Chapter 14

Recently, Xie Jing felt very satisfied. For the first time, he realized the essence of management—as long as you have the right people in key positions and a good eye for talent, you can save yourself half the effort! The philosophy of management is ultimately about managing people!

He was very pleased with Lan Xi, whom he had arranged to work closely with Xie Cheng. Firstly, her unparalleled work efficiency. Almost as soon as he gave an order, Lan Xi would provide feedback within 24 hours.

Ever since she had caught a glimpse of Xie Cheng secretly taking addictive substances, on his orders the very next day, Lan Xi had brought back the drugs Xie Cheng was using—of course the samples were not plentiful, just some powder.

Thinking of this, Xie Jing couldn't help but open his own locked drawer and take out the black powder that had been carefully preserved in a sealed bag.

In the sunlight, this rare black powder refracted a kind of alluring, mysterious glow. Each grain was cut very perfectly.

Hmm.

Did Xie Cheng think that by dyeing the powder black, he could sneak it past him without his noticing?

Whether it was white powder, black powder or yellow powder, wasn't it all under his control?

However, Xie Cheng had indeed been very careful, because when Lan Xi brought back this tiny amount, Xie Jing was not satisfied at first.

But Lan Xi's answer quickly made Xie Jing realize that he was being somewhat petty—

"Because every time Xie Cheng would take out a small compartmentalized box, and empty it out each time. I could only scrape the leftover powder from the boxes he threw away, scraping several in a row to collect this much...”

Indeed, given Xie Cheng's careful and prudent personality, it was commendable that she had collected this much powder at all.

Xie Jing thought of this and locked the black powder back in the drawer. Now was not the time. He would let it brew a little longer and wait for the right time to take action. When the time came, he only needed to submit the powder and report it to the police. After they identified the composition of the powder, he could easily weave an inescapable net around Xie Cheng.

As for Lan Xi's performance, Xie Jing's response was very straightforward. The day he received the powder, he sent Lan Xi a large bonus.

To retain talent, generous compensation was essential!

And now it turned out his strategy was completely right, because Lan Xi had emailed him Xie Cheng’s latest news—

"Mr. Xie, Xie Cheng is not in good health and seems to be suffering from an incurable disease...he himself says he doesn't have long to live..."

Xie Jing closed his laptop, unable to stop smiling.

How could his nephew be well? Exhausting himself for work before, and relying on addictive substances to boost his energy afterwards, such drugs naturally had side effects. Like fireworks, he had burned brightly for an instant, but at the cost of draining his health. Sooner or later there would be consequences.

People need money to spend, but they also need life to enjoy it.

Xie Jing leisurely sipped his red tea, feeling that everything was under control. It seemed Xie Cheng would not amount to much after all.

Lan Xi, on the other hand, had accomplished a great deal through hard work and should be rewarded more, with an even bigger red envelope.

**

On the other side, the supposedly terminally ill Xie Cheng who was “addicted” to “drugs”, as imagined in Xie Jing’s mind, was frowning over his iced Americano deep in work.

Xie Cheng was a man of action. For Lan Xi, he decided to start by leaving her idle.

He would not arrange work for her or have her attend activities, nor allow her access to core company matters.

Xie Cheng felt Lan Xi was definitely not simple. Behind her seemingly random behaviors was some complex logical algorithm, perhaps even beyond what Xie Cheng could comprehend.

Since she had been selected by Xie Jing, she must be ambitious. So if she wanted career advancement, she would soon realize that continuing like this, she had no future at Xin Cheng—abandoned by Xin Cheng while unable to provide Xie Jing any information he wanted.

Unpleasant on both ends.

As long as she was smart, she would find another way out and resign automatically.

Naturally, Lan Xi also noticed something was off with this obvious change.

Xie Cheng barely arranged any work for her now. Usually when there were meetings and social occasions, it was all handled by him personally. He had even started recruiting new assistants.

However, after some online research, Lan Xi quickly understood— It was because her relationship with Xie Cheng had progressed another step!

