Huo Zi Feng felt somewhat nervous.For him, perhaps the happiest memories of his childhood were spent with his grandparents and the Lang family house.
There, this young girl had always chased after him, calling out to him as "brother, brother" with her big eyes and nymph-like antics.
As a kid, he who never got any attention from his parents really felt that this younger sister was very annoying. She always kept looking for him, asking for him, it was as though she would try to imitate his every step.
But while he felt it was annoying, that childhood and those memories ー he would never trade them for anything. Because it was in those moments he felt what it was like to be looked at and wanted, it was in those moments that he had fun.
It was only when he was old enough to understand why his parents were what they were, that he was forced to mature early. This was only when he was ten, it was when it finally hit him that his parents simply didn"t have any affection, there was no friendship let alone love. His grandparents had betrothed him to Qiu Yue and he didn"t want to disappoint them... but he also wouldn"t marry someone who he didn"t love. And if he never loved, then he would make sure that there was friendship between them.
So to this young girl, whose shadow lived in his memories very vaguely, he wasn"t sure what to feel. He didn"t actively crave love or affection from anyone but there were two people he could not bear to disappoint, and they were his grandparents. They had raised and loved him. But he also didn"t want to do something he thought was wrong.
So when he knew she was going to be stepping through that door, and finally after so many years he would see her again, he wondered what she would be like. And this wonder was what made his thoughts go fluttering around his head, causing him to be nervous.
Qiu Yue thought that this contrast was really quite cute. She could vaguely guess why he was nervous but also felt that that reason would contradict the personality he was portrayed in the book.
Then again, humans are weird creatures, they react so differently to things.
A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she bowed slightly and introduced herself.
"Senior brother, I"m very sorry to bother you."
Huo Zi Feng seemed to have composed himself to some extent and coolly bowed his head towards her, acknowledging it.
"It"s nothing. You are ー ahem, what are your plans here?"
He wanted to gauge what exactly it was she wanted to do. He knew that she had been rebelling and had decided to go to a community college, though praised for its excellence. So he wanted to know what it was that she wanted to do, suddenly planning to learn how to work and open her own firm.
"I was hoping I could intern with the R&D. I want to know how you are working on the game development. I have just one request, I hope that we can keep my family information confidential and the fact that I will be here only for three months may also be withheld."
Qiu Yue spoke clearly while she subconsciously straightened her back and sat up straight looking right into his eyes. While she had a fear of talking in front of multiple people, she was a very extroverted person, at least three years ago she had been, who was good at interpersonal conversations, especially one on one. So at this moment, she should have felt comfortable, but she wasn"t.
The only reason she exuded confidence was that that posture was ingrained in her memory, but while just a few moments ago she had been laughing at his expense, right now she felt like he was searching her eyes.
She was used to that, not to him.
Perhaps it was because he was her wasn"t her type, and yet she still found him attractive.
Huo Zi Feng looked at her intently for a few moments and then agreed.
"Okay."
They both sat in a slightly awkward silence as neither knew what to say.
"So uh, thank you. I wish to start as soon as possible."
"Alright, I"ll - I"ll get Zhou Jia to get all the papers done, you should be good to join us tomorrow."
Another bout of silence followed.
(*・-・)
"So uh... I"ll get going then."
Qiu Yue said as she got up and walked towards the door.
She quickly opened it and put one foot outside when he spoke.
"I hope you get what you came for."
Qiu Yue turned to look at him. And her breath caught again at how good looking he was.
"What I came for..."
What did she even come for?
....
Right, the game development.
She nodded at him before quickly closing the door, after which she stood still for a few seconds.
She blanked out.
( ⊙﹏⊙)
....
Must be the thighs.
And so Qiu Yue started her internship at Aries. She hadn"t been sure what to expect but most of the staff there were very nice and competent, even the ones that were sn.o.bbish or arrogant never let that come in the way of their work. The employees chosen by Huo Zi Feng were quite exemplary.
She had been allowed to attend meetings and though she"d been to only one, she was very surprised by them. They took criticism quite seriously and inputs by everyone were considered, of course, the final say lay with Huo Zi Feng, but it didn"t seem like he would make any biased decisions. Until of course, the Female Lead made an entrance.
