The hospital room was quiet, unlike downstairs—the air held no trace of aromatherapy, only the faint scent of disinfectant and medicine.
An Yao rarely got the chance to act like the adult in front of Yan Muzhou, to lecture him a little in his own previous tone of voice. She certainly wasn't going to pass up this opportunity.
The answer to his earlier question was obvious—he'd thought his assistant had walked in.
An Yao didn't wait for him to respond. She pulled a chair over on her own and sat down beside the hospital bed. "Looks like you're just as much of a handful as we are. A minor surgery is still surgery. There's nothing wrong with resting and staying for observation a few more days. Besides, how important can this business trip be? There are plenty of people in the group—it's not like things can't run without you."
Yan Muzhou was silent for a few seconds, as if unaccustomed to this sudden reversal of roles between them.
A moment later, he let out a soft laugh. "Since when did you start playing the adult? Who told you I was here?"
Perhaps he really was weaker after the surgery, his brain running at a slower speed.
It was only after he'd asked that he remembered.
Assistant Fang had reported to him that he'd let it slip about his condition during a phone call with Yan Xuexin.
An Yao shot him a glance. "I've always been an adult. Twenty-two years old, fully capable of civil conduct. I've even met the legal marriage age for two years now."
The moment the words left her mouth, she realized the second half was a bit unnecessary. She'd only meant to emphasize the fact that she was "mature" in every way.
Yan Muzhou leaned back against the headboard, lightly pressing his temple. "There's a very important partnership that needs to be finalized. I can't not be there."
He'd personally attended both previous negotiation sessions. At the final stage before signing, it was only right and proper for him to show up.
But then An Yao raised an eyebrow and said with sound reasoning, "If it's about to be finalized, that means the details are pretty much all settled. Can't you just send someone else? I refuse to believe that if you tell your partners you just had surgery and can't make it, they'd think you're being insincere. If they're really that unreasonable, then this partnership isn't worth having anyway."
Yan Muzhou looked at her for a long moment, then said with a hint of helplessness, "Your internship these past few months really hasn't been wasted."
An Yao didn't bother being modest. She even nodded with a touch of pride.
For the past two months, she'd been in charge of all the miscellaneous tasks in the group. Having dealt with people so much, she genuinely felt she'd grown considerably compared to her time in school.
An Yao pressed her advantage. "The thing is, you always take on too much responsibility. You worry about everything, big or small, and that's why you keep exhausting yourself."
Though to be fair, she had also been a beneficiary of that sense of responsibility.
Yan Muzhou's gaze lingered on her for a long while, but he didn't say anything more.
The air fell quiet again.
It was Assistant Fang who entered the ward first. Seeing An Yao there, he greeted her before turning to Yan Muzhou. "President Yan, the doctor still recommends staying at least three more days. Should I cancel tomorrow afternoon's schedule for you? If so, I'll call Nancheng and let them know."
After a long pause, Yan Muzhou seemed to have made up his mind. "I'll stay three more days. Let Vice President Li know—he can go to the signing the day after tomorrow. I'll go over myself once the equipment is in place next year. I'll call them personally later to explain."
An Yao smiled from the side.
Regardless, persuading this stubborn man to change his mind was still quite satisfying.
Because he had to stay in the hospital for three more days, Yan Muzhou instructed Assistant Fang to go to his home and bring back some of his usual daily necessities.
After Assistant Fang left, only the two of them remained in the ward.
Yan Muzhou turned his head and saw An Yao take an orange from the fruit basket that had just been brought in, lowering her head to peel it.
There was a hint of a smile at the corners of her mouth, as if she was happy about something that had crossed her mind.
Noticing his gaze, she asked, "Do you want an orange? I can peel one for you?"
Yan Muzhou: "No need, I'm not at the point where I can't take care of basic needs. There's nothing else going on here, so you should head back first."
An Yao shook her head. "No rush, it's not like visiting a patient for just five minutes is proper. By the way, weren't you supposed to be going to Nancheng on a business trip?"
Yan Muzhou hummed in acknowledgment, not elaborating much on work matters.
Considering the new industry-research integration policy introduced in Nancheng, they planned to build a new smart factory in the surrounding tech park, using a new brand under the group to pilot the initiative.
He asked her, "Do you have any plans after graduation? Short-term campus interns at the group probably don't get direct offers for full-time positions."
An Yao thought for a moment and said vaguely, "I'll probably go back to Nancheng to look for a job. After all, I grew up there, so I'm more used to it."
"Alright, the patient should rest easy and stop worrying."
She didn't really want to talk about this—her post-graduation plans were still a bit unclear, and she hadn't fully figured them out.
Yan Muzhou didn't say anything more, but he didn't rest either. Instead, he reopened the computer that had gone into sleep mode and got back to work.
An Yao's visit had been a complete success, mainly because she'd managed to get the workaholic to abandon his plan of going on the business trip while injured.
But it was also because there were already backup measures in place; otherwise, she knew Yan Muzhou wouldn't have been easily persuaded by a few words from her.
