-7- Hello

"You don't need to stay on a ship that could sink at any moment." Zhao Jinghuan didn't understand Zou's judgment. She even defended Lu Kai, saying that startups are like this, inevitably having a makeshift team. It could sink at any moment, but it wasn't certain to. Patching and moving forward might not necessarily lead to a successful conclusion. It was as if she had arrived earlier than Zou and had experienced more. Zou curled her lips, but didn't argue. She circled and tapped away on her computer for a while, then stood up and left. For the next few days, Zhao Jinghuan continued her mostly idle state. This was her first time working, and she hadn't yet mastered the basic skills of a social animal—she didn't know how to appear busy when she clearly had no work. So, she spent most of her time staring blankly at the workstation she and Zou shared. The Jiji Dog on the table always tempted her, even though Zou had said that "molesting" the Jiji Dog was just basic human instinct and nothing to be ashamed of. But after playing so much, Zhao Jinghuan often had a strange illusion: the Jiji Dog in front of her wasn't just a simple plush toy, but more like an extension of the designer's life. What she meant was that she often felt like she wasn't just playing Jiji Dog's chirping, but... Her face flushed, and she lowered her head, not daring to look at Lu Kai as he passed by. She didn't realize that Lu Kai wasn't as calm as he appeared. Every time Zhao Jinghuan played Jiji Dog's chirping out of boredom, besides a strange phantom pain, Lu Kai was also tormented by shame. He felt ashamed that he had failed to fulfill his responsibility as a mentor, allowing a young man full of aspirations for the trendy toy industry to waste his life playing for nothing. But getting Sister Zou to return to her roots and teach her all her skills was a task far beyond Lu Kai's ability. After much deliberation, he decided to take on the role of mentor himself, even though Sister Zou had been handling most of the company's affairs for the past few years. He asked Zhao Jinghuan if her independent study had broadened her horizons and given her endless questions, and he prayed that her questions would be simple enough to avoid appearing awkward. Zhao Jinghuan's mind was blank, and after a long pause, she asked a question that even embarrassed herself: "Mr. Lu, do you know... a blind box called Mr. Beard?" This seemingly meaningless question made Lu Kai breathe a sigh of relief, but he soon noticed that Zhao Jinghuan's tone seemed...

"You don't have to stay on a ship that's going to sink at any moment."

Zhao Jinghuan didn't understand why Sister Zou made such a judgment. She even explained on Lu Kai's behalf that all start-up companies are like this. It is inevitable that they have a makeshift team and may sink at any time, but it is not certain to sink. If they patch things up and move forward, they may still reach the end.

It was as if she came earlier than Sister Zou and had experienced more.

Sister Zou curled her lips and didn't argue with her. She circled and tapped on the computer for a while, then stood up and left.

For the next few days, Zhao Jinghuan continued to maintain her mostly idle state. This was her first time working, and she hadn't yet mastered the basic skills of a corporate slave—she didn't know how to appear busy when she clearly had no work. So, she spent most of her time in a daze at the workstation she and Sister Zou shared. The Jiji Dog on the table always tempted her, out of boredom, to reach out again and again. Although Sister Zou had said that "molesting" Jiji Dog was just basic human instinct and nothing to be ashamed of, after playing with it so much, Zhao Jinghuan often had a strange illusion: the Jiji Dog in front of her wasn't just a simple plush toy, but more like an extension of the designer's life.

What this sentence means is that Zhao Jinghuan often feels that what he plays is not just the chirping of the dog, but...

Her face flushed and she lowered her head, not daring to look at Lu Kai who was walking past her.

She didn't know that Lu Kai at this moment was far from being as calm as he appeared. Whenever Zhao Jinghuan played the "Chiji Dog" song out of boredom, in addition to an inexplicable feeling of phantom pain, Lu Kai was also tortured by the shame in his heart.

He felt ashamed that he hadn't fulfilled his responsibilities as a mentor, allowing a young man full of aspirations for the trendy toy industry to waste his life here, playing games for nothing. But getting Sister Zou to return to her roots and teach her all her skills was a task far beyond Lu Kai's ability. After much deliberation, he decided to take on the mentoring role himself, even though Sister Zou had been handling most of the company's affairs for the past few years.

