Those deer-like eyes blinked at him, corners glistening with moisture, as if they could see straight through his soul.
Li Jichuan had always hated being stared at—especially after the accident—but being looked at like this by Su Pu sparked an unbidden urge to tease.
“What are you doing here?” he cleared his throat, finally speaking.
Su Pu stared blankly, still stunned, frozen in shock.
“Cough… Even though I’m disabled and can’t feel my legs at all…” Li Jichuan met those bright, clear eyes, suppressing a smile, “sitting on my lap like this… isn’t really appropriate, is it?”
Blinking a few times, Su Pu finally realized what had happened and scrambled away.
The little mute had no words, only frantic hand gestures in sign language.
Li Jichuan didn’t understand, only noting the rapid movement, almost a blur.
“You mean to say it wasn’t intentional?” Li Jichuan guessed.
Su Pu nodded vigorously. He was innocent.
In his twenty-two years, this was the first time he’d ever sat on someone’s lap.
He hadn’t even sat on his mother’s lap!
Li Jichuan glanced at the watch on his wrist. “At this hour… what brings you to my office?”
Su Pu paused for a moment, then lifted the delivery bag he’d guarded so carefully.
Coffee delivery.
Looking at the apron tied around his slim waist, Li Jichuan already guessed, “Here to deliver coffee?”
Su Pu nodded.
“Why not take the elevator?”
“That’s just to save time…” Su Pu’s expression froze for a moment, then he patted Li Jichuan on the shoulder, signaling that he needed to go ahead.
Before Li Jichuan could respond, the fire door behind them creaked open and slammed shut. The little mute had already left, leaving only the lingering warmth of his presence.
Two seconds later, a soft laugh echoed in the stairwell.
Li Jichuan couldn’t help but smile, clenching his fist.
Indeed… he really was like a little furnace—wherever he went, he lit everything up.
Su Pu arrived at the reception desk, one minute later than he’d hoped—but still a minute faster than last time.
He could only pray that this time he wouldn’t get into trouble.
Luckily, the person receiving the order wasn’t Frank, but a young woman he hadn’t met before.
She took the coffee, glanced at the delivery info, and looked slightly surprised. “Wow, you’re fast! Secretary Xu just told me to keep an eye on the delivery.”
Finally, a word of praise. Su Pu exhaled and prepared to leave after taking a photo for the system.
“Ah, wait, young man,” the receptionist said softly into the phone, then to him, “Assistant Xu said he wants to inspect the delivery himself once you arrive.”
Su Pu’s newly relaxed heart tightened again. He sighed, resigned, and stayed put.
Seemingly still holding a grudge from last week, Frank deliberately lingered for several minutes before finally appearing.
Seeing Su Pu, he smirked triumphantly, glancing at his watch. “Oh, later than last time. Not happy with that, huh?”
Su Pu opened his mouth, unable to argue. Clearly, Frank was the one deliberately dragging things out.
The receptionist tried to smooth things over, pointing to the receipt on the bag. “It’s not late. Even if you brewed it by hand at the café, it takes at least twenty minutes. You’ve been less than twenty minutes from your order time.”
Frank rolled his eyes, pretending not to hear, and then suddenly shifted his tone. “Then the timing’s even worse, right? You got here this fast… did you even make the coffee properly?”
“Hand-brewed coffee costs twice as much as regular coffee. I paid for it; I need to know the quality, right?”
Su Pu steadied himself and typed on his phone.
【You can taste it yourself. Hand-brewed coffee has delicate flavors, and the beans are specialty grade—it’s always been our café’s signature.】
He believed that anyone familiar with coffee would recognize the subtlety and layers of flavor, far superior to other brewing methods.
Frank snorted. “Who knows… anyway, the boss drinks it… but…”
Relief washed over Su Pu—it wasn’t the boss tasting it himself. But then the “but” tightened his chest again.
Frank raised an eyebrow. “The coffee’s spilled. How do you expect our boss to drink it?”
Spilled? Impossible…
He had guarded that bag the entire way. Even when he accidentally landed on Li Jichuan’s lap, his arms hadn’t tilted a single inch. How could it be spilled?
Seeing Su Pu’s disbelief, Frank smiled and took the cup out of the paper bag.
Sure enough, the lid was loosely fitted, and the upper half of the cup was stained with the dark brown liquid.
Su Pu blinked, still in shock. If it had spilled, he should have felt it the whole way while carrying the bag.
“Frank, let me be fair here,” the receptionist said, grabbing the bag. “If the spill happened while the delivery person was carrying it, the wet area would be cool by now.”
She touched the bag with her fingertip. “But this spot is still warm. You must have spilled it when you took it out. That’s on you.”
Frank’s face darkened. “Are you blaming me?”
“No one’s blaming you. I’m just saying, don’t put every problem on someone else,” the young woman said firmly.
Frank sneered. “Typical, women get all emotional. Everyone wants to help…”
The receptionist wasn’t having it. “Are you crazy?”
“Don’t know if I’m crazy, but as a senior, let me advise you—don’t bring so much personal emotion into your work. Today, it’s a mute delivery guy—you feel sorry and let it slide. Tomorrow, it could be someone missing an arm or a leg, and you let them go too. Keep this up, and in the end, you’re the one who suffers…”
The young woman huffed twice, glaring as she rebutted.
“No, sir, are you okay? Did I ask for your advice? I’m just stating the facts. The spill wasn’t caused by the staff—otherwise, I would’ve noticed such a huge coffee stain when I received it, right?”
Frank chuckled bitterly. “Oh, you’re getting worked up, huh?”
“Then maybe they shouldn’t hire any post-00s at all. One or two of them think they can reform the workplace, full of themselves, defiant, won’t follow rules!”
