2.13

Feng Mian rose from her chair and waved over excitedly. "Junli!"

Secretary Hong emerged from the door seconds too late but still announced, panting. "Your wife is here Mr Li." He hadn't managed to inform the person inside the office before the mighty Mrs Wan barged her way in.

"Yes, I can see that. You can go now, Secretary Hong." She waved him away.

Hao Junli stood silently, his iris travelling back and forth between her and Yu Yan. Feng Mian received his telepathic message almost instantly.

She immediately leapt to Hao Junli's side and clasped his hand in hers, rubbing it tenderly. As if kneading a piece of youtiao. "Why have you come all the way here, dear?"

In the heaven we shall be birds flying side by side, and on the earth we shall be twinned trunks flowering sprigs on the same branch. This over-exaggerated show of love makes one want to pluck out their eyes and put it at the back of their heads. Feng Mian intentionally wanted to annoy the female lead to death.

Yu Yan has never heard Li Xiaocheng use such a tender and intimate tone whilst talking to anyone else. She glanced at the couple's intimately intertwined hands with secret envy in her heart.

Hao Junli caught the look and sneered tauntingly at the female lead. "I'm here to deliver food. The chef didn't manage to reach you in time before you ran off to work."

"You must be tired, wife. Coming all the way here. Let's sit and talk." Hao Junli was dragged to sit on the office couple sofa.

Feng Mian continued acting the role of a concerned husband. "What do you want to drink? I'll have Secretary Hong bring it in."

Hao Junli considered for a moment. He really did feel like having a sweet drink right now. "I want coconut water. With ice cream on top."

Yu Yan internally scoffed, is this young madame intentionally troubling their CEO? Really no tact at all, how is there coconut water at a corporate building?

She stood in front of Feng Mian's desk and sized the CEO's wife up. She doesn't think that she was worse looking than the current madame. "Young madame, we don't have--"

Feng Mian treated her as a passing wind with no sense of existence. She answered Hao Junli's request all too eagerly, "You want coconut water? Okay! I'll let Secretary Hong buy them for you."

The phone was put on speed dial and directly connected to Secretary Hong. "Secretary Hong, my wife wants to drink coconut water. Bring a few tubs of ice cream over too... What flavour? Just buy every flavour they have."

Yu Yan saw that Li Xiaocheng simply pampered his wife to the heavens and did not put anyone else in his eyes. Her mouth clamped shut.

This two-person world bubble that doesn't recognise other people continued on for a long while. Yu Yan felt that it was shameless of her to stay, but couldn't bring her feet to walk out this door as she watched the display of a lovey-dovey couple in front of her.

As if finally remembering there was someone else in the room, Hao Junli's head craftily turned towards her.

"My apologies, I just realised that there was someone with us. And you are....?" Yu Yan felt like she was being disdained. Just a CEO wife, she dares to think that she can order her around?

"I'm Yu Yan, Mr Li's new intern," she said, the arrogance in her tone airing foully.

"Oh." That careless tone as if she was talking to someone of no significance irked Yu Yan immensely.

Hao Junli continued to talk with Feng Mian and hung the female lead to dry in open air. "I hear that your company has been accepting new interns recently. Do you not pay them well enough that they have to come to you personally to borrow money?"

Feng Mian laughed. "How can that be? LXT is really one of the companies that are generous with our interns. This miss right here wants to borrow money to pay for her father's bone marrow's surgery."

Hao Junli's interest was peaked. "Oh? You even lend money to interns now?"

Feng Mian leaned in to whisper into Hao Junli's ear.

Housemate Hao Junli's felt his ears becoming ticklish by hot air. Yu Yan couldn't exactly hear what CEO Li was saying to his wife, but she vaguely heard something along the lines of 'desperate' and 'will do anything.'

They were talking behind her back right in front of her!

Hao Junli guffawed in his hand as his eyes stared back at Yu Yan. Yu Yan's face reddened in embarrassment. 'Did CEO Li tell his wife about what happened in the office earlier?'

Hao Junli's pink lips curled, and he let out an amused sound that was dripped with ridicule. "Interesting."

