For a moment, the once-boisterous cafeteria fell silent.
Everyone watched as the man calmly navigated through the crowd, which had instinctively given way, and walked to the far end of the dining hall—where he picked up a… tray.
In stunned silence, the new president, who usually skipped even company-wide meetings, had humbled himself to join the end of the lunch queue.
No one had expected the president to serve himself. He came alone, without even his ever-stoic assistant with the gold-rimmed glasses.
At this hour, most employees were already seated, and the line was short. The person in front of the president froze for a moment, then stepped aside, intending to let him go first.
The man shook his head, signaling it wasn’t necessary, and continued standing in line himself.
The cafeteria gradually returned to some chatter, though the atmosphere remained subdued. Conversations were hushed, as if a teacher had entered the room.
No one stared directly at the president, of course, but with such a radiant presence standing there, it was impossible to ignore him. Watching him, many felt a subtle shift in their hearts.
When he reached the serving window, the president appeared far more approachable than rumors suggested, even showing interest in a few dishes. Young, handsome, and with a striking physique, his mere appearance drew admiration.
“I swear, President Pei looks even better than the last time he appeared,” Li Anbei said, sitting upright, trying to focus on Chen Zixuan but clearly glancing at Pei Yusheng. He lowered his voice. “I give up, Zixuan. This is either an inspection by a leader or someone above the VP level.”
Chen Zixuan’s composed face betrayed nothing, though her spine was straighter than Li Anbei’s. Through gritted teeth, she said, “Li Anbei, you really are the universe’s biggest jinx.”
As the assistant to Vice President Zhang, her opinion of Pei Yusheng was naturally more nuanced than other employees’.
Li Anbei tried to reassure her: “It’s fine. I guess President Pei is just taking a more approachable route. We’re just lucky to be here.”
Chen Zixuan forced a smile. “Stop. Please. I swear I can hear you jinxing it already.”
Li Anbei suppressed a laugh. He noticed Qi Ji nearby, who unusually wasn’t focused on his meal but on the president. Curiosity got the better of him. “Qi Qi, what are you looking at?”
The spoon clinked lightly against the bowl.
Qi Ji lowered his gaze and, after a brief pause, said softly, “I just saw the president swipe his card.”
“So?” Li Anbei asked. Employees all had ID cards for payment.
Slowly, Qi Ji said, “When he swiped it, the machine showed a balance of 99,999,999.”
The cafeteria’s card reader could only display eight digits.
Chen Zixuan: “…”
Li Anbei: “…What?”
If they didn’t know their junior’s eyesight was nearly perfect, they would have thought he misread it.
Li Anbei swallowed hard. “Zixuan, is that a machine error, or is it a company perk? Do all executives have such absurd balances?”
Chen Zixuan frowned. “No. The VP’s monthly meal allowance is the same as ours.”
Li Anbei muttered, “When I was a kid, I dreamed of spending money freely. As an adult, I dreamed of finding a man who would let me swipe his card. I never thought I’d see such a dream balance… in the company cafeteria.”
As they spoke, another crisp clink echoed.
“Clang!”
Looking over, they saw Qi Ji’s spoon hit the bowl again.
“Qi Ji, are you burned?” Chen Zixuan asked.
The boy kept his head down, voice barely audible: “No,” and returned to his meal, almost trying to disappear into his tray to avoid being noticed.
Chen Zixuan was puzzled, while Li Anbei looked equally strange, opening his mouth to speak but suddenly falling silent.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Before she could finish, a deep, pleasant voice sounded behind her, making her neck instinctively tighten:
“Excuse me, is this seat taken?”
Chen Zixuan stiffly turned.
The handsome man holding a tray, smiling, stood beside the only empty seat at the four-person table—the very culprit of her recent endless overtime.
Pei Yusheng. President Pei.
“The other seats are full. I noticed this one was empty, so I thought I’d ask.” His tone was friendly and approachable, yet each listener perceived a slightly different nuance.
Three years of high-pressure work had taught Chen Zixuan composure. She rose elegantly in twelve-centimeter heels, her expression flawless, replying like she was reporting a schedule: “Yes, President Pei, this seat is available.”
Lying would only make things worse.