He asked Zhao Jinghuan whether the independent learning in the past few days had opened her mind and given her endless questions to ask, and prayed that Zhao Jinghuan's questions would be simple enough so as not to make him look timid.

Zhao Jinghuan's mind was blank. After a long pause, she asked a question that made her feel a little embarrassed:

"Mr. Lu, do you know... a blind box called Mr. Beard?"

This question, which was not very meaningful, made Lu Kai feel relieved. However, he soon noticed that Zhao Jinghuan's tone seemed unnatural. Looking closely, Zhao Jinghuan's expression was a little guilty and a little blushing. Lu Kai immediately understood that Zhao Jinghuan's question was not a casual question, but was probably premeditated. He felt sour in his heart, thinking, "Aren't you my fan? Why are you asking about other people's blind boxes?" But he still tried to maintain his demeanor:

"Yes, it's a new independent IP that came out this year, and it's selling pretty well."

As if she was afraid her ex-boyfriend was doing even better than she imagined, Zhao Jinghuan hurriedly pressed on, "How good is 'good'? Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?"

Lu Kai shook his head and said he didn't know the exact sales figures. Zhao Jinghuan wasn't able to figure out how far behind Mr. Beard's sales were. He was slightly disappointed, but he didn't think it was a big deal. However, Lu Kai quietly took note. After taking two days off over the weekend, Zhao Jinghuan arrived at the studio early on Monday morning as usual. As soon as he opened the door, he saw a brand new workstation by the window.

Before she could even consider it, Lu Kai, Fanqie, and Wanfeng rushed out of the inner room, shouting "Suprise!" At first, Zhao Jinghuan thought they were referring to the fact that they'd arrived earlier than she had. Honestly, their early arrival was indeed surprising, but their excitement was somewhat unnecessary.

Lu Kai then pointed his hands forward, pointing to the brand new workstation by the window and made a "clicking" sound like a magician revealing the answer to a mystery. Zhao Jinghuan then realized that "suprise" actually meant that he had gotten a brand new workstation.

At least for now, Zhao Jinghuan, the new employee, is still full of anticipation and enthusiasm for her future work. However, treating her new workstation as a gift is still strange. It's like monkeys love mountains, but when the Buddha pressed Sun Wukong under the Five Finger Mountain, he didn't say, "This Five Finger Mountain is a gift from me." He didn't even say "surprise." "Tatta."

Zhao Jinghuan awkwardly took a few steps forward before noticing a large delivery box on her workstation. She finally breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out the box on top of the workstation was the gift.

Lu Kai said, "The workstation you reserved has arrived. I thought of giving you a set of trendy toys so you can decorate your own workstation."

Tomato said, "This series is quite hard to find. Lu Kaifei said you really liked this set and asked me to buy it at a high price."

"I like it?" Zhao Jinghuan was a little surprised. After all, even she herself was not sure which blind box she liked. Zhao Jinghuan took the scissors handed to her by Lu Kai, opened the package on the table, and after seeing the blind box inside, she couldn't help frowning again.

That was a complete set of Mr. Beard's blind boxes.

It turned out that her casual question that day had made Lu Kai mistakenly believe that she was a fan of Mr. Hu.

Lu Kai's face was full of anticipation: "Do you like it?"

Zhao Jinghuan felt somewhat helpless. She hadn't expected to contribute +9 sales to her irritating ex-boyfriend. However, Lu Kai meant well, and she couldn't let him down. She smiled awkwardly and said, "Thank you."

Lu Kai smiled, thinking his gift had touched Zhao Jinghuan's heart. Seeing that Lu Kai and the others had no intention of leaving, Zhao Jinghuan unpacked the box in front of them and then neatly arranged the nine different yet equally annoying ex-boyfriends on her new workstation.

Zhao Jinghuan laughed at himself secretly: "This is a good start for my life as a social animal." Looking up, he found that Lu Kai and the others were still there. Zhao Jinghuan was a little confused:

“Should I write a review?”

