Chapter 3
During the lunch hour, Pei Huai deliberately avoided Zhu Zhiyang's sight—everyone in that room hoped to get along well with the newcomer, but forcing it would only have the opposite effect.
He went to the balcony in a depressed mood to smoke a single cigarette, his control of time starting with the tip of his tongue. As his mood improved and his cigarette was finished, his patience gradually returned to a passable level.
After a nearly two-hour lunch break, Pei Huai found the newcomer in the tea room and decided to explain the future work process to him.
The location was the office. From the moment he entered and flipped open the procedure manual until the second paragraph of his explanation, Pei Huai would glance up at him from time to time, his thumb scraping across the edge of the page, again and again, as if something was slipping away with the passing of seconds. He watched Xiang Mingqi's butter-covered fingers pick up the cherry stems with unconcern, and suddenly interrupted his narration.
"Brother, do you want a bite too?" A cherry was juicy and overflowing in his mouth. Xiang Mingqi noticed his gaze and wiped his hands in confusion. "Oh, I made an extra portion and put it in my bag. It's okay if you dislike me. You can have the new one."
Pei Huai continued to stare at him expressionlessly, his jaw clenched.
"No." The syllables were slowly ground out from between his teeth. He took a deep breath, closed the manual, and his eyes were full of warning. "I was just talking about which line."
Xiang Mingqi's right hand twitched, and he glanced over guiltily before retracting it. With his butter-stained hands, he flipped through the book to the first page, smudging the words a bit, his eyes occasionally stealing glances. Pei Huai's eyelids twitched as he read. Page two, page three. He hesitated for a long time, unable to answer, and subconsciously reached out to grab the cake: "Oh, I always feel like it's the third line. Yes, I always feel like I've heard it somewhere..."
A slap knocked the half piece of cloth directly out of his hand. The air flow brushed across his cheek so fast that Xiang Mingqi mistakenly thought he was going to be hit, and he hugged his head.
"I was wrong, I was wrong, I was wrong—I didn't listen, I was distracted just now..."
Then, a procedure manual was slammed down next to him, causing him to shudder. Xiang Mingqi covered his face with his hands and peeked back panickedly through his fingers.
"Aren't you going to continue? I thought you were going to give me a good beating." He breathed a sigh of relief and waved his hand to sweep away the crumbs between his trouser folds. "It's okay, it's okay. It's just a piece of cake."
Pei Huai frowned.
"Is it because I was distracted just now?" He shamelessly leaned over with his hands behind his back, his gaze shifting from the twitching corners of his senior's lips to his forehead, and he grinned. "Anyway, I was wrong. I'm sorry."
"Article 79 of the employee handbook prohibits physical conflict among employees. I won't violate this rule during working hours." Pei Huai glanced at his watch and stood up to leave. "I'll give you two hours. Prepare for the final interrogation."
"What? How can two hours be enough for over a hundred pages?!" The confidence on his face was completely wiped out. In panic, he grabbed his senior's sleeve to stop him, "Brother, please be magnanimous. I'm the worst at solving problems and the dumbest one!"
Pei Huai brushed his hand away like dust, nodding ever so slightly: "Please do your job well and don't bother me anymore."
——This is terrible. Pei Huai took several deep breaths as he stepped out of the office. This is simply terrible.
Childish, self-centered, unmotivated, and heartless. Pei Huai had seen colleagues like this before; on the contrary, he often dealt with them.
My superiors assigned tasks, but my colleagues quickly forgot about them, constantly asking about the requirements. The same thing happened with the evaluation report. After dividing the work, I barely finished it just minutes before the deadline. Every line of the document was riddled with typos, a complete mess. I had to clean up the mess myself.
Considering his performance just now, Pei Huai didn't think this newcomer was any different from his colleagues.
He didn't want to take over, and he didn't want to be so overwhelmed on the eve of the funeral.
Two hours. Just sit down, close your eyes, and you'll be there peacefully. The alarm went off ten minutes early. Pei Huai had already finished his third cigarette and his second cup of coffee.
He swallowed the bitter taste in his mouth, stood up and went back to his office, praying that everything would be normal when he opened the door.
But what was waiting for him was a procedure manual standing on the table. He felt his heart skip a beat.
Behind the pages of the book, a pair of strong arms were wrapped around the table along both sides, facing down - the newlyweds' chins were resting on the table, as if they were asleep.
Pei Huai strode forward, brushing aside the manual, ready to shove the unmotivated newcomer into a chair and give him a stern reprimand. But Xiang Mingqi opened his eyes just in time, quickly caught his wrist, and straightened his body, laughing.
"Yeah, brother, you've been fooled."
No one responded.
There was a loud bang.
——The hand that pressed Xiang Mingqi's hand joints and pressed him firmly back onto the table was a hand whose wrist bones and fingertips were so delicate that it was impossible to look away.
“…Is it fun?”
"No, no, no, it's not fun at all." Xiang Mingqi shrank back reflexively, as if he wanted to wrap himself tightly in a down blanket. "I surrender. I shouldn't have thought of scaring you at a time like this. I was wrong, I was wrong."
"Did you understand the manual?"
"About... twenty pages? Oh, I can't remember." He gave a thumbs-up without any remorse, his white teeth shining. "But I'll try my best to get a 60."
Take a deep breath.
"What documents do I need to bring with me for each debt collection operation?"
