From childhood until now, Ji Ran had never once opened his mouth to ask for anything.
His parents had repeatedly told him how difficult life was and how hard earned every bit of money was, forcing Ji Ran to become an adult far earlier than he should have.
His parents were more than happy with this.
There was hardly a parent in the world who wouldn’t like a child who was obedient, well behaved and easy to take care of.
But children were naturally born with needs.
They needed food and drink, needed to sleep and use the bathroom, needed to explore the world and, most importantly, needed their parents’ love.
What people called being “well behaved,” “obedient,” and “easy to raise” was, in reality, simply the subjective suppression of one’s own needs.
Ji Ran once again remembered the time when he had been under overwhelming pressure from work and had called his father.
At the time, he had not yet become Han Shen’s subordinate. He had been working for a PM in the equity financing department.
The assignments Feng Sheng gave its management trainees were already extremely demanding. Even with his formal work alone, Ji Ran often had to work until midnight, let alone the private errands he was expected to handle for his superior.
Picking up packages, buying coffee and even walking his boss’s dog and picking up his boss’s child…
The first time Ji Ran seriously thought about resigning was when his supervisor lent him out to another department and had him handle another superior’s personal errands as well.
At the time, Ji Ran already had an offer from another company. However, the salary wasn’t as high as what Feng Sheng offered and he couldn’t make up his mind.
So he called his father and told him about the situation.
But Ji Ran quickly regretted that decision.
“Your supervisor thinks highly of you. You need to perform well.”
“There’s nothing you can do about it. Everyone has to put up with these things. Just endure it for a while and it’ll pass.”
“Isn’t this the path you chose yourself? Back then, I told you to come back and take the civil service exam but you refused.”
“How can you be so incapable of enduring hardship? It’s perfectly normal for work to be stressful. Who doesn’t have pressure at work? Back when I was working on construction sites, I had to work outside in the wind and sun every single day…”
Ji Ran hung up the phone.
Throughout Ji Ran’s childhood and adolescence, his father had always been absent.
Even when Ji Ran took the initiative to approach him, it seemed to trigger only a handful of predetermined responses, as though his father were nothing more than an NPC running on a prewritten program.
“I don’t know. Go ask your mother.”
“If our family hadn’t been poor back then, I would’ve gone to university too.”
“What do you know? Listen to me. This is how it has to be done.”
“I sold everything I could and scraped together every last bit of money to put you through university. Now I can finally enjoy life.”
And yet, paradoxically, while his father had been absent, he had also been authoritarian and domineering.
He was like the sky hanging over their small family and even the few moments when he happened to take an interest in disciplining Ji Ran had been enough to make him suffer terribly.
As for his mother…
That night, not long after Ji Ran hung up on his father, he received a message from his mother.
“Go apologize to your supervisor and make amends. Don’t make him angry.”
“Your dad is worried about you too. You even hung up on him and he’s heartbroken. Go apologize to him later.”
“Your younger brother isn’t good at math or English. His teacher says he needs to attend tutoring classes. Transfer next month’s money ahead of time.”
A powerful sense of suffocation washed over Ji Ran.
He understood that his parents were only ordinary people and he knew very well that their lives were not easy either.
But…
But…
Ji Ran once again remembered himself trying on the suit in the tailor shop.
Wearing a suit made for someone else, he had looked composed and confident, almost like one of those children born into happy families and raised with love and care.
He looked polished and impressive on the outside.
Only he knew how terrible the real him was underneath it all.
Ji Ran returned to his rented apartment and took out his keys to unlock the security door.
It was a two bedroom apartment but the living room and dining room had been partitioned off and converted into a four person shared residence.
Beyond the door was a narrow hallway with no windows and very poor lighting.
Ji Ran lived in a bedroom that had been partitioned off from the dining area. It was less than ten square meters in size yet even so, the monthly rent was frighteningly close to three thousand yuan.
Other people might have thought his living conditions were miserable.
But this was already the most comfortable living environment Ji Ran had possessed in his entire twenty years of life.
For the first time, this was a home that belonged completely to him.
After entering his room, Ji Ran sat on the bed for a while.
Then he opened the wardrobe and took out the JK uniform.
The washed skirt carried a faint, clean fragrance. Ji Ran ran his fingers over the sharp pleats of the hem and a strange sense of tranquility slowly rose within him.
