The Complete Guide to the Use and Care of a Personal a.s.sistant
Translator: Jury
Editor: NomNom
First Published on Chaleuria
Chapter Seventy-three
Yan Li was living in Su Yuyang"s house again. This didn"t inconvenience Ling Miao, although there was one thing he did have a very strong objection to. But he had no other choice—he had to listen to Yan Li"s instructions.
"Xiao Miao~" Yan Li shouted, dragging out his name. Her indolent tone gave Ling Miao gooseb.u.mps.
Ling Miao put down the work in his hands and rushed to Yan Li"s room. He picked up the card Yan Li had put on the desk, then turned without another word and walked out.
Every day, Ling Miao had to go to the florist, personally select flowers, attach Yan Li"s handwritten card, then finally have the florist send them to Ji Linxi. If Ling Miao showed even a sliver of resistance, Yan Li would hold Ling Miao"s secret over his head—that Ling Miao had feelings for Su Yuyang.
At first, Ling Miao had suggested just telling the florist what to write on a card and leaving the flower selection to them, but Yan Li didn"t agree; she said she had to write the card herself in order for it to be meaningful, and the flowers needed to be personally curated in order to show sincerity. So she had to trouble Ling Miao to do leg-breaking work every day.
Now that the Dragon Boat Festival had pa.s.sed, Ji Linxi returned to his everyday rhythm of shuttling between two points: work and home. But on his first day back at work, his peaceful cycle was interrupted by a bouquet of flowers.
When he got the call from the flower delivery guy, he initially thought someone had gotten the address wrong. Then he saw the signature on the card and he understood—the flowers were from Yan Li.
Ji Linxi couldn"t understand why Yan Li would send the flowers to his office. If Hu Lin saw this, he would torment Ji Linxi to death.
Ji Linxi had left the office empty-handed but come back with a big bouquet of roses. The whole office stared at him curiously. Ji Linxi didn"t want to explain too much; he returned to his seat, put the flowers on the floor, and continued working. Several minutes later he got a call from Ling Miao, and what Ling Miao said confirmed that the flowers were from Yan Li. Ling Miao also told Ji Linxi that Yan Li would send him flowers every day. If not for fear of being recognized, she"d even deliver them herself. At this point, Ji Linxi was bathed in cold sweat.
"So, you"re her accomplice now?" Ji Linxi said thoughtfully.
Ling Miao felt his character had been insulted. He said angrily, "I"m not an accomplice! She"s my boss! I can"t not listen to her, can I?"
"Profit over friends, eh? Ling Miao, I"ll tell Su Yuyang that you like him!" Ji Linxi said slyly.
Ling Miao got fl.u.s.tered and his tone grew dismal: "Ah, you and Yan Li really are a match. Without discussing it, you"re both using the fact that I like Su Yuyang to threaten me."
Black lines slid down Ji Linxi"s face. He asked suspiciously: "You"re saying she"s using the same thing to threaten you?"
"If not, why would I be so obedient?" Ling Miao said aggrievedly.
Ji Linxi said, half-believing: "Ah, so that"s why! Ling Miao, I say, you might as well confess to Su Yuyang. Then I"ll have an easier time of it, too."
"No!" Ling Miao summarily rejected Ji Linxi"s suggestion. "You"ll have an easier time of it, but I won"t. If I confess to Su Yuyang but he doesn"t like me back, how will I stay at his place? What I"m waiting for now is for Su Yuyang to fall for me. In any case, I"m going to stick to his side. I believe love will grow over time between us!" Ling Miao"s att.i.tude was resolute, and Ji Linxi knew it was futile to try to persuade Ling Miao otherwise. But the moment he thought about Yan Li sending him flowers every day, his head started hurting. This was even worse than editing drafts.
In order to return his life to its original state, Ji Linxi had to convince Ling Miao very unambiguously that Su Yuyang liked him.
Ji Linxi composed himself and said in the surest tone he could manage: "Ling Miao, actually, the person Su Yuyang likes is you. If you don"t believe me, go and confess."
