Sweet Potatoes

Zhou Jia felt like her heart stopped for a good few seconds. She blinked twice, then brought her hand up and rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't hallucinating.

Then it clicked on her brain. This was real.

She suddenly felt the urged to pump her fist into the air while jumping up and down.

This. Was. Her. Dream!

She tiptoed closer to them slowly over the marble floor, making sure to be as quiet as possible. She wanted to ensure that she could remember this picture forever so she pulled out her phone from her bag and slowly started taking pictures.

Her face was flushed red and her eyes were almost tearing up with happiness.

This was it. This was true beauty.

Not many knew this about her, but Zhou Jia was a beauty maniac. For her, if she saw anyone beautiful she'd instantly be obsessed. It was her life's passion to meet good-looking people. She wasn't concerned with the personality, she knew that beautiful people could be rotten, but it wasn't as if she wanted to talk to them or anything. So in that way, her favorite pastime was saving images of beautiful people on her phone and watching tv or live streams with beautiful people.

This beauty mania, when she had first met Qiu Yue she had really wanted to stop her and start taking pictures. Really for Zhou Jia, it didn't matter if the beautiful person was male or female.

But this was the first time she understood what true happiness meant - the scene of two beautiful people together. It was as if God had gifted this to her. To her heart.

(⌯˃̶᷄ ﹏ ˂̶᷄⌯)

All along, for almost a week she had watched these two completely bumbling idiots at romance, awkwardly look at each other. It was actually funny because usually, they were so confident and dominant, but when they were around each other it was like they weren't sure what to do. Like a pair of folded ear kittens meeting each other for the first time. Though she was pretty sure one of them was a wolf in disguise, if not both.

So for Zhou Jia, who just wanted to push them into each other's arms, this current scene was heavenly.

(⸝⸝⸝ᵒ̴̶̷ ⌑ ᵒ̴̶̷⸝⸝⸝)✨

She moved up and down and slowly turned, taking pictures from whatever angle and style she could think of. After taking more than 300 pictures from different angles she stood straight and squared her shoulders.

'Fu fu fu fu fu'

Then her shoulders started shaking. She was almost about to cry tears of joy.

These two had potential!

They could be the cutest couple with just a small nudge from her.

🔥(,,Ò　ㅅ　Ó,,)🔥

A small forest fire lit up in her heart.

(And forest fires were never small.)

She decided from today onwards she would push them towards each other through whatever means possible.

All was fair in love and war, and fan girl tactics.

She composed herself and walked back outside. Then she called Huo Zi Feng. She wanted to wake them up.

If they both woke up together it would be for the best, then they'd be aware of each other even more. And if only one did, then... it was still enough.

Her incredibly smart mind was being put to an incredible use right now, and if Qiu Yue knew what Zhou Jia was thinking then she'd probably faint out of embarrassment.

Huo Zi Feng was a light sleeper so as soon as he heard the light tinkling of his ringtone his eyes immediately flew open.

He rubbed his eye with one hand and reached out with his other hand to look for his phone. But as soon as his eyes focused and his mind cleared up he realized his neck hurt a lot.

Zhou Jia who had been peeking inside saw that Huo Zi Feng had woken up so she had cut the call. She didn't want to interrupt their moment.

Huo Zi Feng realized he wasn't on his office couch, he was sitting on a chair in the employee's section. Right next to Qiu Yue.

Looking at the girl who was still asleep, watching as the morning rays of the sun reflected upon the tiny particles in the air, it was as if the light was making her shimmer. As if... she was about to fade out of existence.

Huo Zi Feng shook his head as his eyebrows furrowed. That was weird. He didn't understand why he had felt like that.

He let out a light sigh. He had fallen asleep, next to her. He who had a history of insomnia had fallen asleep.

His lips curved into a gentle smile. He realized that he had felt comfortable with her, for perhaps the first time in years.

Then suddenly the gentle scene was broken as someone's phone rang loudly.

Zhou Jia who had a heart attack checked her phone and saw it wasn't hers.

Even Huo Zi Feng who had been startled by the sound realized it wasn't his either.

That meant it was Qiu Yue's phone.

As if on cue, Qiu Yue stirred.

Huo Zi Feng was even more startled, for some reason he felt that he had to get out of there before she saw him. So he did just that, he immediately got up and almost ran to his office. Just as he closed his door, Zhou Jia opened the door to the office, upset at having her scene being cut short.

And in that noise Qiu Yue jumped her eyes open, she felt irritated. Why was there so much noise in the morning?! Could people not sleep in peace! Good lord.

And her phone was ringing too.

Qiu Yue pressed her fingers onto her temple as she answered the call.

"I'm coming in like ten minutes."

Yao Yan's voice sounded through the phone. Qiu Yue who was still dazed took a few minutes to comprehend what Yao Yan had just said.

"What? Why-"

But before she could ask her anything it, Yao Yan had hung up.

(=_=)

Qiu Yue already wanted to give up on today and just sleep.

By the time Yao Yan got there, Qiu Yue had already cleaned up and dressed in new clothes she had previously stashed at the office.

