Chapter 87 – Extra: The Drone Bee. Xiang Jin × Fu Jin
(When I have time, I’ll add an ending to the high-school storyline. For now, writing the drone bee.)
After the Dragon Boat Festival, Xiang Jin and Lian Qiao went to Nan Cheng to work.
Bai He and Lin Xilan each escorted one of them, delivering them to their respective employers’ homes. At the door, they handed over the small suitcases to the boys themselves, like old fathers seeing their kids off to the dorm on the first day of school.
“If something makes you unhappy, refuse it,” they said. “You’ve got the queen bee backing you.”
Xiang Jin and Lian Qiao nodded. “We will.”
Bai He also pulled them into a Nan Cheng part-time workers group chat. There were seven or eight people inside, all working or renting close to their employers’ places. “If anything comes up, say it in the group. Everyone can brainstorm together, and if something happens, people can come help right away.”
Lin Xilan added, “Our contracts are formal labor contracts. You can absolutely refuse any extra work.”
After all the reminders, Bai He and Lin Xilan went back to the company, and the two drone bees each stepped through the doors of their employers’ homes.
Fu Jin had deliberately cleared his schedule for the day and waited at home. On his phone was an “internship reimbursement” Lu Xiao had transferred to him: a monthly salary of three thousand yuan that Fu Jin didn’t need to pay—he only had to provide food and lodging.
Fu Jin didn’t take the money.
When the doorbell rang, he opened the door, took Xiang Jin’s suitcase, set it by the sofa for the moment, and led him around the large apartment to get familiar with it. Three hundred square meters, two bedrooms, a wine cellar, a fitness area, a study…
“Every door is open to you.”
Xiang Jin frowned slightly at how big the place was and asked a bit awkwardly, “Then… who does the cleaning?”
Fu Jin said, “A housekeeping team comes every other day. Trash goes outside and property management takes care of it. We don’t cook at home—do you want to hire a chef, or should we reimburse takeout?”
Xiang Jin had no further questions. The working conditions were way too good. “Takeout.”
Fu Jin said, “Okay. I’ll send you the menu and contact info for a private kitchen later. I probably won’t be back at noon—just order for yourself. In the evening, order for two.”
Xiang Jin stood on tiptoe and kissed the corner of President Fu’s mouth. “Thank you, President Fu.”
Fu Jin froze. The progress was fast. Was this the power of money?
Pushing his luck, he said, “We’ll sleep in the same room.”
Xiang Jin didn’t object. He was very clear about his scope of services—comparable to a cat or dog. You could pet the cat, cuddle the cat, and even sleep under the same blanket at night. What cats couldn’t do, he wouldn’t do. What cats could do, he could.
Compared to cats and dogs, he could even order takeout and shower by himself. Rich people paid high prices to keep cats—keeping a drone bee was actually quite cost-effective.
He only raised one question: “Who folds the blanket in the morning?”
Fu Jin: “I will.”
Xiang Jin: “Your place is really nice.”
Fu Jin: “You’re also very nice.”
The first night passed without incident—it was only their second time meeting, after all.
Fu Jin slept with the “wife” he’d hired. The next morning, his workday biological clock woke him naturally. Looking at Xiang Jin sleeping soundly, he couldn’t bear to wake him.
Xiang Jin hadn’t even changed sleeping positions all night.
After getting up, Fu Jin smoothed out his side of the quilt and sheets—barely counted as folding the blanket.
At nine o’clock, the busiest time in the office district, Xiang Jin woke up slowly.
At eleven, he opened a delivery app and studied the private-kitchen options Fu Jin had recommended.
At three, he read at home and did some light exercise.
At six, Fu Jin came home. Xiang Jin darted to the door like a cat to greet his employer.
He curved his eyes, his face full of innocent ignorance. “Work was hard today.”
Fu Jin hung his coat in the entryway. Seeing Xiang Jin relaxed him completely. No wonder bosses in their circle liked keeping canaries—coming home after work and opening the door to a carefree smile made the house feel alive, warm, and bright.
