The next day, Xu Xinchen was assigned to the sales department. As a woman, she stood out from the crowd and seemed out of place. However, the people in the sales department were not curious about her. After all, she was the future boss's wife, and her own company could do whatever it wanted with her.

Although Xu Xinchen has been tired these past few days, she has indeed learned a lot.

Because he was exhausted, he would go home and fall asleep as soon as he got home, leaving him with almost no time to spend alone with Chen Ningsheng. This caused him to be in a bad mood lately, and his face was always sullen.

In the sales department, a man named Zhou Qi caught her attention. He seemed a bit aloof, always sitting alone in a corner at lunchtime in the staff canteen, not talking to anyone, and was very cold.

He wasn't well-regarded in the sales department either. Several times, she overheard Xiao Wang talking badly about him behind his back, saying, "Zhou Qi is a scoundrel. He's got such high sales figures and is very close to those bigwigs from the manufacturers, but he ignores us junior colleagues. He's such a snob."

Another colleague chimed in, "Of course. Growing up in poverty, you have to learn these underhanded tricks to grab sales, right? Last time, when I went with President Xu to sign the contract with that female CEO from Boya, she kept asking why Zhou Qi wasn't there. I don't know what kind of sweet talk Zhou Qi gave her."

Xu Xinchen let these office gossips go in one ear and out the other. She treated them as mere jokes. In her past life, she had also climbed her way up to the top in the tumultuous entertainment industry. She had seen it all, and she never believed anything without factual basis.

What's more, a few days ago she was assigned to a group with Zhou Qi. When the two went to a school to promote the product, she was speechless when asked questions because she didn't know much about it. Fortunately, Zhou Qi helped her out of the predicament at the crucial moment.

Xu Xinchen had a surprisingly good impression of him, but she didn't know why Zhou Qi was so quiet in the office, didn't communicate with anyone, and didn't even eat lunch with his colleagues.

She usually goes to Chen Ningsheng's office to have meals alone with him, but occasionally when Chen Ningsheng is busy in meetings, she goes to the staff cafeteria to eat by herself.

When she entered the staff cafeteria today, she was not surprised to see him sitting alone in his usual spot. She turned on her toes and walked towards him.

As she got closer, she noticed that Zhou Qi was eating very little; it was almost all vegetables, and he had picked out the few pieces of meat he had.

She was surprised; Zhou Qi was always the top performer in the sales department, so why was he eating so little?

Zhou Qi caught a glimpse of someone sitting down opposite him out of the corner of his eye. He looked up and saw it was her, and his chopsticks paused.

She smiled at him, trying to get closer, "Is this enough for you?"

Zhou Qi lowered his eyes and only gave a soft "hmm," clearly showing no intention of engaging in further conversation with her.

Undeterred, Xu Xinchen continued, "Don't you like eating meat?"

He paused for a moment, then replied, "This is for my sister."

Xu Xinchen watched for a while, then went to the window and got another meal with lots of meat. She handed it to him.

Zhou Qi paused for a moment and looked at her.

"Thank you for helping me when we were at school last time." Xu Xinchen raised her chin.

Zhou Qi initially refused to take it, but after Xu Xinchen repeatedly emphasized that he would just throw it away anyway, he finally accepted it.

He glanced at her one more time before leaving.

And that's how Xu Xinchen and Zhou Qi became acquainted.

She discovered that Zhou Qi was not the aloof person she had heard about; on the contrary, he was very warm-hearted and generously answered her questions when she asked him for advice on work tips.

He has a sick younger sister who is born with a weak constitution, so he packs meat into a lunchbox every day and brings it home for his sister to eat.

His family background is probably not very good.

Chen Ningsheng has been increasingly busy lately, and he hardly has time to have lunch alone with her. As a result, she has been eating at the same table with Zhou Qi more and more often. She feels that the sales theories she learned from Zhou Qi are a hundred times more practical than those of the department manager who only talks a lot.

As Zhou Qi was tutoring her, he suddenly stopped and looked past her to see who had come from behind.

"Mr. Chen," he said respectfully.

Xu Xinchen turned around and saw Chen Ningsheng walking in this direction, his face showing a storm brewing. But he still managed a smile and nodded slightly to Zhou Qi.

He braced himself against the back of her chair, leaned down, and brought his face close to hers. "Didn't I tell you to wait for me in the office and not wander off?"

