56 Leon's Pain
Inside her office, Lina lay on her couch with her Tab in front of her and music blasting from the black kitten ears headphones that Mandy had gifted her.
She was perfecting the designs of the jewelry pieces that would be sold in the stores after the auction.
Obsidia not only catered to the nobles but also to the normal citizens who were willing to splurge a little extra for something special.
These pieces could be bought by anyone who visited their stores, while the jewelry that would be auctioned can only be bought by the upper echelon of the society because of its high price range.
Lina was busy deciding the color and design of the gems when she saw the door to her office open and a head popped in.
As she was facing the door, she only had to lift her head and she could see that it was Leon who had peeped in.
"Wassup?" Pulling the headphones away, she asked him while shutting off her Tab.
"I knocked a couple of times but you did not answer. So I peeped in." He said and saw her show the headphones which must have been the reason why she did not hear him.
"I wanted to ask whether you are going to be eating your lunch with me?" He asked as he pointed at the watch on his hand.
It was 12:45PM and the employees were breaking for lunch.
"Time flies when you are working." She got up from the couch and checked her phone.
'Wade already told me that he will be busy today, so there's no need to wait for him.'
"I still haven't received my lunch, you guys can start. I'll join you when Derek gets it here." She said and walked to the mini fridge.
"It's fine. Julia is busy with Miss Zhou and I don't want to eat alone. So I don't mind waiting here for you." He sat in Lina's spot on the couch.
"Cucumber or coconut?" She showed the two bottles in her hand and asked him.
"Ahh.. Coconut?" Unsure of what to choose, he picked the coconut water.
She tossed him the bottle of coconut water and walked towards him while sipping the cucumber water.
"Are there any nice grocery stores around? I wanna go snack shopping." She said as she sat on the single seater.
"Hmm.. The closest one is in an apartment building not too far from here. But it's a little on the pricey side." He thought out loud and sent her the address.
"If it's in an apartment building, will I even be allowed inside?" She checked the address on her phone.
"You aren't allowed inside the apartment itself. The store is in the vicinity and was built for the residents but many people go there because it has stuff you won't find outside." Lina just nodded and checked her phone again.
Right at this moment there was a knock on the door and Derek came in a few seconds later.
"Young Miss I hope I did not make you wait for too long. The traffic today was excessive." Derek said as he carefully placed her bento on the table.
Leon did the man nod and Derek responded with a nod, a way of acknowledging each other without the use of actual words.
"Oh Derek, I forgot to ask but how are you coming up everyday? You need an employee ID to use the elevator to come up to this floor." Lina had meant to talk to Wade about this but it completely slipped her mind.
"It's not a problem, Young Miss. Asst Leon helped me out." They looked at Leon who held his tongue out trying to get the last drops of the water from the bottle.
"Erhm.. I don't like wasting stuff." He justified his actions but his red ears gave him away.
"When you told me that Derek would be getting your lunch daily, I hooked him up with a visitor's pass. It allows him to use the elevator and that stupid receptionist won't stop his again." Leon made a funny face remembering the receptionist who created a scene on Lina's first day at work.
"Thank you, Leon. Now let's go eat!" She declared and Leon happily nodded.
Before leaving, she gave him another bottle of coconut water and then locking the door to her office, they all walked out.
They bid goodbye to Derek at the elevator and headed to the cafeteria.
As usual, Lina got many friendly hellos on her way to their seats, thanks to her new status as the 'Fairy' of the office. But hidden among them were a few faces twisted with envy which Lina felt but decided to ignore.
Today they both had brought home cooked meals.
Leon opened his insulated lunch box and the aroma of fried chicken wafted into Lina's sharp nose.
"Yummy! Leon that smells like a bomb!" She gave him a thumbs up and saw him open the next container with noodles and stir fried veggies.
"My younger sister wants to become a chef, guess who gets to eat all her experiments." He cringed and pointed to himself and saw Lina give him a disgusted face.
"You get to eat such amazing stuff and you are complaining? Shame!" She held her hands to her chest dramatically causing him to laugh.
'You would understand my pain if it was who you had to spend nights in the hospital for food poisoning.' He sniffed his nose and cautiously picked up the noodles.
Seeing his wary behaviour, Lina bravely picked up her chopsticks and took a mouthful of his noodles.
"See… It's totally fine." She said with her mouthful and quickly swallowed.
This gave him the confidence to eat it and that would be the biggest mistake he made.
Just as he was about to spit it out, Lina held his mouth shut and spoke to him.
"Don't you dare spit it out! She made it with love, power through it! I'll give you as many coconut waters as you want. Just finish the box." Successfully bribing him, Lina saw him cry while trying to eat his lunch.
The others sitting around them could not understand why Asst Leon was acting so weird.
That's because they did not have to eat the noodles that were overloaded with salt.
Meanwhile, Lina slowly opened her two tiered bento. The top layer had freshly cut fruit salad and the bottom had sashimi, maki and her favorite spicy tempura rolls.
Seeing this, Leon made a reluctant face as he stuffed the noodles in his mouth.
"How about this? Finish that box and I'll share half my lunch with you?" She gave him a proposal and saw him eat with renewed vigor.
She slowly ate the fruits and waited till he was done with his salt noodles with stir fried salt.
"Done! Ahh!" He opened his mouth to show her that he had swallowed every last bit of the noodles.
"Your sister would be very proud!" Lina patted his back and pushed her bento between them.
Leon happily ate the sashimi and felt that life was returning to his dehydrated taste buds.
"I'm planning on taking Mr Hitoshi's team for a welcome dinner on Sunday, you wanna join? I'll be calling the others as well" She said as she ate a Tempura roll.
"Will I get to eat good food?" Still in the trauma of his lunch, Leon asked doubtfully.
"Much better than this." She replied and saw him nod.
So they spent their lunch sharing Lina's sushi and Leon's fried chicken.
The chicken was delicious because his mother had cooked them, apparently she feared that her son would have to starve again if all he had in his lunch box was his sister's handmade food.
They were extremely grateful for Mrs. Jiu's thoughtfulness.
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When they got back after lunch, Leon's stomach was still a little queasy. He was hanging on thanks to the third bottle of coconut water that Lina had handed him before she got back to her work.
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Soon the day ended with everyone running around, preparing for the next meeting on Monday.
Before leaving, she spoke to Stuart Bai about her decision to take LY's team out for dinner on Sunday and invited him as well.
"I'm also gonna invite Anthony, Irene, Julia, Leon, Ivan and Old man Oswald." She informed him of her guest list and he nodded in agreement.
"What about Wade?" Stuart asked when he did not hear the company VP's name in the guest list.
"Well Wade will be tired after his trip and I do not want to disturb his rest day." Lina gave her reason for not inviting him.
"Why do you call him Wade rather than calling him 'Brother'?" Stuart felt that it was odd for Lina to call him by his name despite the huge age difference.
"I've already gotten used to it now after all these years abroad and I only call him 'gege' when I want him to do something for me." She winked at him.
Lina was okay with revealing this information because Stuart knew her father, which meant that he must know that the Luo's and Yang's have an in-law relationship.
What's the use in hiding it when he already knows that she and Wade are related.
