Holding the silk ribbon of the outer packaging, Yan Nianyi carefully placed the bread on Yueyi’s desk and glanced down at her watch. It was already five-thirty, leaving half an hour before Yueyi got off work.
Massaging her temples, she sat back down on the sofa, crossed her legs, and leaned casually against one of the armrests.
After resting for a few minutes, she thought of something, pulled out her phone, opened the camera app, and checked her reflection against the screen.
“My hair is a bit messy.” Yan Nianyi muttered softly.
She stood up, opened the office door, confirmed the direction she needed to go, and headed down the hallway.
Before long, the office door was pushed open once more.
“Why did you come over?” Yueyi glanced at the woman following behind her. “Did the old man finally let you out?”
“I’ve been running on overdrive for months. Now that it’s finally the May Day holiday, the least he could do is give me a couple of days off.” Zhou Ruomu said, spreading her hands in a helpless gesture. “Look at you, though. Still working? Those old folks on the board really know how to enjoy life.”
Yueyi offered a noncommittal smile. Walking over to her desk, she sat down and gestured toward the sofa. “I’m planning on taking a break in a bit.”
“What? The higher-ups actually approved it?” Zhou Ruomu looked surprised.
“After all these years, it’s about time.” Yueyi raised a hand to prop herself up against the desk.
Ten years was more than enough time to secure a heavy weight of influence within the company.
“True.” Zhou Ruomu nodded.
Yueyi moved her elbow, reaching into the drawer to pull out a piece of candy. After peeling off the wrapper, she popped it into her mouth. “Want some?”
“No thanks.” Zhou Ruomu waved a hand in disdain. “How old are you?”
Yueyi chuckled, just about to say something when her peripheral vision caught sight of an off-white object on the inner edge of her desk.
That item hadn’t been in that spot originally.
Raising her gaze, she saw an exquisitely packaged item sitting there. The box was small and partially blocked from view by other items, which was why she hadn’t noticed it right away.
“What’s this?” Following Yueyi’s gaze to the object on the desk, Zhou Ruomu stepped closer out of habit, lifted the ribbon with one finger, and arched an eyebrow. “Isn’t that from the new bakery that just opened in the city center?”
“Mhm?” Yueyi looked over at her.
“My social media feed was flooded with this bread a while ago. Supposedly, it tastes pretty good.” Zhou Ruomu explained. “It’s just notoriously hard to get. Earlier, the youngest daughter of the Long family even posted a complaint saying the owner wouldn’t give her an inch of face or open the back door for her.”
Hearing about opening a back door twice in a single day, and from two entirely different people, caused Yueyi’s fingertips to curl inward.
“If the Long family’s youngest daughter wants to eat something, she can just send someone to buy it.” Yueyi said with a smile, still holding some familiarity with the temperaments of the various young misses and masters around town.
Among all the prominent families in the city, the ones with decent dispositions could be counted on one hand, in her experience.
Yan Nianyi was one of them.
Yueyi’s expression softened unconsciously.
“That’s what you would think, but haven’t you heard? People like the Long family’s girl want things instantly. If she gets a sudden craving, she expects to eat it right away. By the time someone stands in line and brings it back for her, she doesn’t even want it anymore.” Zhou Ruomu laughed. “Who knows how they develop habits like that.”
Hearing this, Yueyi recalled a few similar instances.
She didn’t care to pass judgment on it, though.
“Did you have someone go buy this?” Zhou Ruomu asked.
“I mentioned it in passing before.” Yueyi lowered her gaze, having overheard people talking about this bread without ever seeing what it actually looked like. “Wang Lin must have had someone pick it up.”
“Your people really know how to handle things, even keeping track of casual remarks you drop. Unlike me, every time I give explicit, repeated instructions, they still manage to mess it up.” Zhou Ruomu sighed in mild headache.
“You’ll get used to it over time.” Yueyi said.
“Let’s hope so.” Zhou Ruomu shrugged. Her eyes darted around her sockets before she leaned in with a flattering, half-bowed posture. “Are you going to eat this bread now?”
As longtime friends, the moment Zhou Ruomu opened her mouth, Yueyi knew exactly what she was plotting. “Want a taste?”
“Just want to see what the hype is about.” Zhou Ruomu nodded.
“Go ahead.” Yueyi gave a soft hum.
Although she felt a slight curiosity toward the bread, she certainly wasn’t desperate to eat it right this second.
“Thanks, I’m heading out then.” Zhou Ruomu straightened up, picked up the bread box, and walked toward the door. “I’ll bring you something next time I drop by.”
Accompanied by the quiet click of the door closing, Yueyi curved the corners of her lips and turned her attention back to the documents on her desk.
Taking advantage of the remaining time before the end of the workday, she wanted to clear as many pending tasks as possible so she could take her upcoming vacation with total peace of mind.
She had barely turned a single page of the document in her hand when the office door swung open once again. Assuming Zhou Ruomu had turned back for something, Yueyi asked without raising her head, “Is there something else?”
“Big Sister?” As soon as Yan Nianyi pushed the door open, she heard Yueyi’s voice.
“Nianyi? You’re still here?” Yueyi instinctively lifted her head, her slender fingers resting on the center of the paperwork.
“Isn’t work over at six? It’s not time yet.” Yan Nianyi said, closing the door behind her. A bright smile on her face, she walked up to Yueyi’s desk, placed both hands on the edge, and cast her gaze toward the spot where the cake box had been placed.
It was completely empty.
Did Big Sister finish it already? Yan Nianyi felt a wave of confusion.
Her eyes swept toward the trash can sitting nearby, but there were no remnants of the packaging inside either.
Yan Nianyi’s brow twitched.
