At a certain café, a man and a woman sat across from each other.
“Miss Lin, we’ve been talking for a few days already. I think there’s no need to waste time. Let’s just discuss your requirements.”
Lin Yue stirred her coffee, lifted the cup elegantly, and took a light sip.
“Mr. Li, yes, I am on a blind date, but we’ve only been talking for a week, and you’re already asking me to marry you? Sorry, but frankly, we’re not a good match.”
“What’s your problem? Blind dating is supposed to move fast. If we get along, we can live together. You’re just wasting time.”
“Sorry, Mr. Li. Today’s coffee is on me.”
“Hmph. You’re just a country girl working in the city, so high and mighty. All you’ve got going for you is your looks.”
Lin Yue replied coldly, “Goodbye.”
Mr. Li snorted and left, swishing his sleeve.
The café was quiet. Lin Yue looked around—there was not a single person in sight, and the staff were behind a partition. She sighed, leaned her head on the table, and began quietly crying.
“Wuwuwu… What kind of person is this? We were chatting so well on WeChat… How can it be like this in person? A week and already marriage… even a rocket launch isn’t that fast… wuwuwu…”
She murmured as she cried. She took out her phone to block him on WeChat but accidentally hit “send” on a message to Mr. Li she hadn’t sent before. Seeing the red exclamation mark, Lin Yue couldn’t help but cry again.
“Wuwuwu… And you had the nerve to block me first…”
After blocking him, she wiped her tears after a while and told herself rationally, “Alright, stop crying. The stress of today has been released.”
Her demeanor was completely different from just moments ago—if someone didn’t know, they might think she had multiple personalities.
Suddenly, she heard a low, soft laugh. Then a blue handkerchief appeared in her vision.
Lin Yue (thinking): This handkerchief looks so familiar.
The next second, she looked up and saw He Yuan’s extremely handsome face.
Lin Yue was startled and immediately stood up. “M-Mr. He!”
There was no trace of sadness on her face, though her eyes still shimmered slightly with tears.
He Yuan’s lips curled slightly as he pushed the handkerchief forward. “Secretary Lin, as far as I know, this is your third failed blind date.”
Lin Yue: “……”
There was a bit of a story behind this.
When she first applied to be He Yuan’s secretary, she had prepared herself to not date or marry for five years. After all, being the secretary to a major corporation’s CEO—even as a junior secretary—was incredibly busy. Many companies would even have such expectations.
Her current life goal was to earn money and eventually have a family. But the salary at Hengxing Group was very generous. She thought that by the time she turned 30 in five years, it would still be okay. After weighing the options, she decided that making money was more important, so she applied.
But the company didn’t require five years of no dating, so she hadn’t deliberately hidden her blind dating.
The first time she went on a blind date, she happened to be working overtime. Her phone kept ringing, causing He Yuan to frown: “Secretary Lin, is something wrong?”
Lin Yue, fresh out of school, didn’t know how to sugarcoat things. She said she was going on a blind date.
Sure enough, He Yuan’s frown deepened.
If she had any experience, she wouldn’t have said that—next thing you know, she could have been fired. Applying for a job and already thinking about marriage showed her mind wasn’t on work, which is a career taboo.
It’s said that even if you have a boyfriend during an interview, you shouldn’t tell HR. You must firmly say you don’t.
However, she passed the interview, which indirectly showed her ability. After all, she was applying for the CEO secretary position. It wasn’t just HR—He Yuan personally interviewed her.
The second time, she mentioned her blind date in a casual chat with He Yuan’s assistant, and He Yuan overheard. She never expected this time she would be caught in the act.
Lin Yue didn’t take the handkerchief. Instead, she tried to change the subject. “Thank you, Mr. He. What are you doing here?”
He didn’t look like someone who had the luxury to visit a café—he always had mountains of files.
“I had a meeting with a friend, but they stood me up.”
Lin Yue (thinking): Who dares to stand up the CEO of Hengxing Group? Incredible.
But she only thought this in her mind.
Running into her boss during her break, Lin Yue didn’t know what to do. He Yuan put the handkerchief away and said, “Let’s go. I’ll take you back.”
“No, no need,” Lin Yue hurriedly refused. “I already have plans. I don’t want to take up your time.”
He Yuan didn’t insist, just nodded slightly and left.
But before leaving, the look in his eyes made Lin Yue pause. Could he really think she still had another blind date lined up?
She didn’t dare imagine the image of herself as a desperate-to-marry woman in her boss’s mind.
After a while, she sighed and got up to leave the café. When paying, she was told the bill had already been settled. Lin Yue immediately realized it was He Yuan, because Mr. Li hadn’t gone to the counter when he left.
By the time Lin Yue returned home, it was already dark. The reason was simple: her rented apartment was far from the city center. She had to transfer between two subway lines, and the company was even farther, taking at least an hour.
She shared a three-bedroom apartment with two friends. Lin Yue had chosen the smallest room. The master bedroom was occupied by Qin Yan, a private school foreign language teacher, and the second bedroom by Qing Jing, who worked at the same company as Lin Yue.
Both Lin Yue and Qing Jing applied for the CEO secretary position. Qing Jing thought she was better than Lin Yue in every way but failed. However, her performance was good enough that He Yuan’s deputy recruited her as an assistant.
This created a grudge in Qing Jing. Recently, she had been passive-aggressive toward Lin Yue. Lin Yue was clean-freaked; Qing Jing deliberately left the common areas messy, especially the bathroom.
Why deliberately? Because she didn’t used to do this.
For example, right now, Lin Yue saw greasy dishes piled in the sink. She wanted to smash them all.
Qin Yan had gone home yesterday and wouldn’t return for a couple of hours. It was obvious who had done it. Lin Yue, unable to tolerate it, went to knock on Qing Jing’s door.
Qing Jing had just finished showering, hair wrapped in a towel. She opened the door and slightly frowned. “What?”
“Please clean up the bathroom and kitchen. I’ll need them soon.”
“Wait, I’m drying my hair.”
Lin Yue went back to her room. About half an hour later, Qing Jing still hadn’t cleaned up. Lin Yue knocked again, but Qing Jing seemed to be on the phone. Even when Qin Yan returned, Qing Jing hadn’t come out.
Lin Yue, furious, kicked the coffee table and returned to her room.