Chapter 9

translated by astrid83

After work, his colleagues had pressed for their reimbursements. Cheng Yanqing had stayed behind for a while longer, planning to leave after keying in the money.

Manager Li was still around.

Cheng Yanqing had not dared to greet him for the past one month.

After hesitating for a bit, he decided to forget about it.

During this period, as long as he closed his eyes, Cheng Yanqing would always recall Manager Li’s gaze when he had woken up after that drunken night, ambiguously intimate with a hint of aggression. His expression was at ease 1 and careless, looking at him as if he was a fish whose fate has already been decided 2 .

Sometimes he wondered if he had actually fallen for Manager Li, because after all, Cheng Yanqing only had experiences of secretly crushing on others, and they were usually hidden very deeply such that the other party would not discover it.

This sort of back-and-forth ambiguous relationship was a first.

While waiting for the elevator, someone else got off from work.

The office was not far from the corridor, the sound of the door closing and opening could be clearly heard; Cheng Yanqing glanced backwards —— and immediately tensed up.

That tall and upright shadow……

Even if one did not look carefully, it was still very easy to identify it as Manager Li’s.

Manager Li stopped beside him, his tone calm and collected: “Off work?”

The skin of Cheng Yanqing’s face was not as thick as his, his ears could be visibly seen to be turning red: “ En .”

He felt uncomfortable all over.

One moment he would rock forward onto the balls of his feet, the next moment his gaze would shift about wildly.

He made the atmosphere extremely awkward for himself.

Fortunately, Manager Li opened his mouth: “I’ll give you a lift later.”

“……I can go home on my own.”

Cheng Yanqing’s reply was both weak and soft: his confidence was also not sufficient, his look of resistance was as if he was afraid that Manager Li would sell him off at a remote valley.

Manager Li turned a blind eye to it, seeming to not have sensed the rejection in his expression: “I remember that your home is really far away from the train station, after alighting from the train, you still need to switch to taking a bus. It’s not that convenient.”

For a moment, Cheng Yanqing was stumped, and he could not think of any words of rebuttal after racking his brain.

“I’m going to go to the bathroom first.”

Manager Li laughed lightly, his voice carrying a wisp of pampering, yet held the feeling of helplessness as he did not wish to put him in a spot: “Stay here and wait for me, you musn’t move around.”

Cheng Yanqing already felt a bit like escaping.

Once Manager Li had left, his entire body relaxed, and he hoped for the quick arrival of the elevator.

He did not know if it was because it was the peak hour of everyone getting off work, the elevator took long pauses at each floor, and also rose very slowly.

5……7……9……

Ding——

It was here.

Cheng Yanqing heaved a sigh of relief.

When he walked into the elevator, Manager Li just happened to come out from the bathroom.

Cheng Yanqing panicked, his hand subconsciously pressing on the ‘close door’ button——

When the elevator doors slowly closed, Manager Li’s face became colder bit by bit.

He stretched out a foot, jamming the door, then very easily squeezed in.

The elevator was packed like sardines 3 .

Ever since he had squeezed in, this man had been staring at him without uttering a word, not smiling nor scowling, as if he was an ice-cold statue.

Different from how he looked before when they still got along.

Cold and fierce……

Cheng Yanqing was stared at till he felt his scalp tingle and goose bumps appeared.

“Didn’t I ask you to obediently wait where you were?”

Once they got out of the lift, Cheng Yanqing was taken by the shoulders and led out of the building. Although Manager Li did not look to be strong, as he was tall in build and his clothes made him look slim, but his strength was great.

“M-Manager Li……”

Cheng Yanqing tried struggling, however he realised that he could not move at all.

He had been escaping all along. This method was very effective before, but the other person involved in the incident seemed to be tired of this game of cat and mouse.

“Since when did our relationship become this distant?:

Manager Li’s eyes squinted slightly, one hand supported on a wall, locking him within the crook of his arm: “Chengcheng, recently you have been avoiding me all the time. Am I some really scary severe flood or ferocious beast?”

Fortunately, it was winter.

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His face was wrapped by the hood of his down jacket, baselessly giving him a greater feeling of security.

He bowed his head slightly, while his eyelids fluttered now and then: “On National Day…… W…… We……”

Even if he had made a firm resolution to talk about it, it was still too shameful to speak about rash acts during drunkenness 4 that involved his colleague.

