Corporate Slaves Will Never Be Slaves

[I've tried to rewrite this, but it keeps failing. This novel is itself a new version of an old story. It first ran as a serial in 2023, then changes at work during the pandemic forced me to stop updating and remove it from sale. This year I started writing it again, but less than a month later, an elderly family member was hospitalized. I really want to give it another try, but I have to admit I'm a little intimidated by this novel now...]

How Wen Yunqing, a female beta who is neither a traditional pureblood aristocrat nor a naturally powerful alpha, managed to secure her place at the heart of the Empire's power has always been a subject of fascination.

The youngest powerful minister in the Empire's history is quite matter-of-fact about it.

Getting emotionally involved with those celestial alpha elites sounds pretty unreliable. So, strictly speaking, she simply tailored her resume to each leader's needs and took the opportunity to attend in-person interviews.

Sounds pretty ambitious, right?

*

"First, learn to make yourself indispensable to your boss. Don't worry about how you do it yet.

Second, be good at solving every problem your boss faces. Don't worry about where the problems came from, either.

Lastly, offer your loyalty and courage to your boss. Don't worry about whether you have them. It's enough if your boss believes you do."

The Supreme Marshal, born a slave, was tall and taciturn. He confided in her about the despair and inferiority he had never fully left behind. She comforted him online while working two jobs at once.

The nouveau riche magnate, who had been called a bastard as a child, lavished money on her and invited her to enjoy the flowers and moonlight while pouring out his heart. She joined his group outings in the evening and kept working overtime during the day.

The young emperor she had personally helped ascend the throne had nothing to offer but all the loneliness, hunger, emptiness, and failures accumulated over the first half of his life: a sincere heart no one cared about, and a loyalty he had never pledged to his faith.

His most beloved prime minister also sincerely believed that this was the boss's most shameless attempt to get something for nothing, using these things as collateral for her salary, performance bonus, and all her overtime pay for the rest of her life.

*

[Powerful ministers have always been best matched with foolish emperors and loyal lackeys. The most fervent devotion belongs beside the most vigorous ambition.]

*

A note in advance:

This is a rewrite of an old abandoned project. The setting is ABO, and the heroine is exclusively attracted to men.

The author's personal tastes are hard to rein in. It's still a story about a social animal who is a heartthrob, and since she's a social animal, she has to flatter her bosses. So there will probably be all kinds of strange, dark kinks and twisted, gloomy one-sided crushes.

But please believe in fake romantic feelings and a real office drone. At heart, it's just the usual shameless, all-male harem Mary Sue story.

Don't label me, censor my words, or blow things out of proportion.

Theme: Your body was born to hold up this world.