2.16

The day after, Hao Junli followed Feng Mian to work. If one junkyard grasshopper cannon fodder named Huang Chu wasn't enough, there was also the sewage fly female lead performing all sorts of honey traps on his asexual housemate. Hao Junli pragmatically decided that this Feng Mian can't be left alone, even if that means he had to become a Venus flytrap catching all the pesky insects loitering around.

After picking out Feng Mian's office wear, Hao Junli dressed himself in a matching dark turquoise pantsuit that highlighted his long slender legs. When the couple walked down the stairs, Old master Li's eyes did a double-take. A bamboo house should match a bamboo door; a handsome lad such as Li Xiaocheng should be paired with a beautiful lady such as Wan Junli. From where he was standing, the two of them look compatible in both looks and temperament. A good match!

Old master Li was more than happy to see the couple getting along well. The better they get along, the higher the possibility of having more grandchildren in the future.

Trailing behind Feng Mian and Hao Junli was Li Haoran who was also dressed in a formal suit for his first day at work, waking up earlier than usual to prepare himself. When the two Li brothers stood next to each other, it made other males in the room pixelate out of focus.

Old man Li sent the three of them to the door. "Work hard you two. Remember not to cause trouble and make people look down on our Li family." He said the last part specifically for Li Haoran to listen to.

"Yeah, yeah grandpa, I at least know propriety at work," Li Haoran retorted.

Old man Li snickered in half scepticism. "You should go off then."

Both Feng Mian and Li Haoran decided to drive their own cars to work and as the two luxury cars left the garage, Li Haoran competitively hit the accelerator in an impromptu race to reach the company first. Feng Mian honked back at the waving old man Li before speeding up to catch up to Li Haoran's black sedan.

***

Arriving at her company, Feng Mian made a stop on the fifth floor. She turned to Hao Junli. "There's a vending machine on this floor. I want to get coffee, do you want anything?"

Hao Junli shook his head but followed her out.

The fifth floor was where most of the designing department's staff work and the vending machine was on the further side of the wing. This meant that when the two strutted over, they crossed paths with the majority of the designing team on the aisle.

The office erupted with inquisitive tittle-tattles and prying eyes of nosy staff who in order to peek at the esteemed CEO's wife, had to stretch out their necks like flaunting flamingos through the barrier of their cubicles.

Some of them began to gossip. "Do you see the woman with our CEO? Who's she?"

"Must be the wife ah. Didn't you hear that he got married around two month ago?"

"Wait! CEO Li is married? Why wasn't I told? Nooo! My prince charming is snatched! Wu wu wu~"

"Did you not look in the mirror? Tsk, if he didn't marry his wife, was he going to marry you ah? Should the CEO have invited you to his wedding so you'd know when he'd marry? Keep daydreaming."

"But I can dream oh as long as he's single."

Another staff chipped in. "I heard that he didn't like this wife of his."

"Whoever told you that must have square marbles for eyes. Look at them, they're even wearing couples outfits to work!"

"So nice oh~ I change my mind about not wanting to marry a coworker. I want a hubby who would wear a matching outfit with me to work. How vogue!"

"It only works if you have a hubby as handsome as CEO Li. Otherwise, what's the point of putting peacock feathers on a duck? It'll still be an ugly duck."

Feng Mian ignored the noisy chattering in the background. She passed a can of soy milk to Hao Junli. "Do you want anything else? Or should we go up now?"

Hao Junli traced the rim of the soy milk can, his ears picking up the background chatterings. "No, let's go up."

***

"What are you working on?" Hao Junli saw that Feng Mian had several blueprints on her desk. There were complex patterns of IT drawing with labels he couldn't make out.

"The company's about ready to merge, well maybe takeover, in a week or two. With Zhang Wei's company's resources, I'm thinking of developing a robot. A robot that can cook."

Feng Mian's eyes twinkled excitedly as she glanced up at Hao Junli. "There are a lot of talented designers in LXT, I've had Secretary Hong look into them and assign them the task of building a robot that can cook by itself when you put in the ingredients." With the fast-paced life of the city people, it's hard to find the time to cook, so in terms of necessity, this idea has a high chance of being a success.

Hao Junli wryly looked back at her. "Is this because you blew up the house when you tried to cook?"

Feng Mian: "....."

Hao Junli changed the topic. "Why did you decide to hire Li Haoran?"

"I suspect that he's been manipulating the company's accounts. Secretary Hong is keeping a close eye on him. I'm waiting to see what he will do now that he can go in and out freely out of here." In front of Hao Junli, Feng Mian felt that there was nothing to hide.

"So you're fishing." Hao Junli felt that this crybaby housemate of his has grown smarter ever since they reunited.

"Part of me hopes that it's not him. It would break old man Li's heart." Although it's not obvious, Hao Junli could tell that Feng Mian was downhearted. She had sincerely like old man Li.