"Quit kidding!" Ling Miao said self-effacingly, glancing at a certain someone in his room. "He doesn"t like me. If he does, why doesn"t he tell me?"
"You"re not telling him either, are you?" Ji Linxi retorted. "Ling Miao, for the sake of both our peaceful lives, listen to me!"
Ji Linxi"s tone was aggrieved and Ling Miao almost fell for it.
"Like h.e.l.l I"ll go along with it!" Ling Miao cursed softly. "I called just to let you know, not to get your advice. Also, the thing about Su Yuyang liking me—did he tell you that himself? If he didn"t, I don"t believe it!"
"Of course Su Yuyang didn"t personally tell…" Ji Linxi suddenly cut himself off, then a familiar voice reached his ears: "Ji Linxi, don"t slack off during work hours!"
Ling Miao heard a man"s angry voice in the background over the phone and could guess who the speaker was. He worried Hu Lin would give Ji Linxi a hard time and said: "I"ll let you get back to work."
Ji Linxi didn"t explain, so Ling Miao mercilessly hung up the phone. Ji Linxi couldn"t contact Yan Li now, either. Looking at the flowers that took up more than half the table, Ji Linxi thought he might as well put them back on the floor for now, then he grabbed his mouse and continued editing the photo he was working on.
On the other side of the call, Ling Miao stood frozen, phone still in hand. In his mind, Ji Linxi"s words repeated: Actually, the person Su Yuyang likes is you.
Ji Linxi had never deceived Ling Miao before, so Ling Miao trusted Ji Linxi"s words implicitly. But when Ji Linxi had said that Ling Miao was the person Su Yuyang liked, Ling Miao was momentarily befuddled.
"Xiao Miao!" Su Yuyang"s shout broke Ling Miao"s train of thought. Ling Miao haphazardly stuffed his phone back in his pocket and entered Su Yuyang"s room.
"What"s the matter, Su-ge?"
"The closed beta for Demonic Song Defying Heaven. How are preparations going?"
The little hope that had flared in Ling Miao"s heart was now extinguished by Su Yuyang"s words. As Su Yuyang"s a.s.sistant, he was responsible for many matters, but when Su Yuyang gave him orders he felt that Su Yuyang was reminding him of their proper relations.h.i.+p.
But, Ling Miao, a boss and his subordinate can also be together happily!
He"s not called "dumb cat" for nothing!
"I"m still negotiating with the game company." Ling Miao"s voice grew cool. Su Yuyang did not reply and Ling Miao said: "If there"s nothing else, I"ll go first."
Su Yuyang continued to stay silent. Ling Miao looked at Su Yuyang, concluded he didn"t have any other instructions, and prepared to leave.
"Wait!" Suddenly, Su Yuyang called out to stop Ling Miao, who already had both feet out the door.
Ling Miao turned and smiled. "What else is there?"
"Uh…" Su Yuyang didn"t seem to have thought it through.
Su Yuyang had stopped Ling Miao simply to spend a little more time with him.
After returning from Yan Li"s concert, Su Yuyang felt that Ling Miao was drawing further away from him. He didn"t think he"d done anything inappropriate, but Ling Miao maintained a lukewarm att.i.tude toward him. Many of Ling Miao"s actions seemed to be following a script.
Ling Miao took it as Su Yuyang"s mischievous nature showing through and that Su Yuyang was poking fun at him again. He smiled with indifference: "When you"ve thought of it, let me know. I"m going to write."
"Write?" Inspiration struck Su Yuyang and he stopped Ling Miao again: "Xiao Miao, a word sprint! Let"s word sprint!"
Su Yuyang was talking excitedly, but Ling Miao replied with indifference: "Let"s ask the people in the writing group and do a group sprint, how"s that?"
