The next day, Monday morning, He Xiaoyuan arrived at the office to a burst of applause and teasing:
“Looking sharp, Yuan ge!”
“Nice new hairstyle!”
He Xiaoyuan sat down, booted up his computer, and ignored their playful banter, knowing they were just bored.
No one expected that this idleness would stretch through the entire morning. There was nothing to do, and HR hadn’t sent any notifications.
Everyone in the team slacked at their desks. He Xiaoyuan spent half the morning chatting online with Xu Ruomeng, who was also free.
By lunchtime, Team One all got up. Since they were idle, they decided to walk over to Team Three, partly to show off.
But Team Three’s office was empty, except for Ge Luming, who didn’t even glance at them. When asked if she was going to lunch, she said, “Don’t mind me, I’ll eat later at the computer.”
Team One: OK.
Before leaving, Zou Fanping joked: “Don’t leave your mouse and keyboard behind.”
Ge Luming, eyes fixed on the screen, hands flying: “Senior comrades! Go ahead!”
In the afternoon, Team One continued slacking off.
If the morning’s slacking was cautious, always on standby, the afternoon was full-on. Several guys played games, and Jiang Weiwei had shopping pages filling her screen.
He Xiaoyuan had been chatting with Xu Ruomeng but, when she left for some work, he found himself completely idle.
He closed the chat, looked around, and saw that everyone else was busy—some playing games, some watching, some browsing, some chatting.
With nothing to do, He Xiaoyuan opened a browser and randomly flipped through news websites.
After a while, it bored him, and he closed them all.
What am I supposed to do?
He Xiaoyuan felt genuinely bored. He envied the others, who had hobbies and knew how to spend free time. He, on the other hand, had always been studying or working part-time, never cultivating hobbies, and now didn’t even know what to do with the free time.
Actually, he could think of something—he remembered Lu ge several times while browsing the news.
Before meeting him, whenever he had free time and thought of Lu ge, he would casually ping him on WeChat to see if he was free to chat.
Now—
He Xiaoyuan propped his head up with one hand at his desk, thinking: Lu ge is Lu Zong, a senior executive in the project team. Executives don’t have free time.
Previously, whenever he frequently messaged Lu Zong, it had always been for work-related questions or casual chats…
He Xiaoyuan recalled the stickers he had sent, imagining the possibility that one of his little dinosaur emojis might have popped up on Lu Zong’s screen during an important meeting.
Oh no…
Blushing at the thought, he buried his face into his arms, silently paying for his previous ignorance and recklessness.
His phone buzzed a few times. Still lying on the desk, he reached for it, picked it up, propped his head on his arm, swiped to unlock, and saw a message from Lu Chen:
Lu: [Just finished rotation. Shouldn’t be busy today. What are you up to?]
He Xiaoyuan: ……
He Xiaoyuan, still alone and feeling awkward, rested his head on his arm and typed with one hand: Just slacking off.
He deleted it, reconsidered, and typed: In the office.
Then deleted again and typed: Nothing much.
He fiddled like this for a while, going back and forth, and still hadn’t sent anything when Lu Chen messaged: [What are you typing? You’ve been entering something forever.]
He Xiaoyuan: “……”
Feeling even more awkward, he sighed softly and muttered an “ah” under his breath, setting the phone down on the desk. Ever since realizing Lu ge was actually Lu Zong, his mind had been associating Lu ge with Lu Zong’s executive image. Casual, unrestricted chatting like before suddenly felt impossible.
It was like having a pen pal in school, chatting endlessly and having fun, only to discover in person that they’re actually your school’s principal. Could it work? Seriously, could it?
He Xiaoyuan felt a bit incapable—even if Lu Zong was just a senior executive, not a principal. But there was nothing he could do; he met Lu Zong first, and the executive image had already been imprinted in his mind.
Sigh.
He took a deep breath, straightened up, leaned back in his chair, and held his phone to reply: [Nothing much.]
Lu: [Busy?]
He Xiaoyuan: [No.]
Lu: [Really free?]
He Xiaoyuan: [Yes.]
The conversation had become purely Q&A, short replies, no stickers—completely different from before.
