Monday rolled around again.

Having been taught a few pointers by her online pal, Self-Discipline, Lin Yao was determined to meet Director Yan today to have a good chat. They were going to be normal colleagues in the future.

You might ask, why was the Medicine Packet, who would previously rather die than not confess, suddenly willing to return to becoming normal colleagues with Director Yan?

You might also know that after confessing, who would be able to treat anyone as a normal colleague? But online pal, Self-Discipline, said it best. This was merely a trap.

Lin Yao had stayed up thinking the entire night. She didn’t manage to come up with any excuse or reasons that would compel Director Yan to believe her nor have a more positive impression of her. As such, her thoughts ran so rampant she didn’t manage to get any sleep. That was why she was yawning as she walked through the company’s doors.

At the basement carpark, the R&D department’s 2nd Group’s leader, Lin Feiyang, was heading to the elevator with his breakfast in hand after he parked his car. Coincidentally, he bumped into his boss in the elevator. 

“Morning, boss.” Lin Feiyang greeted as he entered the lift.

Yan Luji nodded before yawning.

“You didn’t sleep well, director?” Lin Feiyang pressed the button for the 12th floor.

“Yup.” Yan Luji felt that if he continued to sleep so badly, this would become a habit.

“Actually, you could try seeing Dr. Lin. After I took the medicine she prescribed to me last week, I found that my sleep really improved.” Lin Feiyang said.

“You do look pretty well-rested.” Yan Luji swept a glance at his subordinate; his cheeks were rosy and he was spirited. He did look a lot healthier than previously.

Ding dang, the elevator stopped at the first floor and the door opened. 

Lin Yao was yawning as she trudged in. She did not even lift her head.

Yan Luji saw Lin Yao come in, then shuffled a step backwards.

“Dr. Lin.” Because he had made so many trips to the clinic to have his pulse taken, Lin Feiyang was quite familiar with Lin Yao.

“Morning.” greeted Lin Yao cheerlessly.

“You also didn’t sleep well last night, Dr. Lin?”

“Yup.” Lin Yao yawned again.

Lin Feiyang glanced at the sleepy Dr. Lin, then sneakily looked over at his own boss, whose under-eyes were especially dark this morning. For some reason, he felt like he had discovered a terrible secret.

“What are you looking at?” Yan Luji saw how Lin Feiyang had sneakily stole a look at him with suspicious eyes, and his face darkened.

“Director Yan!” Lin Yao was caught off guard by her male god’s voice, and only just realized that the 3rd person in the elevator was actually Yan Luji.

“Morning.” Yan Luji still decided to greet her out of courtesy.

“Morning!” It was like Lin Yao was revitalised.

Lin Feiyang, who now had a foreboding sense that he was becoming a light bulb^[1]Being a thirdwheel., tried to shrink backwards to reduce his presence.

The atmosphere in the elevator remained awkward till it reached the 12th floor.

“I’m going off now.” Lin Feiyang whizzed out the moment the elevator doors opened.

“Yi, why did the lift first stop at the 12th floor?” Her stop at the 8th floor was clearly before the 12th floor.

“You forgot to press the button for the 8th floor.” Yan Luji said.

“Oh, it must be because I got too excited seeing Director Yan that I forgot.” Lin Yao casually remarked.

“…” Yan Luji was dumbfounded. He thought back to when Lin Yao solemnly declared to her classmate at the dessert shop on Saturday that the person she liked must like her true self, and that she would not play pretend just for love.

Did this mean forgetting to press the button is a genuine reaction?

“I am heading off to work now.” Yan Luji nodded, and helped Lin Yao pressed the button for the 8th floor on the way out.

In the time it took for the elevator doors to close, Lin Yao had already taken out her phone to snap a photo of the button of the 8th floor, then captioned ‘Male God helped me press this button.’, sending it to her friend group.

There was no signal in the elevator so the post was only sent out 2 minutes later.

Ding ding.

A notification sound rang out from WeChat on Lin Yao’s phone as she sat down after changing her clothes.

“Medicine Packet, have you gone stupid from dating?”

Lin Yao blinked and replied, “I wish I did but I have yet to successfully pursue him.”

“What stupid thing did you post? You’re like those perverts on the train.”

“Who cares what you think!”

“Quickly delete it, don’t you find that you’re being too shameless right now?”

Lin Yao went to check on her post and realised that she had received a bunch of likes and comments, all of which said, ‘Lovestruck fool, Medicine Packet’.

Lin Yao wasn’t angry, and followed up with another post:

(Any good friend who will be changing their comments from ‘Lovestruck fool, Medicine Packet’ to well-wishes will win a chance to receive 1 free acupuncture treatment.)

Within 5 minutes, the comments started changing.

(Hoping that Medicine Packet will be able to bring male god home soon.)

(Male god, quickly come to the Medicine Packet bowl.)

(Blessing Medicine Packet and male god with a son.)

…

“How nice of them!” This was a real eye-opener for this classmate named Xiao Ming^[2]小明 (Xiao Ming) is a name that’s used in test questions and stories (akin to common names like John) so much so that it’s now commonly used in jokes, memes etc. In this context, using … Continue reading.

==

Assistant to the HR director, Su Fei, was about to go find the director to report this week’s agenda yet when he reached the door, he heard his boss laughing so hard it was almost maniacal. 

