0100 Unbearable
Late at night, Tantai Qing noticed that the woman beside him seemed to be sleeping restlessly, so he turned over and hugged her tightly, asking softly, "What's wrong?"
"I'm hungry, I want fried chicken," Jiang Jifan opened her eyes and whispered as she looked in his direction.
She didn't eat much for dinner tonight and just woke up from hunger.
He seemed very sleepy, and after a long while, he finally spoke: "Do you want me to come with you?"
"No need, you go to sleep, I can eat by myself."
After saying that, she raised her hand and hugged his body, patting his back like she was coaxing a child to sleep.
He was indeed very sleepy, and after responding, he continued to fall into a deep sleep.
Jiang Jifan only got out of his arms when the takeout he ordered arrived.
The fried chicken was still warm when it arrived. She put on her gloves, tore off a leg, blew on it, dipped it in chili powder, and carefully put it in her mouth.
Fortunately, Tantai Qing wasn't with her, otherwise she would have definitely seen her jump up in a disheveled state after being scalded.
At three in the morning, Jiang Jifan finished eating a whole fried chicken, rubbed his bloated belly, glanced down at his abs which were now blurred from being so full, and let out a satisfied burp.
She was afraid that eating and then sleeping would cause indigestion, so she walked around the living room about ten times before going back to her room.
When she quietly opened the door, she saw a dim bedside lamp on inside. Feeling puzzled, she turned off her phone's flashlight.
Jiang Jifan took two steps forward and only realized what was happening when he saw the figure sleeping peacefully on the bed.
It seems he left this lamp on especially for himself, because he was afraid it would make it hard for her to see the way.
He was always so thoughtful. As Jiang Jifan thought this, he walked to the bedside, squatted down, and quietly kissed his face. Then, he rested his cheek on his hand and looked at his steady sleeping face with a silly smile.
She brushed her teeth again before going back to bed.
He seemed quite self-aware, perhaps knowing she was back, as he rolled over and pulled her into his arms again.
In the middle of the night, Jiang Jifan woke up again, this time because he was woken up by him.
"Are you full?" Tantai Qing asked her softly.
She thought to herself that she was already full, but because she was too sleepy, she didn't have the energy to answer and mumbled a "Mmm...".
“I want some too,” he said.
"Then why didn't you say so sooner..." Jiang Jifan frowned and opened his eyes to look at him.
She finished eating.
"Eat now," Tantai Qing said in a deep voice.
It wasn't until he forced his way in that Jiang Jifan understood what he meant by "eat".
It turns out that this "eating" is not the same as that "eating".
She felt he was tormenting her, and somewhat annoyed, she raised her hand to push him away, frowning in resistance, "No..."
Tantai Qing grabbed her hand and intertwined their fingers, coaxing her in a hoarse voice, "Go to sleep."
He does what he does.
"..."
How can anyone sleep like this...?
Jiang Jifan was driven crazy by him. In a daze, he was half-heartedly coaxed into having his way with him.
Tantai Qing's late-night sexual advances resulted in her almost being unable to get out of bed the next day, barely making it to the company a minute before she was late.
"Sister Jiang, what did you do last night? You have such dark circles under your eyes."
Just as she was trying to perk herself up with coffee, a colleague brought in documents for her to sign. Seeing her tired face, the colleague asked in surprise.
Jiang Jifan paused, then silently took a sip of coffee.
She recalled Tantai Qing's antics last night, put the coffee on the table, raised an eyebrow, and gave a wry smile.
"Nightlife with my boyfriend," a voice suddenly drifted in from outside the door.
Jiang Jifan's brow twitched, and he looked up at the instigator, one of only two men in their department, and warned him without any politeness: "Jiang Zuo, if you keep talking nonsense, I'll beat you up."
Jiang Zuo is a man whose name is meaningful, and so is he himself. His specialty is that he can summarize everything in one sentence, without needing two sentences, hence the nickname "Brother Sharp".
Outside the door, they were all laughing at him: "Brother Sharp is giving his critiques again."
Jiang Zuo seemed not to hear, continuing to type on the keyboard with a blank expression.
Because everyone understood his personality, no one got angry. After a few jokes, they stopped and went back to work.
Standing next to Jiang Jifan, Xu Zhengyan couldn't smile. His gaze was fixed stiffly on her slightly reddened ears, and...
A berry-red hickey on the back of her neck, not quite covered by her collar.
Then, a series of intimate and ambiguous chaotic scenes suddenly flooded his mind. In an instant, his throat felt as if he had swallowed a razor blade, so painful and unbearable that he couldn't utter a single word.
"Zhengyan...Xu Zhengyan?"
Hearing her call, he snapped out of his daze and stared blankly into her eyes.
"Sister Ji Fan..."
"What's wrong?" Jiang Jifan looked at him with concern, noticing his pale face, as if he were sick. "Are you feeling unwell? Do you need to go home and rest?"
"No." He quickly shook his head, stammering, "I, I'm fine..."
"It's good that you're alright." She nodded, finished the last sip of coffee, and instructed, "If you have time, could you help me find last year's company financial statements, the paper version?"
"Okay." Xu Zhengyan nodded in agreement and quickly went out.
He only joined the company at the end of last year, so he didn't know where the document Jiang Jifan needed was. He asked others and found out that the document had been lost a long time ago, but since no one had come looking for it, they hadn't reprinted it.
Now that he heard Jiang Jifan had asked him to come and find him, he quickly forwarded the document to him, telling him to print it out quietly himself.
Xu Zhengyan stood in front of the printer. The printer was making a lot of noise, but it still couldn't dispel the chaos in his mind.
His mind was filled with Jiang Zuo's words and the hickey on the back of her neck; his thoughts were in complete disarray.
He never knew that liking someone you can't have could be so painful. If she knew that he shamelessly and secretly liked her, she would probably find it disgusting...
Not to mention her, he now feels utterly worthless.
"Oh my god, little brother, what are you doing!" Chen Xun, who had just handed him the documents, rushed over and almost got a stroke when she saw that he had printed a bunch of duplicate reports.
Xu Zhengyan, realizing what was happening, was also startled. He quickly pressed the stop button on the printer and kept apologizing, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!"
Chen Xun looked at him helplessly and said earnestly, "Little brother, let's just focus on our work and not think about those other things."
She initially thought he was out of sorts after returning to work from vacation, which is why he said that extra sentence. Little did she know that her words had touched upon his shady thoughts.
Xu Zheng lowered his head dejectedly, as if warning himself, and murmured softly, "I understand..."
Chen Xun assumed he was upset because he had made a mistake, so she comforted him for a couple of minutes and then left.
He threw all the remaining reports into the shredder, and only after cleaning up this mess did he take the things Jiang Jifan wanted back.
"...If you continue to act unreasonably like you did last night, I'm going to sleep in a separate room from you!"
Just as I pushed open the door, I heard her complaining voice coming from inside the office.
Xu Zhengyan's raised hand froze in mid-air before he silently withdrew it and turned to leave.
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