In the end, Liu Shiyun hadn't lied. The blind date that she introduced Qian Wei to was truly excellent. His name was Zhou Qing, and he had a green card in the United States. However, he had recently returned to China and was ready to settle down after entering the finance industry. He was a very talkative person who was good at carrying the conversation and smoothly changing topics when the need arose. Also, he seemed to be very interested in Qian Wei and, throughout the meal, he took good care of her. Whenever he saw food that she liked he would considerately put it in her bowl for her and, whenever her tea ran out, he was always sure to add more like a gentleman.
Clearly, he was an excellent man, but for some reason Qian Wei just felt something was off.
At one point, during a moment when Zhou Qing had gone to the bathroom, Liu Shiyun winked at Qian Wei and said, "His quality is good, right?"
But Qian Wei just took a sip of her tea and sighed heavily.
Liu Shiyun wasn't happy with her response: "You tell me, which part aren't you satisfied with? Zhou Qing is already very tall, light-skinned, and handsome, right?"
"Yes, Zhou Qing is very handsome, but he's not as good as Lu Xun. He's quite tall, but not as tall as Lu Xun. His skin is quite pale, but not as much as Lu Xun. His eyes are pretty, but they don't have that sort of captivating thrill that makes your heart pound with a single glance like Lu Xun's."
"But at least he's considerate! When would that Lu Xun ever lower himself to serve you tea or give you food?"
Qian Wei thought for a moment and said seriously, "I now realize that I actually like Lu Xun's cold temperament. Think about it, you say that Lu Xun is inconsiderate, but doesn't that just show that he has never been in love before and, thus, has never learned that he should serve a girl tea? Furthermore, if you look at it from another angle, doesn't it mean that he's still very simple, unlike this Zhou Qing who already knows all the routines? Compared to him, Lu Xun is still a blank sheet of paper. If he ever gets a girlfriend, won't she be able to train him however she wants?! Don't you think he has a lot of plasticity and potential to be molded?"
"..." Liu Shiyun looked at Qian Wei sympathetically. "Qian Wei, I think you've been poisoned right down to your bones. Just think about it, is Lu Xun the kind of man a normal woman can mold?"
"It doesn't matter, I've already made up my mind. Even if I can't change him and he won't ever serve me tea, well, I'll just serve him the tea."
"Qian Wei, this is definitely Stockholm Syndrome. You've gotten used to being abused by Lu Xun all year round, and now you've finally awakened your deeply repressed masochistic side. However, my friend, what you look like now is like a person who has gotten used to eating dung all year round, and has slowly come to think that they can't do without dung, and even that they've fallen in love with dung. But it's just an illusion! You need to wake up! Dung is just dung!"
"If Lu Xun is dung, then I suppose I'm reluctantly willing to play the dung beetle."
"..."
With that said, Qian Wei subconsciously lowered her head and looked down at her phone.
Liu Shiyun was a little puzzled: "What are you looking at your phone for? Have you gotten a needy client recently or something? You've been checking your phone over and over again ever since you sat down."
Qian Wei's tone had a hint of frustration as she replied: "Before now there's never been a time when I ate out and Lu Xun didn't call me within an hour or so. I'm a little unaccustomed to the feeling. Maybe I already have a conditioned reflex? I feel a little flustered if he doesn't pop up to ask me to work overtime."
"It hasn't been an hour yet." Liu Shiyun looked at her watch. "There are still ten minutes to go."
However, as if to confirm Qian Wei's words, just when Liu Shiyun finished speaking, Qian Wei's phone rang, and the words "Lu Xun" were displayed on the screen.
Qian Wei quickly adjusted her mood and then picked up the phone. She pretended to be calm and even put on airs as she said, "Wasn't it agreed that I wouldn't work any overtime tonight? Don't forget, according to our countries' Labor Law, if a laborer is arranged to extend their working hours beyond a standard working day, they are entitled to be paid not less than 1.5 times their usual salary for the extra time. I've been working like your cow or horse for so many years now already, so when will my overtime pay be settled?"
There was a long pause from the other end of the phone, until Lu Xun eventually responded in a faint tone: "Qian Wei, I suggest you take a look at the contract you signed when you were hired into our law firm, which clearly states that the firm uses an irregular work system. Do you need me to go over it with you? An irregular work system means that there is no restriction on working hours because, due to the characteristics of the labor, the special needs of the work, or the scope of the job responsibilities, it will often be necessary to work continuously and it will be difficult to work on a regular schedule. Thus, the typical 'standard working day' is non-applicable when discussing the terms of your employment. And, according to the interim regulations regarding the payment of wages issued by the Ministry of Labor, laborers under the irregular work system are not included under the relevant provisions regarding the calculation of overtime pay for ordinary employees."
