Chapter 91 – Extra: The Drone Bees
Lu Xiao had no right to tell the two of them the secrets of the bee clan, so he could only say, “Don’t overthink it. Who doesn’t have a few good brothers in life? Trust between two people is what matters most. I’ve said all I can—please go.” Hurry up and leave; he was waiting for his wife to call.
Fu Jin said, “Hearing you speak is like hearing you speak.”
Lu Xiao snapped, “Get lost. You don’t listen to heartfelt advice—when your wife runs off, you’ll regret it.”
Fu Jin and Gu Yunlang left with puzzled expressions, feeling that Lu Xiao’s words carried hidden meaning.
“Could it really just be brotherhood?” Gu Yunlang analyzed reasonably. “Lu Third isn’t someone who’s indifferent to his brothers getting cuckolded. When Chu Hao got cheated on before, Lu Third even helped cancel the arranged marriage and advised them to break up and divorce.”
“Is that so?” Fu Jin wasn’t close to Chu Hao. His family was in North City, and he’d only merged into the Nan Cheng circle for about a year, so his intel wasn’t as good as the locals’.
Gu Yunlang called Chu Hao to confirm. “When your ex-wife cheated, what was Lu Xiao’s attitude?”
Chu Hao fumed. “Damn it—bro, I’m giving you advice, and you call just to rip open my wounds?”
Gu Yunlang said, “Sorry. I mainly want to know Lu Xiao’s stance on being cuckolded.”
Chu Hao hemmed and hawed. It depended on who wore the green hat—when others did, Lu Xiao would open his mouth to advise a breakup; when it was himself, he wouldn’t say a word.
Listening to Chu Hao’s evasiveness, Gu Yunlang wavered.
Fu Jin calmly summed it up: “Even if it’s genuinely brotherly love right now, feelings can change. There’s a type of straight man who thinks he’s straight, plays the buddy-buddy game, and only realizes it was love when a rival appears.”
Then the childhood friend and the sudden newcomer fight to the death, and the ending’s fifty-fifty.
Before coming, Fu Jin had already done some homework. Looking at Gu Yunlang, he thought: between the two of us, chances are one will be utterly defeated.
Gu Yunlang said, “That’s really possible!” If someone had to lose, it couldn’t be him.
He had to love his wife more than Fu Jin did.
Gu Yunlang probed Fu Jin’s tactics. “Did you get paid yet?”
Fu Jin replied, “Yeah. The day before yesterday.”
Gu Yunlang’s heart lurched—how was it a day earlier than his? He took out his phone and messaged Gu Group’s CFO, asking them to try to pay salaries before the 10th from now on.
Fu Jin said, “I suspect our love rivals are the same group. Let’s share information.”
Fu Jin pulled up a spreadsheet: Tuesday noon—so-and-so came to cook; Tuesday evening—so-and-so came to cook… The names were replaced with avatars cropped from surveillance screenshots.
Gu Yunlang glanced at it and immediately recognized them all. If any of these people appeared within a hundred meters of him, his love-rival radar would go on high alert.
Recalling the order of visitors each day, Gu Yunlang exclaimed, “This one—on the same day—made dinner at my place, then went to your place to make dinner too.”
That rival was way too diligent. Was he wavering between Xiang Jin and Lian Qiao? A fickle person who cooks two meals might still end up with nothing.
Fu Jin frowned deeply. “Do you eat that early at your place?”
As a CEO, how could Gu Yunlang leave work early? Which meant Gu Yunlang spent more time with his wife, giving fewer chances to steal him away.
Same crew digging foundations—if Gu Yunlang guarded his side tightly, they’d surely go for the easier breach: Fu Jin.
Staying an extra hour at work after hours was way too dangerous.
Fu Jin resolved silently to leave work earlier than Gu Yunlang.
But he wouldn’t tell Gu Yunlang.
“There’s still stuff at the company. I’ll head off first,” he said. He planned to integrate the next week’s workload over the weekend while Xiang Jin wasn’t home, and then leave punctually at 4:30 every day.
Gu Yunlang replied, “Until next time.” He wouldn’t tell Fu Jin that he’d already started bringing his wife to work.
…
The small Nan Cheng bee-clan gathering was held at the forensic doctor Fang’s place.
Fang lived in assigned housing with utilities covered—perfect for cooking.
Both Xiang Jin and Lian Qiao brought small gifts, fruits found in their fridges—ones with peels and seeds, more suitable for worker-bee babies.
Because they were too lazy to go out and usually just chatted on WeChat, Xiang Jin and Lian Qiao hadn’t met in person since starting work.
As soon as Xiang Jin saw Lian Qiao, he said, “You’ve lost weight.”
Lian Qiao replied, “Oh, you’ve lost weight too.”
The other worker bees fell silent. They hadn’t noticed either of them getting thinner from work.
Lin Shaoyao chimed in, “Right, right—you’re both tired and thinner. Eat more today; we bought plenty of hotpot ingredients.”
The queen bee was out filming. Bai He and Xilan were working overtime and couldn’t get leave.
The remaining worker bees ate hotpot. Just washing the leafy greens filled two big basins.
Fang Furong didn’t eat offal, so Lin Shaoyao hadn’t bought duck gizzards, intestines, or blood. At first glance, the table looked pretty vegetarian.
But the soup base was personally seasoned by the worker bees—everything cooked in it tasted good.
Xiang Jin and Lian Qiao sat amid everyone’s attention… off to the side, only responsible for eating, not adding ingredients. Whatever the worker bees fished out, they ate. Soon, the tips of their noses were beaded with sweat.
While eating hotpot, the worker bees chatted and introduced their side hustles. Someone suddenly said, “If the queen bee has a Sleeping Beauty role, you two would be perfect for it.”
