Chapter 1

It was close to noon, and with the department manager out, the office that had been busy all morning finally loosened up.

Someone happened to bring in the newly printed company brochures, and a bunch of people immediately gathered around.

“Wow, this looks so high-end. Even the paper feels different.”

“Come on, open it up—let’s take a look together…”

The brochure had been shot a while back. All the models in it were employees from Yuntu Company, and the shooting and design were handled by headquarters. At a glance, it carried an unmistakably polished, upscale vibe.

When they finished flipping through it, people were still reluctant to put it down.

Someone sighed, “What a shame Qiqi wasn’t here back then. Our department could’ve had one more face in the booklet.”

Their voices weren’t quiet, and the person being talked about finally looked up from his computer. A small, strikingly pretty face—no worse than anyone in the brochure—came into view.

Everyone saw him and sighed even harder.

“Ugh, Qiqi joined just half a month too late.”

Even after working together for over two months, his coworkers still couldn’t look at the intern’s face without reacting.

Qi Ji was a boy, but he was absurdly delicate—honestly beautiful. Yet because of his clear, deer-like eyes and naturally warm, light-colored hair, the sharpness of his features was softened, leaving him looking gentle, pleasing, and adorably well-behaved.

When everyone first met him, they thought the company had hired a minor.

His eyes were especially memorable—you only needed one glance to remember them. Add in his soft voice and the tiny dimple that kissed the corner of his lips, and everyone had assumed he was a new sales intern.

No one ever imagined he’d applied as a programmer.

Yuntu was packed with engineers—half the cafeteria was a sea of plaid shirts. Qi Ji had an eye-catching face, but personality-wise he fit right in with the typical programmer crowd. Anyone could tell he’d been the obedient, well-behaved kid growing up.

Hearing everyone sigh over him, he only gave a shy smile, cheeks slightly warm.

“I’m just an intern. I don’t think I’d be allowed in a brochure anyway.”

“What does that matter?” his coworkers said immediately. “Your performance is more than enough to stay.”

They were still chatting when someone knocked on the office door.

Knock, knock.

The door wasn’t closed, so when everyone looked up, they saw a young woman standing there—wavy curls perfectly styled, heels at least twelve centimeters high.

Someone recognized her. “Assistant Chen?”

It was Chen Zixuan, assistant to Yuntu’s vice president.

She was a well-known figure: top-tier degree, impeccable résumé, flawless work performance. In just two years, she’d been promoted three times and become the youngest special assistant in the entire company.

And not just to anyone—to the strictest, most intimidating VP. Other people trembled just delivering documents; she flew around the world by his side. To the average employee, she was practically legendary.

Once she entered, the relaxed atmosphere vanished. The team lead cleared his throat. “Assistant Chen, are you looking for our manager? He’s out right now.”

Someone at her level wouldn’t show up casually, so everyone assumed she needed the manager.

Instead, she scanned the room and said, “I’m not here for Manager Sun.”

Then she called a name—directly.

“Qi Ji.”

“Come with me.”

Everyone froze, then turned to stare at him.

Qi Ji was good-natured, pretty, diligent, and in just two months had become the department favorite. But he was still an intern—no one could imagine why a star assistant would come for him.

Under the weight of everyone’s curiosity, Qi Ji stood and followed her.

Once they reached a quiet corner of the hallway, she stopped. Qi Ji looked up at her and greeted obediently:

“Senior.”

Chen Zixuan flicked back her long curls. Her aura softened noticeably. Seeing her sweet, well-behaved junior, she smiled. “I just got back from a business trip. How’ve you been here? Getting used to things?”

Qi Ji smiled too, a faint dimple forming beside his light-colored lips. “I’m doing fine.”

After a few sentences, he asked, “Senior, did you come all the way here for something?”

“Nothing much at noon. I came to have lunch with you. And I’ll pass you a message—someone wants to meet you this afternoon.”

It was lunchtime, so she glanced at her watch. “Let’s go to the cafeteria. We can talk while we eat.”

Starsea Group had its own cafeteria, and Yuntu, being a subsidiary, did too. As soon as they stepped in, a boy in a curly mop of hair and a pink T-shirt waved at them.