Feng Mian could tell that Hao Junli was in the mood to play around and got the ball rolling. "Then does wife have other ideas?"

Hao Junli pretended to contemplate. "It won't be a good thing if the other workers hear that their CEO was lending money to an intern."

He paused. "But I also empathise with Ms Yan's predicament. Your father's condition must have made you panic-stricken and so you look for the easiest way out." Hao Junli sized this intern up, the way she did him before.

"Ms Yu Yan is young and beautiful, it is understandable that you'd want to seek advantage by using these assets of yours. But you have to understand that there is no such thing as a free lunch. When my husband was your age, he relied on his own efforts and borrowed money from the bank to build this company up brick by brick. I can see that Ms Yu admires my husband greatly, then you should use him as an example to follow."

Yu Yan maintained a pleasant face on the outside but she was simmering on the inside. This woman was a fox exploiting a tiger's might. Who knows how someone like her with no background got married to the CEO in the first place?

Hao Junli continued on, offering a solution only after hitting the female lead's face with his words. "Your father is critically ill and needs the money, and saving a life is more meritorious than building a seven-floor pagoda. How about this then, I can lend you the money instead. You'll pay me back later."

'What?' Yu Yan stood dumbstruck. 'She's willing to lend her one and a half million yuan?'

Feng Mian whispered askingly, "Where did you get the money from?"

Hao Junli glanced over and crooked a finger. "Husband, lend me your cheque book."

Feng Mian's eyebrow quirked up but she fished the cheque book tucked in her inner suit's pocket anyway.

Then, Feng Mian and Yu Yan watched with incredulous eyes as Hao Junli filled out 1500000 yuan worth of money before ripping the piece off from the book.

"My husband's money is also my money. I take his money, you borrow from me. I'll prepare the loan contract and have someone bring a copy for you to sign."

Feng Mian: "..."

Yu Yan: "..."

Yu Yan had managed to walk out of the CEO's office with more than a million and a half yuan. Not from the CEO, but from his wife instead. She stared dazedly at the cheque in her hand for half a day.

Once he and Feng Mian were alone, Hao Junli asked, "Will you be working overtime tonight?"

"Yes, unfortunately. The company's developing new technology and I'm still waiting for Zhang Wei to hand over the merging contract. I need to view the progress." Feng Mian cranked her head to stretch out the muscles underneath it.

"Oh." Hao Junli sounded dejected.

'Was he having a hard time at old Li's house?' Feng Mian opened her mouth and proposed. "How about you accompany me? You can hang out here while I finish work."

Hao Junli's eyes glimmered. "I'm allowed to stay?"

"I'm the CEO, if I say yes, who dare say no?"

So, Feng Mian and Hao Junli reached a consensus where they do their own work; Feng Mian on her desk, and Hao Junli on the guest sofa. In the quiet room, only sounds of pen and pencils scratching could be heard every now and then. Hao Junli occupied time by drawing on his sketchbook.

Feng Mian took a half-minute break to look at her coffee table and commented on the array of selection. "Those are a lot of coconut water. There's even a few coconut shakes."

There were four different flavoured shakes that Secretary Hong bought. Hao Junli was already on his third cup.

"Do you want one?" he offered.

Feng Mian shook her head. She did not have Hao Junli's immunity to the cold and could feel the brain freeze just by watching all the cups he consumed.

Silence ensued until late evening, both too preoccupied with their tasks to notice the darkening sky. Feng Mian looked outside the window to see that even stars have started to come out.

On the sofa where Hao Junli had made his makeshift workspace, her partner had already dozed off. His sketchbook tucked neatly under the cushion in which he propped his head on, a few pages peeking out from their covers clumsily.

Feng Mian asked for a blanket, a pillow, and a pair of socks to be brought in. She laid Hao Junli on his back so that he would rest his head comfortably against the pillow. His dainty feet were placed on top of her lap and she worked on slipping the pair of socks on. Her mother had once said that pregnant women are more prone to the cold.

Feng Mian placed his sketchbook on the table and tucked Hao Junli snuggly inside the blanket. She looked at his tranquil sleeping face for a bit before going back to continue her work.