Chapter 934: Extra 7: Zhao Yu 3

Chapter 934: Chapter 933: Extra 7: Zhao Yu 3

That night, Mu Qiu and Zhao Yu lay in the same bed chatting.

“This President Song is pretty young, looks quite handsome too, and the key thing is he loves your stovetop chicken. The way he put on disposable gloves to eat the corn cakes was such a contrast- moment.”

Zhao Yu was really speechless, for the nth time: “I’m begging you, stop saying I cooked it. Keep this up and I’m going to get brainwashed into believing I made that dish and I’m some kitchen goddess.”

Mu Qiu lay there with one leg crossed over the other, acting all serious: “Cut off the beginning and the end and only look at the middle—doesn’t that mean you admit the beginning and the end? You admit President Song is indeed handsome, and you do think he’s contrast-, totally your type, right?”

“…” Zhao Yu kicked her crossed leg away. “I do not!”

“If you don’t, you don’t. Why kick me? Feeling guilty, are we?”

Zhao Yu: “Why would I feel guilty?!”

Mu Qiu shot her a glance: “People who feel guilty usually talk louder when they’re trying to save face.”

“…” She grabbed her hair and gave it a rough rub, completely giving up. “Forget it, analyze however you want.”

Mu Qiu: “See? That’s exactly what it looks like when someone’s been called out.”

“…”

“Actually, this is easy to analyze.” She lazily crossed her leg again and said, “Let’s use the scientific method: read the problem, apply the formula, solve it, then check the answer.”

“First, read the problem. You two are from the same place. Back when he was being transferred here, was it you who heard about it and proactively suggested coming along, or did he ask you?”

Zhao Yu: “He asked me once… just one sentence! When I was submitting my report, he asked—he only said one line: ‘Do you want to try developing overseas?’ Just that simple one sentence!”

“And then you just followed him over here.”

“…” She fell silent.

Mu Qiu continued: “All right, even if he asked you without thinking much about it, we can barely count that as a leader caring about an employee’s future career plan. Then when you got here, how did you end up living in the same building?”

Zhao Yu muttered, “It’s company housing. We only have to pay half the rent every month.”

“And you’ve been in the same building this long—has he ever knocked on your door like tonight? To have you bring some document or deliver something?”

“Sure.”

Seeing Mu Qiu’s eyes narrow, she hurriedly tacked on more explanation:

“Don’t overthink it! He’s my direct supervisor. All my work is under his control. Sometimes after department dinners, he stays with the clients and I head back first, so I have to help bring stuff back. More often it’s me going over respectfully to knock on his door. That’s totally normal. And usually it’s just knock, leave the stuff outside, and that’s it. He hears the sound, then opens the door to take it. There’s never been any ‘going into his room’ kind of situation!”

“Tsk tsk tsk. Even if there was nothing between you at first, after interacting like that a bunch of times, something’s bound to feel different. Especially today when he actually came over to your place for dinner—he’s definitely going to treat you differently after this, at least in private.” Mu Qiu clicked her tongue.

Then she added, “Okay, first reading of the problem is done. Now let’s plug it into the formula. Do you or don’t you admit that sometimes feelings grow out of long-term interaction, unexpected little accidents, and a kind of attention that’s different from what others get?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean, when a man and a woman spend a lot of time together, and the guy treats the girl just a tiny bit more specially than he treats everyone else, this tiny bit of specialness plus the occasional pleasant surprise makes it very easy for feelings to sprout. Does that make sense to you?”

“…… Kind of… does.”

Mu Qiu clapped her hands: “Exactly. The formula holds and we’ve already plugged in values, so isn’t this half solved already? Think about it: aren’t things between you two a bit more special than with other people? Has he asked anyone else if they want to go overseas? Has he been to any other domestic colleague’s place for homemade Chinese food lately? Does he seem like the type who casually goes into an employee’s apartment to eat?”

“…No.”

She pressed on: “Good. Now let’s do the final check. If the analysis result is basically: either you two have a thing for each other or he’s interested in you—then with that conclusion in mind, go back and re-analyze everything from the start. Does it all add up?”

Zhao Yu: “…… It kind of adds up… but why do I feel like I got straight-up talked into a limp by you along this whole line of reasoning?!”

Mu Qiu lifted her hand, looking at the diamond ring on her ring finger, and drawled, “Don’t rush to deny it. Try using this method to think it through yourself, see if it doesn’t make perfect sense.”

Zhao Yu started brooding like some tragic heroine.

The room was quiet for a bit before Mu Qiu suddenly sighed.

“But we’re still ignoring another factor.”

“What?”

“Shen Zhousong actually wants to hit on you?”

Just talking about that made Zhao Yu’s head hurt even more.

“He’s one step away from outright saying, ‘Let’s have an online relationship.’ Honestly, he’s one of the more okay male artists in the domestic entertainment industry—comes from a military family, doesn’t have any scandals or messy black dirt, looks good and is very manly… But I swear to God, other than drooling over your Cheng Zhirang’s face and a few other celebs, the only star I stan is Su Yan, and stanning doesn’t mean I’ll date a celebrity.

If I actually started seeing him, I’d probably end up on the trending search list one day, then hordes of haters would swarm over and dig me up till I don’t even have underwear left, and they might even say the two of us got into the entertainment circle just to fish for men. I can’t take that kind of shit, and I really can’t survive that level of digging.”

Online political vetting is a horror game; netizens are drunk every day on the thrill of judging others, and there’s no limit to what they’ll say or what they’ll do.

It’s terrifying. Best never get involved.

Mu Qiu sighed again: “Losing out on this front… poor Shen Zhousong, he really has grievances he can’t voice. You should find a tactful way to make it clear to him. You’re busy with work as it is, it’s not like you have time to be online chatting every day. Haven’t you been so busy lately that even your daily Su Yan comment check-ins have slipped?”

Zhao Yu snorted proudly: “As if! If I miss a day of check-ins, I can practically climb up in a half-asleep state, drop a comment, then pass out again, okay? Speaking of which, Yan Shen has been showing his face way too rarely lately—he’s so young and he’s already gone into stealth mode.”

Mu Qiu: “Probably off having Love with Lin Banyan.”

“Uuuuuuuu why would you use that to stab my heart?!”

Mu Qiu couldn’t be bothered to respond and directly asked again: “I feel like you do have some feelings for your boss. If you want it, go for it. He’s already come over once for dinner; who knows, there might be a second time. Or maybe he’ll invite you over to his place to eat.”

“No need, no need. A boss’s food is never that easy to swallow.”

“Tsk.” She tilted her head to look at her. “You’re dodging again. Just say it—do you or do you not have feelings?”

“…A tiny bit. Right at the moment when he put on those disposable gloves and started gnawing on the cake I’d boiled.”

Mu Qiu rolled her eyes: “Your heart-fluttering moment is seriously bizarre.”

Zhao Yu lay still, didn’t move. After two seconds of silence, she said softly, “Then I’ll give it a try.”