“My goodness, I feel like I’m going to die laughing.” Xiao Dong pushed open his office door with his phone in hand.

“Su Fei, why are you standing at the door?” 

“I was about to go in to report to you. Are you preparing to head out?” Su Fei asked.

“Oh. No worries, just come in.” Xiao Dong actually wanted to go tease Yan Luji but after thinking about it, the Medicine Packet was already having such a hard time with her pursuit. It might be best for him to lay low with his jokes.

==

At lunch, Yan Luji was looking around with his plate in hand. He felt something was missing.

“What are you looking around for?” Xiao Dong asked.

“I’m not.” Yan Luji said.

“You’re probably looking for Dr. Lin.” Xiao Dong grinned, “She’s already done eating.”

“She has eaten?” Yan Luji was taken aback.

“What? You’re not used to her not being in your way?” Xiao Dong teased.

“No.” Yan Luji refused to admit that he was really feeling a bit off-kilter.

Xiao Dong lifted his brows but didn’t pursue the matter.

The person in question, Lin Yao, was seeing some patients from the R&D department after her lunch.

“Dr. Lin, aren’t I doing a lot better now? Lately, my sleep has been good, my appetite is great and even my girlfriend said I became more handsome.” Xiao Wang, a programmer, was incredibly smug.

“Your body is still quite weak and you still need to nourish your body for a while longer lest you faint again. Lin Yao said as she was typing out the prescription.

“Dr. Lin, could we stop mentioning this incident?” Xiao Wang awkwardly said. “Just because I fainted that day, our boss was so enraged, I wasn’t allowed to work overtime and even my bonus was deducted.”

“Do you want money or do you want to live? Lin Yao asked.

“I want both.”

“He he^[3]Different from hehehe (giggles). Apparently there’s a hierarchy of laughter sounds in ascending order of how hard one is laughing: 嘿嘿 (hei hei) is a chuckle, 嘻嘻 (xi xi) is similar to … Continue reading …” Lin Yao took the prescription from the printer, checked through it and stamped on it, then passed it over to Xiao Wang, “There are some medicinal herbs that I don’t have here. You should get your medicine from the hospital.”

Feng Teng’s TCM clinic is attached to a private TCM hospital, so Feng Teng’s employees can also head to the hospital for their medicine.

“Alright.” Xiao Wang took the prescription, then asked “Oh right, Dr. Lin, where are you from?”

“I’m from Jiangxi, why?” 

“Oh, then it’s not possible.” Xiao Wang said regretfully.

“What’s not possible?”

“It’s like this — our R&D department did really well last year so headquarters allowed us to use 10% of our profits to build Hope Primary School.” Xiao Wang elaborated, “However, the building site can only be in Guizhou or the mountainous regions of Yunnan. We’re currently voting on it and I’m not sure which place to vote for so I thought if Dr Lin’s hometown was in one of these 2 areas, then I will vote accordingly.”

“Our company also offers such welfare programs?” Lin Yao was astonished.

“Of course, many large enterprises have Corporate Social Responsibility programs and do some form of charity.” Xiao Wang proudly stated, “But we are different here. This Hope Primary School is considered part of our R&D department’s initiatives, and won’t draw from the company’s philanthropy fund.” 

“Rumour has it that it was our boss who suggested it 3 years ago at the company’s annual general meeting.”

“Director Yan?” Lin Yao caught on.

“That’s right.” Xiao Wang nodded confidently, “According to reliable sources, the chairman wanted to give our boss 1 million RMB as bonus because our R&D department did well that year but our boss ended up rejecting the chairman’s offer. Instead, he invested the money in his subordinates’ real estate project, which was to build Hope Primary School for children living in rural mountainous regions. We have since kept up with that so it has become a tradition.”

“I didn’t know Director Yan had such a compassionate heart.” Lin Yao praised.

“Are you falling deeper in love with our boss?” Practically everyone in the R&D department knew about Dr. Lin chasing their boss.

“You’re just an ape who knows how to programme, why are you such a busybody?” Lin Yao eyed Xiao Wang warily.

“What you’re doing now is called discriminating against certain occupations.” Xiao Wang said.

“So do you think … I have a chance?” Lin Yao said quietly.

“To be honest, our R&D department has had meetings about this in private.” Xiao Wang said, “But we feel that girls who are willing to jump into the fire pit of love and hate^[4]敢爱敢恨 is used to describe the ~young~ who have yet to experience loss, grievance or have any burdens and hence, are willing to engage in experiences that deal with intense emotions of love and … Continue reading like Dr. Lin are rare.”

“He he he … so this just means that you guys are supporting me la^[5]啦 (la) is similar to 了(le), which functions as final particles and do not mean anything itself but might confer or indicate the tone or intentions of the speaker. In this case, 啦 is … Continue reading.” Lin Yao couldn’t help but smile.

“Dr. Lin, to persevere is to succeed.” Xiao Wang cheered her on.

‘He he he … good luck.”

“That’s right. Dr. Lin, previously I mentioned that my mum has been suffering from rheumatism …” Xiao Wang suddenly mentioned.

“Aiya, that’s a small thing. I’ll pass you the medicine for it tomorrow.

“Thank you Dr. Lin.” Xiao Wang happily walked out with his prescription.

This conversation today was a productive one for both of them.

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