Chapter 188: We're Just Friends!
Held by her collar, Qiao Xin coughed heavily twice.
Her face flushed crimson as she hurriedly pushed Zhao Mengde's arm away. "Hey! No physical contact between men and women! No physical contact!"
"Ah, sorry."
Zhao Mengde quickly let go.
But she quickly realized the problem: "Hey, what do you mean 'no physical contact'? Sure, I'm tall and built, but I'm a girl! What's stopping us from being intimate?"
Qiao Xin snorted: "Because right now…"
Right now, she was into girls!
No matter what, she only wanted to be closer to Ye Zhen!
She gazed at Ye Zhen with hopeful eyes.
But Ye Zhen silently averted her gaze, avoiding the possibility of meeting that earnest look.
She really wasn't good at dealing with girls' pitiful looks.
"Let's go, Zhao Mengde. We're heading to the company."
"Sure thing!"
Zhao Mengde rubbed his wrist and grinned as he fell into step behind Ye Zhen.
After walking quite a distance, Zhao Mengde peeked back and saw Qiao Xin still standing there, staring after them with a wounded expression.
Zhao Mengde quietly reached out and nudged Ye Zhen's arm. "Hey, actually, your roommate has great looks—fair skin, beautiful face, long legs. She could be a star! Her temper is way better than Ye Fuli's. Why not give it some thought? Don't worry, if you do, I won't tell Ye Fuli."
This was Miss Zhao Mengde's genuine opinion.
After all, Ye Zhen was her primary employer. No matter what, Ye Zhen's interests would always come first.
If Ye Zhen wanted to be the queen of a harem, Zhao Mengde would cover for her.
Unfortunately, Ye Zhen wasn't willing.
Though this girl often ogled other girls' assets, she actually had strong principles and never exploited her female identity to flirt around.
Ye Zhen shot her a glare. "We have a pure friendship. What are you thinking?"
Zhao Mengde looked utterly innocent. "Nothing at all. What were you thinking?"
"I wasn't thinking anything!"
"Really? Then I wasn't either."
The two glared at each other for a moment.
Ye Zhen sighed, rubbing her temples. "Don't go overboard. Right now… I'm not in the mood for romance."
"Then I genuinely feel for Ye Fuli."
Though she claimed concern, Zhao Mengde was grinning inwardly.
She relished seeing powerful rivals suffer setbacks.
Ye Fuli wouldn't suffer much humiliation at her hands, but plenty of it awaited her at Ye Zhen's.
…
Half an hour later.
The two of them arrived at the company.
Today's receptionist was a young girl with a baby face and a sweet, high-pitched voice. Spotting Ye Zhen, she immediately stood up, bowed, and greeted, "Good morning, Boss."
"Sit down. Keep working. Don't mind me."
Ye Zhen's gaze shifted away from the deep V-neck of her undershirt, and she cleared her throat solemnly.
Terrifying.
Had she ever recruited such a fierce girl?
Or had everyone suddenly mastered the art of padding?
After walking several steps away, Ye Zhen turned back and said to the front desk girl, "Go change into another base layer! It's so cold out, you'll catch a cold."
"Huh? Oh, okay, boss."
Is it really that cold?
The front desk girl wondered to herself. Lately, daytime temperatures had been above 25 degrees Celsius, often hot enough to make her sweat buckets.
But the boss's orders were gospel. No questions asked—just obey.
Once inside the elevator, Zhao Mengde leaned in and whispered, "So? Do they look good?"
"What looks good?" Ye Zhen looked completely baffled.
"The new uniforms! I had them custom-made myself—didn’t cost the company a dime. My personal sponsorship." Zhao Mengde raised an eyebrow. "By the way, I got one too. Want to see?"
Ye Zhen couldn't help but hold her forehead. "So it was you!"
This was a legitimate game company—what kind of scandalous spectacle was this?
How was anyone supposed to view her as the boss?
Ye Zhen's tone was less than kind. Zhao Mengde immediately clutched his head in surrender. "If you don't like it, just change it! I don't know your tastes… Hey hey hey, don't glare at me like that, it's scary! Waaah~"
"Change it. All of you, go change it."
By the time they spoke, the two of them had already reached the office floor where Senior Liu and the others worked.
Busy with game design and updates day in and day out, they often just slept right in the office.
When Ye Zhen entered to check on them, they were all slurping instant noodles together.
"Oh, Boss Ye's here!"
Spotting Ye Zhen, Senior Liu quickly set down her instant noodles and approached, laptop in hand.
"Look, our game's live now, and the response is great! Here's the first day's data…"
Ye Zhen didn't really understand their data, so she glanced at it briefly before setting it aside.
As the boss, she didn't need to be an expert on games—just know how to invest!
Whether it made money or not didn't really concern her.
The system's task requirement—"Own a company with at least 100 employees to receive a reward of 100 million yuan or an equivalent property"—had now been fulfilled.
Ye Zhen chose the one hundred million yuan funding.
From here on out, she'd let Liu Xueshi and the others handle things freely.
Whatever they could earn, they could keep.
"Work hard! Today I'm treating you all to a feast. Tonight we're going for a group bath—my treat."
Hearing the boss was treating them, everyone cheered enthusiastically, shouting, "Boss is brilliant!" and "Boss is awesome!"
Ye Zhen felt a bit embarrassed by their praise and quickly made an excuse to slip away.
…
Night.
At a hot spring resort on the southern outskirts of the city, Ye Zhen had reserved the entire place.
With over a hundred employees, it was impossible to invite them all. Ye Zhen only invited everyone from Senior Liu's team.
Soaking in the baths, sipping juice, and enjoying the massage services from the attendants, the fatigue accumulated over the past few days vanished completely.
Taking care of patients really was no easy task.
Ye Zhen yawned, shifted into a more comfortable position, and lay back, closing her eyes to rest.
Zhao Mengde, lying beside her, propped his chin up and muttered gloomily, "Man, stock trading is such a money pit. I just lost another twenty million…"
"Stock trading?"
Hearing that keyword, Ye Zhen opened her eyes again.
"No wonder you've been scrambling to make money—it's never enough!"
Zhao Mengde snorted. "It's not like I lose money every day! Last month, I actually made over five million."
"And this month?"
"This month… Ugh, I'm done. I'm never trading again."
Zhao Mengde set down his phone.
But moments later, she secretly picked it up again.
Seeing her mesmerized expression, Ye Zhen knew her island dream was still a distant one.
One night passed.
Zhao Mengde's smile vanished completely. Her face was deathly pale, and her steps were unsteady.
"Ahhhhh…!"
"My money!"
"My savings from over a decade, aaaah!"
She collapsed at Ye Zhen's feet, wailing loudly.
Ye Zhen patted her shoulder sympathetically. "It's okay. At least I can provide food and shelter here."
As she spoke, Ye Zhen suddenly thought of Ye Fuli.
She vaguely recalled He Ying mentioning that Ye Fuli was skilled in divination and stock trading, unmatched in the world.
Hmm, Miss Mengde absolutely must not find out about this.
Otherwise, her employer might just get sold off…