The Wind Heard Her Confession - Chapter 10: A Blinding Crush part 1

A new week began.

Lin Yuran arrived at Ranye Headquarters for her part-time job as usual. After two hours of intense drawing, Lin Yuran stood up and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window. She stretched briefly, gazing outside to rest her eyes.

The sound of steady footsteps approached from behind. Turning around, she saw it was Chi Ye. He was dressed in his signature black suit, but today’s fabric had a subtle sheen that complemented his refined, almost ascetic demeanor perfectly.

He’s just arrived for work at this hour!

Chi Ye walked up to her workstation and placed a cup of Blue Mountain coffee on her desk. “I brought it along.”

“Oh.” Lin Yuran approached with a smile. “Thanks, President Chi…”

Chi Ye’s expression immediately turned cold, and he turned back to his office without another word.

“…”

Another time she’d upset him by calling him ‘President Chi’!

Lin Yuran ignored him; she figured addressing him properly at work was the right thing to do. Besides, calling him by name during work hours felt a bit inappropriate.

She returned to her seat, took two sips of the coffee Chi Ye had brought, and dove back into her artwork. By the time she looked up again, it was almost lunchtime. As Lin Yuran waited for the elevator, Chi Ye emerged from his office.

“What a coincidence, President Chi,” she said with a smile.

Chi Ye gave her a brief glance, remaining silent.

“…”

The elevator doors opened, and the two stepped inside, one after the other. Chi Ye pressed the [B1] button.

Lin Yuran tilted her head, probing carefully, “Chi Ye, did you just eat too?”

“Ah,” Chi Ye drawled, “So now it’s ‘Chi Ye’ again? Who’s stuck on formalities this time?”

Lin Yuran couldn’t hold back her grin, “I can’t just call you ‘President Chi’, can I? It’d be like I’m muting you or something!”

Chi Ye shoved his hands into his pockets, his tone indifferent, “Just glad you finally got it right.”

“!”

Lin Yuran decided it was important to talk about this with him. She didn’t want to fall back into the awkward pattern they’d had last week.

“Chi Ye, although we’re old classmates, now we’re colleagues. I think it’s better to call you ‘President Chi’ at work. Calling you by your name would make others think I’ve got some special connection with you. I make my living with my skills, and I don’t want people to misunderstand.”

Chi Ye watched her with keen interest, the corners of his lips curling slightly, “What kind of ‘special connection’ are we talking about here?”

“…” Lin Yuran wanted to roll her eyes but stopped herself. “Uh… I guess we’re old classmates.”

Chi Ye’s voice held a hint of resignation. “Fine. Do as you wish.”

At the B1 level, as they stepped out of the elevator, they ran into Qin Lang returning from lunch.

Qin Lang wore a smile that seemed aimed at both of them, though its meaning was hard to grasp. He asked Chi Ye, looking somewhat coy, “Chi Ye, have you switched to eating at the cafeteria lately? I see you there every day.”

Chi Ye raised an eyebrow. “It’s my company’s cafeteria. Is it really that surprising for me to eat there?”

Qin Lang laughed. “Ah, not surprising at all. Great to see you enjoying your meals with our talented designer here.”

Lin Yuran couldn’t help but feel there was always an unspoken subtext in his words, leaving her completely speechless.

As they parted, Qin Lang turned to Lin Yuran. “Designer Lin, I’ll drop by to see you sometime.”

She assumed it was just his usual courteous goodbye, but about an hour before quitting time, he actually showed up at her desk.

Chi Ye had been absent from the office all afternoon. It seemed he really had come specifically to see her.

Upon entering, he even introduced himself first. “Designer Lin, although we’ve met a few times, we’ve never been properly introduced before. I’m Qin Lang, the head of the tech department here. I’m also the captain of the company’s rugby team, the Lone Wolves.”

“Oh, I know about you,” Lin Yuran smiled. “I’ve seen your posters around.”

Qin Lang wasn’t surprised. The company had put up plenty of his posters. He chuckled, “Actually, Chi Ye and I are childhood friends. We went to the same school from elementary all the way to… I think it was our first year of high school.”

No wonder.

Every time she heard Qin Lang call Chi Ye by his full name, Lin Yuran was puzzled. In this company, few people dared to call the boss by name.

Qin Lang continued, “If not for Chi Ye transferring suddenly midway through our first year of high school, we would’ve been high school classmates too. I don’t know what got into Chi Ye back in our first year of high school. His family had arranged for him to graduate from an international high school and follow the easy path of studying abroad, but he refused. Instead, he insisted on getting into Jinxue Third High School. To get in, he worked really hard, practically to the point of extreme measures.”

In Lin Yuran’s experience, Chi Ye was indeed a diligent and ambitious learner. She found Qin Lang’s words unsurprising. After all, anyone who loved learning would want to get into Jinxue Third High School.

Lin Yuran agreed, “Our school is pretty hard to get into.”

Qin Lang’s eyes lit up. “I knew it! I had this feeling I’d seen you before. So you and Chi Ye are high school classmates?”

“Yep, we were in the same class.”

“I get it now,” Qin Lang said. “There’s no doubt about it. In high school, I saw you at Chi Ye’s internet café, staying up all night with him.”

‘Chi Ye’s internet café.’ 

Lin Yuran accurately captured these words. 

“Chi Ye’s internet café?” Lin Yuran echoed, puzzled.

Footsteps approached from outside, interrupting their conversation.

Chi Ye strode in, and when he saw Qin Lang, he asked grumpily, “What are you doing here?”

“Does that even need to be asked? I’m obviously not here to see you,” Qin Lang snarked, his lips curling into a smirk.

Then he draped an arm over Chi Ye’s shoulders and continued his chat with Lin Yuran as if nothing had happened. “That’s right. The internet café next to your school, Dream Net, was bought out by Chi Ye at the end of your first year of high school.”

“Young Master Chi sure is spoiled,” Qin Lang added with a shake of his head. “He couldn’t find a café with the right look for browsing the web, so he simply paid a high price to buy it himself and have it renovated. Talk about extravagant!”

Lin Yuran recalled how, during her first year of high school, she’d often been forced to sneak out late at night. To save money, she’d spend those all-nighters in internet cafés, and each time she’d run into Chi Ye.