Silence.
Utter silence.
For a moment, Zhang Xiyue wondered if she had misheard.
But Cheng Mingjiao's Mandarin was standard, his pronunciation clear. Even if it wasn't at the level of a professional broadcaster, there was no room for misunderstanding.
He really did say to drive straight into her.
In broad daylight, in the light of day—even in a novel world, things couldn't be this lawless… right?
At this point, Zhang Xiyue no longer doubted his yandere potential. She simply looked silently at the man in the suit, wondering how he would refuse the boss's unreasonable request.
The man in the suit looked grim. His foot, which had been pressing the brake, slowly lifted…
"Chief Cheng!"
Zhang Xiyue suddenly spoke up. The man in the suit jolted, and the car lurched forward half a meter. The tires scraped against the ground with a rough, brief screech, startling him into quickly killing the engine.
The car jolted, and Zhang Xiyue felt like her soul was about to be shaken right out of her body. But she still had to stay calm: "Chief Cheng, she probably isn't blocking the way on purpose. Let me go remind her."
Cheng Mingjiao and the man in the suit both looked over at her.
"Are you sure?" Cheng Mingjiao narrowed his long eyes, a hint of scrutiny showing through his sharp gaze.
Zhang Xiyue smiled politely. "May I?"
Cheng Mingjiao said nothing, only watching her thoughtfully, while the man in the suit looked like he wanted to say something but held back.
Seeing that Cheng Mingjiao didn't object, Zhang Xiyue quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car.
The moment the door closed, Cheng Mingjiao issued an important statement: "Prepare to depart."
He would never allow a filthy person to ride in his car.
The man in the suit's mouth twitched, but he was used to it: "Yes, Chief Cheng."
Zhang Xiyue had just reached the old woman when she heard the sound of an engine starting behind her.
She turned around nervously. The man in the suit met her gaze and gave a sheepish smile.
Zhang Xiyue didn't have time to analyze his micro-expressions. Confirming that he didn't seem to be charging at her for the moment, she turned back around.
"Grandma Zhao."
The old woman didn't respond, still staring at the car.
"Grandma Zhao!" Zhang Xiyue raised her voice slightly.
Finally, the old woman deigned to look at her.
"I'm Xiyue. Don't you remember me?"
The old woman paused, a hint of confusion showing through her cloudy eyes. "Xiyue…"
"Yes, Xiyue. The volunteer at the temple." Zhang Xiyue reminded her patiently.
The old woman's name was Zhao Yuzhen. Like Grandma Qian, she was a devotee who lived long-term at the temple. She was old and often confused, but she insisted on staying at Yunxi Temple. Her family could only send two caregivers to stay with her around the clock, yet even so, she would occasionally slip out on her own. Today was probably another time she'd snuck out while the caregivers weren't paying attention.
"Do you remember me now?"
As she asked, Zhang Xiyue sent a message to the other volunteers at the temple.
After sending the message, Zhao Yuzhen was still staring at her.
Zhang Xiyue smiled helplessly.
She was a very patient person. On a normal day, she could stand here with the old lady for an entire day until she fully came to her senses.
But not today… that car behind her was watching like a predator, ready to charge at any moment.
This was a matter of life and death. There was no time to delay.
"It's okay if you can't remember. Let's go somewhere else and take our time thinking."
Zhang Xiyue tentatively took her wrist. Seeing that she didn't resist, she led her toward the roadside. As they walked, she helped shake the mud off her hands and even pulled out a wet wipe to clean them for her.
Zhao Yuzhen cooperated the whole way, only muttering with some dissatisfaction: "This was for hitting bad guys with…"
Zhang Xiyue followed up smoothly: "Mud can't hit bad guys. Let's use rocks next time."
Zhao Yuzhen found this reasonable and noted it seriously.
Seeing how harmonious the two of them were, the man in the suit let out a surprised "huh" and looked at Cheng Mingjiao in the rearview mirror. "Chief Cheng, should we wait for Ms. Zhang?"
Cheng Mingjiao gave him a strange look, as if he'd asked something stupid. "In your eyes, am I really that heartless?"
He had said "prepare to depart" earlier because he'd assumed she would get smeared with mud.
Now she hadn't been smeared, and she'd even successfully talked the crazy old woman away. Why would he abandon her?
Facing his boss's questioning, the man in the suit let out a weary laugh. "Of course not. You're the kindest and most considerate boss."
Cheng Mingjiao crossed his legs, hands elegantly folded on his knees, accustomed to such praise.
The two people in front of the car slowly made their way to the roadside. The caregiver also arrived in a hurry, and both sides let out a simultaneous sigh of relief.
Zhang Xiyue didn't dare delay. After handing Zhao Yuzhen over to the caregiver, she jogged back and opened the car door. "Sorry to keep you waiting."
"Hurry and get in." The man in the suit was much warmer than before, even helping to pick up the backpack that had fallen on the ground.
