Chapter 13 Drip Implantation "You seem very tired."
The car drove smoothly toward the city hospital.
Tang Yi broke with tradition and did not sit in the passenger seat as usual, but instead sat in the back with Zhang Minglang.
After Zhang Minglang settled down, he noticed that she had actually followed him into the back seat. Despite being in so much pain that cold sweat was pouring down his forehead, he couldn't resist making a witty remark: "It's like the sun has risen in the west! Secretary Tang sits in the back seat too?"
"I'm afraid you won't be able to hold on."
Tang Yi spoke softly, her brows furrowed slightly, and her eyes revealed worry.
Zhang Minglang was taken aback.
Seeing her unusually worried expression, he was slightly taken aback, and even felt that his stomach pain had lessened.
Someone with Secretary Tang's icy personality probably has never shown such concern for others before.
He secretly felt a surge of pride welling up inside him.
Tang Yi watched quietly as the old man inexplicably became animated, completely baffled as to what was going on in his mind.
Assistant Zhou and Tang Yi helped Zhang Minglang out of the car and headed to the emergency room. Zhang Minglang was very reluctant and insisted on walking by himself, as if he felt ashamed.
“It’s nothing serious, it’s like I’ve done something wrong by helping you like this.”
Tang Yi was too lazy to chat with him anymore. She gave Assistant Zhou a look, and the two of them each took one arm and led him into the emergency room.
Upon examination, it was indeed acute gastroenteritis.
When Tang Yi paid the fee and entered the infusion room, she saw Zhang Minglang with his eyes closed and his brows slightly furrowed. His head was slightly tilted against the wall behind him, the IV tube was at his side, and his hand rested limply on his knee. His pale skin contrasted sharply with the dark fabric of his suit.
She moved quietly, shook the blanket she had brought from his office, and gently covered him with it.
Tang Yi straightened up and prepared to walk out when her arm was suddenly grabbed.
She was startled and turned around abruptly. Her smooth hair flew across her face with the movement and then fell onto her shoulder.
Zhang Minglang looked at her with half-closed eyes, his eyes still showing some lingering weariness.
Realizing what he had done unconsciously, he almost immediately let go of his hand and tried to cover it up by smoothing out the wrinkles in his pants.
They both recalled that day at the banquet, when he had grabbed her arm without saying a word.
"......Feel sorry."
Zhang Minglang touched the back of his neck, a sign of his guilty conscience. She didn't say anything, but simply turned around and sat down beside him.
Where is Assistant Zhou?
“I sent him back to work.”
Seeing that Tang Yi didn't ask any more questions, Zhang Minglang breathed a sigh of relief.
Of course, he wouldn't tell her why he let Assistant Zhou go back like that, leaving the two of them sitting there.
After all, even he himself was not entirely clear about the motivation behind this behavior.
Tang Yi sat silently beside him. The two seemed to form some kind of barrier, isolating them from the noisy sounds of children crying and adults talking in the hospital infusion room.
I haven't had a break in a long time.
Tang Yi felt her eyelids getting heavier and heavier, and no matter how hard she tried to keep them open, it was all in vain.
Zhang Minglang turned his head, about to say something, but suddenly realized that Secretary Tang had already fallen asleep.
He tilted his head slightly to the side, and from his downward angle, he could only see her long, curled eyelashes and high nose.
Zhang Minglang stared at her silently, lost in thought.
A child suddenly darted around and bounced to Zhang Minglang's side, pulling him back to reality.
He put a finger to his lips to signal silence, then pointed to Tang Yi, who was sleeping beside him.
The child was frightened by his serious and indifferent expression, and ran away in a daze after shutting up.
Having chased away the annoying child, he looked down at her sleeping face again, and the glare on his face melted away without him even realizing it.
Tang Yi crossed his arms, wrapping himself up tightly. He looked up and saw an air conditioner vent blowing directly overhead.
So he laboriously freed one hand, pulled off the gray blanket covering himself, and gently covered her with it.
A clock hangs on the hospital's snow-white wall, its minute and second hands chasing each other, making a faint "tick-tock" sound.
When Tang Yi opened her eyes again, she felt refreshed and invigorated.
