My Boss Always Flirts With Me - Chapter 42
Chapter 42: The Turnaround
Fang Ci woke up with a slight headache. The first thing he saw was He Chi, who had just hung up the phone with his back to him.
His mouth felt bitter and dry, not at all like how he felt after a night of drinking. He Chi touched his forehead and said, “You have a fever.”
No wonder he felt so miserable. Fang Ci remembered it was Monday and asked, “Why didn’t you go to the company?”
He Chi said, “I’ll go this afternoon.”
Fang Ci’s mind was still fuzzy, and he subconsciously said, “I’m sorry.”
He Chi, who was holding the medicine, stopped. He frowned slightly, his expression a little displeased. The person who had been so wild in his arms yesterday was gone when he woke up. The drunk Fang Ci was not this polite. He hadn’t noticed it before, but now with a comparison, everything was different.
“Don’t be sorry. It’s my responsibility to take care of you,” he said.
Fang Ci was now restraining himself from over-interpreting He Chi’s words. He emptied his mind and pulled the blanket up. But He Chi pulled it down to give him water. “You drank yesterday, so you can’t take fever medicine.”
Fang Ci knew he had done something wrong. Even if He Chi didn’t mention it, he felt he had drunk too much yesterday. His fever today was simply a punishment for him.
He moved uncomfortably.
He Chi leaned in and propped up his pillow. Fang Ci’s eyes were not on him. His gaze was wandering when he suddenly noticed a mark on He Chi’s turtleneck sweater. He was stunned and asked, “What’s wrong with your neck?”
When He Chi heard this, he pulled down his collar to show him. Fang Ci gasped. He Chi’s Adam’s apple was red, with a circle of tooth marks around it.
“Did Qiuqiu bite you?” he asked uncertainly.
He Chi looked at him, speechless.
Fang Ci felt uneasy under his gaze. He glanced again. No, that doesn’t look like Qiuqiu’s tooth marks. After a while, some fragments of memory slowly came back. He took a cold breath and shrank back into his shell like a snail, trying to bury himself in the blanket.
He Chi stopped him, not letting him cover his face with the blanket.
“Did you remember?”
Embarrassment rose on Fang Ci’s face, but he didn’t want to admit it. He shook his head stubbornly.
He Chi raised his eyebrow slightly. “It wasn’t a cat bite. It was a puppy bite.”
Fang Ci was stunned. What kind of analogy is that? He couldn’t help but question him, “Why a puppy?”
He Chi seriously analyzed it for him. “Cats like to scratch, not bite.”
Is this something a CEO would say? Why do I like to bite people? Fang Ci was incredulous. He then frowned and immediately turned over, not wanting to talk to him, afraid that he wouldn’t be able to win an argument with him if he wasn’t clear-headed.
He Chi pulled his sweater back on and stayed with him for a while, wanting to give him some instructions. He was forced to leave when a series of phone calls came in. He went to the study to handle his work, showing how busy he was.
“Rest well,” he said before leaving.
After He Chi left, Fang Ci could feel the medicine working, but he couldn’t sleep. The tooth marks on He Chi’s neck made it even harder to fall asleep.
He forced himself to distract himself and took out his phone to look at his messages.
He had no idea how many people had messaged him in the past half day. The work group chat had the most messages, followed by Cheng Wen and a few other team members, and even a voice message from the CEO’s assistant, Yuan Cheng.
With nothing else to do, he clicked on them one by one to reply.
Cheng Wen and Xiao Zhu asked him how he was. Fang Ci replied: [I’m awake and taking medicine.]
Xiao Zhu was the first to see it and replied almost instantly: [We heard you were sick from Assistant Yuan. We were so scared. We thought you got fired.]
Fang Ci sent a question mark.
Xiao Zhu: [You don’t remember what happened yesterday, do you?]
