The relationship between Xie Ran and Meng Feixuan caused an uproar within Zhuzi Tech. Everyone felt it was surreal and began to question their understanding of life. Some even suspected that Xie Ran had posted the announcement by mistake. However, Xie Ran held such high authority in the company that no one dared to openly question him.

It wasn’t until after the senior executive meeting ended that some participating executives vaguely revealed what Xie Ran had done during the meeting, indirectly confirming that everything was true—the announcement was indeed posted by Xie Ran, and its content meant exactly what it said.

Xie Ran really was in a relationship, and his partner was none other than Meng Feixuan, the intern from the marketing department.

The whole company: “………………”

Was this… love coming in like a tornado?

Regardless of how dazed the whole company was that day, it was the marketing department that truly bore the brunt of the storm. The entire afternoon, they hovered on the edge of a mental breakdown.

Fortunately, Meng Feixuan’s behavior didn’t change at all. He acted just like he usually did. After the initial shock, everyone gradually calmed down. Of course, their interactions with him still felt somewhat unnatural.

Meng Feixuan didn’t care. He had never been one to take others’ attitudes to heart.

By evening, just before getting off work, everyone finally began to relax. Just then, Meng Feixuan went out to get some materials, and while getting ready to leave, people started to vent the feelings they had suppressed all day.

“Ugh, I told my bestie about Xie Ran and Xiao Meng this afternoon. She immediately decided to treat me to dinner tonight, just to hear the whole story.”

“…Isn’t that literally the same as what happened with me and my friend?”

“This is way too real. Normally no one’s ever this enthusiastic about treating us.”

“But treating us to dinner is useless—we don’t even know how Xie Ran and Xiao Meng got together… it’s so baffling.”

“Exactly. Why don’t we play rock-paper-scissors? Loser asks Xiao Meng.”

“Whoa, bold move. Aren’t you afraid the First Lady will secretly tattle to the boss?”

“He wouldn’t.” A cold voice suddenly interrupted.

Everyone who had been passionately gossiping froze. They turned toward the voice and saw Xie Ran striding into the office from outside.

Everyone: !!!!!!!!

Why was the CEO here?!!!

Then they recalled what they had just been saying and immediately felt weak in the knees, wishing they could kneel down and beg for forgiveness on the spot.

Xie Ran wore a sharp suit and looked no different from usual—still cold and distant as always.

Manager Xu, who had just been talking, broke into a cold sweat and quickly laughed awkwardly: “President Xie, what brings you here? We were just joking, we didn’t mean to say that Xiao Meng would tattle behind your back.”

Then, thinking that wasn’t enough, he added quickly: “I mean, he’s not that kind of person…”

“He really isn’t,” Xie Ran responded: “He reports things directly to my face.”

Manager Xu: “……”

Everyone else: “……”

President Xie’s shameless pride overlapped disturbingly well with his boyfriend’s image.

Terrifying!!

Xie Ran didn’t care about the psychological damage his words caused. He merely glanced indifferently at Manager Xu and asked: “Where’s Meng Feixuan?”

Manager Xu snapped out of it and quickly replied: “He went out to get some documents—he’s handling a client…”

He nervously started explaining further, trying to show he hadn’t been overworking Meng Feixuan.

Xie Ran didn’t mind and waved his hand: “Then I’ll wait for him.”

He scanned the office and immediately located Meng Feixuan’s desk. On the desktop, a chubby white chicken was lying in a corner, dozing off.

Xie Ran walked over and sat down.

Everyone who had been getting ready to leave silently returned to their seats, pretending to be busy at their computers—though all their side-eyes drifted toward Xie Ran.

Then they saw him skillfully move the mouse and click on the little chicken on Meng Feixuan’s computer. The sleepy chicken suddenly leapt up, flapping its wings excitedly and spinning in circles for Xie Ran.

Xie Ran’s lips curved into a slight smile as he gently tapped on the keyboard. Various pet items popped up on the screen, and he began playing with the little chicken.

The marketing team: ????

Everyone knew that Meng Feixuan had a chicken desktop pet, but they had always thought it was childish. Some even joked that only elementary school kids did that sort of thing.

Why did Xie Ran look so familiar with this desktop pet too?

Why was the ever-cool President Xie playing with a digital chicken?

