From Dropout to Housemaid-The Upper Crust’s Favorite

Jiang Xianyu let out a soft sigh, brushing away the chaotic thoughts swirling in her mind. Family? That was a thing of the past-no longer worth her concern.

If she were to show filial piety, it would only be to her Uncle and aunt. Without them, she wouldn’t have made it through high school, let alone college.

In the Jiang Family, aside from her grandparents, parents, and younger brother, no one had it easy.

Her grandparents had three children: the eldest, Uncle Jiang Hongbo; her father, Jiang Hongtao, the second; and the youngest, her aunt Jiang Wenlan.

Her grandparents were deeply entrenched in their preference for sons over daughters, and as a result, her aunt had the roughest time growing up. Even with Uncle looking out for her, it didn’t make much of a difference-after all, Uncle wasn’t the one calling the shots in the family.

It wasn’t until Aunt married early that her life began to improve. But even then, her early married life was far from smooth. Her grandparents had demanded an exorbitant bride price, which left her uncle-in-law’s family struggling financially for quite some time.

Uncle’s own life wasn’t bad initially, but everything changed when his wife gave birth to a daughter as their first child. Her grandparents, displeased with having a granddaughter instead of a grandson, created a rift between them and Uncle’s family.

Aunt quit her job to stay home and care for her daughter. When her daughter started first grade, Aunt decided to leave her in the care of her grandparents and return to work. They thought that by then, the child could articulate herself well enough to report any mistreatment, and since she’d spend most of her time at school, it wouldn’t be too bad.

But they hadn’t foreseen the tragedy that would follow. A high fever claimed her cousin’s life. The illness, initially dismissed by her grandparents, escalated into pneumonia. By the time they took her to the hospital, it was too late.

The loss devastated Aunt. She miscarried the child she was carrying at the time and, as a result, could no longer conceive. From that point on, Uncle and Aunt severed all emotional ties with her grandparents. They fulfilled only the bare minimum of filial obligations, offering the required annual gifts but nothing more.

Perhaps due to a sense of emotional transference, Uncle and Aunt treated Jiang Xianyu exceptionally well. In her memory, there were several occasions when her parents tried to exploit her for money, only to be stopped by Uncle.

Clearing her mind, Jiang Xianyu opened her mobile banking app to check her balance.

After three years of working, she had only 8,000 yuan¹ left to her name.

And this, despite her substantial salary. In her first year, she earned over 10,000 yuan a month. By her second year, after a promotion, her monthly salary rose to 20,000. This year, as a newly promoted VP, her base salary exceeded 40,000 yuan a month. And that didn’t even include performance bonuses.

Over the past three years, she had sent more than 400,000 yuan to her family.

In investment banking, performance bonuses were either distributed annually or every three years. Fortunately, her company followed the latter model.

She had worked on numerous projects over the past three years, and her performance bonuses were expected to amount to 400,000 to 500,000 yuan.

While that sounded like a lot, in a metropolis like Hai City, it wasn’t much at all. It wasn’t even enough for a down payment on a modest apartment.

Having taken stock of her financial situation, Jiang Xianyu finally felt a bit more at ease.

After reviewing and signing the due diligence report, she handed it over to Jiang Yuan.

As Jiang Xianyu passed by one of the desks, she felt a faint, almost imperceptible gaze fall on her. She lowered her eyes slightly to see who it was.

Oh, it was her ex-boyfriend.

Wang Wei, catching sight of her pause, quickly averted his eyes, guilt written all over his face.

Jiang Xianyu felt nothing-no anger, no sadness. Her heart was as calm as still water. Without a word, she turned and walked away.

Wang Wei stared at her retreating figure, momentarily lost in thought.

Their company didn’t explicitly prohibit office romances, but it was an unspoken rule to avoid them. When they were dating, no one in the office knew, and their breakup had been just as discreet.

He had thought Jiang Xianyu would be devastated, but her indifference caught him off guard.

Over the past month, he’d felt a twinge of regret now and then. But when he thought about the mess that was her family, the regret didn’t seem so unbearable.

Jiang Xianyu was undeniably beautiful. Her fair skin, naturally upturned lips, and gentle demeanor gave her the air of a refined, elegant woman-someone any man would dream of marrying.

When she had agreed to date him, he’d been genuinely surprised. He was average-looking, came from an ordinary family, and wasn’t nearly as capable as her at work. Yet she had said yes, and their relationship had lasted a full year.

His friends had joked that he’d hit the jackpot.

Looking back now, he figured it must have been because of her family situation. Maybe she had settled for him.

But Jiang Xianyu hadn’t thought about it that way at all.

