Lu Chen paused, turned around, his back to the office but his face still angled toward the pantry. He tilted his head slightly, silently asking: Eleventh floor?
He Xiaoyuan: Sure.
He lifted the cup in his hand and gave it a small shake, signaling that he still needed to pour himself a drink: You go first.
Lu Chen nodded and walked off ahead.
He Xiaoyuan finished the water in his glass, rinsed it out at the sink, then pulled a bag of black tea from the drawer under the counter and dropped it into the cup.
When he reached the eleventh floor and stepped onto the terrace, Lu Chen was already there, hands in his pockets, standing in front of a glass fish tank, looking down at the fish inside.
“President Lu.”
He Xiaoyuan called out as he walked over, glancing around curiously.
He hadn’t been here in, what, two or three weeks?
Had it changed again?
Floor-to-ceiling windows had been installed along both outer sides of the terrace, sheer curtains hanging beside them. The original tiles were gone, replaced with oak-colored wood flooring. There was now a rug under the sofa, an extra chaise lounge nearby, and along one wall, a large fish tank with filtration and an oxygen bar. Inside, a school of fish swished their tails and swam back and forth. Several large green plants had been added by the windows.
The terrace was looking more and more complete.
Delighted, He Xiaoyuan asked, “Did you have someone redo all this?”
Lu Chen turned back and smiled. “Mm.”
He Xiaoyuan kept looking around, impressed. “Wow.”
He walked closer and handed the black tea to Lu Chen.
Lu Chen took his hand out of his pocket and accepted it, glancing down. It was his favorite black tea.
More accurately, the black tea He Xiaoyuan had always thought was his favorite.
“Thanks,” Lu Chen said.
He Xiaoyuan gestured around the terrace. “When did you get all this done?”
Turning toward him, Lu Chen stood in a relaxed, easy posture. He took a sip of tea and said, “A while ago.”
He Xiaoyuan smiled. “Brother Lu, did you basically set yourself up a lounge inside the company?”
Lu Chen neither confirmed nor denied it. “What do you think?”
He Xiaoyuan walked behind the chaise lounge and rested a hand on its wooden back. “It’s really nice.”
After a pause, he added honestly, “You could fit another bed in here and still sleep comfortably.”
At that, Lu Chen seemed to think of something and let out a soft laugh through his nose. “Let’s skip the bed.”
He Xiaoyuan turned his head. “Is it okay to do this at the company?”
Did this need approval or some kind of application?
As he spoke, he moved to the chaise lounge and slowly sat down.
Lu Chen watched him and walked closer. “It’s fine. No problem. No one comes up here.”
He Xiaoyuan was already reclining, leaning back lightly as the chair tilted with him.
Comfortable.
Standing behind the chair, looking down at him, Lu Chen asked, “How is it?”
Satisfied, He Xiaoyuan replied, “Pretty comfortable.”
With a smile, Lu Chen said, “From now on, when you have time at work and want to rest, you can come up here to relax.”
He Xiaoyuan agreed. “Good idea.”
Then he looked up. “If you happen to be around too, Brother Lu, we could even come together—chat for a bit.”
Lu Chen said, “Mm. If you come up, you can call me down.”
He Xiaoyuan blinked. “That’s allowed?”
Lu Chen’s tone was steady. “There’s nothing not allowed about it.”
Fair enough.
He Xiaoyuan nodded and said cheerfully, “Alright.”
Then it was settled.
At that moment, his phone vibrated in his pocket.
He pulled it out, unlocked the screen, and saw a message from Chang Bei:
[Where’d you go? How did pouring water turn into you disappearing? And why isn’t the big boss around either? Did you see him?]
He Xiaoyuan smiled.
Upstairs, back in the project team office, Chang Bei had sat at his workstation for a while. Seeing that the big boss hadn’t come in, and that He Xiaoyuan had gone to get water and still hadn’t returned, he got puzzled and stood up to look around.
The corridor—empty.
The pantry—empty.
He Xiaoyuan wasn’t there.
Lu Chen wasn’t there either.
Chang Bei: ???
Where did they go?
Chang Bei pulled out his phone and sent He Xiaoyuan a WeChat message.
Holding his phone, He Xiaoyuan saw that Chang Bei was looking for them and couldn’t help laughing.
Still lounging against the chaise, he looked up at Lu Chen above him. “President Chang is looking for us.”
