The goldfish innocently blew bubbles in their glass tank, but Ji Mi no longer paid attention to how they floated up and sank down.
He stood dumbfounded for a long while, his face full of disbelief, struggling to process the other person's self-introduction.
...Usually called Delay by everyone.
...New CEO and acting chief executive.
This was completely different from the photo shared in the employee group chat!
If you put him in the marketing department, he could be a photoshoot model!
Ji Mi thought in confusion, but these weren't the main points right now.
The most important thing was...
He had failed to recognize his own boss when meeting him for the first time!
"Mr. He?" Ji Mi felt a bit dizzy.
He Jingyan let out a snort, unclear whether it was of amusement or exasperation.
He said, "No need to be so formal."
This place wasn't as rigid and proper as a state-owned enterprise, where titles like "Director Zhang" or "Chairman Wang" were almost extinct. To create a relaxed office atmosphere, the higher-ups took the lead in not using such honorifics.
Ji Mi nodded obediently, barely managing to regain some composure from his dazed state.
"People say it's best to change the water every two or three days in summer. It should be changed today. I didn't mess with your fish," he explained.
Carefully watching his boss's expression, he hesitated timidly for a moment.
Then he added softly, "But assistants probably don't need to be updated that frequently..."
He Jingyan's expression was very neutral, making it difficult to discern his emotions from his face, which made Ji Mi suspect he was playing dumb.
Ignoring the assistant's probing, He Jingyan annoyingly changed the subject.
"Where is the East Gate 2? My takeout order is arriving soon, in about 15 minutes," he asked.
Ji Mi followed the change of topic and answered brightly, "After getting off the elevator, turn right, go through the building in front, and you'll see a row of attendance machines - that's the place."
Then, his attentive nature made him feel something wasn't quite right.
Ji Mi turned to He Jingyan and said, "That's a bit far from Building A. How about I go get it instead?"
"No need. Put the fish tank back on the desk, I'll go with you," He Jingyan instructed.
"I've been here for meetings a few times before, but haven't really explored the campus," he said. "It's a good chance to get familiar with the area."
Sunlight streamed through the clear floor-to-ceiling windows. In the warm building, they walked across the shiny floor tiles and entered the elevator one after another.
Ji Mi clearly lagged half a step behind, looking at He Jingyan's tall and straight back, yet somehow feeling as if he was being detained and escorted by the other.
The elevator doors slowly closed, vaguely reflecting the outlines of the two.
Ji Mi stood next to He Jingyan, his figure tall and slender, with thin and soft lines, visually appearing a size smaller than the other.
If He Jingyan stood in front of him, it seemed he could easily be covered or trapped.
Their gazes fell on different spots, neither speaking, with only the mechanical sounds of the equipment operating in the cabin, until the elevator smoothly stopped on the fifth floor.
With a "ding," the doors opened again.
Fu Qianyao walked in, surprised to see Ji Mi inside, wanting to call out "Little Mi."
But at the same time, he noticed there was another unfamiliar man.
Guessing this must be Ji Mi's colleague from the executive office, Fu Qianyao licked his lips and swallowed back his original form of address.
He kindly tried to help Ji Mi save face, changing his tone to a rather respectful: "Isn't this our esteemed Teacher Ji!"
Ji Mi, next to his truly esteemed big boss, was trembling: "."
He perfunctorily forced a smile, watching Fu Qianyao cheerfully stride over, desperately using eye signals to tell him to take a different elevator.
However, seeing Ji Mi like this, Fu Qianyao thought his friend was being intimately interactive with him, and patted Ji Mi's shoulder.
Ji Mi: "..."
"This elevator is quite pleasing to the eye, isn't it? Being CEO really has its perks. I'm starting to suspect the executive office is a paradise for looks," Fu Qianyao remarked, sizing up the two.
"Last time the marketing department hired male models to sell their image, honestly, they should have saved that money and used you two instead. Standing side by side, you're more eye-catching than them," he added casually.
As the light-hearted teasing fell, Ji Mi felt his vision go dark.
He thought despairingly that rather than having He Jingyan sell an image, they were more likely to be sold by the boss as gigolos.
"Don't joke around, we can't do that kind of thing..." Ji Mi said dryly.
He quickly changed the subject: "What are you up to right now?"
Fu Qianyao replied cheerfully, "Not much work this afternoon, so I'm sneaking out to mail a package. What about you guys?"
Ji Mi said, "We're going to pick up some takeout."
"I see, having afternoon tea," Fu Qianyao imagined.
