Yan Shuyu was completely stunned, and her brain shut down altogether. All she could think about was, “Who am I? Where am I?”

A hint of hot hair lingered around her ear, and she finally snapped out of it and got what the boss was trying to say – at the end of the day, he was holding grudges against her shaking his hand loose.

But Yan Shuyu couldn’t really blame him for being too overly petty. She tried to put herself in his shoes. Her behavior had been somewhat peculiar.

Just two months ago, “she” was a bold and passionate little server girl working close to him. And, taking advantage of the opportunity offered by her job, she bedded him while he was drunk one night – as much as Yan Shuyu didn’t want to admit to it, the entire process was like amazing fireworks. She thought she was dreaming, and it was a rare s*x dream at that. Naturally, she was as passionate as she could be. Anyone in that state would be all instinct, right? Who’d think about morals or rationality at times like that?

Yan Shuyu had secretly wondered if the original owner, or herself *ahem*, possibly had scored the boss because of her skills. After all, she transmigrated to the critical moment of lying in bed next to the boss. In truth, up until that point, it was still very innocent between the two of them. The original owner and the boss were just laying in bed next to each other. Yan Shuyu, on the other hand, remembered every detail: she was the one who unbuttoned the boss’s shirt one button at a time. She was groggy at the time. As she was removing his clothes, she was thinking to herself; oh boy, there was everything in this dream. She even gave her ex-boyfriend such high-end cufflinks. How amazing was that?

There was no way for one to celebrate love without taking one’s clothes off first; which was why Yan Shuyu was pretty sure that the main event only occurred after she had transmigrated over.

The original stepmom in her own flesh wasn’t even there to seal the deal. That might not sound very reasonable at first, but if one gave it some more thought, that’d make sense. Ever since big boss Zhou Qinhe arrived at Hotel Dorsett, he had left a remarkable impression in the minds of the original owner and her colleagues. Never mind that he has billions in assets and was very gentlemanly, he also wasn’t greasy like other wealthy men. He treated all the workers at the hotel equally, regardless of their age or looks. Everyone was probably just a backdrop as far as the big boss was concerned.

Take the original owner and Xiao Lin, the other employee, as an example. The original owner has the reputation of being a pretty flower at Dorsett, and many of their returned customers were well aware of that Xiao Lin’s look was just barely above average among all the pretty girls at Hotel Dorsett. Nothing about her looks made her stand out. Manager Chen picked her as her assistant because of her impeccable work ethics.

But regardless of whether it was the gorgeous “Xiao Yan” or the not-so-standout “Xiao Lin”, the boss did not treat them any differently before the original owner had bedded him. Even when Manager Chen occasionally checked with the boss on his opinion on the two employees, his would only give concise answers like “not bad” and “doing alright”. Evidenced that for the entire month that he was staying at Hotel Dorsett, the boss had not noticed the beautiful original owner at all.

As the boss had never paid special attention to her beauty, her plan to bed the boss, needless to say, did not go as well as planned.

All of Yan Shuyu’s websurfer buddies had said it a million times, it was a lie that alcohol would affect one’s judgement, a man would not be able to perform when he was truly drunk. Yan Shuyu tended to agree with that saying. She recalled hearing the boss chuckling that night and became noticeably more passionate after he finished chuckling. That meant he was somewhat conscious.

In that case, the conscious boss had no feelings for the real stepmom, but was interested in her after she had transmigrated. Then why was that?

Yan Shuyu had given this some serious thought and theorized that what had truly moved him must be her shameless passion. As much as the stepmom was the reincarnate of the devil himself in the mind of the male lead, she was still inexperienced when she met male lead’s father. She was, after all, just a tad over 20. She might have a lot of ideas, but it was her first time going all the way out to seduce a man. In addition, this would only be the second man she was intimate with after her late husband. It’d make sense that she wasn’t doing a very good job. In comparison, Yan Shuyu, thinking that she was dreaming, would seem particularly shameless.

Who’d have thought that a fairy-tale like character whose brightness could rival that of a moon was just a normal man after all. One that could not resist the temptation of a little vixen.

Yan Shuyu couldn’t help but take a look over at Zhou Qinhe and let out a long sigh.

After she was done lamenting, she continued down the path of what must have gone through the boss’s mind: the little ferret cat who was finally able to bed the boss with both her passion and shameless suddenly turned into a little white flower who’d want to wail just from holding hands? The change was a bit too drastic – that could mean only one of two things – either she was crazy or she was playing hard to get.

Naturally, Yan Shuyu could swear that she had no intention of playing hard to get, but it was her fault for not being thorough in her actions. Her behavior had created a contradiction and left him room for imagination. That was on her.

Most importantly, Yan Shuyu, a fan of all types of cliché CEO novels, was all too familiar with this cliché story plot that must be going through the boss’s head. This was the classic development of a CEO’s delicate wife running off pregnant!

