On the other end, Brother Lu didn’t reply for a while. He Xiaoyuan thought maybe the sheer enthusiasm had left him speechless.
Just as he was about to grab the mouse back from Zou Fanping and stop the onslaught of hugging and kissing emojis, a reply popped up:
Lu: “So enthusiastic? I’m a bit overwhelmed.”
He Xiaoyuan: “……”
Yuan Miao and the others: “Hahaha!”
He retrieved the mouse and shooed them away. Everyone laughed, and Yuan Miao teased: “Xiaoyuan! Use your charm to hold onto Lu God! Our team’s cheat relies on you now!”
He Xiaoyuan: “……”
Others joined in the playful banter:
“If I were Xiaoyuan, I’d kick Yuan Miao out first to secure the cheat.”
“Xiaoyuan, I support you slapping him.”
“Lu God belongs to Xiaoyuan, Xiaoyuan belongs to Team One.”
“No, Xiaoyuan belongs to me.”
“Keep dreaming.”
Everyone was laughing and joking. He Xiaoyuan didn’t mind; he returned to his computer and messaged Brother Lu: “Those were my teammates. Thanks for your annotations—they helped us think broader.”
Lu: “The emojis are good too.”
He Xiaoyuan clicked the mouse approvingly: [Little dinosaur thumbs up.jpg] [Lu God is generous.]
Jiang Weiwei at a neighboring desk said: “Xiaoyuan, remember to save those emojis. Don’t be shy—when it’s time to be expressive, be expressive. Manners aside, let it out.”
He Xiaoyuan agreed: it was better to be expressive. Compared to text, emojis across the screen were trendy and conveyed emotion and intent more clearly.
He saved all the emojis, then sent a heart emoji to Brother Lu.
Lu: “Your teammates?”
He Xiaoyuan: “I… I sent them.”
Lu: “Hm?”
He Xiaoyuan: “To express my heartfelt thanks to you.”
Lu: [Big dinosaur patting little dinosaur’s head.jpg]
That afternoon, Team One was discussing ordering afternoon tea when the delivery person arrived, knocking on the glass door with several large bags.
Everyone was surprised: “Who ordered this?”
“We weren’t even done ordering yet, how did it arrive already?”
“Wow, coffee—and fried chicken too!”
“Could it be from the president’s office again?”
It wasn’t until Brother Lu poked He Xiaoyuan on WeChat: “Afternoon tea arrived?”
He Xiaoyuan, astonished: “Was this from you, Brother Lu?”
Lu: “Yes. Working late is tough—eat up.”
Team One collectively thought: What kind of divine-level Brother Lu is this?!
Knowing it was from Lu, and seeing the delicious fried chicken, everyone happily dug in.
He Xiaoyuan, feeling a bit mischievous, gathered everyone and snapped a group photo of all eleven enjoying afternoon tea. Instead of posting it to social media, he sent it to Brother Lu.
He Xiaoyuan: “Photo.”
“Everyone’s eating.”
“Thanks again, Brother Lu. [Little dinosaur bow.jpg]”
Lu opened the photo, zoomed in, and with a soft smile looked at the handsome boy in the corner.
Lu: “Why are you crouched in front again?”
He Xiaoyuan: “Too many people—can’t fit in one frame.”
Lu: “Send a close-up.”
He Xiaoyuan: “Mine?”
Lu: “Yes.”
Without thinking, he held the phone up to his face and snapped a shot—no angle tricks, no posing—just sent it over.
At the time, Lu was waiting for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to begin. Standing on the stage, one hand in his pocket, the other holding his phone, he opened the photo. Seeing He Xiaoyuan’s straightforward close-up, a small smile appeared, and he tapped to save it.
Just after exiting the photo, another message arrived—a video.
Opening it, Lu saw a group of management trainees facing the camera, voices in unison: “Thank you, Brother Lu! Hello, Brother Lu!”
It was recorded on the front camera, with He Xiaoyuan’s little face tucked in a corner, lively and bright. Clearly, he had a good rapport with everyone.
Lu thought quietly: Nice social skills.
Lu: “You’re welcome.”
The following week, Management Trainee Team Three officially joined. Team One no longer naïvely ran over asking for collaboration or shared resources; with the competition clear, it was now all skill-based.
Team One, all eleven strong, unleashed their inner academic overachievers. Despite long hours and constant overtime, their unity created an atmosphere of “all for one, one for all.”
During this time, they quickly bonded. Unless splitting for departmental rotations, the eleven stuck together: lunch, tea breaks, afternoon tea, overtime snacks, everything.
They discussed work, wrote assignments, brainstormed, joked, and played.
Everyone added each other on WeChat, forming a group called “Future Stars of Spris”.
In the office, they even gave each other nicknames. Yuan Miao became Three-Dot Water, Zou Fanping Chuan Chuan, and He Xiaoyuan Top Stream.
He Xiaoyuan refused the Top Stream nickname.
Yuan Miao: “Why?”
He Xiaoyuan: “Not approachable enough.”
Jiang Weiwei: “Then we’ll call you Xiaoyuan—‘Little Yuan.’ Friendly and approachable.”
He Xiaoyuan: “That works.”
Xin Rui: “Xiaoyuan, did Brother Lu review our assignments today?”
He Xiaoyuan: “Soon, I haven’t sent them yet.”
With Brother Lu’s guidance, Team One progressed rapidly, almost day by day.
They jokingly called Lu “giving them life,” half-seriously talking about putting up a shrine in the office.
“Xiaoyuan, ask Brother Lu for a photo—we can print and display it!”
“No way, he’d probably come over and smack us.”
“Let’s just put up a picture of Guan Yu, with ‘Lu God’ written on the head.”
“Do we need to buy fruit too?”
