The pushover offended a top-tier boss

"Boss, I'll be going now."

Ye Zhenzhen slid off his lap, and this time he didn't stop her.

"Shall I take you back?" Zhou Huaijin asked.

"No need, no need, it's easy to take a taxi." She quickly waved her hand.

"There are cars in the garage, you can choose one to drive," Zhou Huaijin added.

"No, no, I'm not a good driver," she continued to refuse.

If you scratch or scrape something, you have to pay to fix it, right? But gas is free, isn't it?

She grabbed her bag and quickly slipped away.

Stepping out of Yuyuan Garden, a cold wind rushed towards her. Ye Zhenzhen stood by the roadside, took out her phone, and opened a ride-hailing app.

It would cost more than twenty yuan to get to her area.

More than twenty yuan.

That's enough for her to eat a bowl of snail rice noodles with a fried egg and duck feet.

She hesitated for two seconds, put her phone back in her pocket, walked two hundred meters, found the subway station entrance, and swiped her card to enter the station.

Actually, her place is only three streets away from Yuyuan, but one is an old and dilapidated tenement building, while the other is an old-fashioned villa area worth hundreds of millions.

Take the subway for three stops, then walk for ten minutes after exiting the station, and you'll arrive.

When she got to her building, she passed a pharmacy and suddenly stopped.

There was no solution the first time, and the second time...

It’s over.

How could she forget this?

No, that's too dangerous. Given her current situation and this ambiguous relationship, we absolutely cannot allow anything to go wrong.

She walked into the pharmacy and stood in front of the shelves for a while.

The shop assistant was a woman in her forties, wearing a white coat, and looking at her phone. She kept glancing around without saying a word.

"Hello, what would you like to buy?"

"Hello, I...I want to buy that..." Ye Zhenzhen stood in front of the counter, her face burning.

"Which one?"

"It's... that kind of after-work medication..."

The older sister's gaze swept over her. She turned around, took a box from the cabinet, and placed it on the counter.

"Effective if taken within 72 hours".

Ye Zhenzhen quickly scanned the code to pay, too embarrassed to even use her medical insurance card. She stuffed the medicine into her pocket and fled the pharmacy.

He went to the supermarket next door, bought a bottle of water, unscrewed the cap, stood by the roadside, took the medicine out of the aluminum foil, put it in his mouth, and tilted his head back to gulp down a big mouthful of water.

The water was too cold, making her teeth ache. She frowned and swallowed the medicine.

Clutching the empty medicine slab in her hand, she suddenly felt a little desolate.

She threw the empty medicine blister pack into the trash can and continued walking home.

After taking a couple of steps, she suddenly remembered the card in her pocket.

She stopped in front of the ATM on the side of the road, inserted her card, entered the password he had told her, and clicked "balance inquiry".

The screen flickered.

A screen full of zeros appeared in front of her.

She paused for a moment, thinking she was seeing things, and leaned closer to take a look.

Eight hundred thousand?

No. She counted on her fingers—ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions—

Eight million!

There are over 8.2 million in the card!

Ye Zhenzhen stood in front of the ATM, staring at the string of numbers on the screen, her mouth agape for a long time.

Ye Zhenzhen, you have eight million in your hands, yet you squeeze onto the subway just to save twenty yuan on bus fare.

She suddenly had a real feeling of being "kept" by a sugar daddy.

But then another thought popped into her head: Where did Zhou Huaijin get so much money? Isn't he a civil servant? She didn't know his salary, but it was impossible for him to have eight million in savings.

Could it have been embezzled?

Her heart sank.

Could he use his power to give her benefits, corrupt her, and eventually both of them end up in jail?

Will her position be revoked? Will her file be marked with "improper relationship with a fallen official"?

Countless melodramatic TV drama plots flashed through her mind, becoming more and more outrageous and frightening with each thought.

She couldn't take it anymore, so she took out her phone and called Lin Zhi.

"Zhizhi, Mengchen and I have broken up."

Lin Zhi on the other end of the phone was a little taken aback: "Huh? Why so suddenly? Didn't you say you were getting married after graduation?"

Ye Zhenzhen leaned against the wall next to the ATM and recounted everything that had happened recently—the two families' meeting had fallen apart, the issue of the bride price, Meng Chen's parents' attitude, and Meng Chen himself.

