Chapter Sixty-One: Acting Cute
As Lin Yu walked out of the hospital, she had the illusion of being reborn. Jiang Chuan, worried about her condition, insisted on taking her back to the company to rest.
He asked his secretary to order a bowl of congee downstairs and settled her on the sofa in his office. Then he picked up his notebook and went to attend the meeting he had planned for the morning.
As noon approached, the anesthetic wore off completely, and a burning, intense flame surged deep within my cheeks. The pain, like a ferocious beast awakening, roared and rampaged across the previously numb ruins.
Lin Yu felt a sharp pain on half of her face, along with her entire jawbone. She sat on the sofa, propping her left cheek up, stirring the now-cold rice porridge with a pained expression, and using a spoon to pry open her stiff teeth.
His jaw opened and closed with difficulty, like a rusty hinge, passively enduring the invasion of rice grains. Lin Yu had to tilt his head to the right to avoid getting food on his wound and causing infection, so he chewed a couple of mouthfuls and swallowed.
Each swallow became a form of torture, aggravating the wound that had just been violently dismantled.
She wanted to go to the restroom, but the open-plan office area outside was already full of people, which made her feel a little embarrassed.
But unable to withstand the strong protest of her bladder, she finally gave up resisting, got up, and quietly pushed open the door.
Jiang Chuan's office was at the very back, and to get to the restroom, you had to walk through a corridor surrounded by workstations. But thankfully, everyone was focused on their work, and no one was paying attention to her.
Emerging from the restroom, the oppressive feeling of being caught between two forces finally eased, and my steps became much lighter.
As Lin Yu passed by the conference room, she glanced inside and saw Jiang Chuan sitting in the center of the long table, having a meeting with several colleagues whose backs were to her.
The first time she saw him at work, his shirt sleeves were casually rolled up to his elbows, revealing his well-defined forearms. His left hand was propped up on his temple, leaning against the armrest, while his right hand twirled a pen absentmindedly.
His demeanor was casual yet serious, and his eyes behind his glasses were calm and sharp, a stark contrast to his usual carefree and playful self when joking with himself.
The pen twirled between his slender fingers, and Jiang Chuan, as if sensing something, raised his eyes, his gaze piercing through the transparent partition and precisely locking onto himself.
Lin Yu's heart skipped a beat. At the same time, Secretary Bai suddenly pushed open the door and came out, their voices leaking out from the open door.
"...The salary increase for junior lawyers is not keeping up with inflation, and three people have already spoken to me about it. My suggestion is to make adjustments based on salary levels first." The speaker seemed to be the head of human resources.
Jiang Chuan slammed his pen down on the table, his gaze still fixed on Lin Yu, but his tone remained businesslike. "Based on retention rate data, a large-scale salary increase is not as effective as strengthening bonus incentives. You should know this better than I do."
He tapped his fingertips lightly on the table, and the moment he saw Lin Yu, he suddenly showed a hint of impatience with the meeting content.
"We'll discuss this when Attorney Zhang returns this afternoon. If there's nothing else, let's adjourn the meeting." With that, he closed his laptop, stood up, and strode out of the conference room.
Secretary Bai nodded and smiled politely at Lin Yu, but the next moment she noticed her swollen cheeks. She subtly raised her eyebrows and turned to her boss with a thoughtful look in her eyes.
There was a hint of intriguing speculation in his gaze, as if to say that Jiang Lu actually had this kind of fetish in private, and that being a rich man's wife was indeed not easy.
Jiang Chuan completely ignored Secretary Bai's gaze and walked straight to Lin Yu. He gently lifted her chin, his fingertip lightly brushing against the swollen area. "Started to hurt?"
Lin Yu had no intention of chatting with people at the conference room door. He pursed his lips, nodded, and glanced at the people in the office who were pretending to be busy. Feeling a little embarrassed, he remained silent.
Jiang Chuan gently placed his hand on her back and led her away. The two entered the office one after the other, closed the door, and completely shut out the probing gaze.
Once inside, Lin Yu finally relaxed. Jiang Chuan still had some urgent official business to attend to, and since she had nothing else to do, she put on his coat and curled up on the sofa in the corner of the office for a while to sleep.
After waking up, I felt a little better. Remembering the work that had piled up over the holiday, I decided to go back to the company first.