Then a voice message came through. He Xiaoyuan put on his earphones, clicked it, and heard Lu Chen’s calm, amused voice: “What’s wrong? Why so dry?”
The tone was just as warm and friendly as before.
Hearing this, He Xiaoyuan immediately reflected: He Xiaoyuan, what are you doing? Lu Zong has been so kind—helping, treating me to dinner, even buying clothes as a return gift. What are you doing?
He silently adjusted his mindset, cleared his throat, held the phone to his lips, and replied in a soft voice: “Nothing… just idling in the office today.”
Everyone else was slacking off too, so the office was a low hum—no one was paying attention to him.
He sent another voice message: “Lu ge, you’re not busy today either?”
Lu Chen: “It’s okay.”
Curious, He Xiaoyuan asked: “You’re not slacking either, right?”
Lu Chen smiled: “Isn’t slacking off at work normal?”
He Xiaoyuan, holding the phone to his lips, whispered: “I thought you executives were always swamped.”
Finally, the casual, relaxed atmosphere from before returned.
After chatting for a bit, He Xiaoyuan received a photo—tea steeping in a pot.
Lu: [Tastes great. I really like it.]
He Xiaoyuan looked at the photo and message, smiled, and typed back: [Glad you like it.]
He almost sent a sticker, paused, and instead sent: [Little dinosaur bouncing.jpg]
Lu: [Big dinosaur pats little dinosaur’s head.jpg]
He Xiaoyuan stared at the two stickers and laughed silently. He realized there was nothing to worry about—Lu ge was Lu Zong, sure, but Lu ge was still the same person he had known.
He sent another: [Heart gesture.jpg]
After chatting for a while, Lu Chen, probably knowing how free the management trainee program could be, sent He Xiaoyuan several company investment case studies to help pass the time.
Grateful, He Xiaoyuan replied: [Salute!][Thank you, Lu ge!]
Lu Chen sent a voice message in a half-serious, half-teasing tone: “Don’t call me Lu ge. In the company, you should call me Lu Zong.”
He Xiaoyuan obliged, covering his mouth with his hand, cheerful in tone: “Thank you, Lu Zong.”
Lu: [Good boy.]
He Xiaoyuan didn’t think much of the “good boy.” After finishing the chat, he happily turned back to the computer to go through the case studies.
Jiang Weiwei peeked over and, seeing what He Xiaoyuan was doing, nearly lost it: “No way! Big handsome guy! You’re going to make us feel useless?!”
Other colleagues looked over, groaning: [Yuan ge, do you have a conscience? We’re playing games, and you’re studying cases?!]
He Xiaoyuan, innocent, blinked: “I have nothing else to do.”
Yuan Miao leaned back in his chair, tilted his chin toward He Xiaoyuan, and commanded the others: “Bring him over here! By the end of today, he’s going to learn how to play PUBG!”
Zou Fanping and another guy each grabbed an arm, forcing He Xiaoyuan to stand. He laughed and complained: “I really don’t know how to play.”
Zou Fanping led him toward Yuan Miao: “Don’t worry, we’ll teach you. Today, you’re not rolling us!”
During afternoon tea, while others sipped coffee and nibbled pastries, the boys at Yuan Miao’s desk occasionally whispered:
“There’s someone behind that tree!”
“There’s a car coming!”
“A bag! Go sniff it!”
He Xiaoyuan, completely innocent, asked: “How do you sniff it?”
…
Xin Rui and the other girls nearly died laughing.
Jiang Weiwei exclaimed: “It’s amazing! There’s actually a handsome guy in this world who doesn’t play games.”
Xin Rui, more relaxed, said: “Why should a handsome guy even need games? Looks, height, long legs, strong abilities, makes money—what’s not better than playing games?”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
Xin Rui sighed between bites: “I just wonder—which lucky person will eventually end up with a guy this handsome~~”
The next day, He Xiaoyuan didn’t have a chance to feel bored. Almost as soon as he arrived at the office, Yuan Miao grabbed him by the shoulder and led him to a workstation where the game was already open.
“Big handsome guy, let’s play today!”
He Xiaoyuan paused before sitting down: “Can I say no?”
