Have you known Lu Zhe for a long time?
Xue Xiaodie did not answer Miss Tang's question directly, but instead adopted a more ambiguous strategy.
Xue Xiaodie tilted her head, thought for a few seconds, and said, "We met while watching the Copa America. I can't remember exactly how many days ago it was."
It's worth noting that the Copa America lasted for almost a month, and the only match she and Lu Zhe watched together was the final game.
Tang Qi indeed took out her phone, checked the start time of the Copa America, and asked, "You two met a month ago?"
Xue Xiaodie: "That's right, and what about you?"
Tang Qi: "About the same as you, haha..."
Just as Xue Xiaodie was about to test the waters further, Lu Zhe returned with three bottles of chilled drinks.
A bottle of iced tea was placed in front of Xue Xiaodie; a bottle of iced cola was placed in front of Tang Qi. He himself took a bottle of Sprite, which he had only taken two sips of, and sat down opposite the two girls.
As soon as I landed, two beverage bottles were handed to me, along with the voices of two girls.
Xue Xiaodie: "Could you open it for me?"
Tang Qi: "Help me twist it open!"
Xue Xiaodie spoke half a second earlier, but Tang Qi spoke faster and finished first. In short, it sounded like they spoke almost simultaneously.
Lu Zhe was taken aback.
The two girls were also stunned, turning to look at each other with surprise in their eyes.
Xue Xiaodie was well aware that what she had just done was entirely a subconscious reaction. Whenever she had an unopened beverage bottle, as long as Lu Zhe was nearby, she would hand it to him and ask him to open it for her.
She secretly wondered if Tang Qi was in the same situation.
But why would Miss Tang also develop similar subconscious reactions?
Lu Zhe didn't think much of it, after all, in his opinion it was just a trivial favor. He quickly came to his senses, took the two drinks, first unscrewed the iced tea, then the cola, and handed them back to them respectively.
Xue Xiaodie and Tang Qi drank beverages and continued eating maocai (a type of Sichuan hot pot), which greatly improved their tolerance.
During the rest of the lunch, all three remained relatively silent.
Nearly ten minutes later, Xue Xiaodie had finished eating, and Tang Qi finally put down her chopsticks.
Fortunately, the spiciness of the maocai (a type of Sichuan hot pot) was not as intense as that of hot pot. With the help of rice and iced drinks, the two girls only had slightly flushed faces and their lips did not swell up again.
Tang Qi: "I'm finished eating, how about you guys?"
Xue Xiaodie: "I'm all better now."
Lu Zhe held out his hands and handed the two the napkins he had just gotten: "I've already paid, let's go."
Xue Xiaodie took the tissue and demurely wiped her mouth, secretly thinking—how wonderful it would be if it were just him and her right now, without another girl?
She glanced to the side and saw Tang Qi's expression. She guessed that Miss Tang was thinking something similar.
————
At three o'clock in the afternoon, after working for a while, Lu Zhe put down the small speaker and stood up.
He walked out of the back door of the office and came to the smoking area.
At that moment, three colleagues were gathered in the corner, chatting and smoking. When they noticed Lu Zhe approaching, they merely glanced at him without greeting him.
For new employees who have just joined the company and have no business connections, there is naturally no need to greet them.
Lu Zhe walked straight into the stairwell, opened the window, and took a deep breath of fresh air. For him, taking a break from work to relax was quite necessary.
There was a metal can on the windowsill filled with water, and many cigarette butts floated in it. The water was also very dark, and it was hard to tell how much tar and nicotine it had dissolved in.
Lu Zhe smelled a faint scent of cigarettes and suddenly felt a urge to smoke one himself.
He was a non-smoker from a young age. Later, many of his college roommates and colleagues were heavy smokers, but he never touched a cigarette. In his view, smoking was a rather foolish act from a rational perspective, and besides, his wallet was limited, and he didn't want to waste money buying cigarettes.
"When faced with a problem you want to avoid, do you feel the urge to do something foolish?"
Lu Zhe sighed, shook his head, and prepared to return to his workstation. But then, he subconsciously took out his phone and glanced at it.
Then I discovered the WeChat message from Xue Xiaodie.
【What an unlucky day!】
Below that sentence was a meme of a cat crying in anguish.
Lu Zhe replied: 【What's wrong with you?】
He walked into the office. Back at his desk, he checked his phone again. Sure enough, a new WeChat message from Xue Xiaodie had arrived.
Xue Xiaodie: [I had maocai (a type of Sichuan hot pot) and iced tea for lunch, and then I realized that in the afternoon...]
Lu Zhe: [What happened this afternoon?]
Xue Xiaodie: [Never mind, it's nothing. Let's go to work. Good luck.]
Lu Zhe: [???]
After waiting for a while, Xue Xiaodie still didn't send another WeChat message.
Lu Zhe fell into deep thought.
After a moment of contemplation, he realized it was still working hours, so he picked up the small speaker, turned it on, and prepared to ask the artificial intelligence a question.
He said, "Xiao Qiu, I have a question."
AI: "Okay, go ahead and say it."
"When do girls hi..." Lu Zhe stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence, "Wait, I think I understand now."
AI: "What did you understand?"
Lu Zhe murmured, "If a girl says she's unlucky, what could have happened to her?"
AI: "Forgot your umbrella on a rainy day?"
Lu Zhe: "It's not raining now."
AI: "Have you discovered your boyfriend is cheating on you?"
Lu Zhe: "Hehe, she doesn't have a boyfriend."
AI: "Then it's possible that she's having her period."
Lu Zhe stroked his chin: "I think so too... So here's the question: when you're on your period, is it true that you can't eat spicy food or drink cold drinks?"
AI: "According to the information provided by the search engine, it is best to avoid eating spicy or irritating foods or drinks during menstruation to prevent aggravating the pain."
He picked up his phone again, wanting to send Xue Xiaodie something to comfort her. But then he thought, if a girl is too embarrassed to say she's having her period, wouldn't it be awkward if he just said he guessed?
Just as Lu Zhe was hesitating, a hand patted his shoulder. Turning around, he saw it was his superior, Mao Kai.
Mao Kai: "I have something to let you know. We might have to work overtime tomorrow night, so please be mindful of your schedule. It might go quite late. Of course, there will be overtime pay."
Lu Zhe: "Why are you working overtime?"
Mao Kai: "It seems to be a test for another project. It's quite different from the AI voice chat you're working on now, um, I think."
"Seems like? Shouldn't it?" Lu Zhe was somewhat amused and exasperated. "You don't know either?"
Mao Kai pointed to the president's office behind him: "I'm not really sure if it was arranged by President Xia."
————
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