The balls were exactly the same as what she had seen on television before. The magnificent ballroom, the melodious live music, gentlemen and ladies all dressed up grandly, dancing. In order to rise up to their classiness, Yan Shuyu, too, dressed up like a butterfly in different gowns and adorned by different jewelries every day. The only thing in common between all of them was that they were all extravagant.

Yan Shuyu wasn't exactly free labor during this time either. Ever since she attended the annual party with the boss, the boss had set the rule that any gowns that she had worn and jewelries that she had worn would become hers, no matter their costs.

Yan Shuyu, too, was excited. But, owning to the downside of human nature, one never appreciated what one already possessed. All of Yan Shuyu's luxurious goods such as her purses and jewelries quickly filled all the closets at home and she cared less and less about them. She had so many diamonds that they were now just shiny rocks to her. She was way more excited when she received her paychecks.

To date, the one that Yan Shuyu wore the most was still the Hermes bracelet that the boss had brought back for her during his business trip when their first became a couple.

She had once thought that it was disgustingly expensive, alas, it was always easier going from rags to riches. Now Yan Shuyu finally realized how plain and simple it was and she felt very comfortable wearing it.

As the attraction of gowns and jewelries decreased gradually for Yan Shuyu, so was her interest in balls.

Truth was, the banquets that the boss attended in England was much more Tall, Grand, and High Class than the Zhou's annual party. Take one of them as an example. Yan Shuyu felt that the host looked somewhat familiar so she looked him up on her cellphone on their way back home. She almost dropped her cellphone when she read that the man that she found familiar looking was a royalty. In fact, news about his family could be read on Weibo from time to time.

Mommy, I have just attended a ball threw by a prince!

Yan Shuyu didn't just feel prideful, she felt that she had brought pride to her entire family and her ego expanded immediately.

The boss had further received invitation from some politician after that event and they even had a pleasant conversation inside of a castle. After a few events like that, Yan Shuyu finally calmed down from her initial excitement. She wasn't the mighty one after all. Even though she was lucky enough to stand next to the boss as a live human being but her functionality was no different than that of a vase. She felt that she was lucky to have met all these big shots but, the day that she no longer stood next to the boss, none of these big shots would know her.

All in all, attending all these grand and foreign balls and meeting all these big shots provided nothing more than conversation materials for Yan Shuyu. Really not all that meaningful.

It wasn't in Yan Shuyu's nature to brag so all the more she had lost interest in these events after a few times.

Contrarily, looking at the two kiddos heading out for fun every day with the chauffeur and bodyguards and chatted about the fun parts of their days after they have returned and, looking at how she was in England but hadn't visited any of their landmark, Yan Shuyu felt that she got the short end of the stick. The more she thought about it, the shorter the stick seemed.

The boss was good. He went on a business trip and took them to Northern Europe for a few days and traded her to attend his annual party in exchange. She, on the other hand, was dragged by the boss to multiple banquets and was so busy that she wasn't even able to experience London. Shouldn't she get some benefits out of that too?

Yan Shuyu was slow to come to that conclusion. When she realized that she was "stiffed", all of the activities were already over and they were to fly back the next day. It was meaningless to go barter with the boss at this point.

Her mind was set, however, and went to address that with the boss. She had, after all, spent a lot of time with the boss by now and had picked up some art of talking from him.

"Yuanbao and Xiao Yi had a great time but all I did was attended events with you and didn't even have the chance to sight see..."

"Yes, you have certainly worked very hard the last couple of days." Boss Zhou nodded and pulled the one standing in front of him next to him and sat her down. He then asked her tenderly, "Should we change out the tickets and spend a few extra days here so you can do some sight-seeing?"

Regardless of whether the boss meant what he said or not, Yan Shuyu was very tempted by his offer. Nevertheless, she replied, feeling blue, "I need to go back to work day after tomorrow. If I take more time off, someone will have to stand in for me. Right now, everybody's schedule is packed. I don't think anyone will be able to cover me."

Zhou Qinhe was aware of her situation so he nodded and asked nicely, "What would you like to do, then?"

Yan Shuyu's eyes lit up. Finally, something she liked to hear. She immediately expressed that, "This is all because of you. So I say you owe a few."

Her idea was inspired by the boss.

Zhou Qinhe raised his brows, "A few?"

He didn't exactly say anything but his eyes said she was being ridiculous. Yan Shuyu, nonetheless, was not intimidated by him at all. Sticking up four fingers, she said, "I've attended five different events with you in total over the last few days. Giving our close relationship, I'll even give you a discount."

The thought of being able to bring up four requests with the high and mighty boss was very exciting~

The smile on Zhou Qinhe deepened. He stuck his face all the all over to her so his face was almost touching the tip of her nose. His smile seductive and his voice sexy, he said, "Perhaps Yanyan can give me an even bigger discount than that?"

Yan Shuyu, heartlessly and unreasonably, pushed that handsome face away from herself and said, emotionlessly, "Your good look is not going to work on me."

"Is that so?"

Yan Shuyu nodded with determination.

