At six in the evening, Zhou Chaosheng was still sitting at his desk handling documents. Just as he was about to take a sip of coffee, his phone vibrated beside the cup. He picked it up and saw a message from Jiang Yuanye:
[What time are you getting off work today?]
Zhou Chaosheng glanced at the pile of work in front of him and typed:
[Probably around ten tonight. Why?]
Jiang Yuanye: [Nothing, just asking.]
Zhou Chaosheng didn’t believe it:
[Want to grab dinner? If you do, I can leave work earlier.]
Jiang Yuanye: [Next time. You focus on work first.]
Seeing this message, Zhou Chaosheng didn’t think too much about it. He put his phone down and returned to work.
In recent years, the financial industry had become increasingly difficult compared to a decade ago. Every industry had been affected by the pandemic from a few years back. Although top companies weren’t severely impacted, Huajie still had to face a new reality: in the future, investment and sales might no longer be dictated by the economy but by politics.
There was also the energy problem. Considering the rapid advancements in AI and the massive power consumption it required, Zhou Chaosheng had been expanding into multiple new production chains while deeply investing in the drone market, as well as numerous clean energy projects.
But after discussing deeply with Jiang Yuanye in Iceland, he began to think about the survival struggles of the lower classes and environmental pressure. Society was developing at an extremely fast pace, with new technologies emerging one after another, gradually replacing many human jobs. What was once about "technology serving humanity" had turned into "humans being squeezed out by technology." This was completely reversed.
Zhou Chaosheng had been in power for too long. As a business leader, he faced only two choices: one was to prioritize technology completely, and the other was to pursue technological advancement while also considering human factors.
He could sense the immense pressure and negative impact that the broader environment had on ordinary people. However, born into a capitalist family, he couldn’t truly empathize with their struggles. Real empathy required firsthand experience of hardship and suffering—something he had never gone through.
So, he couldn’t stand on a high pedestal and judge why young people needed coffee every night, why they were always filled with resentment and complaints online, or why they constantly criticized capitalists and the unfairness of society.
His education had instilled in him a sense of empathy. He could sympathize with the difficulties of ordinary people and understand their pain. But what he could do was very limited. at most, he could raise employee salaries, provide full benefits, and offer various perks and vacations.
But all these things, while appearing altruistic, were ultimately self-serving. He hadn’t realized this until Jiang Yuanye told him:
"The most important problem to solve in this era is how to use technology to create more space for people to survive."
"Everything else is just empty talk."
So, for the past few days, he had been thinking what could he actually do?
Lost in thought while reviewing contracts, Zhou Chaosheng was completely absorbed in his own world and didn’t even notice the sky outside gradually darkening. It wasn’t until Wiesen knocked on his door that he suddenly realized it was already ten o’clock.
“President Zhou, time to call it a day?” Wiesen stood at the doorway and pointed toward the still-lit office outside. “If you don’t leave, no one else dares to.”
“Sorry, I got too caught up.” Zhou Chaosheng raised a hand to rub his temples. “Take everyone out for a late-night meal. Put it on my tab.”
“Got it! Thanks for the treat, Boss~” Wiesen, who had followed him from Jiangguo to Beijing and lived here for a few years, had picked up the Beijing dialect, and there was no fixing it now.
Zhou Chaosheng cursed at him with a smile, telling him to get lost. Sure enough, Wiesen promptly shut the door and left. Seeing the door close, Zhou Chaosheng lowered his head and continued reviewing the half-finished contract.
Ten minutes later, the lights outside the glass walls all went dark, leaving him as the only person on the entire floor.
Although Zhou Chaosheng had long been used to this, moments like these always brought up inexplicable emotions. These feelings were difficult to digest, and he couldn’t quite put them into words.
He didn’t know how much time had passed when he finally finished processing the towering stack of files on his left side. Only the pile on his right remained. Just as he was about to power through and pull an all-nighter, his phone vibrated.
Picking it up, he saw a message from Jiang Yuanye.
Checking the time—10:35.
[Still not done with work?]
Zhou Chaosheng put down his pen, touched the screen, and started typing:
[Yeah, still have some left.]
Jiang Yuanye replied instantly:
[Stop working. I’ve been waiting downstairs at your office for over half an hour.]
Zhou Chaosheng was momentarily stunned.
Then another message popped up:
[I asked Wiesen. He said you didn’t eat much tonight. Are you hungry? If you are, how about I take you to a restaurant I used to frequent?]
Zhou Chaosheng stood up and quickly walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down. From the 46th floor, all he could see was the dazzling city lights and the steady stream of traffic below. Amidst the neon glow, a lone figure appeared as nothing more than a small black dot on the ground.
