Like a "yes today once more" moment, Tang Lei summoned me to the general manager's office again and didn't say a word for fifteen minutes. But this time was different. Even though my eyesight was weakened due to lack of sleep, I could still see the aura of light behind Tang Lei, illuminating the entire office. After fifteen minutes, I started eating the breakfast that his secretary had prepared for him on his desk with a blank expression. He still watched me finish without saying a word. I rolled my eyes at him and said, "I'm done eating. Good morning. If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving."
Tang Lei stood up, patted my shoulder, and said earnestly, "Okay, eat more, so you can have enough energy to find a boyfriend. Also, Yu Zhe is a good comrade."
This man...this man...I...I...I...I won't stoop to his level.
On my way back, I passed by Shao Yuzhe's office. He happened to look up, saw me looking at him, and nodded in greeting.
The poor man looked on with pity.
Surprisingly, Tang Shao let me leave early over the weekend, which scared me so much that I thought he had finally decided to make finding a boyfriend my main business. Turns out it was just a false alarm. I gratefully accepted the order. This week has been ruined by Ji An, and I thought Tang Shao, who is supposed to be a good husband, had finally shown some conscience for once. God.
But it turned out that God only glanced at me out of the corner of his eye before closing his eyes again.
When I opened the door and saw Ji An, Yu Mo, Xiao Yuan, Luo Lin, and Jiang Chen filing in one after another carrying a bunch of food ingredients, I regretted not closing the door immediately and pretending no one was there.
I regret it so much that my large intestine, small intestine, and duodenum all turned blue.
"Surprise! The party next month is being held early! Yay!" Ji An blinked her big eyes and jumped over to hug me.
“If I remember correctly, there are still nineteen days until next month’s party, and this month’s party is being held at my house.” I tore her off like a piece of chewing gum.
"That's why it's a surprise." Yu Mo patted my shoulder, looking completely at ease. Xiao Yuan put his arm around her waist and smiled gently at me.
"That's right, so Nuannuan, hurry up and cook, I'm so hungry." Luo Lin automatically opened the refrigerator door to look for something to eat, but all she could see were four neatly arranged rows of Coca-Cola bottles.
"Take your eyes off her, then go into the kitchen and cook as quickly as possible. Lin said she's hungry." Jiang Chen sat elegantly on my sofa, picked up one of my oranges, and slowly peeled it. Everyone knows this orange was for the person who just said she was hungry. As she wished, I shifted my gaze from Luo Lin to her. This woman is always a stunner; even peeling an orange is so sexy. As long as she doesn't speak, the moment she does, I have to silently remind myself, "Be calm and rational, be calm and rational..."
Just as I was hesitating whether to kick this group of people out and go back to my room to sleep, or simply ignore them and go back to my room to sleep, the doorbell rang again. Without asking, it was definitely Tang Lei, the last one.
"One more won't make a difference," I thought, and opened the door with an air of righteous indignation, only to find myself echoing the classic line, "I guessed the beginning but not the ending."
It was indeed Tang Lei, but there was another person following behind him.
Shao Yuzhe.
When I saw Tang Lei, looking like he'd accomplished his mission and was being praised by his wife, swaggered over to An, I felt utter contempt for this whole group of people.
Including myself, because my heart skipped two beats the moment I saw him.
And also because someone as calm and rational as me is now willingly busy in the kitchen, so calm and rational...
"I'll help." Shao Yuzhe walked in, sleeves rolled up.
As expected, they are not on the same level of thinking as those people outside.
"There are still one in seven people in this world with a conscience." I pouted and pretended to be moved.
Shao Yuzhe smiled and said, "I used to think you were a carefree guy, but I never expected you could cook, let alone cook for eight people. I was listening to Ji An talking about how delicious your cooking is outside. I was thinking that after seven years, you've become a wonderful wife and mother."
I chuckled dryly, and the nightmarish phrase "I've always considered you a brother" kept swirling in my head. I had no choice but to downplay it and say self-deprecatingly, "A virtuous wife and loving mother, indeed. I don't even have a boyfriend. It's all because of life's pressures." I was using a double entendre, referring both to my single life and my bunch of frenemy friends.
"By the way, you told me last time that President Tang and Ji An were a couple. Seeing them together today makes it feel a bit real." Shao Yuzhe seemed to realize this as well and changed the subject.
Actually, there's not much to say about Tang Lei and Ji An's story; they just made a small contribution to it.
At the time, I was forced by the "life" outside to study food culture. I browsed through a bunch of cookbooks in the bookstore, and a book on Japanese cooking caught my eye. When I reached for it, I bumped into a hand that had the same goal. I looked up and found it was the general manager's secretary. We didn't usually have a chance to interact. The book was the last one on the shelf, so we pretended to be polite for a while and then started discussing our "common" "hobbies". I took the opportunity to promote An's Japanese restaurant and attract customers. Unexpectedly, the secretary later praised An's restaurant highly and added it to Tang Lei's schedule for entertaining important clients.
The first time I went to eat there, Tang Lei was very impressed because I was having lunch at the restaurant. I saw Tang Lei's expression at the time and concluded that he must have been very impressed.
Although I was essentially eating lunch at the restaurant, it was practically self-sufficient. I'd used the restaurant's kitchen to cook more than once or twice. Ji An liked my cooking, and I usually made two portions when I cooked at her restaurant. That day, I had just finished reading a book that taught me how to cook fancy dishes, and since I had limited ingredients at home, I came here to try and cook something interesting. Because it was my first time testing my imagination and abilities, I made two regular dishes and then only made one fancy soup. The problem arose with that small bowl of soup.
It's a very small bowl.
Based on the principle of destroying all evidence if I fail, and never giving anyone a chance to laugh at me, and with money and face being the most important things, I hid it in the side dishes and served it on the table, intending to secretly savor it before An was even seated.
Because if I were to taste the finished product in the kitchen immediately, it would attract a chef who enjoys exchanging ideas with me, and that person is very knowledgeable and difficult to deal with.
An usually waits until I'm finished and then call her before she comes, hmph hmph hmph... gap.
But just as my tongue was about to touch the soup, An suddenly appeared, accompanied by her wailing, "I made something new and you're enjoying it all by yourself!" and then her sharp claws came at me.
I was truly shocked that God could bear witness for me.
I can prove it even with my eyes closed! That's not the point! The point is that with a flick of my wrist, the soup bowl started arcing through the air.
The camera shifts to Tang Lei and his client, who have just entered and found a nice spot to sit down. He hears a groan and instinctively turns to look.
I used to play basketball.
I mean, the soup splashed precisely onto Tang Lei's face.
An, whose eyes hadn't left Tang for a moment, rushed straight over and, in a shocking move, licked his face.
I was touched that she cherished what I made so much, but I wish I had never met her.
Obviously not, because she turned to me and said, "It's very good, just a little salty."
"He's sweating." I was surprised by my own first reaction, and afterwards I was always worried that I was sick like Ji An.
"Him?" Ji An turned her head back to look at the creature she had treated like a plate, and recalled what she had done.
"How dare you take advantage of me!" He threw a punch.
I bet she hasn't thought this through.
That's how they met, and so did I.
I later realized that person was my boss.
He later learned that I was one of his lowly subordinates, I mean, an employee.