Jiang Chuan had just finished dealing with the documents he was working on, so he drove her to her office building. Before leaving, he didn't forget to take some snacks out of the trunk and hand them to her.
Lin Yu stared at the lychee pastry and coffee egg roll in her hand, pouted, and glared at him resentfully.
Looking at the person in front of him with a worried expression, Jiang Chuan couldn't help but tease, "I told you, getting a tooth pulled can help you lose weight!"
Back at the office, Lin Yu categorized her work by priority. She delegated all the tasks requiring communication and coordination to her team members.
After forcing himself to finish processing the volumes that urgently needed to be printed, he covered half of his face with his palm and listlessly slumped on his desk, waiting to leave work.
Xiao Zhao rushed back from the civil engineering team, put the blueprints on the table, and leaned closer to Lin Yu to examine them carefully. "Team leader, your face looks a little swollen here!" she said, mouthing the sound of blowing up a balloon at Lin Yu.
Upon hearing this, Lin Yu hurriedly rummaged through his drawer and pulled out a small round mirror that had been given away as a promotional gift, carefully examining his face. Sure enough, his left cheek was swollen considerably, appearing twice the size of his right cheek.
Holding the mirror with tears welling up in her eyes, she asked plaintively after a long while, "Do I look like a bee or a little dog?"
"Don't talk nonsense, our team leader is clearly a little bee fairy, so sweet she's practically bursting with joy," Xiao Zhao joked from the side, causing everyone in the team to burst into laughter.
But Lin Yu couldn't cheer up. The thought of her date, which was destined to be canceled that night, filled her with indescribable disappointment.
She wanted to message Jiang Chuan to ask him to change the date of their meal, but then she heard Xiao Zhao ask mischievously, "But team leader, why did you have to get your tooth pulled on Valentine's Day? Did you get too many chocolates and get cavities?"
"Valentine's Day?" Lin Yu looked up suddenly, her wound being pulled by an external force, causing her to gasp in pain.
She rummaged through her bag and pulled out the thermos Jiang Chuan had given her that morning. She poured the ice cubes from inside onto a clean towel, applied it to the affected area, and asked through gritted teeth, "Is today the 14th?"
Lin Yu then realized why Jiang Chuan had insisted on setting the date for today. When she hastily agreed to his request in the car, she hadn't realized that the tenth of the month he mentioned was Valentine's Day.
Xiao Zhao tilted his head and looked her up and down in confusion. "Yeah, you look so beautiful today. I thought you were going on a date with that handsome guy in the BMW!"
Lin Yu's outfit wasn't particularly elaborate; it was her usual work attire: khaki wide-leg pants paired with a fitted knit top. She didn't want to appear too obsequious in front of Jiang Chuan.
But upon closer inspection, it was clear that she had put in more effort than usual. She wore delicate, light makeup and large, full pearl earrings.
Her long hair was styled into a full flower bud, and if you ignored the swollen half of her face, you could say that she exuded an unintentional gentleness.
But now, clutching her swollen and aching cheek, she felt only frustration and annoyance. What should have been a romantic date had been completely ruined by this untimely wisdom tooth eruption.
What frustrated her even more was that Jiang Chuan clearly knew what day it was, so why couldn't he wait until tomorrow to have his tooth pulled? Why did he always do things so unpredictably?
A nameless anger surged within her, making her completely agitated. She simply slammed her phone face down on the table, not caring whether she could have the meal or not; it made it seem like she was in a rush to agree to his request.
Lin Yu sat at his workstation, feeling both pain and anger, until he saw Jiang Chuan waiting by the car. The resentment still lingered in his chest and couldn't be completely dispelled.
She silently got into the passenger seat, keeping her head turned to look at the fleeting street scenes outside the window the whole time, without saying a word and ignoring Jiang Chuan's concerned inquiries.
The car stopped in front of her apartment building. Jiang Chuan unbuckled his seatbelt, turned to look at the pufferfish beside him, who was frowning and sulking, and laughed, "Still in so much pain? Have you taken your painkillers?"
Hearing his laughter, Lin Yu was furious. Reluctantly, she turned to look at him, her lips pressed into a straight line. "Do you even know what day it is today?"
"Today?" Jiang Chuan paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "The first day we officially started dating?"