Yuan Miao shoved him down onto the chair in front of the computer: “Nope.”
Luckily, today wasn’t completely without work—HR had delivered a huge box of invoices for them to sort and stick.
The eleven of them each grabbed a portion back to their desks, chatting as they went:
“Isn’t sticking invoices usually an admin job?”
“I thought everyone just stuck their own invoices and sent them to finance for reimbursement.”
“Then why did these end up in HR’s hands?”
“No idea, probably HR’s own invoices?”
…
“Even two bucks on the bus get reimbursed?”
“Don’t underestimate small amounts—add them up, and you could buy a place near the company.”
“Don’t mess with me. How much do you have to save for that? Dreaming of buying property next to the company?”
…
While sticking invoices, He Xiaoyuan noticed several from flights. He realized they were for business trips. Carefully arranging them, he couldn’t help but feel a little excited—his rotation had just ended, and soon he’d be assigned to a department and start working properly like everyone else.
That afternoon, Group 1 received everyone’s ratings. He Xiaoyuan had an average score of 9.2, ranking first.
Everyone in the office discussed their own and others’ scores, and his top spot wasn’t a surprise.
In the Group 1-3 chat:
[Big handsome guy 9.2? He’s the highest now. Our Ge Luming is just at 9.]
[What about Qin Chengfei from Group 2?]
[I think he didn’t get 9.2—remember, the scores were spread out during the performance review.]
[Then Big Handsome Guy’s first place is secure.]
[Not necessarily, rotations in Groups 2 and 3 aren’t finished, so you never know.]
He Xiaoyuan quietly smiled at his 9.2, feeling like he had gotten the exam score he had always wanted back in school.
He screenshot the score and sent it to Lu Chen: [Screenshot] [Lu ge, my evaluation scores are out. Here’s my average.]
Lu: [Very good.]
Lu: [Are you satisfied with it?]
He Xiaoyuan: [Little dinosaur nodding.jpg]
Lu: [That’s great.]
He Xiaoyuan: [Now just waiting for department assignments.]
On Wednesday, HR asked Group 1 to submit their preferred department. After some thought, He Xiaoyuan chose Finance. Clicking to confirm and submit, his heart raced—probably because he felt he was standing at an important crossroads in his life.
Thursday, Yuan Miao suddenly got up: “HR wants me over there,” and left. Returning shortly, he said: “The company discussed my department assignment!”
Everyone was surprised and asked about the details.
Yuan Miao: “I applied for MOBA Group 3 in the mobile games department. They said Group 3 doesn’t need people this year and asked if I wanted Group 6 instead. They explained the situation there, and I agreed—MOBA is MOBA, Group 3 or 6 doesn’t matter to me.”
“Fair enough.”
“Wow, lucky you got the department you wanted.”
The office buzzed with discussion about department assignments.
One by one, people were called out. Some returned happy—they got the departments they wanted. Others came back less pleased—no need to ask, it meant negotiations didn’t go their way.
He Xiaoyuan watched quietly, waiting for his turn. Everyone else had been called, and he was still waiting—until the very end.
“Xiaoyuan, come over to Conference Room C2,” Zhu Xuanmin finally messaged privately.
He Xiaoyuan stood up. Seeing that he had chosen Finance, his colleagues cheered him on: “Don’t worry, you’re first—you’ll get the department you want.”
He Xiaoyuan took a deep breath and exhaled silently: Hopefully…
But when he arrived at the small conference room, sitting face-to-face with the HR supervisor, the mood shifted. The supervisor flipped through some papers, looked up with a serious expression:
“He Xiaoyuan, you applied for Finance, but do you know the company has been downsizing that department these past two years, even reducing its shareholding?”
The blunt opening caught He Xiaoyuan, a new employee just finishing rotations, completely off guard. He had no way of knowing these high-level strategic decisions.
He clenched his hands under the table, keeping calm: “I really didn’t know that.”
The supervisor stared at him, then continued bluntly: “Here’s our recommendation for your department assignment.”
He Xiaoyuan nodded: “Okay.”
The supervisor continued slowly: “We suggest assigning you to PR.”
He Xiaoyuan: “……”