For Jiang Xiaoyi, this moment felt exactly like meeting an old friend in a foreign land!
She hadn’t expected that everything from her parallel timeline wasn’t a hallucination after all — Ye Zhen really was her class comrade.
With this thought, Jiang Xiaoyi instantly relaxed. In front of Ye Zhen, she could no longer maintain her earlier upright posture — she immediately dropped her guard and began commenting while eating her Japanese food—
“‘Hong’ really is delicious, but I still feel it’s not quite worth its price. How did you manage to get a reservation for tonight so quickly?”
“I had someone buy out someone else’s reservation slot at a high price,” Ye Zhen said, pressing his lips together, seemingly having reverted back to his identity as Mr. Ye. This man’s demeanor now had a bit of that boss-like coldness, though the tone he used speaking with Jiang Xiaoyi no longer carried the distance from before.
“How much did you spend?”
“Triple the price.”
Jiang Xiaoyi was stunned: “Ye Zhen, even though you’re Mr. Ye now, isn’t this a bit too extravagant? I never thought you particularly liked Japanese food before — why did you insist on eating this the very day you came back?”
“I don’t particularly like Japanese food,” Ye Zhen said, setting down his chopsticks. “Honestly, I didn’t even want to eat it today either. But I just had to.”
What kind of logic was that…
“I remembered Li You’ai putting me down, shamelessly claiming that cheap supermarket sushi was ‘treating’ me to Japanese food. I just couldn’t swallow that.”
Jiang Xiaoyi almost wanted to laugh — this was honestly quite childish.
Thinking back on everything Li You’ai had done to Ye Zhen in the parallel timeline, Jiang Xiaoyi suddenly felt a deep sympathy for him. Eunuch Li was in danger.
But after Ye Zhen finished grinding his teeth about Li You’ai, he turned his gaze to Jiang Xiaoyi: “I also forgot to ask — what did you mean by that?”
What did she mean by what…
Perhaps because he’d regained his power, Ye Zhen’s personality seemed to be slipping back into his boss-complex, growing moody: “Why did you resign the moment you woke up? What did you mean by that? Thought I’d retaliate against you? Is that how you see me?”
This barrage of questions caught Jiang Xiaoyi off guard, but she’d already been trained to have thick skin and had her winning strategy — she immediately shot back without missing a beat: “Then why don’t you talk about yourself? What was your attitude toward me the moment you woke up? Why didn’t you say some kind of code phrase earlier to ‘recognize’ me? You kept your face stern the whole time just now — if I hadn’t called you Tom, would you have voluntarily confessed to me? And whatever idea you gave Li You’ai, he was so smug thinking I was about to be dealt with!”
“…” This speech left Ye Zhen momentarily speechless. He looked at Jiang Xiaoyi twice. “You sound like you’ve taken a public speaking class — so sharp-tongued now, I can barely out-argue you.”
“Well, thanks to our teacher Tom for teaching so well — famous teacher, outstanding student.”
Jiang Xiaoyi took a sip of tea, but ultimately didn’t dare to be too presumptuous. After all, once she’d traveled to the parallel timeline and transformed into CEO Jiang, she’d given Ye Zhen quite a beating. Though they’d later developed a sort of revolutionary camaraderie, who knew if that bond was solid or might change.
She secretly sized up Ye Zhen: “We’ve been through storms and time-travel together too — we’re both on the same side now, right? As for everything in the past, why don’t we just let it go?” Besides, you should know, if it weren’t for saving you, I wouldn’t have fallen into the river and inexplicably traveled back here — I’d still be CEO Jiang in that timeline!”
Seeing the atmosphere was good, Jiang Xiaoyi pressed her advantage: “Actually, deep down, I’ve always admired you. After this time-travel experience, your management skills also left me deeply impressed — I know you’re a capable, outstanding boss.”
“Before, my mindset just wasn’t in the right place — I thought you’d simply been born lucky. But now, I think you really do have some skills. As an assistant myself, I’ve had quite a few shortcomings in my work too. Now that we’ve buried the hatchet, I’m still willing to stay on and be your assistant, to support your work at Ruiyi.”
Jiang Xiaoyi had originally wanted to repair her relationship with Ye Zhen, to express her unwavering loyalty, but unexpectedly Ye Zhen’s expression turned unpleasant, and he flatly refused: “No need. Go back to Project Incubation.”
