The following afternoon, Shen Miaomiao came into the company late, sporting a pair of dark circles.
She'd worked past midnight the night before, then tossed and turned at home over Lu Chen's jacket. As a result, she'd almost overslept that morning, had no time for breakfast, and only managed to clock in on time by sprinting the whole way.
“Miaomiao, what time did you leave yesterday? You look awful.” Seeing her, Lin Xiaotong handed over a hot cocoa. “Here, I brought you this. Put a little color back in your cheeks.”
“Thanks, Xiaotong. You're a lifesaver.” Shen Miaomiao accepted the cocoa, nearly moved to tears. “Past midnight. I'm exhausted.”
“Past midnight? That late!” Lin Xiaotong's eyes widened. “Mr. Lu's brutal. But...” She leaned closer and lowered her voice. “I heard he left late too, and you were the one who switched off the office lights when he left?”
Shen Miaomiao's hand shook, nearly spilling her cocoa. “H-how do you know?”
“The cleaner told me. She said you and Mr. Lu were the last two to leave.” Lin Xiaotong waggled her eyebrows. “You two... there's nothing going on, is there?”
“Going on, my foot!” Shen Miaomiao blushed and hastily denied it. “I was staying late to write. He was staying late to review manuscripts. We both happened to leave late! Don't get ideas!”
“All right, all right. No ideas.” Lin Xiaotong waved with a smile and returned to her workstation.
Shen Miaomiao patted her hot cheeks and warned herself inwardly: Calm down, Shen Miaomiao! It was just a jacket! Just a bowl of sweet taro-ball soup! Coincidence! Coincidence!
She took a deep breath, opened her computer, and prepared to keep revising Chapter Six.
Fate, however, clearly had no intention of letting her write in peace.
She'd barely returned to her workstation when Manager Zhang, the head of marketing, marched over with a coffee and slapped her desk hard.
Bang. Even the pens on the desk jumped.
Everyone in the open-plan office looked up at the noise.
“Ms. Shen, you need to change the outline of this contemporary romance, Never Dated, Now Writing Romance!” Manager Zhang boomed, putting on an air of superior expertise. “Our latest market research shows readers want big, dramatic twists! All this delicate romantic tension and office flirting is too lukewarm! You need amnesia, a car accident, and feuds between wealthy families. Otherwise, how are we supposed to promote it in short videos?”
Spit flew as he spoke, his finger almost poking Shen Miaomiao in the face. Several interns passing by were too frightened to make a sound. Lin Xiaotong frowned nearby, wanting to help, but Manager Zhang's position kept her rooted to the spot.
Shen Miaomiao looked at his fleshy face and ground her teeth. Amnesia and car accidents? Then all the everyday realism she'd painstakingly studied with L over the past few days would go straight down the drain!
She'd spent an entire week getting some grasp of the delicate push and pull between two people at work who were feeling each other out. She'd finally produced something, and Manager Zhang wanted to overturn it all with a sentence?
Her brain instantly switched into historical martial-arts hero mode.
“This man comes with hostile intent. First courtesy, then force! If he insists on cornering me, I shall wield ‘authorial intent’ as my sword and ‘the readers' core needs’ as my shield, and battle him for three hundred rounds!”
“If he cites market data, I'll tell him content is king. If he talks short-video promotion, I'll talk the long tail. If he slaps the desk, I'll... I'll slap it too! Who's afraid of whom?!”
The more she thought, the more fired up she became. She was already rehearsing all three hundred rounds in her head. Drawing a deep breath, she raised her chin and opened her mouth, ready to proclaim, “Stay thy hand, Manager Zhang—”
“Manager Zhang.”
An icy voice suddenly came from behind her, forcing every martial-arts phrase in her stomach straight back down her throat.
The entire office fell silent.
Holding a document, Lu Chen had appeared behind her without anyone noticing. His eyes behind his gold-rimmed glasses held no warmth as he looked coolly at Manager Zhang. The chill around him made people afraid to breathe.
When had he arrived?!
Startled, Shen Miaomiao turned and found Lu Chen standing right behind her, close enough for her to catch the faint woody fragrance on him. Her heart instantly skipped a beat. Half the righteous fury she'd been building cooled on the spot.
“The direction of the project and the outline were settled by the editorial department when the contract was signed.” Lu Chen's voice wasn't loud, but each word was clear enough for the whole office to hear. “If marketing has promotional suggestions, submit a formal report to my office. Don't stand at a workstation arguing with my authors.”
Manager Zhang went pale. Tiny beads of sweat formed on his forehead. So arrogant a moment ago, he now trembled beneath Lu Chen's presence. “M-Mr. Lu, we're only thinking of the market data... The short-video promotion plan is already done. It needs these dramatic hooks to support it...”
