Facing all her over-the-top enthusiastic colleagues, Yan Shuyu sighed. She should understand where they came from though. The boss was so handsome, his smile was friendly but his aura was standoffish, not to mention he had the charm of a wealthy man that just exuded from him. Never mind that all the girls at the restaurant fell for him right away, even the men were starting to have ideas.

Well, understanding where they came from was one thing; Yan Shuyu, however, was not able to satisfy their desire to gossip. “You guys think too much. He was just my boss from my previous work, and I have only met him a couple times while I worked there. I guess Boss just happened to know that my last name is Yan. It was just a coincidence that he’s here. I don’t know anything personal about him.”

“Yanyan used to work at Hotel Basset, right?”

Her little buddies exclaimed all over again, “The Hotel Basset that has branches all over the world and known to be every expensive? So that one out there isn’t just a TRH (Tall, Rich, and Handsome), he’s straight up filthily rich!”

“You are right. He’s certainly from money.” Yan Shuyu didn’t mind that their attention was now focused on the boss himself. She even went on and added, “Hotel Bassett is just a portion of his business. It’s not even that well-known among all the other businesses. The Zhou’s Corporation is more known for their market, real estate, finance, the internet, and news media…. If you read any finance magazines or read the news, then you’d have heard of the Zhou’s already. Boss Zhou has made the cover of finance magazines all the time.”

Yan Shuyu’s introduction stunned everyone. Naturally, everyone who worked at Sunshine House was just a normal peasant like her; most of them aren’t even locals. Many of them left their hometowns and came to this city to pursue their dreams. In their eyes, Manager Yang was already a rich man, having shops and houses in his assets and his family owns businesses. He was the definition of a TRH.As for Zhou Qinhe and that type of wealthy individuals, they have already exceeded the realm of human beings, they were more like celestial beings!

Even as mere melon-eaters, her little buddies all gasped and held their breath. They were stunned silent for a few seconds, and some of them even looked at Yan Shuyu with reverence and said, “Yan-jie, you know so much!!”

(T/N: melon-eaters – those who likes to watch the drama unfold as bystanders. Commonly accepted as a terminology in the Chinese language in 2016.)

“Yan-jie is a friend with a millionaire like that, that’s almost like I am a friend with a millionaire. OMG! I am the most accomplished person in my family!”

“No, no, I am not!” Yan Shuyu might be vain,, but she certainly did not want to be associated with the male lead’s father.

She quickly clarified, “I am just a supporting character in the eyes of the boss, really. Boss Zhou’s family has so many properties that many of the old employees had been there for years without ever meeting the big boss. I was just lucky that, for whatever unknown reasons, the big boss decided to stay at our hotel for a couple of months. You had no idea how crazy things were then, even the general manager made several rounds a day. In order to provide the boss with the best service, three of us at the customer service department were picked to be his designated housekeepers – myself and two other colleague of mine. And that was the only reason that the big boss knew of us.”

“The designated housekeeper of the big boss might sound like an honor but you had no idea. My colleagues and I had to take turns taking the night shift, each time was the entire night and I went home in the morning. The others were single so they didn’t mind, after all, the bonus and supplement were quite lucrative, but I have a child at home. I can’t not go home overnight from time to time, what am I going to do with Yuanbao? I finally had to resign from that job.”

Yan Shuyu sounded extremely sincere plus she had slightly mentioned the hardship that it had caused, leaving her buddies unsure whether they should be envious of her or feel bad for her. There were still others who were fixated on the charm of the boss and looked at Yan Shuyu, who was once his employee, in entirely different lights.

“But Yan-jie. You read finance magazines. Unlike us, all we ever read are tabloids.”

“I only read some under the recommendation of some colleagues after we heard that the big boss was visiting. I am just like you -- all I ever care about are tabloids!” Yan Shuyu didn’t even blink. The truth was the original owner had the bold idea of getting close to the big boss and that was the reason behind her reading finance magazines. But since none of her little buddies knew about it, she could makeup whatever suited her needs.

Yan Shuyu was very honest on the topic regarding Zhou Qinhe. She answered any questions that her little buddies have for her. She felt that being open and honest was the only way for her buddies to not have any wrong ideas about the two of them. She had, nonetheless, underestimated her buddies’ imagination. Even though she was being open and honest, some still had the wrong ideas.

