After working overtime as usual and getting home late, Mai Ding immediately collapsed against the sofa in search of physical relief. He pulled the tie from around his neck. “I can’t take it anymore. Scumbag Cui really might be going through menopause, or maybe he’s on his period. He’s getting more and more agitated lately. He doesn’t even seem like himself. Wasn’t that old fox always supposed to be calculating?”
“No one has a perfect personality. No matter how cunning a fox is, if it doesn’t know where the trap has been placed, it’ll still lose its composure.” An Zi Yan changed channels as he spoke casually. Mai Ding, who had been about to hang up his jacket, turned toward him suspiciously. “Why do I feel like there’s something behind what you just said?”
“Is there?”
“There is. Did you do something? What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Then why is that bastard Cui…”
“He’s the one who decided to misunderstand and think I’m plotting against him. What does that have to do with me?”
“You definitely did something to make him misunderstand. I don’t believe he’d suspect you for no reason. Don’t try to fool me. I already experienced this trick of yours before graduation. You made my life miserable back then. I spent every day terrified!”
“I don’t remember.”
“I remember! What exactly are you planning? Give me a tiny hint. I promise I won’t tell anyone, okay~~?” Mai Ding softened his voice. An Zi Yan finally found the television channel he wanted and tossed the remote aside. “He’s too eager for quick success, and he’s paying far too much attention to me. Once a person focuses entirely on one thing, it becomes easy to neglect everything else, like his subordinates and this product launch.”
“You’re deliberately drawing his attention toward you, aren’t you?”
“Am I?”
“You’re waiting for him to make a mistake, aren’t you? But what if he doesn’t?”
“I don’t lose anything either way.”
Mai Ding immediately thought of himself. It was true. Whenever An Zi Yan played one of his tricks on Mai Ding, whether it succeeded or failed, An Zi Yan never lost anything. Mai Ding snorted through his nose. “Always playing tricks on people. Be careful something doesn’t go wrong.” Hopefully Mai Ding was not jinxing things. He placed a hand on An Zi Yan’s leg and lightly kneaded it. “An Zi Yan, can I discuss something with you?”
“No.”
“I haven’t even said it yet.”
“It’ll be the same whether you say it or not.”
“Listening won’t hurt you. Considering how much I’ve contributed to this household, getting up early and working late every day, desperately saving money and supporting the family, just agree to my request.”
“A moment ago you wanted to discuss something. Now it’s already advanced to me having to agree?”
“Don’t pay attention to tiny details like that. What’s there to fuss about?” Mai Ding coaxed him patiently. An Zi Yan ignored him, but Mai Ding continued. “Can you promise me that you’ll only play tricks on other people from now on and stop playing them on me? No matter what, I’m your lifelong partner.”
“Lifelong partner? You certainly think highly of yourself.”
“I told you not to fuss over tiny details. Are you agreeing or not?”
“Mm.”
“Really?!” Mai Ding could barely believe it. An Zi Yan had actually agreed. Delight and excitement immediately flooded his face.
“Mm.”
“That’s great. We’ll live peacefully together from now on.”
“So…” An Zi Yan drew out the word, then paused. That wicked expression reappeared in Mai Ding’s eyes before he continued. “You actually believed me?” It took Mai Ding about two seconds to process it before he shouted in furious frustration, “B-bastard! You tricked me again!!”
“So what?”
“Bastard! Bastard! You enormous bastard!” Mai Ding had no idea what words could possibly vent his anger except more insults. An Zi Yan leaned a little closer until only a small distance remained between them. His voice dropped low. “Mm. I’m your bastard.”
How could Mai Ding deny it?
What right did An Zi Yan have to become more and more… more and more nearly perfect? What right did he have?!
Not merely close… He was probably already perfect.
It had nothing to do with anyone else. At least in Mai Ding’s eyes, at least to Mai Ding, An Zi Yan could be called perfect.
The sweltering weather had been weakened by several consecutive heavy rains. After swinging back and forth for a while, the temperamental temperature gradually became mild. Global warming felt distant and impossible to take seriously for many people. No matter how earnestly experts warned them, no matter how television used disaster effects to frighten them, people remained unmoved. They kept cutting down forests, kept polluting, kept fighting wars, kept living their own lives. But everyone was an offender in this problem, and no one had the right to point a finger at anyone else. Gradually, it simply became normal.
Rain suddenly began falling again outside. The Public Relations Department filled with the damp smell of rain, but no one paid attention. Manager Cui had been tormenting them for some time now. His standards for this proposal were impossibly high. If the slightest detail failed to satisfy him, he ordered the entire thing redone. Yet the more they revised it, the worse the results seemed. He flew into rages, and everyone beneath him suffered in silence, unable to say anything. President Wang and Manager Cui were not especially close, but Manager Cui and President Zhou, one of the company executives, had been schoolmates and remained close privately.
Feng Fei Meng stared at yet another rejected proposal and complained, “At this rate we’ll never finish it. The launch date is getting close, and Marketing is chasing us every day like they want our lives.”
“Let him do whatever he wants. It’s up to him. If something goes wrong, Yan and the rest of us shouldn’t be the ones taking responsibility anyway,” Guo Ping said quietly.
Whenever things on their side were gloomy and rainy, Mai Ding could not help looking toward the bright sunshine on An Zi Yan’s side. An Zi Yan had been playing games for exactly as long as Manager Cui had been oppressing them. He couldn’t already have climbed all the way to Challenger, could he?! Mai Ding despised An Zi Yan’s behavior of gaming during work hours, but he had no intention of seeking An Zi Yan’s protection. Something like this was nothing. He wanted to grow stronger beside An Zi Yan on his own.
The rain continued until the end of the workday without showing any sign of stopping. Mai Ding had not brought an umbrella, and naturally he would never expect An Zi Yan to bring one. An Zi Yan had driven, so it was convenient for him. Even if Mai Ding took the bus, he still had to walk part of the way. His other suits had not been washed because it had been raining continuously, and this was his last clean set. Of course Mai Ding could not bear to send his clothes to a dry cleaner, and taking a taxi was not economical either. It looked like very few of his coworkers had brought umbrellas.
He secretly pulled out his phone and sent An Zi Yan a message.
[It’s raining today, plus there are other special circumstances, so I’ll make an exception and ride home in your car.] The message made it sound as though Mai Ding were the one making a sacrifice. He quickly sent another one: [Your car is in the garage downstairs, right? Drive to the farthest corner and wait for me. Then I’ll climb into the trunk so nobody can see me.]
An Zi Yan looked at the messages and quickly typed a reply: [If you have enough energy for that, why don’t you go outside and buy an umbrella?] His finger paused for a moment. He deleted the message and wrote a new reply: [Fine.] An Zi Yan’s taste for teasing had surfaced again.
[Make absolutely sure nobody discovers us.]
[Of course.]
Strange. Why was An Zi Yan as mild as the weather today? Mai Ding did not think much about it. Riding in the car was such an ordinary matter that An Zi Yan probably could not be bothered to make trouble over it. But Manager Cui extended their overtime again. Mai Ding could only watch helplessly as An Zi Yan left the office. He thought about messaging him to say there was no need to wait, but then decided An Zi Yan would never have the patience to wait for him anyway, so he let it go.