"Anyway, there's still a lot of work to do and we're only in the early phases. I have to listen to the design team pitching their ideas before I can decide which look to go with."

Hao Junli patted Feng Mian's shoulders with a firm hand. "You can do it," he encouraged.

Secretary Hong knocked and came through the door. "CEO Li, the marketing manager wants to see you."

"Let him in."

Li Haoran dashed right in after receiving permission. "Cousin, cousin, you have to help me!"

Feng Mian heaved a sigh. "What is it?"

"Who's that beauty from the human resources department?"

"Which beauty are you talking about? I don't run a company with only one woman working for me."

Li Haoran threw his head back to recall. "Aish, that one, the new intern. About 5 foot five, with dark brown eyes and straight hair."

"You mean Ms Yu Yan?"

"Her name's Yu Yan? Indeed the name is as pretty as the person herself. Cousin oh, I think I'm in love~ What should I do?"

Feng Mian was starting to doubt whether this idiot cousin of hers was really capable of committing financial fraud.

"Fall out of it," Feng Mian answered bluntly.

"Eh? Why? Is it because we're coworkers?"

"It's because she's not a good person."

Li Haoran was bewildered by his cousin's blatant accusation. "How can that be? You must not judge a person by their looks, cousin! I could see that she's a polite, kind-hearted girl."

"How would you know? You only met her once."

The lovestruck boy patted his chest. "Instinct. Instinct. I can tell from the instinct of love. From the moment our hands touched as we both picked up the scattered papers on the floor, my soul trembled and burst into flames."

'This pea-brained playboy.' If this was all an act, then Feng Mian had to admit that Li Haoran was the best actor she has met.

"If you don't trust me, ask your cousin-in-law. A woman knows other women best." Feng Mian passed the baton on.

Hao Junli who was born a male: "...."

"She's not good," he could only bring himself to say that much.

Li Haoran was still stubbornly insisting that his white moonlight is a white lotus. "Hmph, you guys just don't know yet. Wait till I bring her over to see grandpa, you'll know just how sweet of a girl she is."

'You're already planning to bring her home?'

Feng Mian gave up trying to change his mind. Perhaps this was the fatal attraction of a female lead.

Feng Mian stopped to think.

Wait, what about the second male lead? Even she who tried avoiding Yu Yan at all cost, still with no avail kept running into her. What about Zhang Wei? Had he met the female lead?

She felt like there were pieces of the puzzle that she had greatly overlooked. If this was a novel, then the second male lead's fate should be greatly intertwined with the female lead, just like Li Xiaocheng.

"Do you hate her that much cousin?" Feng Mian's line of thought was cut off by Li Haoran's question.

"No. I can stand unbearable people, what I hate is being betrayed by others."

Li Haoran's eyes were bright and clear as his head tilted in confusion.

"Did someone betray you cousin?"

Feng Mian looked assessingly at him for a few seconds before drawing away. "Do you know who Zhang Wei is?"

Li Haoran felt that their topic was switched too fast, his mind couldn't keep up yet.

"You mean the Zhang family's eldest young master? I know him, we're close drinking friends. Why are you asking?"

Li Haoran's collar was yanked up from the back instantaneously out of the blue. Feng Mian dragged him out of her office and headed towards the elevator, promptly stopping at the 10th floor where the company's confidential documents were kept.

"Do you know what this room is?" Feng Mian asked him.

"Know ah, it's where the company's financial records are stored. I fell in love at first sight with my beauty here you know."

She paused. "Yu Yan was here?"

"Uh-huh, she said that Secretary Hong asked her to look for this year's account book."

"Then why were you here?"

"... I mistook it for the game room." The game room was on the floor below.

'So the spy wasn't from the financial department?' No wonder they couldn't find the person after so long.

She looked at the CCTV camera in the room. As expected, it's broken, the lights weren't even blinking.

"After you sent off Junli the other day, where did you go?"

"Ah, that! After I dropped off cousin-in-law, I went downstairs to the cafe to get something to eat and then coincidentally ran into Zhang Wei. He said he was waiting for a friend, so I pulled him to chat for a couple of hours."

"Did you see his friend?"

"No, I waited with him, but his friend didn't show up."

"Li Haoran, I need you to think carefully. Was Yu Yan at some point in the cafe around the time you and Zhang Wei were together?"

Li Haoran seemed to recall something. "I… I don't remember much, but I think I did see her buying a doughnut then go out shortly after. A pretty lady is hard to forget."

Feng Mian had found the end piece to her puzzle.

When she was about to call Secretary Hong to find out which document was missing, Secretary Hong had already beaten her to it.

The message through the receiver made her blood run cold.

"CEO Li! Your wife fell down the stairs!"