair this model.”

Five minutes later, Jiang Xiaoyi arrived at the print room, scowling and full of menace.

Ye Zhen pointed at the printer, putting on a tough front: “See for yourself, this isn’t my fault, it’s the printer that—”

Before he could finish, he watched Jiang Xiaoyi glance at the error screen, bend down, and in three quick motions expertly flip open the cover panel of the machine. In a dizzying flurry of movements, she opened up panel after panel and component after component as if she meant to take the whole thing apart, then took a single glance inside the printer and reached her hand straight in.

A minute later, expressionless and precise, she pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper from inside the printer.

Then she skillfully put the panels and parts she had just opened back into place, pressed something on the control screen, and sure enough, the printer started running again.

Ye Zhen, under Jiang Xiaoyi’s glare, felt a bit awkward and looked away: “There’s no rule saying an assistant has to know how to fix a printer.”

Even now, this man could still keep a straight face while playing the victim first: “I shouldn’t even be doing such a low-level job to begin with…”

Jiang Xiaoyi had been fairly calm up until then, but hearing that, she truly lost her temper.

Ye Zhen really hadn’t changed at all. There was an arrogance in his bones, a fundamental contempt for the role of assistant, and even now, that was still true.

“Low-level? Ye Zhen, you really look down on assistant work, don’t you? You think it’s just grunt work, no skill required? But do you know how many people starting out in the workforce begin exactly with this kind of job? Yes, because not everyone has a rich father, so we start from the bottom—we’re stuck being ‘low-level.'”

“But has it ever occurred to Your Highness that even though an assistant does the grunt work, if a company runs without these support-level positions holding up the upper structure and the business departments, could it possibly function well?”

“Do you think your nobility just carries itself? Who do you think is carrying the weight at the bottom of the company?”

“Yes, an assistant doesn’t need to know how to fix a printer, but dealing with a paper jam is practically a default skill for any working person, because you can’t possibly call in a repair technician every single time.”

“When you were the boss, didn’t you only ever care about the result, never about how difficult the process of getting the work done actually was? If you urgently needed a hard copy of a document and I told you it couldn’t be solved because of a paper jam, would you think I was blameless? Of course not—you’d just think I was incompetent.”

Jiang Xiaoyi looked at Ye Zhen, her tone unusually serious: “Running a business means juggling a thousand things a day, but being an assistant also takes brains. Don’t assume that just because a job is basic, it doesn’t require ability—quite the opposite. It’s precisely in this kind of work that whether or not you can do it well truly tests a person’s capability.”

“Even if you can’t fix a jam, when I urgently need that document printed, you should immediately find a backup solution to get it done—for instance, rushing downstairs to a print shop—instead of calling for a repair technician and then just sitting around waiting with a clear conscience. That’s the kind of problem-solving ability an assistant needs.”

Jiang Xiaoyi shoved the jammed paper she had pulled out into Ye Zhen’s hand: “Stop being all talk and no substance. Being a working person isn’t as easy as you think!”

Jiang Xiaoyi was absolutely furious. The moment she got back to her office, she immediately called Eunuch Li’s extension: “I don’t have much work that needs an assistant’s help lately. Considering Tom and Jerry are the canon pair, I’ll lend you Ye Zhen for now.” She said through gritted teeth, “Make sure to put him to good use! Train him well for me!”

What kind of person was this?! Jiang Xiaoyi had, for one fleeting moment, actually reflected on whether she had been too harsh on Ye Zhen. But thinking back on it now, she realized this man clearly hadn’t been beaten down enough yet!

Villains need other villains to grind them down—Ye Zhen’s whole set of arrogant, spoiled-rich habits could be left to Eunuch Li to wear down!

**

Ye Zhen had been thoroughly humiliated by Jiang Xiaoyi in the print room, and to his shock, he found he couldn’t refute her—he had never once analyzed things from Jiang Xiaoyi’s point of view, and so he had never once put himself in her shoes.

It was true—many jobs, like cogs in a machine, really had no technical content. But it was equally true that a company couldn’t run without those cogs.

Jiang Xiaoyi, relying on having transmigrated and defied fate, was now shamelessly overstepping her bounds, but her twisted logic did have a small kernel of truth to it.

But to have Ye Zhen admit fault over this—that was impossible. Him, wrong? Ha.

Rather than bow his head verbally, he’d rather prove himself through his own ability in the work that followed!

A piece of gold like himself would, of course, shine through!

But before Ye Zhen’s grand ambitions could even ignite, he was caught off guard by Jiang Xiaoyi’s transfer order—he had been temporarily assigned as a subordinate to Li You’ai.

Li You’ai stood at the entrance to the Project Incubation Department, and the expression he wore to greet Ye Zhen could only be described as gleeful.