Zhang Xiyue smiled, stepping one foot into the car…
"Stop." Cheng Mingjiao suddenly spoke.
Zhang Xiyue and the man in the suit both froze mid-motion.
In the silence, Cheng Mingjiao spoke slowly: "What's that on your sleeve?"
Zhang Xiyue looked down at his words.
On her pristine white cuff, a bit of black mud had somehow gotten smeared.
Just a tiny bit. If you weren't looking closely, you wouldn't even notice it.
Ten seconds later, the business van sped away.
Zhang Xiyue stood by the roadside clutching her backpack, pulling out her phone amid the exhaust fumes.
She called a ride.
There were few worshippers at the temple today, and even fewer taxis passing by. Zhang Xiyue waited a full half hour before she could get a ride.
By the time her ride-hailing car, booked at a 20% surcharge, reached the city center, a text message from an unfamiliar number arrived on her phone.
[Hello, Ms. Zhang. This is Zhou Ce, Assistant to President Cheng. We met earlier. Have you arrived in the city yet?]
Zhang Xiyue replied that she had.
[Great. Please arrive at the company before 16:00 to complete your onboarding procedures. I'll be waiting for you here.
PS: If you took a cab back, remember to ask the driver for a receipt—the company can reimburse you.]
Attached was also the company address.
She hadn't even started working yet, and she was already a little tired.
Zhang Xiyue glanced at the backpack beside her, abandoned the idea of going home to drop off her luggage first, and looked up to relay the address to the driver.
She arrived at the company at exactly four o'clock sharp.
The ride-hailing car pulled over at the curb. The moment Zhang Xiyue stepped out, she saw, on the building across the street, a display screen scrolling the words 【Yuhuang Intelligent Equipment】in large characters.
The male supporting character in the original novel had been introduced as someone who locked himself at home all day, a shut-in persona, with no mention whatsoever of what he was like before he became one.
To understand the male supporting character better, she had gathered some information from Grandma Qian, then searched online as well.
Turns out, not searching was one thing—but searching really shocked her.
According to news reports, Cheng Mingjiao was born into an old-money family and had shown astonishing academic talent from a young age.
After graduating from university, he didn't choose to join his family's company. Instead, he started from scratch, building his own business. Within just a few years, he grew a team of barely a dozen people into a major corporation with several hundred core employees alone.
Now, he not only owned an entire office building in a place as expensive as Phoenix City, but also had a research and development base spanning tens of thousands of square meters in the suburbs, holding a pivotal position in the field of mechanical intelligence.
High IQ, ruthless tactics, and a merciless streak—just like her first impression of him, he was the quintessential corporate elite.
…So how exactly did this corporate elite manage to turn himself, in just three months, into someone with no job, no friends, and nothing but an obsessive fixation on the female lead?
Unable to figure it out, Zhang Xiyue picked up her backpack and walked into the opulent office building.
The man in the suit was already waiting in the ground-floor lobby. The moment he saw her walk in, he immediately stepped forward. "Ms. Zhang, hello."
"Assistant Zhou," Zhang Xiyue said, recalling the name from his text message, and nodded politely. "Just call me Xiyue."
Zhou Ce acknowledged with a nod. He had just asked her for the receipt when he noticed her deliberately rolled-up sleeves, and felt a little embarrassed. "It's hard to get a cab around Yunxi Temple, isn't it?"
"It's fine," Zhang Xiyue said, glancing at her own sleeves with a hint of hesitation. "Should I find a restroom to change clothes first?"
"No need, no need. President Cheng drove home three minutes ago and won't be coming to the office today," Zhou Ce said quickly.
The two walked together toward the elevator.
Zhang Xiyue initiated the conversation. "Does President Cheng have a severe case of germophobia?"
Zhou Ce: "He doesn't have germophobia."
Zhang Xiyue stopped in front of the elevator. "Hm?"
Zhou Ce turned to look at her, his face full of sincerity. "He doesn't have germophobia. He's just being a drama queen."
Zhang Xiyue: "?"
Ding.
The elevator arrived, and the two stepped in one after the other.
It wasn't until the elevator doors sealed off the noise outside that Zhang Xiyue carefully chose her words. "What do you mean by 'drama queen'—"
"Forget the drama queen, don't say anything for now." Zhou Ce cut her off quickly, while nervously glancing at the upper right corner, signaling her to stay quiet.
Zhang Xiyue witnessed his entire face change in an instant, and suddenly remembered what Cheng Mingjiao had said earlier about how he was about to release the brake when he said he'd ram into her…
She almost forgot—he was a freak too.
Zhang Xiyue edged a step closer to the elevator doors.
For the rest of the ride, Zhou Ce remained completely silent, only relaxing once they entered an office piled high with documents.
"What I meant by drama queen is fussy, mean-spirited, nitpicky—in short, someone who creates problems out of nothing and is impossible to please." He smoothly picked up the earlier topic.
The face had changed again.
