My minimum living allowance is credited to my account every day with 1000 million yuan

Junxiao Lakeside CBD Center, 58th floor office

Outside the huge floor-to-ceiling windows is an unparalleled view of Bailu Lake in Jiangzhou, and sunlight streams in, making the interior bright and airy.

Chen Xiao, holding his phone, interrupted Zhang Ziqian's report.

Zhang Ziqian paused, looking at her boss completely absorbed in the game, and sighed helplessly. Her insightful eyes clearly reflected Chen Xiao's focused profile. She put down the documents in her hand, crossed her arms, and her voice carried a rare hint of complaint—a complaint only someone in her position dared to utter:
"Boss, aren't you being a bit too irresponsible?" She raised an eyebrow slightly, her tone tinged with disappointment. "Playing games so much that you can't even be bothered to listen to the company's financial statements? People always say that indulging in frivolous pursuits leads to the loss of one's ambition, and I think... the ancients were right!"

Ma Jing, who was tidying up another stack of documents, couldn't help but chuckle when she heard this, adding with a hint of amusement, "Ziqian, don't expect him to listen to anything right now. His mind is already elsewhere; he has to go home to pick up his grandmother and head to Dr. Feng's Robotics Technology Group later."

Chen Xiao seemed not to hear their banter. He quickly tapped a few more times, finally turning off his phone screen and tossing it onto the desk piled high with files. On the screen, the progress of the "Conquer the World" level clearly displayed "290"!
With Xie Xiaoxiao, the "Vice Minister of Revenue," providing a constant stream of "resources" (gold coins), his character progresses rapidly, already approaching level 300!
He leaned back comfortably in the large leather executive chair, a smug smile on his face saying "I'm very strong," as he looked at Zhang Ziqian:

"Ziqian, to be honest, this game is actually quite simple." He spoke casually, as if discussing the weather. "You guys need to step up your game! Your [King's Army] is only at level 120, right? I had to carry you through several high-difficulty dungeons and cram a lot of resources into it before you got there. Your efficiency is..." He shook his head, looking like he couldn't carry him.

He paused, as if remembering something, and a sneer curled at the corner of his lips:

"And that Qin Ning! He's a complete waste!" He sneered. "What's with his title, 'Grand Marshal of the Army'? Sounds impressive, but what's the result? He's only at level 100-something now? He's far from level 300! It's truly... a disgrace—" His contempt for this "Marshal" was palpable.

Zhang Ziqian recalled Qin Ning's gloomy, almost devastated face at Xiao Restaurant last night when he mentioned the game. Hearing Chen Xiao's light, mocking tone, she couldn't help but chuckle. She tried to put on a serious face, attempting to reason with him:

"Boss! You make it sound so easy! You didn't spend any money! But do you know how much the resources Xie Xiaoxiao 'contributed' to you are worth in Chinese Yuan?" She held up her slender finger and gestured. "A full 150 million! Tell me, how many players in the entire game server can invest that much real money? You've purely... achieved that speed by throwing money at it!"

"Hmm?" Chen Xiao raised an eyebrow, seemingly agreeing with Zhang Ziqian's point, but then quickly found a new "benchmark." He picked up his phone again, opened the leaderboard, and pointed to a name. "I think this [King of Glory] is pretty good! Quite skilled! I've seen him spend a lot of money these past few days, probably about the same amount of resources as my account... Competition makes things interesting!"

Zhang Ziqian rolled her eyes. Isn't this just an arms race?

Chen Xiao seemed to suddenly become interested. Ignoring Zhang Ziqian's eye roll, he picked up his phone again, his fingers flying across the keyboard as he sent Xie Xiaoxiao a voice message, his voice carrying a mix of "worry" and "encouragement":
"Minister! This is bad! [King of Glory] has recharged again! The firepower is fierce! You're the game's spokesperson! If your own account gets fewer resources than theirs, wouldn't that be a slap in the face? How embarrassing! Hurry up and think of a way to save face!"

have to--

Zhang Ziqian was utterly speechless. She finally understood! This guy didn't think the game was easy; he was clearly encountering a tough challenge, and he wanted to crush it with the simplest and most brutal method—spending money!

If it were someone else who spent 150 million Chinese Yuan and was still stuck at level 290, she would definitely complain that person was a complete waste of time! So bad they'd be disgusting!