Just as everyone was filled with questions, Meng Feixuan returned with the documents. As soon as he saw Xie Ran, he joyfully ran over: “Sir, you came to see me?”

“Yes, I came to pick you up from work,” Xie Ran said, standing up.

Everyone: “……”

“Okay, let me pack up,” said Meng Feixuan.

“Mhm.” Xie Ran nodded, still clicking on the pet program: “Jiu Ji seems to have lost some weight.”

“Yeah, lost 1MB of memory. I’ve been reminding it to keep up the diet,” Meng Feixuan nodded.

Everyone else in the office: “……”

If they didn’t know that “Jiu Ji” was the name of Meng Feixuan’s desktop pet, they’d have thought these two were raising a real child together. And forcing a digital pet to lose weight? Seriously?

After packing up and shutting down his computer, Meng Feixuan left the office hand in hand with Xie Ran, leaving their stunned and speechless coworkers behind.

The coworkers looked at Xie Ran and Meng Feixuan’s retreating figures, then looked at one another.

“I have a thought… Could Jiu Ji actually be a pet they’re raising together?”

“Looks like it…”

“But why would President Xie raise a desktop pet? And just now he was playing with it…”

“He seemed to really enjoy it…”

“Stop, stop… This isn’t the President Xie I know…”

“Love changes people beyond recognition.”

A sudden wave of desktop pet adoption swept through Zhuzi Tech. In a workplace, especially one like Zhuzi Tech that prioritized productivity, this was rare. The cause, of course, was the widespread story of President Xie and his “First Lady” lovingly raising a desktop chicken together.

President Xie was a spiritual icon to the company—no matter how weird it was, if he did it, everyone followed.

There was just one problem: no one knew which company had developed the chicken that Xie Ran and Meng Feixuan used. There were plenty of chicken-themed desktop pets on the market, but none were exactly like Xiao Jiu.

Someone suddenly had a revelation: “What if President Xie developed his own pet?”

Thinking about it, that made sense. With his skillset, coding a simple desktop plugin was effortless.

The employees of Zhuzi Tech instantly fell silent. That meant they couldn’t get the same one as the boss.

But someone soon came up with a new solution. If they couldn’t download it, they could develop their own.

Zhuzi Tech’s engineers were highly skilled. Making a knockoff version of Xiao Jiu was a piece of cake.

So overnight, desktop pets vaguely resembling Jiu Ji appeared, branded as Zhuzi Tech exclusives. Of course, they only bore a slight resemblance—no one dared make an exact replica for fear of upsetting the boss.

Even so, many employees eagerly downloaded them, and soon lots of people were raising chickens.

However, the trend only lasted one day.

The next morning, as everyone eagerly turned on their computers to greet their little chickens, they were stunned.

“What’s going on? Why is my chicken all swollen???”

“Same here—my chicken has purple circles around its eyes!!”

“My chicken doesn’t look good either.”

“Must be a bug, right?”

Everyone started complaining, doubting the engineers’ coding skills.

“This is some weak code.”

“Just one night and all the chickens got sick.”

“I’m done. Not raising chickens anymore.”

Someone even wondered: “Where did the virus come from? It hit so suddenly.”

The desktop pet trend crashed overnight. Only Meng Feixuan’s Jiu Ji remained untouched.

In Xie Ran’s office, he looked at Jiu Ji, who had hopped from Meng Feixuan’s computer to his, and asked: “Jiu Ji, did you beat up the other chickens?”

Jiu Ji acted like it didn’t hear, shaking its head and pretending to admire the scenery.

Beside him, Meng Feixuan exposed it without mercy: “It did. I checked its activity log!”

Hearing this, Jiu Ji flapped its wings excitedly: “Cluck cluck cluck—They copied me first!!”

“Alright, alright, I’m not mad,” Meng Feixuan said: “But this behavior isn’t right. Next time, tell me first before doing something like this, got it?”

Jiu Ji: “Cluck cluck cluck—Okay.”

Xie Ran: “……”

Rubbing his forehead, Xie Ran said: “I’ll write Jiu Ji a study program. From now on, Jiu Ji will study advanced mathematics.”

If it stayed busy, it wouldn’t have time to go beat up other digital pets.

Jiu Ji tiny eyes widened in horror: “Cluck cluck—No!!”

END