---
And so, Murong Youcai began living an ordinary person's life with me, making do with a bed on the floor of my shabby rental.
As everyone knows, domineering CEOs cannot survive as ordinary people.
Let alone living with someone who was already at the bottom of society like me—daily disasters ensued.
He'd nearly burn the house down by scorching a pot, flood the apartment trying to fix the toilet, or snap the brittle key off in the rusty lock—clumsier than even the watchdog downstairs.
---
"Eat first—I'll teach you how to do laundry later," I said, coming home from odd jobs and setting a bento on the table, calling Murong Youcai over for dinner. He'd been wrestling with my ancient washing machine for ages and looked ready to have a breakdown.
He'd completely lost his CEO composure.
Then the TV broadcast about the company's likely acquisition by the #2 company finished him off. He looked as wilted as discounted vegetables at the supermarket—thoroughly deflated.
He even ate the extra chicken drumstick I'd saved for him without any enthusiasm.
I suddenly felt a surge of emotion.
No matter how much CEO energy you had, once you stripped away the shiny surface, it was hard to withstand the brutal kicks of real life.
---
Midnight. Murong Youcai went up to the rooftop alone to catch the cold wind.
Partly because he was frustrated, but mostly—I suspect—because the apartment's AC was broken, ventilation was terrible, and on this sweltering summer night, the whole place was like a steamer.
The former CEO could not comprehend how there could exist a place in summer without air conditioning.
How was he supposed to maintain his ice-cold CEO aura under these conditions?
Seeing me cheerfully sitting in front of the ancient, noisy fan made his expression even more dramatic than the first time he'd seen a cockroach in the filthy hallway.
"Woman, you've really impressed me," Murong Youcai said, completely seriously.
Then he fled to the rooftop to reflect on life.
Watching him retreat, I gained a new understanding of the domineering CEO species. The powerful force that could truly melt an CEO's icy heart wasn't necessarily the heroine's boundless energy and burning passion.
It could also be a summer night when the AC happened to break.
---
By the time I'd watched my fill of melodramatic TV and bought two popsicles from the corner store, Murong Youcai still hadn't come down from the roof.
I'd planned to enjoy both popsicles by myself, but my conscience intervened, so I took them upstairs.
A night breeze blew across the rooftop—not too hot.
But that quiet figure sitting alone by the edge looked a little lonely.
I sat down next to him, bit into my own popsicle, and held the other out to him.
The former CEO, who'd once scoffed at such cheap treats, accepted it without protest, tore off the wrapper, and took a huge bite—smooth, natural, no trace of his earlier pretentiousness.
Environment really does change people.
Maybe the popsicle had cooled his overheated brain enough to thaw his completely collapsed ice wall but not enough to refreeze it, because when he spoke, his tone was neither cold nor manic, but filled with quiet confusion: "Is this how ordinary people live?"
Living in noisy, dirty places, counting every penny, staying up late to grab minimal discount coupons, getting squished into paper-thin sheets on rush-hour subways, enduring your boss's moods for meager pay, not even daring to buy the slightly more expensive bento.
I nodded while eating my popsicle: "That's how it is."
From this rental to the neighbors in this building to countless invisible places in this city—everyone lived like this.
He asked: "And this just repeats, day after day?"
I nodded again: "Yes. Just dealing with these same boring daily tasks wears you out completely. You can't change much more than that."
Murong Youcai fell silent, looking from the rooftop of this old building toward the lit skyscrapers downtown, his gaze settling on the tallest one—the Murong Corporation headquarters—furrowing his brow.
After a while, he said: "You really do work hard at living."
I wasn't used to the compliment, scratching my head awkwardly: "I don't really do that much..."
"But it matters to me a lot," he said quietly. "Thank you for these days. You've shown me things I never knew existed, and helped me figure out something I couldn't understand before."
The moment the words left his mouth, he stood up, brow unfurrowed, his expression clearing—as if all his troubles had been flushed away in one rush.
In my eyes, just standing there, he seemed re-inhabited by the domineering CEO spirit. His tall figure looked striking against the night sky, transforming this shabby rooftop into something resembling "a CEO standing at the top-floor office window, looking down at the teeming masses below."
Even with his ridiculous hair from the neighborhood barber, he couldn't hide how dazzling he looked at this moment.
