Mai Ding carried the coffee he had made into the office and lowered his voice. “You’re not planning any April Fool’s prank today, are you?”
“Your intelligence doesn’t interest me enough.”
“I wasn’t hoping you’d prank me either! Every time April Fool’s Day comes around, I get irritated and my head starts hurting. Why do those people keep circling around me every year? I’m the most popular person on April Fool’s Day.” An Zi Yan took a sip of coffee. “Why do you think? You know perfectly well it can’t be because you’re breathtakingly beautiful.”
“The way you talk makes me furious!”
“I can help cool you down.”
“Beast!” Mai Ding had not been out of An Zi Yan’s office for long when a haggard-looking woman appeared at the doorway with a child, nervously looking around. The moment she saw Mai Ding, she sighed in relief. Wiping tears from the corners of her eyes, she stepped forward and grabbed his wrist. “I finally found you.” Mai Ding looked completely confused. “Have you mistaken me for someone else?”
“You don’t even recognize me anymore? If Mr. Zhou hadn’t told me I could find you here, I wouldn’t have known how to go on living. You abandoned the two of us, mother and child. What are we supposed to do?!” the woman demanded angrily. The only Mr. Zhou Mai Ding could think of was Zhou Ge, and he quickly realized this was one of Zhou Ge’s pranks. He was just about to speak when the woman brought the child in front of him and gave the boy a gentle push. “This is your father.” The child looked timidly at Mai Ding, then stiffly called, “Dad.” Mai Ding clutched his chest. He felt as though he was about to have a heart attack. His coworkers were staring at him intensely too, so he hurried to explain, “This has nothing to do with me! A friend is playing an April Fool’s prank on me!!”
The woman’s voice grew shrill. “April Fool’s? What prank? Have you forgotten what you did five years ago? After I finally found you, you refuse to acknowledge me, and now you won’t even acknowledge your own child. Do you dare say this isn’t your son?” Mai Ding clenched his fists, thinking only about how much Zhou Ge must have paid to hire such a professional actress. Her performance was flawless. Then he looked at the child and felt his heart sink. The little boy’s brows and eyes really did resemble Mai Ding’s. Fan Shao Jun and Feng Fei Meng, happily watching the show, exchanged opinions. “I don’t think this looks like an April Fool’s joke. That kid really does look a lot like Mai Ding.”
“Mm. Given what a playboy Mai Ding is, I wouldn’t put something like this past him. I really want to kick him to death on behalf of women everywhere.”
“Could you at least believe me? Isn’t today April Fool’s Day?”
“It’s probably just a coincidence. Who even celebrates April Fool’s Day anymore? Mai Ding, you’re a man. Could you act like one? Your private life is a mess and your character is terrible.”
“Y-you people…” Mai Ding could not get a sentence out. He had no choice but to crouch down until he was level with the child and say gently, “Little guy, big brother is working right now. How about you go somewhere else and play with your mom?”
The little boy nodded innocently and agreed at once. “Okay.”
“Good boy.”
“Give me two hundred yuan and I’ll leave.”
Mai Ding had just been extorted by a child! But in the office, there was nothing he could do except endure it. With unbearable heartache, he pulled two hundred yuan from his wallet. “All right. Big brother will give it to you.”
“Thank you, Dad.”
“Big brother!!” Mai Ding emphasized with a forced smile. After seeing the two of them off, he could no longer suppress his anger. He sent Zhou Ge a furious message first, and Zhou Ge replied with a grin.
[Surprised? Just thinking about it makes me laugh.]
[You’re unbelievable. If you’re that bored, drop dead.]
[I was worried for ages about what trick to use this year. You know I’m not like Xiao Si, always recycling old ideas. I wanted a breakthrough, so I even asked Yan for a few pointers. Luckily you look so ordinary that you can find kids with something in common with you all over the park.]
Mai Ding shot a murderous glare toward An Zi Yan. An Zi Yan showed no intention of denying anything. His expression seemed to say: Yeah, it was me. So what?