He couldn’t make out much, but he could see a pair of flashing hazard lights blinking on and off—it was Jiang Yuanye, deliberately signaling to get his attention.
In that instant, a strange feeling welled up inside him.
Before Zhou Chaosheng could recover from his surprise, a sudden knock echoed through the empty office.
Knock, knock, knock.
Who else would be working overtime at this hour? Just as Zhou Chaosheng was wondering, the door handle turned on its own.
A pair of polished black leather boots slowly appeared before his eyes. Moving upward, he saw long, straight legs clad in slim-fit jeans and a casual hoodie, making the person look seven or eight years younger. Even just standing there casually, he was strikingly eye-catching in a crowd.
"You..." Zhou Chaosheng was momentarily speechless. "Why are you here?"
"Because you wouldn’t come down." Jiang Yuanye leaned against the doorway, smiling. "I’ve been standing downstairs so long that my face is about to go numb from the cold. If I didn’t come up, I was afraid you’d work until three or four in the morning without even knowing someone was waiting for you downstairs."
At that moment, Zhou Chaosheng finally understood what that strange, inexplicable emotion from before was.
He simply wanted someone to be around, even if the other person was just sitting on the couch, drinking water, flipping through a magazine, or snacking. That alone would bring him warmth, making him feel like he wasn’t just a lonely individual.
Zhou Chaosheng was silent for a moment before asking, "The security let you in?"
The security team worked in rotating shifts, and their shift change probably hadn’t happened yet. Logically, they wouldn’t have let an outsider in at this hour. Surely Jiang Yuanye hadn’t climbed up the pipes to the 46th floor?
"Yeah." Jiang Yuanye grinned. "I couldn’t get in at first, but then I told your security that if they didn’t let me in, I’d record a video exposing Huajie’s security for being snobbish. Just imagine how the netizens would tear them apart. Then, I kindly explained the consequences and the negative impact of refusing me entry. They got scared and let me in."
Zhou Chaosheng’s expression became indescribable. "Are you serious?"
"Of course not." Jiang Yuanye admitted without hesitation. "I called Wiesen and had him talk to security for me."
Zhou Chaosheng chuckled. "Your face doesn’t work its magic anymore?"
"Oh, it still does." Jiang Yuanye laughed. "At first, the security guards looked at me like I was some kind of imminent threat, as if I had come in the dead of night to steal that lucky money tree you guys keep in front of the elevators."
"Pfft." Zhou Chaosheng couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
"Alright, put on your coat and come with me. Your work can wait until tomorrow. It won’t cost you much money." Jiang Yuanye urged.
"Where to?" Zhou Chaosheng took his coat from the rack, put it on, and then tapped a few buttons on his phone to remotely switch off his desk lamp and the overhead lights near the floor-to-ceiling windows.
"You’ll know when we get there."
"Keeping it a secret?"
"If I don’t, you probably won’t come with me."
Zhou Chaosheng stepped closer to him and softly said, "I will."
Jiang Yuanye met his gaze and, after hearing that, foolishly asked, "Will what?"
"I’ll go with you anywhere."
As he spoke, Zhou Chaosheng reached out and switched off the main lights. Instantly, the entire office plunged into darkness.
Yet in this pitch-black space, Jiang Yuanye seemed to have a built-in tracker for Zhou Chaosheng, pinpointing his exact position and the direction he was facing.
Then…
He pressed a light, fleeting kiss on Zhou Chaosheng’s lips.
"You sure know how to say sweet things, President Zhou."
Jiang Yuanye pulled away almost instantly, naturally taking Zhou Chaosheng’s hand. Their fingertips brushed against the phone screen, turning on the flashlight.
"Let’s go. I’m taking you for a late-night meal."
In the darkness, the corners of Zhou Chaosheng’s lips curved up slightly.
"Okay."
---
Jiang Yuanye drove him to a snack street near the university. After finding a parking spot, the two put on their masks and got out of the car. It wasn’t that they were afraid of being secretly photographed and making the headlines tomorrow—they weren’t at the level of celebrities who had paparazzi tailing them all the time. The main reason was to avoid college students chasing after them, asking for their WeChat, calling them “senior,” then pulling them into discussions about success stories, followed by a flood of rainbow farts.
Zhou Chaosheng and Jiang Yuanye couldn’t stand being praised.
The former had heard such compliments too many times since childhood and had grown numb to them. The latter had, in recent years, been invited back to his alma mater to give speeches, only to be surrounded by juniors afterward, bombarding him with questions and making it impossible for him to leave the auditorium for half a day, completely drowning in rainbow farts.
