Favoring Secretary Shen

6:00 AM, the mist over New York had not yet dissipated, and Elena Shen had already been punctually awakened by her alarm.

As the Chief Secretary to Silas Sterling, CEO of the Sterling Group, her life was as precise as a German-made mechanical clock. Washing, dressing, applying light makeup—all actions were completed within twenty minutes. Her wardrobe was neatly lined with professional suits in black, white, and gray, with buttons fastened to the very top and hemlines always exactly three centimeters below the knee.

In these three years, Elena had never been late by even a single minute.

At exactly 7:00 AM, she appeared at the door of Silas Sterling's private penthouse, holding the black coffee from the old shop he was accustomed to, along with a precisely checked itinerary for the day.

"Good morning, Mr. Sterling." Elena stood at the entrance, bowing slightly, her tone steady and without a hint of emotion.

Silas had just come out of the gym, still carrying the lingering steam of sweat. He casually grabbed a towel to dry his hair, his deep eyes lingering on Elena for less than a second.

"Coffee." His voice was deep, carrying the characteristic rasp of early morning.

Elena handed over the coffee, her gaze lowered, landing precisely at the level of his chest—any higher, and it would be that face capable of driving every socialite in New York mad.

Elena was an extremely self-disciplined and rational person. She secretly admired his looks, and in countless late nights, she even secretly recorded the frequency with which he turned his cufflinks in documents on her computer. But she never showed even a hint of covetousness.

She knew Silas too well. This man was like a perennial iceberg—cold, rational, and possessing an extreme distaste for workplace romances.

"Mr. Sterling, at nine is the acquisition meeting with the Miller Group, at eleven-thirty is a private lunch with Mr. Harrison, at two in the afternoon..." Elena followed him into the living room while skillfully reporting the schedule.

Silas sat on the sofa and took a sip of the coffee. Two sugar cubes, no more, no less—exactly the sweetness he liked best.

He observed the woman before him. Elena was always so perfect, so perfect that he sometimes felt she wasn't a living, breathing person. She could always anticipate all his needs in advance; even the color coordination of his tie would perfectly match the theme of the day's meeting.

"Secretary Shen." Silas suddenly spoke, interrupting her report.

"Please speak, Mr. Sterling."

"How many years has it been since you became my secretary?"

Elena was stunned for a moment but reacted quickly: "Exactly three years and two months, Mr. Sterling."

Silas let out an almost inaudible hum: "Three years, and your hairstyle seems to have never changed."

Elena instinctively touched her strictly pinned hair, her heart skipping a beat: "If you feel it's detrimental to the company's image, I can try to change it."

"No need." Silas withdrew his gaze, his voice returning to its usual cold hardness. "Let's go to the office."

Elena followed behind him, looking at his broad and upright back, a small ripple rising in her heart. Under the disguise of this "workplace machine," she hid a soul that had admired him for three years.

She knew all his habits. She knew he would drink high-concentration vodka when under great pressure, and she knew he would rub the pinky ring on his left hand when thinking. She even knew there was a tiny mole on his left shoulder blade—something she accidentally saw once when he was drunk after a business dinner and she helped him back to his room.

This intimate yet distant relationship was Elena's safest harbor.

She thought this balance would continue forever. Until the day she grew old, or Silas married and had children.

Until that Friday evening, when under the repeated pressure from her family, Elena finally agreed to meet a blind date who was said to have "excellent conditions."

At that moment, the gears of fate began to accelerate.

Friday evening, Elena Shen broke her routine and clocked out exactly at 6:00 PM.

She didn't even dare to touch up her makeup at the office, but waited until the subway reached the vicinity of the CBD before ducking into a mall's restroom. She undid the bun she hadn't touched in three years, letting her ink-black long hair fall over her shoulders. She changed into a pale pink French-style long dress with a slightly low neckline, revealing a touch of her delicate collarbone.

The woman in the mirror was radiant and vivid, with a hint of awkwardness she hadn't even noticed herself.

"Elena Shen, it's just a meal," she whispered to herself in the mirror. "Give your parents an explanation, and then go back to being your perfect secretary."

The blind date location was a Western restaurant on the top floor of the city center, with the city lights visible outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.

When Elena took her seat, her blind date was already waiting there. The man was named Arthur Zhou, an executive at an investment bank, refined and elegant, speaking with flawless poise.

"Miss Shen is even more beautiful than in her photos." Arthur smiled as he pulled out a chair for her. "I heard from the matchmaker that you work at the Sterling Group?"

Elena nodded politely: "Yes, I'm Mr. Sterling's secretary."

"Oh? Silas Sterling?" A flicker of deep meaning flashed in Arthur's eyes. "Rumor has it that Mr. Sterling has a volatile personality and is very difficult to get along with. For Miss Shen to stay there for three years, you must have extraordinary abilities."

Elena smiled and was about to say something polite when a low and rhythmic sound of footsteps suddenly came from the restaurant entrance.

As Silas Sterling's secretary, Elena had a physiological memory of those footsteps.

Her whole body stiffened, and she almost instinctively wanted to pin her long hair back up.

"Mr... Mr. Sterling?" The manager's flattering voice sounded not far away.

Elena didn't dare turn her head; she straightened her back and prayed that Silas would enter a private room without looking left or right, as usual.

However, things did not go as she wished.

The sound of footsteps stopped less than three meters away from Elena's table.

Silas Sterling was wearing a well-tailored dark gray overcoat—one Elena had just helped him order from Milan last week. He had one hand in his pocket and was holding a document in the other—the very document Elena was supposed to handle next Monday.

His gaze lingered on Elena for one second, two seconds, three seconds.

It was a look Elena had never seen before—sharp, cold, and even carrying a hint of undetectable... irritation.

