On Monday, Lu Jiayan clocked in for work as usual. The moment he entered the department, he ran into Chen Ke.
Holding a bottle of milk and a sandwich, Chen Ke’s ruggedly handsome face flashed a hint of surprise when he spotted him, instantly breaking into a smile as he asked, “Why did you arrive so late today? Are you feeling unwell?”
The last time Lu Jiayan was picked up by Pei Zhiwen, he had used feeling unwell as his excuse for asking for leave.
Lu Jiayan usually arrived exceptionally early, almost being the first person in the department. Hearing Chen Ke’s words, he reached out to massage his aching neck. “I changed to a new mattress and didn’t sleep well, so I woke up late this morning.”
Chen Ke breathed a sigh of relief. “As long as there’s nothing wrong with your health.”
Guessing that Lu Jiayan must have rushed from home to the company without eating breakfast, Chen Ke waved the sandwich in his hand.
“I left your breakfast at your workstation.”
“This time, I added two slices of your favorite bacon.”
Except for weekends, Lu Jiayan actually never had the habit of eating breakfast on workdays.
After coming to this company and meeting Chen Ke, the latter used reasons like “not eating breakfast causes gallstones and stomach disease” to find all sorts of ways to bring him breakfast.
Chen Ke particularly enjoyed researching various recipes, and the breakfasts were always personally made by him early in the morning.
Over time, Lu Jiayan stopped resisting and accepted it naturally, treating Chen Ke to meals on weekends.
“Thank you.”
Chen Ke smiled. “You’re welcome. I won’t chat anymore; while there are fewer people around, I’ll go deliver some warmth first.”
Knowing that Chen Ke was pursuing Congmin from the neighboring department, Lu Jiayan revealed a knowing smile, made an “OK” hand sign, and urged, “Go on then, hurry up and treat me to single-to-couple celebration food soon.”
Chen Ke strode outward.
“Got it!”
Perhaps infected by the mood, the gloomy haze in Lu Jiayan’s emotions eased.
Entering the office, he greeted his other colleagues and walked straight to his workstation.
Just as Lu Jiayan put on his employee badge and prepared to sit down to eat his sandwich, the door to the team leader’s office suddenly opened. A man in his thirties wearing a light khaki casual jacket poked his hand out, beckoning toward Lu Jiayan’s location and calling out, “Xiao Lu.”
“Come to the office for a moment.”
Hearing this, Lu Jiayan stood up. “Understood, Team Leader.”
He set the sandwich aside and walked toward the office.
“Knock, knock.”
Lu Jiayan politely tapped on the open door.
“Come in, and close the door.”
Lu Jiayan entered the office and closed the door behind him.
The office space was relatively small, with a money tree placed near the entrance. A casual glance allowed one to take in the entire room at a glance.
Behind Li Yizhao was a full wall of bookshelves. Holding a gel pen, Li Yizhao sat at his desk. Seeing Lu Jiayan standing there, he pointed at the chair in front of him, tossed the pen into the pen holder, and rested his hands crossed on the desktop.
“I have something to discuss with you, sit down and talk.”
Lu Jiayan nodded. “Alright, Team Leader.”
“The reason I called you here is actually to discuss a new project with you.” Li Yizhao took a document from the drawer and handed it to Lu Jiayan, who calmly took it, glanced at the company name, and then flipped through a few pages to briefly browse it.
“Originally, this project should have been handled by another team, but the client knows the person in charge of our previous project and now specifically requests that you take full charge of the new project,” Li Yizhao said earnestly. “Xiao Lu, you’ve been at Qifeng for two years now, and everyone has witnessed your capability. If this new project can be completed under budget, management will promote you, and you might even become my superior by then.”
Knowing that Li Yizhao’s words came from the bottom of his heart, Lu Jiayan responded modestly, “Everything is thanks to your guidance, Team Leader.”
Li Yizhao smiled and said, “I still have self-awareness regarding my own level. If you hadn’t been unwilling, you would have become a team leader a year ago, and by now you’d probably be climbing even higher with a limitless future.”
When Lu Jiayan originally interviewed for the company, every single skill on his resume looked exceptional.
Graduation from a prestigious university, study-abroad experience, a matching major, and most importantly, very low salary expectations.
“You can take a look at the new project,” Li Yizhao said. “If you have any ideas, you can submit a report.”
Lu Jiayan nodded. “Understood, I will read it carefully and email it to you later.”
The discussion concluded.
Lu Jiayan left the office carrying the document.
To satisfy the client’s needs, he first needed to understand the overall situation of the company, and secondly, investigate and search for relevant data.
Once his work was determined, Lu Jiayan immersed himself completely in his tasks.
Seeing this, his colleagues couldn’t help praising and sighing in admiration:
“I feel like Lu Jiayan is really responsible and serious. It’s one thing that he’s handsome, but he’s also so capable.”
“For me, hobbies really can’t become a career, or you’ll grow tired of them sooner or later.”
“When others are working hard, I just want to wait for Thursday to post the Crazy Thursday U me fifty copy, don’t ask why it’s U and not V, because work and life have already smoothed away all my edges.”
Lu Jiayan didn’t actually love work; it was simply that whenever he had free time with nothing to do, bad memories would invariably surface in his mind.
For instance, his parents who were no longer in this world.
His family was very ordinary. Ever since he could remember, Lu’s father and Lu’s mother had worked at the Pei family estate.
One worked as a driver, and the other as a gardener.
When Lu Jiayan was in the first grade of elementary school, Lu’s mother passed away from illness. With Lu’s father in poor health, he single-handedly bore the responsibility of taking care of Lu Jiayan’s daily life and schooling. Out of lingering affection for old times, Elder Pei extended a helping hand, allowing them to move into the Pei residence while also providing three meals a day and lodging.
From a young age, Lu Jiayan understood the importance of gratitude. Even when living under someone else’s roof and being bullied by that gang of troublemaking young masters from the Pei family, he never made a fuss. However, that didn’t mean he would simply endure the bullying; knowing what those spoiled youths feared most, he would occasionally use a little clever scheming to bully them back.
Until the time he set a trap and was caught by them.
Lu Jiayan still remembered how back then, he had crawled out of a muddy pit, covered in dirt mixed with blood, with the skin on his forehead smashed open by a stone and his legs injured as well, looking like a little beggar.
Chased by several people, he accidentally stumbled into Pei Zhiwen’s courtyard.
Lu Jiayan knew that if he was caught, physical suffering was inevitable, and worse things might even happen.
Therefore, he begged for help from the young master who was sunbathing in the courtyard.
Pei Zhiwen was a household name within the Pei family estate. Compared to that group of spoiled youths, rumor had it that his personality was even more vicious and wretched.
Even so.
At merely nine years old, Lu Jiayan still treated the other person as his straw to clutch at.
And Pei Zhiwen truly had saved him.
In every day that followed, that person remained a hero in Lu Jiayan’s heart, a ray of light during a dark period.
Only, Lu Jiayan didn’t realize back then that he would develop a secret crush on Pei Zhiwen, nor that after becoming an adult and getting involved with him, he would mistakenly think the two of them were in a relationship.
And even less did he know that his deep affection and admiration for Pei Zhiwen would be progressively destroyed as the other person repeatedly subjected him to control and imprisonment.
Ultimately ending in an unhappy parting.