Qiu Yue yawned widely though she tried to stifle it with her hand.

"What's up?"

"Well, I collected information about all the other male leads, whatever exists in this world, and whatever I could get through the system. I compiled them into reports. Since you wanted them as soon as possible, here they are. Also, I've included a separate file about the demographically distributed survey results of the otome game survey."

"I've also compiled a list of the best programmers in the present and the future rising stars as received in the information from the system about this world's future. Same for the investment opportunities. You should find most of the information you need in there."

Qiu Yue felt her headache clear up a bit, at least this was worth waking up early for.

"That was fast! Thank you so much."

"Also, take your time on this one, but I also need you to investigate my cousins, well the original Lang Qiu Yue's cousins or relatives."

"Cousins? Why? Are you looking for something specific?"

"Well it's not much, but I just have a feeling so I'm looking into it. Nothing too specific but the more information the better, it'll jump out at you when you see it."

Qiu Yue spotted Zhou Jia looking at them from the corner of her eye when Zhou Jia noticed that Qiu Yue had seen her, Zhou Jia started walking towards them.

"Thanks for the files, I was just going to ask for the survey results."

Qiu Yue smiled at Yao Yan.

When Zhou Jia reached them Qiu Yue introduced Zhou Jia to Yao Yan and vice versa. Unexpectedly when Yao Yan shook hands with Zhou Jia she looked slightly... scared?

'This lady is dangerous ah!'

Yao Yan's words echoed in Qiu Yue's head.

'Why do you say that? She's nice, I mean she does scare me a bit sometimes but she's really nice.'

'Nope, no way, the way she looked at me scared me a bit.'

'Host it was like she was admiring my body, normally I'd be flattered and flirt but this girl is 100% top ah!'

'Why? You don't like being bottom?'

Qiu Yue smirked at Yao Yan. Yao Yan was bisexual. So she was open to both sexes but she normally went for males. Or at least so Qiu Yue had noticed till now.

Zhou Jia who had been admiring the appearance of another beautiful woman was on cloud nine and she who was walking with a skip in her step, planning for Qiu Yue's future, suddenly sneezed.

She wondered who was talking about her.

From that day onwards Qiu Yue noticed that Huo Zi Feng was more comfortable with her. In fact, he seemed more at comfort with her than anyone else. This change in attitude was surprising but pleasantly so, they smiled at each other when they saw each other. They often made small talk about almost anything. Since he was not as tense as before, Qiu Yue was swept away by his pace and soon was a lot more open with him.

She told him about her discoveries of this world, about her Sunday's itinerary. About how she felt about art, how she loved sunflowers, how she had fun going on impromptu trips.

Whenever she spoke to him, to Huo Zi Feng, it was as if only he existed in that world. Qiu Yue would always focus on him, all her attention was on him.

...it made him feel special.

He had somehow started to look for her eyes that sparkled so often with happiness and fun and excitement. He looked forward to her voice that he found was so expressive, as though she spoke with sound effects. She seemed to subconsciously act out certain sounds and make effects for them while she spoke.

Whenever he saw her notice him and walk to him, his heart grew fonder and fonder of her.

On Saturday after two weeks, Qiu Yue decided to invite Huo Zi Feng out with her on her weekly walk to the park. As a designer, Qiu Yue made sure to be in input mode, or in simple words take in the world, as much as she could.

Right now, with the end of November approaching, the snow fell from the sky fluttering with the wind before it caressed the foliage.

In this world where the white flakes of snow sparsely covered the warm tones created by the autumn leaves. Though it could get very cold, mostly the skies stayed clear.

Huo Zi Feng didn't even have to think too much before agreeing.

So on Sunday both of them wore their jackets and gloves and set out.

While Qiu Yue preferred walking, though only on Sundays and only to close parks and gardens, all the servants at the Huo mansion were shocked to see their young master carefully get dressed and then tell the driver that he would walk to his destination.

Huo Zi Feng too wanted to see how beautiful the world Qiu Yue loved so much was. He had heard her speak so much about it, so he too wanted to see what she saw in it.

Till now, even though he has transversed by this road so often he had never been able to distinguish it. But now, whenever he saw things around him he could hear her voice in his head, talking so happy about it. From the sweet shop near the traffic signal on the right-hand side that kids stared at, and that she lived so much, to the tree ahead that had lots of squirrels living in it.

Even the cute little red brick styled bakery. It was as if he could see the world around himself for the first time.

And then he turned around the corner and there she was. Near the park's gate, she leaned against the short walls rubbing her hands together. The gloves she wore covered only her palm and some of her fingertips were uncovered by the light pink wool. Her breath condensed in front of her in small white clouds.

It was as if one beautiful thing had led to another, with the most beautiful of them all standing there waiting for him as the end.

When Qiu Yue looked up after trying to warm her fingers without any result she saw him standing just a few feet away looking at her.

In his winter coat and muffler and his red nose, he looked very cute. She couldn't resist smiling.

