Especially the one that kept hopping about.

Xiao Qi sat up, scratched at her hair, and shook Xiao Bai awake.

Xiao Bai, who had been sleeping soundly, was thoroughly displeased. "What now?"

"I'm in a very bad mood."

Xiao Bai lifted its cat head to look at her. "Why?"

"Ah..." Xiao Qi let out a long sigh. She had so much to say, but she did not know where to begin.

Seeing her like that, Xiao Bai gave up on sleep too. It stood on its hind legs and said, "Go on. I'm listening."

"I feel like I'm a pig, and Lin Yichen is a wolf. I was caught by that wolf and raised in a pen. The pig was unwilling, of course, but it couldn't beat the wolf and wasn't as clever, so it had no choice but to obey the wolf and eat the wolf's food. After a while, the pig seemed to get used to being raised like that. Then the wolf suddenly let the pig go and caught another pig to keep instead. Now the first pig is actually miserable. Tell me, what should this pig do?"

"Uh... then become a free-spirited wild boar!"

"..." Xiao Qi's face went black. "Xiao Bai, can't you comfort me properly?"

Xiao Bai flopped onto the bed. "Xiao Qi, you're done for. You really have fallen for him. But if you want comfort, then here's a comforting word: your interspecies romance is so romantic!"

"..." Forget it. Better not be comforted. If she was comforted any more, she would really become a pig.

So Xiao Qi did not really want to go and tried to find an excuse. "Yiyang, you're taking me to a meeting. Those executives will talk about you."

"Who would dare?" Yiyang said with a proud, petulant air. "I'm the second young master of the Lin family. If I want to bring one of my people to a meeting, I bring one of my people." He pulled her to her feet. "Hurry up. The meeting's about to start."

"Okay."

The executives were already waiting in the conference room. Xiao Qi walked in and asked Yiyang in a low voice, "Yiyang, they're all here. Are we late?"

Yiyang pulled her down to sit beside him. "It's fine. My brother isn't here yet."

"Oh." Xiao Qi felt terribly awkward sitting beside him, and ever since she stepped into the conference room, it seemed as if she had become the center of attention.

"Yiyang, maybe I should just..."

A tall figure swept past in front of her.

Xiao Qi looked up instinctively.

Yichen walked to the head seat with one hand in his pocket and sat down. His entire bearing radiated refinement and nobility, and everyone in the conference room straightened at once.

He truly was handsome beyond measure, dazzling and imposing. The moment he entered, he could suppress the whole room with ease and command the entire situation.

Ah, he really did make one have to look up to him.

Yichen glanced at Xiao Qi, then at Yiyang, and said calmly, "Distribute the files."

Yiyang nudged the somewhat distracted Xiao Qi with his elbow. "Xiao Qi, hand out the files you signed."

Xiao Qi was jolted back to herself. "Oh, oh, oh."

Fali turned on the recording device and said, taking the files Xiao Qi had distributed, "Today's topic is the plan for next quarter submitted by the new project development department. Everyone has already reviewed these proposals before. First is the perfume development project proposed by Director Lin..."

"Wasn't this proposal mistaken?" one executive suddenly said. He spread the file open in front of him. "Wasn't this already rejected by the company? Why is it signed now?"

"Yes, how can you sign off on a discarded proposal?"

"Wouldn't that make a complete mess of things?"

At once, the executives in the conference room began murmuring among themselves.

Xiao Qi looked at Yiyang, and Yiyang looked at the man at the head of the table.

Yichen looked down at the signature at the bottom of the file. His dark eyes flicked toward the two of them, and both of them, in perfect unison, lowered their heads.

Withdrawing his gaze, Yichen closed the file and looked at Yiyang again. "Director Lin, explain this clearly to everyone."

Yiyang raised his head, wanting to speak but hesitating. "Brother, I, I haven't been at the company long, and some things I..."

"In the company, there are only colleagues, not brothers." Yichen's voice was cool. "Any proposal submitted to senior management can be checked in the meeting records. Have you never checked the records while working?"