“What are you looking at?” Yueyi noticed her wandering gaze.
“Big Sister.” Yan Nianyi bit her lower lip gently. “Did you eat the bread that was on your desk?”
Figuring in the time it took her to visit the restroom, fix her hair, and retouch her makeup, it had only been a little over ten minutes. Surely Big Sister couldn’t have finished an entire loaf of bread and thrown away the packaging in that brief window.
“Bread?” Yueyi paused, blinking in surprise as she set down her documents.
“Mhm. Didn’t Big Sister see it? I specifically bought it for you.” A bright, pleased gleam lit up Yan Nianyi’s eyes.
“You bought that?” Yueyi’s expression shifted slightly.
Realizing something was amiss, Yan Nianyi reined in her smile, stepping back half a pace. Fixing her gaze unblinkingly on the woman before her, a trace of doubt crossed her fair face. “What’s wrong?”
Yueyi parted her lips, suddenly at a loss for how to explain.
“Big Sister, you didn’t give it to someone else, did you?” Yan Nianyi narrowed her eyes, scanning the office space. As far as her eyes could reach, there was no sign of the off-white box anywhere.
She knew Yueyi too well; a single micro-expression was enough for her to read volumes.
“So, Big Sister really gave it away?” Yan Nianyi lowered her voice.
She shifted her hands from the edge of the desk, propping her elbows on the surface instead while cupping her chin in her palms.
“Nianyi, I didn’t know you were the one who bought it.” Yueyi said, frowning as she tried to smooth things over.
“Knock, knock.” The office door was tapped from the outside.
Yan Nianyi glanced back before turning to pull the door open.
Standing outside was Wang Lin.
“Secretary Wang.” Yan Nianyi greeted her politely.
“Miss Yan.” Wang Lin returned the greeting, guessing that the other person must have returned with the bread.
“Director Yue, I’ve finished organizing the materials you asked for.” Wang Lin handed over a few neatly stacked sheets of paper.
“Thank you for the trouble.” Yueyi accepted them, checked the time, and added with an apologetic tone, “I’ve made you work overtime again.”
Yueyi had always treated her staff with gentleness and rarely forced them into overtime.
“It’s no trouble at all. If Director Yue has no further instructions, I’ll take my leave.” Wang Lin turned her gaze toward Yan Nianyi.
When the younger girl wasn’t smiling, she possessed a natural chill and an untainted, aristocratic elegance.
From the moment Wang Lin entered the office until she exchanged those few words with Yueyi and prepared to leave, Yan Nianyi’s attention had only lingered on her for a few seconds when the door first opened.
Every other second, her gaze remained fixed squarely on the woman sitting behind the desk.
Wang Lin cleared her throat, feigning casualness as she asked, “Miss Yan, did you go out and buy that bread?”
The papers gripped in Yueyi’s hand tightened by a fraction.
“I just got back.” Yan Nianyi forced a polite smile, though the clarity in her eyes turned alarmingly cold.
Wang Lin replied, “You must have waited in line for a long time, Miss Yan. It must have been exhausting.”
“It wasn’t hard.” Yan Nianyi replied sideways.
Once the secretary left, the office was once again left with just the two of them.
Yueyi felt a mounting sense of ungrounded panic, fighting to keep her churning thoughts under control.
“Big Sister, I waited in line for so long just to get that for you.” Yan Nianyi said, putting on an aggrieved expression as she took slow steps toward Yueyi. Her sneakers made not a single sound against the tiled floor. “And you gave it away to someone else.”
That meant her hour and a half spent standing in line had essentially been spent serving a stranger.
How could she just do that?
“I didn’t know you bought it for me.” Yueyi said, lifting her head slightly to look at the girl standing right in front of her, her tone softening instinctively.
“I waited in line for an hour and a half to buy that.” Yan Nianyi sounded even more wronged now, a thin film of moisture gathering over her eyes to form a glistening pool of water.
Her features were naturally built to evoke protectiveness, making people want to wrap her up and care for her.
Now that she looked like she was right on the verge of tears, it felt as though someone was firmly clutching Yueyi’s chest, filling her with a heavy, aching sense of guilt.
“I’m sorry. Big Sister didn’t know. Let me make it up to you, okay?” Yueyi coaxed her patiently, freeing up one hand to quickly tap out a message on her phone.
Bring the bread back, immediately.
“No.” Yan Nianyi turned her head away in deliberate defiance.
Her annoyance had actually evaporated the moment Yueyi started speaking to her in that tone, but she wanted to drag this out just a little longer to see how much more pampering she could get.
The sound of voices beside her ceased entirely, and several minutes passed without Yueyi saying another word. Worried that she might have pushed her luck too far, Yan Nianyi cautiously turned her head back, only to find herself locked in the warm, gentle gaze of the older woman.
“Is our little one throwing a tantrum with me? Let Big Sister compensate you with something else, alright?” Yueyi’s fingertip pressed gently beneath the girl’s lower eyelid, tracing a soft path.
Yan Nianyi froze on the spot. At this moment, Yueyi was impossibly close, her unique fragrance drifting straight into the tip of her nose without any need for effort.
A tiny jolt of static electricity crawled up her spine, sinking bit by bit into her brain until it burst into tiny, blooming sparks.
She remained speechless, staring unblinkingly at the face she usually only dared to admire in secret or catch glimpses of through hidden photos.
Her fists clenched tight, fingernails digging into her palms with a sharp pang of pain.
Yan Nianyi snapped her face away, her heartbeat pounding out of control as she rushed to steady her racing emotions.
“How are you going to compensate me?” It took Yan Nianyi a good moment to recover her voice.
“Whatever you want, Big Sister will get it for you.”