Chapter 2020 He pursed his lips and lowered the corner of his lips
Shi Rui typed the date on his keyboard. The time in the lower right corner of the screen had already passed 11:00 PM. He leaned back in his chair and stretched, his fingers moving habitually, their joints making a slight clicking sound. His work journal, open on his laptop, was already complete: two pages filled with notes, summaries, and reflections.
Regardless of whether it is well written or not, at least the attitude is there.
Thinking of Qin Jixiu's sudden change in tone and attitude in the afternoon, Shi Rui rubbed his temples, stood up and poured himself a glass of warm water.
When he came back, his eyes unexpectedly fell on the red cloth in the corner. After hesitating for a few seconds, he put down the water cup and took out a few unopened acrylic paints from the drawer.
Lifting the red cloth, he carefully took out the molded figurine. The off-white clay had dried thoroughly, and the figurine had distinct contours and an upright figure. Even Qin Jixiu's sparse hairstyle was exceptionally lifelike.
Shi Rui found his palette and brush, squeezed some black paint into the dish, and added a drop of water, stirring slowly. He lowered his head to the outline of the little figure's face, the tip of his brush suspended in mid-air, and suddenly paused. His mind couldn't help but recall the irritated and mocking expression of someone who had bullied him that day. Such a beautiful face, it was hard to look at it directly, but it was also hard to look away.
The tip of the pen gently fell on the clay, carefully outlining the little man's facial features that were more delicate than those of ordinary people, even perfectly reproducing the sharp curve of the corners of his mouth when he was angry.
After the face was finished, Shi Rui gently poked the corner of the little man's lips with his fingertips, as if if he poked it a few more times, the smile would become kinder. Thinking about it carefully, Shi Rui found that Qin Jixiu was a complete contradiction. On the one hand, he was looking at the pot and wanted to have an ambiguous relationship with him, while on the other hand, he was concerned about his current boyfriend flirting with others.
Can one person really hold two people in his heart? He can't do it anyway.
After a long moment, he returned the figurine to its place and checked the time. It was almost one in the morning. Since his time at Zhengfeng, he'd gotten used to staying up late. Being young and strong, he didn't feel uncomfortable. Instead, he quite enjoyed the quiet moments of the night. Accompanied by the snoring of his roommate next door, he could think about many things.
Meanwhile, in Qin Jixiu's large apartment, the bedroom light was still on. He lay on his side in bed, his brow furrowed, a thin layer of sweat oozing from his forehead, and his breathing heavier than usual.
He had a dream.
He made a new human-shaped sandbag, and the face of the sandbag looked like Shi Rui.
Qin Jixiu punched the sandbag, the dull sound echoed in his dream, and the face of "Shi Rui" on the sandbag flashed back in front of him arrogantly.
He raised his hand and punched again, even harder than before. His fist struck the sandbag, sending pain through his finger bones. He vented all the hidden pain in his heart and the resentment of being deceived into his fist.
The sandbag in the dream was shaken left and right by his beating, and finally fell to the ground with a "bang". But he didn't stop, squatting down and continuing to punch it, muttering: "Don't you like to have two women at the same time? I'll chop off your legs and see how you can cheat again?!"
It wasn't until the alarm clock blared that Qin Jixiu snapped open his eyes. His chest still heaving violently as he exhaled a few breaths of foul air in anger. He wished he could chew the person in his dream into pieces. He'd been so good to him, so wholeheartedly, right? Why did Shi Rui get to trample on his sincerity?! Just because he was older? But love didn't work that way.
He could indulge her when she had a little temper, and would give her what she asked for if he could, but when Shi Rui cheated on her, it was wrong and unforgivable.
The next day, Shi Rui arrived at the company early. His roommate didn't come with him because he left early. He went upstairs first, printed out the work log he had written last night, and placed it on Qin Jixiu's desk. Then he took his meal card and went to the company cafeteria.
Zhengfeng has a rich variety of breakfast options, including Chinese food and Western pastries, and the taste is good. Many young employees who are not married like to have breakfast at the company. A meal only costs five yuan, which is much less troublesome than cooking for themselves early in the morning.
Shi Rui took his tray and found a seat by the window. He had just taken a bite of the steaming hot braised pork bun when he heard hushed voices coming from the next table.
"Is that the new guy, Shi Rui? I heard he hadn't been in the project department for half a day when President Qin personally called and asked him to go to the CEO's office. How could he be so lucky?" The young man's voice was a little encouraging. "Shall we go over and talk to him?"
A female employee chimed in, "What lucky are you talking about? The CEO's office is a place so many people fight tooth and nail to get in. How could a newcomer like him have that? He must have family connections, otherwise how would President Qin even know about this person in the company? You've been here for three years. Does President Qin remember your last name?"
The male employee smiled bitterly and said, "Forget about remembering my last name. It's hard to even see President Qin in the company. The CEO's office has a dedicated elevator, and we don't even have that privilege."
"Even if they have a connection, they wouldn't be so obvious, right? This is really hard to convince everyone," a third person interrupted, his tone mysterious, "Don't you think President Qin treats Shi Rui a little differently? With so many newcomers before, President Qin hasn't paid this much attention to anyone, let alone someone who's been hired as an assistant. And I also heard that President Qin took him on a business trip with him, and he didn't even bring Assistant Gu with him!"
