Chapter 1: Kidnapping My Boss

“You’re five minutes late again today.”

Ji Shiye sat on the bed, his gaze frosty. He calculated slowly, “Trinh Gia, your off-time is six o’clock. The drive home takes twenty minutes, even with traffic. But for the past three days, you’ve been exactly five minutes late every single night.”

He let out a low smirk, the corner of his thin lips curling into a dangerous arc. “Or do you… have some sort of ‘side schedule’ going on out there?”

I swallowed hard, watching the silver chain loosely coiled around his fingers. He leaned in, his long legs framing my body on either side, and carelessly pulled open his robe to reveal his tight, chiseled abs.

The faint red tinge at the corners of his eyes flickered with raw possessiveness. “Did you forget what I said yesterday? One minute late… means one ‘extra’ round.”

The cold metal chain suddenly wrapped around my ankle. Ji Shiye leaned down and whispered into my ear, “Looks like… this chain suits you much better.”

Before I could even defend myself and explain that I was just buying groceries, he silenced me with his lips. My mind was completely overwhelmed by one screaming thought: What in the absolute hell is going on?! Wasn’t he supposed to be an icy, unreachable god? Who gave him permission to fall straight into the gutter like this?!

Rewind two months ago: I committed the most illegal act of my life. I kidnapped my boss.

His name was Ji Shiye. I had been harbor a crush on him for three years, starting from when he was my college senior all the way to when I shamelessly begged for a job at his company. Initially, I just wanted to admire him from afar, but looking for too long bred greed. I wanted him all to myself.

On the day I planned to confess, I caught him looking intimate with another woman, holding a massive bouquet of red roses. Blood rushed to my head, my sanity evaporated, and a wild idea took hold: I was going to tie him up and take him home.

Step 1: Pretend to be sick and ask him to drive me home. Step 2: Lure him into the apartment under the pretext of “getting a glass of water.” Step 3: Get him drunk with a single bottle of beer.

To be completely honest, Ji Shiye’s alcohol tolerance was embarrassingly low. I had never seen a guy from the North with such a weak constitution—an absolute disgrace to Northern men everywhere.

While he was completely passed out, I dragged and hauled him into the bedroom, using a “premium” silver chain I bought online to lock him to the bedpost. Once everything was set, I stood there frozen. The man was fast asleep; playing the villain with no audience felt pretty silly.

An hour later, his eyes fluttered open. Looking at the chain around his ankle, he narrowed his eyes. “Trinh Gia, are you unlawfully detaining me?”

I was shaking like a leaf, but I forced a tough front. “You’re never leaving me! Not in this lifetime! This chain is made of titanium alloy! It could hold down an elephant, let alone you!” (In reality: a cheap 20-cent dog leash I grabbed in a hurry at the night market).

Ji Shiye looked at me like I was a weird alien species. “Do you like me?”

My face flushed red as a ripe tomato. “Yes! I’ve liked you for three whole years! It’s fine if you don’t like me back, but going off with someone else? Over my dead body! Your eyes should only see me, your mind should only think of me, and your body… belongs to me too!”

He replied flatly, “Not gonna happen. I suggest you let me go. I won’t submit to this.”

After hearing that, I threw out a few token threats just to save face, and then… bolted out of the room because I was dying of embarrassment.

Truth be told, I regretted it the very next second. Ji Shiye was no push-over; he held a black belt in Taekwondo and practiced Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. And my cheap market chain? One solid flex from him and it would snap.

Still, there was no turning back now. I grit my teeth and consoled myself: Better to die under the peony flower and be a classy ghost! I had to play this yandere villain role all the way through!

During the first month, Ji Shiye truly lived up to his word—unyielding to the bitter end.

Every time I walked into the room, he stared at me as if… he was picking out a burial plot for me. My survival instincts kicked in, forcing my hand back whenever I tried to touch him. I even attempted a middle-of-the-night “surprise raid,” but the moment I touched him, his eyes snapped open. Under the moonlight, those eyes resembled a predator lying in wait, while I was just the dumb prey walking straight into its trap.

Yet, oddly enough, he never left. It seemed he actually bought my “titanium chain that could hold an elephant” lie. A tiny silver chain was somehow successfully keeping a dangerous man like him locked down. Fortunately, the leash was long enough so his basic daily needs weren’t restricted; I hadn’t turned into a total monster.

Realizing the hard approach wasn’t working, I switched to soft tactics. Every day, I went into the room and recited the history of my secret love for him like I was defending a thesis.

The result: He didn’t say a single word back. His reaction: Whenever I said “I like you,” he turned his head away with a face that practically screamed, “Don’t pollute my ears.”

By the end of the month, I began to lose heart. Forced love is never sweet, and forcing someone is exhausting. Maybe I should just release him and turn myself in to the cops? After all, someone like Ji Shiye—who effortlessly outshone everyone around him—how could he ever like a background character like me?

Honestly, falling for him was the easiest thing in the world. I still remembered the night of the campus gala, when my violin partner bailed at the last minute because his girlfriend got jealous. I stood there so panicked I was on the verge of tears.

Right at that moment, Ji Shiye happened to walk by. He picked up the violin and said casually: “Go ahead and play. I’ll accompany you.”

The performance that night was a massive success. Only later did I learn he wasn’t even part of the performing arts club; he was the Student Council President, just “happening” to lend a hand to someone about to cry. To him, it was a tiny favor; but to me, from that day on, my eyes saw only him.

Back to the present…

Tonight, I decided to take one final “all-in” gamble before cutting my emotional losses and setting him free. This time, he wasn’t sleeping. The moment my hand brushed against his chest, he grabbed my wrist tightly. My heart nearly jumped out of my throat.

Ji Shiye opened his eyes, his voice raspy. “Trinh Gia, have you lost your mind?” In his eyes, I saw pure helplessness, like he was looking at a hopeless idiot. He rubbed his temples. “…Are you really that desperate to sleep with me?”

I nodded without a second thought. If I didn’t want to, why would I kidnap him in the first place?

He stared at me for a long time before finally letting out a resigned sigh. “Fine. Move your stuff over tonight. But we’re only sleeping, nothing else.”

I nodded like a chicken pecking at grain. Hey, getting into the same bed is already a win—we can figure out the rest later!

From that day on, I officially unlocked an achievement: “Getting to touch soft chest muscles every night before falling asleep.” My life turned instantly rose-colored. It was just a pity that every morning when I woke up, he was cold as ice, wrapped tightly in his blanket with a face blacker than a thundercloud. His body might have compromised, but his soul clearly hadn’t.

However, entering the third month, Ji Shiye started getting “thorny.” He shifted from icy coldness to micromanaging me like a toddler—from my daily routines all the way to my clock-out times.

The funniest part? The company ran completely fine without its CEO around, doing even better than before.

Honestly, my heart kinda ached for him.