He joked, "While Delay hasn't arrived yet, throw a party and enjoy the last moments of bliss, right?"
Ji Mi listened to his joking and closed his eyes painfully.
It was hopeless, truly hopeless.
Fu Qianyao was probably going to be fired along with him.
"Indeed, it's a few cups of coffee," He Jingyan said, then glanced at Ji Mi.
Wilted, with his head lowered, obviously anxious.
"As for Delay, he's arriving on today's flight. Little Teacher Ji doesn't seem able to party, he's not feeling too well already," he added leisurely.
Ji Mi: "..."
Fu Qianyao responded, "He's been panicking since last week. In my opinion, is it worth being so afraid of the boss? What do you think, little brother?"
The "brother" He Jingyan, who was cued, replied with a straight face: "Mm, right."
Next, Fu Qianyao looked at Ji Mi, giving thoughtless encouragement.
"People are sensory creatures. With your good looks, you'll have an advantage at first sight. Shouldn't Delay be the one bewitched and infatuated first?"
The warm and cheerful voice echoed in the elevator, and Ji Mi's heart grew colder with each word.
He Jingyan played along and continued to be annoying: "Mm-hmm."
Ji Mi didn't dare to meet his eyes, silently taking a deep breath.
He was speechless. What was He Jingyan agreeing to?
How full of sarcasm it was!
He Jingyan and Fu Qianyao sang in harmony, seeming like Ji Mi's closest workplace friends, though whether it had any motivational effect was yet unknown.
At any rate, Ji Mi, sandwiched between them, looked like he wanted to die even more.
Before parting, Fu Qianyao extended an olive branch of friendship.
"By the way, are you the new secretary from Guangzhou? Let's grab lunch together in the cafeteria sometime? Every time Mi and I order the coconut chicken hotpot, we can never finish it between the two of us."
He Jingyan also politely replied, "Not a secretary. The official appointment letter should be mass-emailed to everyone's inbox this week. I'm playing the role of the bewitched target."
On the other side, Ji Mi gloomily glanced at Fu Qianyao.
He could only say he had never seen such a rich array of expressions in his life.
Shock, embarrassment, regret...
It was so pitiful that Ji Mi couldn't bear to look anymore.
Fu Qianyao seemed to have an out-of-body experience, stumbling away as if floating.
After they parted, he bombarded Ji Mi with messages on WeChat.
[Holy crap, how can he be Delay???]
[Why didn't you say earlier that he was the boss!!!]
Ji Mi was also very frustrated: [I was giving you eye signals when you were about to enter the elevator!]
Fu Qianyao, spitting blood: [Damn it, I thought you were reminding me to hurry and come check out the handsome guy together?]
Ji Mi: "..."
Some people might just deserve their fate.
Fu Qianyao: [Why did colleagues who've met Delay say he's hard to look at? Wouldn't someone who looks like that have an explosive turn-around rate?]
Seeing this line, Ji Mi actually had no doubts about it.
He had already understood the profound meaning behind this adjective, feeling a bit sad as he slowly typed his reply.
[He really is hard to look at. I don't dare to look at him now either.]
Fu Qianyao: [...]
Fu Qianyao: [Poor you, having such a terrible boss. Why don't you just quit early and go back to school for a PhD?]
Ji Mi: "."
Beside him, He Jingyan found his takeout order from the delivery shelf.
He had ordered five cups of coffee with different flavors, packed separately in two bags, which he easily carried in one hand.
"Let the secretarial office know that I came to take a look, and the coffee I bought for them is upstairs," he instructed.
Ji Mi nodded and first sent a notification to Noah.
Noah: [Got it.]
Noah: [You've met Delay, huh? I forgot to add you to our group chat, just wait and @everyone when you're in.]
Then, Ji Mi was pulled into the internal group by him.
When he saw the group name, it was quite fitting:
"Executive Office Doesn't Believe in Tears (Shanghai Expedition Version)"
Including Ji Mi, there were five people in total, all staff working here.
Noah was the group owner, and He Jingyan was also in it, with the system's default gray avatar.
After sending the notification in the group, Ji Mi heard He Jingyan ask, "Have you met everyone?"
"Everyone's been very busy these past couple of days. We haven't had a full house on the top floor yet. Sometimes admin and HR come up too, so it's easy for me to get confused," Ji Mi said.
He glanced at the avatars of the others in the group chat, some of which had selfies: "Now I can match faces to names."
He Jingyan didn't have much of a reaction: "Noah and the others don't spend much time at their desks."
Ji Mi made a sound of acknowledgment and said, "I used to think the secretarial office would be hovering around the CEO."