Fang Ci stared blankly at the message. His heart skipped a beat. He cautiously asked: [I didn’t do anything too outrageous yesterday, did I?] Other than biting Teacher He…
Xiao Zhu: [You did. You’re a role model for all workers, a true hot-blooded warrior!]
Her words made Fang Ci hesitant to ask anything else, but he subconsciously guessed that he definitely hadn’t confessed to He Chi yesterday, or else He Chi would have asked him about it.
Then, Xiao Zhu’s reply confirmed his thoughts and gave him a hard blow: […You cursed at CEO He and said you hated him. Was it because of too much overtime? CEO He even asked Assistant Yuan to pick you up. He’s so merciful. You should be grateful…]
Fang Ci didn’t finish reading. He slammed his phone face down on the bed, his mind in turmoil. Good job, Fang Ci. You didn’t confess, but you did something. You dared to curse at Teacher He.
He even seriously considered: Should I move back home today? After all, he left his dignity behind yesterday.
One hundred and eight plans formed in his mind, and Fang Ci’s expression changed unpredictably. In the end, he gave up and returned to zero. He’s already been called a puppy, what else is there to fear?
After a couple of deep breaths, he picked up his phone again and replied: [Xiao Zhu, just calm down. Just pretend CEO He has amnesia.]
Xiao Zhu: […I don’t think that’s possible.]
Fang Ci skipped the emojis Xiao Zhu sent and clicked on Yuan Cheng’s voice message. Assistant Yuan didn’t say anything important, just asked about his health, but his tone was a little too… polite, even showing a hint of respect.
For example, this sentence: “I have submitted your sick leave. I heard the AP project is moving forward smoothly, so you can rest for a few more days.”
Fang Ci listened to it again. He did indeed use “you.” After a moment of thought, he replied: [Thank you for your help. I’ll see how I feel. If the fever goes down, I can go back to work tomorrow.]
Yuan Cheng replied in an instant: [You don’t have to worry about that. CEO He has already applied for three days of leave for you.]
The sudden honorifics and the mention of He Chi. Fang Ci looked at it for a long time and understood. He replied: [Okay. Also, please pretend you don’t know about anything outside of work.]
Yuan Cheng replied: [Okay, understood.]
Everything was left unsaid.
Fang Ci processed this unexpected situation and finally opened the main work group chat.
As expected, 99 messages instantly drowned him.
This morning, the team had confirmed the venue and time for the press conference. The experts who would be attending had also been confirmed. The only thing they had tagged him for was the product speech draft. Fang Ci replied, promising to submit the first draft tomorrow. The time was tight, and he was afraid he couldn’t postpone it any longer. From experience, the draft would have to be revised at least ten times.
He browsed through the chat from beginning to end to make sure he didn’t miss any information. Just as he was about to exit, a new progress chart was dropped into the group. Cheng Wen and the team members had been discussing it back and forth in the group, but there was no result. Fang Ci felt that this was within his scope of responsibility, so he sat up and called Cheng Wen to ask for the details.
Cheng Wen knew he wasn’t feeling well, so he made it short.
Fang Ci realized it was related to coordinating with other departments. The press conference involved most of the company, from R&D to sales, and even media. Every department had its own plans and ideas, and it was not easy to consolidate them.
“How about this? You pick a few difficult departments, and I’ll communicate with them,” Fang Ci said after listening.
“Are you sure you’re up for it?”
Fang Ci: “It’s just a phone call.”
Cheng Wen gave him a list, and he started calling them based on importance. Just as he was finishing up with the R&D department, the bedroom door opened.
“…Manager Fang, are you still there? The engineer is on a business trip these two days. The time you mentioned…” the person on the other end of the phone called out to him.
Fang Ci watched He Chi walk in. He chose the latter between hanging up and continuing the conversation. He Chi didn’t interrupt him. He just stood by the bed, which put a lot of pressure on him. Fang Ci tried his best to ignore his presence and sped up his speech to finish what he was saying.
