Chapter 6: The phone wallpaper isn't my girlfriend, it's my adorable husband. ...

Li Baidong paused for a moment, then smiled brightly: "Okay! Brother, tell me if you have any dietary restrictions, and I'll remember them."

Xing Lan doesn't have a big appetite, and she had already eaten almost all of her dinner earlier, but she still sat down and tasted every dish Li Baidong made before putting down her chopsticks.

He glanced up unintentionally and found that Li Baidong was staring at him, his gaze landing on the lower part of his face, right at his lips.

I guess he accidentally got vinegar on his food while eating the shrimp.

The napkins on the table were all used up. He was about to turn around and get some from the cabinet behind him when he felt his vision darken. Something gently brushed against his lips, soft to the touch and with a touch of gentle warmth.

Li Baidong stood beside Xing Lan, his tall figure blocking most of the restaurant's light source.

With a focused expression, he lowered his eyes and carefully wiped the vinegar from Xing Lan's lips with his fingertips.

Xing Lan stared at Li Baidong's fingertips lingering near her lips, her gaze slightly narrowed.

The other person seemed to only then realize what had happened, hurriedly withdrew their hand, and apologized with a smile: "I'm sorry, brother, sometimes my hands are faster than my brain, I'll definitely be more careful next time."

Xing Lan didn't say anything, but casually took out a brand new pack of tissues from the cabinet, tore off the thin plastic packaging, and put it into the tissue box on the dining table.

After changing the tissue box, he went to the bathroom to take a shower. Li Baidong stood there, looking down at his fingertips that had just touched Xing Lan's lips, and gently curled the corners of his lips upward.

-

When Xing Lan woke up the next day, Li Baidong had already fed the cat and gone to class.

Today, he not only left Xing Lan a homemade breakfast on the table, but also an extra lunchbox with a pink heart-shaped sticky note on the light blue lid.

[Bro, I checked yesterday, the takeout from your company isn't very good. From now on, I'll cook for you every day~ PS: Don't worry about bothering me, I can use the time to record content for the account^_^]

Li Baidong's handwriting is not very good; it is slender and flowing, like a bunch of thin, long snakes tangled together.

Xing Lan took a while to barely make out that it was a message from her helpful roommate rather than a curse from a distant land. After reading it, she casually took the sticky note off the cartoon lunchbox, sat down, and started eating breakfast.

Although her colleagues often complained, Xing Lan herself didn't really care much about the taste of takeout food. Whether it was bland noodles or undercooked rice, as long as it was clean and filling, she was fine with it.

But since Li Baidong had already done it, he couldn't waste the food, so he brought the lunchbox to the company that day.

During lunch, a female employee knocked on his door to deliver some documents, but froze in place when she saw him.

Xing Lan waited for a long time but the other person didn't put the documents on the table, so she raised her eyes.

The female employee stared at him in shock, nearly dropping the documents in her hand.

Everyone knows that Xing Lan is a well-known aloof beauty in the company. The more outstanding her appearance, the colder her personality.

He exudes an aura that keeps people at a distance, and many new employees have never seen him smile.

But now, he's actually eating seriously in a super cute blue kitten lunchbox.

Not only is the lunchbox adorable and cute, but even the chopsticks are a matching light blue color, with a small white plastic cat head as decoration on the tip of each chopstick.

This...this is clearly the aesthetic taste of a middle school girl.

Xing Lan wiped her lips with a tissue and calmly asked the person standing in the doorway, "What's wrong?"

"No...it's nothing."

After delivering the documents, the female employee was still in disbelief and kept turning to look at Xing Lan, almost twisting her ankle in the process.

Back at her workstation, she and her coworker chirped softly.

"Director Xing... seems to have a girlfriend!"

"Huh? Really?"

"Really! The lunchbox he's using looks like it was bought by his girlfriend. Maybe the food inside was even cooked by her. Aren't it common for couples to make each other lunches these days?"