"Other places hire a lot of administrative positions, and it might be like that there, but here the responsibilities are different."
He Jingyan chimed in: "They're like my extensions, wielding my authority to manage others."
The entire business group was too large for one person to handle everything. Not only would making all decisions alone be exhausting, but it would often lead to mistakes and oversights.
So the executive office had a vertical management structure, with He Jingyan at the top overseeing everything, and each secretary responsible for specific modules.
If a subordinate department had difficulties to report, according to standard procedure, they would first report to a secretary.
The secretaries would handle trivial matters themselves, organize the remaining issues, and then report upwards. They would also follow up during implementation, sometimes even needing to be stationed in the workrooms.
They often had to proactively interact with those below, always seeming to be running around, making it difficult to catch sight of them on any given day.
At this point, He Jingyan changed the subject.
"Physically speaking, the goldfish and its little friends are still closer to me."
Ji Mi: "..."
He thought this person had moved on from the goldfish incident.
Apparently, he had been waiting for this moment.
They happened to be walking into the top floor's office area. The secretarial office and assistants had open workstations, giving them a clear view.
Ji Mi lightly tapped the edge of a nearby desk and said, "This is Noah's spot."
He Jingyan appropriately ended the previous conversation and turned to look.
The desk was covered with many newly bought items, not yet organized. Probably too lazy to choose a color scheme, everything was black.
He Jingyan didn't make a definitive comment on this aesthetic choice, only asking, "Has Noah recently converted to Satanism?"
Ji Mi kindly clarified: "This morning when he was trying to get weekend train tickets, he was actually chanting 'Amitabha Buddha.'"
After saying this, fearing he might bring misfortune to his other two colleagues, he stopped playing tour guide.
Passing by his own seat, Ji Mi paused.
"I sit here," he said. "It is indeed close to you, just outside your office."
Hearing this, He Jingyan slowed his pace and scanned the desk.
Standard desktop computer and dual monitors, screens unlocked, displaying several publicly available monthly reports from the development team.
No expensive ergonomic chair or height-adjustable desk, but there were used books, pens, paper, and a memo clip, all neatly organized.
Half a bag of whole wheat bread was stuffed in the corner, either disliked or left over from a small appetite.
He Jingyan's gaze lingered briefly before he opened the takeout bag and placed one of the coffees on the desk.
"It's decaf since it's afternoon."
"Thank you," Ji Mi hadn't expected to be included.
Thinking about it, he felt a bit embarrassed. He had previously thought of Delay too simplistically.
The other was a high-flyer in the entire business group. No matter how distinctive and willful his personality, he certainly wouldn't be unreliable in workplace interactions.
Lost in thought, He Jingyan took out another cup, casually opened it and inserted a straw, then placed the rest of the coffees in the conference room.
Just then, someone in the group chat asked: [Are the coffees in the tea room?]
Ji Mi helped answer: [Delay put them in the third conference room.]
Noah: [There are several departments passing the buck here, I'm playing referee. I won't be back until evening, I'll grab it then.]
Shell: [Wow, tough break! I'm in the elevator, gonna flop down and slack off for a bit when I get back~]
He seemed to have mistaken which group chat he was in, thinking there were no bosses present. After boasting, he sent a cartoon sticker of blowing up the company.
Five seconds later, he quickly retracted his previous messages.
Shell: [Understood.]
Although his reaction was swift, others unfortunately witnessed the whole process.
Some colleagues gleefully popped up to comment.
Fang Xiyun: [@Shell Why retract? Is there something you're finding difficult to tell us?]
Fang Xiyun: [If the Art Design Platform got to you, just say so. We'll help you figure it out, make them take responsibility.]
The Art Design Platform was notoriously difficult to deal with in the company, and Shell regularly had to interface with them.
Unable to manage them, unable to out-argue them, he endured it with gritted teeth.
Shell: [@Cloud I have psychological trauma and physical allergies to art students, just say you want my life.]
The three secretaries who came to Shanghai with He Jingyan had worked together for several years and had a very harmonious relationship.
The group chat exploded with 99+ messages, which Ji Mi read with great interest.
In less than two minutes, Shell returned to the top floor for his latte, then gathered around Ji Mi.
"I heard from Noah earlier that we had a pretty new hire, but I've been too busy to say hello these past couple days. Hey, Noah wasn't exaggerating this time!"
After this greeting, he turned his head towards the CEO's office and called out.
"Delay, aren't you going to introduce your assistant?"
He Jingyan walked out, lazily leaning against the doorframe.
"Isn't it clearly labeled on his monitor?" he drawled.