“I approved her outline. If you want changes, come to me.” Lu Chen interrupted him, his calm voice carrying unshakable authority. “Don't let me see you harassing the editorial department's authors again.”
As he spoke, he gave Manager Zhang a brief look. That single glance felt like an icicle stabbing him. His back was instantly damp.
“Yes! Yes, understood, Mr. Lu! Sorry to bother you, Ms. Shen!” Manager Zhang hastily forced a smile and slunk off with his coffee, leaving so quickly he nearly hit the wall at the corner.
The office stayed silent for three seconds before hushed whispers began.
“Wow... Mr. Lu was so cool!”
“Finally, someone put that arrogant Manager Zhang in his place!”
“I've never seen Mr. Lu so angry... Though he didn't really look angry. It was just terrifying!”
Mouth open, Shen Miaomiao stared at Lu Chen. Every grand declaration she'd prepared had been swallowed. She felt as though she'd been frozen in place.
She'd expected to fight Manager Zhang for three hundred rounds. Lu Chen had appeared and dispatched him in three sentences.
Was this... overwhelming strength?
Lu Chen lowered his head and glanced at her, his gaze lingering for a second on her stunned little face. He casually set an unopened bottle of water on her desk and said, “Don't argue with people. Anger wastes inspiration.”
Then he strode away, his expression barely changing from beginning to end, as if protecting her from that confrontation had taken no effort at all.
Shen Miaomiao looked at the bottle of water and remembered the commanding “If you want changes, come to me” he'd delivered while standing in front of her. Her face turned as red as a ripe tomato.
“Miaomiao...” Lin Xiaotong leaned over, eyes sparkling with gossip. “Mr. Lu... does he like you?”
“Like me, my foot!” Shen Miaomiao hurried to deny it, though her voice lacked conviction. “He's just... just following the rules! He said it himself. The outline was approved by editorial. Marketing can't change it however they like! It has nothing to do with me!”
“Ohhh...” Lin Xiaotong drew the word out, wearing an I-get-it expression. “Nothing to do with youuu...”
“Stop getting ideas!” Shen Miaomiao buried her face in her hands so nobody could see her burning cheeks.
But... the sight of Lu Chen standing in front of her had made her feel so safe.
That sense of “You don't have to step forward; I'll shield you” was something she'd never experienced in twenty-six years.
That evening, Shen Miaomiao couldn't wait to tell L about it on WeChat.
[Anonymous User 9527]: Longtime fan! Guess what! Devil Lu actually shielded me from marketing today! He said, “I approved her outline. If you want changes, come to me.” So cool, seriously, but I kept expecting his next line to be “This woman is under my protection”!
[L]: Your editor-in-chief seems to follow the rules. He shielded you because the outline really had been approved. It wasn't about you personally.
In his study, Lu Chen looked at what he'd typed and curved his lips into a sly smile. Inwardly, he thought: Of course it was about you. Otherwise, I couldn't have been bothered to meddle in marketing's affairs.
He'd been going to the pantry for water when he passed through the open-plan office and saw Manager Zhang slapping her desk and arguing. The girl stood there, cheeks puffed with fury, looking ready to fight for her life.
He'd gone over almost without thinking.
[L]: You don't actually have to shoulder everything yourself. If someone's willing to shield you, let them. Also... were you about to negotiate with him using your historical-fiction logic again?
Shen Miaomiao's hand shook so hard she nearly dropped her phone!
[Anonymous User 9527]: H-how do you know?! Have you put another chip in my brain?!
She really had rehearsed “courtesy before force” and “three hundred rounds of battle” in her head. She'd even prepared her lines! How did L know?!
[L]: You told me before that you're used to writing historical fiction, and when conflict comes up, your first thought is the “rules of the martial world.” It's not hard to guess.
Staring at the chat, Shen Miaomiao nodded, half convinced. But the cloud of suspicion inside her kept growing like a snowball.
Why did L understand her way of thinking so precisely?
Looking back over the time she'd known him, he always seemed able to guess exactly what she was thinking, what she would do, and how she would first react to any situation.
Surely that understanding went beyond an ordinary online acquaintance?
Clutching her phone, Shen Miaomiao tossed and turned in bed, her mind a mess.
In the end, she persuaded herself with that all-purpose line: “I must talk too much and tell him everything. That's why he knows me so well! Yes! That must be it!”
Having convinced herself, she finally closed her eyes in peace.
For some reason, though, just before sleep, she saw Lu Chen's back again as he'd stood in front of her that afternoon.
And the bottle of water he'd left on her desk.