I was exposed for adding my female boss to my group of female friends.

"Hmm, what's wrong?"

“To be honest, we don’t know each other that well,” Gu Yuqing said. “How about we each tell a story about ourselves to help us get to know each other better?”

Chen Ya put down his phone and said sincerely, "If, I mean if, I were to date you, it would be very comfortable."

"Oh ho? You figured that out? How did you find out?"

"Because your relationship progress is very obvious, and you've been leading the way from the very beginning. You also have a very comfortable personality. In short, you must have a very high relationship intelligence."

"You're smitten? You want to date me? I can't help it, that's just my easygoing personality." Gu Yuqing grinned from ear to ear, waving her finger in front of his nose. "Too bad we can't date, I told you from the beginning."

"That's such a pity."

"Do you think I'm high and mighty? Do you think I'm arrogant?" Gu Yuqing asked with a smile. "Do you think I have a strong sense of hierarchy, look down on you, and that makes you a little angry?"

Chen Ya laughed and said, "Since you already know, why bother saying it?"

Gu Yuqing slapped his thigh: "I knew you would think that! Listen to me, I'm going to tell you why I can't be in a relationship, listen carefully."

"Hmm?" Chen Ya quickly adopted an attitude of being all ears.

“I’m not my mom’s biological daughter. My dad is remarried. I also have a younger brother and a younger sister. My biological mom and dad divorced by mutual agreement. My current stepmother was my dad’s secretary back then. Do you understand?”

Chen Ya dropped his frivolous expression and nodded seriously. Gu Yuqing's words sounded like a human tragedy.

"In other words, my stepmother became my mistress and ousted my biological mother. That's the story," Gu Yuqing explained again, afraid he wouldn't understand. "On the day my dad confronted my mom, my mom took me to the top floor of his company and said she would jump off with me and die in front of their company. There was even news about it at the time."

After saying that, Gu Yuqing took out her phone from under her pillow, opened the photo album, and actually started searching in front of Chen Ya. After a long time, she finally found an old newspaper photo at the bottom of the album.

The photo shows a large, bold headline: "Wife and daughter of a billionaire CEO attempted suicide by jumping off a building, but were persuaded to stop by his persuasive words. Onlookers..." The rest of the text is too blurry to read.

Next to the tiny print below, there is a photo of a woman holding a little girl.

“Look, this is my mom, and this is me. The news is talking nonsense. She wasn’t swayed by her eloquence or anything. She only came down because my dad agreed to her conditions for a divorce.”

Chen Ya stared at the photo, unsure of what expression to make, and could only nod blankly.

"This photo shows me when I was 8 years old. Back then, my dad's assets were only in the hundreds of billions. Don't you think I was cute as a child?"

"cute."

"Isn't it cute? I had just come down from the top floor of a building over 20 stories high, and the wind was so strong that my face was numb, but I looked expressionless and acted like nothing had happened. Isn't that cute?"

"So cute."

Gu Yuqing reminisced about her childhood for a while, then put away her phone and continued:

“I was young then and not afraid of death at all. My mother told me that we were going to jump off a building. I was excited when I heard that and even fantasized about flying in the sky. In the end, we didn’t jump, and I felt very sorry… What are you doing?”

Before she could finish speaking, Chen Ya had already pulled her into a tight embrace. Slowly being held closer in Chen Ya's arms, Gu Yuqing felt both fulfilled and safe.

"Nothing, I just suddenly wanted to hug you. Okay, now that you're done hugging, you can continue."

"That felt really good. Keep holding me while I continue talking."

Gu Yuqing changed her position and lay down on Chen Ya, continuing, "The general idea of ​​the agreement my mom and dad reached was that no matter how many children his mistress gave birth to, I would have to inherit our family company."

Chen Ya listened quietly without interrupting, and Gu Yuqing continued her story:

"My dad agreed. Whether he was genuinely moved or worried that my mom and I dying outside his company would have a bad impact, he agreed."

"A mother still loves her child. She wanted to use her last strength to fight for something for me. But no one expected that our family business would grow so big. The question of who would inherit the company in the future even attracted the attention of the leadership."

