Chapter 174.1: Simplified System
Ten minutes ago, Shen Xiu had already finished reading all the documents. But since he didn’t know where the meeting room was, he remained seated, not moving.
When he heard the sound of the elevator and Qin Mo’s approaching footsteps, Shen Xiu, trying to ease his own awkwardness, lowered his head and pretended to keep reading—though he hadn’t registered a single word. His full attention was on Qin Mo.
Thankfully, Qin Mo didn’t ask any questions.
“Mm.” Shen Xiu responded naturally, closed the file he’d been pretending to read, and stood up to walk over to Qin Mo. “Let’s go.”
Qin Mo nodded. “Yes, sir.”
With that, Qin Mo led the way. As the elevator doors opened, he stepped inside first and positioned himself by the control panel.
Once Shen Xiu entered, Qin Mo pressed the button for the meeting room floor.
Seeing the lit-up button labeled 66, Shen Xiu couldn’t help glancing at Qin Mo.
Qin Mo is amazing.
Efficient, considerate, always a step ahead—he’d silently taken care of a lot of the things Shen Xiu had been worrying about.
If it had been left to Shen Xiu to press the button himself, he honestly wouldn’t have even known which floor the meeting room was on.
Outwardly, he maintained a calm facade—but internally, he was a bundle of nerves.
He was afraid of acting suspiciously and getting found out before he could finish testing things.
Qin Mo: “……”
Why is he looking at me? Did I do something wrong? Qin Mo racked his brain but couldn’t figure it out, and grew even more cautious in his actions.
As the elevator doors opened, Qin Mo instinctively stepped out first. Though he knew the doors wouldn’t close before Shen Xiu exited, he still reached out to hold them open, saying, “President Shen, please.”
President Shen…
Although it wasn’t the first time he’d heard that title, Shen Xiu still felt just as awkward hearing it now as he had the first time.
“…Mm.” Shen Xiu thickened his skin and gave a low grunt of acknowledgment.
With Qin Mo leading slightly ahead and to the side, Shen Xiu followed him toward Meeting Room No.1…
Watching Qin Mo walk just ahead, Shen Xiu felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
He didn’t even need to think too hard—he immediately recalled the time they filmed at Bosen Manor, when Butler Shen had led the way, and again in Basat, the way Fang Mo had walked.
To say this had nothing to do with Qin Mo’s current posture would be a lie—they were practically identical.
The distance was precise: not too close to make him feel tense, not too far that he’d struggle to keep up. Always two steps ahead, and just slightly off to the side.
Shen Xiu: “……”
Had the three of them… trained together?
He was confused.
—
Meanwhile, inside the meeting room.
From department heads to vice presidents, everyone was already present. The meeting room, large as it was, was nearly full.
While waiting for Shen Xiu to arrive, the attendees were quietly exchanging intel.
“Special Assistant Qin really knows how to keep a secret—he didn’t let a single word slip. If President Shen hadn’t suddenly shown up today, we’d all still be in the dark.”
“No wonder he has President Shen’s trust. The man’s got a mouth like a vault.”
“So… does anyone actually know what’s going on? When Special Assistant Li sent the notice, he told us to be mentally prepared.”
“I heard from someone in the secretarial department that as soon as President Shen arrived, he requested all the latest financial reports and contracts for review. Did something go wrong with a project?”
“Don’t look at me—everything I’m handling is going smoothly.”
…
The room buzzed with speculation, everyone talking over one another, but no one could pin down a clear reason. And in this complete lack of information, the tension only grew thicker.
The news that Shen Xiu wasn’t just some privileged young heir but the actual big boss spread through K Corp like wildfire in just a few hours. Even employees in the company’s subsidiaries had already heard about it.
One person told ten, ten told a hundred, and the number of people who knew kept snowballing. Among them were plenty of Shen Xiu’s fans—Xiuologists—who quickly took to their private social media accounts to express their shock. It was impossible for marketing accounts not to notice. Getting on the trending list was only a matter of time.
#President Shen
# KCorp
#AnActorWhoDoesn’tWantToBeAnIdolIsADirectorAndPresidentInstead
#MayAsWellOutworkTheEntireIndustry
#StillInShock
#ThatFriendWasHimselfAllAlong
— Sisters, could you have guessed this? Who on earth could’ve guessed this, oh my god!!
— Never saw it coming. Not in a million years. What other surprises is Boss Xiu hiding from us?!
— As a professional couch potato, I’m happily lying flat watching Xiu-baby overachieve. My Xiu-baby never disappoints!
— Is there going to be a roadshow for New Life? We urgently need those interviews so reporters can ask all the juicy, morally questionable questions now, LOL.
…
When Lin Jiashi saw the trending topics, he was filled with regret.
If he had known from the beginning who Shen Xiu really was, he would’ve worked hard alongside him, stayed serious, and never slacked off.
If he had done that, maybe Shen Xiu would have favored him the same way he favored Xia Wenhao and the others.
At the very least, he wouldn’t have fallen out with Ke Zi’an the moment he thought Ke Zi’an had no more value.
If he hadn’t burned that bridge, maybe he could still connect to Shen Xiu through Ke Zi’an and Xia Wenhao now.
But life doesn’t hand out regret pills.