This wasn’t the same outfit that had been mistakenly taken at the company before.
Afraid that someone might recognize it, Ji Ran had returned that one and exchanged it for another design.
He was 176 centimeters tall but because he was light and small framed, the customer service representative had recommended a size M after taking everything into consideration.
Even so, it was still too large.
The waistband hung loosely around his waist, with enough room to almost fit an entire palm inside.
Ji Ran placed his phone on the table, opened the front facing camera and pressed the record button.
He wasn’t accustomed to taking photographs and every time he stood in front of a camera, his entire body became stiff and awkward. Ji Ran knew perfectly well that he had this problem and he had no intention of putting on a proper performance. He simply filmed himself randomly, taking one shot after another and planned to sort through the footage afterward and pick out whatever material was useful.
Unexpectedly, he actually managed to capture something worthwhile.
In the dimly lit room, the boy’s body fell backward onto the bed. Beneath the hem of the skirt was a pair of long, straight legs, giving the impression that someone had pushed him down and leaving just enough to stir the imagination…
Ji Ran then recorded another shot wearing a suit, intending to edit the two scenes into a transformation video.
During a previous internship, he had worked in new media operations and had learned the basics of photography and video editing. It didn’t take him long to cut everything together into a short video that was only a little over ten seconds long.
His face never appeared throughout the entire video and the image quality wasn’t particularly high definition either. However, it made up for that with an exceptionally strong atmosphere and there was even a certain sense of narrative to it.
Ji Ran was fairly satisfied with the result.
His computer was a little sluggish, though, which made him spend considerably more time editing than he otherwise would have.
After checking several times to make absolutely sure that he hadn’t exposed any personal information, Ji Ran opened his social media account and uploaded the video.
@There’sNoWayToWorkWithoutGoingCrazy:
[Video] Forget it. You definitely won’t like watching this.
#BoysInWomensClothing
……….
The weekend passed and another busy week followed.
Han Shen was an extremely busy superior who frequently flew all over the world and rarely spent much time at the company yet even when he wasn’t physically there, he still had to handle all kinds of matters, large and small, within the company.
He had several work assistants and Ji Ran also had to submit a weekly report to him every week, reporting on the progress of the project.
Reporting work to Han Shen was not an easy task.
His standards were strict and he was exceptionally perceptive. The slightest mistake would be noticed by him, singled out and sent back to be redone.
Every time Ji Ran submitted anything, he would check it over and over again, not daring to show the slightest bit of negligence.
At six in the evening that day, Ji Ran sent his weekly report to Han Shen.
A message suddenly popped up in the lower left corner of his screen from his gaming group. Jiang Ning was calling him to come online and play.
Ji Ran had a small group of friends he regularly played games with. They often made plans to get online together but ever since he had started his internship at Feng Sheng, it had been a very long time since he had touched a game.
Today, however, it seemed he might actually be able to leave work on time.
Ji Ran agreed to come online that evening, packed up his bag and left work.
Unexpectedly, just as he reached the elevator, Han Shen came out with an assistant, both of them looking as though they had just rushed back from somewhere.
Han Shen was wearing a very formal double breasted suit with a dark gray cashmere coat draped over it. The cold air from outside seemed to cling to him, making his entire appearance look even more stern and imposing.
Ji Ran instinctively straightened and stepped aside to clear a path.
Han Shen walked forward without looking sideways. When he passed Ji Ran, however, he paused for a second and said, “Come to my office.”
Ji Ran: “…”
He knew it.
There was no way he was going to get off work that easily.
Ji Ran returned to his workstation, took his laptop and headed to Han Shen’s office.
But someone had already gone in before him.
Han Shen had apparently just returned from abroad and there were a great many matters piled up waiting for him. One person after another came to report their work.
Ji Ran waited for more than an hour.
The friends in his gaming group began calling for him again. Feeling somewhat apologetic, Ji Ran told them that he had suddenly been asked to work overtime and would be late getting back online.
Another half hour passed.
The people finally cleared out of Han Shen’s office and Ji Ran finally found an opportunity to go inside.
“Samuel, you wanted to see me?”
Han Shen had removed his suit jacket and was sitting behind his computer. His shirt and vest fit closely against his body, outlining his full, broad chest. There wasn’t the slightest trace of fatigue on his face.