He glanced up at Jiang Xiaoyi: “After all, didn’t you say it yourself — even though Li You’ai is quite annoying, in terms of work content and matching your expertise, you prefer the Incubation Department’s work? I used to be a bit of a jerk, didn’t respect your opinion, thought being my assistant was a tremendous honor. Now that I’ve put myself in your shoes, I understand too — I don’t want to force you to give up the work you prefer.”
Ye Zhen being so suddenly understanding actually made Jiang Xiaoyi a bit nervous: “Is this genuine? Or are you scheming to test me again?”
Ye Zhen’s reaction was intense, and rather aggrieved: “Am I that kind of person? Would I, Ye Zhen, do such a thing?!”
Of course you would… isn’t that exactly how you used to bait people before…
But given the good atmosphere right now, Jiang Xiaoyi chose not to call him out on it directly.
“But if I leave, who’ll temporarily fill your assistant position?”
Ye Zhen had such high standards, was so fussy and hard to please — recruiting a new assistant would require a long process, and by the time the process finished and a new assistant got settled in, they’d probably either get fired by him before long, or resign on their own because they couldn’t stand it…
Managing Ruiyi couldn’t do without countless working people, and it also couldn’t do without a strong, capable boss. Jiang Xiaoyi thought about it and said magnanimously: “Why don’t I just act as your temporary assistant for a while longer? After all, I understand you fairly deeply by now.”
But this time Ye Zhen was resolute: “No need.”
This man glanced at Jiang Xiaoyi, seemingly to comfort her, hesitated for a moment, and finally spoke: “Don’t worry, I’ll find a new male assistant.”
Ye Zhen looked away, gazing at a painting hanging on the wall: “A man shouldn’t have a female assistant — it’s too easy to cause misunderstandings and unnecessary speculation from others. A male boss should have a male assistant — that’s the proper way to have both integrity in ability and virtue.”
Oh…
Jiang Xiaoyi glanced up at Ye Zhen — had this man truly become an honor graduate of Male Virtue school now?
But thinking it over carefully, what Ye Zhen said wasn’t wrong either. As a boss, there were plenty of social obligations involving drinking — having a male assistant meant someone who could drink in his place, or send him home after he’d had too much.
“As for why I didn’t confess to you earlier, it’s because you resigned and ran off first. I figured if you’d really traveled to the parallel timeline with me, you wouldn’t have run off like that — what if the parallel timeline really was just a dream, and I inexplicably approached you about it, wouldn’t you think I’d gone insane?”
Ye Zhen was quite confident about this: “Besides, I already got Li You’ai kicked out of the car and brought you here for Japanese food — wasn’t that hint clear enough?”
Fine, fine.
But Jiang Xiaoyi was concerned about something else: “That — now that you’re back to being Mr. Ye, everything I did to you before… why don’t you just forget it all? Just treat the parallel timeline as a dream?”
Ye Zhen’s reaction to this was fiercely opposed: “No.”
His expression turned displeased as he looked at Jiang Xiaoyi: “You want to treat it as a dream?”
Ye Zhen had indeed reverted to his boss-like manner, immediately saying to Jiang Xiaoyi: “I won’t allow you to treat it as a dream. You must remember everything.”
“Even if you forget things, you can only forget the parts about Dan Hui. How could you forget the parts about me?” this man added, his voice calm and composed. “After all, I taught you everything I know for free — all that corporate management knowledge, how to outmaneuver executives, including every executive’s habits and how to handle them. Such valuable information, and you’re planning to forget it? Even though you’re a lowly employee now, workplace survival skills are universal. I gave you enterprise-level coaching — surely you can apply it flexibly, and it should be more than enough to deal with the interpersonal dynamics at your level of the workplace?”
That did make some sense…
Though Jiang Xiaoyi didn’t want to admit it, Ye Zhen really had taught her a great deal before. Now, though she’d turned back into ordinary employee Jiang Xiaoyi, she understood every executive’s habits much better, which would make future communication and coordination much smoother too.
Ye Zhen fell quiet again for a moment, then cleared his throat somewhat awkwardly and spoke: “Do you regret jumping into the water to save me?”
“Huh?”
“If you hadn’t jumped in, you probably wouldn’t have traveled back.” Ye Zhen said, head lowered, his voice slightly hushed. “I know you liked that world better. If you hadn’t come to save me, you could have stayed there. There, you were CEO Jiang, with high social status, and your parents were still by your side…”
Jiang Xiaoyi paused, then looked toward the potted plants not far off in the room, her voice a bit soft: “But I’ve already come back.”
Jiang Xiaoyi didn’t dwell on things that had already happened, and rarely regretted decisions she’d made, because she believed that at the time, she’d done what her heart truly wanted, and given another chance, she’d probably make the same choice again.”
