On the way home with Zhong You in his arms, Song Jinxing happened to run into the nanny Zhong Ruanxing had hired, inside the elevator.
"Oh, Miss Zhong, what a coincidence! Youyou, good morning!" Liu Cai greeted them, holding a bag of groceries.
The Zhong family used to have two nannies—one responsible for cooking, and the other for caring for the elderly and children. Both had worked for two to three years and were very experienced. But as luck would have it, after the New Year, both nannies resigned due to personal reasons. So Zhong Ruanxing had to hire replacements.
Liu Cai came recommended by one of the former nannies. Originally, Zhong Ruanxing had planned to hire two people again, but Liu Cai patted her chest and confidently guaranteed she could handle the work of both on her own. She was young, energetic, and especially efficient during her probation period, which made her seem very reliable. Since Zhong Ruanxing couldn't find a second suitable person for the time being, she agreed—and offered Liu Cai a salary three times higher than the market's top rate.
Song Jinxing glanced at the sharp-smiling Liu Cai, then at the time on the elevator display, and said coolly, "It's 9:30. If I'm not mistaken, your shift starts at 8:00 a.m."
Liu Cai's expression stiffened. She hadn't expected the usually easygoing Miss Zhong to suddenly lash out. She stammered, "My son forgot something important for his meeting this morning… He said it was urgent, so I had to go bring it to him."
Song Jinxing gave her a look. "An hour and a half is enough time for many things to happen. If something were to happen to my mother or sister because you decided to skip work without notice, can you bear that responsibility?"
It was still the same beautiful face—but without a smile, it suddenly carried an intimidating aura. Those cold eyes seemed to pin her to the spot. Liu Cai broke out in a cold sweat and stuttered, "I'm sorry, Miss Zhong. I—I won't be late again."
Song Jinxing gave a faint "Mm," and as the elevator doors opened, he stepped out first, still holding Zhong You who was happily licking her strawberry ice cream. Liu Cai quietly wiped the sweat off her brow behind him.
He didn't have much to deal with besides occasionally managing the energetic Zhong You, but it was a different story for Zhong Ruanxing.
As soon as she arrived at the company in the morning, she didn't even have time to sip her hot water before heading into a meeting. By 8:00 a.m. sharp, the large conference room was filled with people—men and women, young and old. Zhong Ruanxing used up all her brain power just trying to match names with faces, and didn't register a single word of what the meeting was actually about.
After the meeting ended and she returned to the CEO's office, Zhong Ruanxing didn't even get a chance to admire the space before people began coming in one after another to report on their work. The stack of documents needing her signature grew higher and higher—Zhong Ruanxing was even starting to worry whether the recording pen she had kept running would run out of memory.
Finally, lunchtime arrived.
Zhong Ruanxing collapsed into the executive chair.
So being a CEO was this exhausting?! But she hadn't even done anything!
Just as she was slumped over, the beautiful secretary, Tong Ling, brought in a cup of coffee.
"President Song, President Chen from Kamikaze wants to have dinner with you tonight. He said there's been new progress in their AI development and wants to discuss it with you."
Zhong Ruanxing picked up the coffee and took a sip—only to nearly be sent straight to the afterlife by the soul-crushing bitterness of the hot Americano. She forced herself to swallow it with a grim expression and said, "Tell him I'll reply in ten minutes."
Tong Ling nodded and left.
Zhong Ruanxing took a photo of the pile of documents on the desk and sent it to Song Jinxing:
—[Photo]: Documents that need to be signed today.
—Have you had lunch?
—Not yet. I'm exhausted.
—[Location Pin]: Go wait for me here. The table's already reserved. Bring the documents.
—OK! Also, President Chen from Kamikaze wants to have dinner with you to talk about AI. Are you going?
—No.
—Why not? Didn't he say there's been progress in the research? Don't you want to hear about it?
—Personally, I don't think his project has a future.
—Alright then. How's everything on your end?
—All normal.
Zhong Ruanxing opened WeChat and messaged Tong Ling:
[Please kindly decline President Chen for me. Thank you for your hard work.]
Tong Ling, who was eating in the cafeteria at that moment, nearly spat out her soup when she saw the message.
