My Wealthy Boss Is Pregnant With My Baby Chapter 1
byChapter 1: Wandering In
Qi Jiezhi paused.
At nine-fifteen, Qi Jiezhi brought a red plastic bucket to the 28th Floor. He snapped a brand-new blue mop cloth onto the rim of the bucket, shrugged, and let out a breath.
The stray hairs on Qi Jiezhi’s forehead were blown upward by the air conditioning, making his thin face appear even more delicate. He was a new Intern at Hengxin Technology. Back in his sophomore year, he had interned at a similar company and considered himself immune to “Unspoken Workplace Rules.”
That was until today, when the HR Department told him to mop twenty floors of the company. Qi Jiezhi was finally taught a lesson by this workload. Furthermore, HR had counted twenty-one floors as twenty; most likely, they hadn’t figured it out themselves.
He didn’t know if the boss of Hengxin did it for good luck, but his company started from the 8th floor. From the 8th floor to the 28th floor, it was clearly twenty-one floors!
The 28th Floor was covered in deep gray cashmere carpet. It felt soft when stepped on. Qi Jiezhi looked down at the mop in the bucket and fell into deep thought. This thing didn’t seem like it would be of any use here?
He crouched down and rubbed the plush surface with his fingertips. With a single rub, the fibers immediately curled into tiny grains. This was a material that would be ruined upon contact with water. If he really mopped it without looking, the entire floor’s carpet would probably shrink into a rag.
Qi Jiezhi sighed, leaned the mop against the wall, and decided to go back and check the other floors first. When he reached the 8th floor, he would ask HR for a vacuum cleaner.
Just as he turned around, he saw a door at the end of the hall was slightly ajar. Cold air drifted out first, followed by the bitter scent of tea.
Qi Jiezhi paused.
A second later, a dull thud came from inside. It was the sound of a heavy object hitting the floor—or perhaps a person.
After a moment of hesitation, Qi Jiezhi walked over. Pressing his fingertips against the door, he peered through the gap and saw a man curled up amidst broken porcelain. His black shirt was soaked with cold sweat, and his knuckles were white from gripping the floor, stubbornly propping himself up to keep from collapsing completely.
—Hypoglycemia.
Qi Jiezhi’s brain provided the conclusion in a split second. He quickly pushed the door open and rushed inside, tearing open the Glucose Tablets he carried with him. He leaned down. “Sir, keep this in your mouth.”
Qu Mingluo lifted his eyelids, the emotions in his eyes unfathomably deep. He coldly spat out a single word: “Get out.”
Qi Jiezhi’s fingertips trembled, and the tablet almost fell to the floor. In the next second, the man’s forehead slumped downward. Realizing he was likely to hit the edge of the desk, Qi Jiezhi tried to reach out and stop him, but what he saw were beads of blood rolling down the man’s brow bone.
The man’s skin was cold and pale, making the fresh red blood even more striking.
Qi Jiezhi took a deep breath. He pinched Qu Mingluo’s jaw with his left hand and stuffed the tablet between his teeth with his right. Qi Jiezhi’s fingertips were enveloped by the warmth of the man’s mouth. Qu Mingluo almost bit him, but he kept his hand steady and let him bite.
Before long, the sweetness of the glucose dissolved in his mouth. After a while, Qu Mingluo’s breathing slowed and steadied.
His first sentence upon regaining clarity was: “Who sent you?”
His voice was low and raspy, carrying an undeniable chill.
“Huh?” Qi Jiezhi was a bit confused. “I’m here to clean.”
Qu Mingluo let out a cold snort. “Clumsy.”
Qi Jiezhi knew he had misunderstood something. He explained, “I brought these because I’m afraid of my own hypoglycemia. These work better than candy.”
Qu Mingluo narrowed his eyes slightly. “Is that so?”
Qi Jiezhi said dissatisfiedly, “I haven’t even asked who you are. Isn’t the CEO’s Office on the 12th floor? This is the top floor; if the elevator stops, it’s hard to even run away. What are you questioning?”