She walked towards him while he walked towards her, and they met in the middle.

Qiu Yue tilted her head towards the park and he nodded. Mostly it was Qiu Yue who spoke while he just listened to her with a smile. They were used to this pattern. Ever so often she would often stop to stop to take pictures of almost everything.

Leaves were strewn on the brick paved pathway, the flowers on the trees, the water rippling in the lake, and the sun rays pouring through the cracks in the tree cover.

Huo Zi Feng noticed that she would often rub her hands together and he understood it was because she felt cold.

After watching her for some time he slowly pulled off his gloves and handed them to her.

Qiu Yue looked at him in wonder.

"Your hands are cold."

"But you need them too!"

"I'll be fine, I'm used to this weather, I don't really need the gloves."

Qiu Yue looked at him for a few seconds and then decided to forgo kindness for comfort.

She took the gloves and put them on her hands, but the only problem was... they were way too big.

꒰●꒡ ̫ ꒡●꒱

Looking at her wronged expression, Huo Zi Feng could only look away and stifle his laughter.

"My hands are not small!"

Qiu Yue snapped.

"I didn't say anything."

Huo Zi Feng quickly replied in his defense, amused.

"You didn't have to! Your hands are just unusually large. I'm normal."

"Mhmm."

He just nodded in acknowledgment smiling at her. He knew from experience if he said anything she would just get even more incensed. He knew the best thing he could do was just silently agree to her.

Qiu Yue couldn't bare knowing that Huo Zi Feng wasn't wearing gloves, it was if she couldn't stop thinking of the things that could happen if he didn't wear gloves. He could fall sick, then he would have to miss work, and what if there was an important meeting? Then they'd lose opportunities! Then the business would go down.

....

Actually, even she knew that shouldn't happen, but she still felt a slight itch in her heart. And then she realized what she had to do.

Qiu Yue looked at him and grabbed his hand and pulled him along with her.

"Come on, I have someplace I want to take you!"

It wasn't too far and in five minutes they both stood in front of a sweet potato stall. There, there were sweet potatoes roasting on the coal chunks.

She thanked the old man when he handed them both a sweet potato cut into half on top of a newspaper. The warmth from it gave our wisps of white clouds that floated away.

Huo Zi Feng looked slightly lost as he took the sweet potato from the old man.

Qiu Yue thought he was really cute and laughed lightly.

"You blow on it, till it's just warm enough."

Huo Zi Feng lightly blew on it very seriously, it was obvious he had never eaten them before. Slowly he put the first bite into his mouth and his expression changed as it melted into starchy sweetness unique to sweet potatoes.

There was nothing better than a roasted sweet potato on the cold winter morning.

They went out on two more Sundays, but this week at the office was especially busy.

Qiu Yue was in a hurry writing up reports to give to their affiliates. They were going to have a major press conference release in a week for the upcoming game. With Qiu Yue help and Yao Yan's information, the production was set to be completed much earlier than predicted.

Currently, Qiu Yue was taking a short break, making herself the best cup of coffee she had ever had.

Zhou Jia came in just when the coffee was done and greeted Qiu Yue with a smile. She put her phone on the counter and opened up the mini fridge to get a bottle of vitamin-infused flavored water.

"It's been busy right? But it'll go back to a normal routine soon."

"It's fine really, I actually like this, I'm doing something productive."

Zhou Jia shook her head, laughing.

"You're probably the person who is most productive in this team after CEO Feng. You stay so many nights just working."

Qiu Yue smiled sheepishly.

"I just really want to get things right you know."

"Mhmm."

"I should get back to work now, I'll see you soon little Yue."

"Ah yes, sister Jia!"

Zhou Jia left the break room, and Qiu Yue was left behind to think about things, but then she noticed Zhou Jia's phone on the counter.

She quickly picked it up and went after Zhou Jia.

"Sister Jia! You forgot your phone."

Qiu Yue said handing it to Zhou Jia.

"Oh! Thank you so much."

Zhou Jia paused a bit. She had left it behind on purpose hoping that Qiu Yue would see the pictures in her photo gallery.

"...ah did you see anything on my phone?"

"Eh? No, I didn't. Please don't worry!"

Qiu Yue said hurriedly, why would she take a look at what's on someone else's phone.

"Ah... that is... actually, I- 'm so sorry!"

Zhou Jia quickly realized that Qiu Yue had done exactly what Zhou Jia had hoped she wouldn't do, not look.

So she decided that she would apologize for taking the pictures.

"Actually, last time you fell asleep at the office, when I came in the morning you both looked so beautiful I couldn't help but take a picture."

Well, she had taken hundreds but... she didn't want to come off too strong.

She bowed her head to Qiu Yue.

Qiu Yue didn't even know what to say.

Ah? You both?

"Who both?"

"You and CEO Feng..."

Zhou Jia said as she quickly unlocked her phone and showed her the picture of them sleeping next to each other. Not too close yet not too far either.

"I think after putting the blanket on you, he fell asleep next to you."

When Qiu Yue saw the picture she felt herself choke on air and started coughing.