“Over here!”

Qi Ji waved back. “Senior.”

The three of them had all come from F University and had worked together in the same student organization. Now they were in the same company too, so they stayed close. When Chen Zixuan traveled, Qi Ji often ate lunch with Senior Li Anbei.

Once they got their food and sat down, Chen Zixuan finally finished the message.

“You’ve been interning in Operations, handling the daily maintenance for the Starsea Reading app, right?”

When Qi Ji nodded, she continued, “And you redesigned the front-end interface? Swapped out the icons and layout?”

Qi Ji paused. “I… did. Is something wrong?”

He’d only been assigned daily operations work. The redesign was something he did on his own. His manager had approved before the update, but hearing her ask, he still wasn’t sure.

“Nothing’s wrong.” She laughed when she saw his worry. “Your redesign is what caused the surge in active users after the update. Traffic and channel share both went up. It’s good news. You did a great job.”

Reading apps were mostly the same, and Starsea never cared much about the default reader on their phones. That was why they dumped it on an intern.

But Qi Ji’s redesign had drastically upgraded the entire interface, and even the sharing pages looked beautiful—pretty enough to go viral on social media. With Starsea’s partnerships across reading sites, new users stayed easily, so active numbers climbed fast.

His manager had mentioned this before, but Qi Ji didn’t understand why his senior brought it up.

“When the Design Department did a system-wide review, they noticed the redesigned app. Their department director showed interest and even pulled your résumé.”

Chen Zixuan tapped the table with a manicured finger.

“Since your manager wasn’t around and I was passing by, I figured I’d deliver the message myself. Director Wu wants you to prepare your past design work and go to her office at three.”

“Oh, that’s great news,” Li Anbei cut in, picking at his food. “Didn’t you want to apply to Design in the first place?”

“Ah… right,” Qi Ji said, still looking a little dazed. “But they weren’t hiring then, so I joined Operations instead.”

There was some nervous excitement in his expression, a bit overwhelmed by the unexpected opportunity. “This afternoon…”

“Relax,” Chen Zixuan soothed. She normally wasn’t chatty, and she knew Qi Ji’s abilities well from school, but she still couldn’t help reassuring him.

“Director Wu’s nice. She speaks plainly and already thinks well of you. Just go at three.”

Maybe it was just something about this kid—he naturally made people want to look after him.

They’d come early, so the booth was quiet. With the important stuff done, the conversation drifted off.

As soon as Chen Zixuan turned her tray, she heard Li Anbei lean in and whisper sweetly:

“Xuan-ge~ can I ask you something?”

She froze, exasperated. “…Talk like a normal person.”

“Okay, okay.” He brightened. “Did you meet the new CEO today?”

“Yeah. Why?”

She didn’t elaborate, and instead turned to Qi Ji. “Qiqi, I’m cutting carbs. I don’t eat meat. Take my drumstick.”

The cafeteria set meal came with three dishes, soup, and a drumstick. She hadn’t meant to take it, but she’d been talking to Qi Ji in line and forgot.

Qi Ji moved her drumstick to his own tray. “Thanks, Senior.”

Seeing that, Li Anbei chimed in too. “Here, Qiqi, take mine as well. I’m cutting weight.”

He’d barely eaten anything himself. “If I get fat, how am I supposed to find a boyfriend?”

Chen Zixuan rolled her eyes. “Didn’t you swear last month you were going to the gym to lose weight and find a boyfriend? Now it’s dieting?”

Li Anbei wasn’t shy about his orientation. Back in school he was more discreet, but after joining Yuntu—especially the publicity department, which was practically the gay concentration zone—he completely let loose around friends.

“Three parts training, seven parts diet.” Seeing her disbelief, he pouted. “I’m serious.”

“Ask Qiqi. He’s been helping me finish all the meat lately.”

Qi Ji nodded softly. “Mm.”

Chen Zixuan looked at him, doubtful. “Really? Then how come Qiqi looks like he got even thinner?”

Qi Ji didn’t respond, only smiled shyly and kept eating. He looked as innocent and harmless as always.