“Has dinner arrived?”
Xiang Jin said, “It has. Let’s eat in the dining room.”
Fu Jin took Xiang Jin’s hand and walked over. But when his gaze fell on the two very different dishes on the table, his expression turned complicated.
Xiang Jin explained, “The one on the right is yours—boss meal, budget 1,000 yuan. The one on the left is mine—employee meal, budget 15 yuan.”
Even though he’d never worked before, he had a rough idea of employee meal budgets. He wasn’t picky about food anyway; he was lazy. As long as someone gave him something to eat, it was fine.
Fu Jin pointed at the pre-made braised chicken with rice on the table. “Did you eat this at noon too?”
Xiang Jin said, “No, I had green-pepper rice at noon.”
Green-pepper rice sounded like another kind of pre-made meal. Fu Jin felt a tightness in his chest. Being able to order takeout for around ten yuan in this area was already a skill—the delivery fee alone cost money.
Fu Jin said, “Don’t eat yours. Eat mine—I can’t finish it anyway.”
The rice portions were all single servings.
Fu Jin took out Xiang Jin’s rice, lifted the cheap disposable lid, and spread it out on the table. The rice had been loosened by the shop and then pressed flat by the takeout box—a bleak, appetite-killing white.
He put his own rice in front of Xiang Jin. It came in an original porcelain bowl; the grains were plump and glossy, the aroma of new rice rushing up.
Xiang Jin said, “I should still eat the cheap one.”
Fu Jin said, “Eat.”
Xiang Jin shoveled the fragrant rice into his mouth while glancing up from the bone-china bowl. Fu Jin was eating from a transparent plastic container, yet still looked dignified.
This person was really quite nice.
Fu Jin picked up a piece of fried pork belly for him. “Not greasy. Don’t worry.”
Xiang Jin: “Oh.”
After the meal, Fu Jin said, “Your meal budget is also one thousand. Remember that?”
Xiang Jin said, “A monthly salary of three thousand can’t possibly come with that kind of meal budget, President Fu. We have to follow the spirit of the contract.”
Fu Jin began to feel there was a trap in the contract. “Salary and benefits are separate.”
Xiang Jin said, “Even if I ate three thousand yuan a day, I still wouldn’t provide services beyond a monthly salary of three thousand.”
Fu Jin paused, recalling a saying: the free things are the most expensive; the cheap ones are the biggest traps. Now he knew why he’d felt scammed at Baihua Village—the “services” weren’t clearly written in the contract.
He asked patiently, “What services does a three-thousand-yuan monthly salary include?”
Xiang Jin said, “Opening the door, ordering food, warming the bed, chatting…”
Then he added, “You can touch.”
Fu Jin: “Touch where?”
Xiang Jin: “Anywhere over clothes.”
Fu Jin understood—so he’d raised a pedigree cat. He didn’t yet know the breed, but it was clearly rare. Three thousand a month. He generously tapped the table. “Upgrade to a three-hundred-thousand-a-month package.”
Xiang Jin said, “The contract says three thousand, so it’s three thousand. I only want to work a three-thousand-yuan job.”
Fu Jin felt like he’d fallen for a gym membership sales routine: before paying, the equipment looked endless; after paying, there was only a hand gripper—everything else had been imagined. There wasn’t even a pool or a shower, because you couldn’t take your clothes off.
The cost-performance wasn’t bad, but he was so rich—why should he…
Wait. His thinking had gone off track.
He wasn’t actually trying to keep a canary. He wanted to date. He wanted a relationship!
Was Lu Xiao even a friend? Watching him jump into a pit with open eyes—and Fu Jin had even prepared a gift envelope.
Fu Jin took a breath and reorganized his words. “Leaving the contract aside, I don’t just want a monetary relationship with you. I want to date you—the kind where you invest real feelings.”
Xiang Jin declined politely. “I just want to work. I didn’t come out to date.” Dating was troublesome, and it couldn’t even be purely platonic.
