When Top/Elite class Lan Heir Lan Wangji finds himself being drawn dangerously close to the new cleaner at his workplace, Low class orphan Wei Wuxian.
Where Lan Wangji is an investment banker with a silver spoon and an open secret. Wei Wuxian is a...
Weiying fumbled with the serving spoon, struggling to get a good portion of the soupy gravy onto his rice. He sighed, resigned. With a tray in hand, he walked to an empty table. He set the tray down and plopped himself onto the seat. His back arched. Another day of hard, honest work. He stretched before picking his spoon up.
“You there! You new ‘here aren’t you?” a loud voice sounded in the distance. Weiying ignored it.
“Ya brat, ignoring me are you?” The voice sounded closer. This time it was accompanied by a noisy rap on the table. Weiying was of two minds about acknowledging the guy. But he didn’t want to be rude at his new job.
“Sorry I’m just tired.”
“It’s your first week and you're tired? Young people these days,” the man laughed and with a calloused hand, lifted Weiying’s face up by the chin, “sure are pretty though.”
The man’s friend leaned in for a closer look. Weiying turned away quickly. Some peace and quiet was all he wanted during lunch. Against his desperate internal prayer, the two sat down at his table.
“I’m Jiang Cheng and this is Huaisung. We do the maintenance round here. Security and that.” Jiang Cheng explained.
“You work the top floor, I hear?” Huaisung added, arms pressing on the table.
“Yes, for this month,” Weiying mumbled, gathering watery gravy and rice in his spoon.
The two men gave each other knowing smiles. Huaisung snickered.
“You best keep your pretty face from Mr. Lan WangJi, or he’d swallow you whole!” Jiang Cheng laughed at his own quip.
Mr. Lan WangJi... He’d heard of the name before.
“Who’s this Mr. Lan WangJi?” Weiying asked.
“He’s the son of the big man.” Huaisung gave little detail, allowing Jiang Cheng to fill in, “He’s one of the managers up there- investment or such? I ain’t know, but what I know is the guy has an appetite for good looking young unsex-“
Again, Weiying felt a hand under his chin, dragging his face up. Jiang Cheng turned Weiying’s head side to side, pleased with his examination he let go,
“It doesn't matter if your a man or woman, Mr. Lan WangJi eats all, I heard.”
Mr. Lan WangJi... Ah! It came back to him, Xu Yang had said his name... "I work for Mr. Lan WangJi". Weiying knit his eyebrows. There was something else... the tie bar! He recalled the gold tie bar under the deep navy suit. The letters engraved on it had spelled: ‘Lan WangJi’. Weiying’s eyes widened, watery gravy fell from his spoon easily. He’d met Xu Yang’s boss, and what’s more, he’s involving himself in gossip about Xu Yang’s boss. He shook his head,
“I don’t think we should speak ill of someone behind their back-“ The two intruders laughed heartily.
“Oh you won’t be saying that in a few weeks,” Jiang Cheng slumped onto the table, casting an amused look at Weiying.
“We warned you. If you get eaten, it ain’t our fault,” Huaisung added, “once he has your name, he will do anything to cross it outta his list.”
Weiying paled. Mr. Lan WangJi was the first person he’d spoken to at the company. And he’d given up his name easily. What does this mean for him? What do they mean by “get eaten”? Was Mr. Lan WangJi a tyrannical psychopath who singled out employees he hated? Perhaps he would hold a grudge against Weiying for taking the executive lift on his first day.
“You're scared ?” Jiang Cheng chided Huaisung and reached out to hold Weiying’s hand in his, “you be fine, just say you got a family and kids. It usually turns him away.”
Weiying nodded readily, glad for the advice. With that, he bowed and gave them polite parting words. He returned his tray and took the service staff lift back up to level 34. Remember, I have a family and kids...
_____________________________________
“It’s inconvenient.”Lan WangJi said not betraying any emotion, “but it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.”
“I apologized Mr. Lan WangJi, I should have been more thorough-“
“Xu Yang, thoroughness is good but what you lack is the bigger picture, to see beyond small details.”
Xu Yang clenched his jaw yet maintained a polite smile.
“Like I said, it doesn’t matter,”Lan WangJi started towards the elevator, leaving Xu Yang trailing.
“Evening, Sir Xu Yang!”
Lan wangji heard a cheerful voice say as he walked by the lavatory to get to the lifts. Once at the lobby he turned to see who it belonged to.
“Oh! Weiying, are you well?” Xu Yang smiled back weakly at the energetic cleaner.
“Very well sir. I hope you are too? I can’t thank you enough-“ Xu Yang waved a slack hand in front of Weiying.
“It was but a small treat, anyhow I’d better get back to work.” Xu Yang turned and trudged back to his desk.
Weiying’s smile lingered. His palms were white from the tight grip on his mop. He sighed dreamily and dragged his eyes away from Xu Yang to his mop.
“Looks like Xu Yang and you are acquaintances” a deep voice spoke with humor from behind him, “how’d that happen I wonder?”
Weiying felt the hair on his arms stand. Mr. Lan WangJi! He’d been too focused on Xu Yang to notice Mr. Lan WangJi.
“Mr. Lan WangJi-“
“Call me Lanzhan,”Lan WangJi stepped closer to the cleaner and leaned his shoulder against the wall.
Now, he could fully appraise Weiying’s appearance. His cleaner’s uniform clung to him slightly from the sweat. A thin man, but with elegant shapely limbs, and a very shapely-
“I- I have a family and kids!” Weiying blurted out, feeling increasingly anxious under Lan WangJi’s intense stare. Lan WangJi chuckled, surprised at the sudden confession.
“Is that so? How old is your child?”
“My- child, sir?” Weiying stuttered.
“Yes, your child- your children, the ones you just admitted to having.”
“Uhm, he’s... 13 this year!” Weiying decided.
“And how old are you?”
“21 this year, sir.”
“So you had this child when you were 8? With presumably another 8 year old?”
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Lan Wangji tilted his head, looking down at Weiying with a wicked smirk. Weiying flushed a deep red. His eyes bore into the ground, willing it to give in. He saw a hand move in the periphery of his vision, he felt warm fingers brush hair off his face. They grazed the top of his ear lightly, gently.
“I look forward to more... interesting conversation with you, Weiying,”Lan WangJi said in a peculiar tone and continued on his way.