Xu Xinchen turned to look at him, puzzled. "Didn't you tell yourself..."

"Good girl." Chen Ningsheng patted her head, interrupting her, "From now on, be a good girl and wait for me in the office. Don't run around."

In broad daylight, he made no attempt to conceal his actions, attracting the attention of many onlookers.

Xu Xinchen felt slightly uncomfortable and avoided his hand. Then she heard Zhou Qi's voice, "President Chen, I'll be leaving now. I won't disturb you any longer."

Her heart skipped a beat, and she looked towards Zhou Qi. Zhou Qi nodded at Chen Ningsheng, but didn't spare her a single glance.

Did he misunderstand?

She blinked, her voice turning cold, "Weren't you in a meeting? Why are you here?"

Chen Ningsheng straightened up, watching the man's departing figure, and snorted coldly, "If you hadn't come soon, someone else would have run off with you."

"What do you mean?" Xu Xinchen asked, frowning.

Chen Ningsheng looked down at her condescendingly, "You've been eating with him these past few days? And you're asking me what I mean?"

“He and I are just ordinary colleagues,” she explained, frowning. “Don’t you trust me at all?”

Chen Ningsheng ignored her words and called to his assistant behind him, "Xiao Feng."

"What's the matter, Mr. Chen?"

"Transfer him to the personnel department."

Xu Xinchen looked at him in disbelief, her face flushed with anger. "Chen Ningsheng, what are you doing? What gives you the right to transfer someone else to the personnel department?"

Chen Ningsheng stared at her silently with his dark eyes, paused for two seconds, and then said incredulously, "You're protecting him?"

"He earned his job through his own abilities. What gives you the right to decide someone's life or death?"

Xu Xinchen looked at the person in front of her as if she didn't recognize him.

“Okay, then go to the HR department.” He moved closer to her face, looked into her eyes, and smiled.

Xu Xinchen was stunned.

The man before her was the one she had shared a bed with for almost all these days, but it seemed as if she was only now truly getting to know him again.

Her face was tense as she managed to utter a few words, "No need, I'll just resign."

Chen Ningsheng's wicked face remained expressionless as he stared at her. After a while, he slowly smiled, lifting her chin with his cool fingers until they almost touched his cheek. He said, word by word, "Whatever. If you're willing to sacrifice like this for this man, then do it."

Their second cold war began. In less than a month since arriving in G City, they had already had several arguments. This time, Chen Ningsheng did not back down first as usual, and the two resumed their cold war stance. Xu Xinchen resigned from the company and stayed in the hotel all day.

She wanted to move out, but the harsh reality was that she didn't have enough money to pay for rent.

Every day, someone would bring her a feast of delicacies, and she was like a pet kept in a cage by him.

Lacking financial resources, she found herself in a predicament and began looking for job postings.

When Chen Ningsheng occasionally returned to the hotel, she would hide the job advertisements she had collected so that he wouldn't see them.

One day, he was completely drunk. She opened the door, and he, reeking of alcohol, collapsed into her arms, stroking her face and murmuring, "Wife, I'm home."

She knew he must have drunk a lot and was unconscious, otherwise he wouldn't be so affectionate towards her. They hadn't been this close since their last cold war.

She sighed softly, helped him to the bathroom, helped him take off his clothes, washed up, and then wrapped him in a bath towel.

Chen Ningsheng remained expressionless throughout, watching her quietly like a child.

Once they were on the bed, Chen Ningsheng suddenly lunged forward and pinned her down.

Xu Xinchen was startled and quickly rolled over to avoid it. When she sat up, she saw Chen Ningsheng looking at her with a wronged expression, accusing her, "Wife, don't you want me anymore?"

Xu Xinchen carefully observed his complexion. His eyes were clear, showing no signs of drunkenness. She frowned and asked, "Chen Ningsheng, are you drunk or not?"

Chen Ningsheng was silent for a moment, then dropped the pretense. He raised an eyebrow, glanced at her, and a disdainful smile curled at the corner of his lips. "You've made a scene with me for so many days over a man, haven't you had enough?"

"Chen Ningsheng, get out!" His words completely enraged her.

Chen Ningsheng leaned in slowly.

Xu Xinchen backed away, "Don't come any closer, or I'll leave right now!"

"You're leaving?" He scoffed. "What are you going to take with you? You eat my food and live in my house, where are you going to get the money?"