He thought about it and felt his words were a bit too blunt. He wanted to stay at Hengxin, so he shouldn’t make enemies. This person was surely a senior. If he wrote “poor cooperation skills” or “expression skills need improvement” in his Internship Evaluation, wouldn’t that ruin everyone’s impression of him?
He pursed his lips and decided to help the man up first.
Seeing the man’s complexion improve slightly after sitting down, Qi Jiezhi took out the intern badge from his pocket. “It was inconvenient while mopping; it would keep hitting my one-pack abs, so I tucked it away.”
Qu Mingluo’s gaze fell on the badge, and the name Qi Jiezhi came into view.
Qi Jiezhi wasn’t smiling; he had a serious expression as if explaining earnestly. Then he asked, “What about you, Mr. Not-Feeling-Well?”
Qu Mingluo didn’t respond. He simply reached out, took a silk scarf from the desk, and wiped the bloodstains off the badge. His movements didn’t look pathetic; instead, they were slow and methodical.
“Hengxin doesn’t have a rule about interns mopping floors.” Qu Mingluo left it at that, his gaze falling on the glucose packaging Qi Jiezhi had thrown into the trash can. “Keep what happened today to yourself.”
The 28th Floor was Qu Mingluo’s private domain where no outsiders entered. Hengxin spent a fortune every year to clean and maintain the carpets here. This little intern actually said he came to clean.
Qi Jiezhi’s heart skipped a beat.
Qu Mingluo folded the silk scarf into a square. “You can go now.”
“Your head…”
“I’ll handle it.”
“Okay.”
This was a clear dismissal. Qi Jiezhi’s throat felt dry, and then he suddenly realized…
He had helped the man, so the man helped him in return?
He pressed the elevator button and then quickly brought the bucket and mop inside.
Inside the elevator, he was still thinking about that frost-cold but grateful… Senior Bro?
The elevator doors closed, and the metal walls reflected Qi Jiezhi’s slightly reddened ear tips. He raised his hand and rubbed the faint tooth marks on the back of his finger. The force of the bite just now wasn’t heavy, far less than the impact of hitting the corner of the desk.
When the elevator descended to the 20th floor, Qi Jiezhi figured he wouldn’t run into anyone else. During working hours, no one would stand in the hallway for no reason.
Qi Jiezhi pushed the cleaning tools out of the car first, then stepped out sideways himself. He was looking at the tooth marks on his finger, just about to shake his head, when the smile froze on his face.
He didn’t know when the office door had opened. The entire floor of workstations was silent. Everyone was staring at him and the plastic bucket in front of him.
HR Lin Shuangyu ran over in her high heels, her voice kept extremely low. “Xiao Qi! Why did you come down from the 28th Floor?”
“Am I not allowed to go there?” His face was full of shock.
“Why are you holding a mop? Who told you to go there?” HR sucked in a breath of cold air. “Did you see President Qu?”
“Is he also a president?” Qi Jiezhi tried to find out his identity.
“Not exactly, but he’s someone you absolutely cannot afford to offend.”
The looks everyone gave him were filled with shock and confusion.
Lin Shuangyu whispered a reminder, “The last employee who wandered in by mistake was fired on the spot by President Qu.”
“I see…”
Qi Jiezhi looked down at the marks Qu Mingluo had bitten into him, his heart filled with mixed emotions. Qu Mingluo was cold and noble, while he had already come out.
Beneath that frost-cold expression of the boss was a stunningly beautiful face.
“Then I should…”
Qi Jiezhi looked at Lin Shuangyu with a questioning gaze, and then he heard her say, “I’ll go ask.”
Although Lin Shuangyu said she would ask, her expression changed.
By the time she reacted, she first said to Qi Jiezhi, “I’m sorry.”
“What’s wrong?” Qi Jiezhi sensed that the message delaying Lin Shuangyu’s conversation with him must be related to him as well.
“Everyone is guessing your identity.” Lin Shuangyu told him in passing, “And the 28th floor issued an Official Notice to strengthen the inspection of personnel entering the company.”
