For the first two days after getting home, Xu Ye enjoyed the treatment of an emperor.

Describing it as hand-and-foot service would not be putting it too strongly.

First thing on the fourth he drove to the Youwei garment factory. After several months of growth the Youwei brand’s lingerie now held a substantial share of the market — sets like the JK schoolgirl one and the bunny girl one had passed ten thousand units in sales long ago.

The factory’s workers had gone from a little over twenty at the start to fifty, and two production lines were running: the first line devoted to lingerie, the second to swimwear. Swimwear didn’t sell as well as the lingerie, but it was doing close to a hundred orders a day now. The factory as a whole, it was fair to say, was developing in the right direction.

When Xu Ye got out of the car and walked into the factory building, he was very nearly thrown out by the workers inside, since hardly any of them knew him. Pei Youwei had put the word out long ago that strangers weren’t to come and go on the factory site as they pleased, and Xu Ye, stopped at the door, could only call her.

Hearing that Xu Ye was downstairs, Pei Youwei came down herself and took him up to her office.

Pei Youwei asked with a smile, “Well? Isn’t the factory completely different from the last time you came?”

Xu Ye nodded. “Obviously. There was nothing here at all back then.”

“You’ve seen for yourself — there are a lot of people at the factory now and not much space, so in a bit I’ll have Xiaonuan put another workstation in my office. You’ll be working in the same office as me over the summer.”

“Whatever suits. I’ll go with whatever you arrange.”

“Let me take you around the factory first and introduce you to a few people while we’re at it. Whatever else, you’re my partner — they need to know who you are, or the next time you come you may well get stopped again.”

“Fine by me.”

Pei Youwei took Xu Ye around the factory. The ground floor was mainly the production workshop, and besides a factory manager surnamed Cao there were two workshop supervisors, each running one of the two production lines. The second floor was the online team — two operations people, three customer service staff and a designer for Taobao, plus a warehouse manager who normally worked alongside them.

Besides Zhang Xiaonuan, the Taobao people all knew the boss had a partner too. They just hadn’t expected the partner to be this young.

Once Xu Ye had done his circuit and come back to the office, he got straight to the point. “Boss, I’m coming in to the factory over the summer mainly to solve problems for you and to find ways of pushing sales up. So — is there anything you can’t solve right now? If there is, I can give you some ideas.”

Pei Youwei heard him out and was about to speak when there was a knock at the door outside.

She threw Xu Ye a look. Xu Ye sat down on the sofa, and Pei Youwei went back and sat down in her own seat, then called toward the door, “Come in.”

The door was pushed open from outside.

Factory Manager Cao Bin walked into the office. His eyes rested on Xu Ye for a moment, then moved on to Pei Youwei.

Pei Youwei asked, “Old Cao. Something up?”

Cao Bin came forward with a smile. “Boss, it’s the raise I mentioned last time. Order volume is up now and there’s more and more to do at the factory, so I—”

Cao Bin hadn’t finished before Pei Youwei said, her face going cold, “Didn’t I say I’d have to think about it?”

“Then, Boss, could you give me a definite time?”

Pei Youwei said helplessly, “Monday next week. I’ll raise it at the meeting.”

“Fine.”

Cao Bin smiled, and even gave Xu Ye a wave by way of a greeting, then left the office again soon after.

Seeing the look on Pei Youwei’s face, Xu Ye came over and asked, “What’s wrong? Why the sour face?”

“Weren’t you just asking what I couldn’t solve? There. That’s what’s giving me a headache right now.”

Xu Ye didn’t follow. “You mean the raise?”

“Mm.”

Xu Ye pressed straight on. “The company’s doing better, so there’s nothing improper about employees asking for a raise. Give them a suitable increase and it’ll fire up their enthusiasm for the work as well.”