But the person in front of me is the boss... I can only keep my complaints to myself and then swallow them back down.

After sending the message, Chen Xiao stood up: "I'm leaving. I'm going home to pick up my mother to go to Dr. Feng's Robotics Technology Group."

Feng Feifei returned from her business trip and originally planned to visit her mother-in-law, Shen Jun. However, when Shen Jun heard that "Dr. Feng's Robotics Technology Group" was where her son, Chen Xiao, worked, she immediately became very interested. The old lady insisted on visiting the company in person to see where her son had once toiled, which led to today's itinerary.

Zhang Ziqian and Ma Jing naturally followed. On the way, Chen Xiao remembered something and said to Zhang Ziqian, "I won't take advantage of Xie Xiaoxiao for nothing. Go to the secret stash and pick out a gift for her."

Chen Xiao's secret stash is full of treasures, none of which start at less than a million. Some of the more valuable antiques are even worth hundreds of millions.
Zhang Ziqian knows Chen Xiao too well. She didn't even need to ask him what value he was giving her. She went to her secret stash and picked out a Vacheron Constantin watch. It was a limited edition watch that she had casually bought in Shanghai last time, worth over 300 million yuan.

Her choice made sense. Although she didn't know Xie Xiaoxiao had used her own money to top up Chen Xiao's account, she had still given Chen Xiao nearly 200 million worth of game resources. Zhang Ziqian knew Chen Xiao wasn't the type to take advantage of others, so she chose a more valuable watch as a gift for Xie Xiaoxiao.

Just as Zhang Ziqian came out, the group was about to leave.

Ring ring—

Chen Xiao's phone suddenly rang, breaking the silence of the elevator. He took out his phone, and the name "Zhao Xiangjun" appeared on the screen.

"Hello, Xiangjun?" Chen Xiao answered the phone, her voice naturally softening.

“Chen Xiao, Mom said we won’t go to Dr. Feng’s new campus yet. She wants to go check out the ‘old company’ first. You don’t need to go all the way home to pick us up. Let’s just drive there and meet at the old company.”

The old company? Chen Xiao was slightly taken aback, a clear look of doubt flashing across his face.

That was his office when he first joined Dr. Feng's Robotics Technology Company—a rented, somewhat shabby office unit. Later, the company grew and moved entirely into the impressive Dr. Feng's Robotics Technology Park, and he assumed the old office had been returned to the landlord long ago. Unexpectedly…

He subconsciously glanced at Ma Jing beside him; she should know the inside story.

Ma Jing immediately understood, lowered her voice, and explained softly with a hint of emotion: "President Feng... later bought the property rights there. She said... that place holds the company's most difficult and purest years, and is the true 'path of origin' for our Dr. Feng Robotics Technology Group... It holds many irreplaceable memories."

Chen Xiao nodded slightly, his voice unconsciously tinged with reminiscence as he spoke to Zhao Xiangjun on the other end of the phone: "Okay... then see you at the old company." He paused, his tone carrying a hint of anticipation for revisiting familiar places, and even made a little joke that only he and Zhao Xiangjun would understand: "Xiangjun, perfect timing, I'll take you to see... the place where your husband once 'worked hard'!" Worked hard?

The way he uttered those four words carried a strange sense of reality. Before acquiring that all-changing "Dedication Blessing System," in those days when he couldn't see the future, wasn't he just there, engaging in the most primitive and clumsy "hard work"?

Those years when he struggled to keep his job and earn that meager salary were perhaps the most "purely hardworking" time of his life—even though his motivation didn't stem from passion, but from the need to survive.

The elevator descended smoothly. Chen Xiao seemed still immersed in those complex emotions. He turned to Zhang Ziqian beside him, and with a hint of interest in sharing the past, he brought up the "path he had taken":
"Ziqian, do you know? Back then, the company almost went bankrupt. Everyone was panicking. All the employees were waiting to collect their compensation and leave. When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter..." He seemed to be lost in memories. "In the end, only two people remained in the entire company." Zhang Ziqian and Ma Jing both perked up their ears. This was the first time Chen Xiao had personally told this story.

“One is me,” Chen Xiao pointed to himself, then said with a hint of teasing, “and the other is Xia Yun, the finance director.”

