"I went to the Document Control Center to find you just now, but I couldn't find you. I thought something had happened to you, and I was so scared!"
"I'm fine. Lina took good care of me," Lin Tianran replied.
"Thank you, Lina." Li Yicheng smiled appreciatively at Lina.
"This... this is what I should do," Lina said, her gaze uncertain as she noticed the two men huddled together.
"Cough, cough," Yao Wang, who was not far away, purposely coughed twice.
When Lin Tianran saw Yao Wang, he quickly jumped out of Li Yicheng's arms, and Li Yicheng began to tidy up his appearance in a nonchalant manner. He had been quite disheveled just a moment ago, and he could say that he had never looked so disheveled before.
"President Yao." The person they had been waiting for today had finally arrived. Lin Tianran automatically walked over to him. He was still waiting for this big shot to assign him some work.
"?" Li Yicheng still didn't know that his little treasure was now a member of the Marketing Department, and he had a puzzled expression on his face.
"The fire drill is over, right?" Yao Wang seemed proud of Li Yicheng's bewildered look. He winked at Lin Tianran and said, "Then come back with me to the Marketing Department."
"Oh, okay." Lin Tianran obediently followed Yao Wang's lead and waved goodbye to Li Yicheng. "I'll be going now, President Li."
"What's going on?" Li Yicheng thought he must have misheard. Could it be that his ears were affected by the smoke from the fire drill? Why did Lin Tianran go to the Marketing Department? Wasn't he supposed to stay in the Document Control Center?
"Don't you know, Lin Tianran is now our assistant in the Marketing Department," Yao Wang answered Li Yicheng with a mischievous expression.
"When did this happen?" Li Yicheng was even more puzzled. "Little Tian, why didn't you tell me?"
"I..." Lin Tianran scratched his head and looked innocent. "I just joined the Marketing Department today. I was planning to tell you when I had the chance, but I didn't get the opportunity."
"President Li, I did ask you about this, didn't I? You're not going back on your word, are you?" Yao Wang playfully brought up the facts, knowing that Li Yicheng wouldn't go back on his gentlemanly behavior.
"..." Li Yicheng finally remembered that there was indeed such a conversation, but at that time, he had only agreed to let Yao Wang transfer an employee without thinking that it would be Lin Tianran.
Li Yicheng felt that something was off, but he couldn't put it into words.
"So, Little Tian, do you really want to learn in the Marketing Department?" Li Yicheng still respected Lin Tianran's opinion. If he was willing to go, what else could he do?
"I want to." Lin Tianran nodded firmly.
"Don't worry, I'm not a wolf or a beast. I won't eat him. I just think he's suitable to be my assistant," Yao Wang replied, taking a step back. "Besides, he can't stay in the Document Control Center forever, can he?"
Li Yicheng thought about it and realized that he was right. His Tian Tian couldn't stay as an insignificant document clerk forever. The position in the Document Control Center was just the first step in his career. He hoped to make Lin Tianran shine and no longer be the bottom-tier workshop employee who could only do manual labor for a meager salary. He had originally planned to arrange this after some time, but it had happened faster than he expected, disrupting his plans.
"Well then, the Marketing Department is also good." Li Yicheng was finally convinced, but he still had some concerns. "But if the work is too tiring or the pressure is too great, you must tell me, okay?"
Lin Tianran nodded, indicating that he understood.
And so, from that day on, Lin Tianran became the assistant to Yao Wang, the director of the Marketing Department.
"Assistant, pour me a glass of water!"
"Assistant, help me organize the sales data from last week. I need it this afternoon!"
"Assistant, call the transportation company and have them send me the latest quotation!"
"Assistant, where's Lina? Bring her to me right now!"
These past few days, Yao Wang had been mercilessly calling out tasks to Lin Tianran from behind the blinds, tasks that kept him incredibly busy. His hands and feet were constantly moving, and compared to the leisurely days in the Document Control Center, he was now twice as fulfilled.
But he was very happy because, through the tasks assigned by Yao Wang, he was exposed to a wide range of interesting things, no longer limited to the cold and monotonous A4 papers he used to handle."
As Yao Wang assigned various tasks to Lin Tianran and handled Li Yicheng's occasional calls, feigning concern about the performance of the Marketing Department, he also secretly listened in and tried to gather information about the performance of his little assistant.
As they got busier, time seemed to fly by. In the blink of an eye, today was his birthday.
Li Yicheng had been eagerly awaiting an international delivery for a week, and it finally arrived on this special day.
Lin Tianran's rarely used second-hand phone rang.
Seeing an unfamiliar number, he hesitated for a moment but decided to answer it.
"Hello?"