After listening, Lin Zhi remained silent for a few seconds, then let out a cold laugh: "Damn, Meng Chen's family is too scheming. It's a good thing you didn't marry into their family. They're causing trouble even before the wedding; who knows how they'll bully you later."

She paused, then softened her tone: "Sister, to be honest, Meng Chen has been quite attentive to you these past few years. He's a good person, but you deserve better."

Ye Zhenzhen held her phone and hesitated for a moment.

"Zhizhi, I have a question for you..."

"So... what's your opinion on being 'kept'?"

Lin Zhi stated unequivocally: "Morally corrupt and morally improper."

Ye Zhenzhen lowered her head in shame.

"I'm being kept by a sugar daddy," she confessed softly.

There was a full three seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

Immediately afterward, Lin Zhi let out a thunderous scream: "Holy crap! That's awesome, sis!"

Startled by the scream, Ye Zhenzhen moved her phone further away.

"So that's why you were transferred to the new district committee! Are you having an affair with your dean?" Lin Zhi's voice was filled with a gossipy, excited fervor.

"No..." Ye Zhenzhen interrupted her, "It's our new Party Secretary..."

"Department secretary? Wait a minute, I remember your department secretary is a woman?"

"It's...our Party Secretary..."

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

This time it was quiet for a long time.

Ye Zhenzhen thought the signal was lost, but when she glanced at the screen, it was still in a call.

Immediately afterward, Lin Zhi's voice rang out again, this time much lower, as if confirming some major secret: "Bin City New District Party Secretary... Zhou Huaijin?"

Ye Zhenzhen was taken aback: "How do you know him?"

"He's our big boss's childhood friend!" Lin Zhi's voice rose again. "I saw him once at the company; he had an aura of authority, so serious and cold. My god! You've hooked up with a big shot like that?!"

Before Ye Zhenzhen could speak, Lin Zhi had already switched to a different tone, raising his voice: "Sister, oh no, shouldn't I call you Madam now? Madam, this old servant has arrived!"

Ye Zhenzhen smiled wryly: "Don't tease me, I'm almost driven crazy with worry."

"What's there to worry about!" Lin Zhi retorted without hesitation. "Do you know how many people are lining up to sleep with someone like that? By the way—he seems so aloof and reserved, how's he in bed? What about the facilities?"

Ye Zhenzhen's face flushed, and her voice was so soft it was almost inaudible: "It's...it's alright..."

"That brat is eating so well." Lin Zhi's voice carried a sincere, heartfelt envy.

"Zhizhi, then I'll just be like this with him... Actually, I still want to have a serious relationship."

"Relationships can end even if you break up," Lin Zhi said, her tone unusually serious. "You were with Meng Chen for five years, what did you get out of it?"

"You even paid for his schooling, and in the end he still schemed against you."

"What about this one? At least he can protect you. Just sleep with him and spend his money, don't think about anything else."

Hmm, that makes a lot of sense.

"What if he goes to jail one day? Wouldn't I also be in trouble?" Ye Zhenzhen was still worried.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Lin Zhi interrupted her. "You watch too many TV dramas, don't you? There aren't that many officials who have fallen from grace."

Ye Zhenzhen thought about it and felt that it made sense.

Anyway, Zhou Huaijin's term is up and she should leave Bin City. Whether she continues her temporary assignment or returns to the university is uncertain. Perhaps then, their relationship will naturally end.

Maybe even earlier, perhaps a few months or a year, he'll get tired of it.

She looked down at the card in her hand.

At least the money is real.

In this damn world, you're either a beast of burden or a chicken or a duck.

Although Zhou Huaijin was six years older than her, compared to those middle-aged officials with beer bellies and receding hairlines, he was definitely a young heartthrob. He also had a good physique, with a thin layer of muscle when he took his clothes off.

When she was with Meng Chen, she always felt that he would be perfect if he were a little taller. Zhou Huaijin is probably over 1.85 meters tall. Standing in front of him, she has to look up to see his face. In short, he is very imposing, but also makes her feel very safe.

Thinking about it that way, it's not a bad deal that I slept with him.

Ye Zhenzhen, clutching the card with over eight million yuan, stayed in her 40-square-meter rented room.

Has she become rich overnight?

The desolate feeling I had just experienced suddenly didn't feel so bad anymore.