Chapter 51: Rainy Season
Seeing An Yi fall silent, Huo Beixing’s brows knitted together. “Do you really like going to work that much?”
An Yi’s scalp tingled, and his little brain immediately started spinning at top speed, trying to soothe the dog temper Huo Beixing was on the verge of unleashing. “Work only feels kind of novel, that’s all. But compared to you, naturally you’re more important.”
After all, he counted as half the man’s guardian now. In a business marriage, the An family had gained quite a lot of benefits, so during the marriage Huo Beixing naturally had to come first.
Hearing that he was more important than work, Huo Beixing’s expression improved at once, his heart blooming with delight. He bent down so their eyes were level. “Really?”
The other man’s breath brushed against his nose. Ever since An Yi came to the Huo family, he had never seen Huo Beixing use men’s cologne or anything like that, but the man always carried a faint scent of cologne on him. An Yi thought that maybe before Huo Beixing had gone stupid, he’d used it so often he’d marinated himself in the smell, which was why that fragrance still lingered around him.
Looking into those affectionate peach-blossom eyes, An Yi swallowed. “Of course. If it weren’t because work feels novel, I wouldn’t go at all.”
Huo Beixing felt very satisfied. He’d known it—going to work could never be as fun as he was.
Then Huo Beixing asked in return, “What’s so novel about going to work?”
An Yi gave an example on the spot. “You get to experience how little animals feel. Like oxen and horses.”
Of course, it could also feel like being an old yellow ox plowing fields or a donkey turning the mill—exhausted to death every day, even breathing felt hard. In any case, you could be compared to anything, just not to a person.
Huo Beixing’s eyes paused in surprise. “So every day when you go to work, you’re going to experience the feelings of little animals?”
An Yi nodded. “Of course.”
Huo Beixing praised him, “Wife, you’re so caring.”
Little Frog shyly scratched the back of his head.
You flatter me, you flatter me.
An Yi walked out of the washroom under Huo Beixing’s admiring gaze and went over to the dressing area, picking up his suit jacket and draping it over his arm.
It was summer now. If not for work, An Yi would probably still be wearing his usual short-sleeved shirt and big shorts. These days he wore dress shirts and suit trousers every day. If he actually put the suit jacket on outdoors, he’d probably die of heat. But the workspace assigned to them by the brand had air-conditioning, so really, only the commute made him feel hot. Carrying the suit jacket was mostly just for appearances.
Seeing An Yi come out of the dressing area and prepare to head to work, Huo Beixing felt reluctant inside.
“Wife, will you miss me?”
Hearing him, An Yi turned around and looked at the one-meter-ninety giant version of a left-behind child. “Of course. I’ll think about you lots and lots of times a day.”
Only after hearing that did Huo Beixing stop clinging.
At seven o’clock, An Yi hurried out the door, ran across two streets, and reached the bus stop.
Ever since he started participating in the brand design project, he had stopped letting the Huo family driver pick him up and drop him off. Generally he took the bus to the brand headquarters in the morning, then took the bus back in the evening.
After all, the Huo family’s luxury car was far too obvious and completely incompatible with his “mountain village left-behind child” persona. Pink Crystal Girl’s Heart spent every day together; if he let the truth slip in front of Gu Lingling, he’d be in trouble.
When he arrived at the brand headquarters, An Yi took the elevator to the twenty-first floor. The whole large flat floor there was their working area.
Because the two studios were both cooperating and competing, the atmosphere at work was intensely cutthroat, each side desperately showcasing their abilities in front of the chief designer.
Every person might as well have had three big words floating over their heads:
Look at me, look at me.
Every day, all of them were frantically showing off skills.
Around eleven in the morning, the designer’s assistant stood in the middle and clapped loudly. “Everyone, in a little while some media people will come interview our design team. Don’t be nervous. Just treat it like chatting. As long as you don’t spoil the autumn collection, whatever the reporters ask, you can answer.”
The two studios understood. Hearing the news, no one even looked up, and everyone continued with what they were doing.
Soon the media arrived on the twenty-first floor by elevator. The moment the elevator doors opened, they saw the entire space bustling like mad, so busy that there was no obvious place to start. It felt as if interrupting anyone would be a crime.
But interviews still had to be done.
They first went to the Sky studio, and once that interview ended, it was Pink Crystal Girl’s Heart’s turn.
A reporter shoved the microphone right into An Yi’s face. “Do you have confidence in the design of this work?”
An Yi: ……
Gu Lingling gave the official answer. “It’s alright. Since our studio is still relatively new, there are definitely places where we fall short. But we’ll still do our best.”
The reporter asked, “So deep down, you still feel a little lacking in confidence and somewhat nervous, right?”
Lin Jiu stood to one side with his arms folded. “Not really.”
Reporter: “Then why answer like that?”
An Yi added, “It sounds a little more humble.”
We were just saying it casually—why’d you go and believe it?
Reporter: ……
Gu Lingling took a deep breath and smiled at the camera. “The two of them just like joking around. Please don’t mind them.”
Lin Jiu started, “We weren’t—”
Gu Lingling shot him a knife-like glare.
Lin Jiu instantly switched. “We were joking just now, hahaha.”
The reporter laughed awkwardly twice. “You’re all very humorous.”
Then the microphone was shoved toward An Yi’s face again. “So in a day’s work, what is the thing you like most and look forward to most?”
At the side, Gu Lingling frantically signaled to An Yi with her eyes. An Yi received the message and indicated he understood.
Leave it to me, you can relax.
