Yan Shuyu sighed happily as she heard the boss say to her, “I am going to Texas this time. What would you like me to bring back for you?”

“Texas fried chicken?” Yan Shuyu blurted out.

She had had the luxury of receiving souvenirs from business trips. As the baby of her folks, Yan Shuyu’s requests for gifts were always food-related. She was, after all, a foodie. Which was why she reflexively thought of food when asked by Zhou Qinhe.

It was Boss Zhou’s first time asking what his girlfriend would like to bring back, but Yan Shuyu’s peculiar answer was still very unexpected. He gave her a very complicated look and reminded her casually, “I am going to Texas.”

After thinking about it some more, Zhou Qinhe specifically added, “And maybe a detour to Manhattan as well.”

Zhou Qinhe couldn’t have been more obvious. Any of the ladies in his circle would know that Manhattan was synonymous to shopping heaven. Any luxurious items in the world could be found there, and she could ask for anything she wanted.

Yan Shuyu was born a peasant. She had travelled with her parents in her previous life, but had only been to Korea and Japan. Bali was the absolute furthest that she had gone. The VISA for Europe and US were expensive and complicated, and her family couldn’t quite afford that, so they never thought about it. That was the reason that she didn’t really think about it that way even Zhou Qinhe couldn’t have said it any clearer. She only felt that she had said something stupid and the boss had made fun of her.

With a lack of interest, she said, “I have never been and I have no idea what they’re known for over there. Just bring me whatever.”

One way or another, she’d be happy with any gifts. Yan Shuyu suddenly decided to add docilely, “I will like anything from you.”

Her last sentence obviously pleased Boss Zhou, so he took the opportunity at the red light to rub her head as he said happily, “Alright.”

Yan Shuyu smiled at him with anticipation. She has never been to the US, but being able to look forward to her boyfriend bringing home a souvenir from the US was exciting as well.

Zhou Qinhe was very different from someone like Yan Shuyu, who was spontaneous and didn’t ask for much in life. His daily agenda was written on paper with each of his secretaries and assistants having a copy of it and would rarely change. After he told Yan Shuyu that he was going on a business trip in 2-3 days, he headed to the US on the second night.

His flight left at about 11 PM. As his girlfriend, Yan Shuyu couldn’t act like it had nothing to do with her. Nevermind that he had promised he’d bring her souvenirs, even if he wasn’t going to, just for the sake of him being so attentive to her normally and catering to almost every whim of hers, she should go and see him off. She got off work at 8 PM, and there was plenty of time to see him off at the airport.

The boss came looking for her when it was close to the end of her shift. Instead of waiting in his car as usual, he went inside Sunshine House. Yan Shuyu happened to come down the stairs and their eyes met. She ran over to him, pleasantly surprised, and asked, “You are here to pick me up after work? I thought you were going on a business trip?”

Zhou Qinhe opened up his arms and hugged her. He answered her question with a question, “Have you had dinner yet?”

“Of course, there are chefs at the shop. The workers here won’t starve one way or another.”

Zhou Qinhe smiled, nodded, and started walking out while holding her hand. “Okay. Then let me take you home first.”

Yan Shuyu hadn’t thought too much about it and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary until she got to the car. Ever since the first time that she had run into him in the middle of the street, the boss never used a chauffeur when he was with her. Nevertheless, not only was there a much younger chauffeur today, there was also someone else in the passenger seat. A woman no less.

Under the service of the young chauffeur, the baffled Yan Shuyu crawled inside of the car. When she got into the car, the boss was still standing motionlessly outside of the door. The chauffeur was smiling and holding onto the car door. That was when she realized that the boss was going to get inside of the car from the same side. She scooted further in.

As she scooted further inside of the car, the person sitting in the passenger seat also turned around and greeted her in a friendly manner. “Hi, Boss Zhou, Miss Yan.”

The woman was in her thirties. She has short hair and was wearing a business suit. She looked like the very competent type. The familiar aura coming from her reminded Yan Shuyu of the boss’s two elite assistants. She wondered whether this was another one of the boss’s elite right-hand people.

Yan Shuyu has always had an affinity toward career women. This being the first time the two of them met each other, she didn’t know how this woman knew that her last name was Yan. She didn’t think the boss would announce his relationship to the entire world just because the two of them were dating. She nodded hesitantly, “Hi, how are you?”

By now, Zhou Qinhe had already gotten inside of the car and affectionately introduced her, “This is Secretary Lu.”

So, more or less what she thought. She turned her attention to the boss and looked at him wisely, “You are not done with your work today yet?”

The chauffeur made sense, but once he was off work, he shouldn’t need his secretary to be around anymore. The boss wasn’t the kind of person who needed his secretary around to show how important of a person he was.

Zhou Qinhe praised Yan Shuyu for her very rational speculation. “Smart girl.”

Sometime down the line, the boss seemed to have fallen for a game of patting the pet. He stroked Yan Shuyu on her head again and smiled. “We will be heading to the airport after we drop you off.”

Secretary Lu looked at them quietly and exchanged a look with the chauffeur. Both of them felt that they should not be inside of the car; they should be underneath the car.