"It's Valentine's Day today!" Lin Yu covered his swollen cheek, looking like a lifelike steamed bun. "Why didn't you tell me sooner!"
"I thought you knew!" Jiang Chuan chuckled, ruffling her hair and casually unbuckling her seatbelt. "Shall we go upstairs first?"
"Why go up there!" Lin Yu shook off his hand, crossed her arms, and turned to the other side, completely unaware of how much her tone sounded like she was pleading. "I have nothing to say to you!"
"Are you angry because of this?" Jiang Chuan grasped Lin Yu's wrist and gently turned her towards him.
He leaned closer, his voice laced with barely concealed amusement. "We'll be having countless meals together and celebrating countless Valentine's Days here. But of course, your health is more important than any of that."
Lin Yu was taken aback by the sudden sweet talk, and his anger subsided considerably, but he still forced a cold expression. "President Jiang is quite confident, but I haven't agreed to your proposal yet. What? Did you leave someone at the entrance of my apartment complex?"
“Confidence also means having faith in your judgment.” Jiang Chuan always knew how to control the pace of the conversation and never went along with Lin Yu’s words. “Let’s get into character now, so we don’t have to rehearse after you agree to my request.”
"How come I never realized you were so shameless?" Lin Yu poked Jiang Chuan's chest with his index finger, then changed the subject. "Can the restaurant deposit be refunded?"
"That's risky!" Jiang Chuan hadn't expected Lin Yu to be focused on this, and joked, "Should I send a lawyer's letter to get the money back?"
Lin Yu covered his mouth in anguish, worried that his emotions would aggravate his wound. His muffled voice escaped through his fingers. "President Jiang, money may not grow on trees, but it really can be blown away by the wind!"
Jiang Chuan rested his elbow on the center console, propped his chin on his hand, looked at Lin Yu, and comforted him with a smile: "It's okay, what the wind can blow away is just small change."
Jiang Chuan turned off the car and followed Lin Yu upstairs. The room was furnished the same as when he last came, but the floor was littered with various odds and ends, making it so messy that there was almost no place to step.
The sight made Jiang Chuan, who was a germaphobe, twitch, but he quickly realized that this was not the focus of the evening, and he could only force himself to shift his attention elsewhere.
Lin Yu took off his coat and noticed Jiang Chuan's uneasy gaze. He explained somewhat awkwardly, "I brought a lot of things back from home for the New Year. I've been too busy with work lately and haven't had time to organize them."
Jiang Chuan didn't say anything, his gaze fell on Lin Yu's slightly swollen cheeks, he took off his coat and hung it on the entryway, unbuttoned his cuffs, rolled up his shirt sleeves to his elbows, and simply washed his hands in the kitchen.
Lin Yu thought he was going to cook, so he turned around and opened the refrigerator door, intending to pick out some ingredients from the New Year's goods he had brought back, but was suddenly hugged from behind.
She turned around in a panic, the two red sausages she was clutching pressed squarely against Jiang Chuan's chest. "What are you doing?"
Jiang Chuan watched her use the sausage as a pistol and couldn't help but raise his hands in agreement, laughing out loud: "Don't shoot, sir! I just wanted to ask if you have any ice at home!" As he spoke, he raised his chin at her swollen left cheek.
"If you're looking for ice, why are you standing so close to it..." Lin Yu muttered under his breath, feeling a little embarrassed. He put the sausage on the counter and turned to pull out the ice cube tray on the side of the refrigerator.
Although the apartment's decor was rough, the refrigerator left by the previous owner was quite sophisticated, with a dedicated ice storage function. Lin Yu guessed that the previous owner was probably a poor but stylish drunkard.
Jiang Chuan found a towel in the restroom, washed it, unfolded it, and carefully wrapped up a few pieces of crushed ice from the ice cube tray. He then pulled Lin Yu's arm, making her face him.
He braced himself against the refrigerator door with one hand and held a cold towel in the other, gently pressing it against her swollen cheek. The cool touch brought Lin Yu a brief moment of relief.
The kitchen ceiling light shone from behind Jiang Chuan, enveloping Lin Yu in his tall figure, and the air suddenly felt thick.
Jiang Chuan suddenly fell silent, his eyes, which usually held a smile, now locked onto him with a hooked gaze.
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