◎ The black-hearted capitalist family ◎

“President Lu, did you pick two outfits?”

Once everyone sat down, they began to chat. Xu Shiqing spoke first, voicing everyone’s doubt.

“Not just two.” His reply was still concise.

Ren Lu smiled and added, “A backup dress. If you like that purple one just now, Shiqing, I can give it to you.”

Xu Shiqing immediately waved her hands. “No, no, that was chosen for you by President Lu. I only wore it because I picked the wrong one, which led to the mix-up. It’s just a shame we didn’t get to see you in it.”

In truth, she felt a bit wronged. The production team had told them to switch the dresses back, but Ren Lu wore another dress without telling her beforehand. That left her somewhat displeased, and she wanted to subtly point it out with her question.

But before she could make her point, Ren Lu blocked her neatly by outright offering to gift it to her, which made Xu Shiqing back down at once.

Since the dress was chosen by someone’s husband, she didn’t dare accept it.

“It’s fine. Dresses are meant to be worn, and you wore it beautifully, so it’s not a pity at all.” Ren Lu waved her hand with poise, answering flawlessly.

Xu Shiqing shut her mouth right away. The levels were different, so she chose to avoid clashing.

However, Peng Hongyu was still holding a grudge and stubbornly pursued the topic of jewelry.

“Mrs. Lu, where did that diamond ring come from? Did President Lu pick it for you?”

Ren Lu glanced at the silent man beside her, nudged his arm, and teased, “President Lu, they’re asking you a question.”

Only then did Lu Sinian speak: “A birthday gift.”

“Every year on my birthday, President Lu gives me jewelry as a gift. This one is from last year’s birthday,” Ren Lu explained, “No wonder it wasn’t sent along with the dress, otherwise, I’d have recognized it right away.”

“The ring was a backup choice. The new jewelry set originally paired with the purple dress wasn’t shown by the production team.” Lu Sinian, unusually, added an explanation, which only fueled the fire.

Peng Hongyu immediately seized on this, directly confronting the production team.

“Director, why didn’t you put the new jewelry set from President Lu up for selection? Were you deliberately creating drama? Trying to make my wife pick the wrong one?” He glared toward the director off-camera.

The director quickly explained, “It’s for the show’s needs. If President Lu’s jewelry was shown, it would’ve ruined much of the suspense.”

There was no way to respond to that. It practically implied that Lu Sinian’s jewelry was incredibly valuable and that only he could afford to give such gifts.

Peng Hongyu was clearly unhappy but couldn’t argue further, though in his heart, he cursed Lu Sinian for showing off.

The first episode of the live reality show ended with a harmonious dinner among the four couples. The live chat was filled with viewers wanting more, and several related trending topics shot up, all in the top ranks.

The most heated topic was the auction incident. Xu Shiqing and her husband were a famous couple bloggers with accounts on every major platform and many fans. Yet in this episode, only Xu Shiqing picked the wrong dress, which inevitably stirred arguments.

Ren Lu, arm in arm with Lu Sinian, presented the image of a loving, harmonious couple. But once they got in the car, she naturally withdrew her hand.

“President Lu, Mrs. Lu, there are several trending topics unfavorable to us, and some marketing accounts—”

As soon as they sat down, the assistant in the back seat couldn’t resist speaking up. It was Vicky, mentioned earlier in the show.

Lu Sinian was leaning back in the seat with his eyes closed. Ren Lu made a “quiet” gesture to Vicky, cutting her off mid-sentence, and the car returned to silence.

Ren Lu opened the trending topics list and saw several tags clearly aimed at their marriage.

#LuSinianDomineeringCEO#

#RenLuDoesNotWearPurpleFringeDress#

#TheOriginalPreparedJewelry#

These topics looked normal enough, but the comments under them were a complete mess.

— The production team told them to switch the dresses back. Why didn’t Ren Lu wear the purple fringe dress? Is she deliberately trying to be special? Is she looking down on Xu Shiqing?

— I really feel bad for Shiqing. She’s clearly such a warm, sunny person, but after this incident, her face turned pale. My heart aches for her.

— Isn’t this workplace bullying? Has Ren Lu forgotten her place? She was just a secretary who married up into a wealthy family, and now she’s acting like she doesn’t know her own last name.

— Lu Sinian is pretending to be arrogant, Ren Lu is playing the green tea act; the two of them are simply a match made in heaven.

— Did this auction get arranged in advance by Lu Sinian and his wife? Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence!

— There is no such thing as coincidence; it is nothing more than someone doing it deliberately.

Ren Lu was reading with great interest when Vicky’s WeChat came.

Vicky: Madam, public opinion is very unfavorable toward you both; it’s better to clarify it as soon as possible.

Ren Lu glanced at the man in the front row who showed no reaction, could not help but shrug, and replied slowly: It’s not the time yet.

Vicky typed a whole string of words on her phone, deleted them, typed again, deleted again; the screen always stayed on “typing…”, and in the end, she still gave up.

When she came to apply for the position of Madam’s personal assistant, Ren Lu had once given her a list of employment guidelines, and the first rule was: Put the boss first in everything, don’t be more anxious than the emperor when the eunuch is not in a hurry.

If she kept asking now, it would violate this rule.

For Vicky’s tact, Ren Lu felt very satisfied.