Now, all Lin Jiashi could do was watch with bloodshot eyes, full of envy and jealousy—yet too afraid to try getting close to Shen Xiu ever again.
—
Li Nuo stood in the corridor and, upon seeing Shen Xiu and Qin Mo walking toward him, promptly called out, “President Shen, Special Assistant Qin.” He then turned to lead the way to Meeting Room No.1 and pushed the door open.
Inside the meeting room, just as everyone was nervously speculating, the door creaked open.
In an instant, the room fell completely silent.
Everyone instinctively stood up, their gazes unanimously drawn toward the entrance.
They first saw Li Nuo enter, respectfully stepping aside.
Then, Shen Xiu appeared—tall, imposing, and cold-faced, his presence cutting sharply into the room like a blade.
The moment he entered, an overwhelming sense of pressure swept across the entire space. The air seemed to grow thinner. One by one, the attendees unconsciously lowered their breathing, watching him with anxious hearts.
“President Shen.”
“Good afternoon, President Shen.”
“President Shen.”
…
No one even registered that Shen Xiu was dressed in something as simple as a plain black casual outfit—completely unlike the rest of them, most of whom were in formal suits and dress shirts.
As Shen Xiu stepped inside and saw a room full of people suddenly standing, all staring straight at him while calling out “President Shen” one after another—
“…Mm.”
Shen Xiu almost had a heart attack on the spot. Embarrassed and internally panicking, he forced himself to respond with a stiff nod. With the heat of everyone’s gaze boring into his back, he followed behind Qin Mo, his footsteps so light they felt like walking on cotton. He was incredibly guilty.
Qin Mo pulled out the chair at the head of the table. “President Shen, please.”
“Thank you.” Shen Xiu gave a polite response and sat down.
Only then did Qin Mo take his seat just beside him, at the second-most prominent position.
Li Nuo quietly stood behind Shen Xiu’s right shoulder, poised to assist at a moment’s notice.
Once Shen Xiu was seated, the rest of the room finally followed suit, sitting down one after another.
After everyone sat down, not a single person dared make a sound—as if the ones chattering endlessly just moments before Shen Xiu arrived were an entirely different group of people.
Shen Xiu, meanwhile, sat there stiffly, thinking about the documents he had read earlier—and the signatures on them, written in handwriting that was exactly like his own. His scalp tingled.
Because as far as he could remember, he had never signed anything.
Dr. Qiu Yan had once told him that although he wasn’t “normal,” he definitely wasn’t at the point of needing medication—so the idea that he had somehow sleepwalked and signed those documents was impossible.
The silence in the room only made his nerves worse.
Documents were static. They were like reading comprehension passages: if you could understand the context and structure, you could more or less guess what was going on. Force it a little, round the logic here and there, and you could pretend it made sense.
But people were dynamic. Every industry had its own jargon, every team their own shorthand. When reporting real-time project progress, no one used textbook language. If he could still understand all of that…
Then there would be no more excuse. He wouldn’t be able to lie to himself anymore.
To delay that moment a little longer, Shen Xiu turned to the one person he was most familiar with: Qin Mo.
“You chair this meeting.”
Shen Xiu had arrived so suddenly and still hadn’t explained the reason for his visit, so Qin Mo could only speculate.
Now that Shen Xiu had asked him to host the meeting—with no clear agenda set—that could only mean one thing: a full-scale evaluation of the company.
Qin Mo turned to the Department One director. “Let’s start with your team. All six departments will report on the progress of their current projects, one by one.”
“…Understood.”
Why them first?! Department One felt like the first goat up the sacrificial altar. They were devastated.
Still, one of their team members stood up and began reciting the report they had prepared during lunch:
“…In collaboration with the local government, we’ve partnered with Fengcheng, a supported enterprise based in Linjiang City…”
…
They were nervous, yes—but who wouldn’t want to perform well in front of Shen Xiu, to win his favor and secure a promising future?
It had already been two hours since the meeting was announced. Everyone who needed to prepare had done so. Over the next two hours of brief work reports, the data and results from each department were all impressive—K Corp still looked as promising as ever in everyone’s eyes.
Voices continued to echo in his ears, a stream of professional jargon pouring in. Sitting at the head of the conference table, Shen Xiu looked expressionless.
Because he had just realized… he could actually understand all of it!
Shen Xiu was questioning his entire existence, sitting in the black chair, his mind looping with the thought: Who am I? Where am I? Am I going insane?
Throughout the two hours of reporting, Shen Xiu was multitasking—struggling to make sense of it all while still listening to the presentations.
Several people had taken turns giving their reports. Each of them, after finishing nervously, received no response from Shen Xiu.
In the conference room, all anyone could see was Shen Xiu slightly furrowing his brows, lips pressed into a thin, tight line, silent and clearly displeased. The longer the reports went on, the more anxious and confused everyone became.
Say something—anything! Even scolding them would be better than this. That cold face, complete silence, lowered eyes hiding his thoughts—was he trying to drive them all crazy?!
Once the last person finished their report, the conference room fell into an eerie silence again.
Even though the air conditioning had been on 24/7 and the temperature was set to the most comfortable level for the human body, everyone still felt chilled to the bone by Shen Xiu’s cold silence—and yet, their foreheads were slick with sweat.
