My Elite Boss Is Carrying My Child - Chapter 1

At 9:15, Qi Jiezhi carried a red plastic bucket up to the 28th floor. He snapped a brand-new blue mop cloth onto the edge of the bucket, then shrugged and let out a long breath.

The stray hairs on Qi Jiezhi’s forehead were blown upward by the air conditioning, making his thin face look even more delicate. He was a new intern at Hengxin Technology. Having interned at a similar company during his sophomore year, he considered himself immune to the “unspoken rules” of the workplace.

However, the HR department had assigned him to mop twenty floors of the building today, a workload that had truly taught him a lesson. Furthermore, the HR representative seemed to have miscounted, treating twenty-one floors as twenty, or perhaps he just hadn’t done the math himself.

He wondered if the owner of Hengxin was superstitious, as the company’s offices started on the 8th floor. From the 8th floor to the 28th, it was clearly twenty-one floors!

The 28th floor was covered in deep gray cashmere carpeting. It felt soft and spongy underfoot. Qi Jiezhi looked down at the mop in his bucket and fell into a deep thought. This thing, it seemed, was completely useless here.

He squatted down and pinched the pile with his fingertips. With one rub, the fibers immediately shrunk into tiny grains. This was the kind of material that would be ruined if it touched water. If he actually mopped it without looking, the entire floor’s carpet would likely shrink into the size of 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 just ask HR for a vacuum cleaner.

Just as he turned around, he noticed a door at the end of the hall was slightly ajar. A draft of cold air drifted out first, followed by the faint, bitter scent of tea.

Qi Jiezhi’s footsteps paused.

A second later, a dull thud echoed from inside, the sound of a heavy object hitting the floor, or perhaps a person.

After a moment of hesitation, Qi Jiezhi walked over and pressed his fingertips against the door. Through the crack, he saw a man curled up amidst broken porcelain. His black shirt was soaked with cold sweat, and his knuckles were white as he gripped the floor, stubbornly propping himself up to keep from collapsing entirely.

“Hypoglycemia,” Qi Jiezhi’s brain instantly provided the diagnosis.

He quickly pushed the door open and rushed in, tearing open a packet of glucose tablets he carried with him. He leaned down and said, “Sir, keep this in your mouth.”

Qu Mingluo lifted his eyelids, the emotions in his eyes unfathomable and deep. He spat out a single, cold word: “Get out.”

Qi Jiezhi’s fingers brushed against him, and the tablet almost fell to the floor. In the next second, the man’s head slumped forward. Realizing he might hit the edge of the desk, Qi Jiezhi reached out to block him, but he saw a bead of blood already rolling down the man’s brow bone from his temple.

The man’s skin was a cold white, making the bright red blood look even more jarring.

Qi Jiezhi took a deep breath, pinched Qu Mingluo’s jaw with his left hand, and forced the glucose 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 down.

Before long, the sweetness of the glucose dissolved in his mouth. After a while, Qu Mingluo’s breathing slowed and steadied.

The first thing he said upon regaining clarity was: “Who sent you?”

His voice was low and hoarse, carrying an undeniable chill.

“Huh?” Qi Jiezhi was a bit confused, “I’m just here to clean.”

Qu Mingluo let out a cold snort, “Clumsy.”

Qi Jiezhi realized he was being misunderstood. He explained, “I carry these in case my own blood sugar drops. This works better than candy.”

Qu Mingluo narrowed his eyes slightly, “Is that so?”

Qi Jiezhi replied with a hint of dissatisfaction, “I haven’t even asked who you are. The CEO’s office is on the 12th floor, not the top floor. If the elevator stops, it’s hard to even run away from here. What are you suspicious of?”

He thought about it and felt his tone might have been too blunt. He wanted to stay at Hengxin, so he probably shouldn’t make enemies. This man was likely a senior employee. If he put a comment like “poor collaboration skills” or “needs improvement in communication” in his internship evaluation, wouldn’t that ruin his reputation?

He pursed his lips and decided to help the man up first.

Seeing that the man’s complexion had improved after sitting up, Qi Jiezhi pulled his intern badge out of his pocket. “It’s inconvenient to wear while mopping, it keeps hitting my one abdominal muscle, so I tucked it away.”

Qu Mingluo’s gaze landed on the badge, where the name ‘Qi Jiezhi’ came into view.

Qi Jiezhi wasn’t smiling, he had a serious, explanatory expression. Then he asked, “And you, Mr. Not-Feeling-So-Well?”

Qu Mingluo didn’t answer. He simply reached out, took a silk scarf from the desk, and wiped the bloodstain off the intern’s badge. The movement wasn’t frantic, instead, it was slow and methodical.

“Hengxin doesn’t have a rule about interns mopping the floors,” Qu Mingluo said pointedly, his gaze falling on the glucose packaging Qi Jiezhi had thrown into the trash. “Keep what happened today to yourself.”

The 28th floor was Qu Mingluo’s private domain, where outsiders never entered. Hengxin spent a fortune every year to maintain and clean these carpets, yet this little intern claimed he was here to mop.

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.”

“Alright.”

It was a clear dismissal. Qi Jiezhi’s throat felt dry, and then he suddenly realized something.

He had helped the man, and now the man was helping him?

He pressed the elevator button and quickly dragged the bucket and mop inside.

As the elevator doors closed, he was still thinking about that frost-cold but seemingly grateful senior colleague.

The metal walls reflected Qi Jiezhi’s slightly reddened ears. He raised his hand and rubbed the faint tooth marks on the back of his hand. The force of the bite hadn’t been heavy, certainly not as bad as the man hitting the corner of the desk.

