The sun seemed to have risen from the west, for there was actually a boss moving things while the employee stood by idly watching.
Bai Ying felt as if he could sense the resentful souls of all the corporate slaves throughout history condemning him. He subconsciously reached out to take the basket back, but shrank away silently after Qin Juanshu shot him a cold glare.
It was the first time he had seen a boss scrambling to do the work.
The gift boxes soon filled the shopping basket. The fans’ gifts were mostly chocolates and snacks or knitted items. The boxes looked large, but the contents weren’t that heavy. Still, once the basket was full, it weighed seven or eight jin. There was quite a distance from there to the parking lot. Bai Ying and Lin Assistant had been carrying the basket by holding both sides, but the boss insisted on lifting it with one hand.
He carried it steadily, as easily as if Bai Ying were lifting an empty box.
Bai Ying couldn’t just slip away to rest, so he walked beside Qin Juanshu and pointed out the way for him. They met Lin Assistant coming back from dropping off the previous load. She saw the unfamiliar face and couldn’t help asking, “Who is this?”
Bai Ying thought to himself, If I told you this is my boss, would you believe it?
Qin Juanshu said curtly, “A colleague.”
A boss could probably count as a kind of colleague.
After Lin Assistant walked away, Bai Ying couldn’t help asking, “President Qin, why did you come here today?”
Qin Juanshu, this airborne leader who appeared and vanished like a dragon, always holed up in his office doing who knew what. Bai Ying was truly startled when he suddenly saw that perpetually unsmiling face.
“To inspect the work,” Qin Juanshu said.
He hadn’t wandered around the office area these past few days, but he hadn’t been idle either. He had spent a week thoroughly investigating Zhonghe, the former ad company now under Minghong as an ad studio. He had read enough documents, and since Bai Ying’s team’s proposal had landed and was being executed, he came to the site for an inspection. He hadn’t expected to see Bai Ying being ordered around by the client to do work that wasn’t his job, which immediately filled him with anger.
But now the one being ordered around was him, and he had grabbed the task himself.
Qin Juanshu felt like there might be something wrong with his brain.
He ground his molars in irritation. They hadn’t even reached the parking lot yet, and he had already devised eighteen ways to make that lousy drama crew suffer, determined to help them flop even harder. But the irritability in his heart still wouldn’t dissipate. It only eased a little when he looked at Bai Ying walking quietly beside him.
This person was always so quiet and composed, no matter the situation.
Like a handful of snow—not cold enough, but soft enough. Qin Juanshu couldn’t understand how anyone could bear to bully him. Even someone like him, who didn’t have a great impression of Bai Ying, worried that he might melt in the palm of his hand.
Because they were afraid of overzealous fans showing up, the drama crew’s car was parked in a specially isolated area of the mall. Qin Juanshu followed Bai Ying to an unremarkable van. The doors and trunk were already open, and the fans’ gifts were piled haphazardly on the ground.
“Just leave it like this?” Qin Juanshu asked. The inside of the van wasn’t very clean; it looked like it was used by a motley crew, with cigarette ash, fruit peels, and melon seed shells scattered on the floor. The fans’ gifts were wrapped in pretty colored paper with delicate butterfly bows, yet their sentiments were being casually discarded on the filthy ground.
“Mm.” Bai Ying nodded. “The actors’ people said just to put it here.”
Qin Juanshu dumped the shopping basket down.
“Be gentle,” Bai Ying said, reaching out to adjust the gift boxes so they lay flat.
He didn’t know what would happen to them in the end. Bai Ying thought optimistically that the celebrities probably wouldn’t care for them, but useful items might be distributed to the lower-level staff.
Qin Juanshu made several more trips back and forth. The heavily loaded shopping basket felt light as a feather in his hands, and soon all the fans’ gifts were loaded onto the car. At the same time, the revenge he planned for the drama crew escalated layer by layer. He wasn’t known for his good temper.
The last time he met up with Lin Assistant, she thanked him profusely. Qin Juanshu knew she was just a small fry who had no choice in the matter, but he still couldn’t muster a friendly expression for her. After handing her the basket, he took Bai Ying and left.
“Don’t agree to unreasonable demands like this in the future,” Qin Juanshu emphasized to Bai Ying.
Bai Ying nodded perfunctorily.
Qin Juanshu could tell at a glance that Bai Ying was just humoring him. He sighed and rephrased it. “Next time you run into an unreasonable client, call me directly. I’ll handle it.”
Bai Ying looked at Qin Juanshu in surprise. Qin Juanshu’s expression was serious; he wasn’t joking.
Bai Ying was shocked by his boss’s sudden display of humanity. “What if… it’s another colleague who encounters something like this?”
Qin Juanshu said, “I’m not so heartless as to let my employees be bullied like this.”
Bai Ying secretly breathed a sigh of relief. If Qin Juanshu was only concerned about his matters, it would have felt off somehow. Hearing that he would do the same for other colleagues made it feel normal.
If Qin Juanshu knew what Bai Ying was thinking, he would have scoffed at himself.
