Jiang You officially commenced her schizophrenic lifestyle.
At the company, she was just an unremarkable team leader under President Wen, whose proposal got torn to shreds, yet she still had to nod, bow, and say, “You are completely right.” At home, she was a nominal partner, obligated to strictly confine all contact within the boundaries of the agreement.
Being chewed out at the office was miserable enough; she did not want to be looked down upon by her sugar-mommy wife at home as well.
During the afternoon all-staff meeting, Wen Shaonian sat at the head of the table reviewing the proposals, her fingers turning the pages one by one. The conference room was so quiet that only the friction of paper could be heard.
When she flipped to Jiang You’s page, she accidentally creased the entire sheet with a sharp fold.
“Snap.”
The proposal was closed shut.
Everyone in the conference room shrank their necks, holding their breaths so lightly it was barely audible.
“The data model for the Lingxi patch was modified for three days, and this is what you came up with?” Wen Shaonian raised her head, her gaze locking precisely onto Jiang You’s face. “Team Leader Jiang, tell me what you were doing these past three days.”
Jiang You sat in her chair, her back stiff and rigid.
Her heart was panicking like crazy, but her expression remained steady as a dog, or at least, she hoped she looked steady as a dog. She placed both hands on her knees and pinched herself, her voice sounding reasonably composed when she spoke: “President Wen, I was optimizing the core algorithm, and the next version will readjust the substrate plan.”
Wen Shaonian looked at her, the conference room as silent as a morgue.
After a few long seconds, Wen Shaonian pushed the proposal back, her knuckles tapping against the cover.
“I want to see the new version in three days. If it is still at this level, I will directly replace the person in charge of the Lingxi patch project.”
“Understood, President Wen.”
Jiang You still looked calm on the surface. With a peculiar expression, Wen Shaonian glanced at her before coldly rising to her feet.
“Meeting adjourned.”
With those words, Wen Shaonian took the lead and walked out of the conference room, prompting everyone else to finally release their pent-up breaths.
Jiang You dared to be angry without daring to speak out, walking out despondently with her head hanging low while silently complaining in her heart that her boss was not human.
Xiao Lin chased after her from behind, lowering her voice to hiss, “Team Leader, did you offend President Wen? Why is she only staring you down and chewing you out? Did you read Old Zhao’s proposal? It is so trashy I wanted to rewrite it for him, but President Wen just glanced at it and let it pass!”
“Maybe… I am just more conspicuous.”
“I am afraid it is not that simple.” Old Zhao also hurried over from behind, still holding his thermos cup. “I looked at your proposal, and it is nowhere near as bad as she made it out to be. She is simply picking bones in an egg, deliberately trying to find fault with you.”
Xiao Lin nodded frantically. “Yes, yes, yes! I feel like President Wen is specifically targeting you. Be honest, Team Leader, did you offend her in the past? Did you steal her parking spot? Did you secretly drink her coffee in the pantry?”
Looking at Xiao Lin’s face, which was practically plastered with gossipy eagerness, Jiang You almost blurted out the truth.
She had not offended Wen Shaonian; she had actually registered a marriage certificate with her.
Every single day when she came home, she had to sit at the very same table with that person for dinner, watching with her own eyes as Wen Shaonian buttoned her shirt all the way to the top collar, her eyelashes casting tiny shadows beneath her eyes whenever she looked down at her tablet. She did not even dare to look too much, terrified that she would not be able to control her expression, as just a couple of extra glances last time had nearly caused her to poke her own nose with her chopsticks.
“Stop talking nonsense,” Jiang You lowered her voice. “President Wen deals with matters rather than individuals, and she simply has very high standards.”
Xiao Lin rolled her eyes. “Team Leader, you really are a corporate slave to the core, still speaking up for her after getting chewed out like that.”
Jiang You returned to her workstation, sat down, and opened the proposal document for the Lingxi patch, staring blankly at the screen for a while.
There really were issues with the data model, which she knew very well in her heart. Over the past three days, she had poured all her energy into the sensor thresholds and core algorithms while completely neglecting the substrate portion. Wen Shaonian’s criticisms were completely right; her proposal suffered from severe lopsidedness, acting practically like a cripple.
Still, she had not expected Wen Shaonian to publicly crease her proposal like that, especially with so many people watching.
Jiang You lowered her head to massage her brow, the lingering frustration in her chest still refusing to disperse completely.
She knew Wen Shaonian was strict, but the sensation of being publicly disciplined felt genuinely unpleasant, particularly when the person in question was someone she had registered a marriage certificate with. Even if it was a contract marriage, they ought to show a little bit of face, right?
