Chapter 4

Ye Mo, however, had already asked with great interest, "Secretary Chen, I'm curious. If Ye Baozhu and I came into conflict, whose side would you take?"

Secretary Chen froze, then said, "As far as I can see, both you and Miss Baozhu are very easy to get along with, so the two of you should get along very well. There shouldn't be any question of conflict."

Ye Mo laughed and shook her head. "Secretary Chen, I doubt you even believe that yourself."

She calmly stated a fact. "Ye Baozhu would rather pretend to be sick than let anyone from the Ye family come pick me up in person. Do you think she'll get along with me?"

If Ye Mo had been the sort to swallow her anger, perhaps she could have endured it and gotten along with her. Unfortunately, Ye Mo wasn't someone who would let herself suffer, so it was already easy to imagine how unfriendly their future relationship would be.

After hearing Ye Mo out, Secretary Chen had to admit she was right. His boss's family life would probably be very lively in the future.

Just as Secretary Chen was inwardly sighing over this, Ye Mo, who stood beside him, suddenly said, "Secretary Chen, is Miss Xiya cute?"

Secretary Chen answered instinctively, "Cu... huh?!"

Halfway through his answer, he suddenly realized something was wrong and whipped his head toward Ye Mo in horror, only to see a hint of mischief in her eyes.

Secretary Chen: "..."

"Y-you..." Secretary Chen's face alternated between red and green, as though he had suffered a tsunami-sized shock.

After a long while, he finally squeezed out a question. "How do you know about Miss Xiya?"

"Well..." Ye Mo spun a yarn with a perfectly straight face. "Actually, my adoptive parents' ancestors were fortune-tellers. I just happened to inherit their mantle. I'm this generation's divine fortune-teller in our family."

Beside her, Shen Yan was astonished. "Really?!"

He clapped his hands in realization. "No wonder you weren't surprised at all when I told you Secretary Chen had come looking for you! So you'd already foreseen it? Why didn't you tell me before that you had a talent like this?"

I'm obviously talking nonsense, aren't I?

Speechless and incredulous, Ye Mo looked at her manager and discovered that he actually seemed to believe everything she had said.

Ye Mo: "..." Can I even keep this manager?

She looked back at Secretary Chen and discovered that he, too, wore an expression of understanding.

Unable to help falling silent again, Ye Mo said, "..."

"Who's Miss Xiya?" Shen Yan suddenly remembered this question and asked curiously, "You both know her. Is she some big foreign celebrity? No, that can't be right. If she's a big celebrity, how come I don't know her?"

"Who is Miss Xiya..."

Ye Mo drew out her words, looking toward Secretary Chen as she spoke. As expected, she found that his expression had stiffened slightly.

Ye Mo paused, then said, "Whoever Miss Xiya is, you don't know her anyway. Why ask so many questions, Shen Yan?"

By the time she finished speaking, the elevator had reached the ground floor. Ye Mo walked out first, with Secretary Chen close behind, leaving the great manager Shen standing alone in the elevator with a bewildered expression.

"I can't even ask?" he muttered as he walked out of the elevator. "I'm a manager with absolutely no dignity."

At that moment, 888 said in an extremely gossipy tone, "Host, I saw Secretary Chen let out such a huge sigh of relief just now! You deliberately brought up Miss Xiya to give him a scare, didn't you?"

A glint of wicked amusement flashed through Ye Mo's eyes. "Ah, what can I do? I'm petty and quibble over every last penny... I did it on purpose!"

888 sighed. "Host, you're really wicked."

Ye Mo raised an eyebrow, taking pride rather than shame in it. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Behind Ye Mo, Secretary Chen watched her retreating figure. His expression looked composed and serious, but in truth, his mind was already in complete chaos.

Secretary Chen simply couldn't figure out how this Miss Ye knew he liked Miss Xiya. He was certain he had never revealed the slightest hint of his preferences in front of her... Could she really tell fortunes?

At that moment, Secretary Chen felt

that the scientific worldview he believed in was teetering, on the verge of shattering violently.

At this point, it was necessary to explain just who Miss Xiya was.

People who didn't follow anime and two-dimensional culture probably wouldn't recognize the name, but any enthusiast would definitely be very familiar with Miss Xiya. After all, she was the goddess of countless fans of the two-dimensional world.

And although Secretary Chen looked serious, proper, and meticulous, in private, he was a veteran otaku through and through. Miss Xiya was his goddess.

For all these years, Secretary Chen had kept his identity as a veteran otaku tightly under wraps whenever he was out in the world. He had never imagined that someone would suddenly expose it today.

Embarrassment, shame, devastation...

At this moment, Secretary Chen's feelings could only be described as complicated.

"It's all right, Secretary Chen." As though aware of his complicated feelings, Ye Mo comforted him. "Who in this world hasn't suffered social death? As long as you aren't embarrassed, I'm the one who's embarrassed!"

Secretary Chen looked at her expressionlessly and asked, "Then do you feel embarrassed right now, Miss Ye?"

"Not at all," Ye Mo answered without hesitation. She didn't even know how to spell embarrassment.

Secretary Chen smiled. Everything went without saying.

The three of them arrived outside the company building. Secretary Chen had already called the driver, and the car was waiting at the entrance. All three got in without incident.

"...Let me introduce your family members to you, Miss Ye," Secretary Chen began.

At his words, Ye Mo immediately adopted an expression of rapt attention.

Then, as Secretary Chen introduced them, she gained a general understanding of her bargain-bin relatives' circumstances.

The Ye family had six members in total: the two parents and four children, three boys and one girl.

As the Ye family's only daughter, and having been born with heart disease, Ye Baozhu had naturally been showered with affection and pampering, growing up cherished by everyone in the family. They could be said to have poured one hundred percent of their love into her.

That love and concern had continued for twenty-three years, ever since her birth. So even though she had now been revealed not to be their biological daughter, the Ye family's affection for her couldn't disappear overnight.

Meanwhile, Ye Mo, the biological daughter who had only just been found, had never spent any time with the Ye family, let alone built any emotional foundation with them. So if she really returned to the Ye family, her awkward position was plain to see.

Even Secretary Chen couldn't help breaking into a sweat over her future.

After hearing Secretary Chen's introduction, however, Ye Mo suddenly sighed. "...Looks like the Ye family completely ignored the country's call for family planning back then. They actually had four children. Their ideological awareness is nothing like mine."

She said proudly, "I've had very high ideological awareness ever since I was little. Every time there was a selection, I was always the most outstanding model Youth League member!"

Secretary Chen choked on her words. Only after several seconds did he say, "After everything I've said, Miss Ye, that's your only reaction?"

Ye Mo gave him a strange look. "What else?"

She suddenly laughed, her tone

relaxed

as she said, "Secretary Chen, don't overthink it. As you said, the Ye family has never spent any time with me and has no feelings for me... but isn't it exactly the same for me?"

So what other feelings could she have about the Ye family? Absolutely none, all right?

Over an hour later, their car appeared at the foot of a green mountain in tranquil surroundings and drove uphill along a smooth road.

The green mountain was enchanting, the scenery beautiful, with detached villas appearing here and there amid the mountain woods.

"This must be City B's rich neighborhood!" Shen Yan looked out the window, unable to help exclaiming with shining eyes.

"Jianglin District."

City B's famous wealthy neighborhood. The buildings here followed the contours of the mountain, and the surroundings were quiet and secluded. It was said that anyone living here had assets easily exceeding several billion. Every last one of them was filthy rich.