Pei Yusheng chuckled softly. “Miss Chen, no need to be so polite. I’m just here for lunch.”
Chen Zixuan responded with a polite smile. “Please, have a seat.”
They both sat, and the cafeteria quieted again, save for the clinking of utensils.
No other executives came today, and rumors had already preceded him, so no one dared speak. Those who had finished or were still eating kept silent, unwilling to leave and miss this spectacle.
The new president, long absent, suddenly appeared in the cafeteria and specifically chose a seat next to the VP’s assistant.
Was it a test? Or an attempt to win favor?
The atmosphere was tense, yet the president remained composed, even starting casual conversation.
“Do you usually eat here?” he asked.
“Yes,” Chen Zixuan answered, bracing for the next question: “Does the VP come here too?”
Pei Yusheng did not ask. Instead, he glanced at his tray.
Clearly treated specially, his dishes were piled high, large portions, high quality, multiple varieties. Normally a single lunch included two vegetables and one meat dish; Pei Yusheng had five or six meat dishes, barely fitting on the tray.
“I think I ordered a bit too much,” he said to Chen Zixuan. “Do you like sweet things? Would you like some of this glutinous rice with red dates?”
Chen Zixuan broke out in a cold sweat.
What? Sharing food with the top boss she didn’t get along with? Was this a hint to leave early?
Her mind flashed to Vice President Zhang’s stern face.
Before she could reply, Pei Yusheng added, “Oh, girls usually don’t eat this much—they’re worried about gaining weight.”
With a natural motion, he passed the plate of glutinous rice and red dates to Qi Ji, who sat across from him.
“May I give this to you? I haven’t touched it yet.”
Caught off guard, Qi Ji, who had been trying to minimize his presence, froze.
His chopsticks were just holding the last glutinous rice date. The plate was nearly empty; refusing wasn’t an option.
“…Thank you, President Pei,” he murmured, head bowed.
Pei Yusheng’s low laugh finally reached his eyes.
“You’re welcome.”
Before long, Qi Ji had been served a pile of dishes by Pei Yusheng: glutinous rice with red dates, spinach with pork liver, red kidney beans with pork tail, tomato beef brisket, sweetened osmanthus lotus root…
All excellent for blood nourishment, lavish and abundant.
For a three-person lunch, Pei Yusheng had given Qi Ji almost two and a half portions. Conversation continued uninterrupted—mostly between Pei Yusheng and Chen Zixuan, with a few exchanges with Li Anbei. Qi Ji, still preoccupied with last night’s events, quietly ate.
He managed to finish almost everything.
Pei Yusheng ate a little himself. Once Qi Ji’s pace slowed, he sipped his soup delicately, ate a waffle for dessert, and finally cleared the empty dishes before leaving.
The cafeteria gradually emptied, but the gossip spread faster than the crowd dispersed.
Though Chen Zixuan was at the center, the true protagonists of the rumor were Pei Yusheng and Zhang Fu. Qi Ji, who hadn’t spoken all lunch, remained invisible in the whispers.
After the meal, Chen Zixuan went to the restroom to redo her makeup for a full ten minutes.
Lunch had been more exhausting than a week-long business trip.
By afternoon, the rumors had engulfed the office, while the real protagonists sat steadily in their offices, reviewing a report.
The report was miscellaneous; Pei Yusheng flipped to a page titled: Afternoon Tea Record.
Every page was densely filled:
June 17: Strawberry Mousse
June 18: Dried Strawberry
…
July 26: Strawberry Frappuccino
July 28: Strawberry Coconut Pudding
…
September 3: Strawberry Cheesecake
September 6: Strawberry Cream, Strawberry Chiffon Roll
…
Tapping his fingers on the polished wood desk, Pei Yusheng raised an eyebrow at the pages full of strawberries.
At that moment, his phone vibrated.
Pei Yusheng glanced at the number on the screen and pressed to answer.
“Hello, Yusheng?”
The voice on the other end was gentle and elegant, tinged with obvious delight and curiosity.
“I heard from Auntie that you brought back quite a lot of pastries this morning? Have you been craving sweets recently? Why didn’t you tell me? I’m just upstairs on the second floor, and you didn’t come up.”