As long as the three people take a look at the attendance app, they will see "on vacation" next to Gu Qing's name, but no one actually cares what the truth is.
She continued, "Do you think..."
At this point, the voice suddenly lowered, but Shi Rui could hear it clearly. He paused holding the chopsticks, lowered his head to drink the pumpkin porridge, but his ears unconsciously perked up.
"What's going on?" the man who spoke first asked hurriedly.
"Could it be some unspoken rule?" The third person's voice was filled with a hint of ambiguity. "Think about it, Mr. Qin is almost thirty, and he hasn't had a girlfriend in all these years. He doesn't even have a close woman around him. Is it possible... that Mr. Qin actually likes men?"
"No way?" the young man exclaimed in surprise, then quickly lowered his voice. "Boss Qin's behavior seems quite normal and masculine. He doesn't seem like that kind of person. Could there be another reason?"
The discussion at the neighboring table continued, but Shi Rui stopped listening. He felt a mix of emotions. It seemed that Qin Jixiu hadn't publicly announced his relationship.
As soon as this thought came to his mind, Shi Rui could no longer sit still. He quickly finished his breakfast and headed towards the elevator.
President's Office.
Assistant Li was sitting at his desk sorting documents. When he saw Shi Rui come in, he greeted him with a smile: "Shi Rui, good morning. Did your business trip go well yesterday?"
"It went smoothly. Thank you for the information you provided." Shi Rui walked to Assistant Li's desk and asked casually, "Sister, there's something I'm curious about. Mr. Qin works so hard, and his girlfriend often doesn't see him. Don't they quarrel?"
Assistant Li was stunned for a moment, her movements pausing. She quickly smiled, "Girlfriend? Our CEO Qin has been at the company for six or seven years, and he's been working all the time. He's never even had a holiday. How could he have time for a girlfriend? He's more in love with work than anything else."
Shi Rui's eyes twitched, and he pretended to remember something and asked, "But I seemed to have seen Mr. Qin messaging someone before, and his expression looked quite sweet."
"Really?" Assistant Li thought for a moment. "Now that you mention it, I remember I did see him a few times before, but that was a year ago. And it wasn't just texting. I saw him talking on the phone. The smile on his face was probably lessened, but it was still very different from when he was talking to us. But lately, I've noticed he's been in a rather irritable mood. Even though he still smiles at people, that smile is incredibly creepy. You'd better avoid provoking him."
She paused, lowering her voice to Shi Rui, "We've all been speculating privately that maybe President Qin has broken up, but we've only been gossiping behind closed doors. No one dares to ask. If President Qin were to hear about it, he'd definitely accuse us of gossip. So, just pretend you didn't hear what I just said."
"I don't tell anyone nonsense. There's one more thing I want to ask you about someone." Shi Rui's heartbeat suddenly quickened. He pulled his phone from his pocket, opened the photo album, and found Zhu Xun's photo.
He handed the phone to Assistant Li and asked, "Sister, do you know this designer Zhu? Is he quite famous?"
Assistant Li took the phone, glanced at it, and immediately pointed at the photo and smiled. "Of course I know Zhu Xun. He's President Qin's childhood friend. Zhu Xun even came to the company to see President Qin before, and they have a good relationship. By the way, do you remember the photo of President Qin that went viral a while ago? That suit was designed by Zhu Xun. Designer Zhu is very talented, and I have a friend who is a fan of his."
"Is that so? Then he is indeed very talented." Shi Rui said casually, reached out to take the phone, and subconsciously swiped his fingertips across the screen to close the photo.
For some reason, a corner of his heart suddenly felt much more relaxed, and even the corners of his mouth seemed to turn up. He pursed his lips, lowered the curve of his lips, and turned around to go back to work.
This led to Qin Jixiu being surprised and displeased when he saw that he was in a good mood that day, and deliberately assigned him a lot of difficult tasks. It was not until Qin Jixiu saw him sitting in his seat, scratching his hair with a frown on his face, that he felt better.
Qin Jixiu wasn't in a relationship, and it didn't sound like they'd recently broken up. Shi Rui couldn't figure out what he had done to offend him. After thinking for a moment, he took a bright red apple from the tea room, peeled it, cut it into pieces, and put a toothpick on it before giving it to Qin Jixiu.
Qin Jixiu raised his eyes and looked at him: "Are you free?"
Shi Rui thought that taking care of Qin Jixiu's daily life was part of his job, so he didn't respond. Instead, he asked, "Mr. Qin, don't you like apples?"
"Why are you asking this?"
"How about a banana?"
Qin Jixiu looked at him silently.
Shi Rui noticed that Qin Jixiu's teacup was empty, so he filled it with hot water. The tea leaves swirled in the water, and the tea soup was golden and translucent.
Qin Jixiu noticed that he was a little abnormal, but before he could figure out the reason, he heard Shi Rui say, "Our family...the tea from our hometown is also good. I'll bring it to you to try someday."
"Why?" Qin Jixiu asked.
"Tea is very common in our hometown and the price is not expensive—"
Qin Jixiu suddenly interrupted him: "I'm asking, why are you in such a good mood today?" So good that it made him unhappy.
The author has something to say:
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Our Shi Rui is also a scheming boy
Happy Chinese Valentine's Day, my dears [dog's head holding a rose]
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