"Xiaotian, are you free tonight?" A pleasant voice came from the other end. It was Yuxi, exclusive to him.
"Are you... President Li?"
"I'm Yicheng. Today is your birthday, and I promise to celebrate it with you. You haven't made plans with someone else, have you?" Li Yicheng suddenly asked in a slightly panicked tone.
"No, I haven't," Lin Tianran replied, feeling a bit embarrassed. Deep down, he had been looking forward to this.
"That's great." Li Yicheng smiled. "I'll come to the Marketing Department after work. You sit at your desk and wait for me, okay?"
"Okay," Lin Tianran felt a sweet sensation in his heart. This feeling was something he had never experienced before, perhaps because it was what having a friend felt like.
"Personal phone calls during working hours, hmm?" Another voice came from behind.
Lin Tianran was so startled that he almost dropped his phone. He bit his tongue and turned around.
Sure enough, Yao Wang was looking down at him with a smirk.
"Sorry, President Yao..." Lin Tianran had mentally prepared himself for some punishment. Yao Wang, oh Yao Wang, weren't you usually holed up in your office? Why did you suddenly appear here?
"What should I punish you with?" The devil was online, and Yao Wang's eyes gleamed as he immediately thought of something. "Come inside and clean my office!"
"Okay," Lin Tianran consoled himself. It was just cleaning, not a fine, not a fine, not a fine.
So Lin Tianran picked up the cleaning tools and went inside as quickly as possible.
He diligently swept here and wiped there, completely transforming into a housekeeping maid.
Yao Wang, on the other hand, leisurely handled his business at his desk, occasionally criticizing him.
"There's a hair over there, didn't you see it?"
"There's a speck of dust here, Why haven't you wiped it away yet?"
"Don't use the vacuum cleaner; it's too noisy!"
Lin Tianran maintained a positive attitude, satisfying his complaints as he knew that today was his birthday, and he wouldn't let anything ruin his good mood.
Yao Wang's office was neither too big nor too small, but when it came to cleaning, it was quite labor-intensive. Before long, Lin Tianran had broken into a light sweat, making him feel uncomfortable and sticky all over.
Since it was a bit chilly in the morning, he had put on a thin hoodie over his inner shirt. Now, he decided to take off the hoodie.
Lin Tianran stopped for a moment, grabbed the hem of the outer hoodie with both hands and pulled it upward.
Due to static electricity, the hoodie came off together with his inner shirt, exposing a large expanse of snow-white skin. The unwitting star of this accidental strip show, however, continued to struggle to remove his hoodie.
Yao Wang looked up just in time to witness this breathtaking scene and was almost struck speechless.
A slender waist was tightly covered by porcelain-smooth skin, devoid of any excess fat. The slight indentation down the middle of his back formed the most beautiful lines as he moved.
"Hmm?" Lin Tianran finally removed the hoodie but noticed that Yao Wang was staring at him as if he had been frozen in place.
Poor Lin Tianran didn't understand the meaning behind Yao Wang's gaze, but Yao Wang, at this moment, was looking at him like a wolf eyeing a lamb.
"No, go outside. You're done," Yao Wang finally averted his gaze and turned his head away.
"Okay," Lin Tianran didn't care; he was happy to finish early. He quickly gathered his cleaning supplies and left as fast as he could.
Once he was gone, Yao Wang picked up his water glass and took a big gulp of cold water.
Yao Wang was surprised by his own thoughts. He felt like a wolf who had kept a small animal around for fun without much interest. However, one day, he suddenly discovered that this small animal was, in fact, a plump little lamb, a lamb he could sink his teeth into!
No, no, this kind of thing couldn't be mixed with work! Yao Wang silently repeated his longstanding principles in his mind, methodically driving away the images that had invaded his thoughts.
Finally, it was time to finish work. His colleagues left in pairs, and soon, only he remained in the Marketing Department.
He was waiting for someone, the person who had called him earlier, saying they wanted to celebrate his birthday with him.
He wondered what they had in store for him tonight.
Regardless of what they were going to do, having someone accompany him on his birthday made Lin Tianran feel incredibly happy and warm.
"What are you thinking about?" Lost in thought, a pair of large hands landed on his slender shoulders.
"You're here." Lin Tianran brought his wandering thoughts back and tried to hide the smile that was forming on his lips.
"Little birthday star." Li Yicheng tapped his cheek. "Shall we go?"
"Where are we going?" Lin Tianran couldn't help but ask curiously.
"I won't tell you for now," Li Yicheng teased. He wasn't going to spoil the surprise he had been planning for so long.
"Okay," Lin Tianran pouted. Why was everything so mysterious?
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