He lowered his head to look at the documents beside him without looking up.
“I want this week’s project progress.”
Ji Ran reminded him, “I sent the weekly report to your email.”
Han Shen said, “Report it directly.”
Ji Ran: “…”
Recalling the contents of his weekly report, Ji Ran repeated everything verbally.
Han Shen gave him no response.
Ji Ran couldn’t figure out what his superior was thinking but he didn’t want to stay there any longer, so he asked Han Shen, “Can I leave now?”
“No.”
Han Shen raised his eyes, his tone perfectly calm.
“Come back after you’re prepared.”
Ji Ran: “…”
%*@#￥#￥&
He was seriously about to start swearing.
What difference was there between reading a weekly report and listening to it?
Once it was submitted, there was a good chance no one would even read the thing yet Han Shen still expected him to stand there and report it over and over again?
Ji Ran left the office with a dark expression.
He really wasn’t good at speaking in front of people but Han Shen was very obviously making things difficult for him on purpose.
Ji Ran took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
First, he revised the overly formal wording in his weekly report. Then he went over the contents of his presentation repeatedly in his head, rehearsing the entire thing again and again.
Throughout this period, people kept entering and leaving Han Shen’s office.
It wasn’t until an hour later that Ji Ran finally found another opportunity.
He had just knocked on the door when a VP came over and said that he had something urgent to discuss with Han Shen.
Ji Ran could only let the VP go in first and return to his workstation to continue preparing.
By the time Ji Ran finished practicing, there was no longer any sound coming from the office.
He pushed open the door, only to discover that Han Shen was gone too.
He came back out and asked Asher, who was still working overtime, “Where’s Samuel?”
Asher replied, “He just left. Did you need him for something?”
“He left?”
Ji Ran looked stunned.
“But he told me to report my weekly report to him.”
“Weekly report?”
Asher scratched at his messy, disheveled curls, looking equally confused.
While Han Shen had been away on his business trip, most of the company’s affairs had been handled by Asher in his place. Asher had also stayed up late for several nights in a row, gradually transforming from an elegant Italian Chinese man into something resembling a scruffy little puppy.
Asher swore under his breath before looking up at Ji Ran.
“Send the weekly report to me. You can go home for now.”
“Go home?”
Ji Ran seemed almost unable to believe what he was hearing.
“I can leave work?”
“Go back.”
Asher softened his tone and spoke in a reassuringly reliable manner.
“Get some rest early tonight. Look at those dark circles under your eyes.”
Ji Ran felt a little moved.
After being squeezed dry by Han Shen for so long, it had been a very long time since he had experienced this kind of warm, simple kindness.
“Don’t take it to heart.”
Asher explained to him, “Samuel’s just too busy. He wasn’t deliberately targeting you.”
He wasn’t deliberately targeting him?
Then why had he insisted on making Ji Ran give the report verbally over and over again?
And why, after Ji Ran had spent several hours preparing, had he simply left without saying anything?
Ji Ran walked out of the Feng Sheng building with a cold expression.
On the subway, he ordered another set of women’s clothing.
Five days had already passed since he uploaded his last video. During that time, Ji Ran had been busy with work and writing his thesis and he hadn’t had any free time to check his social media account.
On the way home, Ji Ran opened the newly registered alternate account.
He had assumed that only a few dozen people would watch the video. However, the moment he opened his profile, countless notifications came flooding in.
The video had received hundreds of thousands of likes, while both the comments and collections had surpassed ten thousand. Even the account’s follower count had shot up by more than ten thousand.
[What is this heavenly blessing!!! I’m eating this up, I’m eating it all up.]
[An absolute masterpiece!!! How did I not know there was a beauty like this in the harem?]
[LMAO, dressing up as a woman to go to work. You can tell the blogger has genuinely lost it.]
[Is this the first time you’ve done something suggestive, blogger? So cute. There’s this awkward, inexperienced feeling, like it’s your first time stepping into the profession.]
[He’s being so restrained, so hazy, so shy about it but he’s seriously adorable! AAAAAH, I love this so much! Please give us more, more, more!]
Countless words of encouragement and praise from complete strangers appeared before Ji Ran’s eyes. He read through the comment section again and again, unable to stop his eyes from reddening.
