“President Liang, could you extend your leg?”

Secretary Xiao Zhou came over and crouched down to help Liang Meng change her shoes.

Liang Meng glanced down at her and frowned.

“Get up.”

“It’s fine, President Liang. It’s only just past two months.” Xiao Zhou looked up, a little flustered.

“I’m paying to hire you — not whatever is in your belly.”

Liang Meng used her gaze to command her to stand, then bent down herself and switched from her golf shoes to her black heels.

“Have you found your replacement yet?” Liang Meng asked offhandedly.

“Yes, I have. A graduate from a 985 university — mathematics major.”

Xiao Zhou flipped open her work diary and pulled out a resume to hand to Liang Meng.

“Lin Qing?” Liang Meng took the resume and fanned herself with it indifferently, then tossed it aside. “The name is easy enough to remember.”

Xiao Zhou pressed her lips together, uncertain whether Liang Meng was satisfied or not.

“Doesn’t matter. Have her fill in for you for a year — once you’ve had the baby, come back promptly.”

Liang Meng pivoted on her slender heels, turning back to her chair on her fine ankles, and resumed looking at the reports.

“President Liang…”

This time, Xiao Zhou didn’t make a discreet exit. Instead she lingered, hesitating.

She stood with her hands at her sides and her head lowered, still beside Liang Meng, as though she had something to say.

“Speak.”

Liang Meng turned her head impatiently — she hated it when the people around her dragged things out.

“President Liang, I might…” Xiao Zhou struggled with herself again and again. “I might not come back after having the baby.”

“Oh?” Liang Meng raised an eyebrow. “Married into a wealthy family?”

Xiao Zhou had been with Liang Meng for nearly two years.

Outside of work, Liang Meng rarely paid attention to other people’s personal affairs.

Xiao Zhou was plain-looking, conscientious and diligent at work, but only did what she was told — she didn’t have a gift for reading the room and going beyond.

A standard workplace cog.

Liang Meng tapped the desk lightly with one slender fingernail and looked at Xiao Zhou.

Her expression didn’t look particularly joyful — if anything, it seemed tinged with a faint heaviness.

“Having the child outside of wedlock?” Liang Meng ventured, and unexpectedly hit the mark.

Xiao Zhou turned a furious shade of red with great effort and gave a small nod.

“And you still want to resign?”

Liang Meng stood, walked up to Xiao Zhou, and without the least bit of hesitation, jabbed a fingernail into Xiao Zhou’s chest. It stung.

“Has your brain gone soft? No man, no job, no income — are you going to feed that child with the northwest wind?”

Xiao Zhou had been poked straight in her rawest wound.

All her pent-up grievances came pouring out at once, dissolving in tears that spilled from her eyes under Liang Meng’s sharp and overbearing criticism.

“That’s enough! Don’t come crying in front of me — looking at it just puts me in a bad mood.”

Liang Meng exhaled with distaste and sat back down heavily, somewhat displeased.

“Go do your work. As for the resignation — consider it unsaid. Finish your maternity leave, hire a nanny, and come back to work.”

But Xiao Zhou didn’t leave. She forcefully wiped away her tears, then summoned her courage again and faced Liang Meng. “President Liang! Thank you for the kind thought. But I…”

Liang Meng glared at her sharply, willing her to be quiet.

She was genuinely losing her patience now.

Liang Meng didn’t discriminate against children born out of wedlock — but she had no patience for anyone ruled by their heart at the expense of their head.

“President Liang, I’m giving my notice next month. Once I’ve completed the handover, I genuinely won’t be coming back.”

With that said, Xiao Zhou raised her head.

“You’re right — raising a child requires money. But since I’ve decided to bring this life into the world, I’ll raise it well, and raise it responsibly. A child’s need for presence and companionship in their early years outweighs money.”

A child’s need for presence and companionship outweighs money.

The words came back like a boomerang and struck Liang Meng squarely.

The shadow of her family’s wounds descended upon her in an instant.

Sealed-away memories suddenly began to assault her with frantic force.

When Liang Meng was small, her parents were consumed with running their business and rarely spent time with her.

More often than not, they left her in the care of Liang Xing, her older sister — not even a blood relation.

And Jiang Han, the chauffeur’s son.

The three of them would play without a care in the little amusement park for an entire afternoon. No one was watching. No one came.

