desolate

The aftermath of a hangover is often waking up with a bursting headache.

A bachelor's house is always messy, and Pei has no time to tidy it up. Rather than calling it a home, a hotel seems more appropriate.

The clothes from the previous night were still on, and the quilt smelled of alcohol, Pei also got out of it, and took out his mobile phone under the pillow.

There are still several unread messages on the lock screen, some for work and some for personal. After replying to the work messages one by one, he switched to the private account, and at a glance he saw that there was an unread message for the pinned contact, and the little red dot was on it. Embedded in the upper right corner of the avatar.

His heart skipped a beat, but the next second he saw the content of the message was […? 】The heart that just floated up sank heavily.

Pei also remembered that once on the road, he saw a back that was very similar to Zhou Ze. In fact, he could go up to find out, but he followed him all the way like an idiot. In the end, it turned out that he was wrong.

During that period of time, he was frustrated many times and felt that he had long been numb, but he still felt great discomfort that time.

Maybe it was the realization that I would never see that person again—no matter how hard I tried, there was nothing I could do.

He got so drunk that night that he slept through the day, waking up forgetting why he had been drinking the night before.It was also from that day on that he suddenly developed the habit of pretending to be Zhou Ze and sending himself WeChat messages.

Compared with countless disappointments, he is more afraid that he will succumb to this emotion one day, so he would rather remind himself again and again.

He casually replied "Morning", then turned off his phone and got up to take a shower.

On the way to the company, Pei Ye handled work on the phone while driving. He didn't feel empty in his stomach until he got on the elevator, but seeing that he was about to reach the door, he turned his head and suppressed the thought of having breakfast.

This year is Pei Yeban's fourth year of starting a business. The company is engaged in technology research and development of new energy vehicles. Chen Erxi's brother, Chen Erchao, used to stay in a well-known domestic factory. Later, he felt that there was no future, so he took a few friends to work on his own. It was about the same time when he came out to do it alone, he and Wang Yihua joined in.

If the R&D is not enough, we will find customers and attract investment. From scratch, we have suffered countless rejections. Until now, the company has finally entered the right track and developed steadily.

They just moved from the former suburban residential building to the current office building last month, and everyone in the company is busy with their feet on the ground.

As soon as Pei Ye returned to the office, he quickly found a piece of candy to eat to suppress the uncomfortable hunger.

"Pei..." Wang Yihua also just arrived at the company, and saw him chewing candy when he entered the door, "Have you not eaten?"

Pei Ye was flipping through the documents and said concisely, "I forgot."

"You can forget your meal? Wait... Xige said he was coming to get the pair of walnuts, and I asked him to bring you a bowl of noodles downstairs."

"If you don't eat a meal, you won't starve to death."

"The last time I went to the hospital with stomach bleeding, the doctor told me to pay attention to it. If you keep doing this, you will have stomach cancer next time you go to the hospital."

"It's better for you to curse me less than anything else."

Wang Yihua went outside the office to call someone.After about half an hour, he and Chen Erxi opened the door together.

A bowl of hot beef noodles was placed in front of Pei Ye.

"Eat it, eat it, and read it later." Wang Yihua put the document aside and complained, "I'm really your fucking secretary, so hurry up and get rid of Xiao Liu."

"Okay, Hua Tsai, you may be the only one in the company who took the initiative to raise and lower wages. I will resign Xiao Liu now, and you will join the job immediately."

"Go away." Wang Yihua waved his hand in disgust, sat on the sofa by the wall and started a game, "...By the way, Brother Xi, what party did you go to yesterday..."

"My master's [-]th birthday."

"Oh yes, birthday party!" Wang Yihua said absent-mindedly, "How is it? Is it fun?"

Chen Erxi took it for granted, "All his friends went, what's so interesting about a group of uncles—you might as well ask my sister, she has returned to China recently."

Wang Yihua looked over: "Sister Wan Wan is back?"

Just as she was talking about her, a call came in, and Chen Erxi handed over the phone: "Here, just in time, she's calling."

Wang Yihua gave him a knowing look, and then answered the phone: "Hey~ Sister Wanwan...Who am I? I am your brother Yihua! You are too hurtful, why go out and read a book, Even I forgot..."

However, Pei also thought he was too noisy, so he quickly asked Chen Erxi to kick him out so that he could handle work by himself.He missed two meetings in the morning, Xiao Liu came in and quickly summarized the content of the meeting, and then checked the work itinerary for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

Xiao Liu spittled and talked for a long time, and suddenly found that the noodles placed behind the file rack seemed to have only eaten two mouthfuls, so he stopped embarrassedly: "...Mr. Pei, why don't you finish your meal before you go to work? Bar?"

Pei Ye didn't raise his head, and waved his hand to signal him to continue.

The boss is a workaholic, and his subordinates have no choice but to love and work hard. Xiao Liu explained the rest of the work schedule and left with a bunch of instructions.

Outside the office, the female employee who was waiting to hand over work saw him come out and poked her head curiously.

She just joined the job two days ago, and she is not familiar with Pei: "Brother Liu, the front desk just brought a bunch of milk tea, I heard that Mr. Pei ordered it?"

"Yes, there are often rewards for you."

"Ah~ Boss Pei is too kind!" The female employee laughed, "Does he have a girlfriend?"

Xiao Liu gave her a sharp look: "Don't gossip, work hard, and be careful not to offend the boss."

The female employee didn't believe in evil, and muttered: "How could it be..."

Although Pei Ye usually doesn't spend much time in the company, the employees have a good impression of him.