"When a man is conquered, he will dote on his woman, reluctant for her to labor and toil. He will want to give her the best of everything, endure hardship silently himself for the woman, and shoulder the weight of the sky for her." Lan Xi looked at Xie Cheng working intently in his office, deeply moved.

So there were so many additional benefits after conquering an Earthling!

So after being conquered by her, Xie Cheng could no longer bear to see her work hard and get tired.

Lan Xi kept reading—

"And sensible, emotionally intelligent women often do not arrogantly enjoy the man’s care at such times, but silently take action to accompany the man, struggling alongside him, using concrete actions to tell the man ‘you chose right!’"

"Smart women understand how to give men surprises and companionship..."

Lan Xi read very attentively until she was interrupted by Liang Di’s comments.

"President Xie has been so busy lately. I heard he still has to go do charity work tomorrow in the remote mountain village near our Rong City." Lan Di sighed as she filled out a business trip report form beside Lan Xi. "This is an annual tradition for Xin Cheng."

"Charity work? What exactly?"

Faced with Lan Xi's question, Liang Di enthusiastically explained: "Many companies do charity work, but it’s perfunctory, just for show. But Xin Cheng is not like that. President Xie always participates in person. He has donated a lot of automated agricultural equipment to those poor mountain villages, as well as providing our company’s agricultural meteorological monitoring system, setting up several special agricultural meteorological monitoring stations for the villagers.”

Liang Di spoke more and more admiringly: “You have to understand, the soil in those mountain villages is actually very fertile, and there is a lot of farmland. The villagers are also very hardworking. The only thing limiting their development is the local volatile weather. Crops are most susceptible to weather influences. Often, farmers work hard for a whole year, but due to sudden meteorological disasters, the crops all die and a year’s hard work ends with no harvest.”

“But with our company’s agricultural meteorological services, things are different. Early warnings for weather disasters can be made so villagers can prepare defensive measures to preserve the harvest; predicting temperature trends for the year ahead of time, they can plant suitable crops...” Liang Di blinked. “And every year, President Xie personally goes to inspect the fields and see if there are areas for improvement.”

“The conditions in those mountain villages are quite difficult. Oh, it’s all my fault.” Liang Di said remorsefully: “If not for me causing harm to Cao An...President Xie wouldn’t have had to go alone this time...”

Alone?!

Indeed, Xie Cheng hadn't called for her. Clearly reluctant for her to go due to the poor village conditions.

But it was precisely at such times that her thoughtfulness stood out.

No, Lan Xi felt she must go along!

Moreover...hadn't Xie Cheng said his death was near?

The Earthling Conquest Guide said Earthlings often feel lonely before death.

Although due to Xie Cheng's limited lifespan, this conquest relationship had barely begun before facing its end, Lan Xi felt she should stand guard to the last. In this fleeting time left, she would provide Xie Cheng unlimited care.

Besides, as clearly stated in the Guide with black and white, the focus in Earthling male-female conquest relations was...marriage!

Her current relationship with Xie Cheng still lacked some momentum.

After all, there was no inheriting Xie Cheng’s estate without marriage.

With Xie Cheng's days numbered, naturally Lan Xi's remaining time was also limited.

She pondered, deciding to start from the Guide and systematically study it.

Lan Xi took a deep breath and opened the guidebook—

"Chapter 5: The Ultimate Strategy to Completely Conquer an Earth Male..."

Lan Xi skimmed down. Her heartbeat had already quickened.

Yet what appeared before her eyes was not some long theoretical elaborate scheme, but just four enlarged bold words.

"Sleep with him!"

Huh?

That simple?

Just sleep with him and that was enough to thoroughly conquer an Earthling male both physically and mentally?

As if to confirm Lan Xi's doubts, the explanation in the next section of the guide dispelled her confusion—

"An Earth male, after sleeping with you, would need to take responsibility for you and bear the ultimate responsibility - that is, marrying you. Ultimately, through marriage, you would legally gain half of that man's property..."

What followed was some explanation on how to create the atmosphere to sleep with Earth males:

"Once you have successfully conquered an Earth male and entered into a period of passion, you can then enroll in the advanced lessons on sleeping with Earth males. Here I will briefly introduce several methods -"

"Method 1: Confess Directly..."