Somewhat somehow, the little delicate wife would end up in bed with the CEO. After she had woken up, the classy, cold, poised delicate wife would tell the CEO that our paths shall never cross again. Her innocence and unpretentiousness raised the CEO’s attention inadvertently.

The CEO would proceed to court her in all sorts of ways, and the delicate wife would insist on pushing him away. Somewhere in there, there was the plotline of her ending up pregnant with his child followed by a string of tear-jerking moments before the CEO and the delicate wife would finally end up together…

Picturing all that, Yan Shuyu couldn’t help but shudder. That was just too scary. Minus a few details, this was the exact arc that she was heading down. Meaning that the more she acted like she didn’t care for him and that she wasn’t afraid of his power and status, the more the boss would be like a CEO in those novels and be even more persistent in pursuing her?

No, no, no. No matter how much tear-jerking moments the CEO and the little delicate wife had to go through in those novels, at the very minimum they lived happily ever after from the ending through the extras.

In her case, if she lost to the temptation and a happy ending with the boss, there would be part II in the book where the new CEO would come online and she’d be the lead star in “Orange Is The New Black.”

She must act well now. Whatever type of girls that the boss liked, she must behave in the exact opposite way and must make him lose all interest in her no matter what.

Yan Shuyu balled up her fist to cheer herself on before she looked up and started putting on her show. Putting on her most genuine look, she pretended to come clean to the boss. “Boss Zhou, the truth is I have been interested in you for a long time. You were the reason why I joined Hotel Dorsett….”

Zhou Qinhe lifted his brows and gave her a conservative response of, “Is that so?”

“It’s true.” Yan Shuyu blinked her eyes emphatically, but one look at the boss and she could tell she wasn’t doing a good enough job at all. So she continued to make up more of the story.

“But I hadn’t expected myself to be so lucky. It had only been a month since I have started at Hotel Dorsett before you came to stay in the hotel. I have never seen a man as wealthy and outstanding as you, Boss Zhou. You have a different car every day, and some of them I couldn’t even name. I have only heard from my colleague that even your cheapest car costs over a million… That was my first contact with a man as wealthy as you, Boss Zhou. And I had this opportunity to be so close to you day in and day out, so I sank deeper and deeper every day. Finally, that fateful night when you were drunk, and I was the only one working the shift. I saw the opportunity and I took it ....”

Yan Shuyu tried as hard as she could to make up her story and almost used up all the words in her dictionary. She thought to herself; this ought to make me sound enough like a gold-digger and totally turn the boss man off, right?

Now would be the perfect time to retreat.

Low and behold, this was when she suddenly heard the boss’s voice asking her calmly and casually, “And then?”

Yan Shuyu looked up. She was dumbfounded. Has she not made herself out to be shallow or money-loving enough? And the boss didn’t mind that?

“And then….?” Yan Shuyu wasn’t even sure what to make of that anymore. “Then I succeeded in my plan.”

Another unexpected question came from Zhou Qinhe, “So was it my performance that you weren’t happy about?”

Yan Shuyu: “……”

Was the boss just on a roll talking dirty or something?

Truth be told, Yan Shuyu’s first reaction after hearing the question was just to say yes. She’d always heard that that was a sore spot for every man. She had already told enough lies. If this was what it’d take to make sure the boss would disappear in front of her completely, she didn’t mind adding one more crazy lie on top of all the other ones.

But Yan Shuyu came to her senses and called off that dangerous idea. After all, she knew that CEO male leads were not the same as your everyday man. They had this inexplicable confidence about themselves. Had she just said yes to his question, the boss very well might not leave in a huff. He very likely would want to prove to her otherwise in person. Judging by the way he had been talking dirty all night long, that just might be the case.

Yan Shuyu lifted her head just in time to stop herself from nodding instinctively. With the most sincerity she could muster, she said, “Why would you think that, Boss Zhou? You are the best and most talented man I have been with!”

Boss Zhou did not seem pleased after hearing her flattery at all. Contrarily, he shot her a sideway glance and asked, “You have been with many men?”

It was a shame that Yan Shuyu actually had very limited experience when it came to this realm. Even counting both her ex-boyfriend and her late husband plus the boss in front of her, that made a total of three men. All of them were of high quality, but the quantity was a bit on the lacking side. It didn’t do her amazingly gorgeous look any justice.

So, in order to keep up her flirtatious front, Yan Shuyu must lie through her teeth. “Not that many, really. I can count them all with both hands, but none of them had as much stamina as Boss Zhou. You can trust me on that!”

Zhou Qinhe only looked at her meaningfully and asked, “Can I really trust you on that?”

Yan Shuyu, so immersed in her own acting, failed to notice his look and nodded incessantly. “Truly. You should have faith in your own ability, Boss Zhou.”

As she performed, she thought happily to herself; I am so manipulative and sl*tty, the boss must have lost interest in her right about now.

Completely out of the blue, the boss had changed the direction of the conversation abruptly and asked her point blank, “Okay, so if you looked up to me so much and you weren’t unhappy with my performance, then why are you running away from me?”