Jumping into the water to try to save Ye Zhen — she didn’t regret it.
“Maybe this is actually where my real life and my battlefield are. In that timeline, fate handed me a golden opportunity and let me see my own potential and shortcomings, and then I needed to come back to this timeline to fight well.”
She tried to make herself cheer up: “Besides, I know my parents are living well and happily in that other timeline. Thinking about it this way, it feels like I never truly lost my mom and dad — they’ve just found more important things to do, have their own lives to be busy with.”
“True feelings don’t require being together all the time. I know that somewhere in this universe, my parents are always there — that’s enough. They’re still by my side in another way, and they’ll always live on in my memory.”
“Besides, in this timeline, my parents suffered too much. Now heaven’s letting them experience a life of wealth and comfort.”
Jiang Xiaoyi paused here, looking at Ye Zhen with a smile: “And honestly, I don’t really think of you as just my boss anymore now. Because if I really only saw you as a boss, there’s no way I’d have sacrificed everything in that timeline to jump in and save you.”
Ye Zhen’s heart began beating rapidly: “So what do you see me as?”
He looked at Jiang Xiaoyi as if bewitched, waiting for her final answer.
It’s a confession, he thought, it must be.
Ye Zhen felt an almost sweet, floating sensation inside. He thought, even though he’d suffered many setbacks in the parallel timeline, at least it had let Jiang Xiaoyi see his resilience and capability in the face of adversity, ultimately making her fall for him, hopelessly developing special feelings for him, finally recognizing her true heart — not such a bad outcome after all.
For a man to make a woman confess first wasn’t exactly gentlemanly, but Ye Zhen was still eager to hear Jiang Xiaoyi say those words with her own mouth. Caught up in this emotion, he finally heard Jiang Xiaoyi’s crisp, decisive voice—
“I think of you as a friend now!”
“…”
Ye Zhen was stunned for half a minute before finally reacting: “A friend? Just a friend?”
Jiang Xiaoyi showed a slightly embarrassed smile, correcting herself: “Not just a friend — a good friend!”
Aren’t “good friend” and “friend” basically the same thing?
Ye Zhen was furious: “You have nothing else to say? Do you know that the head of the Yuanchu Studio had already worked out the formula for traveling to parallel timelines — the day the accident happened, he even asked if I wanted to go, and I ultimately chose not to. I’d rather have stayed in that timeline — I made a major sacrifice of a decision!”
But Jiang Xiaoyi’s expression showed confusion: “Huh? Why did you want to stay in that timeline?”
Ye Zhen pressed his lips together: “Think about it yourself. Think carefully.”
Jiang Xiaoyi obediently thought it over and then suddenly seemed to have a realization: “I get it now! You think it’s not bad for a man to hide in a woman’s embrace in that timeline, right? Because being taken care of can be pretty relaxing sometimes! Once you accept that setup, if you meet a good woman, you can actually live quite comfortably!”
“…”
Ye Zhen wanted to say something, but Jiang Xiaoyi’s train of thought had already drifted completely away: “You said the head of Yuanchu Studio worked out a formula for time travel? I remember him mentioning something about the multiverse and multidimensional time before, so we traveled for three months over there, but actually here in the overlapping timelines, only three hours passed? So since there’s a formula like that, if you really want to go back that badly, thinking that timeline is better, why not calculate it again and see when you could go back?”
“…”
Ye Zhen felt he had nothing left to say. He felt somewhat defeated, not knowing where to even begin at this point, his stomach full of grievance and resentment, wishing Jiang Xiaoyi possessed some special ability to read minds, to fully sense what he was thinking right now.
But clearly, she didn’t.
This oblivious woman finished her Japanese meal without a shred of psychological burden, then checked the time: “Ye Zhen, tonight I’m planning to sort through the potential projects on my plate, and tomorrow I’ll visit clients one by one. Can you drive me home? Also, for the Yuanchu Studio project, I’ll redo a more detailed proposal, including future business planning, and resubmit it through the OA system for approval.”
Jiang Xiaoyi seemed quite fired up: “This time I’ll work even harder!”
Regardless of everything, having returned to her original timeline and once again experiencing the pain of losing her parents, Jiang Xiaoyi also needed to use work to distract herself and process her emotions.
Unfortunately, her drive didn’t seem to infect Ye Zhen. This man looked rather listless, probably still not readjusted to being a boss again, and only nodded: “Alright, I’ll drive you home.”