Yue Mingyuan sat quietly in a café not far from Tengfeng Tower, waiting for Lin Yao.
“Xiao Ming.” As soon as Lin Yao entered the café, she spotted Yue Mingyuan.
Yue Mingyuan smiled and waved.
“Have you been waiting long?” Lin Yao asked. “When I came downstairs just now, I ran into a patient and got delayed for a bit.”
“Looks like work is going pretty well.” Yue Mingyuan pushed the coffee he had ordered in advance toward Lin Yao.
“It’s all right. These past few days, I’ve gradually started getting a few patients each day,” Lin Yao said with a smile. “Otherwise, I really would just be taking a salary without doing any work.”
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to stay idle.” Yue Mingyuan picked up a bag from the table beside him and handed it to Lin Yao. “Here, the lipstick you wanted.”
“Why did you specially bring it over for me?” When Dior had released a new product, Lin Yao had taken a liking to one of the lipsticks. But it was not available domestically, so Lin Yao had asked Yue Mingyuan to help buy it for her.
“I happened to be passing by here for work, so I brought it over on the way.” Yue Mingyuan asked, “By the way, has that super annoying man you mentioned caused you any more trouble?”
“It’s been okay. We don’t work on the same floor, so we usually don’t run into each other much,” Lin Yao said.
“What about your park god?” Yue Mingyuan asked.
“I’ve been busy with work recently, and on weekends I still have to prepare mosquito-repellent sachets. I haven’t gone to the park for a while.”
“Your dedication to your god is only so-so,” Yue Mingyuan teased.
“You’re just suspecting that I lied to you, aren’t you?” Lin Yao said unhappily. “I’ll go after work today. I’ll definitely find my god and prove it to you.”
“All right, then I’ll wait for your good news.” Yue Mingyuan picked up the unfinished coffee cup on the table and said, “I’ve delivered your things, so I’ll be leaving first.”
“So soon?” Lin Yao said. “Aren’t we eating together?”
“I have a date with a beauty.” Yue Mingyuan’s smile turned suggestive.
“Get lost, get lost.” Showing off his romance all day long—Lin Yao waved him away in disgust.
Yue Mingyuan left the café with a wicked grin.
After Yue Mingyuan left, Lin Yao ordered another dessert and ate it with her coffee as lunch. Seeing that it was almost time, Lin Yao picked up the bag and prepared to return to the company.
The café and Tengfeng Tower were separated by an intersection. When Lin Yao reached the crossing, she happened to encounter a red light. The red light was a little long, so Lin Yao stood by the roadside with her head lowered, playing on her phone.
Yan Luji had just finished a meeting with a client and was driving back to the company. He was waiting at the company entrance intersection for the light to turn green. Bored, he glanced around and immediately saw a woman standing on the zebra crossing nearby, head lowered as she played with her phone.
This woman. Why was she standing outside the safety line?
Yan Luji frowned, rolled down the car window, and called out, “Miss? Madam? Hey?”
Only when Yan Luji called “hey” for the third time did Lin Yao dazedly raise her head and look over.
It was her?
Yan Luji pointed at the road and said, “Stand back.”
“What?” Cars kept passing along the road, so Lin Yao could not hear him clearly.
“Careful.” Yan Luji’s pupils suddenly contracted as he shouted loudly.
Lin Yao’s brain had not even had time to process what Yan Luji was telling her to be careful of when a huge force suddenly knocked her forward and sent her falling out.
When Lin Yao hit the ground, her whole mind went blank. Only after a while did the burning pain in her ankle and arm finally reach her brain.
Yan Luji only had time to turn off the engine. Not caring that his car was still stopped in the driving lane, he pushed open the door and ran over, picked up Lin Yao from where she was lying in the middle of the road, and carried her toward the roadside.
The traffic light changed, and the cars blocked by Yan Luji’s car could only change lanes and move forward.
“Lin Yao, are you all right?” Yan Luji asked nervously.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. Is this young lady all right?” The delivery rider did not even have time to pick up the electric bike that had fallen to the ground. He stood beside Lin Yao, looking extremely nervous.
It took Lin Yao a while to react before she understood that she had just been hit by an electric bike. She glanced at where the bike had fallen. So he had delivered both himself and his bike all the way into the middle of the intersection.
A chill ran down Lin Yao’s back. “How were you riding?”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. The customer was rushing me, so to save time…” The delivery rider kept apologising.
“Don’t scold him for now. How are you? Do you need to go to the hospital?” Yan Luji asked worriedly.
Only then did Lin Yao begin checking her injuries. Her right ankle hurt badly, so it was probably sprained. Her elbow and knees burned painfully, but it was not serious; she had only scraped a little skin.
“I’m okay,” Lin Yao replied.
“Do you want to call the police?” Yan Luji looked at Lin Yao’s injuries and asked.
“Don’t call the police.” The delivery rider looked terrified. “I just came out from my hometown. I can’t lose this job. If you call the police, I’ll definitely be fired. Can I compensate you with money? I… I have 180 yuan on me. I’ll give it all to you.”
Lin Yao looked at the delivery rider, whose face looked like he was about to cry, then at the food spilled all over the ground, and the crumpled stack of change in his hand. She asked, “Where are you from? How old are you?”
“Guizhou. I… I’m eighteen this year,” the delivery rider answered honestly.
“All right.” Lin Yao sighed, struggled to her feet, and said, “For the sake of a fellow townsman, I won’t hold it against you. Go.”