She blinked, feeling so comfortable she even wanted to stretch, but as she stretched out her arms, the blanket slipped off her body.
Where is this?
Tang Yi looked around and suddenly realized that she had come to accompany Zhang Minglang while he received an IV drip!
In an instant, she was wide awake. She turned her head and looked around, finding Zhang Minglang sitting quietly beside her, his eyes also closed.
Her heart relaxed for a few seconds, then suddenly sank again.
Tang Yi leaned over to look for the IV drip above his head, regretting that she had suddenly fallen asleep. What if the IV drip was finished and not changed, causing blood to flow back?
"No need to watch anymore, it's over."
While she was still looking around, the man opened his eyes and spoke in a deep, hoarse voice, like a piece of sandpaper.
Upon hearing this, Tang Yi sat back down, bowed her head, and apologized, "I'm sorry, Mr. Zhang, I was just a little sleepy..."
No need to apologize.
Zhang Minglang interrupted her.
She was surprised that he didn't say anything difficult, and she looked up. He, on the other hand, for some reason, quickly looked away.
"Slept well? If you've slept well, then we'll leave."
Zhang Minglang stood up, adjusted his suit jacket, and turned his back to her. Tang Yi put away the blanket and followed suit.
Unexpectedly, she slept for almost two or three hours.
Sitting in the car, she deeply reflected on her elementary work mistakes.
"...Did you hear what I said?"
Suddenly hearing Zhang Minglang's fragmented voice, Tang Yi's heart sank, and she turned to look at Zhang Minglang in the back seat.
He looked at her carefully, seemingly lost in thought, and repeated himself.
“I said, the meeting originally scheduled for today will be postponed to tomorrow morning.”
"Okay, I'll go back and make the arrangements."
Tang Yi nodded quickly, her mind racing as she considered the original schedule.
“You don’t need to go back to the company today,” Zhang Minglang said after thinking for a long time, stating the decision he had made at the hospital a few hours earlier.
After a few seconds of pause, he said, "You seem very tired."
Tang Yi was taken aback, and slowly turned around again, unsure of what to say for a moment.
"What, Secretary Tang, don't you want a vacation?"
Seeing her stunned expression, Zhang Minglang chuckled.
"No."
Tang Yi answered almost reflexively.
Zhang Minglang found it both intriguing and amusing that she had inadvertently revealed her true colors.
Tang Yi then realized what she had said. Her eyes flickered, and she showed a rare hint of embarrassment.
"...Or I'd better go back to the company; there's still a lot to finish."
“There’s never a time when work is finished,” Zhang Minglang insisted on giving her a short break. “The company has been working on projects for a long time without rest, so leaving two hours early is no big deal.”
Tang Yi was about to retort when she saw him raise his chin towards the window and say jokingly, "Besides, it might be a bit too late to refuse now."
She looked in the direction he was pointing and saw that the taxi was only a dozen meters away from the gate of her residential compound.
He actually acted without consulting me first.
She felt a little conflicted and turned to look at him.
Zhang Minglang raised one eyebrow and smiled, seemingly proudly taking credit.
Golden sunlight streamed through the car window, illuminating his few stray hairs and half his face in a golden hue.
A strange feeling inexplicably arose in Tang Yi's heart.
She suppressed her feelings and quickly thanked him. The car stopped just then, and she nodded to him, got out of the car, and walked towards the gate without looking back.
"ungrateful."
Seeing that she casually thanked him and ran away without even turning her head, Zhang Minglang muttered something to himself as her figure receded into the distance.
The "heartless" Secretary Tang fled from the car, and on his way to the building, he kept asking himself: Where did that feeling just now come from? It was just leaving work two hours early, what was he so excited about?
Tang Yi recalled the spirited and triumphant look on Zhang Minglang's face that she had just seen.
Sunlight, gold, and dancing strands of hair.
The man, bathed in light, raised an eyebrow smugly.
She quickly shook her head, trying to shake off the memory.
I've been working overtime so much I'm going crazy, I'm even hallucinating.
Tang Yi fiercely rebuked herself for her inexplicable mental activity and secretly resolved to go to bed early tonight.