"It was me," Xiao Qi said, standing up and biting her lip. "You... Director Lin asked me to organize the files before, and I mixed them up. I handed him the rejected proposal by mistake. I'm sorry. It was my fault."

They all knew that the person before them had a special place in Lin's heart. But because of the sapphire incident, many of them had their own opinions about her, and now that Lin had even moved her away from his side, it showed that he did not care all that much about her after all.

Perhaps it had only been a whim.

Men, especially men as lofty as President Lin, often only played around.

And so...

One executive said, "How do you even do your job? Just one little employee, and you've got the whole upper management running in circles. Do you think the company is your own backyard?"

"Exactly..."

Everyone began criticizing Xiao Qi, and she lowered her head.

Yiyang looked at his brother, but there was no expression on the other's face, and he could not tell what he was thinking.

Then Yichen tapped his finger lightly on the table, and the room immediately fell silent.

"Since Director Lin has signed this proposal, it means you already approved it. Since you approved it, then finish the project properly."

"President Lin, how can that be?" one executive said. "This was already a rejected proposal. To do it again would be..."

"What? Do you have any objection to what I'm saying?"

The executives instantly did not dare to protest anymore.

But they still felt unconvinced in their hearts.

Yiyang understood that his brother was giving him a way out.

"Brother, doing a rejected proposal over again really isn't ideal. How about you give me a project instead? I guarantee I'll do it well."

Yichen nodded. "Fine. Within one week, bring me a new and convincing proposal. If you pass, today's mistake can be forgotten. But if you fail, then be prepared to be demoted." Then he looked at the executives who were still dissatisfied. "Any more objections?"

His manner was plain, and his words were plain too, yet every sentence from his mouth carried an authority that inspired conviction and left no room for doubt.

So, in unison, they all shook their heads and said they had no objections.

The two of them returned to the office looking dispirited. Yiyang sat in the soft chair and slumped over his desk, muttering, "It's over. I'm going to be demoted."

Xiao Qi comforted him. "Yiyang, you're his younger brother. He was probably only saying that. He won't really demote you."

"Do you think he's the sort of person who only says things?" Yiyang looked utterly hopeless. "Xiao Qi, I think my brother will probably send me to a construction site to carry bricks from now on."

"..."

He lifted his head and added, "He'll probably send you to the construction site too."

"..."

At once, Xiao Qi's mind filled with an image of herself wearing a hard hat and a frumpy middle-aged woman's outfit, her skin tanned dark by the sun, then seeing President Lin and baring a row of blinding white teeth at him. "Please, sir president, have mercy. I know I was wrong. Let me come back to your side!"

The president, magnanimously, said, "Fine. Then stay by my side and work for me for free for the long term!"

Xiao Qi shuddered as if struck by lightning.

She immediately asked Yiyang anxiously, "Then hurry up and think of a way..."

"I've got it." Yiyang was instantly no longer hopeless. "When I was painting before, I met a master perfumer. We can go and see him. Once we've investigated things, won't we have something to write into the proposal?"

Xiao Qi perked up as well and said sincerely, "Yiyang, you finally came through for once."

"..."

Yiyang suddenly looked at her very seriously. "Then do you believe I'll succeed this time?"

Without hesitation, Xiao Qi nodded. "Of course I believe you. I've always believed in you."

Yiyang's eyes lit up. He took her hand. "No time to lose. Come on, let's go find that master perfumer right now."

Yichen stood by the floor-to-ceiling window when two figures suddenly appeared in his line of sight.

One was his younger brother, the other was the person he liked. He did not even need to look closely to know exactly who the two were.

Running off during work hours?

A date?

President Lin was no longer calm.

He immediately took out his phone, then hesitated.

His mind told him: follow them and see where they're going.

If it really was a date—

A date during work hours—

He would have to give them both a very, very serious lesson.

Especially the one who was practically skipping along.

Xiao Qi had not expected the master perfumer Yiyang mentioned to be such a reclusive figure.

Driving for two hours was still not enough. They also had to take a boat, then drive another half hour before they finally arrived.

Now they had reached a desolate, uninhabited island.