Pei Youwei heard him out, let out a long sigh, and shook her head. “You don’t know. This is the third time he’s come to me about a raise. I agreed the first two times. The first half of the year is short to begin with — two raises in under half a year, that’s surely quite enough. And him? Still not satisfied. He brought the raise up again a few days ago. If I don’t give it to him, well, he’s the company’s earliest founding hand; and if I do give it to him, then in another little while he’ll be back asking for another one. What am I supposed to do?”

“He’s already had two?”

“Mm.”

Xu Ye said at once, “Then what is there to think about? Obviously you don’t give it to him.”

Pei Youwei: “If I don’t he won’t do his job properly. The second time he came to me about a raise I said I’d have to think about it — and during that exact period there were a great many problems on the after-sales side. Then once the raise came through it all got better again.”

Xu Ye heard her out. He went blank for a moment, and then immediately started laughing.

Pei Youwei was nearly worried to death, and seeing that Xu Ye could still laugh at it she said irritably, “What are you laughing at?”

“Just as well I came over for the summer. Otherwise a little thing like this would have you stuck. You are unbelievable.”

“A little thing?”

“Anyway, just leave this one to me. Put your heart back where it belongs — I’ll get this settled for you, definitely.”

Pei Youwei asked at once, “You’re not going to fire him, are you?”

“If he’s a man who can never be satisfied, then it isn’t out of the question. Anyway, I’ll be the bad guy and you can be the good one. Handling this kind of thing is what I’m best at.”

Seeing how completely assured Xu Ye looked, Pei Youwei finally set her mind at rest as well, and she was soon laughing again. “It really is nice having somebody to share the worry.”

“Boss, that thing I mentioned to you last time — have another think about that too.”

“What thing?”

“Finding you a kept man.”

“Xu Ye!”

“Don’t get worked up, Boss. You’re getting on a bit. Careful you don’t put your back out.”

“You’re still going!”

Zhang Xiaonuan was standing at the door listening in on the conversation inside, and a brilliant smile spread across her face too.

…

At six in the evening Xu Ye finished work along with the factory’s workers. He didn’t go home, though. He stopped on the way to buy two mango pomelo sagos and drove straight to Red Leaf Estate.

He pressed the doorbell twice, and when nobody came to open it for a good while he sent Chen Qingqing a message.

Chen Qingqing got the message, came down from upstairs at a trot and opened the door. Seeing that Xu Ye had come, she asked with a smile, “How come you’re here?”

“I missed you. I came to see you.” Xu Ye handed her the mango pomelo sago and walked into the living room. “Where’s your mom?”

Chen Qingqing shook her head. “Don’t know. I was upstairs just now.”

Xu Ye immediately broke into a wicked grin. “Two days without seeing each other. Did you miss me or not?”

“No.”

“Your mom isn’t here. Quick, let me have a kiss.”

“Get lost~”

“One kiss. Just one.”

“No. Do that again and I’ll shout.”

“Your house is very well soundproofed. You could shout your throat raw and nobody would come.”

The two of them started “scuffling” right there on the sofa, and Chen Qingqing was no match at all for Xu Ye. It wasn’t long before he had both her hands caught together, raised above her head and pinned there.

And just as Xu Ye was about to kiss her, and Chen Qingqing had braced herself for it—

Xu Ye happened to look up and caught sight of Jiang Meilin standing at the bathroom door, watching him on the sofa with an expression of pure “astonishment.”

Xu Ye shot to his feet in fright and called out awkwardly, “Au… Auntie~”

Jiang Meilin looked at Xu Ye, then looked at Chen Qingqing, whose whole face had gone scarlet — and it was she who ended up at a loss instead. She said hurriedly, “I’m going up to get the laundry in. You two carry on.”

“This is all your fault!” Seeing Jiang Meilin go upstairs, Chen Qingqing quickly aimed a kick at Xu Ye’s chest — but Xu Ye’s eye and hand were quicker, and he caught her foot in one movement.

“Stop messing around. Your mom saw us anyway, and your mom told us to carry on, so let’s carry on.”

“Carry on my foot.”

Around the turn of the stairs, Jiang Meilin was wondering too: Did I actually say that just now?

(End of Chapter 253)