The scale of the interactive entertainment division was staggering, with nearly a thousand people in the development team for a major project.
Looking out across the entire floor was a sea of black, and with the uniform decor style, those with poor sense of direction could even get lost in the office area.
To make it easier to find people during offline communication, administration had given each employee an identity tag.
By default, everyone placed their tag vertically on top of their monitor, making names and aliases clearly visible.
Shell had forgotten to notice this earlier, but now he glanced at it.
[Ji Mi | Lethe]
At the same time, Ji Mi very politely said, "Mr. Shell, you can call me Xiao Mi or Lethe."
Shell smiled, "Don't be so formal. Noah and Xiyun are the big shots, I have the least seniority among the secretaries, I don't qualify as 'Mr.' But if you need anything, feel free to come to me anytime."
Ji Mi nodded, "Then I'll be troubling you in the future."
During his studies, Ji Mi had heavy academic pressure and also had to work part-time. He rarely had time to catch people, let alone energy to make friends.
After leaving campus, he stayed on the technical side in the development team, working overtime coding every day, with few opportunities to chat casually with people.
Ji Mi was still inexperienced in interpersonal matters, appearing shy and cautious, but fortunately Shell was naturally friendly.
The two began to get acquainted through this conversation, but didn't chat idly for too long before Fang Xiyun also returned to the top floor.
Fang Xiyun had just returned from the project team, his wine-red dyed hair slightly messy, two buttons of his silk shirt undone, and a stack of materials in his hand.
Noticing Ji Mi, he paused his hurried steps and said "Hi" with smiling eyes.
"Are you organizing a welcome party?" Fang Xiyun asked.
Shell said proudly, "Yeah, want me to introduce you?"
"No need for your help, I unpacked reports here this morning and already greeted Xiao Mi," Fang Xiyun replied, "It's rare to see you in person these past couple days."
Shell sighed, "Too much work. There are over a dozen mobile games in the research group alone, I make dazzling appearances on various floors every day."
He pointed at his knees: "Forget about my brain freezing up, my legs are about to give out."
"You think it's easy for me in operations? Look at this MAU* chart, the stress level is equivalent to fighting daily battles to defend the 3000 point mark in the A-shares."
Fang Xiyun responded, stuffing the papers in his hands into Shell's arms, freeing up his hands to quickly reply to several work messages.
While typing rapidly, he expressed confusion at He Jingyan's unusual behavior.
"By the way Delay, don't you usually come to work on Fridays? Why did you suddenly show up? Shouldn't the driver have taken you to your apartment first after landing?"
Hearing this, He Jingyan naturally couldn't be honest.
Shanghai seemed calm and peaceful, everyone appearing pure and harmless, but behind his back he had already been rumored to be gay.
He came to investigate what these people were really up to, and today upon arrival he had a series of unexpected discoveries.
Thinking of this, he discreetly glanced to his side.
Ji Mi was obediently lowering his head, his black, shiny, soft hair very fluffy.
Still feeling somewhat uneasy in front of him, Ji Mi's right hand nervously gripped the coffee cup, his fingertips turning white from the slight pressure.
"Come take a look at the new assistant," He Jingyan said with a hint of mischief in his voice.
He paused for half a second before drawling, "Noah spoke very highly of him, piquing my interest."
Fang Xiyun shrugged, "You showing up at the company out of the blue might scare people."
Shell, however, was curious: "Noah rarely praises anyone. What exactly did he say about him?"
Ji Mi's attention was caught, and he secretly perked up his ears.
His slender body was no longer tense and awkward, leaning slightly towards He Jingyan, very interested in what was to come.
He Jingyan discreetly averted his gaze.
"Noah said..." he began, "that Ji Mi is good-looking and well-behaved, and moreover, he's very thoughtful and knows how to take care of his boss."
The three people standing before him listened as He Jingyan casually spun his tale. Fang Xiyun was the first to have enough, stuffing his phone into his pocket and turning to leave.
"I'm very busy these days. If you have any real business, please use the intercom," he said, waving his hand.
Shell was both exasperated and amused: "Do you think Noah hired you an assistant or a wife?"
Before leaving, he couldn't help but add, "Speaking of which, little Mi is indeed quite good. When Noah comes back later, you should kowtow to him in gratitude!"
He Jingyan merely scoffed at this, too lazy to respond.
He found it hard to understand how Shell and Ji Mi had only known each other for a few minutes...
Yet Shell was already singing Ji Mi's praises?
If one's loyalty could be so easily swayed, wasn't that person a bit too cheap?