Yan Shuyu would never had expected that after she had tried all her might to make herself out to be a flirtatious sl*t, the boss still hadn’t left in a huff. Instead, he had followed up with more questions. Why did she run? She didn't want to be the stepmom for the male lead, of course.

But Yan Shuyu couldn’t possibly share with him the real reason behind her decision. She wanted to make up something else, but she had already used up all her creative juices making up the stories earlier. Now all she could think of was cuss words like “WTF”, nothing useful. She froze in front of him.

A few seconds later, the boss man, looking at how she was at loss of words, kindly offered her an option. “Was it an effort to get my attention?”

If the boss was your normal CEO in any of the webnovels, Yan Shuyu would not hesitate for a second before she nodded. She knew that CEOs in novels hate nothing more than shallow women. But the boss hadn’t lost interest in her at all after all of her earlier performances. Instead, he has been showing even more interest in her. She now knew that he wasn’t a no normal boss. She worried that if she had nodded, the boss just might say to her, “Wonderful, you have succeeded. You will be my woman from now on.” What would she do then?

She couldn’t possibly open up that option to the boss, so she shook her head decisively. “Of course not. That’d be crazy even for me.”

Zhou Qinhe gave Yan Shuyu another cold look. If she was any smarter, she would have noticed the impatience under the boss’s eyes. It was very unfortunate that after her lies and stories, Yan Shuyu was already pretty exhausted and wasn’t able to pick up on all the small clues. She only knew that the boss had given her an unhappy look as he continued to pry.

“Then why?”

Yan Shuyu let out a long sigh, looking at how persistent the boss was, there was no way for her to avoid this question. She was no longer able to make up even more dramatic stories, so she’d just have to keep building on what she had already said up to this point. “Yeah, it was a shame, but I really liked you a lot at the beginning. I even thought you were ‘the one’ for me. But all feelings were gone after that day. Even continuing to work there had turned into some sort of torture, so I finally decided to quit and have a change of scenery…”

Shilly-shally and always looking for the next best thing. That ought to make herself look bad too, right? Thought Yan Shuyu to herself not too confidently.

The boss, who has always been calm and composed and seemingly could handle anything and everything at ease, finally got angry after hearing that. For the first time, he looked at her emotionlessly and said, “So you finally admit that you didn’t quit your job because your kid was sick but to avoid me?”

Oh shoot. She had overlooked the bug in her story. Yan Shuyu blinked her eyes nervously and her mind started spinning. Yet Zhou Qinhe didn’t seem interested in her explanation. He took a step forward, moving closer to her, and said, while enunciating each and every single word, “So you found me that boring?”

She had tried so hard this entire time and finally managed to annoy the normally cool and composed big boss; however, Yan Shuyu didn’t feel relief about that. She was stunned all over again, and she could feel his breath blowing on her. Her body really wanted to just give in and nod, but her brain was frantically telling her that she shouldn’t do it.

She only said all those things to try to deter the boss from finding her interesting, not to enrage him – even if the boss continued to be interested in her, worst case scenario, she would enjoy 20 years of lifestyle as a wife of a prominent family before going to jail, but if she offended the boss, she very well might not see the next sunrise.

She might not want a relationship with him, but they could still be amicable. Yan Shuyu wasn’t entirely stupid. When she felt danger closing in, she suddenly got an idea and quickly added, “I’m just kidding. Don’t take me seriously, Boss Zhou.”

Boss Zhou maintained his distance from her. Looking at her nonchalantly, he gave out the I-want-to-see-what-else-you-can-come-up-with vibe.

Yan Shuyu, on the other hand, felt that the pressure had been lifted a bit and that she had barely pulled herself back from the edge of death. She was too delighted to worry about the boss’s look. She went on, “I do still like you a lot, Boss Zhou. But after I went home that day, I have gathered more information on you through some means and learned that you already have a son of your own. That’s when I realized that we are not good for each other. After all, I have a child myself if my next partner also has a son, you will for sure favor your son more and there is no way that my son will be able to inherit anything from your family. So what was the point, right?”

She had heard that the best kind of lies were those mixed with 50% truth; that would make it harder to tell what was true and what wasn’t. Yan Shuyu added the original owner’s real thought into her excuse and even she felt that she was being such a genius and that the boss would for sure look down on her this time.

After all, both the stepmom and her son were faced with such tragic endings at the end of the novel and the male lead’s father didn’t even care to ask about them. He must have despised everything that the stepmom and her son had pulled, including assassination, to fight over the inheritance.

Now that she had forwarded the timeline on exposing her ambition and making herself look so bad while doing so, there was certainly no way the boss would still try and pursue her.

Yan Shuyu, who was so proud of herself at the moment, hadn’t expected the boss to digress so much from the path of normality. She had come clean about so many things, but his takeaway was just – “So you wanted to marry me that badly?”

Yan Shuyu, “……”

Should she cuss at him or should she not?