Since Ye Zhen had so eagerly and proactively offered, Jiang Xiaoyi didn’t object anymore.

But now that Ye Zhen had brought it up, Jiang Xiaoyi couldn’t help herself either: “But aren’t you being a bit of a double standard with me? So strict with me, yet so lenient with the new assistant — the new assistant keeps praising your good temper every day, but how come there’s none of that with me?”

Ye Zhen fell silent for a moment before speaking, his voice low: “Because it’s you who changed me.”

Jiang Xiaoyi paused, not quite catching it: “What?”

“Never mind.” Ye Zhen pressed his lips together. “I just mean, after going through so much, I understand now how hard things are for grassroots workplace employees. I’ve really reflected on my past bad temper — I was too harsh on you back then.”

Ye Zhen actually reflecting and correcting himself — that was a good thing, but thinking of how good he was being to the new assistant, even though the new assistant was male, Jiang Xiaoyi still felt some complicated, inexplicable displeasure.

But what Ye Zhen said next quickly dissolved Jiang Xiaoyi’s discontent—

“Seeing the new assistant reminds me of when you were my assistant. I felt so guilty about it that I don’t want to treat others the way I used to anymore, and I understand now how hard grassroots work is. Because I want you to be treated well by your direct supervisor, I also want to be better to my own subordinates.”

Putting herself in his shoes, Jiang Xiaoyi felt somewhat moved. After truly empathizing, Ye Zhen really had become better.

“I really didn’t think carefully about company operations and management before, and I had prejudices against you from the start too. I always approached my own work with an adversarial mindset, complained more than I reflected — Ye Zhen, but from now on, I want to become better too, like you.”

Jiang Xiaoyi finished speaking and looked across at Ye Zhen.

This man had outstanding talent, the courage to reform, and now, precious empathy as well — becoming both excellent and grounded. Jiang Xiaoyi suddenly found she could understand why public opinion of Ye Zhen had turned around so completely. He really was rather handsome.

Though it was Jiang Xiaoyi’s turn to treat him to dinner, Ye Zhen still used the excuse of going to the restroom to quickly pay the bill in advance, then this man drove her himself to go get her luggage.

Honestly, Ye Zhen’s driving skills weren’t great. After several sudden stops, even Jiang Xiaoyi couldn’t help herself: “Where’s the driver?”

“Since spending the evening with you is my personal business, I didn’t want to make the driver work overtime — he has it hard too. Besides, it’s not like I can’t drive myself.”

That was true, but with the driver absent, it was just the two of them alone, making it feel almost like a date… but calling it a date didn’t quite fit either, because Ye Zhen’s driving was truly…

The fifth time Jiang Xiaoyi nearly threw up, she finally couldn’t hold back: “Ye Zhen, has anyone ever told you your driving is really terrible…”

Jiang Xiaoyi was sitting in the passenger seat of Ye Zhen’s Bentley, and the moment the words left her mouth, she could clearly see Ye Zhen’s grip on the steering wheel tighten slightly. This man looked a bit embarrassed, and a bit unhappy.

“Do you know what it implies when you tell a man his driving skills are bad?”

What kind of implication?

Jiang Xiaoyi’s first reaction was mild exasperation: “Yeah, yeah, everyone always says women are bad drivers, even saying someone’s driving is bad is somehow sexist — but actually, according to traffic accident statistics, I’ve seen reports clearly stating that men are actually involved in more accidents. So how exactly is saying your driving is bad a personal attack? Your driving really is bad…”

Ye Zhen’s face took on an expression like he couldn’t get through to her. This man gripped the wheel tightly and muttered rather displeasedly in a low voice: “Driving has other implications too. Though I’ve never driven before, I don’t think I’d be bad at it, because I keep up with fitness training, maintain a healthy routine and moderate diet…”

Right then, Jiang Xiaoyi received a work inquiry text from Wang Yani and wasn’t paying much attention to what Ye Zhen was muttering. While replying to Wang Yani, she absentmindedly comforted him: “Yeah, your driving will improve. It’s just something that gets better with practice.”

For once, Ye Zhen actually agreed with Jiang Xiaoyi’s view this time, nodding solemnly: “Mm, I think so too.”

Fortunately, Jiang Xiaoyi soon no longer had to endure Ye Zhen’s terrible driving, because the Bentley had finally arrived near Jiang Xiaoyi’s neighborhood.

“Stop here, stop here — if you go further in it’s alleyways, the roadsides are packed with motorcycles and bicycles, you wouldn’t even be able to turn this car around in there.”

Not that Jiang Xiaoyi needed to say it — Ye Zhen already knew this too, since he’d made do here for several nights before.

He parked nearby and, with complicated feelings, followed Jiang Xiaoyi up the familiar yet unfamiliar stairwell.