"..." Qian Wei thought to herself: Why are we discussing these legal issues on the phone? Lu Xun, do you understand that you have an occupational disease?!
Her next words choked in her throat, and it took a long time before she managed to say, "So if you're not calling about overtime, what is it?"
Listening to the silence from the other end of the phone, Qian Wei looked forward to Lu Xun's next words from the bottom of her heart. She couldn't wait to hear Lu Xun say that he actually needed her and, even though he promised she wouldn't have to work overtime tonight, in the end, he realized that he couldn't do without her...
But Lu Xun stayed strangely silent. Then, after what felt like a century, he finally spoke again.
"Qian Wei, I'm having an allergic reaction."
"What do you mean?!" Qian Wei quickly forgot everything else and now there was only worry in her heart. She exclaimed, "What kind of allergic reaction?"
Actually, Lu Xun had problems with allergies and, whenever he encountered an allergen, his symptoms would appear in a rapid and obvious manner. Qian Wei could still remember the last 'cat hair' incident. That time could only be called tragic. Back then, Lu Xun's eyes had been so swollen they had looked like two tiny slits, and it wasn't an exaggeration to say that his usually handsome face had been completely ruined.
"It should be because of cat hair." Lu Xun's voice was quite calm. "A client brought a cat in."
Qian Wei had swirling feelings of anger and distress inside. Everyone should know that Lu Xun couldn't be exposed to cats. She had personally reminded almost every client their firm had again and again, so she really didn't expect that there would still be someone who would bring a cat in.
She quickly packed up her things, gave Liu Shiyun an apologetic look, and then spun on her heel and marched out of the restaurant. By the time Lu Xun spoke again, Qian Wei was already in a taxi.
"Anyway, are you free right now?" Probably because his face was swollen from allergies, Lu Xun's voice sounded a little unnatural right now. His tone even seemed a little embarrassed. "Normally I would have kept my pledge not to ask you to work any overtime tonight, but I didn't expect to suddenly have an allergic reaction. Right now I'm in a state that really isn't convenient to show to outsiders. However, you've already seen it once before, so if it's you it doesn't matter." Lu Xun paused, "Of course, I know that you're on a blind date, but I thought that maybe if your blind date wasn't to your tastes then my call might be a good excuse for you to leave. If you needed one, that is."
"But what if my blind date is going well?" Qian Wei retorted, not telling Lu Xun that she was already in a taxi and riding back to the law firm.
It seemed that Lu Xun hadn't expected Qian Wei to answer like that, because he was silent for a long time before finally saying in a slightly low tone: "If your blind date is going well, then you should seize the opportunity."
"But what about you? What will you do?"
"If you're enjoying your blind date, you don't have to worry about me." Although his words were casual, there was something stormy in Lu Xun's voice, "After all, these kinds of allergies won't kill anyone, it's just some unbearable itching and terrible swelling that makes it so I can't even work. But I should be fine tomorrow. And, at the end of the day, you are only my employee, so it's normal for you to not have to feel responsible for your boss's private life. Even if I let you join the Hi-Tech Machinery case, approved your requests for leave, and paid all of your medical expenses, you don't have to worry about it. Oh, and I've also been preparing to send you to one of our partner firms in the UK for our jointly-managed training exchange program, but those things are just the things I should be doing as your boss, so you shouldn't feel any sort of pressure because of it."
"..."
Didn't he just tell her not to feel any sort of pressure because of it? So why was he just talking on and on about it to the point that he was practically gnashing his teeth?
"Anyway, just enjoy your blind date. I'll stay here with my allergies." Lu Xun's voice was level, but somehow chilly. Obviously, he sounded very calm, but Qian Wei had the illusion that the person on the other end of the phone was angry enough to explode...
"Lu Xun."
"Hmm?"
"I'm coming back."
Lu Xun was silent for a long time before making a sound of acknowledgment. And, Qian Wei didn't know if it was her illusion, but she somehow thought that she heard a very faint chuckle at that moment.
After that, Qian Wei rushed into the law firm in a hurry and quickly found Lu Xun. In what seemed like a truly rare moment, he wasn't working when she saw him, instead, he was laying down on his desk and only raised his head when he heard Qian Wei's voice calling his name.
