“You collapsed from overwork! I give up on you!”
Luo Ran had only just woken up, and his mind was still hazy. Xia Zhi’s furious tirade left him completely stunned.
“Ranran, are you even listening to me?!”
“Ah…”
Right… He really had been feeling increasingly unable to cope over the past few days. It seemed he had finally reached his limit, which was why he had collapsed.
Luo Ran braced himself against the bed and sat up, looking around. He discovered that he was in the guest room of Xia Zhi’s home.
“Ranran, please stop pushing yourself to the point of death like this. Take some leave,” Xia Zhi said helplessly. “Be a good boy and take a few days off, okay? Go back to work after your heat is over.”
Honestly, this workaholic…
Xia Zhi was beginning to suspect that Luo Ran had a secret crush on Lucas.
“Okay.” Luo Ran rubbed his temples. “I’ll consider it.”
“I’m telling you, in your current condition…” Xia Zhi warned him, “you could go into heat in front of the General at any moment. This time is different from your previous heats. If you really lose control, I have no idea what might happen.”
Luo Ran paused.
After thinking for a moment, he said, “I’ll take leave.”
He had three days left in his heat, so he would rest for those three days.
“That’s more like it.” Xia Zhi was very satisfied, looking just like a mother whose child had finally agreed to behave.
Luo Ran stretched his limbs and stood up. “By the way, who brought me here? Was it Adjutant Lu?”
“No…” Xia Zhi’s expression turned peculiar. “It was the General. He carried you inside. But the military headquarters was still waiting for him, so I told him you had merely collapsed from overwork, and he went back first.”
“Huh?” Luo Ran immediately frowned. “He was still in the middle of the exercises. Why did he come over?”
Seeing that Luo Ran was still thinking about work, Xia Zhi paused before asking with a frown, “Ranran, there’s something I want to ask you…”
“Hmm?”
“What do you think of the General?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what kind of person do you think he is?” Xia Zhi asked with a bright smile. “I’m just curious.”
“Didn’t you meet him when you were a battlefield doctor? He…” Luo Ran continued stretching as he spoke. “He’s an exceptionally capable Alpha. His mental strength and combat abilities are among the Empire’s finest, and he’s also an upright person.”
Xia Zhi: “…”
Xia Zhi opened his mouth, apparently intending to say something, but ultimately decided against it.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Um… Oh, right!” Xia Zhi clapped his hands. “The General asked Adjutant Lu to wait outside and notify him if anything happened. He’s still sitting in the living room. You can go tell him yourself.”
“…Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Luo Ran smoothed his hair, straightened his collar, and hurried downstairs.
“Secretary Luo…!” The moment Lu Cheng saw Luo Ran, he instinctively stood up and saluted again.
“Adjutant Lu, I’m sorry to have troubled you.” Luo Ran bowed in return.
“It’s no trouble at all, no trouble.” Lu Cheng examined Luo Ran with a serious expression before straightening up. “Secretary Luo, may I report your condition to the General?”
“…Yes.”
“Yes, sir!”
Lu Cheng immediately lowered his head and busied himself sending Lucas a report.
“Officer Lu.”
“Present!”
Luo Ran asked, “Could you do me a favor and request leave from the General on my behalf?”
“Ah…?”
“Just tell him that I’ve fallen ill from overwork and intend to rest for three days. But before my leave begins, I’ll finish handling the company’s urgent matters.”
“Yes, sir…” Lu Cheng thought to himself, Why doesn’t Secretary Luo just tell the General himself?
Although he wondered about it, Lu Cheng faithfully relayed every word to Lucas without changing a thing.
Lucas replied with just one word.
Mm.
And so, after several years, the Empire’s chief secretary finally began his first extended leave.
…
More accurately, he had only begun half of it.
Luo Ran couldn’t simply walk away and abandon all his work without warning. He still needed to return to the company to finish organizing and handing over his responsibilities, as well as leave notes for Rong Duo and the others.
After resting for a while at Xia Zhi’s home, Luo Ran set off for the company.
By the time he arrived, it was already late at night. All the employees had gone home, and the entire high-rise building was dark, with only the soldiers on duty and the security guards remaining.
Luo Ran went up to the highest floor and began sorting documents at his desk.
Before long, he heard footsteps.
The General had returned from the military headquarters…
Luo Ran looked up and saw Lucas standing beside him, his expression rather displeased.
Was he angry…?
Was it because Luo Ran wanted to take leave?
Still holding a stack of folders, Luo Ran cautiously began, “The General is back. Did the military inspection go smoothly?”
Lucas didn’t answer. Instead, he roughly snatched the folders out of Luo Ran’s hands.
“If you were tired, why didn’t you tell me?!”
“I…” Lucas’s sudden outburst caught Luo Ran completely off guard. His hands were suddenly empty, and he stared blankly at the General.
“Why didn’t you request time off when you were exhausted?” Lucas threw the folders onto the desk. “Are these damn things really that important?!”
Luo Ran had never expected Lucas to react like this. He was so startled that, without thinking, he simply answered the question at face value.
“Yes… They’re very important.”
They weren’t just some damn things. They were the Empire’s military affairs and trade documents concerning Luobing. If anything went wrong, it would be a serious problem.
“…”
Lucas stared at Luo Ran with a terrifying expression.
Luo Ran lowered his eyes and said nothing.
“…I can’t win an argument with you,” Lucas warned. “Don’t let this happen again.”
Luo Ran nodded.
But Lucas wasn’t stupid. He frowned and asked, “You usually handle an even heavier workload than this. Why did you collapse this time in particular?”
Luo Ran’s heart skipped a beat. Instinctively, he took half a step backward.
“I don’t know.”
“Are you hiding something from me?” Lucas’s expression darkened. Luo Ran’s retreating movement clearly enraged the already ill-tempered Alpha. Lucas immediately pinned Luo Ran against the wall behind him, preventing him from slipping away.