OFR – Chapter 209 Retirement

At ten in the morning, Mi Xuan and Mu Bai woke up almost at the same time.

Like normal people needing eight hours of sleep, they were no exception.

At this moment, Mi Xuan, who had been staying in a humble little jade shop on the commercial street, opened her eyes sleepily. She reached out her fair arm to grab her phone from the bedside and glanced at the time—it was already ten in the morning.

As the manager who held most of the store’s authority, even with just a quick glance at her phone, she still keenly noticed the many customer inquiries on the Taobao backend.

However, she wasn’t in a rush to respond, since they had just hired over a dozen dedicated customer service staff yesterday.

Those messages would be handled by the team.

Aside from that, as she woke up, Mi Xuan once again thought of the five million yuan bonus Mu Hao had rewarded her with yesterday.

That instantly made her beautiful eyes curve into adorable crescent moons.

Five million! That’s five million yuan!

For someone like Mi Xuan, who had always been just an ordinary citizen, this was a fortune she never even dared to dream of.

And yet now, her boss had given it to her as a bonus.

Overjoyed, she logged into QQ and sent a playful message to Mu Bai:
“Dear billionaire boss, are you awake? Your little cutie is here to act cute, ying ying ying, good morning, master~”

Mi Xuan figured her boss was probably still asleep and wouldn’t respond right away, so she began getting dressed.

But just as she lifted the blanket, revealing a stretch of snow-white skin, a message came through from Mu Hao.

Mu: 😊 “Since when did you turn into a little cutie monster too? By the way, did you see the network headlines pushed by all the major browsers today?”

Reading his reply, Mi Xuan quickly pulled on her clothes to cover up and responded with a voice message:

“Hehehe, I’m just playing the cute one to highlight how capable and dashing my billionaire boss is~ As for the headlines, I only glanced at them just now and didn’t look carefully. What’s up, Mu Hao?”

Mu: “Nothing major. Just that all the top online headlines today seem to be talking about what happened between our store and Mei Wei Tian yesterday. Take a look and tell me what you think after reading it.”

Seeing that, Mi Xuan sent a nodding emoji, then put on her skinny jeans and sat cross-legged on the bed to scroll through the headlines.

There were always a few trending posts each day, but she quickly spotted the one Mu Hao had mentioned.

“[A Storm in the Plants & Animals Category on Taobao Yesterday: Two Industry Giants Clash in a Stunning Year-End Battle—Daily Transaction Volumes Shatter Records!]”

Clearly, this was about yesterday’s battle between Zhenpin Tian and Mei Wei Tian.

Mi Xuan opened the post and read it carefully.

As someone who witnessed the entire event firsthand, she knew exactly how everything played out.

The post, likely spiced up by the editor to boost engagement, contained some exaggerated or false information.

But Mi Xuan ignored those and focused on what Mu Hao wanted her to see.

He wouldn’t ask her to read the post just to point out misinformation—he didn’t have time for that.

So she read carefully, looking for the key.

Soon, she found the information she was looking for:

“Major e-commerce platforms such as JD.com, Dangdang, Paipai, Pinduoduo, and Suning have all officially stated their welcome for Zhenpin Tian to join them. For an online store to be personally invited by these platforms is an unprecedented honor. This clearly shows that Zhenpin Tian isn’t just a Taobao sensation—it’s now a dominant force in the entire domestic e-commerce sector for plants and animals. It’s the first high-traffic store to emerge from this niche market!”

Reading this, Mi Xuan’s intuition told her this was what Mu Hao wanted her to notice.

She closed the post and messaged Mu Hao:

“Mu Hao, you don’t want to expand to other platforms, right? Don’t worry, I’d never agree to anything like that without your approval. I know my role—I’m just your little assistant. I’d never have thoughts beyond my place. Ying ying ying, please don’t misunderstand your little cutie, okay?”

Mu Bai replied quickly.

Mu: “Silly girl, what are you thinking? I didn’t misunderstand you. I just had you look at the headline because I suddenly realized… Maybe the boycott by our competitors on Taobao the day before wasn’t entirely baseless. After all, the tallest tree in the forest catches the wind. Zhenpin Tian has only been operating for a month, and it’s already caught the attention of every major e-commerce platform nationwide. That kind of spotlight is bound to attract envy.”**

Mi Xuan: “Yeah, even though we won yesterday, a lot of people are still badmouthing us. So, what do you plan to do? Don’t worry, Mu Hao, your little cutie is obedient and will always follow your lead~”

Mi Xuan was enjoying the slightly exasperated but doting tone Mu Hao used when replying to her cuteness.

But the next message caught her off guard:

Mu: “I plan to temporarily shut down operations for a month.”

Mi Xuan: “Shut down? Mu Hao, you’re not serious, are you?”

Mu: “I am. Consider it a paid vacation for everyone. Don’t worry about your salary.”

Mi Xuan: “But won’t that hurt our store’s popularity?”

Mu: “A little, maybe. But it’s fine. The heavy traffic yesterday was just to gain access to the international platform. Now that we’ve reached this level of popularity, it’s enough. Besides, because of our store, even when others dropped their prices, their items still didn’t sell well. Let’s pause for a month and give them some breathing room too.”

Mi Xuan: “Aww, Mu Hao, you’re such a kind person. Mwah~”

Mu: “Alright, enough flattery. Oh right—arrange the shipments. Once this batch is sent out, you can rest too.”

By now, Mu Bai had gotten up, washed, and was sitting at his computer chatting with Mi Xuan.

Yes, he’d decided that Zhenpin Tian would step back from the spotlight for a while. After all, he never liked being too conspicuous.

And with 2.5 billion in sales yesterday—even after the 40% rebates—there was still a direct income of 1.5 billion.

That was more than enough for now.

Mu Bai thought about it: over a billion yuan. That really was enough.

Especially since, aside from his nearly completed “One Man Rules All” mission, he didn’t currently have any tasks requiring massive funds.

With that thought, he chatted with Mi Xuan a bit more, then closed the chat window.

He logged out of QQ and opened WeChat, curious to see if he’d missed any important messages.