When Lin Hui woke up, the day was already bright.
He opened his eyes groggily to find himself curled up in a warm embrace: his head on He Jian Shan’s arm, clinging tightly to him; He Jian Shan’s arm was wrapped around his back, both of them naked, fitting together seamlessly.
Over the years, Lin Hui had been a creature of habit, always waking up on time on workdays no matter how tired he was the night before, more reliable than any alarm clock. But at this moment, realizing the situation he was in, he wished he could just die in his sleep. Fortunately, He Jian Shan was still asleep, or else he really wouldn’t know what to say first. As he agonized over how to extract himself without waking He Jian Shan, his phone suddenly rang.
It was He Jian Shan’s phone. Lin Hui, startled, quickly closed his eyes again.
The phone rang for a few seconds. Lin Hui felt the person beside him stir slightly, as He Jian Shan seemed to want to keep his position and grab the phone but failed. After a while, he gently pulled his arm from under Lin Hui, and his warm palm also left his back. The movement stirred a slight cool breeze, making Lin Hui instinctively shrink his shoulders, and seeing this, He Jian Shan tucked the blanket around him again—
“Hello—” Perhaps due to just waking up, He Jian Shan’s voice was a bit muffled, not as magnetically deep as usual.
“Old He, you’re not up yet? Shouldn’t you be out running at this time?”
The room was very quiet, and Xue Pei’s voice leaked out from the phone, clear to Lin Hui.
Perhaps not wanting to disturb the person beside him, He Jian Shan lowered his voice and replied softly, “I’m up, what’s up?”
“Don’t forget to come over for dinner tonight. Not to complain, but you’ve been away so long that I opened a restaurant by the time you got back.”
“Oh, I know.”
“I’ll send you the address later, I’ll also send Lin Hui a WeChat—”
“No need,” He Jian Shan interrupted him, “no need to go through all that trouble, I’ll tell him.”
“…Alright, up to you. Anyway, be there by 7 PM, come early, bye.”
He Jian Shan hung up the phone and once again embraced Lin Hui. Lin Hui tried to steady his breathing, pretending to be asleep, but just a few seconds later, laughter came from above him followed by He Jian Shan’s teasing voice, “Do you need me to call in sick for you?”
Lin Hui froze completely, stubbornly playing ostrich, refusing to respond to the general manager’s question.
The irresistibly cute Assistant Lin made He Jian Shan lean in for a quick kiss before he got out of bed, leaving a blushing Lin Hui nestled in the blankets. After He Jian Shan left, Lin Hui opened his eyes, his ears picking up various sounds from the next room: He Jian Shan brushing his teeth, taking a shower, rummaging in the kitchen… Later, the man returned to the room, dressed neatly, sat beside Lin Hui, and gently stroked his hair, saying, “I’ll head home first, then go straight to the office.”
Silence.
“Take the day off today?”
Still silence.
He Jian Shan chuckled, about to get up when Lin Hui suddenly grabbed him, their hands clasping together. He Jian Shan looked over but found Lin Hui still turned away, his head buried in the blankets. After a while, a voice came from under the blanket, “I’ll go to work in the afternoon.” As if eager to cover something up, Lin Hui quickly changed the subject, “What did you make for breakfast?”
He Jian Shan smiled, “I couldn’t find the rice, so I heated up some milk, cooked some eggs and corn. Remember to eat when you get up.”
Lin Hui didn’t respond, but his hand clung to He Jian Shan’s, not willing to let go: “You won’t disappear, will you?”
He Jian Shan sat down again, holding his hand, soothing, “Assistant Lin, I’ll be waiting for you at the office.”
After a long time, Lin Hui softly replied, “Hmm.”
In the afternoon, Lin Hui arrived at the office 5 minutes late. After the intimacy the night before, He Jian Shan had carried him to shower and cleaned up, but the area below his waist was still painfully sore, so he spent the whole morning in bed, and before he knew it, time had slipped away. As soon as he stepped out of the elevator on the 12th floor, he heard Annie and Zhao Xiao Xiao talking. Annie, seeing him, quickly picked up a stack of files and followed behind, laughing as she walked, “Assistant Lin, caught you for the second time.”
Lin Hui smiled back at Annie. He had showered before leaving, his hair tips and the corners of his eyes slightly damp, his appearance a little less formal, but with an added touch of a different charm.
Annie exaggeratedly exclaimed, “Assistant Lin is a bit different today!”
Lin Hui paused with his hand on the door, “How so?”
Annie thought for a moment, “Full of spring vibes!”
“Manager Annie, it’s still winter,” Lin Hui mimicked Annie’s tone, smiling as he walked into the office.
“Tsk tsk tsk, I’m going to gossip later. Wan Zhu’s second hottest bachelor might be taken.”
Lin Hui found the comment amusing, “Who’s the first?”
“President He!”
“…Oh…” Lin Hui suddenly ran out of things to say, “Then, is he in the office?”
“Yes, he just had lunch with some bankers, only arrived about 10 minutes before you.”
Lin Hui was speechless: Did that mean He Jian Shan heard everything he said to Annie at the door?
Originally, Lin Hui had planned to discuss a few recent projects with He Jian Shan as soon as he started work, but He Jian Shan had a sudden appointment in the morning, moving the routine meeting to the afternoon, so he decided to talk after the meeting. At 2:30 PM, Zhao Xiao Xiao notified Lin Hui to go to the meeting room, and upon entering, he found he was the last one missing: people were chatting in groups, some checking their phones, others preparing for the meeting. The man who had shared a bed with him just a few hours ago was now sitting formally in the main seat, a pleasant curve to his lips, watching Lin Hui walk over and sit next to him.