He added a sentence, his tone carrying a sense of "clarification," as if explaining a point that was often misunderstood:
"However, Xia Yun stayed behind purely because she and Feng Feifei have been best friends for over ten years, they're incredibly close! She stayed out of loyalty, to help her best friend hold onto the last bit of the business..."

Zhang Ziqian was listening intently and blurted out unconsciously, "Then boss, you...you're really stupid...uh..." As soon as the words left her mouth, she immediately realized her mistake, covered her mouth abruptly, her eyes widened, and she quickly corrected herself, "...really brave! Brave! Too brave!"

As she spoke, she awkwardly made an exaggerated face at Ma Jing next to her and playfully stuck out her tongue, trying to cover up her slip of the tongue.

To be honest, from a normal person's perspective, Zhang Ziqian felt that her first reaction was completely correct!

If it were anyone else!

Having only recently joined the company, and probably not even past probation, I'm just an insignificant, underutilized low-level employee with an uncertain future...

When the company is on the verge of bankruptcy and everyone is happily running away with their compensation, what's the point of staying? Are you going to be buried with it? Are you just waiting to be owed wages? Isn't that just stupid?!

But then Zhang Ziqian thought again, was the boss staying for the meager salary? It was obvious he was staying to woo the female CEO.

Chen Xiao was truly wronged in this regard. However, he couldn't possibly reveal the system's existence; that would be too shocking. Therefore, he chose not to explain why everyone believed he stayed to pursue Feng Feifei.

When they arrived at the old company building, Zhang Ziqian was incredulous. "Wow, your old company's office environment was this bad?"

Chen Xiao said irritably, "They're almost bankrupt, they can't even pay salaries, we're lucky to have a place to work."

Ma Jing chuckled and said, "Back then here, Brother Chen Xiao didn't even have a private office."

When Zhang Ziqian was with Chen Xiao, he was already living a life of extravagance and debauchery. Looking at the fact that an entire floor of the Junxiao Huanhu CBD building, more than 2000 square meters, is now his and Xu Wu's office area, it's hard to imagine the scene back then when they didn't even have an office.

As they were talking, a deep, powerful engine roar came from afar. A convoy of several sleek, imposing black bulletproof Maybachs, like silent steel behemoths, came to a steady stop beside them.

Zhao Xiangjun and Shen Yun also arrived.

Previously, Zhao Xiangjun never came to the office, but recently, in order to accompany her mother-in-law Shen Yun, she made an exception and visited several of Chen Xiao's offices. At this moment, she stood in front of the old building, her gaze carrying a hint of inquiry.

Shen Yun immediately asked, "Chen Xiao, when your father and I came to Jiangzhou, were you working here?" Her voice was full of curiosity; it seemed that her son, who was worth trillions, shouldn't be working in such a "simple" place.

Zhao Xiangjun tilted her head, looking at Chen Xiao, a mischievous smile flickering in her clear eyes. She linked her arm with Shen Jun's, her red lips parted slightly, and she teased him in a way only they understood:
"Chen Xiao, back then... when you 'tricked' me into paying your property management fees, you were 'struggling' here, weren't you?" She deliberately emphasized the words "tricked" and "struggled," with a strong sense of teasing.

Did you trick her into paying property management fees?

Shen Yun knew about that "beautiful misunderstanding." Zhang Ziqian and Ma Jing, however, were hearing about it for the first time. They exchanged a glance but didn't dare to ask.

Chen Xiao scratched his head innocently. It was clearly her who subjectively regarded him as a "poor wretch," and he had never lied to her.

Knowing that Zhao Xiangjun was joking, he didn't explain, because the two of them had already argued about this many times at home. Zhao Xiangjun was determined to pin this crime on him firmly, and he was "happy to compromise."

"Let's go upstairs. Feifei said she wanted to come, but I didn't let her. Let's just look around here for a bit, and then we'll go to Dr. Feng's Robotics Technology Park."

Hearing Zhao Xiangjun's words, Shen Yun nodded in agreement, "I was just curious and came to see where you used to work."

The group entered the office building. Since it was working hours, the lobby on the first floor was rather quiet with few employees coming and going. However, when the radiant Zhao Xiangjun, the capable and elegant Zhang Ziqian, and the pretty Ma Jing escorted Chen Xiao and Shen Jun in—

Time seemed to freeze! Everyone passing by or lingering in the lobby, men and women alike, were drawn to them like a magnet, their eyes filled with astonishment. (End of Chapter)