Pure emotion error - Chapter 1 

Chapter 1  No Longer Friends

On Lin Yiqiao’s first day at the new company, his mother drove him to the office building. Before he got out of the car, she told him, “If you really can’t manage, just go home. It’s okay if you don’t go to work.”

“Okay,” Lin Yiqiao unbuckled his seatbelt and said to his mother, “I’m leaving.”

He wore a blue plaid shirt, unbuttoned, over which he wore a white cotton T-shirt, neatly tucked into his waistband, clearly outlining his slender waistline. His hair wasn’t very short, with wispy bangs falling across his forehead. He had a straight nose, a slightly dazed look in his eyes, and a porcelain-white, delicate face, making him seem very easy to bully.

No wonder Xu Zihui was so worried about him. With that kind of aura, physique, and looks, he’d be starting out in a Korean comic book with a billion-dollar debt.

There were six new employees in this batch, all of whom were assigned to a small conference room to complete their onboarding procedures. Lin Yiqiao was the first to arrive and the first to finish.

He neatly organized the documents, smoothed out the edges of the papers, and meticulously placed them into a file folder. Then he stood up and asked the HR, “Should I go directly to the R&D department?”

“Wait a minute,” Tang Xiaoxiao replied with a smile, “There’s a welcome meeting later. General Manager Wang will introduce the company culture and policies to you all.”

Lin Yiqiao held up the transparent file folder, pointed to the employee handbook inside, and calmly said to Tang Xiaoxiao, “All of this is written in the employee handbook. I don’t think this meeting is necessary.”

The other colleagues who were filling out forms turned around and stared at him wide-eyed—wow! Finding fault on his first day!

However, Lin Yiqiao remained completely composed, meeting Tang Xiaoxiao’s gaze without even realizing it.

Tang Xiaoxiao had already witnessed Lin Yiqiao’s destructive power on the day of the interview. When he wasn’t talking, he was an innocent and harmless handsome young man; once he opened his mouth, he could leave you speechless.

On the day of the interview, Lin Yiqiao got into an argument with Cai Dong, the head of the mechanical team, over a technical issue. Lin Yiqiao’s few words infuriated Cai Dong, who resolutely refused to let this “arrogant” young man join his team, even saying things like, “It’s either him or me, it’s either him or me.”

Tang Xiaoxiao still finds it unbelievable that the CEO would be so attentive to a recruitment drive. At a crucial time when signing the Series A funding agreement in Los Angeles, he personally called back to talk to Cai Dong for over ten minutes, persuading him to keep the engineer.

He said the CEO valued Lin Yiqiao’s professional abilities.

Tang Xiaoxiao’s smile distorted, as if she were gritting her teeth: “The important thing isn’t the content of the meeting, but that President Wang wants to see you all…”

Lin Yiqiao accepted the logic that company executives wanted to meet with new employees. He said “Oh,” and sat back down in his chair.

After everyone had completed the formalities, Tang Xiaoxiao led them to Wang Hao’s office. Wang Hao was a man nearing forty, slightly overweight, with a round face, squinting eyes that seemed half-closed, and messy hair, looking like he hadn’t slept well.

Lin Yiqiao immediately assumed this man was a tech-savvy individual, and definitely very skilled, because squinty-eyed people are often considered freaks.

The office wasn’t large, and with six or seven people standing in a row, it felt somewhat crowded. The sofa in the reception area was piled high with documents. Wang Hao didn’t offer them seats; instead, he stood up to greet them.

Lin Yiqiao saw Wang Hao, while welcoming them, walk around the desk, extending his large, thick right hand to shake hands with each of them.

Lin Yiqiao was immediately horrified.

He hated handshakes because they meant direct skin-to-skin contact with another human being. The pressure, temperature, and humidity of that contact were all unpredictable variables. Moreover, the other person might carry bacteria, viruses, or other microorganisms, making it a high-risk behavior that could lead to pathogen invasion. He couldn’t understand why humanity had established such a strange physical contact rule in social interactions.

Fortunately, Lin Yiqiao was standing on the far right of the line, and Wang Hao started shaking hands from the far left. Lin Yiqiao took a step back, pretending to be attracted by a poster hanging on the left wall, slowly strolled over, studied the poster for half a minute, and then naturally moved to the left side of the line.

The person originally standing on the far left was a girl with long, straight black hair and bangs, named Wen Wei. Wen Wei only glanced at him and didn’t report him.

Perhaps because of good luck, Wang Hao didn’t pursue Lin Yiqiao’s wandering around, nor did he insist on shaking hands with him.