As he continued scrolling, Ji Ran noticed one particular word appearing with unusual frequency.
[Checking in! Orca Teacher’s sightseeing group!!]
[Orca sightseeing group +1]
[First time seeing Orca DaDa like an influencer. As expected, this really is a masterpiece.]
[Who is Orca?]
Ji Ran asked in the comments.
[DaDa, you really don’t know? Orca is one of the absolute TOP big shots among male beauty bloggers!]
[His body is insanely good and his voice and overall aura are amazing too. He’s my favorite cyber Daddy!]
[The only regret is that he never shows his face but Orca posted a photo showing just his chin many years ago and he was super handsome.]
[@The real Orca is right here. Welcome, DaDa, to the rabbit hole.]
A major influencer like that had actually liked his video?
Ji Ran was a little curious. He clicked on the ID and entered the account’s homepage.
More than ten million followers.
The profile picture showed the man from behind. The entire homepage was filled with an extravagant, expensive looking aesthetic, so luxurious that it resembled an upgraded, high end version of one of those Northern Myanmar pig butchering scams.
Most of Orca’s videos featured him in suits. Even his captions were incredibly simple, as though he had casually typed whatever came to mind: business attire, formalwear, overcoats…
He occasionally wore sportswear as well, posting videos of niche sports such as fencing and rugby.
Regardless of the type of video, Orca never showed his face, nor did he often strip down to sell his looks.
The boldest video he had ever posted was one of him swimming. He seemed to transform into a sleek, powerful fish, swimming effortlessly across half the length of the pool in a single breath. Ji Ran couldn’t swim but according to the comments, the move was extremely difficult and required mastery of four different swimming strokes to achieve it.
The entire video had been filmed underwater. The pale blue pool water seemed to act like a layer of soft focus filter, giving Orca’s body the sculptural quality of a statue. Every muscle was perfectly defined, each one balanced just right, radiating both strength and beauty.
Ji Ran finally understood why Orca had so many followers.
A handsome, successful, sophisticated, emotionally stable mature man, he was practically the ideal partner specifically designed for East Asian children to dream about.
But to Ji Ran, that kind of man was an even more terrifying form of psychological anesthesia than a Northern Myanmar pig butchering scam.
Because there was no such thing as a perfect, flawless man in this world. There was certainly no man at the top who would gently guide you, encourage you, tell you that he loved you unconditionally and, on top of all that, happen to share exactly the same preferences as you and even be willing to play little games together to deepen your relationship.
And there was one more thing that particularly bothered Ji Ran. Perhaps it was only his imagination but he couldn’t shake the feeling that Orca and Han Shen were somewhat alike.
Their clothing styles were similar. Their habitual movements were similar. Even the subtle sense of control hidden beneath their outward behavior was almost identical.
Ji Ran had no idea why Orca had liked his video but he didn’t particularly care either. He had no intention of getting to know the man.
He already had one father at home and another father at the company. He really didn’t want to go online only to have someone else play the role of his father there, too.
Ji Ran returned to Orca’s homepage and chose to block the account.
✦ ✧ ✦
Cressilia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
A little coffee for the person who made these words happen? (｡•́‿•̀｡)
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · A cold-hearted bossChapter 2 · “Your skirt?”Chapter 3 · Ji Ran was caught off guardChapter 4 · Relax, you bit your lip until it bledChapter 5 · Don’t want toChapter 6 · Women’s clothing and DaddyChapter 7 · Ji Ran hunched over and began to sob softly.Chapter 8 · Rebellion, offense, and self-rewardChapter 9 · I hate it when people flaunt their wealth in front of meChapter 10 · CompensateChapter 11 · Why are you following me?Chapter 12 · Damn, he forgot to take off his leg chainChapter 13 · Ji Ran was indeed still afraid of him.Chapter 14 · A message came from OrcaChapter 15 · Self-blame, anger, and tears.Chapter 16 · You have to pay more!Chapter 17 · Did you come here just to yell at me?Chapter 18 · Just bear with it a little longerChapter 19 · Women’s clothing live streamChapter 20 · Could you come and pick me up?Chapter 21 Part 1 · It’s all an actChapter 21 Part 2 · It’s all an actChapter 22 · The actions could be even more brutalChapter 23 · A slapChapter 24 · He wanted to surrender a part of himself