His face, which was usually inhumanly handsome, was now all red and swollen because of allergies.
"I'll take you to the hospital."
Unfortunately, Lu Xun was very stubborn, and he immediately rejected: "No, it is useless to see a doctor. All they'll do is draw blood and check for allergens, and the test results will take a long time to come back. Since we already know what's causing the problem, it would be better for me to just take a bath and drink more water to speed up my metabolism. The allergen is already gone now anyway."
In fact, even during the last time when Lu Xun had an allergic reaction, he had refused to see a doctor back then as well. In the end, he had demanded to adopt a conservative approach and try to let the redness and swelling go away on their own, which had ended up taking the whole night.
This time, however, Qian Wei didn't want to use that kind of method. She said: "An allergy to cat hair should be fine if you take some ordinary anti-allergy drugs. So take out your medicine and take it now."
Lu Xun replied: "I don't have any medicine with me."
However, according to her experience with the 19-year-old Lu Xun, he would always carry his anti-allergy medicine with him, and he would habitually put it in his pants pocket...
With that thought in mind, Qian Wei quickly reached out her hand and, before Lu Xun could react, she had stuffed it into his left pant pocket...
However... unfortunately, it seemed there was nothing inside...
Lu Xun looked at Qian Wei.
Qian Wei looked at Lu Xun.
The scene was a little awkward.
Qian Wei casually withdrew her hand and said: "Hahaha, well, I may still have some brain damage from that time I fell in that pit. Nowadays I sometimes can't control the movements of my limbs, and my hands and feet just don't listen to me. I don't know what happened just now, before I knew it I already put my hand in your pocket. "
Lu Xun looked at Qian Wei steadily: "There are a lot of pickpockets that say the same thing after they are caught."
"..."
Well, now that she had already lost face, Qian Wei felt that she might as well lose face all the way to the end! With that thought in mind, Qian Wei gritted her teeth, reached out, and jabbed her hand into Lu Xun's right pant pocket!
"Got it!"
Maybe the heavens were finally taking pity on her, because this time she really felt the small medicine bottle inside Lu Xun's pocket. Qian Wei took it out happily and saw that it was indeed a bottle of anti-allergy medicine.
"Heh, you don't have any medicine with you?"
Lu Xun seemed a little embarrassed, but his tone was still calm: "Huh, I forgot that I started carrying this medicine with me after my last allergic reaction. However, taking this medicine doesn't seem to have much effect on me, so whether I remembered it or not is all the same."
Qian Wei poured out a glass of water for Lu Xun and handed over the medicine: "You'd better take it."
In the end, Lu Xun couldn't beat Qian Wei's intense stare and had to reluctantly take the medicine.
-Ten minutes later-
Qian Wei looked at Lu Xun, who had returned to his usual handsome self, and said smugly, "Doesn't the medicine work just fine?"
"Although the swelling has gone down, I still feel very itchy." As if to prove it, Lu Xun itched at his face casually.
Now that Lu Xun's allergy crisis had ended, Qian Wei could finally breathe a sigh of relief. However, now there was a new problem facing her. After all, she had run away in the middle of a blind date, so she was sure that Liu Shiyun would come and find her to settle scores soon... When she thought of this, Qian Wei couldn't help but resent Lu Xun a bit. If this guy wasn't so dense and incapable of understanding amorous feelings then would she have ever been dragged off to a blind date by Liu Shiyun in the first place? And then, despite not being interested in her, he randomly had an allergic reaction all of a sudden and ruined her blind date.
"Now that you're over your allergies, I'll go first." Qian Wei held up her phone. "Liu Shiyun just told me that her friend still hasn't left yet, and the two of them are still at the restaurant waiting for me. I need to hurry back and pay for the meal as an apology."
"Wait a moment."
"Hmm? Did you have something else wrong?"
Lu Xun coughed awkwardly and said, "Since you're in a hurry, why don't you let me take you to the restaurant."
Qian Wei was very surprised: "Weren't you planning to work overtime tonight?"
"I had an allergic reaction and I'm still not feeling all that well, so I don't want to do any more work tonight."
"Oh..." Qian Wei felt that Lu Xun seemed a little fragile recently, ah. Usually, nothing could drag him away from his work, and he would even insist on doing overtime while running a fever, so he was a bit strange today.
"Besides, it was because of me that you had to leave dinner half-way like this, so it's only right for me to take you back."
When you thought about it that way, Lu Xun seemed to be right, so Qian Wei nodded and said: "Alright."