“Mom,” Pei Yusheng replied, “Qilin said you were in a meeting, and Auntie also helped me gather plenty, so I didn’t want to disturb you.”
“It was just the regular weekly meeting, there’s no need to talk about disturbing or not,” Pei’s mother scolded lightly. “Qilin and the others brought back lots of desserts, and you even took the egg rolls and cookies that Uncle’s gardener brought from Hong Kong for the kids at home. I had Qishan bring another batch to replenish the gardener, and he even complained to me—he just got a new sports car and didn’t want to drive it, so he took the old one to Decheng to get the items. Not only did he get stuck in traffic, he was almost photographed by reporters and made the front page of the Apple Daily, described as ‘so broke he can only drive an old car to buy egg rolls.’”
Pei Yusheng chuckled. “I’ll give him a new engine for his new car as a hardship reward.”
The desserts Qilin brought back from Europe were excellent, but their price was conspicuous. Taking two or three boxes was fine, but any more, even for someone at the director level, would be too ostentatious to share freely with employees.
“Then tell him yourself. He’ll be happy,” his mother said. “Qishan will be coming from Hong Kong in the next few days. Whatever you want, you can have him bring it. And Uncle Chen… he just went on a European trip last month. There are plenty of chocolates and cookies there. You can have them air-shipped to try. If you like something, you can order more by container—it’s easy to transport by sea.”
“There are plenty of pastries in S City too. Use the internal line, press 1, and they’ll arrange it for you.”
She rattled off everything, as if she wanted to stuff it all into her son’s arms.
After all, this was the first time Pei Yusheng had openly shown interest in something in a long while. Even a few boxes of pastries were a huge change from his previous indifference.
Pei Yusheng wasn’t oblivious to his mother’s intentions. In the past, he would have nodded along, letting the gifts pile up without real interest.
But this time was different.
He recalled the boy—biting the waffle carefully, licking the sugar residue from his lips, the delicate softness of his tongue he had never seen but could imagine—and the satisfaction in which he ate each strawberry. Even the simplest chocolate could now capture his attention.
“Alright,” Pei Yusheng replied softly, cutting in before his mother could continue. “I’ll contact Qishan and Uncle Chen directly.”
“Good, good!” His mother’s happiness practically overflowed through the phone. After a few more words, they hung up.
Pei Yusheng’s gaze fell on the small rosewood pen holder on the desk.
Inside lay a carefully folded candy wrapper—strawberry-themed, red with black dots, exquisitely folded.
He dialed another number.
“Hello, Lao Lin, it’s me, Pei Yusheng.”
“Ah, you mean the estates you mentioned a few days ago? Which ones have land suitable for personal planting?”
The steady middle-aged voice on the other end betrayed a hint of tension. “Young Master Pei? Oh, yes. The Sheshan Estate and the Tangu Palace both have that. Tangu Palace’s land is fully private, unrestricted. Sheshan Estate needs to comply with the overall landscape design, so there’s slightly less autonomy, but basic development is possible…”
He went on to explain the details of the land, but Pei Yusheng interrupted.
“How soon can the Tangu Palace property be handed over?”
Lao Lin paused for a moment, then quickly recovered. “Tangu Palace is a new, ready-to-move-in property. Fast. You can use the VIP channel. After handover, you can move in immediately. Other procedures take at most two months.”
The estate was perfect in every respect—prime location in the elite district, mountains and lakes, 7,000 square meters of land, 2,000 square meters of building.
If there was a drawback, it was simple: expensive. Nine-digit starting price.
Lao Lin was still calculating when Pei Yusheng’s calm voice cut through.
“Good.”
“What do you mean, Young Master Pei? The house—” Lao Lin asked, unsure.
“Hmm?” Pei Yusheng’s tone remained flat, betraying no emotion. “I’ll take it. Set up a time to sign the contract as soon as possible.”
“Ah? Ah, ah! Understood! Understood, understood!”
“And the land, prepare it as soon as possible.”
Pei Yusheng spread his palm, the strawberry candy wrapper resting in his long, strong hand, the plastic catching tiny sparkles of light.
The voice on the other end offered suggestions eagerly, but Pei Yusheng’s tone remained unchanged.
“No, don’t plant anything else. Fill the entire plot with strawberries.”