The young woman was furious and nearly leapt over the counter. “Who’s worked up? You keep calling people disabled and mute! Why so proud? You’re only better than them because you have a mouth. You flap your lips like a machine and think you’re superior—better off without a mouth!”
“Who says you can lecture me?” Frank rolled up his sleeves, anger flashing. “Think nobody can handle you? So what if I call him disabled? Can he even talk? Hasn’t he ever received disability subsidies? Where does that money come from? From us working our butts off and paying taxes, that’s where!”
He glared at Su Pu as if this little mute were personally responsible for all of life’s unfairness. “Not only was the delivery late, but the coffee’s spilled, and now the quality might be off. What, you glaring at me?”
“I told you, the café downstairs isn’t reliable. They claim to hire disabled workers to support government initiatives, but in reality, it’s just for the subsidies. In the end, they bleed people like us dry…”
Before he could finish, Su Pu showed him the message he had typed earlier.
【I haven’t received any subsidies. Every cent I spend is earned by my own effort!】
He knew that just because he couldn’t speak didn’t mean he was worse off than many blind or hearing-impaired people. Since childhood, he’d voluntarily let others take special quotas.
Especially as an adult, he only applied for positions open to everyone. He faced many rejections but eventually found his current job.
He had never played the victim with his disability and had no desire to gain sympathy for personal gain.
“Tch, you get all the benefits, so you better act cute. Do you think they help you out of kindness? If you were bulkier, or uglier…”
Frank, half a head taller than Su Pu, pinched his cheek with thumb and forefinger. Su Pu winced in pain.
“If you don’t look pitiful, do you think they’d ever go easy on you? I despise those like you—taking all the benefits and still putting on airs!”
Su Pu struggled free, too angry to type, and instinctively signed in the air.
【I’ve already tried to meet your demands. Why won’t you let me go?】
His hands collided midair with a sharp clap. The little mute was fuming, cursing silently in sign language.
Even without understanding, Frank knew he was being cursed and grew even more resentful.
“Hey, so you’re enjoying this, huh? You mute people, delivering your coffee like it’s a favor. If no one bought your coffee, where would a disabled person like you make money?”
“Been talking about disabled people this whole time… is that how little you respect us?”
A cool male voice sounded from a slightly lower spot behind Frank.
It wasn’t loud, but the deep, steady tone carried a weight that made the air itself feel oppressive.
Frank turned his head, instantly pale with fear.
Su Pu’s view had been blocked by the relentless man. Now that the obstruction was gone, he could see the person in the wheelchair a short distance away.
“Frank, don’t like disabled people?”
Li Jichuan lifted his eyelids slightly, staring directly at his assistant. “Does it bother you that I took your resources?”
Frank’s voice trembled. “N-no, of course not… you, I mean…”
“Not mean me? My legs are like this, doesn’t that make me disabled?” Li Jichuan’s gaze never wavered, the calm before a predator’s attack.
“You’re… different from them…” Frank wiped cold sweat from his brow. “I mean… he spilled all the coffee, I was just worried about affecting your taste…”
Li Jichuan slowly rolled the wheelchair closer. “Different? How exactly are we different?”
“Because he’s mute, and I’m crippled—so different?”
The man chuckled lightly, pressing on. “But didn’t you just say we—people who are deaf, mute, missing limbs—are wasting the taxes you pay?”
Seeing the CEO, the receptionist could no longer stay quiet. She’d been angry last week when she heard an intern had been bullied by Frank.
“President Li, I can vouch for it. The coffee wasn’t spilled when it arrived—it was Frank who did it to make things difficult for the delivery guy!”
She paused, remembering something. “The coffee you missed last week was also delivered by this employee. Frank made things hard for him and even punished the staff who tried to defend him.”
“That afternoon, you returned to the company and praised the coffee even though it was cold. That’s why Frank bought from him again this time.”
The receptionist summarized: “He flatters you while taking revenge on innocent employees. I defended the delivery guy, and Frank even scolded me for it!”
Li Jichuan said nothing, looking at the little mute beside him, panting like a bellows. “Is this true?”
“Last week’s coffee was delivered late by me. I didn’t manage to get it to you before you left—it was my fault.”
Li Jichuan looked at him and gave a thoughtful “hmm,” tapping his left index finger rhythmically on the wheelchair armrest. He spoke slowly, “And this time? Any problems?”
【This time, I don’t think there’s a problem. I was worried the order would be late, so I ran up the stairs to deliver it, already earlier than last time… Also, this is hand-brewed coffee, using lightly roasted washed beans. If the preparation is rushed, the fruity aroma and natural acidity can’t fully develop. It would be a waste of good beans.】
Li Jichuan nodded in agreement at that.
He raised his gaze to Frank. Even from a lower angle, there was no hint of subservience in his expression; if anything, he radiated a disdainful authority, like a king demanding obeisance.
“So you look down on him… yet you still insist on ordering his coffee?”
Frank struggled to explain. “You… you said last time it was good…”
Li Jichuan snorted, a light laugh escaping. “Caring for a disabled man like me while hitting other disabled people hard—my assistant has such a broad chest!”
His raised index finger dropped, and then his whole hand wrapped around the wheelchair remote. The silent wheels rolled over the marble tiles, bringing him up close to Frank.
“So worried about the taxes you pay… maybe you just stop paying them altogether?”
Frank was dumbfounded. “Ah?”
Li Jichuan glanced sideways at Su Pu, signaling him to follow, leaving a command at the front desk: “Notify HR: Employee Xu Zihao is to be demoted due to work errors and unprofessional attitude; salary reduced below the personal income tax threshold.”
The young woman snapped her fingers. “Got it!”
Li Jichuan suddenly stopped, turning to glance at the little mute, still standing there, panting with anger.
“Su Pu, follow me and help bring up the coffee.”