The Overbearing CEO Who Sells Bento
My name is Li Erya, and I work at a company called "#1 in the Universe" Bento Company, as a bento taste-tester.
My job is to taste-test all kinds of bento the company produces every day.
I work very diligently—I never stop eating until I'm stuffed.
And the reason I'm so devoted to my work, aside from the fact that the company's bento is genuinely delicious, is one very important reason.
I've had a crush on our company's boss—that handsome, aloof, domineering CEO—for a very long time.
His name is Murong Youcai.
---
The first time I saw him on a company poster, holding a bento box and smiling as he said, "The bento we make with care is meant to make everyone who eats it feel happy," I fell deeply in love.
Later, when I joined the company and saw him in person at the new employee ceremony, I was even more struck by his dashing presence.
Countless times I dreamed of meeting him, and I dreamed of him saying that line every domineering CEO must say:
"Woman, you've successfully caught my attention."
But when I woke up, I was still just the lowest-ranking taste-testing girl, never even able to meet him face to face. How could I possibly catch his attention?
So I threw all my passion into my work—I ate more than any other taste-tester every single day.
Hoping that at the quarterly outstanding employee award ceremony, I'd at least get a chance to go on stage and speak to him.
---
Reality was cruel.
Before I could be named outstanding employee, my stomach gave out from overeating. I was stuck on the toilet at home for three days straight.
This should have counted as a work injury, but my evil supervisor insisted I was absent without cause—no compensation, plus she wanted to fire me.
That was so unfair!
As a lowly employee with no voice, I couldn't fight back. All I could do was secretly tear down a poster of the domineering CEO from the office wall and pack up my things.
Standing at the company entrance, I gazed at the big screen showing the CEO holding his bento, smiling as he said, "The bento we make with care is meant to make everyone who eats it feel happy," and my eyes filled with tears.
Goodbye, my beloved delicious bento.
Goodbye, my beloved domineering CEO.
---
As the saying goes: swallow your anger and it only gets worse; take a step back and you just feel more cheated.
The night I was fired, curled up in my cramped rental, thinking about the supervisor's vicious sarcasm, I couldn't sleep. Finally I sat up and angrily posted about my unfair treatment on social media.
Even though nobody followed my account, it still felt good to vent in my own little corner.
I never expected what happened next. The next morning, my post had gone viral.
A wave of people started bashing the "#1 in the Universe" Bento Company.
Wait—what was happening?
I watched helplessly as the incident gained traction, dominating trending topics on every major platform for days.
Suddenly everyone was saying: We will never buy bento from this kind of black-hearted company!
Not even if it's delicious!
---
To be honest, I hadn't intended to go to war with the company.
After they learned the truth about my wrongful termination, they responded promptly—firing the supervisor who'd bullied me, adding complaint channels for low-level employees, promising this wouldn't happen again, and offering me a generous apology and compensation.
It all fit the "admit your mistakes, take your licks" approach quite properly.
I felt the apology was sincere enough and was about to settle, but then things changed.
Online, a rumor suddenly appeared claiming I'd "suffered all manner of abuse at the #1 in the Universe Bento Company," describing my experiences in horrifying detail, down to the most unverified specifics.
If I weren't the actual person involved, I might have believed it too.
But my denial didn't matter—the crowd believed the rumors, and the company's reputation tanked.
My clarifications went unread—dry explanations couldn't compete with sensational conspiracy theories.
This also made Murong Youcai very angry at me, thinking I'd accepted the settlement on the surface while secretly smearing the company online—calling me a two-faced villain.
Oh, how wronged I was!
---
After things deteriorated, I somehow managed to get a meeting with Murong Youcai at company headquarters.
I'd requested the meeting to explain my side.
But across the conference table, he wouldn't even look at me. He'd thrown up an "I'm not listening" force field, his aura pushing me eight feet away.
Fine—I understood why he was acting this way.
If he had a friendly, pleasant conversation with me right now, his aloof CEO persona would crumble!
So after I exhausted myself explaining to no avail, the domineering CEO who'd completely ignored every word I said and decided I was a scheming villain simply said coldly: "Woman, you're playing with fire!"
I was a bit confused.
Was this dream-come-true classic line another major step forward on my path to winning the CEO's favor?
But I couldn't smile right now.
Because I didn't want to play with fire—some unknown ghost fire was playing with me!