Given everything he’d been going through lately, it would be stranger if he hadn’t lost weight.

But some things simply couldn’t be spoken aloud.

Li Anbei didn’t notice anything and continued cheerfully, “You know Qiqi—no matter how much he eats, he never gains weight.”

They’d been shocked by his appetite when they first met. As it turned out, some people really were born to eat double portions and stay slim, to the envy of all their female classmates.

Li Anbei turned to watch him. Qi Ji always ate seriously; head down like a little hamster cracking a nut. His soft bangs fell over his forehead, and with the bright cafeteria lights hitting his naturally light hair, it practically shimmered gold. It made people itch to reach out and ruffle it.

He had to admit—aside from dieting, the other reason he loved giving food to this kid was the sense of gratification he got from watching him eat.

Propping his chin in his palm, Li sighed dramatically.

“If I were as good-looking as Qiqi, I’d have slept with every top in S City by now.”

“—pfft cough, cough—”

Qi Ji choked violently. A flush spread across his cheeks all the way to his ears.

Chen Zixuan shot Li Anbei a glare. “Stop corrupting your junior.”

She handed Qi Ji a napkin.

Li patted his back, still laughing. “I’m joking. Qiqi, you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He took the napkin, still too embarrassed to respond further. Once he calmed down, he quietly went back to eating.

“Anyway,” Li continued, the gossip not yet over, “Xuan-ge, I heard our new CEO is pretty young?”

He wiggled his brows. “So? Is he handsome?”

“Handsome. Young. And a rich second-gen.” Chen Zixuan sounded very earnest. “I heard he even served in a special forces unit. Someone like you? He could lift three with one hand.”

“Whoa—so manly?”

“…” Even expecting this reaction from Li, she was still speechless.

“What?” he asked. “So you don’t like him?”

“I’m not in any position to judge. It’s just… some of the rumors about him are kind of…” She searched for a polite word. “Legendary.”

“How so?”

“Well, he’s a rich second-gen, but we don’t know from which family. No management experience either—he was just thrown into the role. And…”

She hesitated, her expression turning complicated.

“They say he had… issues back in high school. And he didn’t finish college before joining the military. Even when he got discharged, it wasn’t exactly peaceful.”

Li made a noise. “Wait—is he the same guy people said smashed liquor bottles in a bar fight back in high school? That legend?”

With the CEO position empty for days, employees had been gossiping nonstop. Their little booth was hidden enough to feel private, making the conversation even juicier.

Meanwhile, Qi Ji showed zero interest. He kept eating quietly—three drumsticks were far more important to him than some mysterious incoming CEO.

He never cared about the affairs of strangers.

The two standing beside him were long used to his lack of interest in gossip. Chen Zixuan thought for a moment before saying, “Not sure if he actually smashed up the place, but he definitely broke a bottle back in high school and pissed off someone he shouldn’t have. After that he got shipped overseas for college.”

Li Anbei clicked his tongue. “I’ve only ever heard rumors about that kind of spoiled rich brat. Didn’t think I’d meet a real-life one.”

“Oh, right—him suddenly parachuting in as…” He started to continue, but remembering Chen Zixuan’s position, he swallowed the rest of the sentence.

“What?” Chen Zixuan glanced over.

“Nothing, nothing.” Li Anbei quickly waved it off.

What he wanted to ask was whether this sudden CEO appointment meant Deputy General Manager Zhang got pushed out.

After the former CEO was reassigned, everyone assumed Zhang Fu would naturally take over. His competence and reputation were recognized by the whole company—he was the obvious, rightful choice. Then news dropped that a new CEO was being parachuted in, and the employees were in an uproar.

With a new CEO taking the throne, he was guaranteed to clash with Deputy GM Zhang sooner or later. But that wasn’t something Li Anbei could say in front of Chen Zixuan—after all, she was Zhang’s personal assistant. No matter how close they all were, it wasn’t appropriate.

He shifted topics casually. “I just meant—when is this new CEO actually going to meet us officially?”

“No idea,” Chen Zixuan replied. “Everything about him has been handled by his own assistant. Doesn’t seem like he’s coordinated with the internal departments yet.”