“Okay, that’s it. We’ll set up a meeting time when Engineer Qi gets back.” As soon as he finished speaking, his phone was taken away.
He Chi looked at the name on the screen and turned it off. Fang Ci said, “Hey,” and then, “Don’t…”
He Chi was about to put the phone back on the bedside table, but this single word made him confiscate it instead.
“Are you all better?”
Fang Ci shook his head. He saw that He Chi’s face looked grim and almost frighteningly serious, so he explained, “We need to move the press conference forward these two days.”
He Chi said indifferently, “If the department manager is not here, can’t others handle the work?”
Fang Ci said softly, “No, I’m just helping out.”
He Chi didn’t seem truly angry, but more helpless. “Don’t worry about work until you’re better.”
Fang Ci agreed.
He Chi sat down next to him and stayed for a while. He asked, “Can’t sleep?”
Fang Ci: “Yeah.” He had really slept too much these past few days.
He Chi: “Shall we talk?”
Fang Ci: “…” Maybe he should just go to sleep.
After a moment, he sighed softly in his heart and gave in. “What do you want to talk about, Teacher He?”
He Chi looked into his eyes and asked, “When you said you hate me yesterday, did you mean it?”
Fang Ci was stunned. “?”
Ah, he was just venting. Did Teacher He take it seriously?
“Does it matter?” he asked tentatively.
He Chi said, “It matters.”
Okay, Teacher He took it seriously.
Realizing this, Fang Ci quickly said, “It wasn’t true.”
He Chi nodded and asked again, “Second question: Since we got married, have I done anything that you’re not happy with?”
Fang Ci was taken aback. Actually, yes. He originally had a lot to say to Teacher He, but he was rejected. And he already knew that saying it now would be useless.
Seeing that He Chi had exposed his emotions, Fang Ci became calm instead.
These past few days, he had been stuck in problem-solving mode, unable to get out. He had read the question countless times, but he still didn’t know how to answer that exam.
However, in this process, he had figured out one thing. All answers in the world cannot be achieved overnight. All systems and programs have countless bugs at the beginning, and there is no such thing as perfect operation, just like two people who meet.
Their relationship was even more complex than a system.
Liking Teacher He was his operational logic, and the part of Teacher He related to him was still under development.
He couldn’t force it or copy and paste it. Their systems were fundamentally different.
After understanding this, he let go of some of his obsession.
He thought he should give Teacher He some time and also give himself some time.
Slowly, no rush. Their marriage was still long enough for him to develop a new program, a new system.
So this time, he didn’t directly answer He Chi’s question. Instead, he used a little cleverness and asked in return:
“Teacher He, which is more important in your heart, work or marriage, or rather, work or me?”
He Chi only thought for a few seconds before answering, “Both are important.”
This answer was already good. Fang Ci felt a little more confident.
“Why do you ask that?”
Fang Ci said, “Teacher He has already done a great job, but it’s still missing something.”
He Chi: “What’s missing?”
“Can my weight be a little higher? Like a distribution ratio of 45 percent and 55 percent.”
He Chi looked at him, seemingly thinking seriously about what he said. Then he said, “If that’s how you want to divide it, you can.”
Fang Ci looked back at him.
“But from what I know, your proportion is already very high.”
Fang Ci heard his own heartbeat again. He licked his dry lips and asked, “What’s the percentage?”
He Chi gave him a very honest answer. “I haven’t calculated it.”
Fang Ci: “Then… could you calculate it in the future?”
He Chi said, “Okay, I’ll calculate it.”
Their eyes met. Fang Ci saw himself in He Chi’s eyes.
He suddenly got up and kissed his Adam’s apple through his sweater.
He Chi was afraid he would fall back, so he reached out and held him.
Fang Ci’s fever hadn’t gone down yet. His cheeks were red, but his eyes were bright. For a moment, neither of them spoke.
“The basic parameters remain the same. On that basis, add one percent.”