"With the birth of my two lovely younger siblings, the agreement from back then became increasingly unacceptable to my stepmother, and even to my father, because I was going to get married eventually."

Gu Yuqing turned to look at Chen Ya and smiled slightly:

"Although they never explicitly told me these things, I knew what they were worried about, so when I was about ten years old, I told them that I would never date or get married in my life."

"So, I can't date, and I won't get married. Now you should understand why I told you from the beginning that I wouldn't date, right?"

After hearing this, Chen Ya took a deep breath: "I understand."

He paused, then asked Gu Yuqing, "Have you said these things to anyone else?"

Gu Yuqing shrugged: "For the upper circles, this matter is almost an open secret. Many people know about it. I haven't specifically told anyone. This is the first time I've spoken out like this."

Chen Ya said, "Can I hug you again?"

Gu Yuqing didn't say anything, but turned around, wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and hugged his neck tightly.

After a few minutes of quiet hugging, Gu Yuqing rose as if floating from the water and said, "Now it's your turn."

"what?"

"Didn't we agree before that we'd exchange our secrets? I've already told you one, now it's your turn," Gu Yuqing pouted.

"Hmm...this is so difficult." Chen Ya scratched the corner of his mouth. "I don't think I have anything that can be called a secret."

"Just tell me, who was your first love?" Gu Yuqing asked, hands on her hips. "Was it really Jiang Xinhai?"

"um, yes."

"Is it Jiang Xinhai, the singing diva?"

"is her."

"Hmph—" Gu Yuqing made a thinking sound, "So, when you were playing Truth or Dare at the bar, you weren't lying after all?"

“From the first moment I saw you,” Chen Ya said, “I have never told you a single lie; every word I have spoken has been from the heart.”

Gu Yuqing stared at him for a long while with wide eyes, then suddenly clenched her fist and punched him in the chest.

Why are you suddenly being so boyfriend-like? And you're kind of shy!

"..."

Previously, Chen Ya did not understand Gu Yuqing's past and always felt that it was difficult to get close to someone with such an unimaginable family fortune. Sometimes he thought that some of her behaviors were just the temper of a rich young lady.

He realized today that she didn't actually have much of a spoiled princess attitude—she might have a little in some ways, but it wasn't annoying.

She didn't develop the bad habits of children who received elite education and were well protected. On the contrary, her mentality might be healthier and her resilience stronger than that of people who grew up in hardship.

He could now understand why Gu Yuqing valued her career so much—the company she was about to inherit was, in effect, a shackle for her.

Only when she grows strong enough will she have the confidence to break free from this shackle.

That's why she absolutely had to win. Her investment had to succeed, and her company had to make money.

But she never emphasized these things to herself from beginning to end.

“If you didn’t have that kind of identity, and I didn’t have that kind of past, I’m sure, absolutely, definitely,” Chen Ya said, “I would not hesitate to use every means to win you over.”

Gu Yuqing was slightly taken aback after hearing this, then a confident smile appeared on her beautiful face:

"Anyone can say nice things. If it were really like you say, I might have won you over before you won me over."

……

In the afternoon, Chen Ya returned to the company again, this time alone, his steps light and graceful.

He was in a good mood.

In the afternoon, the rain stopped and the clouds cleared. He and Gu Yuqing lay on the bed in that small room for a long time, talking about many things.

They talked about everything from business planning to their childhood. Gu Yuqing revealed a lot of shocking information about the family, and she was equally shocked by Chen Ya's childhood.

Gu Yuqing is charming and captivating, both in spirit and in body.

When the room clocked out, Chen Ya extended the time by another hour. The two chatted for another hour before reluctantly checking out and going downstairs. Chen Ya felt that the receptionist looked at him with admiration.

Back at the company, Chen Ya realized something was wrong as soon as he entered his office.

The atmosphere was a bit off.

It's clearly different from when I came in the morning.

Upon seeing him enter, Ishikawa Tōshū stood up and jogged towards him.

"Brother Ya, we're famous! We ...

Chen Ya stared at him, puzzled. "What did you say? I didn't do anything!"