"Not really," Lu Kai said with a smile. "I was just saying, there's another surprise." He took a deep breath and spoke solemnly and proudly:

"We've contacted Mr. Hu's designer, Hu Mingyuan, for you."

Zhao Jinghuan's body stiffened.

Lu Kai said that he unexpectedly discovered that Mr. Huzi's designer Hu Mingyuan was actually in the same city as them, so he used some connections to contact Hu Mingyuan and persuaded him to agree to let Zhao Jinghuan ask Hu Mingyuan some questions that interested her in the form of an interview. Finally, the interview transcript was compiled into an interview and posted on a public account of a certain trendy toy category. This can not only help newcomers who want to enter the industry to learn more about the trendy toy industry, but also do some publicity for Mr. Huzi. It is a win-win situation.

Zhao Jinghuan could imagine how much trouble Lu Kai must have gone through to contact Hu Mingyuan, a man he had never met. Rationally speaking, it was incredibly heartwarming that your boss, or indeed anyone else, would go to such lengths to answer a casual question.

However, at this moment, Zhao Jinghuan's mind was not rational. There were only four words in her mind: "A bolt from the blue."

Bolt from the blue Bolt from the blue Bolt from the blue Bolt from the blue

She quickly waved her hands, saying she would rather die than meet Hu Mingyuan. After saying this, she realized her emotions were too strong, making it hard not to sound strange, and then reluctantly tried to justify her words: "People with social anxiety are like this."

Lu Kai said, "When you came to see me, you weren't socially anxious at all."

Tomato, who was standing aside, turned his head and looked at Lu Kai with a little confusion, obviously hearing the jealousy in his words.

Zhao Jinghuan was completely unaware of this. She declined for a while, but finally accepted Lu Kai's compromise suggestion and decided not to meet with Hu Mingyuan, but to interview him on WeChat instead.

While waiting for dinner at Pinhai Pavilion in the evening, Zhao Jinghuan sent a friend request to Hu Mingyuan using the mobile phone number she used for delivery, while truthfully recounting the whole story of the incident of "the boss asked me to socialize with my ex-boyfriend", and was mercilessly ridiculed by Ji Anya.

Zhao Jingan sighed helplessly, thinking of Hu Mingyuan's arrogant and annoying face.

She and Hu Mingyuan did not break up peacefully, but their departure was not particularly embarrassing.

After all, although he is annoying, he is not like the ex-boyfriends in the model skits who do evil things like cheating, defrauding, framing others, or driving a truck to hit their girlfriends and causing them to be reborn as empresses.

He just often boasted about his relatively good family background, his father being a well-known painter and his mother being a university professor. He just often hinted that being able to date a young master like him was the luckiest thing in her life.

Zhao Jinghuan had also tried hard to prepare himself mentally. The emotional foundation between the two was pretty good, so he might as well swallow his anger and take a ride. His future life would definitely be much easier.

She understood that, in a sense, marrying someone and swallowing a needle was actually a form of equal exchange, and energy conservation was a principle. However, there was still a huge gap between "understanding the principle" and "being able to do it."

She had tried to fly to the other side of the mountains by relying on the thin string that tied her to the kite. But now she thought that the string was too thin, and Hu Mingyuan could break it with just a few words.

——It was the second year of their relationship, and she overheard Hu Mingyuan say to his friend:

"Jing Huan, she's like a dirty little dog. She has no parents to rely on, but she can rely on me."

"No, she doesn't have parents to rely on, not that she doesn't have parents."

The Android phone in his hand vibrated. Zhao Jinghuan looked down and saw a notification pop up on WeChat that the friend request was approved.

When the internet was refreshed, the cartoon avatar turned into a selfie of Hu Mingyuan. In the photo, Hu Mingyuan tilted his head slightly and flared his nostrils towards the camera.

"You don't have parents." Zhao Jinghuan used all his strength to type viciously, viciously, viciously, viciously, and fiercely on the dialog box below "I have passed your friend verification request. Now we can start chatting":

"Hello, Teacher Hu."

Author's Note

Yaunai

author

04-29

Don't forget to vote! Love you guys!