Jiang You took a deep breath and dragged her attention back to the screen. She pulled up the Lingxi parameters for a side-by-side comparison, dug out all the requirements Wen Shaonian had mentioned during the weekly meetings to mark them up, raised the sensor sensitivity threshold, swapped out the substrate for a softer composite material, and prioritized wearing comfort.
Then, after a brief hesitation, she began secretly tweaking the parameters based on her understanding of Wen Shaonian. If this patch were used by someone as rigorously self-controlled as Wen Shaonian, what level of catalytic factor release would be most appropriate?
How should the sustained-release mechanism be designed so as not to provoke a sense of rejection within her?
“Damn it,” Jiang You muttered under her breath. “Since you yelled at me, I am just going to use you as my test subject anyway, and you will never even know.”
She felt as though inspiration had struck her instantly, and the gloomy irritation in her heart dissipated quite a bit.
Even work hours seemed to fly by faster. Close to off-work time, her mother gave her a call. The moment she answered, she could hear the clatter of pots and pans in the background, accompanied by her sister Jiang Tao yelling, “Mom, do not touch that, I will do it, I will!”
“Yuyou,” Jiang Wanqing’s voice came right up against the microphone, full of robust energy. “How is your business trip going? When are you coming back?”
“Still busy. Mom, have you guys eaten yet?”
“Eaten, eaten. Taotao ordered takeout, pickled fish,” Jiang Wanqing said proudly. “Do not you worry, Mom listened to your words and has not touched the gas stove even once, and the kitchen is completely spotless.”
Jiang Tao’s voice chimed in right beside her. “Yuyou, let me tell you, Mom learned how to use a food delivery app today! She browsed around for ages and picked a place with high ratings, unlike before when she would just order whatever caught her eye. Remember when she ordered stir-fried noodles from a one-star shop last time? We had diarrhea for three days straight after eating it.”
Jiang You could not help laughing. “That is good. Wait until I come back and I will cook something delicious for you.”
After hanging up the phone, she felt a bit more grounded. Her mom and sister were not stirring up any disasters, which was better than anything else.
Right at that moment, the department group chat exploded.
Xiao Lin was the first to toss out a screenshot of her paycheck stub. “Holy cow, holy cow, holy cow, everyone look at my performance bonus! Triple! My performance bonus for this month is tripled!”
The chat remained silent for three full seconds.
Old Zhao sent a screenshot of his own. “…Mine is tripled, too.”
Immediately afterward, others popped up one after another, some with two and a half times, some with three times, and even the intern had received a project subsidy larger than last month’s salary. The chat was instantly flooded with exclamation marks and emojis.
“Did President Wen realize how hard we have been working with all this overtime lately?”
After a brief silence of a few seconds, the chat boiled over completely.
“Long live President Wen!”
“So what if a wealthy boss has a bit of a fiery temper? I can handle it!”
“I can endure her scolding for another ten years!”
“Starting today, President Wen is my deity!”
Xiao Lin frantically poked Jiang You in a private chat. “Team Leader, did you see that? Triple performance bonus! President Wen is truly too generous!”
Looking at the string of numbers on the bank deposit notification, Jiang You remained dazed for quite a while. Her project performance had actually been distributed at a triple rate as well, and she had genuinely thought that after getting chewed out so miserably, her project bonus was going to be docked.
Her mood improved considerably, and just as she was about to reply to Xiao Lin, her phone vibrated, and a message popped up at the top of the screen.
Wen Shaonian: “Come home early tonight. We are executing the mutual assistance clause.”
Staring at that sentence, Jiang You’s fingers froze abruptly, hovering right above the screen.
For a good long while, she just stared, unable to decide whether she felt nervous or something else entirely. It simply felt inexplicably bizarre. Clearly, it was an intimate and ambiguous matter, yet coming from Wen Shaonian’s mouth, it sounded like she was about to carry out some kind of work assignment.
Every shred of romantic atmosphere vanished entirely, leaving behind nothing but heavy pressure.
She let out a sigh, took three deep breaths, and resignedly typed out two characters: “Alright.”
When off-work time arrived, Jiang You made the uncharacteristic choice not to work overtime, grabbing her bag and walking out the door the moment six o’clock hit.
Xiao Lin called out from behind, “Team Leader turned over a new leaf today, leaving so early!” but she pretended not to hear and quickened her pace.
When she arrived home, the villa was completely empty. As she changed her shoes, Jiang You could not tell whether she felt relieved or something else.
First, she took a shower, changed into a clean set of loungewear, and sat on the edge of her bedroom bed, staring blankly at the opposite wall. An abstract decorative painting hung on the wall, and she squinted at it for ages without figuring out what it was supposed to depict, right up until her phone screen lit up and she instinctively grabbed it.