At the time, she had simply wanted to escape her family as quickly as possible. She wasn’t looking for an extraordinary husband-just someone dependable, someone she could build a stable life with.

Reality, however, had taught her a harsh lesson. Whether a man was exceptional or ordinary, they all steered clear of her once they encountered her parents.

Her feelings for Wang Wei had never been love. There were no racing heartbeats, no dramatic highs and lows. Their relationship had been more like a partnership-a practical arrangement for getting through life together.

She didn’t like to admit it, but the insecurity her family had instilled in her had always lingered. She had hoped to maintain control over her emotions in a relationship, to ensure she could live steadily if things worked out-or walk away unscathed if they didn’t.

So when Wang Wei suggested breaking up, she had accepted it calmly.

Now, given the chance to do it all over again, her perspective on marriage had shifted.

Marriage was no longer a shortcut to escaping her family.

“Well, well, if it isn’t our unstoppable Manager Jiang! What’s the latest big project you’ve landed this time?”

Jiang Xianyu had just handed a signed folder to Jiang Yuan when a voice dripping with sarcasm reached her ears.

She turned to see Song Yuan, one of her peers who had joined the company at the same time as her.

Song Yuan was now a senior manager, one rank below Jiang Xianyu. However, she didn’t report to her; Song Yuan worked under Manager Feng, who was in the adjacent department.

Jiang Xianyu smiled faintly. “Speaking of big projects, isn’t Manager Feng handling the Qingyuan Hotel case? What’s the matter? He didn’t assign it to you? That doesn’t sound right.”

Song Yuan’s forced smile faltered for a moment. “Of course I’m involved. It’s just that we haven’t finalized negotiations with Qingyuan yet. But it’s only a matter of days.”

Jiang Xianyu could see through her bravado but didn’t bother engaging in a war of words.

She already knew that the Qingyuan case would ultimately fall through.

The other side had aligned themselves with Chengyuan Capital.

And Chengyuan Capital’s Su Linyuan, the heir to the Su Group, had connections and resources far beyond what their company, Huayuan, could offer.

The only time Su Linyuan had ever lost was on the Xinyang Technology project.

Yes, the very project that had earned Jiang Xianyu her promotion to VP.

If Zhao Xinyang of Xinyang Technology were purely a businessman, she would undoubtedly stand no chance against Chengyuan Capital.

But Zhao Xinyang was a research fanatic. Unlike profit-driven businessmen, he was driven by passion and emotional connections. Back then, it was her relentless effort-visiting markets and research institutes over and over again-that helped him overcome the technical challenges within a limited timeframe.

For an entire year, she had poured nearly all her time and energy into him and his project.

Those accolades she received? She had earned every single one of them.

As Jiang Xianyu was about to return to her office, her superior, Manager Liu, approached her.

“Xiao Jiang,” he called out, stopping her in her tracks. “Put the Tianyuan Pharmaceutical case on hold for now. I know what you’re capable of. The Qingyuan Hotel project is trickier. Focus on negotiating with them first before handling anything else.”

Her heart sank. She remembered this all too well.

It had happened before.

Back then, Manager Liu had said the exact same thing. Later, under pressure from the other party, she had no choice but to shift her focus to Qingyuan Hotel.

But the result? By that time, the other side had already aligned themselves with Chengyuan Capital. How could she, stepping in at the last minute, possibly compete?

In her previous life, Manager Liu’s directive had left her juggling too many tasks at once, nearly costing her the Tianyuan Pharmaceutical project. If it hadn’t been for Director Zhu’s appreciation of her abilities, and her relentless efforts to apologize and visit their company daily, Tianyuan Pharmaceutical would have been a lost cause.

When she finally secured the deal, Manager Liu had simply brushed it off with a casual, “I knew you could do it.”

Of course, he “knew.”

He knew Director Zhu admired her, which gave him the confidence to push her around.

Manager Liu wanted both projects. He wasn’t oblivious to the instability of the Qingyuan Hotel deal, but he always wanted to give it one last shot. If it succeeded, no matter who closed the deal, it would still count as his achievement.

If Jiang Xianyu and Manager Feng had swapped roles, Manager Liu would never have dared to say such things.

He was merely banking on the fact that she wouldn’t dare quit and couldn’t refuse the assignment.

He picked the softer target, the easier one to pressure-her.

Despite being on the same level as Manager Feng, he addressed him as “Manager Feng” but called her “Xiao Jiang.”

Even though her performance this year had surpassed Manager Feng’s, in his eyes, she was still just someone who had only been with the company for three years-lacking seniority and easy to manipulate.

But this time, she wouldn’t play along.

Footnote: