Flower specimens
"Boss Jin, coffee." Lu Yiqing placed a porcelain cup with cat ears on the table. "Reporter Chen from Lido Business Daily has arrived in the reception room. Would you like to take a look at the questions first?"
Jinnan nodded, picked up the cup and took a sip, the bitter taste piercing his teeth. But there was nothing he could do, he had ordered the extra strong black coffee, half to refresh himself and half to keep himself alive.
"Will Alice be able to come back for the meeting later?"
"It's a bit difficult. Alice just got off the plane and is probably still at the airport. Claire gave the information to Manager You."
Jinnan pinched his brows. After the quarrel with Xu Zhiyuan that day, Xu Zhiyuan never returned to Yunting. He took a year-long leave and his current whereabouts were unknown.
All his work could not stop. Jin Nan took on half of it himself, with You Yi and Claire helping out with the rest. The gears were barely turning. Jin Nan paid the price for his previous passiveness.
Jin Nan felt a headache when he thought about the drinking party he had to attend that evening. This Business Daily reporter was originally here to interview Xu Zhiyuan, and Hua Lin and several other CEOs, including Mr. Wang and Mr. Li, had tried to take the blame, but to no avail. In the end, Jin Nan, who had never actively appeared, managed to gain the reporter's favor.
After working for two days, Jinnan felt that Xu Zhiyuan had such a heavy workload, but he was either arguing or talking about love with him every day. He was really a piece of shit.
But he was holding his breath, and he was unwilling to swallow it for no reason. He could only choke like this.
The camera started rolling. A young female reporter sat opposite, smiling calmly.
"Mr. Jin, as far as I know, you just graduated from Li University's business school last June and officially joined Hualin. Can you tell us about your work experience over the past six months?"
There was the sound of pages turning. Jin Nan spoke eloquently according to the prepared speech. When he asked the fifth question, he glanced outside the reception room and was instantly distracted.
A tall man in a black suit stood outside the door. His dark blue glasses reflected light slightly, making his calm, deep black eyes appear blurry.
Jinnan just took a glance and quickly returned to work, without letting the keen media notice the abnormality.
At the end of the interview, the reporter shook hands cordially with Jin Nan. His attitude was no longer as polite and distant as at the beginning, but showed a bit more genuine enthusiasm.
Jin Nan didn't care and handed the person over to his assistant. There was no one outside the glass, and the scent of the woman's perfume had become very faint. Lu Yiqing trotted back, her hair slightly messy. "Alice... I brought Alice back! This meeting will be foolproof!"
Jinnan glanced at his watch and saw that there were still ten minutes left.
"You guys go to the conference room first, I'll go upstairs."
Jinnan will not give up until he gets a definite answer.
Xu Zhiyuan's office was on the first floor with the R&D department. He passed many men and women wearing glasses, some nodding coldly in greeting, others avoiding his gaze. Jinnan sifted through the sea of glasses, searching for that hint of dark blue.
He knocked twice on the office door, then pushed it open. No one was inside. A week's absence had left the coffee cup on the desk dry. Before Jin Nan could find any clues, Claire walked by in her high heels and peeked inside. "Mr. Jin, are you looking for Mr. Xu? He's in the conference room on the 16th floor."
Not an illusion.
"Thanks."
Jin Nanshun took an ordinary signing pen that Xu Zhiyuan had placed on the table. Paper? The CEO didn't need such things.
The president uses the pen to point at people.
Three minutes before the meeting was to begin, the main guest finally arrived. Under everyone's gaze, the youngest leader of Hualin gracefully took his seat and gestured to the meeting host, You Yi, "You may begin."
Xu Zhiyuan sat at the far corner of the long table, far away from Jinnan, which also meant he had a speech today. Xu Zhiyuan often wore suits, but rarely did he look so formal and serious. Although he appeared aloof and aloof, Jinnan saw him as more charming.
A day without seeing you feels like three years.
Xu Zhiyuan pretended not to see it and wrote and drew on the paper with a pen. The ends of his hair at the temples were shorter than when Jinnan saw him a week ago.
Perhaps intentionally avoiding the issue, Xu Zhiyuan wore a custom-made, unbranded suit. Everything he wore and used was done with an effort to "de-Jinnan" (a Southern-style aesthetic), but unfortunately, he forgot his hands.
The cuffs and watches were all branded by Jinnan.
His hands were clenched outside, his knuckles interlaced, and the ink slid across his pen tip so lightly and quickly.
Jinnan reflected carefully, what exactly did he like about Xu Zhiyuan?
Appearance? Xu Zhiyuan was handsome, but compared to the men and women Jinnan had met in that other world, Xu Zhiyuan was not the best.
Repaying a favor? Yu Jinnan has done many favors for others, but he doesn’t love Lin Jiaze or Li Hongfang that much.
Knowledge? Status? Wealth?
"Mr. Jin, do you want to speak?"
The PPT page stopped at the international promotional activities for the next quarter, the first stop being Paname, with spokesperson Ke Zhuo.
Jinnan shook his head, indicating he had no objection. The Hualin executives were basically used to his rude attitude, not giving anyone face, and didn't even raise an eyebrow.
Before moving on to the next item on the agenda, he suddenly asked, "Who wrote this part of the plan?"
One woman raised her hand.
Jinnan nodded at her and smiled, "Well done."
He had no airs of using his position for personal gain. Others, unaware of the situation, simply assumed he was speaking on a whim. He couldn't help but sigh inwardly at the cost of these words. With the president's words, the finance department would have to hand out a significant bonus.
The meeting ended. Jinnan left the crowd, which was clearly divided by black, white, and gray, seeking his dark blue. The sky gradually darkened. The rainstorm at lunchtime was the most unwelcome, forcing everyone to stay in the cafeteria.
Jinnan knocked on Xu Zhiyuan's office door, carrying two thermoses. Xu Zhiyuan was cleaning his glasses, with two apples in front of him, which he didn't know who had brought them.
When he saw Jinnan, Xu Zhiyuan didn't have any special reaction. He put his glasses back on without saying a word.
Across the desk, the two men stared at each other for a long time. Jin Nan spoke first, "Master, would you like to eat Buddha Jumps Over the Wall?"
Xu Zhiyuan glanced at the thermos that Jinnan was opening and said indifferently, "Avoid eating."
"Are you eating vegetarian food and chanting Buddhist scriptures?" Jin Nan smiled. "Don't worry, they're just dead shrimps and crabs, no killing."
Xu Zhiyuan: ...
The two of them tacitly agreed not to mention their conflict, the week they were away, or anything else that might spark a conflict or argument. Jin Nan was there, and he wouldn't let anything slip. Xu Zhiyuan hadn't responded much, but when Jin Nan handed him the chopsticks and the bowl of rice, he finally asked, "What are you eating?"
Jin Nan didn't know Xu Zhiyuan was coming today, so he didn't ask his family to prepare lunch. This lunch, which had just been delivered to the company a dozen minutes ago, was prepared by the chef, who had been supervised by Butler Guo, for the entire morning.
Jin Nan grinned and said, "I asked Xiao Lu to help me with the canteen. You can eat slowly. I'm leaving first."
"Jinnan." Xu Zhiyuan called him.
Jinnan looked up and stopped pushing the chair.
"Don't you have anything to ask me?" Xu Zhiyuan asked.
"Hmm..." Konami hesitated for a moment, "Paname, will you go?"
Jinnan is 23 years old. In the past few years, he has been much more well-behaved than before. He has learned everything he should learn and can take on the responsibilities and messes assigned to him.
He is so well-behaved that people almost forget what a prickly creature Jin Nan is, hidden beneath his increasingly sophisticated appearance.
He avoids the important issues, talks nonsense, and tells lies and truths. His tears are a rare commodity, but unfortunately some people don't cherish them.
When he hid himself, even Xu Zhiyuan found it difficult to find him.
Nothing seemed to have changed, and the sincerity that Xu Zhiyuan had forced out with great difficulty returned to where it was.
"Yeah." Xu Zhiyuan could only respond.
Shouldn't you take the initiative to explain things at this time? If couples want to maintain their relationship, they should address conflicts through questions and arguments. Simply avoiding them will only lead to further separation.
But are they a couple? No.
That's good, that's good.
so……
Jinnan's beautiful fox eyes moved closer, so close that Xu Zhiyuan could see every flicker. The scent of men's aftershave filled his mouth and nose, and a kiss was completed by pulling on his tie.
"I want to stay in a double room with you." Jinnan said.
Xu Zhiyuan couldn't take his eyes off him.
Their mindsets seemed to be in a zero-sum game: the calmer one person was, the more flustered the other became. They could only communicate if they maintained a balance with a high heart rate.
"Okay." Xu Zhiyuan responded.
He would not reject Jinnan.
*
Jinnan took a transoceanic flight for the first time during the winter break of his sophomore year.
At the finals of the North American BPA Business Competition, Jin Nan bought economy class tickets with his classmates. After enduring strikes, extreme weather and a snowstorm, he carried his small suitcase and chose Li Hongfang, who ran 300 meters, over Xu Zhiyuan, who ran 30 kilometers.
The continuous snowstorm forced various activities to be moved online. Jinnan's sudden arrival left Xu Zhiyuan somewhat bewildered, as he hadn't prepared any extra food. The two of them survived a week on a single bag of wheat flour.
With the guidance of the master Xu Zhiyuan, I won a good ranking in the competition without any surprise.
At that time, Xu Zhiyuan taught him: "When negotiating with others, you must learn to make concessions. Only by retreating in order to advance can you control others."
Jinnan learned it and used it on his teacher.
"This year the main show is in Sharjah. Xiao Jin's general idea is to take the A380 first and then transfer to Paname. The journey will be much more comfortable."
Miss Claire was also in full force today, her high heels clicking loudly. It was part habit, part anger. Unlike Mr. Xiao Jin, who had left home early this morning, Mr. Xu had a flight that afternoon and had to go to the office to handle business in the morning.
Xu Zhiyuan took off his glasses and put them in his front pocket. Before heading to the VIP waiting room, he quickly glanced at the crowd in the airport hall.
"By the way, Xiao Chen called this morning." Claire turned around, her expression surprisingly sympathetic. "The two bouquets of flowers in Bay Apartment 2611 are almost wilting. I want to know if you want to throw them away."
Xiao Chen is Xu Zhiyuan's personal assistant. A few days ago, he saw flowers for the first time in Xu Zhiyuan's house and was so scared that he went home and prayed three times.
"Help me make a specimen," Xu Zhiyuan said, "and then send it to Xuanshan and put it in my study."
"Mr. Xu." Claire teased in a low voice, "Love is not easy. Even the flowers wither."
"There's nothing I can do. I have no experience." Xu Zhiyuan answered frankly.
In the VIP lounge, Jinnan, wearing large headphones, was playing Sudoku on a tablet. Beneath the tablet was a paperback copy of Fahrenheit 451, its cover slightly curled. It was the copy Xu Zhiyuan had flipped through.
Xu Zhiyuan stood behind him and watched for a long time, but he didn't notice.
Just as he wrote down the number 4, Xu Zhiyuan intervened, pinching the end of the pen and interrupting him: "It should be nine."
Claire looked left and right, but didn't see the person she cared about: "Where's Yiqing?"
"Check in." Jinnan tilted his head, "Please buy me some milk tea."
"This time's trilingual translation..."
"Hi?"
Speak of Cao Cao and he will appear.
A neatly dressed young man with a buzz cut pushed the door open and entered. He awkwardly greeted everyone, flashing a white smile. "I'm Chen Chen, the translator and Maolin representative for this event. I'm Erdong Chen, the Chen in Chensiwuwei. You can call me Xiao Chen."
Xu Zhiyuan quietly reached out to Jinnan's ear and then silently withdrew his hand.
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