Since then, every time Jiang Yuanye came to eat near the university, he would wear a mask to avoid a repeat of that situation.
"Do you still come here to eat after starting work?" Zhou Chaosheng asked.
"Of course, I really like the food here. When I have free time, I bring my friends over for drinks and chats. In fact, in my early years, I even conducted business meetings here," Jiang Yuanye said.
Zhou Chaosheng looked at the bustling snack stalls before him, the groups of college students, and the endless shouts of vendors… feeling somewhat surprised. Who would have thought that a billionaire CEO would come to such a place to eat?
It wasn’t that the snack street was unclean—he could smell the delicious aroma but how should he put it? The mix of various scents was a bit overwhelming: the smell of chicken offal, grilled skewers, spicy hot pot, egg waffles… When all these different smells blended, the overall aroma wasn’t as enticing as each individual scent.
In any case, Zhou Chaosheng wasn’t used to the smell.
But then again, there were many things he wasn’t used to, and he wasn’t the type to say something low-EQ like, "I don’t like this place, let’s go."
In the bustling street, Jiang Yuanye tightly held his wrist to keep them from getting separated in the crowd.
Even though both of them were wearing masks, their height and undeniable attractiveness still made it impossible to avoid attention. A few female college students asked for their contact information. Without hesitation, both of them simultaneously adjusted their masks higher, covered their noses, and waved their hands in refusal. "Sorry, it’s not convenient for us."
The girls didn’t press further. After being rejected, they simply smiled and walked away, but as they left, he could still hear their conversation:
"They're so handsome, why are they wearing masks?"
"Could they be celebrities?"
"They don’t look like anyone I’ve seen on screen."
"There’s no way guys this good-looking wouldn’t have made it to the A-list…"
Five minutes later, Jiang Yuanye led him through a few alley turns and arrived at a wonton restaurant tucked into a quiet corner.
Jiang Yuanye was familiar with the restaurant owner. Even with a mask on, the owner immediately recognized him and greeted warmly, "Xiao Jiang, you brought another friend?"
The tables and chairs inside weren’t too small, but with their tall figures and long legs, sitting down still felt somewhat cramped. Zhou Chaosheng, accustomed to lounging on spacious sofas, wasn’t entirely comfortable, though he didn’t show it on his face. The only reaction he had was a slight raise of his brow when he caught the word "another" from the owner.
"You’ve brought other friends here before?" Zhou Chaosheng turned to ask.
Just as Jiang Yuanye was about to answer, the owner beat him to it, saying, "Counting you, that makes seventeen."
Jiang Yuanye: "…"
Zhou Chaosheng looked at him, his expression carrying a smile yet not quite a smile. "So, you have quite a lot of 'good' friends."
Jiang Yuanye immediately caught the emphasis on the word "good" and the slight hint of jealousy in his tone. He couldn't help but chuckle, "Don’t worry, none of them are as important as you."
Zhou Chaosheng let out a soft huff and said nothing.
As the owner poured water for them, she didn't think much of their conversation, assuming it was just a playful exchange between male friends. After all, her restaurant was right next to the university, and she'd seen plenty of college boys joke around in similar ways.
While serving the tea, the owner suddenly recalled that Jiang Yuanye was already twenty-seven but had never brought a female friend to eat here before. Being the warm-hearted person she was, she couldn't help but play matchmaker. "Xiao Jiang, do you want me to introduce you to a girlfriend? I know a lot of pretty university girls. If you’re interested, I can send you a few WeChat contacts. How about that?"
Jiang Yuanye: "…"
He quickly glanced at the person beside him.
Sure enough, a blank expression.
Jiang Yuanye awkwardly cleared his throat, then reached out to pull Zhou Chaosheng into his arms. Catching him off guard, he held him close and then looked up at the slightly stunned restaurant owner, saying, "No need, Aunt Guo. I already have a partner."
The owner looked confused. "Then why haven’t you brought her here before?"
Zhou Chaosheng, still caught off guard by the sudden pull into Jiang Yuanye's arms, hadn’t had time to react. The entire conversation and its unexpected development had completely exceeded his expectations.
Before he could even process it, Jiang Yuanye smiled and answered.
"I just brought him here, didn't I?"
Aunt Guo glanced between Jiang Yuanye and Zhou Chaosheng, looking surprised. "Xiao Jiang, you…"
Jiang Yuanye remained casual as he continued, "Aunt Guo, let me introduce you. This is my boyfriend, Xiao Zhou."