However, she suffered from insomnia.
This directly resulted in her not being in a very good mental state when she came to work the next morning.
Her colleagues were already very familiar with Secretary Tang's work habits. Even though she rarely showed her emotions, they had a good grasp of her moods after working together for so many years.
For example, walking in with a blank expression like today doesn't mean I'm angry; it just means I was bothered by something the day before.
At this time, everyone has to take the documents more seriously than usual, otherwise Secretary Tang will criticize them mercilessly.
In the small group chat, a few people cautiously gossiped and slacked off.
[I originally wanted to ask Secretary Tang about the team-building activities, but I didn't dare go, afraid of being criticized for having "off-track ideologies."]
Who messed with Klay Thompson? Come forward and confess!
Could it be because I broke the printer while printing documents yesterday?
"No way, haven't you messed things up enough? It can't be that bad."
Has no one noticed that President Zhang is also absent?
The group of people tacitly put down their phones, looked up, and nodded to each other in agreement.
Speak of the devil, and he appears. Zhang Minglang, with a stern face, strode across the workstations, slowed down beside Tang Yi's desk, and tapped with his fingers. Tang Yi understood, picked up her tablet, and got up to follow him.
As soon as the frosted glass door closed, several colleagues began to discuss quietly.
"Judging from this, Mr. Zhang's face looks really sour."
"What else is there to say? The two of them must have been arguing again."
"Right, neither President Zhang nor Secretary Tang came in the afternoon yesterday. They must have gone out to discuss contracts or something and had some disagreements."
"I'm on Secretary Tang's side this time. He's always getting cold shoulders from General Zhang. It's really tough."
"These two are actually quite a good match, hahaha, they're like a pair of bickering lovers."
The two, who had been turned into a bickering couple, were completely unaware of what was going on and were discussing their day's itinerary in a very classy manner.
"If there are no problems, let's set it for 10 o'clock."
Tang Yi glanced at her watch; it was already 9:30, so she made the suggestion.
Zhang Minglang didn't react much, nodding with a slightly dazed look in his eyes.
Coincidentally, he also had insomnia last night.
He tossed and turned in bed, the scene of the hospital infusion room lingering in his mind.
When Tang Yi is asleep, it's as if a hedgehog has folded its quills and revealed its soft side.
This is a side of her that he could never see while she was at work—another side of her.
He tossed and turned repeatedly, and unfortunately, he became unable to sleep.
Tang Yi noticed that he was half an hour late and didn't look well, so she deduced that he hadn't rested well either.
So she compromised again and suggested, "If you would like to take it a little longer, the meeting can be postponed by half an hour."
"No need."
Zhang Minglang roused himself. Time was of the essence, and the progress could not be delayed any longer, so the meeting was held on time at 10:00 a.m.
"We've been working intensely for the past month, so everyone must get plenty of rest. We still have half a month left, and we need everyone's joint efforts to get through this."
At the end of the meeting, as Zhang Minglang was about to leave, he seemed to remember something, turned back, added this sentence, and then left.
Tang Yi followed behind him, filled with emotion.
When he first joined the company, Zhang Minglang was as stubborn as a steel plate and wouldn't listen to any advice. Now he has improved, at least he knows to show concern for his subordinates on the surface.
"Mr. Zhang, September and October are usually the time for departmental team building activities. Once the patent application is successfully approved, we can start preparing for this."
Tang Yi walked beside him, talking as they went.
Zhang Minglang understood immediately and casually asked, "Where did you guys go in previous years?"
"We usually travel to nearby cities, and for a few years we have also organized indoor performances and movie screenings."
A mischievous idea suddenly popped into Zhang Minglang's head.
He cleared his throat, deliberately slowed his pace, turned to look at Tang Yi, and said in a soft tone, "Why haven't you ever been to a bar for team building?"
Tang Yi's heart sank, naturally thinking of her identity as a bartender. She subconsciously prepared to make up an excuse, but when she looked up again, she saw the other person's expression as they tried hard to suppress a laugh.
Tang Yi: "......"
She instantly recalled the scene when the two met at the bar.
A note from the author:
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