Zhang Xiyue kept her smile, while also confirming the distance between herself, him, and the door. Realizing she was closer to him than to the door, she shuffled two steps toward the exit.
Zhou Ce didn't notice her subtle movement. While organizing the documents, he explained why he had reacted that way in the elevator.
"There are surveillance cameras in the elevator. Ever since the office theft last time, when we reviewed the footage and found employees badmouthing him, President Cheng makes a habit of checking the elevator surveillance from time to time. So in the elevator, you have to be careful with what you say."
With that, he flashed Zhang Xiyue a bright smile. "But anywhere else, feel free to speak your mind. No one's going to tattle."
Zhang Xiyue smiled along cooperatively, quietly observing this private office on the top floor.
The office was spacious, with a pleasant environment. Every workstation was generously sized, with decent privacy between them. The plants inside were lush, the temperature was constant, and there was no uncomfortable draft from the air conditioning.
Although her only purpose for entering Yu Corporation was to complete the "help the yandere improve" mission, a good working environment would make the process less unbearable.
Zhang Xiyue thought of the CEO's office just a stone's throw away and felt her future was bright.
While she was taking in her surroundings, Zhou Ce had already organized the documents and started rummaging through cabinets again.
"Do you need help?" Zhang Xiyue offered proactively.
Zhou Ce waved his hand and said while searching, "President Cheng currently has two secretaries and five assistants. Normally everyone except me works here, but a few are on business trips, and the rest went to the R&D base, so the office is empty today."
"One secretary handles external liaison, one handles internal liaison, and the other assistants do supporting work."
"Officially, I'm the office executive assistant, but in reality I handle a bit of everything—including President Cheng's daily schedule, personal social engagements, daily life arrangements, and filing a complaint every three days about his neighbor's dog disturbing the peace, even though he lives in a standalone villa with two gardens and a road between him and the neighbor. You can think of me as… President Cheng's 24/7 on-call personal eunuch."
Zhou Ce made a joke, the fine lines at the corners of his eyes filled with weariness.
Zhang Xiyue didn't know how to respond, and not wanting to offend him, she went along with it: "Then President Cheng must trust you a lot."
Zhou Ce rubbed his nose, pulled out a form, and handed it to her: "Fill this out."
Zhang Xiyue took the form, found a desk, and started filling it in.
Zhou Ce: "Even though you were introduced by the old lady, I still need to do a simple background check on my end. Only after confirming everything is clear can I process your onboarding."
Zhang Xiyue: "That's fine."
She had transmigrated in her physical body, so there shouldn't have been any information about her in this world.
But perhaps due to the novel world's self-perfection, her ID card, education credentials, and work experience had all become real content. Some details differed slightly from the real world, but that was harmless.
In any case, she wasn't worried about the background check.
Zhang Xiyue quickly filled out the form and handed it to Zhou Ce.
"OK, you can go home and wait for the news. You'll get a definite answer within three days." Zhou Ce gave it a brief look, confirmed there were no issues, and put it away. "Honestly, it's just a formality. You'll definitely be hired."
"Alright." Zhang Xiyue nodded.
Zhou Ce looked at her bright, gentle eyes, as if seeing himself fresh out of graduation, full of beautiful aspirations for work. His long-dormant conscience suddenly gave a twitch.
"Good luck." He was sincere for one second.
One second later, he looked down and rummaged around: "Where's my phone?"
Zhang Xiyue: "…Here."
She picked up the phone from the desk, and just as she was about to hand it to him, the screen suddenly lit up. On the 6.3-inch lock screen, two large characters caught her eye—
[RUN]
She: "…"
"Thanks." Zhou Ce took it calmly and walked away.
Zhang Xiyue stood there for a while, confirmed he wasn't coming back, then went downstairs alone to hail a taxi.
Just as she got into the cab, a text message arrived on her phone showing a payment of 89 yuan.
It was the taxi fare from earlier.
Well, their reimbursement efficiency was pretty high.
Zhang Xiyue got into the taxi, gave the address, then rolled down the window and rested her chin on the window sill, staring blankly at the street scene.
The taxi passed through the gleaming commercial district, through bustling streets, heading toward the old city.
Zhang Xiyue was dozing off when the car stopped at a red light, jolting her awake.
She opened her eyes and immediately saw a somewhat familiar car stopped at the intersection not far away, with a somewhat familiar person standing there jabbing at his phone, his handsome face full of impatience.
It looked like his car had broken down and his phone had died too.
Helpless, stuck between a rock and a hard place, barely able to move—just waiting for some unlucky soul to give him a ride home first, then leave him to deal with his own mess alone.
This was a good opportunity to get close to him, but there would be plenty of chances after she started working. Besides, he'd just left her alone in the Yunsì Temple parking lot two hours ago, so…
Zhang Xiyue: "Driver, step on it."
The driver was confused, but as soon as the light turned green, he floored the gas pedal and sped off.
Cheng Mingjiao looked up sharply, feeling like he'd seen his new assistant through the rear window of a taxi.