The conversation naturally drifted away. After lunch, the three returned to their respective departments.

Before they split up, Chen Zixuan—heading to the restroom to fix her makeup—called out to Qi Ji.

“Xiao Qi, don’t forget this afternoon!”

She held up three fingers.

“Got it!”

Qi Ji answered seriously. When he returned to the office, a few colleagues had already come back.

Seeing him, they immediately grew curious. “Xiao Qi, what did Assistant Chen call you for?”

No one had forgotten how her sudden appearance had shocked the entire office.

“She’s my senior from school,” Qi Ji explained simply. “She just got back from a business trip and asked me to grab lunch with her.”

“Ohh, so you’re both from F University?”

“Yeah. We were in the same student organization.”

With that, the curiosity faded and no one questioned further.

Soon the afternoon work cycle began.

As the clock approached three, the manager still hadn’t returned. Qi Ji told his team lead, then picked up his portfolio and tablet and headed to the design department.

Yuntu occupied an entire office building; the design team was on the 17th floor. Turning the corner with his things in hand, Qi Ji stepped into the elevator.

The doors slid open the moment he arrived. It was already packed.

His steps stalled for a second—then he saw the “Open” button lit, someone inside holding the door for him.

Everyone looked up at him. Qi Ji took a quiet breath, walked forward quickly, and stepped in.

He murmured a soft thank-you to the person holding the button and stood facing the doors.

The elevator was stuffed—at least a dozen people. Even though Qi Ji was standing near the outer edge, there was no avoiding the brush of bodies around him.

His brows tightened almost imperceptibly.

He felt awful.

Qi Ji had been born with heightened senses; even his skin was overly sensitive. A slight bump would leave a bright red mark, and pain hit him several times harder than normal.

Lately, for reasons he couldn’t explain, the sensitivity had grown even worse.

Now, the moment someone got close, pressure built in his chest. Even ordinary contact felt unbearable.

Seeing the crowd earlier was why he’d hesitated to enter.

He’d already been trying to avoid physical contact for weeks, but total avoidance was impossible. Packed into this elevator, surrounded by accidental bumps and brushes, a headache began to rise behind his temples.

The discomfort rippled through his torso, gathering like needles pricking repeatedly at his pounding heart. Qi Ji fixed his gaze on the glowing numbers, holding his breath as he counted down to 17.

When the doors finally opened, he stepped out and made it to the window, gulping fresh air until the nausea subsided.

It was late autumn, cold wind scraping through the city. From the high floor, the streets below were a washed-out blur of grey: traffic, buildings, even the greenery dulled to nothing.

Qi Ji lowered his eyes, long lashes hiding the dimness beneath.

Almost three. He didn’t have time to waste. After a moment, he returned to the hallway and followed the signs to Director Wu’s office.

Knock, knock.

A low, magnetic male voice came from inside.

“Come in.”

Qi Ji froze for half a second, the dimples at his lips fading.

He distinctly remembered that Director Wu was a woman—with a kid in elementary school.

So why was there a man’s voice?

Before he could think further, he pushed the door open.

The moment he lifted his gaze, it collided with the cool, sharp stare of an unfamiliar, strikingly handsome young man.

The man happened to look up at the same time.

His eyes were pale—frigid—and his gaze carried a detached chill. At first glance, they almost resembled the vertical pupils of a predator.

A shiver shot up Qi Ji’s neck. His back tightened, his whole body snapping rigid.

His practiced gentle smile nearly cracked apart then and there.

The dizziness from the elevator vanished instantly, cleared by the instinctive jolt of danger that crashed over him.

Only people like him could sense that kind of pressure.

Survival instinct roared awake—so loud it nearly felt like someone had planted a speaker beside his ear shouting at full volume:

Run.

Sanity barely managed to hold his legs in place. He didn’t step back—but the killing aura washing over him was a hundred times worse than what he’d felt in the elevator.

For one disorienting second, Qi Ji could almost believe that in broad daylight, he’d been thrown back into that cramped, blazing ring—
the one filled with screaming voices and blinding lights.