Then Wang Hao began introducing some things from the employee handbook, and Lin Yiqiao began to drift off into thought.

Across from him was a large floor-to-ceiling window, offering a very distant view. The sky was a clear blue, without a single cloud.

Lin Yiqiao thought that there were stars in the daytime sky too, but because the sunlight was so strong, atmospheric scattering made the sky brighter, making the stars invisible to the naked eye.

At the same time, he thought of something very interesting—do you know why planets are round? It’s because of the planet’s own gravity that it pulls the matter that makes up the planet towards its center, gradually forming a slightly flattened sphere with its poles as it rotates.

So, in reality, while they were having their meeting, countless stars in the sky were busy rolling themselves into little balls.

This discovery amused Lin Yiqiao, so he chuckled softly.

Wen Wei glanced at him again. Lin Yiqiao really wanted to share this interesting discovery with Wen Wei, but he knew it was impolite to share one’s findings while others were speaking, so he remained silent.

His mother and Lin Yimiao picked him up from work that afternoon; Lin Yimiao drove, and his mother sat in the passenger seat.

“I’m very satisfied with this job,” Lin Yiqiao reported after Xu Zihui inquired about the details. “The eye-protection light at my workstation has adjustable brightness, and the noise from the air conditioning and fresh air system is very low, so it doesn’t affect my thinking. My seat is at a comfortable distance from the air vents and the door, making the temperature comfortable and easy to move around.”

Lin Yiqiao also emphasized, “I heard they recently optimized the office environment, and they optimized all the places I like. I’m really lucky.”

Xu Zihui turned around from the passenger seat to look at him: “Are your colleagues easy to get along with?”

“They’re easy to get along with,” Lin Yiqiao said. “Our team leader likes me a lot.”

“Oh?” Lin Yimiao glanced in the rearview mirror and asked her brother, “How did you know he likes you?”

“He praised me,” Lin Yiqiao recounted with some pride: “As soon as I arrived at the mechanical group, he told everyone, ‘This is our group’s new expert, he’s different from us, he’s a genius. From now on, everyone should ask him for advice if you have any questions.’”

Xu Zihui frowned and sighed.

Lin Yimiao chuckled, “I knew it!”

Lin Yiqiao asked, puzzled, “Know what?”

“Nothing,” Lin Yimiao replied.

Sometimes she really envied her brother. Anyone would break out in a cold sweat hearing their new boss say something like that, right? But her brother only took it literally, thinking it was a compliment.

Innate Anti-Internal Friction Body.

Xu Zihui wasn’t really worried about this. Over the years, she had grown accustomed to her son’s “lack of sociability,” and she didn’t expect Lin Yiqiao to have good relationships at work.

But there was one problem that she couldn’t shake off. Ever since she learned that CereNet was Yan Lu’s company, she had strongly opposed Lin Yiqiao working for CereNet. However, Lin Yiqiao was genuinely interested in this mind-controlled mechanical exoskeleton project. And once Lin Yiqiao became obsessed with something, no one could easily change his mind.

It was because of this persistence that Lin Yiqiao had suffered a lot. Xu Zihui hesitated for a moment, then asked softly, “…Did you see Yan Lu?”

“No,” Lin Yiqiao’s tone became even more flat. “They said Yan Lu went to Los Angeles on a business trip and won’t be back for more than half a month.”

Xu Zihui observed carefully and didn’t notice any signs of anxiety in Lin Yiqiao. She breathed a slight sigh of relief: “Do you need to make any preparations? Should you talk to Jing Xin?”

Lin Yiqiao shook his head and said, “No need,” gently clenching his right fist on his knee. He said, “It’s okay now.”

Xu Zihui wanted to ask him if that incident had no impact on him anymore, or if he and Yan Lu were no longer connected in his heart. But Lin Yiqiao quickly took out noise-canceling headphones from his backpack, put them on, leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and gestured to refuse further conversation.

Yan Lu returned to the company two days earlier than expected. Without greeting anyone or going to his own office, he pushed open Wang Hao’s door, gathered the documents scattered on the sofa, and then collapsed onto it, looking utterly exhausted.

Wang Hao was surprised to see him. “Didn’t you just get off the plane? Why aren’t you at home adjusting to the time difference? What are you doing here?”

Yan Lu propped his long legs on the coffee table, took out his phone, unlocked the screen, and replied, “Got a shower at home, couldn’t sleep.”

Wang Hao stood up. “So what are you doing?”

“As you can see,” Yan Lu said, glancing down at a new message he received during his long flight, “I’m playing with my smartphone.”