Then, smiling confidently, he gave a two-word answer.
“Getting off work.”
Gu Lingling: ……
Why was her life so bitter?
Lin Jiu raised his wrist and checked the time. Seeing that the interview was more or less done, he said, “Reporter friends, let’s stop the interview here for our studio. We still have very important things to do.”
The reporters understood at once. “Okay, okay.”
Time was money. And with a project this big, the interview had indeed reached a suitable stopping point. They really couldn’t interfere with work.
Who would have thought that the moment the reporters lowered their microphones, they’d see the three of them heading toward the elevator while chatting among themselves.
“What are we eating today?”
“Let’s eat at the staff cafeteria.”
“But I want to eat outside.”
“The staff cafeteria is free.”
“Then let’s go to the staff cafeteria.”
The reporters: ……
So the reason for ending the interview wasn’t work at all—it was to rush off for food, was it?!
Wang Meng returned to the twenty-first floor after lunch, pushed open the door to the break room, dropped onto the sofa, and tilted his head back to rest with his eyes closed.
He hadn’t been resting long when the door was suddenly pushed open.
Li Xiaomu came in with two people from the Sky studio. He reached out and shoved Wang Meng. “Wake up, stop sleeping. There’s something urgent we need to talk about.”
Wang Meng cracked his eyelids open. “What is it? Can’t it wait?”
Li Xiaomu smacked his arm. “If it could wait, would I still be calling it urgent?”
Wang Meng winced in pain and all his sleepiness vanished. “Fine, what is it?”
Li Xiaomu pulled a boy forward. “Xiao Feng, you say it.”
Xiao Feng looked troubled. “I was the last one to leave during the lunch break just now. Before I left, I happened to see a reporter interviewing the designer. The reporter asked him which of the two studios under him he liked more and had higher hopes for. The designer said Pink Crystal Girl’s Heart.”
Wang Meng shot to his feet. “He really said that?”
Xiao Feng nodded. “I heard it with my own ears. There’s no way it’s wrong. Brother Wang, if the designer likes Pink Crystal Girl’s Heart, then when the time comes for that competition qualification, won’t it go to them too?”
It was summer right now, but autumn was only a little over a month away. The design work was also nearing the end. In one month, the result of who got that qualification would be announced. Now that the designer clearly favored the other studio, alarm bells rang in Xiao Feng’s heart.
It looked like the other side’s chances of getting the qualification were much higher than theirs. Wang Meng paced back and forth in the break room, then stopped short. “Then there’s only one option—we make them give it up voluntarily.”
Xiao Feng said, “Impossible. Their studio won’t yield.”
Wang Meng looked like he hated iron for not becoming steel. “Then we use some methods. Even if they won’t yield, we’ll make them!”
As he spoke, he drew in a deep breath and turned to Li Xiaomu. “Didn’t you have people investigate those three before? What did you find?”
Li Xiaomu answered, “Of the three, the girl named Gu Lingling is from another province. Her family is moderately well-off. As for the other two, the investigation took a bit longer. The one surnamed Lin is a poor college student. His parents are dead, and he only has an older brother farming in some godforsaken mountain village. Those two both have relatives outside the city, so they’re hard to get at. The only one whose family is in this city is that one named An Yi.”
Wang Meng said, “Then we use him.”
Li Xiaomu added, “But when I had people investigate his family members, nothing turned up. The only thing we found was that he’s married.”
Wang Meng’s head ached. “Then keep people watching him. When the time comes, just grab someone close to him and use that as leverage to force them to withdraw.”
These people all came from families with some degree of background and connections. If something happened, they’d be able to smooth it over easily, so there’d be no real worries afterward.
—
During the summer rainy season, An Yi prepared to get off work at six. He took the elevator down to the first floor, only to find torrential rain pouring outside.
Gu Lingling poked her head out. “It’s raining?”
An Yi said, “Doesn’t look small.”
Only one umbrella remained in the shared umbrella bucket by the entrance. An Yi and Lin Jiu unanimously decided to leave it for Gu Lingling. Watching Gu Lingling’s figure disappear into the distance, Lin Jiu turned to An Yi. “How are you getting back?”
An Yi looked at the gray sky. “I’ll wait for the rain to get a bit lighter, then take the bus home. What about you?”
Lin Jiu had just opened his mouth to answer when a luxury car suddenly screeched to a stop at the curb in front of the building. The driver came over under an umbrella and looked at Lin Jiu. “Young ma—”
Lin Jiu’s brow twitched sharply. “Young master!!”
Driver: ???
Lin Jiu grabbed his shoulders. “Young master, I never expected you’d be so kind as to come pick me up. I’m truly touched.”
Then he turned to An Yi and said, “This is the young master of the house where my parents work. He happened to be passing by and came to pick me up, right?”
Driver: “……Yes.”
An Yi didn’t expose him. He simply watched as Lin Jiu pulled open the car door for the driver, then ran around and got into the driver’s seat himself before they drove off.
An Yi stood in the building lobby and pulled out his phone to check the time. If he got back early today, maybe he could still eat dinner with Huo Beixing.
Huo Beixing’s silly smiling face surfaced in his mind. An Yi unfolded the suit jacket hanging over his arm.
Just as he was preparing to throw the jacket over himself and make a dash for it, a voice called out to him.
“Wife!”
An Yi’s steps froze. Following the sound, he looked over and saw Huo Beixing standing in the rain holding an umbrella, smiling brightly.
“I came to pick you up and take you home.”