As Jiang Xiaoyi returned once more to her familiar surroundings, it felt almost surreal. The motion-sensor light was broken again as expected. Afraid of the dark, she’d just reached to pull out her phone to turn on the flashlight when a beam of light shone from behind her — Ye Zhen had turned on his phone’s flashlight first.

This man took a few quick strides to get ahead of Jiang Xiaoyi, one hand holding the phone, carefully lighting the stairs in front of her, the other hand extended toward Jiang Xiaoyi.

Jiang Xiaoyi didn’t quite react for a moment, until Ye Zhen’s voice sounded—

“Hold on.”

This man’s voice was calm and low, carrying a hint of coolness to it, yet it felt utterly natural, as if this gesture were the most ordinary thing in the world.

He paused, then, without any pressing urgency, said to Jiang Xiaoyi: “Aren’t you afraid of the dark? Hold on, so you don’t trip and fall — that would count as a work injury too, since it’s on the way home from work.”

Jiang Xiaoyi really was afraid of the dark, and didn’t put on airs about it — she immediately took Ye Zhen’s hand and let him lead her step by step up the stairs by the light.

Fortunately this stretch wasn’t long, so Jiang Xiaoyi’s flustered, nervous, uneasy feeling only lasted a brief moment. By the time they reached the door, she almost immediately let go of Ye Zhen’s hand, and sure enough discovered her heartbeat had settled back down, her emotions gradually calming.

Jiang Xiaoyi kept telling herself — Ye Zhen was just being friendly, she mustn’t let her imagination run wild!

**

Meanwhile, on his end, Ye Zhen was also working hard to steady his own emotions, beginning to survey the apartment as a distraction.

Though this wasn’t Ye Zhen’s first time entering this room, this was his first time truly seeing it as Jiang Xiaoyi’s home—

The place was still just as small, but tidy inside. Jiang Xiaoyi really did manage her life much better than he did — the furniture wasn’t new but looked decent quality, and the south-facing windowsill was crowded with lush green plants and a few easy-to-care-for flowers.

Ye Zhen couldn’t identify most of the flowers, only recognizing one — it looked like a gardenia. In the summer night, the white flowers bloomed unrestrained, their fragrance bold and unapologetic, carrying an intense scent despite the plain, simple white appearance — impossible to ignore, yet somehow ordinary too.

Ye Zhen suddenly felt this flower was a bit like Jiang Xiaoyi — she was the kind of pretty girl who didn’t fuss much over her appearance, working nine-to-five, leaving early and coming home late like any young person hustling in this city, busy and ordinary, yet once you truly stepped into her life, you’d find she had a gentleness and strength unmatched by anyone else — just like the gardenia, blooming boldly fragrant even with no one to admire it.

At this moment, this gardenia smiled at him: “Wait a moment, I’ll get you a glass of water.”

While Jiang Xiaoyi turned to go into the kitchen, Ye Zhen took the opportunity to freely look around her apartment.

Jiang Xiaoyi’s home carried a strong, warm sense of everyday life. On the old walls, she’d pasted wallpaper, and glancing up casually, Ye Zhen could see that a section which had originally been a crack had been neatly covered by a “Daily To-Do List,” densely packed with a whole list of items—

“Orchid has grown — needs repotting this weekend.”

“Get started on Wang Yani’s birthday gift!”

“Weekend big cleanup.”

“Friday downstairs supermarket anniversary 50% off sale, don’t miss it!”

“Two Ruiyi welfare movie tickets expiring in two weeks, remember to use them!”

…

Even supermarket sales made the list?

Ye Zhen couldn’t help but smile faintly, and it was right then that Jiang Xiaoyi came out carrying a glass of water.

Ye Zhen glanced up at Jiang Xiaoyi: “Is your memory really this bad now? Why do you have to write down everything?”

“When you get busy you forget things, and besides, some things might seem small, but writing them down means once you finish, you can cross them off — it feels like you’ve accomplished a big task, gives you a real sense of achievement.”

Jiang Xiaoyi handed the water to Ye Zhen: “Drink up, then we work.”

“What?”

“Aren’t you here to help me move?”

Ye Zhen couldn’t help but tease with a smile: “Aren’t you afraid I was just being polite?”

“If you knew how to be just polite, you wouldn’t be you.” Jiang Xiaoyi said, already skillfully starting to pack things up, not even looking up at Ye Zhen. “Your mouth may be sharp, but you always follow through on what you say — I know you wouldn’t lie to me.”

Ye Zhen decided to ignore the first half of what Jiang Xiaoyi said, choosing to take this part as a compliment to himself instead. He set down his glass of water and bent down to start helping Jiang Xiaoyi pack.