Xiang Mingqi thought as he lay back down, holding the pen with his pouting upper lip and stealing glances at Pei Huai.
Clear, slender, and alluring, any loose-fitting clothing on him has an unreal thinness—a sign of explosive power.
The true strength of muscles is not in the degree of bulge, nor in being strong or tough. It is in being somewhat thin, showing a smooth waistline, and having a body fat percentage that is visibly low.
It's not just the strong physical beauty, but also the handsome facial features that are extremely visually impactful.
He is absolutely perfect.
"answer."
"Is it the contract, invoice, and collection letter? The latter can be ignored in special circumstances. We are a special company anyway."
He received no reward, nor any eye contact. This was his job. Pei Huai thought, a job well done was the norm. Questions followed one after another, without any difficulty, criticism, or excessive examples.
It's not difficult to answer, as this senior will occasionally give reminders when I get stuck.
"Okay." This was the final evaluation Xiang Mingqi received. Pei Huai put the brochure back on the bulletin board and turned his back. "Get ready to leave."
"But I got all the answers right. Aren't you going to reward me for this?"
"It's your duty to answer correctly." He didn't turn around. "This is the company. We're both employees. I have no obligation to reward you."
Xiang Mingqi jumped off the chair without a second thought and chased after him, "How about we go home together today?"
"no."
"Then let's go get some crepes together on the way, I know..."
"no."
After leaving the office, Pei Huai realized he might have gotten into a big trouble. A nagging, shameless guy like that was more difficult to deal with than anything else. Besides, he was at the company to work, not to help them babysit. He didn't think he had the energy to keep up.
In the hallway, the newcomer clung to her. He followed her in the elevator, and even at the company gate, he still insisted, "It's time to get off work. You can't keep looking at me like that all the time, can you?"
"Yes." Before getting on the bus, Pei Huai gave him one last glance and gave him a serious suggestion, "You talk too much."
"So you don't find me annoying. That's good." - He actually breathed a sigh of relief and followed me happily, "So let's go home together."
So annoying...
-
The rental house is located between the suburbs and the urban area of Kensos, and is not connected to the main road, so there are few buses and people coming and going during the off-hours.
As soon as he got on the bus, Pei Huai deliberately took a seat facing the back door, which was convenient for getting in and out. However, due to Xiang Mingqi's arrival, he selectively gave up his window seat.
The latter thanked him with a smile, seemingly not understanding the atmosphere.
Xiang Mingqi grabbed the right shoulder strap and slung his backpack across his lap. He glanced around in his seat and shoved a pair of headphones into Pei Huai's pocket, inviting him to listen to some music. "My family used to be really strict. They wouldn't let me go to my friends' houses, which made me really nervous. By the way, brother, do you listen to some music? Pop songs."
Pei Huai turned his head away and didn't want to look at him: "No need."
The rejected young man muttered as he opened a horizontal screen game, his shoulders slumped. "Okay, I'll play games then."
Later, during the nearly thirty-minute journey, Pei Huai had to clear his mind and think about why the newcomer could talk nonsense while playing games, and most of his words were meaningless food tastings and school experiences.
From the station to the rental house, the boy kept talking about his four years of college life.
So annoying.
Pei Huai originally wanted to use his senior status to order him to turn around, leave the corridor, and disappear from his sight. However, considering that Xiang Mingqi had introduced him as someone from the head office, excluding him would be equivalent to putting pressure on the Human Resources Department and Zhu Zhiyang.
He hates trouble, and he hates trouble that he can't handle even more.
Just as he was opening the hallway door, Pei Huai nearly bumped into someone hurrying down the stairs. The person, wearing a blue hat and carrying a tangled satchel with its buckle still undone, was sweating profusely as they ran down from the upper floors. As they passed, the person paused, his eyes tracking Pei Huai's figure as he slowed his pace. His lips moved faintly, as if he were mumbling something.
Pei Huai took a quick look and then looked away. He recognized the clothes; they were work clothes for the property maintenance department.
However, seeing as the sensor light hadn't responded, the circuit still hadn't been fixed. Xiang Mingqi hadn't noticed and was still chattering along.
"Is it on the third floor?" He poked his head out, his chin over the handrail, peering down at the ground floor. "That's perfect. I always feel like the first floor is damp. If there's no good lighting, mold is prone to growing at the base of the walls. I really hate damp environments."
Enduring the noise, he took a deep breath, and then another, until he reached the third floor. His fingertips scraped against the peeling paint on the handrail, and Pei Huai looked up as if remembering something, his gaze suddenly landing on the door.
There was a bouquet of red roses wrapped in flax and sherry paper.
He walked up, pulled it off, and threw it into the trash can in the corridor.
"Huh? So you don't like flowers?" Xiang Mingqi asked curiously from behind him, "But I heard that when you go to the bar, you receive a lot of flowers in one night."
"Who told you that?"
"It's the boss I met when I first entered the company, the one with the slicked-back hair. I don't remember his name, but I just feel like he knows you very well."
Pei Huai heard this and was about to turn around to warn him not to pry into his private life. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Xiang Mingqi approaching from behind, a large hand pressing against the side of his head, pushing the door back.
"Brother." He lowered his shoulders and came to Pei Huai's neck. Even the title was dragged out, and the call was sticky. "Since I know you so well, reward me..."
——He couldn’t finish the sentence.
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