CHAPTER 1

This year's summer was even hotter than usual. The cicadas in the trees chirped incessantly, grating on one's nerves.

Cang Xuehe, who had just finished meeting with a client, stepped out of the taxi. The stifling air felt like being trapped inside an airtight steamer, making her exhausted body feel even more drained.

She ordered a latte at the coffee shop downstairs from her office and opened her phone while waiting.

The latest WeChat messages came from a few gossip groups among her colleagues.

She scrolled through them, but her colleagues were somehow discussing the new leader, and she was completely confused. So she sent a question mark in the group.

Soon, a colleague @'d her, asking where she was and to bring up a coffee from downstairs.

"Your drink is ready. Please take your time." The barista deftly packed several drinks, her smile the same as always.

Stepping out of the coffee shop, Cang Xuehe let out a heavy sigh.

Once again, she lamented how exhausting life was.

It had been two years since she graduated and started working, yet she still hadn't gotten used to the miserable life of a corporate drone. There were days when she especially didn't want to get out of bed and even entertained the thought of taking leave.

But her wallet told her that wasn't an option.

Pushing through the revolving glass doors of the company, she was greeted by the opulent lobby. This Fortune Global 500 company, how many people would kill to get in, herself included.

[Fortune Global 500 company is a corporation that ranks among the top 500 businesses in the world based on its total annual revenue.]

Cang Xuehe shook off the frustration of being mentally drained by her client, mustered her spirits, and greeted the enthusiastic receptionist at the front desk.

Back in the office, her colleagues' takeout had just arrived. Seeing her return, they pulled her into an afternoon tea session.

What kept Cang Xuehe going through her high-pressure job was probably the good office atmosphere.

The big boss rarely showed up, and the department head was easygoing, holding the attitude that as long as the work got done, anything went. Colleagues ordering afternoon tea was a common occurrence.

"Xuehe, did you know?" Her deskmate took a sip of her milk tea, rolled her office chair over, and looked at her with a mysterious expression.

Cang Xuehe looked puzzled. "Know what?"

"In the group chat! Did you check the messages? We've been talking all afternoon."

"There were too many messages. I only skimmed a bit. Did something happen?"

The colleague glanced around, then whispered like a spy passing intel: "Hasn't the VP position been vacant for a long time? News came out today, someone from headquarters is being sent down to take the spot."

"Oh." Cang Xuehe nodded. "What does that have to do with us? We're just small fry anyway."

"No, no, no!" The colleague said. "According to inside gossip! That new VP wants to overhaul the company, and our department is first on the chopping block!"

"D@mn, everyone knows our department has the best vibe, and they want to mess with us the moment they arrive!" The colleague got more and more worked up, drawing another colleague into the gossip circle.

"I heard this new VP is no ordinary person! A woman, under thirty, already a company VP, and the big boss thinks very highly of her. Tsk tsk tsk..."

"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm..." Cang Xuehe responded half-heartedly while continuing to type her email. Their speculation grew more and more outrageous, already starting to guess at some hidden relationship between the VP and the big boss.

Cang Xuehe shook her head inwardly. She didn't really want to participate in this kind of topic, and she sighed at how women could sometimes be the harshest on other women.

But... Cang Xuehe still hoped the rumors about this VP were false. After all, no one wanted a she-devil boss to suddenly appear.

"Hey, you lot having a tea party over there, are you done with your work?" The commotion caught the team leader's attention, and she spoke up to interrupt them.

Only then was Cang Xuehe freed.

The WeChat group buzzed again, asking if everyone wanted to grab dinner together, there would be some handsome guys attending.

Most people in the group were single, and the moment handsome guys were mentioned, they all stirred with excitement and immediately popped up to say they'd go.

Cang Xuehe glanced at it. Even with descriptions of guys so handsome they'd make you drool, she remained unmoved.

Cang Xuehe: [ I'm not going. I have plans tonight. ]

Cang Xuehe had no plans tonight. If it were just a simple dinner, she would have joined, but if it was a setup, she had zero interest.

The reason was simple: she wasn't interested in handsome guys.

If it were beautiful women, she'd join without hesitation.

But aside from her best friend, no one knew she was deeply in the closet.

Like everyone else, she'd stayed single because she hadn't met the right person. Plus, all the women around her were straight, and she didn't venture outside her social circle, making it even harder to find someone.

Rather than spending time on mixed-gender mixers, she'd rather go home and lie down.

In the past, Cang Xuehe would go to the gym or take classes after work to enrich herself. But as work piled up, she gave up activities that tortured her body and mind after hours, turning instead to the embrace of online fiction.

She'd collected several novels recently but hadn't had time to read them. Finally, with the client matters mostly wrapped up today, she decided to grace one with her attention to soothe her battered soul.

She wasn't picky about what she read, romance, yuri, she read it all, mostly tooth-achingly sweet fluff. Recently, she'd grown a bit numb to that, so she found a romance novel that didn't seem so sweet: First Love Like Fire.

