Did he really say such a thing before?
He Jingyan paused, then wondered, how does Ji Mi remember it so clearly?
He had been talking nonsense at the time, and any secretary who heard it wouldn't have taken it seriously. But Ji Mi was incredibly naive and had earnestly taken it to heart.
"Do you want a wet wipe?" Ji Mi looked around and helpfully pulled one out.
"Wipe it off, you can't scare people looking like that anymore."
He Jingyan wiped off the ink and clarified, "I don't scare people anyway."
Ji Mi said, "But those directors and managers you call up for meetings always linger nervously in the hallway."
In the short time it took for this casual chat, He Jingyan finished writing the email he was working on, sent it to the group CEO and cc'd the board of directors.
Having completed this, he was also ready to leave work. The two of them walked out of the office side by side.
Not far away, Noah stood in the hallway with one hand in his pocket, having just pressed the elevator button. He was holding his phone, adding a tip to his ride order.
"Still haven't gotten a car?" Ji Mi struck up a conversation with him.
Noah shrugged: "The place I'm going is a bit out of the way. It's too late, so no drivers are accepting the order."
Ji Mi noticed his destination was a certain luxury hotel and exclaimed in surprise, "Do you sleep there every day?"
Noah hadn't given up on his dream of moving into a mansion and jokingly went along with it.
He said, "Wandering about, waiting for Delay's mercy."
Ji Mi's eyelashes curved in amusement: "Any signs of that happening?"
Noah hemmed and hawed, while He Jingyan coldly revealed the answer.
"He'd have better luck waiting for chickens to finish eating rice, dogs to finish licking noodles, and fire to burn through locks," he said.
Hearing this, Ji Mi laughed, tilting his head slightly to look at He Jingyan, a glint of mischief in his eyes.
"Delay, is there something in your house that can't be seen by others?"
Seeing Ji Mi's face full of curiosity, as if he'd caught the scent of some gossip, He Jingyan's lips twitched.
"Teacher Ji, you've read too many far-fetched novels about keeping secret lovers, haven't you?" he asked, finding it absurd.
Ji Mi was caught out and pouted, no longer muttering.
The three of them walked and talked. It was late at night, and few lights remained on in the office building. The elevator descended steadily from the top floor to the ground floor.
He Jingyan took out his keys to drive home, and Noah asked if he could give him a ride.
"It's not on my way," He Jingyan said. "I'll WeChat you 200 yuan, add it to the tip and you'll definitely get a driver to accept the order."
Ji Mi, showing his business acumen, said: "The taxi I booked has already arrived. Give me 100, and another 100 to the driver, and we'll leave right away."
Noah was impressed: "You two really are a match."
They split into two groups at the entrance, with Noah ultimately getting into the car with Ji Mi.
Ji Mi didn't actually ask for money, and after gently communicating with the driver, they first headed to his rented apartment from the company.
These two places were very close, with only a 15-minute drive between them.
With nothing else to do, Ji Mi rubbed his sore eyes and quietly opened Cute Heart.
He then discovered that just two minutes ago, Jing had asked if he was off work yet.
Ji Mi had ordered some late-night snacks in advance, which the delivery rider had already sent to his apartment, so he said he was enjoying his nightlife.
Mi: [What about you?]
Jing: [Haven't gotten home yet.]
Ji Mi said: [What industry are you in? It seems so tiring.]
Jing vaguely revealed: [A "three-high" industry.]
"Three-high" could be understood as high salary, high intensity, and high layoff rate.
Ji Mi had never disclosed his own job and didn't insist on the other party revealing their company, replying with "We're quite similar then."
[How many years have you been in it?] He didn't know Jing's age.
Jing: [Including internships, about seven years.]
At this point, Ji Mi had returned to his bedroom and closed the door. As he unpacked the insulated delivery bag, he estimated Jing's approximate age.
The current job market was so competitive that people started submitting resumes in their freshman year of college, but four or five years ago, students only started thinking about such things after their junior year.
So assuming Jing started interning in his junior year, he should be around 27 years old now.
Ji Mi sighed: [That's a long time. You're so busy every day, do you have any time for dating?]
Jing reminded him: [Your situation is the same, not any better.]
Ji Mi, slowly eating his shrimp rice noodle rolls, explained: [Well, I haven't met someone I like yet.]
Jing probed: [What would you do if you did?]
Ji Mi was at a loss for a moment: [At least squeeze out five minutes every day, I guess. I'd daydream about him while slacking off right under my boss's nose.]
Whether it was his boyfriend or his boss, this treatment sounded rather pitiful.
However, no matter how pitiful either of them might be, neither was as miserable as the person on the other side of the screen who still hadn't made it home late at night.
Ji Mi thought about this before going to sleep and drew in a sharp breath, suspecting that Jing was being overworked.
Meanwhile, He Jingyan had dozed off for half an hour in the office earlier, so he wasn't very sleepy now. After finally getting home with nothing else to do, he spent some time reading replies from the board of directors.
A career requires vigorous energy to support it, and he found himself staying up until 3 AM.
Then he saw Mi's message: [Good night.]
Mi also remembered the abs photo incident, simultaneously sympathizing with Jing's work schedule and holding a bit of a grudge.