“Huh?” The delivery rider looked at Lin Yao in disbelief.
“Ride slower in the future, got it?” Lin Yao said.
“Got it.”
“Why aren’t you leaving?” Lin Yao said impatiently.
The delivery rider froze for a moment, then tentatively stepped back twice. Seeing that Lin Yao really did not intend to pursue the matter, he quickly lifted the electric bike and rode away as if he were flying.
“Hey… I just told him to ride slower.” Lin Yao pointed in the direction where the bike had disappeared and shouted in disbelief.
Yan Luji looked at Lin Yao thoughtfully for a while. Seeing Lin Yao’s body sway, he reached out and supported her again.
“You really don’t need to go to the hospital?”
“I’m a doctor myself,” Lin Yao said. “My elbow is just a little scraped, nothing serious. My ankle is sprained, but I can treat it myself.”
“Can you still walk?” Seeing Lin Yao say this, Yan Luji did not insist on taking her to the hospital.
Lin Yao tried moving a little, then looked at Yan Luji with a miserable, pitiful expression.
“What?” Yan Luji felt a little uncomfortable under her gaze.
“President Yan, be a good person to the end and take me back to the company.” Lin Yao lightly tugged at Yan Luji’s sleeve.
“Acting cute doesn’t suit a tough woman like you.”
“Who… who’s acting cute…” Lin Yao became angry from embarrassment.
“Beep, beep, beep…”
Yan Luji turned to glance at the road and realised that another round of red light had passed. His car had once again blocked the traffic behind him.
Yan Luji suddenly half-crouched, picked Lin Yao up in a princess carry, and strode quickly toward the car. He opened the door and placed her in the back seat.
Before Lin Yao could recover from the shock of suddenly being princess-carried, the car had already crossed the intersection and driven toward the company’s underground car park.
Yan Luji parked the car and opened the rear door for Lin Yao.
“Thank you.” Lin Yao hopped out of the car on one foot.
Yan Luji stood behind her and watched as Lin Yao struggled to hop toward the elevator. He pursed his lips and, in the end, could not hold back. He picked her up again.
“What are you doing?” Lin Yao cried out in shock.
“It’s not like I haven’t carried you before. Why are you shouting?” Yan Luji said expressionlessly.
“You… you…” Of course Lin Yao knew that Yan Luji was talking about carrying her on the road earlier, but put that way, it made her whole body feel awkward. “This will easily cause misunderstandings.”
“Don’t worry. You’re not my type,” Yan Luji said.
“Who wants you to like them?” Lin Yao replied without thinking. “Even if you were my type, I still wouldn’t like you.”
Yan Luji stopped walking and lowered his head to look at Lin Yao.
“Wh-what are you looking at?” Lin Yao wished she could punch herself. What had she just said?
“Press the elevator.”
“…” Lin Yao pressed the elevator button fiercely.
After the elevator doors closed, Lin Yao struggled to get down.
“Don’t move. Otherwise I’ll have to carry you again in a moment.”
“Someone will see us,” Lin Yao said nervously.
Yan Luji thought for a moment, then put Lin Yao down.
When the elevator reached the eighth floor, before Lin Yao could speak, he picked her up again and carried her straight into the Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Room.
On the way, they ran into one or two colleagues from the Administration Department, and each of them was so shocked their mouths would not close.
Lin Yao rolled her eyes at the heavens. It was over. Rumours were about to fly everywhere.
“Where’s the first-aid kit?” Yan Luji placed her on the chair.
“Over there.” Lin Yao pointed beside the medicine cabinet.
Yan Luji walked over, opened the first-aid kit, took out the red antiseptic solution, and came back. He pulled Lin Yao’s arm over and applied the medicine for her.
“Thank you,” Lin Yao said. She had not expected Yan Luji to help her apply medicine.
Yan Luji looked up at Lin Yao. After thinking for a moment, he asked, “Are you from Guizhou?”
“No, I’m from Jiangxi.” Lin Yao shook her head.
“Then why did you say you were fellow townsmen?”
“Oh, you mean just now.” Lin Yao remembered what she had said to the delivery rider on the road. “I was just finding a reason to forgive him.”
“You need a reason to forgive someone?” Yan Luji asked, puzzled.
“That way it’s easier for everyone to accept,” Lin Yao said. “Seeing that he’s young, I decided not to fuss over it.”
“This matter wasn’t entirely his fault to begin with,” Yan Luji said. “You were the one standing outside the safety line.”
“I…”
“So you kind of deserved it.” Yan Luji stuffed the bottle of red antiseptic solution into Lin Yao’s hand. “Apply it to the injuries on your legs yourself.”
Yan Luji clapped his hands, stood up, and turned to leave.
“Hey!” Lin Yao called out to Yan Luji, who had already reached the door.
Yan Luji turned back.
“Today… thank you,” Lin Yao thanked him again.
“Don’t look at your phone when crossing the road in the future.” Yan Luji pushed the door open and left the Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Room.
Lin Yao blinked. Suddenly, she felt that this man, Yan Luji, aside from having a poisonous tongue, perhaps had a bit of tsundere in him too?
**Author’s note:**
I want to change the novel’s title a little. *Small Medicine Packet* was something I temporarily put up when I first started the novel. I want to change it to *The Difficult-to-Pursue Mr. Yan*. Do you all like the new title?
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