Of course he would step in for others too—the studio couldn’t project a weak image to the outside world, or the clients would push even further, affecting normal business operations. But if it hadn’t been Bai Ying running into this, he wouldn’t have stuck around to play the fool with them.
Make him haul these odds and ends? He would have thrown them right in the drama crew lead’s face.
Qin Juanshu sometimes reflected on why he always did such stupid things whenever Bai Ying was involved, but after reflecting, he did it again next time.
“My car is parked nearby. Want a ride home?” Qin Juanshu asked. “I’ve got someone else handling the cleanup, and I’ve already notified the others they can clock out.”
Qin Juanshu had checked their attendance records; the overtime was so excessive it made even this relatively humane capitalist frown.
Bai Ying shook his head. “I made plans with a colleague to go back together.”
“Alright then.” Qin Juanshu changed the subject. “What have you thought about what I said last time?”
Bai Ying looked blank.
What he said last time? He couldn’t even remember the last time he had seen Qin Juanshu, let alone what was said.
One look at his expression told Qin Juanshu he hadn’t taken it to heart.
Before today, their last conversation had been a brief WeChat exchange. Bai Ying had asked if he liked snakes, seemingly angling for the luxury watch on his wrist. Qin Juanshu’s attitude then and now was the same.
Pitying his misfortune, angry at his lack of resolve. Such a fine young man—how did he go astray?
Qin Juanshu thought wistfully. He racked his brain for external reasons and concluded it was probably the low salary, which didn’t match the workload. He was already preparing a raise for the entire Zhonghe staff—he could sneak Bai Ying a bigger one.
In short, no more crooked ideas. Cut off those unhealthy relationships! Qin Juanshu was still hung up on the man who supposedly kept Bai Ying in a high-end apartment. The fact that Bai Ying was still out there flirting showed that man was no good. Hurry up and get lost—don’t corrupt others!
Qin Juanshu believed Bai Ying was good at heart; he had just been led astray by bad men.
“Bai Ying, you…” Qin Juanshu patted Bai Ying’s shoulder, wanting to repeat his stance: Bai Ying, you need to cherish yourself.
But before he could finish, a voice interrupted from ahead. “Senior, are you done over there? Let me take you home!”
The parking lot lights were stark and cold, but the twenty-something college student was always brimming with youthful enthusiasm, like a blazing fire.
Qin Juanshu’s expression cooled. “This is the colleague you’re heading back with?”
Bai Ying nodded. Since Qin Juanshu’s hand was still on his shoulder, he hesitated about whether to go over to Xiao Lu.
Lu Changjun found that hand on Bai Ying’s shoulder extremely eyesore. Though his face wore a smile, his words carried a hint of gunpowder. “How could Zhonghe trouble President Qin to come personally for such a small matter?”
Qin Juanshu’s people had notified them they could leave, and they would handle the rest. Lu Changjun hadn’t seen Qin Juanshu himself and had assumed this young heir who grew up abroad looked down on Zhonghe’s business. He hadn’t expected him to come straight for Bai Ying.
Lu Changjun knew how attractive his senior was to men; any slightly intimate gesture put him on high alert.
Qin Juanshu said coolly, “Young Master Lu came too, didn’t he? Why can’t I?”
Lu Changjun was stunned. Both the Qin and Lu families were powerful clans rooted in Shen City, but when Qin Juanshu went abroad, he was still in kindergarten. He hadn’t thought Qin Juanshu would recognize him.
Qin Juanshu had done his homework after returning.
The first time he saw Lu Changjun’s name on the employee list, he found it odd. After investigating, he confirmed he was from the Lu family main branch, which puzzled him even more.
Qin Juanshu hadn’t understood why Lu Changjun would intern at a small company like Zhonghe, but now he thought he had figured it out.
Qin Juanshu lowered his gaze to Bai Ying. Bai Ying’s attention was all on Lu Changjun; he only saw the soft profile under those pitch-black locks. The one who prepared a place for you in that high-end apartment—is it him?
Qin Juanshu had guessed some things right, but more wrong.
The loathsome image in his mind sharpened into Lu Changjun’s features. If he had run into Lu Changjun at any other time, Qin Juanshu might have echoed others in praising the young prodigy, but now he found him utterly detestable.
He removed his hand from Bai Ying’s shoulder.
The words he had wanted to say suddenly seemed unnecessary. With his personality, he might even say something harsh, but as they reached his lips, Qin Juanshu suddenly felt a twinge of reluctance.
In the end, he simply left without a word.
Bai Ying didn’t understand why Qin Juanshu’s attitude had suddenly turned so cold. Even after Xiao Lu drove him home, he still hadn’t figured it out.
Before getting out of the car, Lu Changjun said pitifully, “Don’t stand me up at the snake exhibition tomorrow afternoon, Senior!”
Bai Ying chuckled. “Aren’t you coming downstairs to pick me up? How could I stand you up? Go on, head home and rest.”
Lu Changjun didn’t feel tired at all; he wished he could take his senior on a date right then.
But Bai Ying needed rest, so he left reluctantly.
As Bai Ying went upstairs, he finally figured it out.
Maybe the boss was going through menopause. Bosses were always moody like that.
The most important thing now was that he finally had time off!
