Liu Wei threw a pen and hit Mai Ding in the head. “Look at that sleazy expression of yours. You’re practically drooling.” Mai Ding actually wiped at his mouth before protesting, “I’m not. I-I was just looking.” Fan Shao Jun rolled his eyes viciously. “Stop having crooked ideas. Xiao Zhi is already taken.”
Mai Ding slapped both hands on the desk in shock. “Don’t tell me it’s An Zi Yan?!” This time he failed to control his volume. Had An Zi Yan not only seduced her, but even offered up his body? Shameless bastard. Mai Ding would never forgive him! Fan Shao Jun planted his hands on his hips and stomped his foot. “It’s me! Didn’t I tell you I have a girlfriend?”
“Liar. You must be covering for An Zi Yan, even taking the blame for him.” Mai Ding found the idea of Fan Shao Jun having a girlfriend even less believable than An Zi Yan seducing someone. His attention was completely fixed on Fan Shao Jun, so he never noticed An Zi Yan leaning against the doorway with his arms folded, staring at him.
Liu Wei burst out laughing and patted Fan Shao Jun. “Xiao Zhi is a good girl. Don’t waste her time. You should tell her your sexual orientation as soon as possible.”
“Exactly. A girl’s youth isn’t something you can waste. She’ll find out sooner or later, so it’s better to tell her early,” Feng Fei Meng teased too. Fan Shao Jun was furious. “Don’t go too far. I genuinely like Xiao Zhi.” Mai Ding still refused to give up his theory. “You really don’t need to cover for An Zi Yan. I know he’s the kind of person who would do something like this. And he calls himself a leader? Completely immoral!” He never noticed that his coworkers were deliberately avoiding the topic every time he mentioned An Zi Yan. He just kept talking with great enthusiasm.
“Yan is great. Don’t slander him.”
“Tsk, tsk. Don’t protect him just because he’s the boss. He’s good at his job, sure, but as a person he’s terrible. I’m not afraid of offending anyone. I only tell the truth. Even if he were standing right in front of me, I’d still say exactly what’s true. What is he, anyway? All he knows how to do is bully his subordinates. If I weren’t so broad-minded, I would’ve already…”
“You would’ve already what?”
The voice entering Mai Ding’s ears was far too familiar. He had to be hearing things. Wasn’t An Zi Yan out? How could that possibly be him? Hahaha. Impossible. Don’t scare yourself.
Something slowly entered the edge of Mai Ding’s vision. At that moment, he desperately wished his peripheral vision had malfunctioned. The person leaning against the doorway was not An Zi Yan. It absolutely was not An Zi Yan. Mai Ding swallowed and completely changed the direction of his speech. “But our boss really is an excellent man. He’s handsome, gentle, considerate, practically the finest specimen among men. Whoever marries him would be so, so, so, so, so, so happy. Sigh, if I were a woman, I’d fight to the death to marry him. What a shame, what a shame. You all think so too, right?” Everyone stared expressionlessly at the thoroughly fake Mai Ding.
“Mai Ding, that’s not what you were saying just now.”
“Did I say something just now? You must’ve heard wrong. Haha.” Whenever Mai Ding felt humiliated or awkward, this kind of stiff laugh came out.
An Zi Yan slowly walked over and stopped in front of Mai Ding. “Keep talking the way you were before. You shouldn’t be afraid of offending me. You’re someone who only tells the truth.” It was over. He had heard everything. Mai Ding had thought he might somehow bluff his way through.
“I-I ran into a Daoist priest a while ago. He said there was darkness between my brows and I was probably possessed. You know, what ordinary people call having a ghost inside you. So sometimes I don’t even know what I’m saying. Did I say something just now? How hateful. It must’ve been that ghost talking. After work I’m definitely going to have an exorcism!” Mai Ding delivered this absurd explanation with righteous indignation.
“What a coincidence. I happen to know how to exorcise ghosts.”
“Ha, haha. There’s no need to trouble you, is there? I’m only an insignificant little employee.”
“A boss should care about his subordinates.” The smile on An Zi Yan’s face did not reach his eyes, and it made Mai Ding want to run. The other coworkers only snickered nearby, happily watching the show with no concern for Mai Ding’s survival. Mai Ding grabbed a random document, opened it, and pretended to be busy. “I still have work to do.”
“That won’t do. What if the ghost inside you is the one working and makes a mistake? This concerns the interests of Public Relations.”
Mai Ding hated himself for choosing such a ridiculous excuse. He had completely run out of nonsense to invent and could only mumble softly, “Sorry.”
“I didn’t hear you.”
“Sorry.” The number of times Mai Ding had apologized to An Zi Yan at this company already exceeded all the apologies he had made in the rest of his life combined.
“What?”
“Sorry!”
“You think saying sorry is enough?”
If that’s the case, why didn’t you say so earlier? Then I wouldn’t have apologized three times!
“Then… what do you want me to do?”
“Watch your mouth. If I catch you doing it again, don’t blame me.”
Mai Ding had never expected An Zi Yan to forgive him so easily. He let out a huge sigh of relief and handed An Zi Yan a document. “Right, this needs your signature.” An Zi Yan stepped forward, picked up the pen on the desk, carefully wrote something, tossed the document back onto Mai Ding’s desk, and returned to his office.
“Mai Ding, you should learn to repay kindness too. If Yan weren’t so broad-minded, you would’ve been fired ages ago.”
“Only Yan is kind enough not to hold this against you. If you were in another department or another company, you’d be suffering by now.”
“You know the phrase ungrateful wolf? That’s you. What exactly are you dissatisfied with about Yan? Are you jealous just because he’s much more handsome than you, has much better character than you, and is much better at his job? That kind of mentality is seriously twisted.”
Everyone was speaking well of An Zi Yan. Right, what exactly was Mai Ding dissatisfied with? Hadn’t An Zi Yan just let him off very easily? Mai Ding opened the document and glanced at what An Zi Yan had written. He was about to hand it to Guo Ping when his hand froze. He looked more carefully at the words on the page: If you want me to forgive you, fine. Get your ass ready. Before anyone noticed, Mai Ding dragged the document under the desk, tore off that sheet, and shredded it into pieces as quickly as possible. He had asked for a signature. What the hell had An Zi Yan written instead? Mai Ding never needed to doubt it again. Being dissatisfied with that man was completely justified!
Now he had to print the document all over again. Mai Ding desperately wished everyone in the office except him and An Zi Yan would vanish for a moment, or that he had some supernatural ability to teleport without anyone noticing. Then he could grab the pen An Zi Yan had just used, charge into his office, and stab him hard in the arm with it!!
Mai Ding and An Zi Yan had both missed last year’s year-end banquet for reasons neither of them wanted to mention. Fortunately, attendance was not mandatory, so plenty of people eager to start their vacation skipped it too. Guo Ping and Gao Shuang had not gone last year either, so no one had found anything suspicious.
Soon they would temporarily say goodbye to the company again. The company’s annual leave could not compare with winter break at school, but it was still enough to make people feel excited.