Li Mengying noticed that Li Sheng’s eyes were red and swollen and he was still sniffing, thinking he had a cold, and very diligently poured a cup of warm water for Li Sheng: “Sheng-ge, President Yuan arrived first, Manager Du looks like he will be a bit later.”
Li Sheng rubbed his aching temples, tidied up the materials on the table, and said to Li Mengying: “I’ll go ask Yuan Ye’s opinion first. You go see if Director Yang is here. If he is, arrange it and tell him not to go out, let’s have a meeting together.”
“Okay, Sheng-ge, did you not rest well?”
Li Sheng waved his hand: “I’m fine, you go first, I’ll text you when it’s set.”
“Alright, then I’ll go first.”
Li Sheng sniffed, gulped down the warm water Li Mengying brought, felt a bit more comfortable, tidied up his mood, and walked toward the conversation room. When he entered the door, Yuan Ye was sitting upright on the sofa, holding a morning newspaper in his hand, recording the previous day’s livelihood trivia. Hearing the door sound, he raised his eyes to look, seeming to see that Li Sheng’s state was not good, but quickly lowered his eyelids again, put the newspaper away, folded it back into its original shape and placed it on the table.
Li Sheng poured two cups of warm water; the one handed to Yuan Ye was still the same cup as last time. Yuan Ye still didn’t move. Li Sheng guessed that Yuan Ye must be a person with a germaphobe tendency, preferring to stay thirsty rather than touch public things. Considering this three ways, he stood up again and pulled over a new cup, unpacked the plastic packaging, washed it several times, wiped it dry, and poured warm water again. During this time, Yuan Ye kept watching his actions—the straight back, the lean waist, and the slender eyelashes casting down a shadow.
The moment Li Sheng stood up straight, he withdrew all his gazes. In fact, he didn’t have to make a special trip for such a matter, and the work assigned to Du Yu could completely be transferred to someone else, but he didn’t. He was also a bit gossipy; he wanted to take Li Sheng to get drunk tonight, and then take a look at the man in Du Yu’s mouth, what kind of person he actually was, to be able to catch someone like Li Sheng.
When Li Sheng placed the cup back in front of Yuan Ye, as expected, he took it and drank a sip. The moment he raised the cup, he uttered a sentence: “Troublesome for you.”
Li Sheng smiled slightly, considered it a response: “Will Manager Du arrive in a moment?”
Yuan Ye put away his gaze, stood up and tidied his coat: “No need, we’ll just discuss it, he’s not coming.”
“Alright, then let’s go to the conference room now, our director is also there, let’s discuss about the video advertisement.”
“Sure, let’s go.”
When the two of them arrived at the conference room, Li Mengying had already brought Director Yang to the conference room, and the materials were also copied and placed in front of everyone. Everyone took their seats and began to discuss the advertising design this time.
The Li Sheng who was working was completely different from what Yuan Ye had imagined. That kind of self-confident and energetic feeling was probably innate. The eyes behind the lenses were slightly red, probably because he hadn’t rested well, yet they also emitted a different kind of radiance. He held one hundred percent confidence in his own advertising creativity, step by step leading everyone in, layer by layer dissecting. One could tell at a glance just how focused he was on these things, and how long he spent to understand and study them. Yuan Ye seemed to be able to see in an instant what he looked like when working overtime late at night—with lowered eyes, carefully deliberating, tracing out one shape after another on scratch paper.
Yuan Ye became more and more curious about the identity of that man, eagerly wanting to take a look. He wanted to know what kind of expression this thirty-year-old man wore when facing love.
When the meeting ended, the sun was already hanging right in the middle. Yuan Ye would not participate in the filming in the afternoon. Just as Li Sheng was thinking about which restaurant he should take him to for lunch, Yuan Ye walked toward him. For the first time facing him so close face-to-face, he could feel how different Yuan Ye’s oppressive feeling was compared to sitting face-to-face. Standing in front of him made it impossible for him to face Yuan Ye directly for too long. After taking a few polite steps back, he said: “President Yuan, come with me to a restaurant. It’s already noon, after toiling for a whole morning, it’s time to eat something to replenish ourselves.”
Yuan Ye pulled a business card out of his pocket and handed it to Li Sheng: “Call me when off work, I’ll take you to a restaurant, and we’ll have a good chat.”
Li Sheng carefully put away the business card, and then turned and went to the cafeteria. Yuan Ye exuded a profitable look from head to toe. He knew he was a businessman, and thinking of that contract that hadn’t been signed yet, he seemed to know a little bit what Yuan Ye was going to do.
Li Mengying carried her boxed lunch and ran over to sit next to Li Sheng: “Sheng-ge, why is your body feeling unwell today? Or did you drink too much yesterday?”
“Drank too much. I’m a person who always overdoes it whenever there’s alcohol. I’m already used to looking like this the next day. You’ll get used to seeing it in the future.”
“Better not. I’d better find a chance to practice my alcohol tolerance. Without tolerance, I see you won’t promote me either.”
Li Sheng found it amusing: “How do you say that?”
“I can’t even stand on my own two feet when it comes to drinking, so how can I perform well in front of you? Right? This is you guiding me along, every time bringing up the matter of your poor alcohol tolerance with me. Isn’t this just giving me a chance and promoting me?”
Li Sheng knocked on Li Mengying’s bowl: “Hurry up and eat, where did all this nonsense come from?”