"Miss Shao, this is the front desk. We have your food delivery here. Can we send them up to your floor?"
Shao Yan was confused. She didn"t order any delivery. She turned around and asked her teammates, "Anyone ordered food delivery? They"re here downstairs." After she finished, her eyes went around the room, scanning everyone.
Everyone looked at her and shook their head. Shao Yan became even more confused. She returns back to the receptionist who was still waiting on the phone and answered "Uh. Did it specify that they are for me?"
The receptionist answered her politely, "Yes, Miss Shao. This food has your name on it"
Shao Yan could probably guess who send this. She slightly smiled and replied to her, "Alright. Just send them up. Thank you."
The delivery boy quickly arrived on their floor, and he scanned his head around, trying to look for Shao Yan. She saw him right away and raised her hand to signal him to come over.
He saw her and briskly walked to her direction, carrying several bags of food in his hands.
When he finally stood next to her desk, he started to take the food out one by one, and then placed them neatly on the table.
Beef noodle soup, boiled peanuts, stir-fry garlic vegetables, braised tofu in soy sauce, salt pepper fried beef, chicken dumplings, and two types of dessert for her: gra.s.s jelly pudding and almond pudding.
Shao Yan was staring at the portion that could feed about ten people. She turned her to the delivery boy with a quizzical look, "Uh. Do you know who ordered this?" Now Shao Yan had her doubt if this was really Li Xiqing. She thought the food would only be for one person.
The delivery boy patted his pockets around for the invoice. He finally he found it, and quickly handed a piece of paper to Shao Yan.
The boy added while pa.s.sing her the paper, "I picked up the call myself. The caller identified himself as "Mr. Li" and he ordered the food for ten people."
Shao Yan suddenly stayed silent and squinted her eyes; so delivery boy thought something was wrong. He quickly asked her,"I"m sorry, Miss, is something wrong with the order? S-should I bring them back?"
His stuttering brought her surprise, and Shao Yan quickly adjusted her expression. She hastily waved her hands in front of her and swiftly gave him a polite smile, "No no, don"t worry, everything is fine. Thank you."
Shao Yan was pleasantly surprised. Her complexion was very cheery and her eyes were brighter than usual. She quickly looked for her phone, and unlocked it. She saw there was a text reply from Li Xiqing that she had missed, "Alright, I know. Have you eaten?".
It was sent 30 minutes ago.
He must have guessed Shao Yan was too busy to reply. Ergo, she was too busy to eat. He then took matters to his own hand and delivered the dinner to her, instead of waiting for her to find her own food when she was hungry.
Because she was still working, to make others stop for her to eat was inappropriate. So Li Xiqing could be thinking that in order for everyone to also take a break, he will bait all of them with food.
Unconsciously, she gnawed on her bottom lip. Shao Yan felt a surge of guilt. She had been too busy today to pay a single attention to him, yet he never failed to shower her with everything she needed. His attention to this aspect never failed to warm her heart.
Her train of thought was broken by a sudden ruckus.
Her team quickly surrounded her desk because of the smell of good food, "Boss, I love you so much. I love you 3000! Can we start eating?" Wenhai was already pulling the chopsticks from its sleeves while rattling a bunch of flowery words at her.
Shao Yan laughed and replied, "Alright. Stop with the fake praises. Go on and eat now" she also turned around and addressed the other team members that were still working at this hour, "All of you, let"s eat together too, there are enough portions here for all of us".
Everyone quickly came over and picked up their pair of chopsticks and started to ravage on the take out boxes.
Shao Yan stared at the hungry vultures and chuckled softly. She grabbed her phone and stood up; she walked to the window while smiling and staring at her phone.
She decided to send another quick text to him, "Wifey, thank you for the surprise dinner. Make sure you also eat alright?" she playfully reversed their role. Her lips pursed as she was holding her own chuckle, she hit the send b.u.t.ton.
Not a few seconds later, Shao Yan received a reply, "Hubby, I am eating now."
She saw that he also sent a picture along with the text, and when she clicked to open it, it was showing the same food that he had ordered for her, but in a smaller portion for one person.
She giggled foolishly and quickly replied him, "En, good wife. *Kiss emoji* I"ll reward you handsomely later."
The whole Gold Crane Publication Project Team had been working late for the past few weeks. With OnScience acquisition, the sales team in Gold Crane worked even harder than before and successfully signed a lot of new authors.
Because of the messy schedules, Li Xiqing insisted for them to start living together more frequently until things calmed down. He wanted to make sure they still spent a lot of quality time together.
Clatter of plates and bowls were heard in the middle of this tranquil night. A handsome man was standing tall by the kitchen sink, his hands were covered by dish soap as he was rinsing a plate under a running water.
"All those saying about "absence make the heart grow fonder" is simply a bull. It"s only a lame excuse created by the lazy people to keep meeting each other too much because, you guessed it, they are lazy"
He lifted up his face and looked at her, he added, "But guess what? I am not lazy and we shall meet frequently."
Tonight, Shao Yan finally cooked the braised pork ribs that she had promised him for ages. She was accompanying him in the kitchen, while she was sitting obediently on the bar stool and Li Xiqing was was.h.i.+ng the plates.
"Distance only allow third party to crawl into the relations.h.i.+p. So.." he looked up at her, "whether you like it or not, I am going to stick around you like an annoying piece of gum"
Shao Yan first stunned at his words, before she abruptly burst out a laugh. His a.n.a.logy was totally wrong, but she understood his meaning.