Lu Chen bent at the waist, resting both hands lightly on either side of the chaise’s backrest, leaning in to look at the phone.
Without thinking, He Xiaoyuan lifted the phone higher for him. Lu Chen reached out; his broad palm covered over, naturally overlapping the hand holding the phone as he took it to look. He focused for a moment, then set his hand back, smiling faintly. The whole thing took no more than two or three seconds.
And yet, in those two or three seconds, when Lu Chen’s hand lightly covered his, He Xiaoyuan paused. He caught the detail with surprising precision—clearly felt the warmth of Lu Chen’s palm and the subtle, fleeting sensation where their skin touched.
He blinked, suddenly puzzled at himself for noticing something so trivial.
It was just hands brushing—so what?
…So why was he even paying attention to that?
He was confused by his own over-sensitivity and felt it was unnecessary. Why did he even notice?
Above him, the person who had “accidentally” touched his hand remained completely composed.
Lu Chen stayed bent over, still close, lowered his gaze and said, “Let him look for us for a while.” As he spoke, even his breath brushed close to the face of the person below.
After speaking, he looked down and met the bright, clear eyes of the pretty young man just inches away.
He Xiaoyuan hummed in response, as if unaware that they were standing too close—or perhaps he noticed and simply didn’t think anything of it.
Lu Chen stayed steady and unhurried, held that brief eye contact, then slowly straightened up.
As he stood upright, his watch-wearing left hand rested lightly on He Xiaoyuan’s shoulder—a casual, meaningless touch. He Xiaoyuan didn’t notice at all. Still reclined in the chair, he lifted his phone and replied to Chang Bei:
【Does it matter where I am?】
Chang Bei replied instantly: 【It matters, it matters—don’t be like that.】
Why was this suddenly turning so emo?
Chang Bei felt oddly guilty.
—
Chang Bei knew full well that springing the “go handle it yourself” move on He Xiaoyuan without warning hadn’t been very decent. That very noon, he deliberately treated He Xiaoyuan to a meal at a pricey restaurant near the office as an apology.
He also re-explained why, instead of stepping in himself, he’d pushed a newcomer like He Xiaoyuan—who didn’t yet fully understand the project—to the front.
“I only really realized it yesterday,” Chang Bei said. “I’ve probably gone to Barlei too many times and pressed them too hard. I might’ve offended someone over there, which is why they weren’t treating me well and kept stringing me along.”
The upscale restaurant was tastefully decorated, the table set with all kinds of delicate dishes. Chang Bei and He Xiaoyuan sat facing each other.
“I’ve met President Xu from Barlei before,” Chang Bei continued, “but it was in another setting, just that one time. He might not even remember me.”
“But yesterday, there were bound to be Barlei people at that table. I was worried that if I showed up, I’d just get shut down again. So I figured it was better to send you—a fresh face.”
He poured more juice into He Xiaoyuan’s glass. “I didn’t tell you in advance because I was afraid you’d get nervous and refuse. So I took it upon myself to give you a push.”
“That was on me. No excuses. Come.”
As he spoke, Chang Bei raised his glass, straightforward and sincere as he apologized properly. “My fault. I’m sorry. Juice instead of alcohol—I’ll down it, you drink however you want.”
After clinking glasses with He Xiaoyuan, he tilted his head back and gulped it all down, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
With Chang Bei going this far, He Xiaoyuan—who’d deliberately kept his distance for half the morning—naturally let it go. He wasn’t truly angry, nor was he going to make a big scene.
He felt Lu Chen had been right: you couldn’t be too easygoing. What Chang Bei had done did carry a hint of “bullying the newbie.” Otherwise, no matter who it was—even colleagues like President Yu or President Xue, or even an office assistant—Chang Bei probably wouldn’t have done this without at least a heads-up.
Since that was the case, pushing back a little, showing some displeasure, putting up a bit of attitude—that was just give-and-take. It stopped people from looking down on him or thinking he was too soft to be kneaded at will. That way, the same thing wouldn’t happen again next time.
And besides, Chang Bei was still a boss—a seasoned veteran of the industry, as the saying goes.
He Xiaoyuan was new. He still needed to maintain a good relationship with the veterans. It wouldn’t do to go all “reckless rookie throwing punches at the master”—that would just be bad form.
So once the glasses clinked, grudges were settled. What was past was past. People had to look forward.
What they looked at was the project.