The meeting officially began—
It must be said that “meeting” is one of the most boring inventions in human history. Lin Hui, during his years at Wan Zhu, apart from the meetings involving just He Jian Shan and himself, had attended countless monthly, quarterly, and project meetings, yet he still couldn’t manage to stay fully engaged. Especially, the main cause of his distraction often sat across the meeting table. Lin Hui thought, if attending meetings is an occupational hazard, then those involving He Jian Shan could be considered a form of compensation.
Today was no exception. As the meeting progressed, Lin Hui found himself involuntarily looking at He Jian Shan. But each time he looked up, he found that He Jian Shan was also looking at him. After their gazes met countless times, Lin Hui simply propped his arm up to support his head: he wouldn’t look anymore. It was maddening, not knowing whether He Jian Shan had become more perceptive or if his own movements were just too obvious, but he was caught every time.
On the other side, after catching Lin Hui sneaking glances at him several times, He Jian Shan, amused yet suspicious, wondered: had Lin Hui always looked at him so frequently during meetings? Regardless, Lin Hui’s undisguised gaze made He Jian Shan’s heart soften. He hesitated for a moment, then couldn’t help but pick up his phone and sent Lin Hui a WeChat message—
[He Jian Shan]: What are you looking at?
When Lin Hui saw the message, He Jian Shan was seriously discussing the next phase of work with Vice President Sun Qing, his expression so stern that it was impossible to tell that he had been slacking off just 10 seconds ago. Lin Hui felt both guilty and worried that he was disturbing his work, so he turned his phone over and didn’t reply to the message until the meeting ended.
After the meeting, Lin Hui followed He Jian Shan into his office.
Although Lin Hui entered with the intention of discussing work, the moment the office door closed, he couldn’t help but feel his face heat up. He mustered all his professionalism and took the initiative to speak in a strictly business-like tone, “I’ve reviewed the research report for the Pan Xin Nian project. I think it really depends on the local government’s willingness, but Fengcheng is quite small and doesn’t have any particularly clear industrial advantages. It looks a bit tricky, not easy to handle. President He, what do you think?”
He Jian Shan leaned on the edge of his desk, hands casually braced on the surface. After looking at Lin Hui for a while, he suddenly said, “I want to kiss you.”
Lin Hui’s face turned beet red in an instant.
It took him a long time to calm down, stammering, “…You, you can’t do this…”
He Jian Shan argued logically, “You asked me what I think.”
Lin Hui tried to squelch this inappropriate impulse, “President He, it’s working hours, this is a workplace, you can’t do this, it’s not appropriate.”
Lin Hui was very serious, but his expression, his voice, his slightly furrowed brows, his lips moving up and down, and the lines of his neck disappearing into his shirt… all of it drew He Jian Shan’s attention.
He couldn’t take his eyes off him.
“Call me He Jian Shan. It’s just the two of us, call me by my name.”
Lin Hui paused for a moment, then whispered, “He Jian Shan, this is wrong.”
He Jian Shan straightened up, locking Lin Hui in place, slowly walked up to him. Lin Hui’s overly eager gaze forced him back like a startled animal, retreating step by step until he was backed against the door.
No more retreat possible.
Lin Hui thought: No, I’m right, I can’t be so guilty. He lifted his head, lips pursed stubbornly, defiantly meeting He Jian Shan’s gaze.
He Jian Shan started to smile, his throat emitting a sound that was both resigned and murmuring, “Assistant Lin…”
His gaze moved from Lin Hui’s eyes to his lips, then back to his eyes: when Lin Hui was serious, his eyes always filled with a kind of indescribable luster, making it hard to look away. He Jian Shan couldn’t help but lean down to kiss the corner of his eye, whispering,
“You should know, even a general manager can’t help but make mistakes.”
Despite having spent an entire wonderful night with Lin Hui, He Jian Shan still felt it wasn’t enough—the separation of just a morning was too long. If it weren’t for having already made plans, he probably would have chosen to skip work and continue lying in bed with Lin Hui.
This was a difficult thing to imagine.
Even He Jian Shan had never thought that one day his concern for Lin Hui would surpass his work. This wasn’t because of a single accident or a few days’ effect, but the result of years of permeation, accumulation, and eruption.
They were strongly attracted to and desired each other—
No need for more words, no desire to hear any, all words were too pale, just a waste of time. He bit Lin Hui’s throat, licked the mole on his shoulder, his hand reaching to his ear, then his back, his waist; Lin Hui hugged him tightly, whimpering under the outpouring of his love, then leaving deep and shallow marks on his body.
Obsession, desire, possession, taking, endless and ceaseless.
Love sparked like starfire, igniting all the desires in the heart and body. From the moment He Jian Shan realized his feelings for Lin Hui, he knew that in his story, there was only one ending—“Lin Hui.” Now, he wanted to add annotations of love to every page of this story.
“Compared to what you mentioned, I have a new project here, only you can handle it, and it must be managed by you personally, tracked throughout, monitored in real-time, can you do that?” He Jian Shan said seriously.
Lin Hui’s expression immediately became serious, “What is it?”
He Jian Shan looked into Lin Hui’s eyes, leaning in to kiss him again:
“—Dating He Jian Shan.”
Author’s Note:
Just confessing isn’t enough; it has to be topped off with a formal request for a relationship.