Because the apartment itself was so small, having too many things made it feel cramped, so Jiang Xiaoyi’s luggage wasn’t much to begin with. With Ye Zhen’s help, she quickly finished packing roughly everything, then wanted to start carrying things downstairs, but Ye Zhen stopped her—

“You stay up here.” He pressed his lips together. “I’ll carry it down.”

Jiang Xiaoyi thought — but this was her own move, and Ye Zhen was only here as a favor. If she didn’t do anything herself, wouldn’t that make her some kind of lazy overseer?

But just as Jiang Xiaoyi was about to speak, she heard Ye Zhen say, sounding quite accustomed to it: “The Male Virtue EMBA exam questions have a clear multiple-choice question about exactly this scenario. If I don’t carry it and let the woman carry it instead, that violates Male Virtue.”

He glanced calmly at Jiang Xiaoyi: “You know I put in tremendous effort practicing questions, just barely missing the honor graduation certificate — if I let myself violate this principle of Male Virtue right now, I couldn’t get past that mental hurdle.”

“…”

The lingering influence of Male Virtue was apparently this strong. Jiang Xiaoyi found herself speechless, and in the end could only watch as Ye Zhen carried all the luggage down alone, insisting on it.

By the time Ye Zhen was driving Jiang Xiaoyi and her luggage toward the Ruiyi employee dormitory, Jiang Xiaoyi still felt somewhat unreal about it all — she’d finished moving this easily, and tonight she’d get to move into her dream employee dorm?

Even though it was Jiang Xiaoyi who’d applied for the single room, Ye Zhen seemed even more eager than she was. Jiang Xiaoyi watched him deliberately take a shortcut, rushing to get her to the dormitory building as quickly as possible.

“Do you have work after this?” Jiang Xiaoyi asked, quite understanding. “If you’ve got things to do, go ahead — you’ve already helped me a ton tonight.”

“It’s not that urgent. I can help you finish moving, otherwise how would you carry everything up alone?”

Jiang Xiaoyi was about to say something when her phone rang. She looked down and felt a small surge of delight: “Wait a moment, it’s my senior.”

Since returning to this timeline, Jiang Xiaoyi had also been wanting to treat Dan Hui to a meal, to properly thank him for all his care over the years — especially since, in this timeline, Dan Hui had no ulterior feelings toward her, and things between Jiang Xiaoyi and Dan Hui here were much more relaxed.

Dan Hui was calling to check in on Jiang Xiaoyi’s recent situation, his voice still gentle and gentlemanly as always: “I remember you complained to me before about your rental not being great. A friend of mine happens to be going abroad and has a place he wants to rent out — you two know each other already, and he’s not short on money either, just wants to find someone reliable at a reasonable price…”

Dan Hui was that kind of person — gentle and always thinking of others. Jiang Xiaoyi felt quite touched. After thanking Dan Hui, she immediately told him she’d already gotten an employee dorm and was in the middle of moving.

Dan Hui paused, then offered his congratulations, and immediately, considerately, offered to help too: “Moving alone is too much trouble. I happen to be free right now — I’ll come help. Also, there’s the matter of the Fire Extinguisher Club’s expansion — I wanted to discuss it with you too.”

Since Ye Zhen had things to do, and Dan Hui also wanted to talk to her — why not…

Just as Jiang Xiaoyi was starting to waver, about to agree to Dan Hui, Ye Zhen appeared in front of her with a dark expression.

This man, looking out of breath, glared at Jiang Xiaoyi, mouthing words at her to convey a message—

“I. Already. Finished. Moving!”

Jiang Xiaoyi paused, looked behind Ye Zhen, and discovered her luggage really had all been moved already!

Though there hadn’t been much compared to other people’s moves, it was still a full move — Ye Zhen had finished this fast, had he been running? Was he like some grade schooler racing to finish a chore before someone else could steal the credit?

But now there was no need to trouble anyone else. Jiang Xiaoyi thanked Dan Hui again and declined his offer.

Seeing Jiang Xiaoyi hang up the phone, Ye Zhen’s expression finally eased a bit, though this man still looked quite unhappy: “Jiang Xiaoyi, do you look down on me? On the way here you attacked my driving skills, and now that I’m still alive and well, you go find a backup to help you move? What does that mean? You think I don’t have the stamina?”

“You started moving things the moment I picked up the phone call?”

Ye Zhen nodded: “Of course. You’ve been forcing me to work out even after work — I’ve got eight-pack abs now, moving some luggage is nothing. You should know, how a person spends their free time determines what kind of life they get in return. Your senior — someone like that probably doesn’t go to the gym after work either. If you’d invited him over, he wouldn’t have made it through one trip before throwing out his back, and in the end not only would your move not be done, you’d have to rush him to the hospital for his back and pay his medical bills. Is that necessary?”

“…” Fine…

Then Ye Zhen got even more worked up: “Jiang Xiaoyi, what’s that expression? You don’t believe I have eight-pack abs? If you really don’t believe me, I can show you.”