Not only are all kinds of milk tea snacks packaged round, but also various employee benefits from time to time. It is said that he remembers the basic information of each employee in the company, including cleaning, such as where is his hometown or family situation, and he will never be unable to call out his name when he meets In terms of the situation and various details, it can be said that he is not one of the most popular leaders in the entire company.

However, as his secretary and assistant, Xiao Liu knew in his heart that these were the boss's tactics to win people's hearts, and the effect was visible to the naked eye.

So apart from a few verbal warnings, he didn't say much.

On the other side, after the conversation between Wang Yihua and Chen Erwan, their faces were full of joy, and they pushed open the door of the office while holding their mobile phones.

"Brother Xi, what does your sister like to eat? I'll treat her to dinner tonight."

"……I have no idea."

Wang Yihua clicked his tongue and ordered a restaurant with his mobile phone: "You are an older brother and you don't even know this... Hey, is this... a photo of you yesterday?"

"what?"

Chen Erxi put down the walnut in her hand and looked over.

Wang Yihua pointed to the two young men and women in the corner of the group photo: "Didn't you say that they are both uncles? Who are they? They look familiar."

When taking pictures, the people above were sitting around a dining table, his fingers slid across a man and a woman, and stopped for two seconds as he passed the man.

Chen Erxi introduced one by one: "She is my master's daughter, and the one next to her is a young sculpture artist who just came back from abroad to hold an exhibition. He and my master have been friends for years... Do you know them?"

Wang Yihua scratched his head: "Where did I know the artist, maybe I made a mistake."

"What are you looking at?"

On the other side, Pei Ye had just packed up the materials and left the desk. He listened to the two of them when he passed by, and then asked casually.

Wang Yihua stood up: "Oh, it's nothing, are you going out?"

"Well, go have a meal with investors."

"Then what, Brother Pei, I don't have to go, right? I have a late night appointment." Wang Yihua winked at him.

"Promise." Pei Ye waved his hand, "Don't play too late, there are things tomorrow."

"Okay Brother Pei!"

Watching Pei Ye's back disappear, Wang Yihua suddenly poked Chen Erxi with his elbow.

"what?"

"Let's have dinner with your sister tonight."

"Why, can you go by yourself?"

"..."

Wang Yihua was silent for a long time, and under Chen Erxi's puzzled gaze, he confessed coyly: "Your sister said that she has an appointment with some classmates, so I told her...you go too... "

"?"

This is a bad thing.

Although reluctant, Chen Erxi was dragged to Lanqu Waterside Pavilion.

The restaurant specializing in Jiangnan cuisine is built according to the Soviet-style garden, and the decoration is simple and quiet. The box Chen Erwan ordered is in the backyard. Walking through a narrow corridor, you can see a small door with a wooden sign on it. With the word "Meiyuan".

The waiter who led the way sent them to the door.

"Sister Wanwan, we're not late...are we?" Wang Yihua pushed the door open, and the sweetheart he thought he would see, turned out to be a strange man.

He was wearing a dark sweater that was a bit hot for the weather now. The clothes were a bit bulky, making him too thin, but this didn't show on his face.

...Maybe it's because of that impatient expression.

Alarm bells were ringing in his heart, and he tentatively said, "Who are you?"

"I……"

As soon as the man opened his mouth, there was a sound of footsteps at the door.

"Brother, Hua Tsai, are you really here? Fortunately, I will pick someone up." Chen Erwan came back from outside with a few friends.

Chen Erxi looked at Wang Yihua, who greeted with a smile: "Hi, sister Wanwan, do you miss me?"

"Hi." Chen Erwan had long been used to his indecent appearance, and only thought he was farting, "Go in first."

It happened that there was a new pot of hot tea in the room, so Wang Yihua took the opportunity to pour the tea and sat next to Chen Erwan, and by the way, pointed to the person diagonally opposite with his eyes.

"Sister, why didn't your classmates introduce you to your brothers?"

"What did my classmate introduce to you?"

"I care about you."

"Thank you, no need!"

"Okay, okay." Wang Yihua shrugged, didn't care, turned his head and took out the cigarette case, paused, and looked at the man at the corner of the table, "Brother, do you smoke?"

Chen Erwan was startled: "Senior, ignore him..."

Unexpectedly, the man nodded slightly and agreed.

Wang Yihua hesitated for a moment, and waved: "...then let's go."

Autumn has recently entered, the temperature difference between day and night is large, and when the wind blows, the single clothes during the day are not enough at this time.

After the two came out, they walked to the corner, avoiding the wind and the light.

Wang Yihua handed the other party a cigarette, then lit another one for himself, and conveniently stuffed the lighter into his pocket, but when he turned around, he found that the other person hadn't moved for a long time.

"What's wrong?"

"fire."

"You... forget it."

Wang Yihua had no choice but to hand him the lighter, but the man lowered his head slightly with the cigarette in his hand, intending to let him light it.

"..."

The flames sprang up uneasily, and the orange-red light illuminated the man's face, forming a contrast with the dark green bamboo grove beside him. When it was bright and then dark, the firelight drew a circle of clearly defined territory.

Wang Yihua looked at his eyebrows and eyes silently, complaining in his heart that he was pretending, and at the same time felt that he looked familiar.

So he joked: "Smoking doesn't bring fire?"

The man held the cigarette lightly in his hand, his knuckles were pale and distinct, and his tone was light: "...I don't usually smoke."

This sentence seems to be an explanation, but it is too simple, so it is more like a perfunctory explanation.

People came and went with Pei Ye, drank a lot of wine and ate a lot of food, and Wang Yihua was considered a good person, and he could tell at a glance that the other party didn't really want to talk to him.

So Wang Yihua was very sensible and didn't speak any more, the two of them went back to the private room after smoking in silence.