[Although you've got a turtle shell on your stomach, real turtles can live for 176 years, while you're just pretending to be one, so you should consciously take care of your health.]
He Jingyan thought to himself that it would be quite difficult to slack off and pine for love under the nose of a boss at Hongni, and this person should be more careful about their relationship with their superior.
He then found it somewhat amusing, thinking that the HR department's recruitment standards were rather inconsistent.
Even though they were both fresh graduates, Ji Mi and Mi seemed like completely different types of people when put side by side. How did the former end up being so well-behaved?
He was polite and measured in his interactions with others, even hesitating to touch his own face directly with his fingers, and showing remarkable patience even with noisy people like Shell.
The entire executive office had a good impression of the new assistant. He was eager to improve in his work, learned very quickly, and there was hardly anything to criticize.
"If Ji Mi has no problems, should I talk to HR about making his position permanent after the trip?" Noah asked.
He Jingyan said calmly, "After we return, you can have him start preparing for his presentation."
"For that newly established game project, has the lead designer been decided yet?" Noah immediately asked about the next important matter.
He said, "It's best to finalize the core team for the project as soon as possible. If there are internal transfers, we need to do it quickly to leave more time for handovers."
He Jingyan said, "Let the producer make the selection. Give him a few days to consider."
"Speaking of which, among those candidates, there's one who has some connection with little Mi," Noah suddenly said.
He Jingyan raised an eyebrow: "A relative?"
"No," Noah lowered his voice.
"I did a background check before Ji Mi came. At that time, I heard, just heard, mind you... that game designer had pursued him."
"Pursued?" He Jingyan frowned.
"The lead designer you picked had shown interest in your assistant! The PM of that team said so. Buying flowers, gifts, just short of buying a big diamond ring!" Noah couldn't have been clearer.
He Jingyan was stunned for a moment: "They're both men?"
"What's wrong, are you homophobic?" Noah was surprised.
He Jingyan wanted to agree reflexively but ultimately fell silent.
Noah analyzed, "Anyway, Ji Mi didn't agree, and I've never heard him mention this. Do you think it's because his sexual orientation doesn't match, or because tech geeks aren't his type?"
He Jingyan responded perfunctorily, "I don't know."
Noah pondered for a while, then snapped his fingers, eager to see some drama.
"That guy is coming to the top floor to discuss something today. I need to find a good spot to see his reaction when he passes by Ji Mi's workstation."
He Jingyan came back to his senses at this point and glanced up, "What are you going to discuss?"
"Just some stuff about the DLC. They're planning to add a stealth gameplay mechanic," Noah explained.
He Jingyan coldly instructed, "Why are you discussing development team matters outside the development team? Is our floor a chat room? Go notify them to change the location."
Noah: ?
In the past, when secretaries were too lazy to go downstairs and called people up to argue, you never seemed to mind?
On the other side, Ji Mi felt that the top floor was particularly quiet today.
No colleagues came to discuss work matters, all the secretaries had gone downstairs, and the entire floor had only himself and He Jingyan.
They were flying abroad for a vacation tomorrow afternoon, and Ji Mi hadn't finished packing his luggage yet. His mind was already drifting to the misty hot springs.
He was waiting for QA to run tests, during which he turned his head to check the time more than ten times. Finally, when the project group announced the package was sealed, he eagerly shut down his computer.
It was the evening rush hour in the industrial park, with over 200 people queuing for taxis. The platform didn't even bother displaying estimated wait times; everyone just had to endure.
When He Jingyan came out, he noticed Ji Mi sitting idly and gave him a second glance.
"Why don't you ride with me?" He Jingyan offered.
Ji Mi picked up his backpack upon hearing this but still had to ask, "Are we going the same way this time?"
He Jingyan had given Ji Mi a ride before, and when he opened the navigation app, the history was still there.
However, as they approached the area, he felt the scene before him was slightly different from his memory.
"Why are the lights off in those buildings on the side? Is no one living there?" He Jingyan asked.
It would have been understandable if it were the middle of the night, but at seven or eight in the evening, not a single light on seemed rather strange.
Ji Mi turned his head to look and realized his own building was pitch black too, uttering a confused "Huh?"
The Koenigsegg slowed down, gradually coming to a stop at the entrance of the residential complex. They then saw a blackboard hanging at the security booth, with several residents lingering in front of it.
Ji Mi hurriedly got out of the car and walked over, seeing an announcement written in chalk on the blackboard.
[Due to cable damage during road repairs, Buildings 10, 12, and 13 are temporarily without power.]
Ji Mi: "..."
"Noah lives in a wildlife park, and you've basically reverted to primitive society?" He Jingyan asked.
He parked the car under a tree and also saw the chalk writing: "Little Teacher Ji might even have to rub sticks together to make fire."
"I forgot to ask Noah for survival tips, and now I suddenly have to live like a nomad," Ji Mi said dejectedly.
After saying this, he lowered his head sadly, then heard He Jingyan chuckle softly beside him.
Ji Mi thought He Jingyan was gloating and couldn't help but glare at him, only to find the other man looking right at him.
As their eyes met, Ji Mi instinctively wanted to look away, but then he heard He Jingyan speak.
"Then can I pick you up?"