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It was never Li Dong’s to meet Xingling when he came to the company today. Han Yubai majored in finance in college, so it was true what Wang Yun had said about him knowing nothing about design.

But Li Dong had majored in Chinese, so he knew nothing Yubai was supposed to know about finance.

Therefore, choosing between working with either Tianlin or Wang Yun, he would much rather work with Wang Yun. But also, if he worked with Tianlin, wouldn’t that just be giving Xingling more chances to meet Tianlin?

Now, being a part of this novel, the scenario that Li Dong dreads the most is Xu Xingling continuing to degrade himself. Although in the original novel he did eventually have a happy ending with Tianlin and was married to him, the storyline that got them there really was inhumane.

No normal person would be able to accept nor witness this kind of morally debilitating relationship. If you are not reading from readerfeedertranslation.blogspot.com, this work was stolen.

Seeing that Li Dong was no longer trying to drive him away, Xu Xingling followed behind him step for step, his demeanor filled with flattery and a want for intimacy. “Second Young Master, don’t you think my face has healed a lot since last night?” He had put in a lot of effort icing the swelling the whole night and then applying sheet masks and massaging his face. When he got up this morning and checked in the mirror, he found that the swelling had actually gone down quite a bit.

“Not bad.” Li Dong took a perfunctory look and saw only collagen-rich skin. He had to admit, this foolish protagonist really was incredibly attractive: his skin was white and delicate, his facial features well-defined and beautiful, his personality naturally flirty; his only downfall was that he acted way too lowly and submissive and had a distorted perspective on love. Not being able to hold his tongue, Li Dong asked: “Do you let just anyone slap you?”

Xu Xingling was a bit stunned by the sudden inquiry, retorting, “Of course not! But the person who slapped me was Eldest Young Master, so of course I was willing to take the hit!

“But Second Young Master slapping me is also okay,” Xingling added belatedly, as if afraid of inciting Li Dong’s anger.

“Pft, I don’t even want to put in the effort to slap you.” So cheap!

“Oh, Young Master has a pretty calm temperament!” Xingling said seriously. He then sped up his walking slightly faster to move two steps closer to Li Dong, and felt very satisfied once they were closer.

Staying close to Second Young Master, he finally didn’t have to suffer and pine over his love all day. It really was a liberating feeling.

Li Dong had tried to get rid of Xingling several times, but he just would not go away. So Li Dong just rolled his eyes and accepted Xingling’s clinginess and lack of sense for personal space. But he had to ask: “Don’t you like my big brother? Why do you insist on trying to seduce me? Are you not afraid of Tianlin thinking you’re dirty?”

Xingling was not bothered by this. “It was Eldest Young Master who ordered me to serve you well.” to Xingling, Tianlin’s command is comparable to an imperial edict. Even if he had to crawl on his hands and knees to achieve it, he would still do it.

“Hoo…” Li Dong was willing to turn his head to look at the flies landing on the glass windows, but he was not willing to even glance at the lowly man next to the door.

Li Dong let Xingling accompany him for half an hour, but then he ordered him to go back to work.

When it reached noon, Li Dong went to Wang Yun’s office to wait for her to get off work. If you are not reading from readerfeedertranslation.blogspot.com, this work was stolen.

“I want to discuss something with Mr. Zhang. Sit for a while. Read some books or have a drink.” Wang Yun waved to her secretary. “Lila, make a cup of tea for Second Young Master.”

“If you’re busy, then there’s no need to worry about me.” Li Dong sat down and crossed his legs. He reached for a jewelry magazine and began to flip through it leisurely.

The jewels displayed were all priceless. Before, Li Dong could only read about them in magazines, but now, it seems as if he could get it as long as he wants it?

But being frank, Li Dong really didn’t feel as if his situation was real right now, and he also didn’t really have greed for wearing golds or silvers.

“Come in,” Wang Yun called as she looked up at the door.

Designer Zhang, the director of this jewelry collection, walked in with Xingling, her assistant, tailing her.

When the director reported to Wang Yun, Xingling merely stood behind her and listened. Generally speaking, if he is not called up to answer a question, he should not interrupt without question.

“Xingling, you’ve been at the company for a while now, are you accustomed yet?” Wang Yun seldomly communicates with her employees as her time is too tight, but Xu Xingling is a young man whom Wang Yun is very optimistic about and who impressed her very much.

Yet the young man being questioned was more concerned about the man sitting on the sofa to the side, reading a magazine. He felt as if his nonchalant yet confident posture was very reminiscent of another particular sweetheart of his.

“Xingling?” Designer Zhang quietly called him.

“Huh?” Xingling finally recovered, his face suddenly flushing with embarrassment. With his ears tipped red, he answered, “General manager, my apologies, I was just a bit absentminded.” His direct apology made Wang Yun feel very tolerant; he was at least an honest man. Xingling continued, “After more than two months at this company, I feel very inspired here. Being here really places me in a good mindset.”

Wang Yun: “It’s good to be inspired.  I hope you can maintain this.”

She then peeked at Li Dong’s figure at the side of the room, and sure enough, he was eye-catching even just sitting there. She smiled at Xingling. “Two months have passed so fast. How time flies. Starting next month, you will be an official full-time designer, and your monthly salary will be increased to twenty thousand. Is this satisfactory?”

Xingling nodded. “Thank you, general manager! I feel very satisfied.” He bowed gratefully and thought about how he could rent a house much closer to the city center with a salary of twenty thousand yuan per month.

It would be more convenient to find Second Young Master Han this way.

“Work hard with Director Zhang, and there will be many opportunities for you once this collection is complete.” Wang Yun gave Xingling a bit of encouragement, and then took a look at her watch. “Well, it’s time for lunch, so go do as you’d like.”

Director Zhang immediately stood and sensibly said her goodbyes.

Xingling was not qualified to sit at this meeting, and had been standing for all this time. After bowing to Wang Yun, he glanced over at Li Dong from the corner of his eye once more, and was particularly slow to leave. How he hoped that Li Dong’s eyes would leave the magazine and look at himself even just momentarily.

But unfortunately for him, Li Dong never even looked at him once from the beginning of the meeting to the end.

It’s not that Li Dong never noticed Xu XIngling; he just deliberately did not want to look at him. Li Dong did not want Xu Xingling, such a stupid and cheap young man, to expose himself in front of Wang Yun.

Losing his job would be the least of his worries then; Wang Yun could easily block Xingling from the entire industry.

“Yubai, let’s go and have lunch together.” Wang Yun picked up her coat and let her son hold her bag as she put it on.

Xingling was peeping at this scene and was too jealous to walk away. He also wants to have lunch with Second Young Master and talk and laugh intimately with him… he wants to so badly.

So while watching Li Dong and Wang Yun walk out together, his heart was in pain, but in the end, he could only watch uncomfortably and feel sad for himself.

“Xingling, what are you doing standing in the middle of the walkway?” A hand landed on Xingling’s shoulder. It was his colleague, Xia Bolun, who had joined the company at almost the same time as him. “Should we go have lunch together?”

Because they joined the company together, their relationship is very good, and so XIngling did not refuse his offer. “Let’s go.” Unless he was facing the Han brothers, Xingling was actually quite normal and collected at other times.

When he’s fraternizing with his colleagues and friends, he usually gives off a feeling of being talented and brilliant, someone who’s worth befriending.

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translator’s notes:

heyo! surprise update! i felt really bad about not posting for so long, so i managed to sqeeze out some time and translation something for you guys! hope to see you all next time as well!

also, if you would like to read all current chapters offline, there is a pdf version attached to the toc!

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