This literary yet slightly pretentious title caught Cang Xuehe's attention, and she wanted to see just how "infuriating" it could be. After reading it, she found it indeed quite infuriating.

From the synopsis, the female lead was a total love-obsessed fool. After marrying her first love, her husband cheated on her and her mother-in-law bull!ed her. She endured and endured until she became a veritable Ninja Turtle.

The author had marked it as a BE [Bad Ending], so Cang Xuehe was looking forward to seeing how the female lead would eventually torment the $cumbag male lead and run off with the second male lead.

Of course, there was another point of interest, the love-obsessed female lead happened to share her exact name.

Well, well, the novel actually went there.

This made Cang Xuehe even more interested in the novel, eagerly anticipating the female lead's comeback and revenge against the male lead. Suppressing her curiosity, she grabbed a quick meal near her office after work and took the subway straight home.

On the subway, her fists clenched just from reading the first few chapters. To avoid cursing out loud in public, she temporarily closed the novel.

Cang Xuehe stood by the door, one hand gripping the overhead handle, her expression as blank as a temple guardian statue.

But in her mind, she was thinking about the novel she'd just read. In real society, there probably wasn't a woman this naive and sweet. Because he was her first love, she clung to him desperately, a proper rich young lady turning herself into a desperate doormat.

Truly heartbreaking to hear, tear-jerking to witness.

Back home, Cang Xuehe quickly showered and settled comfortably into bed to read the novel.

It was only seven o'clock.

Cang Xuehe read fast, a 300,000-character novel would take her just two or three hours.

At nearly ten, Cang Xuehe put down her phone and looked up at the ceiling. The room was so quiet that only the sound of the air conditioner blowing could be heard.

After a moment, a heavy sigh broke the silence.

This novel had no revenge plot against the $cumbag. The love-obsessed female lead loved the trash male lead to death, and after she died in childbirth, the male lead's family even tried to swallow up her family's assets, eventually ruining her family completely.

After the sigh, no other sound came from the room. Cang Xuehe couldn't shake off the shadow of this infuriating novel for a long time.

A call from her friend broke the silence.

"Xuehe, where are you? Want to grab some late-night snacks? I just finished overtime and I'm exhausted." Chen Zixin's voice pulled Cang Xuehe back from the novel world to reality.

"No thanks, I'm already in bed ready to sleep."

"So early today?" Chen Zixin was a bit surprised. "What are you doing? Reading a novel?"

She shouldn't have mentioned the novel, it was like lighting a firecracker. Cang Xuehe exploded instantly, her anger skyrocketing.

"Yeah, I just read a novel, and it was freaking infuriating! I suspect the author has a screw loose for writing something so inhumane. Is this something I should be reading??? Huh??"

"What kind of plot got you this worked up?"

Cang Xuehe sat up straight, pulled the blanket around her, and sat cross-legged on the bed, launching into rant mode like beans spilling out of a bamboo tube.

"The female lead only dated once in her life and ran into a combination of $cumbag and mama's boy. And she was stupid enough to insist on marrying him. After marriage, she got cheated on and humiliated by her mother-in-law. That's bad enough, but when she had a difficult childbirth, the brainless female lead insisted on saving the baby. Tell me, how can a woman with looks and money be so brainless? With money, she could find any boyfriend she wanted! Why does she have to dig through the trash for crap to eat!"

"Ah, the more I think about it, the angrier I get. The female lead even shares my name! Am I that pathetic?! If I were her, I'd torture that $cumbag to death!"

Cang Xuehe's frantic voice made Chen Zixin laugh. She chuckled, "It's just a novel, don't take it seriously. Just read it for fun. Who's going to pay for your health if you get angry over it?"

Then she changed the subject: "Haven't you been pretty busy lately? Getting off work so early today."

"Yeah, no overtime today." Cang Xuehe calmed down a bit and talked about office matters. "Speaking of which, our good days are numbered. Today I heard from a colleague that a new vice president is coming next week and plans to crack down on our department. Ugh."

"...That's rough." Chen Zixin sent a sympathetic look through the phone.

The phone vibrating bothered Cang Xuehe. She pulled it away from her ear and said, "My phone keeps vibrating. Let me check the messages."

After seeing the message, she let out a small gasp.

"Talk about coincidence, I just saw in the group chat that the vice president got into a car accident and her start date is postponed."

"So you guys get a few more good days after all."

"Yeah..."

The two chatted a bit more until Chen Zixin was about to board the subway, then hung up.

Having stayed up late the night before, she felt sleepy especially early tonight. Cang Xuehe yawned and lay back down on the bed.

Staring at the ceiling, her mind drifted back to the novel plot that had angered her to the core. She cursed the $cumbag male lead a thousand times in her heart until she fell asleep.

"Trash like that, I'd beat one every time I see one..."

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