After sending a message to Yan Xuexin to update her on the situation, she sat on the small sofa nearby and, to avoid the second wave of evening rush hour, started working on the illustrations she'd taken on.
During that time, Yan Muzhou finished the task at hand and glanced over.
An Yao was sitting on the small sofa, propping up her tablet and sketching something with the stylus, occasionally pausing to rest her chin on her hand as if in thought.
Many scenes overlapped in his mind. He remembered that when An Yao was in high school, she'd sometimes pester him on weekends to take her out, and most of the time, she'd be quietly doing her own thing just like this.
Sometimes it was in his old office, sometimes at the court, sometimes at Cheng Shijia's club.
Yan Muzhou could understand why she didn't want to stay at the old residence—the old man had too many rules, and the atmosphere was stifling; no young person could stand it.
But back then, he'd often take her out, partly because of her quietness, perhaps.
Seeing her in that state seemed to settle his own heart as well.
This hospital's ward had no visiting hour restrictions, and the room even included a guest suite for companions, complete with its own bathroom.
Yan Muzhou had asked once earlier and hadn't urged her again since.
Seeing that it was almost nine o'clock and the doctor would soon be making rounds, he looked at her and said, "Are you staying here tonight?"
An Yao was deeply absorbed in her drawing. When she heard his voice and checked the time, she realized how late it had gotten. "Ah, no, I'm heading back now."
She hadn't planned on staying overnight anyway. As a woman, it wouldn't be convenient for her to remain there.
She stood up, hesitated for a moment, then said, "If you were going to be here alone, should I stay?"
Yan Muzhou: "Fang Zheng will be here to accompany me before ten."
"Alright, it's more convenient for him to stay."
An Yao said, "Then I'll head back first. I'll come again on the day you're discharged."
She inwardly sighed that being Yan Muzhou's assistant was truly a tough job, because he didn't have many close people around him—everything, big or small, had to be handled by his assistant.
Yan Muzhou said, "No need to make a special trip. It's just a minor surgery."
An Yao thought for a moment, then looked at him suspiciously. "You're not trying to get rid of me so you can sneak off on a business trip tomorrow, are you?"
Yan Muzhou seemed amused by her quirky line of reasoning and let out a small laugh. "If I really wanted to go, why would I need to get rid of you?"
An Yao recalled the time in high school when she'd gone to a classmate's birthday party and gotten drunk—she'd first found an excuse to send Yan Muzhou away, then snuck out.
She guiltily touched her nose and said no more. "Oh, then I'm off."
Yan Muzhou gave a faint "Mm" in response, reminding her to be careful. His gaze followed her until her figure disappeared around the entranceway. Then, as if thinking of something, he gave a very subtle tug at the corner of his lips.
Two days later, early in the morning, An Yao remembered that Yan Muzhou was going to be discharged from the hospital. She'd originally planned to send him a message to ask about it, but she ended up busy the entire morning and nearly forgot.
It wasn't until lunch break that she pulled up Yan Muzhou's WeChat and sent a quick inquiry.
He probably didn't use the app much—his profile picture was quite old-fashioned: a pitch-black night sky with a crescent moon hanging in it.
His Moments feed was completely empty, not even activated, and his WeChat ID was a string of default-generated characters.
Fortunately, An Yao had given him a nickname early on and remembered his profile picture; otherwise, a contact like that in her list would be the easiest one for her to clean out.
Nearly half of the lunch break had passed by the time she finished searching for the last batch of images for a few colleagues in her group. She was just about to head to the cafeteria to grab a boxed meal when the intern Sheng Xintong walked in gracefully with a small bag on her shoulder.
Their workstations were quite close. After arriving, Sheng Xintong looked around and asked her with some confusion, "Why is it just you? Is there some event today?"
An Yao paused for a moment. "…It's lunch break right now. Everyone's gone to eat and hasn't come back yet."
Sheng Xintong: "Oh right, there's a lunch break. So is there no one in the admin department either?"
An Yao: "Probably not. Even if someone's there, they wouldn't be handling business right now."
Sheng Xintong let out a sigh. "I came too early. Have you eaten lunch? Perfect timing—I said last time I'd treat you."
"It's fine, really, no need to be so polite. I was just planning to grab something quick at the cafeteria," An Yao declined.
Unexpectedly, although Sheng Xintong rarely came to work, she was quite enthusiastic about things outside of work. She pulled An Yao along and headed straight out.
As she dragged An Yao along, Sheng Xintong said, "It's all settled. Besides, I heard from Sister Zhang before that you helped share a lot of my workload. I really should thank you."
An Yao thought to herself that Sister Zhang was probably being sarcastic—Sheng Xintong just hadn't picked up on it.
But regardless, it was hard to refuse such enthusiasm, and so she was led all the way out of the group's office building.
Sheng Xintong took her to a nearby restaurant. An Yao had passed by it before when she went out to eat with Yara and the others, and had heard that it cost several hundred yuan per person, so she had never gone in.
As they were about to enter, An Yao tactfully said there was no need to eat somewhere so expensive, but Sheng Xintong insisted that if she was treating, she had to do it properly, otherwise she wouldn't feel right about it.
