Early on Saturday morning, Yue Mingyuan appeared at Xiao Dong’s door carrying a pile of breakfast, his face bright and sunny.
“Speak.” Xiao Dong took a sip of soy milk and asked, “What exactly is it?”
Xiao Dong was extremely curious. Last night, this brat had suddenly called and said he wanted to invite him out for drinks. The moment he heard Xiao Dong was busy, he had actually charged straight to his door early this morning.
“I want to ask you about something.” Yue Mingyuan smiled cheerfully.
“If you have something to say, say it. If you have a fart to let out, let it out.” Xiao Dong glared at Yue Mingyuan. “I still have to go to Hangzhou later.”
“Then I’ll ask directly. Are you familiar with a manager in your company called Yan Luji?” Yue Mingyuan asked outright.
“Old Yan? He was my high school classmate. Why are you asking about him?” Xiao Dong asked, puzzled.
“Is he single?” Yue Mingyuan asked again.
“He… you…” Xiao Dong was so shocked the soy milk in his hand almost fell. “Auntie said you keep finding girlfriends all day but never bring a single one home. Turns out you actually…”
“What nonsense are you imagining?” Yue Mingyuan interrupted his cousin’s wild thoughts and got straight to the point. “It’s like this. A friend of mine has taken a liking to that classmate of yours and asked me to find out about him.”
“Someone has taken a liking to Old Yan?” Xiao Dong stared at his cousin. After thinking for a moment, he guessed in disbelief, “And she’s your friend… Don’t tell me it’s Doctor Lin?”
“Mm.” Yue Mingyuan nodded.
“It really is Doctor Lin?” Xiao Dong’s eyes widened.
“Cousin, how about it? Can you reveal anything?”
“Of course I can.” Xiao Dong slapped the table excitedly. “Ask whatever you want to ask.”
And so, the great operation to investigate Yan Luji’s personal situation achieved complete success with the full cooperation of friendly forces from the enemy camp.
…
Lin Yao sat in the living room sorting through the medicinal herbs for the mosquito-repellent sachets while listening to Yue Mingyuan introduce the information he had gathered.
“According to my cousin, this Director Yan has a clean family background. Both his parents are senior intellectuals. He’s quite capable too. You can tell just from the fact that only a few years after graduating from university, he’s already become the director of Tengfeng’s R&D Department,” Yue Mingyuan introduced. “Also, he’s multi-talented. Apparently, he can play both the piano and the guitar.”
“He can play the piano? You really can’t tell.” Lin Yao was surprised.
“Most importantly, he is currently single,” Yue Mingyuan said, getting to the key point.
The herbs in Lin Yao’s hand loosened. She turned back excitedly and asked, “Then can I make my move?”
“Didn’t you say you wanted to observe him a little more?” Yue Mingyuan said in disdain. Yesterday she had said she wanted to observe him, and today she was saying she wanted to make a move.
“Why are you talking so much?” Lin Yao shot back in embarrassment.
“I haven’t finished yet.” Yue Mingyuan continued, “This Director Yan had a girlfriend before. A childhood sweetheart. Apparently, their relationship used to be very good.”
“So what? If he had one before, that means they’ve broken up now. I don’t care,” Lin Yao said indifferently. “Who doesn’t have a few exes these days?”
“How many do you have?” Yue Mingyuan asked curiously.
Lin Yao’s eyes darted away, and her voice unconsciously rose. “Why should I tell you?”
“You get loud whenever you feel guilty. Looking at you, I can tell you don’t have any exes.” Yue Mingyuan guessed it right in one go.
“Nonsense. I received a love letter when I was in third grade of primary school.”
“You’re still thinking about something from third grade. One look and I know you’ve been empty for a long time.”
“That’s because I have high standards. I’d rather go without than settle for less.”
“If you’ve never dated, just say you’ve never dated.”
“Yue Xiaoming, are you tired of living?” Lin Yao was so angry she pounced over, grabbed a cushion, and kept smashing it against Yue Mingyuan.
After Yue Mingyuan finished delivering the information, he hurried off to his date. Lin Yao, meanwhile, was full of motivation and finished making all three hundred mosquito-repellent sachets at home.
Then she took out her phone, opened the Taobao ID **Strictly Discipline Yourself**, and left a message.
[The sachets are ready. They can be shipped this afternoon.]
[Thank you.]
Unexpectedly, the other party was online.
[May I ask you a question?]
Perhaps because the other party’s ID was somewhat similar to Yan Luji’s name, Yaobao somehow felt compelled to consult him about something.
[Go ahead.]
[Mm, I recently started liking a guy. Do you think that as a girl, if I take the initiative to pursue a guy, it would make me seem too cheap?] Yaobao asked nervously.
[Having the courage to pursue your own happiness is a good thing. Besides, the shop owner is so adorable. The person you like must be very lucky. Good luck.]
[Now that you’ve said that, I feel relieved. I’ll send you one extra sachet later as thanks. The gift is light, but the sentiment is heavy.]
[Wishing you success.]
Yan Luji put down his phone and smiled as he shook his head. Suddenly, he felt somewhat envious of those young men and women who dared to chase after love.