"Method 2: Nosebleed-Inducing Steamy..."

"Method 3: Stoke the Flames..." "Method 4: Whisper Sweet Nothings..."

"Method 5: Communicate With Eyes..."

"Method 6 (Use With Caution): Forcibly Conquer..."

...

Lan Xi had hated going to school back on Planet Mu Yi. Seeing long essays made her head hurt.

Luckily, as a princess she had formidable comprehension skills. She briefly skimmed the section names with a frown, and felt she already understood the gist of the book's contents. She confidently closed the guidebook, unwilling to waste more time on reading the lengthy "Chapter 6 - How to Sleep With Earthlings (With Illustrations)".

It's just sleeping, does it need to be studied? Positions? Aren't there only a few? Lying down and sleeping on your side, what's so difficult?

It seemed easy to get what she wanted.

At this moment, Lan Xi had a stroke of inspiration.

Giving Xie Cheng a surprise, standing together with him to brave the world; then taking the opportunity to properly sleep with him, striving to get a marriage certificate before Xie Chen left - this was a perfect chance!

With a marriage certificate, half of Xie Cheng's money would be hers. The 20,000 she owed before would of course not need to be paid back!

Lan Xi decided to kill two birds with one stone.

Xie Cheng not letting her come along? She'd just get the village location from Liang Di first and get there early to lie in wait.

With a surprise and accompanying him in the village, when they got back wouldn't their affection dramatically deepen in a flash?

And after an exhausting rural business trip, wouldn't a sweet, satisfying sleep naturally follow?

As for how to create the mood to sleep with Xie Cheng...

Lan Xi thought it over and decided to start with Method 1.

Be direct, straightforward, no fancy tricks!

...

Ever since driving Lan Xi out of his office that day, Xie Cheng rarely brought her along for any activities.

Although when going in and out of his office he'd often get pitiful looks from Lan Xi as if he had little time left to live, Xie Cheng didn't plan on explaining anything more.

Since the assistant and bodyguard positions were still open for recruitment, there was no one suitable he could use for now. Also taking precautions against Xie Jing making another move, Xie Cheng didn't dare use just anyone. Doing everything himself was admittedly somewhat tiring, but being physically tired was better than mental exhaustion.

Therefore, although he had to drive himself for hours to get to the village, Xie Cheng was in very good spirits the whole way there.

He had come this time to investigate the usage conditions of the agricultural meteorological forecasting system, and confirm whether the database needed expanded capacity.

However, just arriving at the village entrance after the hours-long drive, Xie Cheng saw someone he absolutely did not want to meet.

Lan Xi was standing at the village entrance looking left and right. In her hand she held a bouquet of flowers. Seeing Xie Cheng's car, she immediately pushed the villager next to her -

"Hurry, hurry!"

Only then did Xie Cheng notice that behind her, two villagers were standing a distance apart holding either end of a red banner.

This woman really wasn't truly stupid or sick, but was playing the pig to eat the tiger, with a shrewd mind. She must have realized that Xie Cheng had sidelined her, so was desperately figuring out ways to fawn over Xie Cheng.

Sure enough, she had found out early that Xie Cheng was coming to the village and arrived ahead of time to prepare flowers and a welcome banner for Xie Cheng?

The banner content was naturally flattering words like welcoming Xie Cheng's guidance visit.

Xie Cheng couldn't help coldly laughing.

Although useless, it was quite unexpected. Lan Xi seemed to have changed her tactics, becoming a bit closer to normal logic, also allowing her behavioral patterns to be predicted. Xie Cheng couldn't say he was too averse to it.

He saw it more as Lan Xi making a gesture of reconciliation, a new form of flattery.

If only she knew beforehand...

But Xie Cheng's mood was unable to remain calm for a few seconds, because the next moment, on Lan Xi's command, the villagers on either side energetically unfurled the banner.

Only then could Xie Cheng clearly see what was written on it -

"You run, I chase! Clip your wings, nowhere you can fly! Xie Cheng! You're destined to not escape fate! I want to loudly tell you! I want to sleep with you! - Lan Xi"

"..."