And this shiny, handsome man was looking at me with utter sincerity: "I was naive before. I can't give up now. I need to step up, take responsibility, defeat Xuanyuan Cuihua, and take back my company!"
I weakly reminded him: "But Xuanyuan Cuihua is deeply scheming and ruthless. Are you sure you want to take her on directly?"
Murong Youcai flashed a devilish smile, his domineering aura flooding outward: "If I can handle your impossible washing machine, do you think I'd be afraid of one Xuanyuan Cuihua?"
His determination fired me up too, and I blurted out: "Murong Youcai, are you doing this because you were moved by my goodness and persistence?"
"No," he said honestly. "Watching how hard your life is, I realized being ordinary is too exhausting. It's much easier being a CEO."
Oh. Fair enough.
His logic was so sound I couldn't argue.
---
Murong Youcai quickly devised a counterattack plan: he'd infiltrate the "#2 in the Universe" Bento Company disguised as an ordinary worker and take down Xuanyuan Cuihua from the inside.
But the first step tripped him up.
Born into the CEO role, he'd only done a brief entry-level stint at his own company after graduation and had zero clue about job-hunting—resumes, recruitment websites, all completely foreign to him.
So of course I had to step in. Job-hunting was my specialty as a professional salted fish.
We both went undercover at the #2 Bento Company—as taste testers, my old specialty.
At first I worried about him blowing his cover, but as low-level employees we never interacted with upper management, and days of living like an ordinary person had given him some basic disguise skills. With his CEO aura dialed down and cheap clothes on, nobody connected him to the arrogant CEO from before.
Unfortunately, the bento taste-testing at this company was far less enjoyable. Murong Youcai looked like he was in physical agony with every bite.
Now I knew why the #2 Company, despite the Xuanyuan Corporation's massive funding, relentless advertising, celebrity endorsements, and coupon bombardments, had never beaten the #1 Company in sales.
Their bento was absolutely, unbelievably terrible!
---
But we also discovered a shocking secret.
The #2 Bento Company had been systematically abusing its low-level employees.
Not in the "making them taste bad bento" sense—real, horrifying abuse. The kind that was, well... identical to the fake rumors that had been spread about me being abused at the #1 Company.
No wonder Xuanyuan Cuihua's rumors had been so detailed and specific—she'd used her own company's actual practices as the blueprint!
Using her own evil to smear Murong Youcai—what a classic, standard-issue evil female antagonist!
Murong Youcai was furious and wanted to expose this immediately. But against the massive, powerful Xuanyuan Corporation, two little salted fish like us couldn't make a splash.
Not even a tiny ripple in the vast ocean of humanity.
---
His failures made Murong Youcai's brow furrow even more permanently, and I felt bad for him.
I patted his shoulder and told him not to give up—I had another way to help him defeat Xuanyuan Cuihua.
This caught Murong Youcai's attention.
Over the next while, he kept his sharp CEO gaze locked on me, tracking my every move.
What he found was me working—diligently working.
Murong Youcai was unimpressed: "How exactly is this helping defeat Xuanyuan Cuihua?"
I couldn't dodge anymore, so I smiled awkwardly: "I guess I have to tell you my secret."
My real name isn't Li Erya—it's Dugu Erya.
My family, the Dugu clan, has been cursed since ancient times: every member is born with an uncontrollable passive ability—any company we work at for too long will go bankrupt.
To avoid harming innocent companies, we have to quit before the curse kicks in. This is the fundamental reason our family has always been poor and dwindling.
You can't get promoted if you can't stay anywhere long enough.
So even though I was well-educated and hardworking, I was always stuck as an un-turnable salted fish, and on really bad days, I couldn't even afford to eat properly.
"I used to hate this cursed ability of mine, but now I can finally use it to help you," I told Murong Youcai confidently. "A company like the #2 that abuses its employees and makes terrible bento deserves to go under. This time, I'll take down Xuanyuan Cuihua for you!"
---
Murong Youcai looked at me with a complicated expression and didn't respond.
I thought he might be blaming me for staying too long at his company and causing its decline. "Sorry—I should have quit earlier. Your bento was just too delicious, I couldn't bear to leave, so I stayed longer than usual. Based on my experience, that shouldn't have had an effect..."