“Ding-dong.”
Yan Luji picked up his phone again in confusion and discovered that Xiao Dong had sent him a WeChat message.
[I’m strolling by West Lake and suddenly felt inspired. Old Yan, your peach blossoms are about to bloom.]
[Lunatic.] Yan Luji replied with three words.
Xiao Dong stood on Broken Bridge. Seeing the three-word reply from his friend, he gritted his teeth in anger and secretly decided, “When Monday comes, I’ll go find Doctor Lin. I’ll act as her strategist from start to finish. I refuse to believe we can’t take you down.”
Monday arrived swiftly under Xiao Dong’s eager anticipation of watching the show.
Unfortunately, there were too many things to handle on Monday. By the time Xiao Dong finished dealing with his work and ran to the health room, intending to have an in-depth discussion with Lin Yao, Lin Yao had run to the twelfth floor to see a patient.
Feifei dragged Lin Yao all the way from the eighth-floor health room to the twelfth floor, squeezed through the crowded group of people, and brought her straight to an office desk.
“Doctor Lin, hurry and take a look. Xiao Fang suddenly fainted.” Feifei anxiously pointed at the unconscious man lying over the desk.
“Everyone move aside. Don’t crowd around here.” When Lin Yao saw the patient, her expression turned serious. First, she reached out to check Xiao Fang’s neck, then she picked up Xiao Fang’s hand and began taking his pulse.
“When I came in this morning, I noticed Xiao Fang’s complexion didn’t look very good. I asked him what was wrong, and he said he hadn’t slept well because he was rushing to submit a program over the weekend, but that it wasn’t a big deal. I wanted to get him something to eat, but just as I brought the food over, he suddenly passed out.” While Lin Yao was taking his pulse, Feifei explained the whole sequence of events.
Lin Yao nodded and continued checking his pulse carefully. Xiao Fang’s pulse was deep, thin, and weak, with regular pauses. His face was sallow, and the area beneath his eyes was dark, but his breathing was long and steady, and his heartbeat was calm…
“What happened?” Yan Luji heard the news and rushed over. “What’s wrong with him?”
“He’s fine.” Lin Yao withdrew her hand from his pulse, stood up, and said, “He’s just too tired and fell asleep.”
“Fell asleep?” Yan Luji sounded somewhat unconvinced.
“He was probably highly mentally tense, had gone a long time without sleeping, and then, for some reason, suddenly relaxed. So he fell asleep all at once,” Lin Yao explained. “It’s nothing serious. Help him to the health room to sleep for a while and put him on a glucose drip. He’ll be fine.”
“Where’s the patient?” At this moment, Doctor Liang from the Western Medicine Health Department hurried over. Seeing Lin Yao, he greeted her, “Doctor Lin, you’re here. Have you checked the patient?”
“I’ve checked him. He’s over-fatigued,” Lin Yao said.
Doctor Liang went over and examined him too. After confirming that there was indeed nothing serious, he called two people over to help carry Xiao Fang to the infirmary.
Before Lin Yao left, she thought for a moment, then turned around and said, “When I took Xiao Fang’s pulse just now, I found that there are some issues with his stomach and liver. He’s still young now, so if he takes care of himself, he may recover. But if his work pressure stays this high and he doesn’t get proper rest, his body can easily collapse.”
Yan Luji was stunned for a moment and said nothing.
“I know overtime is common in the IT industry, but you can’t endlessly consume your own body. Health that has been consumed away isn’t something that can be repaired just by hiring a few doctors.”
Yan Luji watched Lin Yao turn and leave. After remaining silent for quite a while, he called over the leader of Team One and asked, “What exactly happened?”
“I asked Xiao Fang to design a front-end server. When I checked it last Friday, I found a lot of problems, so I told him to fix it and hand it to me before Monday. Who knew that just after he handed it to me, he…” The Team One leader had only wanted to complete the project on time. He had not expected something like this to happen either.
Yan Luji swept his gaze across the employees in the office. More than half of them had bird’s-nest hair and greasy faces. One look was enough to tell that they had not been home for several days.
“What project are you rushing recently?” Yan Luji asked.
“Feihu’s mobile app,” the Team One leader said.
“When is delivery?”
“Next week,” the team leader said.
“How long have you been working overtime?”
“Half a month,” the Team One leader said quietly.
“I’ll have Team Three come over to help you. From now on, overtime…” Yan Luji looked around at the exhausted pairs of eyes and said, “cannot go past ten-thirty.”
“Yes. Thank you, Director.” The Team One leader, who had not gone home for four or five days, was extremely excited.
Yan Luji returned to his office and called his assistant in through the internal line.
“Director.” Assistant Zhang knocked and entered.
“Postpone everything this afternoon. Notify the heads of each department, as well as the doctors from the Chinese and Western medicine health rooms, that there will be a meeting in the conference room at three this afternoon.”
**Author’s note:**
Lin Yao: Didn’t you say that the person liked by an adorable girl like me would be very lucky?
Yan Luji: …
Crab: All exes are assists…
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