Jiang Xiaoyi hastily waved her hands: “I believe you, I believe you. Anyway, thanks so much for tonight, Ye Zhen, you’re seriously amazing!”

“Of course I am. You should know, since coming back I’ve had a mountain of business matters piling up — right now I even have an international conference call waiting for me.”

“Then you should go handle that quickly!”

Jiang Xiaoyi understood well how important and grueling international conference calls could be — with the time difference on the European and American partners’ side, if this call didn’t go smoothly, Ye Zhen’s sleep tonight would be completely wrecked.

But this man, who had just been complaining about how busy he was, now visibly looked unhappy again: “So you’re kicking me to the curb the moment you’ve used me up? I worked this hard, and you won’t even invite me up for a cup of tea?”

“Didn’t you say you had an international conference call…”

Ye Zhen’s expression darkened: “I’m the boss. I decide when meetings happen.”

“…” Jiang Xiaoyi felt Ye Zhen’s boss-complex seemed to be flaring up again — or, to put it more precisely, ever since Ye Zhen took his Male Virtue training, had his emotions become even more fragile and volatile overall?

But regardless, Jiang Xiaoyi knew that though Ye Zhen’s mouth could be sharp, he wasn’t a bad person at heart. He’d been busy working hard half the night — inviting him up for a cup of tea was only natural: “Then come up for some tea.”

Jiang Xiaoyi had packed her electric kettle to bring along too, though boiling water might take a bit of time.

But after she said this, Ye Zhen thought about it, frowned, and didn’t follow Jiang Xiaoyi upstairs after all.

This man stopped again: “Never mind, I won’t go up tonight.”

“?”

“Jiang Xiaoyi, it’s not appropriate for you to invite a man up to your place late at night.”

“…” Jiang Xiaoyi was speechless. Wasn’t Ye Zhen himself the one who’d asked to go up for tea?! And now he was moralizing about it, planning to attack her for not being careful about avoiding suspicion?

Before Jiang Xiaoyi could even protest, she heard Ye Zhen continue calmly: “It’s fine for you to invite me up — but if I actually went up at a time like this, that wouldn’t be very in line with Male Virtue.”

Ye Zhen cleared his throat and added, all naturally: “You should know, a man who agrees to go up and sit around at a time like this definitely isn’t a proper man, definitely not good goods — you need to learn to tell the difference. A good man is like me, someone who proactively avoids suspicion and declines. Of course, ideally, you shouldn’t extend this kind of invitation in the future at all. And just now, I wasn’t really trying to go up for tea — I was just testing your attitude.”

Jiang Xiaoyi was practically speechless. This man was so pedantic! And here he was, baiting her to test her again!

“Then didn’t you want to go check out the Ruiyi employee dormitory conditions?”

Ye Zhen nodded.

“Then why don’t you take this chance to go up and see it?” Jiang Xiaoyi glanced at Ye Zhen. “Don’t worry, I certainly don’t invite just anyone up to sit around — it’s because I trust your character enough.”

At these words, Ye Zhen’s expression finally looked a bit better, but he still declined Jiang Xiaoyi’s invitation: “I definitely need to go check the dormitory conditions, but there’s plenty of time for that. Tonight I won’t go — it’s gotten pretty late, I don’t want to disturb your rest. I’ll come by earlier tomorrow night instead.”

Ye Zhen thought about it as if casually: “My parents happen to be going abroad on vacation tomorrow morning, and I don’t have any dinner engagements either. I’ll have a simple meal at the company cafeteria tomorrow evening, then come over here to check out the dormitory conditions.”

“Then just come eat here directly.” Jiang Xiaoyi said almost without thinking. “Tonight was supposed to be my treat, but you rushed to pay the bill instead — so don’t mind coming here tomorrow night for a home-cooked meal instead.”

“Sure.” Jiang Xiaoyi had expected Ye Zhen to decline, but unexpectedly this man agreed faster than anything. He glanced at Jiang Xiaoyi: “Both to celebrate your move, and to save some money too — eating out at restaurants all the time, home-cooked food is actually healthier.”

“If there’s anything you’d like to eat, we can go to the supermarket together tomorrow after work. You paid for my cooking lessons for so long before — my skills have actually improved quite a bit. Tomorrow we can take turns cooking, so you don’t have to work too hard.”

…

After Ye Zhen left, Jiang Xiaoyi still felt somewhat unreal about it all — Ye Zhen really had changed so much!

Truly worthy of someone who’d personally been through capitalist beatdowns and Male Virtue enlightenment — though his mouth could still occasionally be a bit sharp, and his moods still swung unpredictably at times, he’d genuinely transformed from a selfish boss-complex jerk into someone this gentle and considerate!