As he ate, Chang Bei said, “Now that we’ve gone past Liu Kang and reached President Xu directly, there’s no need to tail them like watchdogs anymore. Let’s pull back the initiative for now and see what their next move is.”
Then he asked, “You left your contact info yesterday, right?”
“I did,” He Xiaoyuan replied.
Chang Bei nodded. “How do you think the talk went? Decent?”
Thinking back to that “solo mission” made He Xiaoyuan want to sigh and turtle back into his shell. Still, he forced himself to recall it carefully—especially President Xu’s expression while listening.
He thought it over. Then thought some more. Finally, he shook his head. “Hard to say.”
Chang Bei looked unconcerned. “That’s fine. Now we wait. I don’t believe Barlei would dare ignore Siprith and sit there playing king of the hill—not if they ever want their games distributed in the future.”
He Xiaoyuan thought of something and asked while eating, “Have Barlei and we worked together before?”
“No,” Chang Bei said. “I don’t think so. Barlei’s a relatively new company.”
“Who did they usually work with before?” He Xiaoyuan asked.
“They’re a game company,” Chang Bei replied. “As long as they get publishing licenses, they can distribute on their own. They don’t necessarily need partners.”
“‘Meow Meow Meow’ is different, though,” he added. “It’s a mini-program game, so it has to rely on social platforms with large traffic…”
Later on, He Xiaoyuan was basically just waiting. During those two days, aside from continuing to dig deeper into the Barre Technology case, he also flipped through other bosses’ projects in OA.
Since he felt it was necessary to learn how to drive, he also browsed local driving schools online, comparing prices and getting a sense of the training and exam process.
After deciding that he would make time to get his driver’s license, He Xiaoyuan asked people around him who already had licenses for their opinions—whether he should test for a C1 manual transmission license or go with the easier automatic.
Xu Ruomeng replied on OA: 【Even though cars these days are basically all automatic, for the exam it seems most people still take C1.】
In the 【SpiritPress Rising Stars】 group—
Ge Luming: 【I have C2. I will never drive a manual in this lifetime.】
Zou Fanping: 【I learned back when I was in school—C1. C1 is really easy.】
Xin Rui: 【I’m also C1, but I suck. I took Subject Two three times and Subject Three six times. QAQ】
Yuan Miao: 【No license. Anyway, my family has a driver. shrug.jpg】
Jiang Weiwei: 【Drag the show-off upstairs out and burn them!】
While at work, He Xiaoyuan casually asked Qin Chengfei at the desk next to him. Qin Chengfei didn’t mention his own situation, but gave a very precise piece of advice: “Look at what kind of car you’ll drive in the future, which one is easier to practice, and which gets you licensed faster. Taken together, just go straight for C2.”
He Xiaoyuan already had an answer in mind.
But since he wasn’t busy anyway—and idle time was still idle time—he used it as a topic and asked Lu Chen on WeChat as well.
Lu Chen: 【I remember the company has a benefit where they can help employees sign up for driving school together, with a discount.】
He Xiaoyuan’s eyes immediately lit up.
He Xiaoyuan: 【Is it handled by Administration?】
Lu Chen: 【I don’t remember the details. You can ask them.】
Lu Chen: 【You should take C2. No need for C1. Cars nowadays are all automatic, and with bad road conditions, automatics are easier to drive.】
He Xiaoyuan: 【Okay.】
He had already decided on C2 anyway.
He turned around and poked the Administration Department on OA. Sure enough, there was such a benefit: the exam fees were not included, but for driving school enrollment handled through the company, it was like paying social insurance—the company covered part, and he covered part. His share was only two thousand; the rest was paid by the company.
When He Xiaoyuan was operating the enrollment on OA, he was practically moved to tears.
Love the company. Love the boss.
For the sake of benefits and paying less money, he had also started to lose his backbone.
More and more like a true office worker.
After finishing registration and paying through the system, He Xiaoyuan messaged Lu Chen: 【Thanks to your reminder—I’ve already signed up.】
【I love the company, I love the boss.】
【Little dinosaur bouncing around.jpg】
Lu Chen was in a meeting upstairs at the time. In such a serious atmosphere, seeing He Xiaoyuan’s line “love the boss,” President Lu couldn’t help but break into a smile.
The surrounding executives: ……
← ←
Was that… a mocking laugh?
The executives: terrified.jpg