Qiu Yue barely went home these days, she spent most of her time at the office, whenever she needed a break she"d go to the break room, she had in fact even booked a room at a hotel nearby just so she could make the most of these three months. Her personality was very lazy, but when it came to something she wanted to achieve she would stop at nothing.
Qiu Yue was very friendly with others and often went out with her co-workers. She had quickly become a part of their team since they recognized her talent. She always finished all the tasks given to her without any complaints, and slowly and steadily started to point out things that could be improved. She didn"t want to come out as a know it all, but she wanted to show off what she could do. After all, skills, like trophies were meant to be displayed.
Qiu Yue would spend at least three nights a week at the office, but on Sundays she took a break and went out to either look at museums, historical monuments, parks, plays, concerts - anything she could find. She would take her time and look at everything the best she could learn more about this world.
This had always been a habit of hers, but for three years she had hardly left her house till her death. So now that she had the chance to live freely she wanted to explore all these different worlds.
Most days when she stayed late at the office, there was only one more desk that was lit up and that was Huo Zi Feng"s. Qiu Yue really felt a lot of respect for this young man who was so dedicated to his work.
But alas, even if she stayed late she could never skip out on sleep, so almost every time she"d fall asleep on her desk at around 2 am, waking up at 6 am, before others entered, sometimes Zhou Jia who saw her like that would shake her head and chuckle before waking her up.
For Huo Zi Feng, he had a habit of staying up late at the office. It wasn"t a rule, and neither did he expect others to do so.
A week into Qiu Yue"s internship, around the time the last person usually left the office, Huo Zi Feng found her still in the office, still scribbling in her notebook and gathering data, which left him surprised.
He glanced at her for a few seconds and walked back to his office. Normally he would have forgotten about it but a few hours later, when it was close to midnight, he crossed the desks of the employees while going over to the printing room, she was still there, still working.
Qiu Yue looked up to see Huo Zi Feng standing in front of her, and their eyes met.
She didn"t know what to say, she knew he worked late but Qiu Yue hadn"t expected to ー this, she hadn"t expected this.
"...Senior Feng."
"I didn"t expect to see you here... I mean - I did. Well, it"s your company, I just -"
Qiu Yue paused, she didn"t want to say something... well, stupid.
"... I hope I"m not a bother."
"No. No, not at all miss Lang."
"Please don"t stay up too late."
Huo Zi Feng was unsure of what to say after that, so nodded at her and then went on his way.
Qiu Yue stared at the place he had stood just seconds before for some time before looking away. She took in a deep breath and clapped her hands on her cheeks lightly, telling herself to get back to work.
Huo Zi Feng had finally completed all that he needed for one part of the project, the only thing left was to send it to the lead designers and ill.u.s.trators for the work to begin.
Of course, he also wanted to discuss it with the team once.
While he was shuffling the papers together he realized the lights were still on and remembered that Qiu Yue was still at the office.
Huo Zi Feng always based people on their skills, and anyone could see Qiu Yue was very talented as well as proficient.
He thought it would be good to have her input, so he stacked up the doc.u.ments and put them into a folder as he left his office to go to her.
It was just when he went there he was in sort of a dilemma. The young girl had laid her head on her hands and fallen asleep on her desk. Wisps of her hair covered her face, her notebook was still open and the pen was still in her hand.
Huo Zi Feng combed back his hair with fingers when his eyes fell on his watch.
It was 3:30 am. It was no wonder she had fallen asleep.
He sighed and decided to go back, he didn"t want her to wake up. But just when he turned he heard a small sneeze. He turned back to face Qiu Yue.
Still in deep sleep, she wrinkled her small nose.
It was already November and it was starting to get cold. The Lang parents had also often mentioned that their daughter was weak to the cold.
Yet look at this girl, she had fallen asleep like this. How could someone be so smart and yet be so careless with themselves?
Huo Zi Feng looked at her once again and then went over to the break room. Opening up one of the cupboards in the room he pulled out a blanket, the office had a few kept in there for use by employees.