"But people in the company all say he likes men, right? I heard he had a rich second-generation boyfriend when he was in college, but they broke up after he went abroad."

"Not your girlfriend, then could it be...?"

"My little darling husband?!!"

Before they could even come up with a result from their gossip, a commotion came from the office not far away.

A short while later, Xing Lan, the protagonist of the previous conversation, walked out from inside unhurriedly.

Upon catching a glimpse of him out of the corner of their eye, the two employees immediately fell silent, heads down, eating their takeout.

Xing Lan was unaware of the complex gazes directed at him by the two sisters beside him, and pressed the elevator button to go downstairs on his own.

The company's lunch break is not short, but Xing Lan doesn't have the habit of taking a nap. Usually, after lunch, she goes to the coffee shop, orders a drink, sits for a while, and relaxes her mind.

As he pushed open the door to the coffee shop, for some reason, his first instinct was to glance towards the cashier.

There was a shop assistant standing there as always, but it wasn't the boy I had imagined; it was a young girl with two braids, wearing the same coffee shop apron.

Xing Lan's eyes flickered for a moment, but quickly returned to normal.

Come to think of it, Li Baidong is only working part-time. He's a college student and has to attend classes regularly, so how could he be there every day?

Xing Lan casually ordered a grapefruit green drink and while waiting for the female employee to make it, she received a text message from Yan Jie.

Yan Jie: [President Chen and his family will be back next week. I've arranged for you to meet him at the end of the month.]

Xing Lan felt a little relieved when she saw the text message; her plan to win back Shiweijia had finally taken a successful first step.

L: [Okay, thank you, Brother Yan.]

We're all adults; of course we can't let someone help us for free.

After replying to the WeChat message, Xing Lan contacted a sales assistant she knew before and ordered several thousand yuan worth of tea, planning to deliver it to Yan Jie in a few days.

Before I could even finish making a grapefruit green drink, two more messages came through on the other end.

Yan Jie: [How was the restaurant yesterday? I noticed you didn't eat much.]

Yan Jie: [Are you free tonight? I found a new restaurant with even higher ratings than the last one. Want to try it together?]

Xing Lan was about to type a refusal when she felt someone gently pat her left shoulder.

I turned around and saw no one.

Li Baidong stood to his right, and called out with a strong laugh, "Brother!"

A particularly childish prank.

Elementary school students don't play this game anymore, but college student Li Baidong is having a lot of fun with it.

He quickly put on the shop's apron and politely said to another employee, "Sister, you can go and rest, I'll take care of it."

A few minutes later, Li Baidong wanted to hand the grapefruit green drink he had prepared to Xing Lan, but the woman kept her head down replying to messages.

He stared silently at Xing Lan's screen for a while until Xing Lan looked up, catching him in the act.

"What are you looking at?" Xing Lan asked calmly.

Li Baidong's heart tightened, but he quickly adjusted his expression and smiled nonchalantly, "Brother, your chat background picture is so cute, it's a picture of the Little Prince when he was little, right?"

Xing Lan looked down and slowly relaxed her tone, saying, "Yes, it was when it was three months old, when it was still very small."

Actually, a Samoyed isn't very small at three months old; it's larger than some small dogs when they're adults. It just hasn't turned into a walking tank yet.

Li Baidong smiled and said, "The fox was very cute when it was small. It wasn't even as big as my palm. It huddled in a cardboard box with its brothers and sisters, looking just like a bunch of little mice. Look, I even have a picture of it when it was just born."

As Li Baidong spoke, he naturally moved closer to Xing Lan with his phone in hand.

He lowered his head slightly, his light golden hair hanging down his forehead, exuding a faint minty fragrance.

Although the two were standing very close, almost forehead to forehead, to others, Li Baidong was wearing a work uniform and appeared to be a shop assistant diligently introducing the store's products to a customer. Apart from the fact that both the shop assistant and the customer were unusually good-looking, there was nothing unusual about them.