When the elevator reached the 20th floor, Qi Jiezhi figured he wouldn’t run into anyone. During working hours, no one would be standing aimlessly in the hallway.

Qi Jiezhi pushed the cleaning tools out of the car first, then stepped out himself. He was looking at the tooth marks and was about to shake his head when his smile froze on his face.

The office doors had been opened at some point. The entire floor was dead silent. Everyone was staring at him and the plastic bucket in front of him.

The HR manager, Lin Shuangyu, came jogging over in her high heels, her voice kept extremely low, “Xiao Qi! Why are you coming 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?” The HR manager gasped, “Did you see President Qu?”

“Is he a CEO too?” Qi Jiezhi tried to figure out the man’s identity.

“Not exactly, but he’s someone you absolutely cannot afford to offend.”

The crowd’s gaze was filled with shock and confusion.

Lin Shuangyu whispered a warning, “The last employee who wandered up there by mistake was fired on the spot by President Qu.”

“I see…”

Qi Jiezhi looked down at the marks Qu Mingluo had bitten into his hand, his heart a swirl of emotions. Qu Mingluo was cold and elite, and he, Qi Jiezhi, was already out of the closet.

Beneath that frost-cold expression, the boss had a truly stunning face.

“So, what do I do now?”

Qi Jiezhi looked at Lin Shuangyu with a questioning gaze, and then he heard her say, “I’ll go ask.”

Though Lin Shuangyu said she would ask, her expression shifted as she checked her messages.

When she turned back, she first said to Qi Jiezhi, “I’m sorry.”

“What’s wrong?” Qi Jiezhi had a feeling that the message she received was about him.

“Everyone is guessing who you are,” Lin Shuangyu told him, “And a formal notice was just issued from the 28th floor, stating that security checks for personnel entering the building must be tightened.”

“Eh…” Qi Jiezhi couldn’t quite process it, “That makes it sound like I’m being treated like a corporate spy.”

“You definitely aren’t,” Lin Shuangyu looked at him with a serious expression, “The real corporate spy has already been handed over to the police.”

“There really was one?”

“Yes,” Lin Shuangyu said, “The person who gave you your badge this morning and assigned you that work was him.”

Qi Jiezhi immediately understood what the boss meant by “clumsy.” There really was someone here acting as a spy.

“That’s interesting,” Qi Jiezhi asked Lin Shuangyu, “Is Hengxin always like this?”

“Hard to say, but there are many rumors about President Qu. No one knows what’s true or false.”

“I get it,” Qi Jiezhi said, “People just like to spread scandalous rumors about beautiful people.”

Lin Shuangyu blinked, “Huh?”

“Nothing.” Qi Jiezhi asked with a bright smile, “So, what should I be doing now?”

Lin Shuangyu looked at the badge he had just pulled out and asked, “Did that fake HR person give you this, too?”

“Yeah,” Qi Jiezhi asked, “Is it not mine?”

Lin Shuangyu didn’t answer. She reached out for the badge and flipped it over.

After taking it apart, Qi Jiezhi saw a black chip inside. His eyes widened instantly.

“GPS and a listening device,” her voice was extremely low. “As you went all the way up, the data was already being synced to an offshore server.”

Qi Jiezhi broke into a cold sweat. His voice went dry, “I…”

“The real badge is here with me.” Lin Shuangyu pulled a new badge with the Hengxin logo from her blazer pocket. “President Qu just instructed me. Otherwise, you’d probably be in an interrogation room right now.”

Qi Jiezhi: “…”

He suddenly remembered the two seconds Qu Mingluo’s thumb had lingered on his badge while wiping it with the silk scarf. It wasn’t just to see his name, he was confirming the status of the bug.

“If President Qu knew, why didn’t he just throw me out?”

Lin Shuangyu sighed, “Because President Qu wanted to see how far they would go.”

“And I’m a perfect tool for that?” Qi Jiezhi pointed to his own nose and then started laughing.

“No, you’re innocent,” Lin Shuangyu looked up, emphasizing every word. “Innocence makes for the best tool.”

Qi Jiezhi paused for two seconds, then asked, “Should I go up and thank President Qu?”

Lin Shuangyu shook her head, “Don’t push it. President Qu doesn’t like to be disturbed. You came down right after your ‘accidental’ intrusion, didn’t you?”

“Oh, right…”

Qi Jiezhi remembered Qu Mingluo’s warning and fell silent.

Because he was supposed to be mopping, Qi Jiezhi had gone up floor by floor, so he hadn’t taken the elevator. No one would have noticed how long he actually spent on the 28th floor.

“What do I do now?” Qi Jiezhi asked.

Lin Shuangyu was silent for half a second, “If you don’t leave, President Qu has given you two choices.”

“One is to act as if nothing happened. Hengxin will keep you safe until the end of your internship. Whether you stay or not depends on your own merit. The second is to assist the security department as bait to see who else is behind that man. Your identity will remain confidential, though many in the company already suspect you have a powerful background, so no one will call your bluff. Once 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 keep useless people.”

Qi Jiezhi looked down at the tooth marks on his hand. He suddenly smiled. “The second option.”

Lin Shuangyu raised an eyebrow, “You’re not going to think about it?”

“No need. I want the money.” The excitement in Qi Jiezhi’s eyes was undisguised. “Triple pay!”

Lin Shuangyu: “…”

A very low, soft chuckle came through her Bluetooth earpiece. “Give him the phone.”

Lin Shuangyu took off the earpiece and handed it over, “President Qu.”

Qi Jiezhi took the call and cleared his throat, pretending not to care too much, “President Qu, do you have any instructions?”

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