Seeing that Xiang Jin wouldn’t budge no matter what, Fu Jin laughed in exasperation. How had he ever thought, back in Baihua Village, that this beauty was soft and easy to handle?
“So touching is allowed, right?”
Xiang Jin: “Yes.”
Fu Jin: “Digest that for a while.”
……
That night, Xiang Jin felt that if he really were a cat, his fur would’ve been rubbed bald.
He should’ve written “no pinching the butt” into the contract. Was Fu Jin using his butt to practice grip strength?
On his first official day of work, Xiang Jin felt utterly exhausted. He opened the Nan Cheng worker-bee group and saw another group relay going on. Curious, he clicked in—his worker-bee brothers were relaying their overtime hours for the week.
It was Thursday, and the first place had already accumulated 25.3 hours of overtime.
Everyone else in the group was envious.
“This week I’ll let you have it. Next week we’ll compete again.”
“Next week I have a project going live—probably two all-nighters. I’ll be way ahead!”
Xiang Jin was amazed. He hadn’t been in this worker-bee group before, so he hadn’t known how intense outside work was.
After thinking for a moment, he sent a message: “You’re all amazing. Working is so tiring.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Fu Jin come back from his shower. He immediately flipped his phone face-down and covered his butt with his hand, pretending he’d suffered a serious workplace injury.
Fu Jin cooled off a bit in the bathroom, then showed his capitalist colors. “I think your workload doesn’t match a salary of three thousand.”
Xiang Jin immediately knelt halfway up on the bed. Was he about to be fired? No! He’d finally found a job. If Lian Qiao didn’t get fired and managed to earn money, while he ended up empty-handed, what would he bring as a gift for the queen bee baby?
Though the queen bee baby wasn’t even a thing yet—if it happened, it’d be sudden.
Xiang Jin said, “I think I’m worth three thousand just looking like this. I even graduated from college.”
Fu Jin thought: at least you’re very self-aware about your looks. The problem was, he didn’t want to just look without feeling anything. “But it doesn’t match my needs.”
Xiang Jin couldn’t give in on this point. His butt already hurt just from being kneaded—let alone anything else. He made a firm decision, his eyes full of resolve. “I can cook and clean. Three thousand is really cheap.”
Fu Jin tugged at the corner of his mouth. Seeing that Xiang Jin absolutely wouldn’t budge and would rather do hard labor, he had no solution. He didn’t dare terminate the contract either—what if Xiang Jin went to work for some impotent guy’s house instead? Wouldn’t that be a perfect match?
Better to keep him here and take it slow.
Let him do some work first, learn how hard life was. Dating would seem easier by comparison.
Besides, the meal-budget issue was bothering Fu Jin anyway—this solved it too.
“Fine. Starting tomorrow, you’ll mop the floors and cook. I’ll have someone deliver ingredients for three meals—you just cook according to what’s sent. You and me, meals for two.”
“Wash the pots before cooking. Wash the dishes after eating.”
With every sentence Fu Jin said, Xiang Jin’s face grew a bit more miserable. As expected, there was no such thing as a free lunch—working meant you couldn’t just lie around.
Fu Jin almost softened. He looked away and walked to the wardrobe to pick out a suit for tomorrow.
Xiang Jin, full of bitterness, opened his phone and complained in the worker-bee group: “Work is too tiring. There’s suddenly so much unfinished work.”
The next moment, Lian Qiao popped up too and silently added a +1.
The kind-hearted worker bees all asked what had happened.
Xiang Jin: “I have to mop the floor.”
Lian Qiao: “I have to cook dinner.”
Xiang Jin: “I also have to wash dishes.”
Lian Qiao: “I also have to wash pots.”
The workload was just too heavy.
The worker bees weren’t surprised. That was just how drone bees were—without the hive, they couldn’t survive. When out working, they had to help each other.
Soon someone said, “Send the address. I’ll go help you tomorrow.”
“I’m free too. Send the address.”
Xiang Jin didn’t really want to, but his fingers were honest. Two addresses immediately popped up in the group.
“Thank you, brother!”
“Thank you, brother!”