"Secretary Shen." Silas spoke, his voice deep as if it had been soaked in a cold pond.

Elena had to stand up. Because she rose too quickly, her knee accidentally hit the corner of the table, making her let out a sharp breath of pain.

"Mr. Sterling, what a coincidence." She tried to maintain her composure, but her reddening ear tips betrayed her.

Silas's gaze moved from her messy long hair to the collarbone she had never revealed, and finally settled on Arthur Zhou's face opposite her.

"And this is?" Silas's voice didn't reveal his mood.

Arthur obviously recognized Silas as well, and he politely stood up to hand over his business card: "Mr. Sterling, I've heard much about you. I'm Arthur Zhou, Elena's... blind date."

"Blind date." Silas repeated those two words, the end of his tone rising slightly, carrying a mysterious sense of pressure.

He casually threw the document onto the dining table in front of Elena, making a dull thud.

"Secretary Shen, there are two data errors on the third page of this contract. I remember saying that such low-level mistakes should not appear in the Sterling Group."

Elena was stunned. She had checked that contract three times; it was impossible for there to be a mistake.

"Mr. Sterling, I..."

"Take it back and redo it. I want to see it on my desk tomorrow morning at eight." Silas didn't give her a chance to explain, turning and leaving.

The moment he turned, Elena clearly saw a tiny, successful-looking curve at the corner of his mouth.

This man did it on purpose.

"Miss Shen, this..." Arthur looked at the document on the table with some embarrassment.

Looking at Silas's departing back, Elena's heart was in complete disarray. She grabbed her bag and the document, said sorry to Arthur, and then hurriedly chased after him.

She didn't know why, but at that moment, she only wanted to escape that blind date scene, even if it was to go back and fix a contract that didn't have any errors at all.

When Elena Shen chased out of the restaurant, Silas Sterling's black Bentley was slowly starting up.

Without thinking, she stepped directly in front of the car.

The driver, Old Zhang, was startled and slammed on the brakes. Silas sat in the back seat, half-lowered the window, and looked at her coldly.

"Secretary Shen, is there something else?"

"Mr. Sterling, I've checked the data in that contract three times. If you think there's a problem, please point it out and I'll change it immediately." Elena stood in the night, her pink skirt swaying in the wind, her eyes slightly red with anger.

Looking at her like this, the nameless fire in Silas's heart dissipated somewhat for some reason. He pushed open the car door and signaled for her to get in.

"To the office," Silas instructed the driver.

The atmosphere in the car was terrifyingly oppressive.

Elena shrank into the corner, clutching the folder tightly. Silas leaned back in his seat, resting with his eyes closed, but at a certain moment, he suddenly opened his eyes and stared at Elena's dress.

"Secretary Shen, are you very short of money?" he asked out of the blue.

"Huh?" Elena was stunned.

"Otherwise, why are you in such a hurry to market yourself?" Silas sneered, his tone thick with irony. "An investment bank executive like that has an annual salary of only a few million and still needs to pay off a mortgage. You just can't wait that long?"

Elena felt a surge of shame and anger. She had worked hard for three years, and her savings were enough to buy a small house in the suburbs. She went on the blind date because of her parents' urging, and because she wanted to put an end to this hopeless secret crush.

"Mr. Sterling, this is my private life. I think even a Chief Secretary has the right to fall in love."

"Right?" Silas suddenly leaned forward, pinning her between the car door and his arm. The man's broad body carried a highly aggressive aura, instantly seizing all the air.

"Elena Shen, your time is bought out by me. As long as I need it, you must be there."

Elena's heart skipped a beat, and she looked back at him stubbornly: "Then the overtime pay..."

"Double." Silas dropped those two words and sat back in his seat.

For the next half month, Elena experienced the most insane "revengeful" overtime of her career.

Silas seemed to have taken the wrong medicine; not only did he pile all the work on her, but he even took her with him to evening business dinners.

"Secretary Shen, the wine list for this French restaurant needs to be checked; accompany me." "Secretary Shen, for the 6:00 AM meeting tomorrow, go to the office early to prepare the materials." "Secretary Shen, for the business trip this Saturday, you're coming along."

Elena was so busy she barely had time to think about Arthur Zhou, let alone go on another blind date.

But strangely, the content of this so-called "overtime" became more and more ridiculous.

For example, right now.

10:00 PM, in the CEO's office on the top floor of the Sterling Group.

Elena was buried in piles of documents, but Silas was sitting on the sofa nearby, holding a book titled The Encyclopedia of World Desserts, asking her seriously: "Would girls generally like this flavor of mousse?"

Elena rubbed her aching eyes and answered helplessly: "Mr. Sterling, if you want to give a gift to a client, I suggest choosing a more steady style."

"It's not for a client." Silas lowered his head and turned a page, a hint of awkwardness flashing in his eyes. "It's for... an employee with a bit of a bad temper."

Bad temper? Elena searched her mind; who in the Sterling Group would dare to lose their temper with Mr. Sterling?

Just as she was wondering, Silas suddenly stood up, walked over to her, and handed her a card.

"Secretary Shen, thank you for your hard work. The bonus for this half-month has already been deposited into your account. Also..." He took a beautifully packaged box from his pocket and stuffed it into her hand stiffly.

"This is compensation for your interrupted blind date that day. Don't think too much; I just bought it in passing."

Elena opened the box; it was an extremely exquisite pink sapphire necklace, a perfect match for the dress she wore that day.

"Mr. Sterling, this is too precious..."

"Shut up." Silas seemed afraid she would refuse, turning and walking back behind his desk. "Get to work. I want to see the new project proposal tomorrow morning at eight."

Looking at that necklace, Elena's heart went out of control again.

She discovered that this always cold and abstinent Mr. Sterling was, in some ways, as childish as a child.