A week
A few days after being in Czechia made Lei notice that there was something about the calming life Lili lived that made him jealous.
She never hurried to do something. She always took her time, and never actually complained about anything.
Lili changed her working hours to match Lei's because he still had to have conference calls with Dylan and the executive directors of Long games. She translated a lot of documents, usually medical books and papers, and sometimes she made some necklaces or bracelets.
Once she even almost killed Lei because he scared her while she was soldering a small part onto the bracelet and she almost burnt her own hand because of him. At that point, she had enough.
"Don't you like to have work to do?" she asked, putting the soldering iron aside and breathing out her anger. Lei innocently raised his hands.
"Not actually." He chuckled and sat on the bed behind Lili. She looked around and especially at the noticeboard. She only had that one bracelet left because it was a custom-made accessory for Lucy's mother's friend. It had to be made with precision.
"I think your visa is going to end soon, wouldn't it? Maybe you should buy the plane tickets." Lei took out his phone and again looked serious for a moment there before grinning at Lili.
"You have a week to finish it. I just booked tickets," he said smugly. She helplessly turned back to the table and decided to ignore him. The snake was pretty freaking hard to make, and somehow the molding wasn't as perfect as she thought it would be. So Lili had to solder some tiny parts that fell away before grinding it.
She was done after a while, and because of the position she had to be in, her back and neck hurt. Lili stretched out a bit and moved her head around.
Lei noticed it immediately and got up to massage her. He carefully knitted the stiff muscles that made Lili moan in pleasure.
"Don't do that or I will take you to bed," Lei whispered into her ear and kissed the side of the neck that Lili was the most sensitive on. A whimper escaped her throat, but then she plastered her hand over her mouth, stopping herself from moaning more.
"I'm still sore, calm down… And if you want me to finish it in a week, you should let me work. Oh… Have you sent my gift to guys?" she asked, shifting the topic to something safer.
Lei let her go, and Lili carefully cleaned everything up, letting the soldering iron to cool down aside, together with the bracelet that was already looking great.
"Nope, not yet. You should stop spoiling them. I noticed their gameplay has been struggling a bit since you've started with your dedicated crafting." Lei was whining, but rightfully so. Lili noticed it too. But it might have to do something with the new members.
Lei's phone vibrated with a WeChat message, which was pretty unusual given that it was late at night in Hong Kong. He opened it and swore. Then, in a matter of seconds, he put the phone to his ear, actually calling someone.
"What are you doing there? I thought you could manage them!" he exclaimed, and Lili winced. The person on the other side answered, making him even angrier, so Lili came to him and gestured to put it on a speaker if he could. Lei nodded, and Dylan's voice filled the room.
"Your father and Yitian already took care of it. I'm just saying it might have damaged the companies' image a bit." Lili frowned, what were they doing again?
"Did anyone give up any endorsement?" Lei asked, worrying the worse.
"Actually, we have two more individual endorsements. Huobai for an online clothing brand. Hongjie and Yinli for new glasses." Lei was really confused when Dylan said it.
"Where is the problem, then?" he asked. The silence that was on the other side suggested something bad.
"Huobai can't take part… They had a fallout with Yixing and he went back to Macau…" Lili gaped. Her favorite BL couple had a fallout? Whose videos would she watch then? And Huobai went back to Macau? That was something new for her.
"I know. Zhang Nanchuan had been bugging me about it a lot. The problem is that Bai is the sole heir to all the casinos, and Mr. Zhang needs to show him how to do it in the future. I agreed to it." CASINOS?!! Lili almost choked on her own, while swallowing how surprised she was.
"I need to take a vacation… My hands…" Dylan started, but Lei stopped him before he could continue.
"I'm glad you found a way to cure it. You can take as much time as you need after I come back," Lei said and smiled. He genuinely liked Dylan. The way Dylan helped him and himself became the backbone of Zhu long made Lei warm in his chest.
"I'm not sure it will work out, but Qiao said I should try it…" Lei was nodding the whole time, while Lili was looking at him, stunned.
The last time she talked to Dylan, and heard that no one knew why his hands were like this. He thought it was because of his past, using them too much without caring for them. Some doctors thought he had tendonitis, but the inflammatory meds weren't working, so it was really strange.
"Thank god you met Qiao…" Lili snickered and Dylan snorted.
"You have no idea, Lili. You have no idea…" he said, hinting at something more that Lili was now dying to know. And hung upon them.
"Did I miss something?" she asked, and Lei bit his lip.
"Honestly, you know more about the relationships in the team than I do," Lei said, and Lili had to admit it was true. She noticed a lot… and she loved it. But now Dylan was bugging her. What was going on in between them?!