“Eh…” Qi Jiezhi couldn’t quite react. “In that case, it sounds like they’re treating me like a Commercial Spy.”
“You’re definitely not.” Lin Shuangyu looked at him with a serious expression. “The real Commercial Spy has already been handed over to the public security organs.”
“There really was one?”
“Yes,” Lin Shuangyu said. “The person who gave you the badge this morning and assigned you the work was him.”
Qi Jiezhi instantly understood what that boss on the top floor meant by “clumsy.” Someone here really did need to be a spy.
“That’s interesting,” Qi Jiezhi asked Lin Shuangyu. “Is Hengxin always like this?”
“Hard to say, but there’s a lot of gossip about President Qu. No one knows what’s true or false.”
“I get it,” Qi Jiezhi said. “They just like to spread rumors about beautiful people.”
Lin Shuangyu was stunned. “Huh?”
“Nothing.” Qi Jiezhi asked with a beaming smile, “So what should I do now?”
Lin Shuangyu looked at the badge he had just taken out and asked him, “Did that fake HR give this to you too?”
“Yes.” Qi Jiezhi asked her, “Is this not supposed to be mine?”
Lin Shuangyu didn’t answer. She just reached out and asked for the badge, then flipped it over.
After taking it apart, Qi Jiezhi saw a black patch, and his eyes widened instantly.
“GPS Tracking and Audio Surveillance.” Her voice was kept extremely low. “As you went all the way up, the data was already being synced to an overseas server.”
Qi Jiezhi broke into a cold sweat from the shock. His voice was dry. “I…”
“The real badge is with me.” Lin Shuangyu took a new badge with the Hengxin logo from her inner suit pocket. “President Qu just instructed me. Otherwise, you’d be in an interrogation room right now.”
Qi Jiezhi: “…”
He suddenly remembered the two seconds Qu Mingluo’s fingertips lingered on his badge while wiping the blood with the silk scarf. It turned out he wasn’t just wiping blood to see his name, but more to confirm the status of the Eavesdropping Device.
“Then since President Qu knew, why didn’t he just throw me out?”
Lin Shuangyu sighed. “Because President Qu wanted to see how far they could go.”
“And I’m a suitable tool?” Qi Jiezhi pointed at the tip of his nose and then started laughing.
“No, you’re innocent.” Lin Shuangyu looked up, enunciating each word. “Innocence makes you useful.”
Qi Jiezhi was stunned for two seconds, then asked her, “Should I go up and thank President Qu?”
Lin Shuangyu shook her head. “Don’t be silly. President Qu doesn’t like being disturbed. Didn’t you just come down after wandering in?”
“Oh, right…”
Qi Jiezhi remembered Qu Mingluo’s warning and didn’t say anything more.
Because he had to mop, Qi Jiezhi went floor by floor and didn’t take the elevator. No one would notice how long he had stayed on the 28th floor.
“What do I need to do now?” Qi Jiezhi asked.
Lin Shuangyu was silent for half a second. “If you don’t leave, President Qu gives you two choices.”
“One is to act as if nothing happened. Hengxin will keep you safe until the end of your internship. Whether you can stay depends on your own ability. The second is to assist the security department as Bait to see if there’s anyone else behind that person. Your identity will be kept secret during this period. Many people in the company already misunderstand that you have a background, so no one will expose you. After it’s over, your salary will be tripled, but…”
“But what?”
“But if you’re exposed, no one will protect you.” Lin Shuangyu shrugged. “President Qu said Hengxin doesn’t support idle people.”
Qi Jiezhi looked down and saw the tooth marks on the back of his finger. He suddenly smiled. “The latter.”
Lin Shuangyu raised an eyebrow. “Not going to reconsider?”
“No need. I want the money.” The surprise in Qi Jiezhi’s eyes was unconcealed. “Triple pay!”
Lin Shuangyu: “…”
A very low chuckle came through the Bluetooth headset. “Give him the phone.”
Lin Shuangyu took off the headset and handed it over. “President Qu.”
Qi Jiezhi took the call and coughed, pretending he didn’t care. “President Qu, what are your instructions?”