---
Affected by the controversy, the company soon started teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
One day, I grabbed a discount bento from a convenience store, looked up, and saw the TV reporting that Murong Youcai was about to marry the Xuanyuan Corporation's heiress—a major positive development for the struggling company.
I checked out with a blank face and walked out of the store.
The sunlight outside stung my eyes, making them suddenly burn.
In stories, the domineering CEO always falls for the girl with nothing. In reality, they only make eyes at the wealthy heiress who has everything.
Fine—congratulations on the wedding, and I hope they keep running the bento company well.
Because the bento really was delicious.
I didn't want to see it disappear.
---
But fate never follows the script.
The night before the CEO's wedding, I was walking home with a bento when I happened to divert a group of Black-clad thugs in an alley and ended up rescuing Murong Youcai, who was being pursued.
Good heavens!
This domineering CEO had actually run away from his own wedding!
What was going on? I helped the disheveled CEO back to my place, completely baffled.
Murong Youcai, were you reading the wrong script? Running away from the wedding is the heroine's move!
---
His reasons for fleeing were complicated.
His fiancée, Xuanyuan Cuihua, was a wealthy, talented heiress—a perfect match in every way. She was also the designated heir to the Xuanyuan Corporation's own "#2 in the Universe" Bento Company. Marrying her would mean the industry leader and runner-up joining forces—very profitable.
With the "#1 in the Universe" Company on the verge of collapse, the entire Murong family was pressuring Murong Youcai to agree. He had no choice in the matter.
Otherwise, if the company went under, what kind of domineering CEO would he be?
But Murong Youcai was a domineering CEO with built-in stubbornness. Through secret investigation, he discovered—just before the wedding—that something was wrong.
Xuanyuan Cuihua was not as innocent as she appeared.
The vicious online rumors that had nearly destroyed his company—the ones claiming I was abused—had all been orchestrated by Xuanyuan Cuihua as the mastermind!
She'd directed the whole show: planting the evil supervisor as a spy in the company, provoking my firing to trigger public outrage, then adding fuel to the fire online, blowing the conflict out of proportion until it couldn't be contained.
Her goal: destroy the company and force Murong Youcai to marry her.
"Wow, this story is so melodramatic," I said, eating bento while listening to Murong Youcai explain everything. "Cuihua's love for you is really terrifying."
---
Murong Youcai's situation was both dangerous and awkward.
No reliable subordinates, no unlimited black card, he couldn't even reveal his location—his entire family had been won over by Xuanyuan Cuihua and wasn't on his side. If he got caught, he'd probably lose his innocence.
Weak, helpless, and still cocky—he had no choice but to be taken in by me.
My neighborhood was cheap and run-down, so inconspicuous in this city that nobody would think to look for him here.
Curious, I asked if he had a comeback plan. He just shook his head and said that after being a domineering CEO for so many years, it was time to consider other career paths.
Come again? I was stunned. What kind of plot twist was this?
Then Murong Youcai started pouring out his grievances about how exhausting it was being a domineering CEO all these years—how he was always having coffee spilled on him by clumsy secretaries, nearly becoming a VIP at the burn ward; how he kept getting randomly slapped by fiery, strong-willed women until he coughed blood from internal injuries; how he had to maintain an ice-cold expression at all times and could only say the same handful of lines over and over until he was sick of it.
And worse—every time he tried harder to be a proper domineering CEO, people mocked him behind his back for being ridiculous.
This was truly despair-inducing!
Murong Youcai unleashed years of pent-up frustration, getting more and more worked up until he was clenching his fists and shouting: "To hell with the Murong Corporation! I, Murong Youcai, am not going to be a CEO anymore!"
I was completely bewildered: "Then what are you going to be?"
He suddenly walked over, trapped me against the wall with his strong arms, hormones radiating off him, his whole body pressing so close I could barely breathe. I forced my pounding heart down, swallowed hard, and looked up at his sharply handsome face as he declared with wild, domineering intensity:
"Woman, I want to be like you—a free-range salted fish."
Hey! Don't say something so ridiculous in such a romantic atmosphere!
I really wanted to laugh.
---
I initially refused Murong Youcai's request to teach him how to be ordinary.
He narrowed his eyes at me, leaned close, and whispered in my ear with a deep voice: "Woman, nobody has ever dared to refuse me."
I shamefully caved.
Fine, fine, Mr. Murong—whatever makes you happy. Just please stop talking.
If I kept laughing, my five-yuan expired face mask was going to crack.