“Can we light incense in the office? Fire alarms?”
…
He Xiaoyuan didn’t take it that far. One day, in the eleven-person WeChat group, he had saved a little cat bowing with incense emoji. That day, after finishing work discussions with Brother Lu, he sent it over.
He Xiaoyuan: [Little cat incense bow.jpg]
Lu: “Your collection is growing?”
He Xiaoyuan: [Little cat incense bow.jpg]
[Little cat incense bow.jpg]
Lu: “?”
He Xiaoyuan: Bowing three times is standard when offering incense…
Lu: “You bowing to me?”
He Xiaoyuan was surprised at Lu’s quick reaction.
Lu: [Big dinosaur patting little dinosaur’s head.jpg]
“Bow then.”
He Xiaoyuan, half laughing, half exasperated: “Bowed three times, all done.”
Lu: “Bowing for high scores?”
He Xiaoyuan joked: “For safety.”
Lu: “Incense alone isn’t enough.”
He Xiaoyuan: [Little cat holding incense kneeling bow.jpg]
Lu laughed at the phone.
Lu: “You really have every emoji.”
He Xiaoyuan: “I’m still bowing, two more times to go.”
[Little cat holding incense kneeling bow.jpg]
[Little cat holding incense kneeling bow.jpg]
Lu: “Hmm, may Lu God bless you with health and longevity.”
He Xiaoyuan: “And high scores.”
Lu: “Hmm, high scores.”
He Xiaoyuan: “Thanks, Lu God! [Little dinosaur bouncing.jpg]”
Lu, suppressing his smile, ended the WeChat chat. An industry veteran beside him casually asked what had him laughing.
Lu Chen didn’t reply immediately. Suddenly he said: “President Qu, how about we go to the temple together some day?”
President Qu actually had a fondness for that kind of thing and smiled: “Sure.”
On He Xiaoyuan’s side, it wasn’t long before his teammates discovered him secretly offering incense to Brother Lu with an emoji.
“He Xiaoyuan!!! You’re burning incense all by yourself without us!!!”
He Xiaoyuan laughed: “You don’t have Brother Lu’s WeChat, after all.”
The team: “Even if we don’t have WeChat, how can you burn incense alone?!”
“Even if it’s just you, at least carry the others’ incense with you!”
He Xiaoyuan laughed so hard his face turned red: “I was wrong, my bad.”
“You’re wrong? No, you’re very wrong!”
The office erupted in laughter again.
Afterward, He Xiaoyuan, under watchful eyes, sent Brother Lu a long screenshot showing the other ten teammates in the group sending their own incense-offering emojis—each image different, each incense stick thicker than the last.
He Xiaoyuan laughed while sending it, then collapsed onto the desk, shoulders trembling with amusement.
Zou Fanping patted him on the shoulder: “You, burning incense alone, and you’re still laughing?”
He Xiaoyuan tilted his head: “Look at your pictures—how could I not laugh?”
Brother Lu replied quickly: “Noted. All safe.”
Six simple words—but enough for Jiang Weiwei and the other girls to comment: “Brother Lu must be a leader. No ordinary person could be so calm and respond so succinctly yet carry such authority.”
“Exactly!”
He Xiaoyuan smiled, thinking quietly: Brother Lu is a leader, huh? Makes sense, he’s so capable.
That Saturday evening, He Xiaoyuan planned to meet his friend Xu Ruomeng for dinner and shut down his computer at five.
Someone saw him leaving and asked: “Leaving already?”
He Xiaoyuan pushed in his chair, picked up his phone: “I have plans.”
“Not Brother Lu, I hope?”
He Xiaoyuan: “No, just a friend.”
“Ah, now I feel like leaving too.”
“Me too.”
He Xiaoyuan waved and left the office.
At the restaurant, seated across from Xu Ruomeng, she exclaimed in surprise: “Can management trainees really be this busy? You’re never free!”
He Xiaoyuan: “Yeah, it’s busy—and stressful.”
Xu Ruomeng scrolled the menu on her phone, chatting casually: “I heard your Team Three has competition now?”
He Xiaoyuan did the same, nodding: “Individual scores and team scores, assignments almost every day, sometimes across two departments in three days when it’s tight.”
Xu Ruomeng’s eyes widened: “Three days? Two departments!? This isn’t training, they’re squeezing you dry! Can you keep up? Are you doing all the assignments?”
He Xiaoyuan: “Yes.”
He mentioned that Brother Lu had been helping them from the beginning.
Xu Ruomeng: “Brother Lu? Oh, the one you added via the QR code in the welcome pack?”
He Xiaoyuan explained the current situation for the trainees and how Brother Lu had been helping Team One.
Xu Ruomeng’s eyes widened: “Really? Wow. He’s amazing!”
“He’s really strong.”
“Definitely a master.”
When the food arrived, Xu Ruomeng, picking at her dishes, said: “So you’re pretty close with this Brother Lu now?”
He Xiaoyuan: “We get along.”
Xu Ruomeng: “Have you met him in person?”
He Xiaoyuan: “No. And Brother Lu…”
…
Neither noticed that during the entire meal, He Xiaoyuan mentioned Brother Lu in almost every sentence while talking about rotations.
Near the end, Xu Ruomeng, sensing something off, said: “Stop. We finally have dinner together, and you’ve been talking about Brother Lu the whole time.”
He Xiaoyuan paused, thought about it, and replied: “But we’ve been talking about my rotations all along.”
Xu Ruomeng nodded: “True. Then continue—what happened next?”
He Xiaoyuan: “Then Brother Lu said my P/E ratio estimate was slightly off. I didn’t agree at first, but later I realized it was my mistake. Brother Lu’s insight was precise, and then Brother Lu…”
Author’s note: #Brother Lu, master-level#