That kind of “free-range” freedom came to an abrupt end the year Liang Meng turned eight, when her parents died.

Her parents had left early, and there had been no presence to accompany her childhood.

So much so that even now, Liang Meng’s understanding and impression of the word “parents” remained vague and formless.

“President Liang, I didn’t mean to…” Xiao Zhou knew about Liang Meng’s history and realized she had said something wrong.

Liang Meng paused for a moment, then casually opened the company’s internal system.

“Since you’ve already made up your mind, I respect your decision.”

Liang Meng’s tone was flat, and she processed the application in a few swift clicks.

“But remember — it’s not that you’re resigning from me. It’s that I’m letting you go.”

Xiao Zhou felt a twinge of regret for having said too much and unsettled Liang Meng.

Even though this boss of hers had a hair-trigger temper and flew into inexplicable rages at the drop of a hat — she’d long since grown used to it.

But today’s words — she truly hadn’t meant them as “mentioning legs in front of someone with a disability.”

And Liang Meng wouldn’t go so far as to actually dismiss her over a single careless remark.

In the next instant, Xiao Zhou realized with a start — Liang Meng was helping her!

If she resigned of her own accord during her pregnancy, she’d receive nothing.

But if Liang Meng let her go now, any company that failed to pay adequate compensation would have a very hard time clearing its name at the labor board.

That money was enough to sustain Xiao Zhou and the child in her belly for three full years!

“Clatter!”

Xiao Zhou’s phone slipped from her hands to the floor in her agitation.

She reached up to Liang Meng helplessly: “President Liang, my phone fell on the ground. Could you pick it up for me?”

Taking advantage of her pregnancy, Xiao Zhou wanted to see — in this final moment — whether the imperious and insufferable young President Liang would bend down to pick up a phone for a secretary who was practically already gone.

After all, for the past two years, she had been the one crouching down to change shoes, running every errand front and back, washing and ironing clothes, organizing documents — every ounce of her time and energy poured into serving the woman before her.

Every thought and action had circled around Liang Meng’s needs.

No one is born loving to serve others.

Liang Meng hadn’t noticed anything unusual, and thinking of Xiao Zhou’s condition, she bent down to pick it up without a second thought.

But in the very instant she straightened up, she noticed that Xiao Zhou’s phone screen was facing upward — and already unlocked.

On the screen was a WeChat conversation, and the name at the top of the chat read: “Elder President Liang — Liang Xing.”

Liang Meng couldn’t help but stand up straighter, and right in front of Xiao Zhou, began reading the conversation.

At the same moment, a cold chill began spreading down her spine!

The entire screen was filled with Xiao Zhou’s reports to Liang Xing about her movements and activities!

Every few days — every action, every step — laid out clearly, completely, at a glance!

Liang Meng was so stunned her hand flew unconsciously to cover her own mouth!

She stared at Xiao Zhou with eyes full of disbelief!

So she had been her sister’s person all along!

These two years, Xiao Zhou had appeared to be loyally and dutifully attending to Liang Meng’s every need without exception — but all the while she had been carrying out a dual mission as a spy and a shadow.

When had she turned to her sister’s side?

Or had she always been her sister’s plant from the very beginning?

Liang Meng didn’t dare to think on it further.

Xiao Zhou quietly withdrew her phone, said “thank you,” and turned to leave.

Liang Meng had done her one favor.

That debt — Xiao Zhou, as a fellow worker, repaid it on the spot.

From this point on, neither owed the other anything. The world of the rivers and lakes would forget them both.

After Xiao Zhou left, Liang Meng slumped into her chair and couldn’t come back to herself for a long time.

So that meant — from the moment Liang Meng returned to Longquan to work, her sister had known even how many cups of milk tea she drank each day?!

And what about Jiang Han?

Did Jiang Han know that her sister had placed someone in her inner circle?

Liang Meng’s hand trembled as she reached for her phone to call Jiang Han.

But the very instant the voice call was about to connect, she regretted it and immediately killed the screen!

They were already married — Liang Meng still hadn’t seen the marriage certificate with her own eyes, but the two of them were absolutely on the same side.

Faced with this situation, after a long while, Liang Meng rallied her composure.

She reached out and picked up Lin Qing’s resume, which had been so carelessly tossed aside moments ago, and dialed the phone number listed on it.