Truth be told, it was surprising enough that Boss Zhou, who has always had a very strong sense of time, called off a meeting early and requested to take off a whole hour before the schedule. What was even more eye-opening was that the boss interrupted the meeting just to come and pick someone up and then was lovey-dovey in front of the others. Had they not been with Boss Zhou this entire time, they’d think he had been taken over by some transmigrator. Being touchy-feely had never been his style.

That also meant that this Miss Yan was even more powerful than how Louis and the others had described her. Thinking of that, Secretary Lu suppressed the temptation of being nosey, lowered her head, and sat properly in her seat. She only wished that she was transparent.

As they had tried so hard to lower their sense of presence, Yan Shuyu gradually forgot about them. She turned and asked the boss, “Are you on your way to the airport right now? Going on your business trip?”

Zhou Qinhe nodded. Yan Shuyu wasn’t too surprised, but she raised her concern. “You are leaving today? Why did you come to pick me up then? What happens if you are late for your flight?”

“No worries,” said Zhou Qinhe with a smile. “My flight is not till 11 PM.”

Yan Shuyu felt better, but then she felt baffled all over again – Was there some sort of hidden agenda for him to be picking her up?

It was definitely his style to be so convoluted on such a minor issue. Yan Shuyu couldn’t help but grumbled in her heart. Nevertheless, she did have some self-awareness and offered, “Why don’t we just go straight to the airport then? I can see you off.”

She was surprised that the boss didn’t agree with her suggestion immediately but smiled and asked, “It’s a three-hour round trip to and from the airport. What are you going to do with Yuanbao if you go to see me off?”

That could be a problem. Yan Shuyu hesitated a little and said, “Perhaps I can go home first and placate him for a few minutes?”

It’s still three hours till his departure time. There should be plenty of time?

Zhou Qinhe shook his head and said, “Nah, it’s alright. It’d be almost midnight after you have seen me off. It’s too late and unsafe.”

Yan Shuyu’s first reaction was to look over at the chauffeur in the front. “Can’t he take me home?”

She knew the secretary would be leaving with the boss, but no way the chauffeur would be leaving too?

“Still no. I’ll worry about you,” said Zhou Qinhe softly into her ear, acting like the domineering CEO that he was for a change. “Plus, you are used to going to bed early. Staying up so late is difficult for you.”

Yan Shuyu blushed all of a sudden and started hesitating. She had more or less already accepted the boss’s reasoning. It’d be close to midnight by the time she was back home after seeing the boss off. Then she’d still have to wash up and get ready for bed. Even she worried that she wouldn’t be able to get up the next morning. Her work wasn’t too much of a big deal; she could always take the day off. The important part was that she needed to get up to drop her son off at the kindergarten.

Nevertheless, if she was too easily convinced, she worried that the boss was just being polite verbally and would be offended again if she backed off too soon. She was a little bit perturbed.

Zhou Qinhe, possibly saw through her thought process, smiled and said, “If you really feel bad about it, why don’t you come and pick me up from the airport when I return?”

Yan Shuyu, who was in a quandary, was convinced right away, “Okay!”

After they had happily reached an agreement, Yan Shuyu voluntarily opened up the car door and got out when the car stopped in front of her apartment building.

She had just gotten out of the car when she noticed that the boss had also gotten out of the car; except that he was standing next to the car and smiling at her.

Yan Shuyu turned around and looked at him for a few seconds before she had it figured out. She walked over to him proactively and gave him a big hug. “Have a safe trip and call me when you arrive in US.”

“Okay.” Her being just the perfect amount of docile apparently pleased the boss. Zhou Qinhe hugged her gently with a very pleased smile on his face. When Yan Shuyu tried to be sweet, she could do a very good job. It was just that she was goofy most of the time. Zhou Qinhe almost didn’t want to leave when she was being so sweet.

When they were hugging outside, Secretary Xu was crazily exchanging looks with Zhang Yang, the chauffeur. Look, the boss looked like such a gentleman, but when he’s in a relationship, he could totally be like those emperors who’d readily throw away their own country for the beauty. Here they thought he had something really important to go and take care of when he called off the company’s upper-management meeting. And all he did was to say goodbye to his super pretty girlfriend.

On top of that, the only thing that they had discussed on their ride back was whether or not she’d head to the airport with him – not even something of any value. Couldn’t they have discussed over the phone or WeChat? Was it really necessarily to talk about that in person like this?

All of these could be boiled down to one line: those in the city really know how to live their lives. Secretary Lu might look like a serious person, but she was just a high-level employee. To the extent that her boss didn’t care about the loss, she wasn’t going to feel bad for him. She was just here to eat melon and enjoy the entertainment.

That being said, Secretary Lu was wrong in her assessment of Boss Zhou. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to do something more meaningful. But he was, after all, a gentleman. He couldn’t bring himself to be more intimate with Yan Shuyu when there were two others in the car with them. And now that they were standing in the middle of the busy street, all the more he wouldn’t do anything else. The two just hugged quietly, and it finally ended with Boss Zhou planting a kiss between Yan Shuyu’s brows.