Wang Hao left his desk and sat down next to Yan Lu. This CEO had an attractive appearance that everyone admired, and he was a master storyteller, having just secured fifty million US dollars in funding for the company. Although young, he was a reliable brother you could entrust your back to.

Wang Hao, however, showed no concern for him and proceeded to arrange work: “If you’re still feeling alright, I’ll move next Monday’s meeting to today. It’ll be a good opportunity for you to meet the new colleagues.”

Yan Lu’s fingertips paused above the phone screen for a moment before continuing to type, casually asking, “What do you think of the new colleagues?”

“They’re all pretty good,” Wang Hao added with a smile, thinking of the most special one, “especially Lin Yiqiao, whom you brought in despite everyone’s objections. He’s incredibly talented. He even came up with the idea of ​​using a new type of shape memory alloy as the core for the lower limb force feedback accuracy problem that we hadn’t been able to solve before.” “The heart-supporting structure was redesigned, and the knee joint force transmission feedback mechanism was redesigned. Even Mr. Cai had nothing to say after seeing the test data.”

Yan Lu’s lips curled up, a sense of pride in his voice: “The person I’ve chosen.”

“But that kid is too arrogant,” Wang Hao shook his head. “The other day, the company invited them to Yiyuntai for the welcome banquet, and he told me in front of so many people, ‘I don’t want to go,’ without even making up a reason, making me lose face.”

Yan Lu chuckled. It was still the Lin Yiqiao he knew. “He’s not arrogant; he just has his own set of rules. Isn’t his honesty a good thing? Do you like others being…” “Are you just being insincere?”

Wang Hao, seeing how familiar he sounded, asked, “You two know each other?”

“Yeah,” Yan Lu said, “We used to be friends.”

“Used to?”

“High school.”

“An old classmate?” Wang Hao was a little surprised. “Why hasn’t he mentioned him at all?”

Yan Lu smiled nonchalantly. “He probably doesn’t remember me.”

“How could that be?” Wang Hao, ever the helpful one, said, “Should we call him over?”

Yan Lu said, “Never mind.”

Wang Hao patted him on the shoulder, stood up, and said, “I’ll have Dani tell everyone there’s a meeting in twenty minutes.”

“Twenty minutes” “And then?” Yan Lu felt for the first time that Wang Hao’s execution was a bit too forceful, even unnecessary. “It’s too rushed. I wasn’t prepared.”

Wang Hao looked at him strangely. “You don’t prepare for a TV speech, what do you need to prepare for a meeting at home?”

Yan Lu didn’t know what he needed to prepare either, but he felt that the meeting with Lin Yiqiao should be more private, allowing him to hug Lin Yiqiao like before, let her rest her head on his shoulder, and listen to her whine and complain about how hard she had been without him all these years, and how happy she was that he was finally back.

This scene would never happen in a conference room. He could probably go see Lin Yiqiao today and meet her privately.

“Let’s talk about it tomorrow,” Yan Lu leaned back on the sofa, covering his eyes and feigning exhaustion. “I haven’t slept for over twenty hours. Let me rest.”

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Wang Hao called out to the door, “Come in.”

Yan Lu turned around at the sound. The first thing he saw was a pale, thin hand with clearly defined knuckles; then a light blue plaid shirt, a white T-shirt, and a slender waist; followed by a clean, gentle face with a youthful air.

Lin Yiqiao pushed open the door and naturally looked in his direction. Their eyes met across half the room.

No matter how many times he had rehearsed or imagined their reunion, in this instant, Yan Lu clearly understood that he was far from as calm as he had imagined. The features he had repeatedly sketched in his mind for seven years suddenly appeared before him. His mind went blank; he even forgot to breathe. His bl00d seemed to freeze, only his heart pounding like a drum.

Lin Yiqiao stood there, his face bearing his usual bewildered expression, his brows slightly furrowed, as if comparing the Yan Lu before him with the Yan Lu in his memory, trying to discern the man’s exact identity in this moment.

Wang Hao broke the silence, pointing to Yan Lu and enthusiastically saying to Lin Yiqiao, “Xiao Lin, you’ve come at the right time! Look who this is.”

Although the man wasn’t wearing glasses, his other physical features matched her memory. The image in her mind matched successfully, and Lin Yiqiao said, “It’s Yan Lu.”

Wang Hao waved for Lin Yiqiao to come in: “Come and meet your old friend.”

Lin Yiqiao looked confused, standing still, tilting her head to look at Yan Lu for a moment, then looked at Wang Hao and seriously pointed out the inappropriateness in his statement: “Logically speaking, he and I aren’t friends anymore.”

——————–
Long time no see! Can those who came in leave a comment? |ω)