Su Yuyang immediately sent a message to the writing group and quickly received five or six replies. Everyone in the group was aware of each other"s writing speed: Su Yuyang was the only one who could get up to 8000 words an hour, so he and Haphazardly Chopping Wood formed a team. The remaining people formed their own teams too.
Su Yuyang had intended to ask Ling Miao to join his group, but Ling Miao had already asked Blue Lake. This made Su Yuyang so mad he almost broke his keyboard.
Su Yuyang asked Ling Miao why he hadn"t joined up with him and Ling Miao said self-righteously: "For fairness!"
f.u.c.k!
Su Yuyang regretted training Ling Miao to type faster. Now, he glared at the words "Blue Lake" with a terrifying expression, as if he was trying to murder Blue Lake over the internet.
Su Yuyang"s chest was heavy with repressed rage, but Yan Li was at home so he couldn"t break things to vent his feelings. The only thing he could do was thoroughly vent all his anger through his fingers. The graph of his typing speed formed a straight upward slope.
Under Su Yuyang"s duress, Ling Miao sat opposite him. Looking at Su Yuyang"s anger-reddened eyes, Ling Miao couldn"t calm his own feelings. The scene he wrote was a mess, and he couldn"t write quickly, either.
An hour pa.s.sed quickly. When the time came to report results, Su Yuyang had written almost 10,000 words, but Ling Miao hadn"t even written a thousand.
"Su-ge, are you all right?" Ling Miao asked Su Yuyang, who was breathing heavily.
Su Yuyang"s fingers had cramped and his fingertips were trembling. He forced a smile: "I"m fine. Just shocked by my own pace. But what about you? You seemed distracted today. You didn"t even hit 1000 words. That"s not your normal pace."
"…" Ling Miao hung his head and wasn"t sure how to reply. He couldn"t tell Su Yuyang that he had kept looking at him while writing and hadn"t managed to write properly as a result!
Su Yuyang reached around the two laptops to touch Ling Miao"s face. The burning sensation made Su Yuyang worried. He quickly stepped in front of Ling Miao: "Xiao Miao, why is your face so hot?"
"It"s nothing." Ling Miao batted away Su Yuyang"s hand and fled Su Yuyang"s room.
Ling Miao dashed into the bathroom. Looking at his own reddened face in the mirror, he cursed: "f.u.c.k, why are you so useless? You were just thinking about his angry and concentrating face when he was writing. Why are you going red? You can"t go red in front of that b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
Su Yuyang"s expression as he was writing once again surfaced in Ling Miao"s mind. Su Yuyang"s bright, clear eyes had stared at the laptop screen in concentration, his fingers playing a wondrous melody over the keyboard without stopping. The curve of his smile was like a peach blossom in spring.
Ling Miao was very aware that he was sinking deeper and deeper into this crush which might or might not have a happy ending.
Ling Miao wasn"t intentionally avoiding Su Yuyang. He had no choice but to avoid him.
He feared that he"d show his feelings in front of Su Yuyang. He feared being mocked by Su Yuyang, and he feared that Su Yuyang would distance himself from him because of this.
"Ling Miao, get it together!" Ling Miao splashed his face with cold water. When his cheeks had stopped burning, he walked out of the bathroom.
He instantly walked into something soft. A familiar scent entered his nostrils and he greedily breathed in deeply, then swiftly pushed the man away.
"Sorry," Ling Miao said, head lowered.
Ling Miao stepped to the side to go around Su Yuyang, but Su Yuyang grabbed him.
Su Yuyang looked down at Ling Miao"s soft hair. His hand slid across Ling Miao"s stiff back and he asked worriedly, "Xiao Miao, I"m worried about your current condition. Do you want a couple of days off?"
"Old Su, you"ve got it wrong, right?" Yan Li"s laughing voice came. "Ling Miao"s my a.s.sistant now. If he goes on vacation, it"s me who has to approve it."
As Yan Li finished speaking, she pulled Ling Miao into her own room.
Su Yuyang felt an emptiness in his hand. By the time he realized what had happened, Yan Li had already closed the door to her room.