Why did President Song say please and thank you for your hard work?! Was it because he thought she hadn't been working diligently the past two days?! She only took a little time during work to try grabbing tickets for her idol's concert—was President Song planning to fire her for that?!
Tong Ling nervously replied:
[Understood, President Song. It's no trouble at all.]
Thankfully, there was no further response. Still, Tong Ling ate the rest of her lunch in utter anxiety.
Zhong Ruanxing opened the navigation app to check the location—turns out, the restaurant Song Jinxing had sent was just five minutes away on foot. Since it was so close, she didn't bother calling the driver. After gathering the documents, she left the office.
Earlier in the morning, Fu Ling had led her through the executive passageway—an elevator only accessible to senior executives. But she hadn't gotten familiar with the building yet and couldn't find the private elevator, so she simply took the employee elevator instead.
This entire office building was part of the Song Corporation's real estate and served as their headquarters. Meanwhile, her own agency, Shengyu Entertainment, was also nearby, but it only rented three floors in a separate building—highlighting the vast financial power of the Song Corporation by comparison.
The CEO's office was on the 39th floor. Holding the documents, Zhong Ruanxing stepped into the elevator. It began its slow descent. When it reached a mid-level floor, the doors opened to a group of employees who were heading to the cafeteria for lunch.
The group, previously chatting and laughing, all went silent the moment they saw who was inside the elevator. The atmosphere instantly turned tense.
Lifting her eyes from her phone, Zhong Ruanxing looked at the frozen employees at the elevator door and asked in confusion, "Aren't you coming in?"
She reached out her hand to keep the elevator door open.
The employees' eyes all widened at once. While hurriedly greeting her with "Good afternoon, President Song," they timidly stepped into the elevator. But none of them dared to stand toward the back—they stuck as close as possible to the elevator doors, as if there were a man-eating demon standing behind them.
Zhong Ruanxing looked at the group of young employees who seemed to be trembling with their backs turned toward her and felt the need to ease the tension a bit.
Look how terrified these corporate slaves are. We're all just workers—there's no need to be this nervous!
She asked, "You guys heading to lunch?"
"Yes, President Song."
"Ah, yes! We're going to the cafeteria."
Zhong Ruanxing asked curiously, "Is the cafeteria food any good?"
She hadn't eaten in a cafeteria since graduating college. She actually liked cafeteria food—lots of variety, almost like a buffet.
"It's delicious, really delicious."
"Yes! Very tasty. We love it."
"We're especially grateful to the company for providing such rich and generous meals."
Zhong Ruanxing: …Something about this feels off.
The cafeteria was on the third floor. As soon as the elevator doors opened, the group of employees quickly said, "Goodbye, President Song," and bolted out like scared puppies. Once inside the bustling cafeteria, they collectively let out a sigh of relief as if they had just escaped from death's grip.
One of them exclaimed, "My whole back is soaked—who else can relate?!"
While grabbing trays and getting food, the others chimed in:
"That was terrifying. Why didn't President Song use his private elevator? Why did he come and squeeze into the employee elevator?"
"Maybe he wanted to catch us off guard—to see if we were talking bad about the company!"
"So scary. I can't even enjoy looking at that god-tier handsome face of his anymore. Every time I see him now, I'm reminded of that brutal 'Song Corp bloodbath' from six months ago! That look on his face haunted my dreams for days!"
"I know, I know! It was that look that said, 'Anyone who opposes me must die!' But I gotta admit, the man is freaking magnetic—he's both terrifying and irresistible."
"Yeah, it's the kind of charm mere mortals like us can't handle. If I were around him, I'd probably spend every second panicking, wondering if I'd made some mistake. Just one glance from those icy eyes and I'd drop to my knees and start singing 'Conquer' on the spot."
The group burst out laughing.
At that very moment, the so-called "devil President Song" they were talking about was stepping out of a taxi, fully disguised in a hat and face mask, making his way toward the restaurant they had agreed on.
He had barely taken a few steps when someone suddenly called out from behind, "Ruanxing? What are you doing here?"
Song Jinxing turned around and saw a business car parked just beyond the railing. The window rolled down, revealing a fresh, delicate face. She looked warm and cheerful.
"Are you heading to the company? Hop in, let's go together."
Song Jinxing quickly matched the face to a name.
Duan Tanyun.
The so-called "good friend" who had framed Zhong Ruanxing.