Half-asleep from listening to work talk, Xiang Jin said, “What? What? I wasn’t sleeping.”
Lian Qiao explained, “They’re saying you’d suit playing Sleeping Beauty—three hundred a day.”
Xiang Jin felt tempted. “I’ve actually been looking at some part-time jobs lately.”
Fu Jin was really terrible—he’d paid him three months’ salary at once. The thick stack of RMB was cute, but Xiang Jin couldn’t hold onto money. As soon as he got it, he bought things for the uncles and aunties in Baihua Village. His mom was delighted—unlike some moms who tell their sons to save, Aunt Taohua wisely urged her son to spend it all so he’d have motivation to work.
Add in the thank-you gifts for the worker bees, and he’d basically worked three months for nothing.
Oh—no, he worked seven days and spent three months’ salary.
After buying gifts for the worker bees, Fu Jin wasn’t happy again.
When Xiang Jin said he wanted a part-time job, everyone offered ideas.
“Print model… no, changing outfits and posing is exhausting.”
“Rideshare driving… my car’s yours—uh, you don’t have a license.”
“In-home tutoring… no, tutors in luxury districts have high requirements, and other areas are too far from where you live.”
In the end, aside from living off someone else, there really wasn’t a job suitable for a drone bee.
Lian Qiao said, “If you’re willing to go to the company with President Fu during the day as a mascot, I think he’d be willing to raise your pay.”
Xiang Jin replied, “Wouldn’t that mean overtime at night?”
Lian Qiao said, “Then don’t work nights—ask for more pay for day shifts. They’re not home much anyway. Excluding sleep, they only spend four hours together. If we go to the company, it’s eight hours a day—double the time, double the pay.”
As he spoke, Lian Qiao had an epiphany. Right—he’d forgotten to ask for a raise.
When the CEOs came to pick them up that day, the drone bees brought up the idea of a raise right there in the car.
Gu Yunlang didn’t hesitate. “Raise it.”
Fu Jin was more cautious. “Why did you suddenly want to come to the company with me?”
Xiang Jin said, “Because Lian Qiao is on day shifts too—no internal competition. If I work at the company during the day and go home at night, then we’re just ordinary colleagues. It’s basically a new contract—think carefully before agreeing. Going from pretending to be a kept canary to pretending to be a secretary costs more.”
After being trapped by contracts for so long, Fu Jin finally found a precise term to define it: pretending to be a kept canary.
He said gloomily, “So the point of me hiring you to pretend to be a kept canary is—”
Xiang Jin replied, “You came from North City and wanted to integrate into the Nan Cheng circle. Other bosses all keep canaries, but you couldn’t get past it morally and felt out of place, so you needed a fake one.”
Fu Jin said, “A bit of a misunderstanding. I don’t have a conscience—”
Xiang Jin cut in, “So do you need it or not?”
Fu Jin: “……”
If there’s no demand, create demand. His darling had studied business management in college.
Fu Jin glanced at the rival seeing them off in the rearview mirror and gritted his teeth. “…Fine.”
He had to keep his wife by his side at all times. So much for sharing intel—he’d almost been set up by Gu Yunlang.
As for pretending to be a professional secretary, Lian Qiao’s temperament leaned toward Bai He’s, while Xiang Jin, when expressionless, resembled Lin Xilan a bit.
Though their professionalism was worlds apart, most people couldn’t tell.
Fu Jin experienced the security of having his wife always by his side.
He took him to meetings. Fu Jin sat at the head; Xiang Jin sat beside him, head down, sketching flowers and birds as if taking minutes.
After the meeting, Fu Jin sent the minutes to Xiang Jin and told him to submit them to the secretary’s office.
The real secretary looked at the concise notes and thought Secretary Xiang was very professional.
But Secretary Liu saw through the newcomer as a complete amateur. Despite probing several times to make him embarrass himself and failing, he said bitterly, “There’s a large conference at the end of the month. Xiang Jin is amazing in our circle, but that’s just looks. When he’s compared to Lu Group’s Secretaries Bai and Lin, we’ll see what ‘all show and no substance’ really means.”
“Those two are famous for their professionalism—they don’t even look at amateurs.”
Xiang Jin also sensed Secretary Liu testing him. He thought: if this person knew his monthly salary was six thousand, he probably wouldn’t even bother with him.
“President Fu, are you really taking me to that conference?”
Fu Jin said, “Why not? There’s a banquet before the meeting—I’ll take you. If you don’t want to sit in on the formal meeting, you can sleep at the hotel.”
“I’m not taking just one secretary. When the time comes, you and your good friend can just eat and drink.”
Xiang Jin replied, “Alright.”
At the end of the month, the CEOs attended in full dress with their secretaries. The CEOs handled the small talk; the secretaries just followed behind and kept quiet.
Secretary Liu spotted the two Lu Group CEOs arriving with imposing secretaries and felt pumped, like he’d been injected with adrenaline. Here it was—the moment to show real skill.
Fu Jin shook hands with Lu Yushu.
Lin Xilan, standing beside Lu Yushu, stepped forward proactively and extended his right hand to Xiang Jin. “Hello, Lin Xilan.”
Xiang Jin shook it back. “Hello, Xiang Jin.”
Secretary Liu: “……”
Lin Xilan continued, “Regarding the Xuyang New District development plan, there are some details—could I ask you to discuss them in depth?”
Xiang Jin put on a convincing act. “No problem.”
Lin Xilan glanced at Secretary Liu and said to Xiang Jin, “This way, please.”
The two walked aside, faces expressionless—clearly, a fierce verbal exchange was underway.
Secretary Liu: “…Holy crap. Secretary Xiang has the real stuff!” He didn’t even dare talk to Lin Xilan alone, afraid of being set up and scolded by his boss afterward.
Secretary Xiang—truly a hidden master.
