As the flash of light streaked by, Duan Mingyuan's action of touching Jiuyue's mouth corner was captured at this moment.
Eventually, Duan Mingyuan agreed to Jiuyue's request.
However, this had nothing to do with the little fox's past or her pitiable appearance, but rather his inability to stand seeing someone eat so messily that food was smeared all around their mouth.
Just as this was happening, another unemployed vagrant among the three arrived.
"Hehe, can I kiss him?"
The person taking photos made the request.
"No, it's not like that..."
"Tang Qianqian, it's you."
Jiuyue and Duan Mingyuan spoke at the same time.
He felt that sometimes the world was like people's critiques of novels, unexpected yet also making perfect sense.
She had resigned just a day ago, was an unemployed bum, and liked cats.
Jiuyue said the monster assigned to her was her batchmate, a Li Hua cat spirit.
Tang Qianqian, whose name too had made remarkable contributions to modern Life Energy science, might not have kept him back to amend the reports Tang Qianqian had been working on if she had not processed her resignation that day, which resulted in him working overtime till nearly 11 p.m.
He wouldn't have missed his favorite bread, wouldn't have encountered a downpour on the way, and of course, wouldn't have met the evil spirit embodied by Mr. Lu San's consciousness on his way home.
Modern life science might have possibly stopped progressing right there.
"Sen—ior—!"
This call to 'senior' was packed with such heart-wrenching emotion it was as if she wanted to vent all the grievances in her heart. If a clueless passerby heard it, they might think this young girl dressed in a cartoon cat hoodie had encountered some great misfortune in her life, but Duan Mingyuan, being in the know, was aware that she just took a day off at home after resigning.
Jiuyue was intimidated by Tang Qianqian's aura, and at this moment, her hands, which had been tangled by crispy chicken drumsticks, regained their freedom. Holding the part near the claw, she used the picked-clean bone as a weapon, pointing it toward Tang Qianqian.
No wonder some people refer to this type of drumstick as a 'pistol leg.'
"I'd advise you not to lay a finger on me; whatever you have to say, say it from over there."
The little fox's eyes were fierce, and she bared her teeth as if she was guarding her food.
Although Tang Qianqian was still several steps away from Mr. Mingyuan, that didn't mean this pitiful-acting woman wouldn't quickly close in on them, and then, just like in the TV dramas, throw herself into Mr. Mingyuan's arms with snot and tears.
Hmph, surely she was just putting on an act.
As an expert in playing dumb, Jiuyue's ability to judge was exceptionally outstanding.
"Eh? Why is your accompanying spirit in human form?"
Tang Qianqian's long-prepared pitiful act was interrupted; she curiously shifted a step to the left, followed by an unusually large Li Hua cat, even bigger than Jiuyue in the photo by another size.
She looked down for a while and then asked the Li Hua cat the soul-searching question, "Can you transform?"
"No, I'm different from her; she was shape-shifting from birth..."
The Li Hua cat looked up at Jiuyue, "Jiuyue, you've become so emotional just after a few days."
The course for accompanying spirits even included lessons on emotional management.
Jiuyue, still upset, warned the other, "Li Hua, keep your bound partner in check."
"So you're the Miss September that Li Hua mentioned."
Tang Qianqian suddenly realized, "But you can rest assured, I, Tang Qianqian, am a dedicated warrior of pure love."
To show her sincerity, she directly sat at the next table and gestured to the Li Hua cat, who agilely leapt onto her knees.
She admitted that she indeed harbored unusual feelings for Duan Mingyuan, but those were of admiration for an elder father figure.
Jiuyue still didn't let her guard down, "What is your relationship with Mr. Mingyuan?"
"What relationship? When I interned at the department, it was the senior who took me under his wing. If I have to describe it... well, I was raised by the senior with all the mess that comes with it."
He helped her transition from a newcomer fresh out of school to someone who understood all the rules and perils of the workplace.
Wherever her mentor was, she felt safe, even now when her current job had her face a vicious evil spirit.
Compared to Tang Qianqian, who was ecstatic after seeing Duan Mingyuan, his heart was also stirred.
If he were to sum up his feelings for this junior in a single sentence...
Tang Qianqian, you DAMN!
Unfortunately, it was not appropriate to curse in the workplace, and Duan Mingyuan didn't get the chance to express these bottled-up words until the day Tang Qianqian resigned.
He thought it wasn't an exaggeration to describe this girl as a workplace nightmare.
Tang Qianqian possessed a combination of poor qualities: a lack of focus on her work, a fondness for slacking off, slow learning, and the tendency to chat with people during work hours. In a game, she would be an entity saddled with four negative attributes.
But Tang Qianqian's horrors didn't stop there.
Duan Mingyuan would never forget that afternoon when he forwarded the chat history from the group to Tang Qianqian, asking her to print out the spreadsheet and take it to the department head's office, only for this girl to also print out the Shiba Inu emoji that was in the chat history.
As a result, the department head called him and Tang Qianqian into his office, pointing at the last page with a smirking cartoon Shiba Inu and demanding to know what the heck it was.
Tang Qianqian's performance was consistently stable.
The number displayed on the energy measurer was "1," considered lower than Da Jiang.
It seemed like everything had gone back to the beginning, when the department head brought an intern with clear eyes to him and said, "This is little Tang, you take charge of her."
Duan Mingyuan held his forehead, seeing darkness before his eyes.
But Tang Qianqian took pride instead of shame, elaborating with exaggeration the tales of her time in the workplace with her mentor to Jiuyue, naturally including her brilliant feat of printing out the cartoon Shiba Inu emoji in the report for the department head's office.
Jiuyue listened very carefully, but her feelings were mixed.
On one hand, Tang Qianqian's vivid storytelling gradually lowered her defenses, but on the other hand, she realized that Tang Qianqian was definitely a dangerous person, a classic example of a workplace disaster.
Tang Qianqian, you DAMN!
That was Jiuyue's impression after listening.
Fatherly love is as high as a mountain!
She finally understood why Tang Qianqian said she was raised by Mr. Mingyuan with all the mess that comes with it.
Without this profound fatherly love, this person would have been beaten to death several times over.
Then, Tang Qianqian proudly discussed the reason she quit, "I only decided to leave my job after hearing from Li Hua that this job doesn't require office attendance, offers ample free time, and it's even possible to get a paid leave for a whole month if it's not too busy. My greatest life goal is to find a place where I can slack off and wait for death, with the hobby of lying at home."
This laid-back workplace atmosphere was undoubtedly the job of her dreams.
"I really didn't expect you to switch careers and do this too, senior."
It was only then that Tang Qianqian remembered her initial worry, "Do you think we might have been scammed? Li Hua said we each had a monthly claim limit of 5000 Bei, but the claims it submitted to the liaison officer the other day have all vanished without a trace..."
This inevitably made her think of those classic scenarios.
The company goes bankrupt, the boss runs off with his mistress, or perhaps this was all a ruse by the company to trick new employees with false promises from the start.
"It's not as bad as you think, the liaison officer hasn't run off," Duan Mingyuan steadied himself and began to explain on behalf of Comrade Da Jiang, "The only reason he didn't have time to reply to you guys is because he got taken out."