Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I was a broke, miserable secretary.

During my first year on the job, I was still a promising young go-getter, full of ambition and drive. No one volunteered for errands more enthusiastically than I did.

I kept my eyes glued to my immediate superior, never missing the slightest chance to prove myself. The second he opened his mouth, I would shoot my hand into the air and say, “Me! Boss! I’ll go! An iced Americano with two sugars, right?”

Honestly, I didn’t like running up and down either, but what choice did I have?

My coworkers had terrifyingly impressive degrees, family backgrounds, and connections.

I still remembered the first time I came in for an interview. Standing in a line of applicants wearing expensive suits, I looked like a stray mutt.

But stray mutts had to eat too.

And no one treasured this job more than a stray mutt.

So I fought to do the work those urban elites didn’t want to do.

I fought to say the flattery they were too proud to say.

And because I tried too hard, it backfired.

“Man, that new guy really knows how to suck up.”

“Don’t tell me he has a crush on the boss?”

The two male coworkers thought they were the only people in the office at eight at night, and their words grew more and more unrestrained.

Meanwhile, I, who was working overtime to win the boss’s favor, silently shrank down in my cubicle, carefully and soundlessly typing away at a draft.

I kind of wanted to cry.

The next day, I carried twenty-five cups of coffee upstairs, panting for breath. Through the glass door, I hopped up and down, trying to press my access card against the sensor.

Someone saw me, then pretended not to. With his back turned, he gave the people around him a look, the corners of his mouth curving up as he pressed his lips together.

In the adult world, mockery was silent.

Like a needle, it pricked you until your heart clenched, until you bled.

But once it finally stung you into anger, there was no trace left for you to grab on to.

I had actually seen it, but I had to pretend I hadn’t.

I stretched as far as I could, held my breath, and tried to stick the card to the sensor while also making sure the coffee cradled in my aching arms didn’t spill.

Looking at my reflection in the glass door, I figured my twisted posture probably made me look even more like a stray mutt. So, finding what little joy I could in misery, I smiled.

“Why are you dancing at the glass door?” someone behind me suddenly asked in an icy voice.

I hurriedly stepped aside. Only when I turned did I realize it was the company’s big boss.

The big boss was dressed in a black custom-tailored suit, wearing sunglasses, his hair styled to perfection, his entire face radiating arrogant confidence.

He strode forward like he owned the wind, swiped the glass door open with a whoosh, and walked ahead without even looking.

I quickly stretched out one of my long legs to hold the door.

Unexpectedly, that sweeping kick of mine was so precise and ruthless that it tripped the big boss flat onto the floor.

His big black bug-eye sunglasses clattered and rolled far, far away.

The employees nearby were so terrified that they pulled their legs back and played dead.

For a moment, the entire office area fell silent.

The big boss lay on the floor and silently counted to three, yet still not a single person came to help him up.

Clutching the coffee in my arms, I said in a trembling little voice, trying to negotiate, “B-Boss, I’m sorry. I want to help you up too, but I still have twenty-five cups of coffee in my arms. That’s several hundred yuan. I’m afraid I’ll drop them.”

And so, the big boss stubbornly waved away the hands other employees finally stretched out toward him and got up on his own. He tightened his jaw and stared straight at me.

His eyes narrowed. “I remember you.”

Judging from the look in his eyes, it probably wasn’t a good impression.

It was more like he was looking at some pervert he’d once encountered, someone who had sized him up from head to toe with a burning gaze.

The big boss lifted his chin and asked, “You can’t bear to let go of a few hundred yuan’s worth of coffee. Then how much money do you think would be lost if I fell?”

Very carefully, I delivered the first piece of flattery in my life. “At least fifty thousand, right?”

The big boss laughed.

An employee next to me secretly took the coffee from my hands, then passed me the sunglasses while mouthing frantically, “Apologize. Apologize.”

I quickly wiped the lenses with the hem of my shirt and presented them properly to the big boss.

The big boss took the sunglasses and asked me one question.

“Do you know how much these sunglasses are worth?”

I obediently shook my head.

The Boss said, cold as frost, “Two of me.”

With that, he strode away.

I stood there, processed that for a moment, and finally realized-I’d flattered the wrong thing.