The subsequent steps were no longer something she could leave to the HR department.

Just thinking about the fact that Xiao Zhou had been brought in through HR recruitment made Liang Meng’s chest tighten and her throat constrict — as though something were caught there.

“Is this Lin Qing?”

“Yes, speaking.”

When the call connected, Lin Qing was accompanying her mother in the town square, doing group exercise routines.

The scene was, to put it plainly, like firecrackers and gongs going off all at once.

It was the kind of place where you couldn’t hear anything, and holding a conversation required shouting.

“This is Liang Meng.”

“Who?! Who are you — looking for?!~~”

Lin Qing didn’t catch the name “Liang Meng,” but she had heard “Longquan Group” clearly.

She immediately waved at her mother, who was twisting away energetically beside her, and dashed toward a quieter spot.

“President Liang, hello! This is Lin Qing speaking.”

The chaotic phone call didn’t leave Liang Meng with a particularly good first impression of Lin Qing.

“Come for your interview tomorrow at three in the afternoon. President’s Office, Longquan Group — someone will meet you at the door.”

With that, Liang Meng ended the call.

Liang Meng’s own first impression — to Lin Qing — was equally arrogant.

The entire tone communicated: come if you want, don’t if you don’t; talent is plentiful; you being one more or one less makes no difference.

But Lin Qing had nothing to complain about and nothing to be particular about. For a major corporation like Longquan to give her a direct interview — it was already a remarkable stroke of luck.

Lin Qing felt at once grateful that a great deal of hassle had been cut out, and faintly uneasy — the urgency of the hiring suggested there might be a catch, some kind of trap.

There was every chance the previous employee had left things on bad terms, and they were scrambling for someone to take over.

Lin Qing squeezed her phone tightly, standing perfectly still as wave after wave of “colorful banners flying” swept past her.

“Qing! Qing-er! What are you standing there for?! Come dance!”

Her mother’s cheeks were flushed a rosy pink, her red silk sash swirling through the air with vigor — the very image of a bygone production brigade.

A few older men followed behind her.

Lin Qing smiled and shook her head. Her mother was at that age, unmarried and living alone — in the small town’s senior matchmaking scene, she’d apparently become quite a catch.

“Just the one daughter — once she’s married off, nothing left to worry about.” The matchmaker’s words.

Lin Qing was no small contributor to her mother’s popularity.

Barley porridge again at noon.

The day before, when Lin Qing had first arrived home, her mother had made a show of cooking a proper spread of meat and fish.

Today, she had reverted without ceremony back to her baseline.

Lin Qing found herself thinking — during all those years she’d been away studying, her mother probably came home from the square each day and “made do” exactly like this.

Her heart ached a little. And at the same time, she couldn’t quite bring herself to say it outright — to tell her mother that Longquan had just notified her to be there tomorrow.

“Mom, are you secretly hoping I’ll go away?” Lin Qing pointed at the barley porridge on the table and asked with a probing smile. “If that’s all you’re going to feed me, I’ll have to head back tomorrow.”

“Then go!” Her mother answered with breezy efficiency. She had no intention of indulging Lin Qing’s little habits.

“All right! I’ll start packing in a bit.”

Lin Qing said nothing more after that and buried her head in the porridge.

Seeing this, her mother panicked. “Are you serious?”

Lin Qing didn’t respond.

Her mother was immediately flustered!

She set down her spoon. “If you don’t want porridge, then don’t have it! Come on — I’ll get money right now and we’ll go out for a proper meal!”

“No, no.” Lin Qing held back her rising mother and told her the truth. “Mom, Longquan Group has called me in for a final round interview tomorrow. If it goes through, I might start work right away.”

“This soon?”

“Yes! The winter break is definitely off — and it’s possible I won’t even make it back for the New Year.”

“Not even for the New Year?!” Her mother’s mouth fell open. “Are you going to work, or going to prison?!”

“Mom, do you know what a personal assistant does? Those big bosses are even busier over the New Year — more engagements, more socializing.” Lin Qing explained.

Her mother went quiet for a long time.

She truly was reluctant to see her daughter go off and endure this kind of hardship.

“Qing, tell your mother the truth.”

Her mother settled down, her expression growing gentle, and asked Lin Qing one question in a measured, earnest voice.

“The reason you’re so set on taking this job as a servant — is it because of my illness?”