“Well, well, isn’t this our Boss Jiang’s red-hot favorite, Tom? How is it that after just a few days of being in favor, you’ve already been cast out into the cold?”

Eunuch Li wore a face of pure schadenfreude. “You don’t listen to your elders, and now you’re paying for it. You’re just like the garlic in our Boss Jiang’s vegetable patch—one crop after another. Did you really think you were one of a kind? Can a successful woman really settle for just one man? You haven’t even risen to power yet, and look how high you were holding yourself. Now you understand, right? A woman can lift us men up to the heavens, and she can just as easily drop us straight down to earth. Don’t go thinking that because you had her favor for a little while, you’re on equal footing with a woman.”

Having had his laugh, Eunuch Li wasted no time before working this cheap labor to the bone.

For an entire afternoon, Ye Zhen spun like a top without a moment’s rest—

“Tom! Make me a coffee!”

“Tom, go pick up a package for me!”

“Tom, go queue up downstairs and buy two vegetable buns from the vegetarian restaurant!”

“Tom, check my little nephew’s English homework for me!”

“Tom! We’re out of toilet paper, bring me some!”

…

Because Li You’ai took the lead, the entire Project Incubation Department naturally pegged Ye Zhen as the department’s new errand boy. Before he could even get angry, thick stacks of documents were already being placed in his hands—

“You’re Tom, right? Sort these documents by category and file them.”

“Tom! I’ve got a bilingual presentation deck I won’t finish in time! Help me translate it!”

“Tom, these documents need to go through the shredder.”

“Tom…”

Ye Zhen had never in his life done this kind of grunt work, yet the atmosphere of the whole department running on all cylinders left him unable to refuse the tasks piled on him—because if he didn’t do them, no one else would, and then the entire department’s work simply wouldn’t move forward.

And today, the Project Incubation Department had a project document that needed to be finished overtime, and naturally Li You’ai wasn’t going to let Ye Zhen off easy: “Tom! You’re staying late too!”

Ye Zhen had been tormented all day and was genuinely exhausted. He tried to resist: “This is my first day in the Project Incubation Department, I’m not familiar with the project, staying late won’t be any help. Why do I need to stay too?”

“If you’re not staying late, what are you even coming to work for? Look at Wang Yani and the others—every one of them has a spirit of dedication, they treat Ruiyi like home. And you? While others are working themselves to the bone, you’re thinking about slinking home to be lazy and comfortable. Fine, you’re not skilled enough to actually help even if you stayed, but your attitude is wrong. Our Boss Jiang hasn’t even left yet, and you, a lowly staff member, think you can just walk out?!”

Ye Zhen had worked himself to death all day, hoping only for the workday to end, and now he was practically furious enough to die at Li You’ai’s words.

Was this man even speaking human language? How much did Jiang Xiaoyi earn, and how much did he himself earn? All of Ruiyi belonged to her—was it not normal for her to worry about her own money and refuse to leave? He himself only earned enough to sell cabbage—did he need to worry his heart out like he was selling something far more valuable?

“Besides, having you stay for overtime is a mark of respect—there’s even a free dinner as a perk! I’m treating everyone! We’re having Japanese food!”

As if he were lacking that one dinner?! Just a plate of Japanese food, that was all.

Unfortunately, Li You’ai, riding high on his own smugness, completely failed to notice the murderous intent in Ye Zhen’s eyes. He had already ordered the delivery, and now he began sighing dramatically: “A good superior like me is probably an endangered species these days—paying out of my own pocket to treat everyone to authentic Japanese food. Most of you just graduated, you probably haven’t had proper Japanese food before, right? This time I’ll let you all have a taste of something new! Remember this, everyone—as long as you follow me, Li You’ai! Work hard and good things will come your way!”

…

Half an hour later, “authentic Japanese food” was delivered by the delivery courier into the hands of Ye Zhen and the others—

Boxed fast-food-style sushi that cost a dozen-odd yuan at the supermarket turned out to be the “authentic Japanese food.” The discount sticker on the box hadn’t even been peeled off.

This was it?

Ye Zhen was practically ready to explode with rage.

To think that once, apart from Michelin-starred kaiseki, he wouldn’t even bother eating at a place that averaged three or four hundred yuan a head for Japanese food, and now he had fallen so low as to…

But given the circumstances—his identity swapped, trapped in this damned world—he had no other choice but to lie low and bide his time. His own unworthy body was already growling with hunger.

Ye Zhen rubbed his faintly aching stomach and consoled himself: cheap supermarket sushi it was, then. Better to preserve one’s strength for the future—right now was just a matter of enduring hardship and temporarily setting aside his pursuit of quality of life. This was the restraint of the strong, not the surrender of the weak.