Instead it was Manager Li who asked with a straightforward attitude: “What about “we”?”

Cheng Yanqing gulped, asking cautiously: “Could we just pretend that nothing happened at all……”

Manager Li’s face immediately blackened.

Cheng Yanqing’s voice also became softer and softer with the man’s pressing gaze.

The street was bustling with people.

Manager Li was quite tall, in addition the way they were huddled together was also pretty eye-catching, every now and then, there would be passer-bys who would turn back to take a second look.

Manager Li had no time to spare caring about that.

He stared intently at the little white rabbit right in front of his eyes, who was attempting to shrink into his own down jacket.

As if he wanted to see through this delicate face of his.

Chengcheng started avoiding him after their tumble in bed.

Thai had to make him wonder if his skills were the problem.

“My technique was not that bad right, en ?”

Manager Li kept his voice down very low, but his warm breath still followed the cold wind to gently hit against his earlobe. Cheng Yanqing froze, then took some time to react before he realised what he just said. There was a buzz in his head, before it exploded.

“I-I did not say that your…… En……that ……”

Cheng Yanqing tried his best to explain, but was too embarrassed to continue after saying part of it. He was not a good speaker by nature, especially when he was nervous, hence he stuttered: “But I feel- I feel that we shouldn’t develop- develop……” this fast……

The few words at the back were said too softly.

Manager Li only heard until “We shouldn’t develop”, and unintelligible fragments at the back.

He paused, Cheng Yanqing did not know what he was thinking, but the crook of his arm no longer unyieldingly pressed him down. Instead, Manager Li hooked his finger and played with the fur on the little white rabbit’s hood: “The previous time when I asked you to check the implication of gifting a Zippo, did you check it in the end?”

A look of bewilderment flashed across Cheng Yanqing’s face, then he weakly said: “N-Nope……”

He had wanted to check it, but he was so tired from work that he had emptied his brain and forgotten everything once he had reached home.

Cheng Yanqing realised that it could be that he gave a wrong gift, causing Manager Li to misunderstand, and wished he could drill a hole through the ground to hide in.

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Manager Li’s eyebrow jumped.

He had probably confirmed that this little rabbit genuinely was an unconscious tease; gifting a lighter, turning back to peek at him from time to time, including that night’s company dinner where he had laid in his arms and acted spoiled and shamelessly, was all but just him being drunk and dazed.

He did not even know what the actions he himself had done meant.

“Since you don’t like me that way, I won’t force you.”

Manager Li’s gaze was profound, then he spoke slowly: “However, in the future, don’t keep staring at me at work.”

Saying that, he paused for a bit, his finger tracing downwards, then gently stroking past Cheng Yanqing’s cheek that had been flushed from the freezing cold: “It’ll make me misunderstand.”

Cheng Yanqing’s expression that had relaxed a bit suddenly became nervous again due to his actions, his body going taut and straight as a pencil. A blush slowly creeped back out to his earlobes, no one knew if it was from Manager Li’s words or from the chilly winds.

“What are you nervous for?”

Manager Li let out a self-mocking laugh and retracted his hand: “Not like I would gobble you up.”

Cheng Yanqing’s earlobes turned even redder, and he covered them in panic.

Manager Li did not continue pressing him, but instead wrapped his coat tighter around himself, then turned around and hastily disappeared into the sea of people.

Cheng Yanqing had not even reacted yet.

Once his consciousness had returned, Manager Li was already no longer around.

……

The wind was a bit strong and blew the brim of his hood down.

Cheng Yanqing reached out to support it. A faint heat still lingered on the fur.

It was the warmth from Manager Li’s fingertip.

I’m crying bb CYQ did want to try a relationship but djkghkfjldhdf TT LC why are you so dramatic in your own way

Do consider giving me a kofi!

Footnotes

note that the idiom used here translates to sth like “using a butcher’s cleaver with skill and ease” which is freaking funny when the next part refers to CYQ as a fish >< also note that the idiom used here could be directly translated as “nailed onto a board” so… he’s a fish on a chopping board kdfhklgdj not direct tl, direct would be full of people and (hence) trouble although this phrase is usually used for general acts done during drunkenness, but in some cases it just means… sleeping with someone when drunk