It was a bunch of stickers sent by Zhou Xiaoyu asking what she was up to tonight.
Jiang You typed out: “Working overtime.”
Zhou Xiaoyu: “??? You are working overtime and you are not replying to my messages??”
Jiang You: “Just finished.”
Zhou Xiaoyu sent an emoji reading “You better be.”
Jiang You had no mood to chat idly with her. Her ears pricked up, straining to catch any movement downstairs, as even the slightest rustle caused her heartbeat to spike abruptly. A car passed by outside the window, its engine sound growing closer before fading into the distance, making her heart rise and fall in tandem until she realized it was not Wen Shaonian’s car, causing it to drop back down.
She felt like someone waiting to defuse a bomb.
After an unknown amount of time, the sound of the front door opening and closing finally drifted up from downstairs.
Jiang You abruptly stood up, moving a bit too fast as her knee clipped the edge of the bed frame, causing her to squat down and wince while rubbing it for two seconds. By the time she straightened back up, footsteps were already sounding on the staircase, steady and unhurried, step by step. When they reached the second-floor hallway, they paused for a moment before heading in the direction of the living room.
Taking a deep breath, Jiang You clenched the small silver pouch on her bedside table in her palm, pulled open her bedroom door, and stepped out.
Wen Shaonian was standing in the living room foyer changing her shoes, her back turned to her, exposing a small patch of fair skin at the nape of her neck. As she bent down to slip off her high heels and place them into the shoe cabinet, the contour of her shoulder blades showed faintly beneath her suit fabric.
Jiang You stood at the entrance of the hallway, clutching her bag strap and curling her toes inside her slippers twice.
Turning around after changing her shoes, Wen Shaonian spotted her standing there and raised an eyebrow slightly. “You came back pretty early?”
“Mhm.”
Jiang You could not help quietly grumbling in her heart: Wasn’t it you who told me to come back early?
Saying nothing more, Wen Shaonian removed her jacket, draped it over her arm, and walked over to sit on the living room sofa.
Jiang You walked from the hallway to the side of the sofa and came to a halt, truly at a loss for words to break the awkward atmosphere. Under her anxiety, her brain-dead remarks slipped out naturally, a quintessential wage-slave speech.
“Um, President Wen, thank you.”
“For what?”
“The bonus. It increased by a lot.”
Wen Shaonian flipped a page of her documents, her gaze not leaving the paper surface. “You use your designs to help me make money, and I issue you bonuses. Fair trade.” She paused briefly before adding, “Pokud the Lingxi patch proceeds according to its current trajectory, the expected post-launch revenue will be enough to issue this scale of bonus three more times, provided you can produce a qualified proposal.”
Jiang You was choked up on words.
This person always spoke with an airtight defense; even if you wanted to exchange a couple of polite pleasantries, you could not find a single gap. To top it off, every single word she said was rational, rational to the point that you had no counterarguments. That sense of being thoroughly crushed by your boss in every possible dimension rushed right back. Lowering her head to look at her own toes, she wanted to say something, yet felt that anything she said would be redundant.
Wen Shaonian closed the document and raised her head to look at her. “No problems? Let us execute the mutual assistance clause tonight, then.”
Jiang You went blank.
Was she really going to be this direct? Without even building any foundation?
Her brain short-circuited for several seconds, the phrase “mutual assistance clause” dropping into her mind like a heavy boulder. She opened her mouth with a dry throat, her eyes having nowhere to put and her hands and feet not knowing where to rest.
Wen Shaonian looked at her, her brows wrinkling imperceptibly.
“What are you standing there frozen for? Did I not send you a message beforehand?”
That tone was identical to how she sounded during meetings, impatient, disdainful, carrying a cold undertone of looking like you are wasting time. It sounded less like she had just said “let us sleep together tonight” and more like “finish modifying the proposal and send it to me tonight.”
Jiang You snapped back to her senses. “I know. I am prepared.”
Wen Shaonian shot her a sideways glance. That look clearly conveyed that you certainly do not look like you are prepared, but she did not voice it, simply placing the documents on the coffee table, picking up her water glass to take a slow sip, and waiting.
Jiang You could not help cursing herself inwardly.
Even right on the verge of it, she was still panicking out of her wits, but she was just naturally cowardly, meaning there was nothing she could do about it.
Her ears burning hot enough to fry an egg, Jiang You clenched the patch tightly in her palm, walked up in front of Wen Shaonian, and lowered her head.
“Are we starting now?”
Her voice was soft and hoarse, and even she found it humiliating to listen to.