One of them was the vice shop manager, Sherry, who always played on the same guide as her in their games, “Yanyan, you kept on stressing that the two of your were not close, but he came to our shop twice, and both times he seemed to have a good time chatting with you. Are you sure he wasn’t interested in you?”

Before everyone learned everything about the boss, they have only thought of him as your everyday TRH. Nobody would have thought twice even if he was somewhat interested in her. After all, Yan Shuyu had the attractiveness of a woman who’d bring troubles; there was an average of 7-8 customers a day who’d tried to chat her up or ask for her contact information. All of them were of quality as well, some were wealthy, others were elites who worked in the offices nearby. All in all, they had the qualities to back them up in pursuing a beauty like Yan Shuyu.

With all of Yan-jie’s other suitors, adding one more stylish Zhou Qinhe was not entirely a stretch.

Yet, Yan Shuyu had tried so very hard to give everyone a rundown on the boss’s background in an effort to stress that there was nothing between the two of them. Now that she had successfully pushed him into the god-like status rank, Zhou Qinhe’s very special status suddenly make the story development very exciting – billionaire CEO pursuing a pretty server, what a classic and exciting daytime show!

All her little buddies’ eyes lit up, and their desire for gossip had increased multiple folds.

Yan Shuyu, “……”

Sh*t! It seemed she had just dug herself a deeper hole.

She was, however, finally able to convinced her little buddies to give up on that dangerous line of thought and take her words for it. The method was simple: she dropped out of senior high school, so her highest level of education was junior high school. Never mind that she wasn’t very cultured, she also wasn’t very capable. She had no car, no house, no savings. She got married early and now, even though her husband was gone, she couldn’t hide the fact that she had been married once.

She has a son to raise. She didn’t have a lot going for her with the exception of her looks. The boss is a true billionaire, not a youngster who had never seen a pretty girl before. He had plenty of options. Truth be told, the chance of him being interested in someone more naïve and innocent at the shop was much higher him being interested in her.

--- Yan Shuyu, who had an over inflating self-esteem, had voluntarily admitted her shortcomings and even self-deprecated. It was quite obvious how much she did not want to be associated with the boss.

Luckily, after everything she had said, she had successfully convinced her buddies that there were truly nothing between the two of them.

Finally, Sherry, the first person who broached the subject, asked in a high-spirited way, “Yanyan, if there are no chemistry between the two of you, can I bring their orders to them when they are ready? I am somewhat interested in this boss now.”

What? Someone wanted so badly to be the villain stepmother? Yan Shuyu was stunned, but immediately has it figured out. With the male lead’s father’s qualifications, many women would happily fly toward him like bugs into a fire. After all, not everyone valued their lives as much as she did. Sherry’s line of thought made perfect sense. Before she had joined, Sherry was the prettiest girl in the shop; many of the elites from the offices around them became regulars because of her. She was a well sought-after pretty girl as well.

All in all, this girl was bold and courageous, Yan Shuyu couldn’t have agreed any faster, “Yes! Yes! Please take over that table for me. I wish you luck, Sherry!”

Well, if Yan Shuyu didn’t care, the rest were more than happy to watch the drama as it unfolded. Everybody cheered on for Sherry as she left with the tray of food and her triple-E bust.

Happily, Yan Shuyu slacked in the break room.

Alas, her happiness was short lived. Sherry returned in 2 minutes and with a dispirited look, she said, “Yanyan, Mr. Zhou asked for you.”

The other buddies, who were also slacking, beamed all over again as they turned and looked at Yan Shuyu. She said there was nothing between them, then what would you call this?

Yan Shuyu was the most shocked of them all: she sure hope the boss wasn’t really interested in her!

Yan Shuyu wasn’t playing dumb. She was truly baffled. Whether it was the story, or the original owner’s memory, “she” was only able to marry the male lead’s father and become the male lead’s stepmom because the original owner tried everything within her power to pursue the male lead’s father. And, looking at the boss’s qualifications, he could pick just about anyone to be his wife. He didn’t need to make any effort at all.

And now, the storyline had been entirely muddled up. All the hard work by the original owner and everything that she had planned was terminated abruptly because of her arrival. It was just an accident that they had a one-night stand. The boss knew nothing about the original owner, why the sudden interest in her?

Was it because she ran away after she had bedded him and her being so innocent and unpretentious somehow piqued his interest?

Yan Shuyu felt that her future was grim, and she just wanted to cry.