He opened up the blanket and folded it once, then laying it over her shoulders, covering her neck and ears. When she breathed, a few strands of hair flew up.
Before he knew what he was doing he had already reached out to tuck them behind her ears.
Seriously she was just like a kid.
His lips curled into a faint smile. Satisfied he went back to his office.
The next morning when he saw her, she had changed her outfit, perhaps she had stored a few clothes in her desk drawers. And she also had faint red marks on her arms, from what he could see were from the edges of the notebook.
Huo Zi Feng felt surprised that someone"s skin could be that sensitive to even that much amount of pressure.
(A/N: (ㆁᴗㆁ✿) )
The day after, at around 3 am, when he was walking near the desks, he found her asleep again. She has fallen asleep while working again.
He just sighed. Then just like the previous time, he brought over a blanket, but this time he gently pulled out the notebook, closed it and set it nearby.
This had become somewhat of a routine for him. For the past three weeks, he had been doing this.
One morning, Qiu Yue woke up at the office again and found that there was a blanket covering her, again.
This time she finally decided to thank Zhou Jia, who came the earliest and was probably the one who did it, for helping her.
But strangely Zhou Jia just blinked at her in surprise before chuckling.
"It wasn"t me, the blanket is always over you from the moment I enter."
....
Qiu Yue was surprised. Didn"t this mean that ... that there was only one other person who could have done it.
Why? This sort of thing hadn"t happened in the novel?
But then again she had changed the novel with her actions already and plus it was before the time the novel actually started.
Did ... did it have a meaning?
No. He had just put a blanket over her.
If it was her, would she still do it for someone she wasn"t close to but was probably freezing?
Exaggeration clearly. But now that she thought about it unless she hated them, well perhaps even then, she would. It wasn"t a big deal.
After pondering over this for an hour or perhaps more, she decided it was an act of human kindness.
So that night, after putting away her things, as today she wanted to go back to the hotel and sleep properly ー she went back to the pantry.
There she quickly pulled out her coffee mix.
Huo Zi Feng heard a knock at his door around the time everyone was leaving. The door handle turned and he looked back at the doc.u.ments. He didn"t want to waste time paying attention to something else.
"Yes?"
"Senior Feng."
Miss Lang.
He looked up from the doc.u.ments to see Qiu Yue place a saucer with a cup of coffee onto his desk.
"Thank you."
Qiu Yue looked at the man and gave him a smile. She felt happy, his actions gave her a warm feeling.
"I hope you like coffee. It is my specialty."
Huo Zi Feng nodded at her.
"I do prefer coffee. Thank you."
She smiled again and turned around. Qiu Yue gently closed the door on her way outside.
She knew he preferred coffee, she even knew the taste he preferred. This was all thanks to her amazing system! Yao Yan really could get information about anything Qiu Yue wanted. And about what she didn"t...
Qiu Yue prided herself on her coffee making skills. So she decided that from now on if he didn"t stop her or dislike it, she would make him a cup of coffee before she left.
That man always worked very late. While she did it maybe thrice a week, he stayed late almost every day. He would go back early in the morning and then be back by 9 am.
So from that day onwards, another step was added to these two"s routine.
At 9 Qiu Yue would make him a cup coffee. This CEO would wait for it to cool and silently sip the coffee every time.
They both would work in silence.
Then at 3 am Huo Zi Feng would always find her asleep. He would cover her with a blanket and then leave.
Or at least that was it.
But today he, he quietly sat down next to her. Today he had already finished everything he needed to.
He closed his eyes and relaxed his muscles as he slowed down his breathing, taking a moment off.
Perhaps he was tired, perhaps he just felt very comfortable, slowly his breathing slowed and his breaths became mellower, matching Qiu Yue"s.
Then slowly as the night sky was flooded with the slightest sliver of light, both of them were asleep.
One leaned back against the chair, sitting comfortably. While the other rested her head on her hands.
There was no sound, other than both of their soft breathing.
Slowly as the hours of dawn went by the sky flooded with light.
And when Zhou Jia opened the office doors she saw the both of them, looking so comfortable and peaceful as the whispers of morning light washed over them in silence.
(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