"Didn't you post a video on Pineapple Pineapple this morning?" Ishikawa Takashi spoke very quickly. "That video got over 10,000 views in just one afternoon!"

Chapter 332 Giving Someone Face and Not Taking It

"It's over 10,000 views! Brother Ya, it just had a full 10,000 views, and it should have 11,000 views by now!"

Chen Ya looked at him speechlessly after hearing this.

Seeing that he wasn't excited, Ishikawa Takashi cooled down and asked, clenching his fist, "What's wrong, Ya-ge? Why aren't you excited at all?"

"What am I excited about? It's only broken 10,000, what's there to be happy about? The way you're excited, I thought it had broken a million."

After Chen Ya finished speaking, he went to his workstation. Ishikawa Dong, who had been listening in astonishment, followed behind him and said:

"Brother Ya, you can't say that. Aren't you setting your standards too high? This little song has over 10,000 views, while my videos on PineapplePineapple usually barely get three digits..."

Chen Ya glanced at him: "You've also posted videos on Pineapple Pineapple? Let's take a look?"

Ishikawa Tō said hesitantly, "Don't look at it, it's just for fun."

"Don't be shy, take a look."

Under Chen Ya's insistence, Ishikawa Dong finally revealed his BoZhan account. When Chen Ya clicked on it, he found it was a video teaching people how to write code, purely from a technical perspective.

The entire video is silent, with only the program running on screen. It's the kind of video that "those who can understand it don't need to be taught, and those who need to be taught can't understand it." Most of the videos only get double-digit views, and there aren't a single comment.

"..." Chen Ya glanced at Ishikawa Takashi speechlessly. No wonder he thought 1 views was impressive.

Judging from his video-making style, Chen Ya felt that if even a handful of people watched his entire video, it would be a testament to his exceptional talent.

"You're not cut out for video editing, you're not cut out for this. Just stick to coding." Chen Ya logged out of Ishikawa Dong's account and offered a terrible consolation, which made Ishikawa Dong's face turn dark.

"Brother Ya, could you be a little more tactful? I feel my heart aching..."

"You're a natural-born coder. Keep it up, you're sure to have a bright future."

Ishikawa Takashi was easy to coax, and his expression immediately brightened.

Chen Ya then opened the company's account, intending to take a look at the data performance of "Ordinary Disco".

As soon as I logged into my account, I saw seven or eight small red dots at the top of the webpage, and there were more than 99 new messages in my message history.

When I moved the cursor over it, the webpage displayed "999+ likes received" and "236 new replies".

Ishikawa Takashi was very excited: "Look at Ya-ge, he has so many likes."

The video currently has 1.1 views, over 3000 likes, and more than 4000 coins—a level of performance Chen Ya had only ever seen on well-regarded veteran content creators before.

"The ratio of views to likes is pretty good."

Chen Ya offered a brief comment, and Ishikawa Tō, who was standing nearby, began to mutter to himself again:

"Brother Ya, this isn't just good, this video alone has 4000 coins! That's 40 coins earned! I haven't even saved up 40 coins in a year..."

"What's the use of coins? You can't exchange them for money."

"It can be used to buy invitation codes..."

He ignored Ishikawa Hiroshi and scrolled through the comments below:

[Is the uploader a newbie? Their training skills are amazing!]

[As expected, all the newcomers are monsters.]

This music is so addictive and catchy! It's playing on repeat in my head right now!

[First time listening: What is this?]

Second listen: It's kind of catchy...

Third time listening: Just regular disco, we rock out normally~~~

[Top 10 Vocaloid charts predicted.]

Reply: [Pre-orders are unavailable. Tomorrow is the chart release date, and this song won't be available in time. It will probably only enter the charts next week.]

Reply: [The top ten on the Chinese V-charts have all reached 30 views. At the current rate of growth, they won't even be on the charts by next week.]

Reply: [After all, the uploader is still a newbie and needs more practice!]

The "Vocalor Ranking" mentioned in the comments refers to a video ranking list created by the YouTuber "African Gumi-chan".

This list is updated every Monday, and it compiles comprehensive data on all VOCALOID works published on the Bo Station that week.