The restaurant's decor was exquisite. The main hall only had a few tables set up symbolically, with the rest of the space basically used for private rooms.
Probably due to the price point and location, most of the customers who came here were business people from nearby companies, who needed to discuss work matters while dining and valued privacy in their surroundings.
Sheng Xintong also led her straight to a small private room on the second floor.
While they waited for the food to arrive in the private room, Sheng Xintong started with a topic to make conversation: "Are you interning here because you want to stay and work here in the future?"
An Yao said, "No, I'm just getting an internship experience to put on my resume later, to make it easier when I look for jobs afterward."
Sheng Xintong: "Then why not just finish the internship and stay here directly?"
An Yao had no choice but to explain the group's recruitment and internship policies to her again, then asked in return, "So what made you come here to intern?"
Although, strictly speaking, it couldn't really be called an internship—"being on the roster" would be more accurate.
Sheng Xintong paused for a moment, then lowered her voice: "I'll tell you, but you can't tell anyone."
An Yao understood—this was the preamble to girl talk.
Though she hadn't expected their relationship to have already reached the point where they could share secrets.
An Yao picked up her cup and heard Sheng Xintong say quietly: "My family wanted me to come here and try, to see if there was any chance of getting more exposure to President Yan… but they really couldn't squeeze me into an internship position in the President's Office, so this was the only way to work around it."
An Yao had just taken a sip of her drink when she heard this. Caught off guard, she choked and started coughing.
Sheng Xintong handed her tissues from the side: "Hey, are you okay?"
"I know it sounds a bit dramatic, but that's how it is."
An Yao took a while to recover, then waved her hand: "…I'm fine."
Sheng Xintong continued with a plaintive tone: "But it turns out there's been no opportunity at all. It's not like my family's smaller company, where the boss and regular employees see each other all the time."
Although An Yao had already guessed the reason, she was still afraid she might be misunderstanding, so she confirmed: "Why do you want to get more exposure to President… President Yan?"
Sheng Xintong: "What else could it be for?"
She explained further: "My uncle's family has some connection with the Yan family. They apparently introduced me before, but I heard President Yan turned it down outright. My dad thought maybe if I could make contact with him myself first, it might be more likely to work."
An Yao fell completely silent.
She couldn't quite put a name to what she was feeling—it was just very complicated.
After a long moment, she felt that saying nothing at all wouldn't be appropriate either, so she forced out: "…Well, it might be more likely, but the difficulty still seems pretty high."
Although she'd never actually pursued anyone herself, based on her observations from age sixteen to now, Yan Muzhou had never shown the slightest interest in women or in finding a partner.
Sheng Xintong sighed: "Of course it is, but anyway, the other prospects my dad introduced me to, I couldn't stand any of them either. Might as well take a shot at someone I can actually admire. Among the eligible bachelors in Beiyang, President Yan is at least top three—top-notch in every way."
An Yao had nothing to say, so she could only go along with it: "Mm… that makes sense."
Sheng Xintong: "But the odds of running into him by chance in the corporate building are about the same as winning the lottery. Anyway, at the very least, you're guaranteed to see him at the annual banquet, and there's also a chance at the team-building event in March next year, if the publicity department gets arranged together with the president's office."
An Yao nodded.
And so, for the rest of lunch, she listened to Sheng Xintong's "Proactive Blind Date Feasibility Analysis Report," which also included an analysis of the "competition."
This even included a few people she knew, like Cheng Shijia and Zhou Zhiyue.
According to Sheng Xintong's assessment, the former was too much of a player, and the latter had an ex-girlfriend from a long-term college relationship—both had too-obvious red flags.
Perhaps because she had absorbed such a massive amount of information with no mental preparation over the course of the afternoon, An Yao's head was a bit dizzy when they exited the private dining room after the meal.
As they walked through the corridor, a door beside them happened to open, and she heard someone inside say: "President Yan, after you."
The next second, Yan Muzhou stepped out of the private room, dressed in a suit. It looked like he had fully recovered from his surgery—long strides, tall and upright posture.
An Yao spotted him at a glance and quickly lowered her head, trying to minimize her presence as much as possible.
Although she no longer had any need to avoid him in private, this was still technically within the scope of a workplace setting.
More importantly, she had Sheng Xintong beside her—someone who treated him as a target for her matchmaking strategy.
To avoid all kinds of trouble, An Yao hadn't revealed her relationship with Yan Muzhou to her at all.
An Yao silently chanted "can't see me" in her mind, pulled on her down jacket hood, and slowed her pace, trying to walk behind Yan Muzhou's group.
But she forgot—precisely because Sheng Xintong was there…
Soon enough, Sheng Xintong hooked her arm, stepped forward a few paces, and spoke in a slightly delighted tone: "Eh, President Yan? What a coincidence, you're here for lunch too?"
Yan Muzhou turned his head at the sound and looked behind him.
He didn't recognize who had called out to him, but he did notice the person beside her—An Yao, head buried low, wearing the hood of her white down jacket pulled down far, with a ring of fur around it that nearly covered half her face, like a little polar bear.