As for that list of employment guidelines, it was actually her own survival rule when she worked as Lu Sinian’s secretary.

Ren Lu had a secret; she was actually a person who had transmigrated.

Unfortunately, she had neither a system nor any protagonist’s halo, only partial knowledge of the plot.

This world was also abnormal, a mixture of all kinds of novels written by countless authors, and anyone she met on the street could be a protagonist from some book.

And her biggest golden finger was that some novel plots would occasionally pop up in her mind, and without exception, all these novels had Lu Sinian as the top-tier, heaven’s chosen supporting male character.

In business novels, he was the business tycoon defeated by the male protagonist; in romance novels, he was the machine to push forward the romance between the male and female leads; in school novels, he was the fool who broke up lovers and eventually got slapped in the face…

In short: a wretch.

To what extent was he a wretch? Even when a passing dog barked at him twice, Ren Lu suspected that the soul of some male protagonist was living in that dog, ready to torment Lu Sinian.

When Ren Lu first transmigrated, she only wanted to be a happy onlooker, not intending to get involved in these disputes. After all, there were too many protagonists in this world; she could bump into two just walking down the street, and she only wanted to watch them fall in love and tear each other apart.

But her life was simply too hard. The employment situation for university graduates did not improve even in a novel world.

Even worse, because protagonists were everywhere, she was always drawn into baffling situations. For example, when a male and female lead quarreled while dating, causing the bus to stop running, and she was fired for being late too many times.

She quickly understood. It really was not the wrong name to give. Ren Lu, Ren Lu—when the name is read backwards, she is nothing more than a passerby destined to suffer^[1]任露 (Ren Lu) is the character’s name. When read backwards, it becomes 露任 (Lu Ren).  路人 (lù rén), which sounds the same as 露任 (Lu Ren), means “passerby” or … Continue reading.

With no way out, she came up with a small scheme.

Since she could not escape the fate of being a wretched passerby, she might as well go big. Go to the biggest wretch, and take a gamble, maybe the bicycle could turn into a motorcycle.

It happened that Lu Sinian was hiring a secretary, so she directly sent in her resume.

Faced with excellent competitors who graduated from top universities, she was basically doomed to fail, but more than half of these competitors were spies sent by rival companies, so she got hired.

During her probation period, half of the other candidates clashed with Lu Sinian, wanting to slap his face; the other half always wanted a fling with him, their minds entirely off work, and Ren Lu successfully stayed on.

“President Lu, Madam, we’ve arrived at the company.” The car stopped, and the driver gave a reminder.

Ren Lu followed him out of the car. Outside was the headquarters of the Lu family’s company, Shengtian Building, which was imposing and towering into the clouds.

Several secretaries were already waiting at the entrance, holding notebooks, reporting his schedule one by one.

Ren Lu stepped back half a step to give them space.

Just at that moment, a young female secretary came over with a cup of coffee, saying: “President Lu, your coffee.”

But just as she was about to come near, she stumbled, the cup tilted, and the coffee was about to spill.

A fair hand grasped the secretary’s wrist, steadying her.

“Careful.” Ren Lu said softly.

The young secretary immediately looked up and met her smiling eyes, instantly blushing red; she could barely hold the coffee.

Ren Lu tested the temperature of the coffee cup and reminded: “President Lu doesn’t like coffee that’s too hot; the temperature is best kept at 55 degrees.”

By the time the young secretary came back to her senses, Lu Sinian and his group had already gone far. Before she could even go upstairs, the HR department had sent her a dismissal notice.

In the elevator, Ren Lu watched as several secretaries reported at a rapid pace, and Lu Sinian, handling so many matters alone, remained completely unruffled. Although it was many versus one, he sat as steady as Mount Tai.

The man’s tall and upright figure, his composure in the face of disturbance, and his quick yet perfect way of handling things are truly worthy of being an author’s carefully crafted, heaven’s chosen supporting male lead.

Unfortunately, sometimes perfection meant usefulness. Wherever needed, there he was, the stepping stone for male and female leads.

Situations like just now, Lu Sinian encountered them every day, and since Ren Lu came to his side, she had conveniently disposed of countless people for him.

Of course, there were also times she was powerless, like right now.

As soon as they stepped out of the elevator, a bucket of dirty water was dumped on the ground in front of them; although it didn’t directly hit him, it still splashed onto the man’s leather shoes and trouser legs.

“Go collect this month’s salary and leave.” A secretary in charge immediately ordered the person away.

“I’m sorry, Secretary Yu, please don’t make me leave, I won’t dare to again next time. My wife is sick, only my salary supports the household, and I have a child in the third year of high school about to take the college entrance exam! President Lu, I beg you, this is taking my whole family’s life…” The janitor uncle knelt down to beg for mercy, tears streaming down his face, looking utterly miserable.

Unfortunately, the man did not even give him a glance, walking away without turning his head.

Ren Lu, however, looked back twice and sighed silently in her heart.

Ah, this old man didn’t seem to have a protagonist’s fate, but the son he spoke of likely did. In three to five years, when his son soared to success, he would surely stage a revenge drama against Lu Sinian.

But this had nothing to do with her. Anyway, this black-hearted capitalist Lu Sinian was about to kick the bucket; she just needed to endure a little longer, and the road ahead would be smooth.