Xing Lan discovered that Li Baidong was actually a very thoughtful person. He had created a photo album for the fox, which contained photos of it from when it was a kitten to when it grew up.

The latest photo is a live picture of the kitten playing with a ball on the newly bought cat tree. In the background, there is the profile of a tall man. Xing Lan narrowed his long eyes and recognized himself.

"Oops, how come you accidentally got in this picture?" Li Baidong said before Xing Lan could, his finger obediently moving to the edge of the delete button. "If you mind, I'll delete it now."

"It's nothing." Xing Lan glanced at the photo. "The kitten is quite cute, keep it."

After sharing the photos, the moment Li Baidong swiped up to switch back to the home screen, Xing Lan saw his phone wallpaper.

It's a rather blurry photo, but you can vaguely make out the back view of a high school boy who looks to be about sixteen or seventeen years old.

The boy, dressed in his neat Ningzhong school uniform and wearing the pure white wired headphones that everyone had back then, walked along a tree-lined path with his hands in his pockets.

The warm morning sunlight shone on his shoulders, and thanks to that perfect ray of light, he still shone brightly despite the blurry image.

Although the photo wasn't clear, the small section of the back of the neck and the arm hanging at the side that were visible under the boy's black hair were very white. Judging from the skin tone, it was clearly not Li Baidong himself.

Because Li Baidong quickly put his phone back in his pocket, Xing Lan didn't get a good look at it. She just felt a strange sense of familiarity and casually asked, "Did you take this picture of the wallpaper yourself?"

Li Baidong paused for a moment, then shook his head: "I think I saw it on the school forum before. I felt it had a youthful vibe, so I saved it as my wallpaper. Later, I was too lazy to change it, so I've been using this one ever since."

Xing Lan still felt something was off. Just as she was about to speak, Li Baidong interrupted her with a smile: "Brother, this is the first time I've officially served this dish. You should quickly taste it and see if I've messed it up."

He considerately helped Xing Lan insert the straw into the drink, blinking his bright eyes and looking at Xing Lan expectantly.

This drink should definitely be consumed as soon as possible, otherwise the ice inside will melt and affect the taste.

Xing Lan lowered his head and took a sip. Unexpectedly, Li Baidong, a novice, did not make a mistake. In fact, it tasted more refreshing than other brands of grapefruit green tea he had drunk, and the sweetness was just right.

This kid really has a talent for this.

Li Baidong, observing Xing Lan's subtle changes in expression, guessed that he had done well. He raised his eyebrows smugly, while the invisible tail behind him seemed to be swaying frantically from side to side.

Xing Lan glanced at him and decisively decided that she couldn't let this kid be so smug.

"There's still room for improvement." He deliberately kept a cold expression and said in a serious tone, "Experience is accumulated gradually. You've just joined the company, so keep working hard."

Upon hearing what he said, the invisible, fluffy tail behind Li Baidong immediately stopped wagging.

He looked at the drink in Xing Lan's hand with some suspicion, frowning as he reflected on whether he had made a mistake in the proportions.

Xing Lan looked at his blank and depressed eyes, like a puppy that had misread its owner's commands, and felt a strange sense of pleasure.

-

That evening, Xing Lan was on her way home from work when a person suddenly emerged from the shadows in a corner and grabbed her arm without warning.

Xing Lan froze for a second, instinctively trying to shake off the hand, but as the corridor lights slowly came on, she realized that the person's face looked somewhat familiar.

"Yan Jie?..."

How did you know I lived here?

He didn't remember telling Yan Jie his exact house number.

Yan Jie pushed up his black-rimmed glasses and stammered, "Actually, when I brought you back yesterday, I followed you...followed you for a while."

Suppressing the intense discomfort of being inexplicably followed, Xing Lan frowned as she looked at him.

"It's so late, is there anything I can help you with?"

"I've already made reservations at the restaurant, but you didn't agree to have dinner with me." Yan Jie asked awkwardly, his head down. "I wanted to ask you... is it... is it that you don't like me?"