Probably seeing that it really wasn't working, Zhou Qinhe, too, gave up on continuing down that path. He leaned softly in the couch and smiled nonchalantly and languidly. "But, Yanyan, exactly what could you do if I say no to that?"

Yan Shuyu, ".....”

The truth was, there was nothing she could do. She had already missed her best opportunity to barter with the boss. Now that all the events were already over, there was not much use for the vase anymore.

That was probably why the boss wasn't worried at all.

As though he was finally done appreciating how dumbfounded she look, Zhou Qinhe's lips curved upward even more and, mimicking her words earlier, smiled and said, "That being said, I can give you one request because of our relationship."

"Just one?" Yan Shuyu was dumbfounded. Her request might have been high way robbery but it was not remotely as ruthless as the boss's counter.

Finally, Yan Shuyu decided to accept the truth. It wasn't like there was much she could do if the boss didn't even give her one request. At least one is better than none.

She was happy all over again once she arrived at that conclusion and she used up her opportunity shortly after they returned to China.

It was a Sunday morning. Yan Shuyu, who had just woken up, noticed that something seemed off as she looked at the window. The light that was coming through the between the curtains seemed just a little bit brighter than normal but it was not the sun. Curiously, she opened up the curtain with the remote control and saw the snow coming down from the sky.

With the heavy snow outside, all the more Yan Shuyu didn't want to get out of bed. She closed the curtains back and crawled back underneath the blanket. She was already feeling jaded beforehand. Of the four individuals in the house, both her instant son and the little male lead had the day off and even the boss wasn't planning onto going into the office. Why was she the only one who had class in the morning?

Ever since the musical institution started back up on the 8th, all of the instructors there had been slammed. They all have classes from day till night and, now, they have even lost their weekends.

Yan Shuyu hadn't intended to work so hard. She didn't even want to go to her regular 9 AM classes, let alone on the weekends. But Male God Liu said to her that netizens didn't have good memories and that with her never keeping up with her exposure, the hype was already gone. Things would most likely return to normal after the winter sessions were over.

What he more or less was saying was that just suck it up for the time being and she'd be able to cruise in the next few months that followed. Seeing that all of her colleagues were working hard, Yan Shuyu felt bad to become a burden for the others.

Granted, she wasn't teaching the classes for free either. The more classes she taught, the more she would make. Male God Liu was a very generous boss and had paid her the bonus that he had promised her last year during the holidays. It came to over 50,000 yuan, an equivalent to two-three months of her normal salary, and she had only been working at the musical institution for barely two months.

Yan Shuyu was touched by how generous Male God Liu was and agreed to take on a few more classes a day.

She still felt unfair sometimes, especially when everybody else at home was resting and she was the only one who needed to go into work on a weekend. That distressed Yan Shuyu, making her wanting to leave her warm. blanket even less.

Quickly, it was already after 8 AM and Zhou Qinhe had already finished exercising with his boys in the workout room. When he returned to the bedroom to shower before breakfast, he noticed that the one with a 9 AM class was still sleeping under the blanket. Naturally, the kind and gentle Boss Zhou must ask caringly, "Yanyan, are you awake? You have class in a little bit."

Yan Shuyu flipped over the blanket some and stuck her head out. "Mmm," she grunted and remained motionless.

Zhou Qinhe reflexively reached out to touch her forehead. "Are you not feeling well?"

She was, after all, an adult and was above faking illness to skip class. She opened her eyes a little and quickly shut them again. As if exhausted, she asked, "Is it snowing outside?"

"Yes, snowing," said Zhou Qinhe happily, his lips curving upward. "It started snowing the night before and the outside is a silver color right now. It's very pretty."

That did not excite Yan Shuyu one bit. Shivering, she wrapped the blanket around herself even more and said, "I'm cold."

"We have heater in the house."

"I mean it's cold outside." Yan Shuyu opened up her eyes a little again. "I'll freeze to death if I go outside."

Zhou Qinhe finally figured out what she was trying to say. He chuckled and said, "So you don't want to go into work?"

"Mmhmm."

Boss Zhou was a workaholic himself but he never expected Yan Shuyu to work as hard as he did. After all, his girlfriend was different from his employee. He didn't have the same standards for them.

Truth was, he could support her perfect had she decided to not work. That was not a problem at all. Nevertheless, he could tell that as much as she would complain occasionally about having too many classes or that she hated getting up early, she was happy at her job. Perhaps because they already had two young ones at home, getting along with children came nature to her and she enjoyed it. Seeing that she was happy, he would just listen to her occasional complaint and had never asked her to quit her job or switch to a different one.

By this time, Yan Shuyu had more stunts. Grumbling, she refused to leave the bed. Not only did he not show any contempt, Boss Zhou even asked her nicely, "Should I call in sick for you?"

Yan Shuyu knew that Liu Cui never told anyone else about Boss Zhou but he knew full well himself. Had the boss called in sick for him, Boss Liu for sure would not object to that.

But it wasn't right for her to play the boss's trump card. She said weakly, "Many of my colleagues had a fuller schedule than me. Even if they are free, who'd take such an early class for me?"

"Then what do you want to do?" Zhou Qinhe took a look at his watch and it was almost 8:30 AM. He had a bad feeling all of a sudden.