Just as he’d popped a piece of sushi into his mouth, Li You’ai, who had been checking a mirror at the table and popping a pimple, suddenly shot to his feet: “Boss Jiang, hello!”

Li You’ai instantly dropped his earlier domineering posture, his tone turning humble, his gaze fawning: “Boss Jiang, our department is working overtime with all our hearts to push Ruiyi’s performance to new heights. To make the overtime go better, I’ve treated everyone to dinner—it’s Japanese food…”

Did he think flattery alone could win Jiang Xiaoyi’s favor and get his nephew back in the running?

How laughable.

But before Ye Zhen could even finish his inward derision, he heard Li You’ai turn a stern face toward him—

“Tom! You’re going to be the death of you!”

This flatterer put on a look of utter shock: “How could you eat the red ginger in your sushi!?” What was wrong with eating slices of red ginger, used to cut the fishy taste, alongside raw cold sashimi sushi?

Li You’ai wore a face of self-reproach, as if he’d failed some parental duty: “Boss Jiang! It’s my fault for not teaching him properly on a regular basis! To think our Tom would dare eat ginger [jiāng]!”

He went on, his tone exaggerated: “Ginger! Doesn’t that go against the honored name of our Boss Jiang [Jiāng]? Eating ginger—does that mean he intends to devour our Boss Jiang?! How could this possibly be allowed! Throughout history, whether in the workplace or in the family, how can we men ever rise above women! Whether in the household or the company, if a man calls the shots, what future is there? We men really are shortsighted with our short hair!”

Having finished berating men, disparaging himself in the process, Li You’ai turned righteously indignant and glared at Ye Zhen: “Eating ginger! This is insubordination! Such an ill omen! Tom, do you have any idea how inauspicious that is? Is ginger something you’re allowed to eat?! Would eating one less piece of ginger kill you?! Quick! Put down the ginger in your mouth!”

“……”

“Is there even anything for you to do here tonight with the overtime? Why are you still here? Just to mooch a free Japanese dinner off me?”

Li You’ai might well have been a folk master of the traditional art of face-changing—as if it hadn’t been him who’d just ordered Ye Zhen to stay late for overtime, he now put on a face of righteous indignation: “Boss Jiang, I’ve always been against staying late for overtime without good reason. Just look at Tom here—staying at the company after hours, isn’t that wasting the company’s water and electricity? Even his workstation’s depreciation rate is higher than everyone else’s. Ugh! Why are young people like this these days! Always trying to milk the company for everything they’ve got!”

“……”

Even while attacking his dissenter, this man didn’t forget to circle back to his main theme, stepping on one to lift another: “Not like our Yongjian, thrifty and diligent in managing his household, so mindful of the family’s standing! He’d never think of taking petty little advantages from others! This way of thinking, it really does have to do with one’s family upbringing! When getting married, you absolutely must find someone from a matching background…”

…

Ye Zhen felt like he was once again about to be furious enough to die—truly a tiger stranded in the shallows, mocked by dogs. To think that back in the day, Li You’ai wouldn’t have dared speak so harshly and indirectly at him like this—even exchanging a few extra words with him would have been a capital offense.

But the most infuriating part wasn’t even that. Worst of all was that Jiang Xiaoyi stood off to the side with a face full of schadenfreude, then pulled a bag of hazelnuts out of her pocket and began cracking them open while listening to Li You’ai berate Ye Zhen—like someone who’d brought her own snacks to watch a show, hoping only for more chaos.

But before she could even start, Li You’ai snatched the bag of hazelnuts right out of her hands: “Boss Jiang! How could you possibly eat hazelnuts [zhēn]!?”

Jiang Xiaoyi, having had her hazelnuts confiscated, felt a bit surprised—was Li You’ai actually not applying a double standard here, but genuinely believing no one should be allowed to say a name-taboo word? So Ye Zhen couldn’t eat ginger [jiāng, her surname], and she herself couldn’t eat hazelnuts [zhēn, part of Ye Zhen’s name]?

But before Jiang Xiaoyi could revise her opinion of Eunuch Li, she heard Li You’ai continue on his own—

“Hazelnut shells are so hard—how could we let Boss Jiang’s such noble hands crack them open? Your hands are meant for signing contracts, golden hands, mustn’t be hurt.”

“Come, come, let our Tom do it. Doesn’t our Tom’s given name have the character ‘Zhen’ [臻] in it? It sounds just like ‘hazelnut’ [榛, zhēn]! There’s an old saying—crack your own kind, and you’ll grow up to make something of yourself! Tom, ah, what a well-chosen name you have—it completely foretells your future! Cracking hazelnuts for Boss Jiang!”

“Ye Zhen crack the hazelnut—how brilliant! Hahahahaha!”

“……”