By the time they got home, Mai Ding did not even have the energy left to accuse An Zi Yan. Miserably, he found himself thinking that the fact An Zi Yan had not personally pranked him this year was already the one blessing hidden inside the disaster. He collapsed onto the sofa, wriggled closer, and rested his head on An Zi Yan’s thigh. “What exactly is so fun about messing with me?”
“You could never understand.”
“That’s because I’m the one getting messed with! I really don’t understand any of you. Why do none of you like doing anything normal? Is behaving like decent people really that difficult?”
“I don’t understand it either. Your intelligence is clearly so low, and I still like you.” The confession was too direct, so direct it did not sound like something An Zi Yan would say. Was this another April Fool’s joke? Sigh. Why had he been made so naive? For the first time, Mai Ding found himself completely willing to be fooled.
Later that day in the restroom, Mai Ding stared at himself in the mirror while water ran over his hands. After drying them, he pulled the ring out from beneath his shirt and took it off the cord around his neck. Mai Ding had not worn the ring on his finger in a long time, but today some strange impulse made him want to try it on again. People sometimes did inexplicable things when their brains suddenly short-circuited. Slowly, Mai Ding slid the ring onto his ring finger. He kept turning his hand back and forth, looking at it with a smile. Then Guo Ping walked in. He saw the ring on Mai Ding’s ring finger and stared directly at it without expression. Mai Ding froze from head to toe. He opened his mouth but could not think of anything to say, so he simply stared at his own ring finger too. His ring was exactly the same as An Zi Yan’s. Guo Ping had figured it out, right? He had definitely figured it out. Time seemed unbearably long.
“Why?” Guo Ping asked. Mai Ding did not know what kind of “why” he meant. Why was An Zi Yan’s lover Mai Ding? Or why did Mai Ding like men?
“I…”
“Mai Ding, I never knew you were this kind of person.”
Mai Ding’s heart sank. He took a deep breath, preparing once again to face the kind of hurt he had almost grown used to. He raised his head, and Guo Ping continued, “Why did you steal Yan’s ring?”
“What?!” Mai Ding’s voice rose from sheer shock. He scrambled to invent an explanation. “No, that’s not it. He came in to wash his hands earlier, took it off, and forgot to bring it with him. I was about to return it. I just thought it looked nice and tried it on.”
“So that’s what happened.”
“You really did suspect me just now, didn’t you?”
Guo Ping patted his shoulder. “You know your private life isn’t exactly respectable.” If Guo Ping were not his shifu, Mai Ding would have loved to kick him into the toilet. He did not dare linger. He left the restroom and hurried to find An Zi Yan before the lie could be exposed. Panting, Mai Ding rushed into An Zi Yan’s office. After making sure nobody could hear them, he said, “That was close. We almost got exposed. I only wanted to try the ring on, but Shifu saw it. Luckily he’s stupid enough to think I stole your ring. I had to tell him you left it in the restroom, so don’t contradict me later. We need to keep our story straight.”
“If people find out, I’m not cleaning up the mess for you.”
“You have the nerve to blame me? You’re the one who’s always doing things that make us easy to discover. If I weren’t constantly cleaning up after you, everyone would’ve figured us out a long time ago.” An Zi Yan shrugged as though he had not heard a word Mai Ding said. “Remember, I don’t want you ruining the fun of my secret affair.”
“I really can’t agree with your motives!” Mai Ding glanced outside again and carefully threaded the ring back onto the cord around his neck. After what had just happened, he decided he needed to be even more careful in the future. Before leaving, he warned An Zi Yan again, “Seriously, seriously, don’t touch me in the elevator or the office anymore. If anyone catches us, there won’t be any excuse that can explain it away. At the company, we’re only boss and subordinate. There’s nothing else between us. Got it?”
“If you keep using that tone with your boss, you can pack your things and leave tomorrow.”
“You! Fine. Sorry, boss. I’m leaving now!”