CHAPTER 5

Clearing Up

The next morning, Chi Yang arrived at work looking radiant.

The moment Gu Weiwei and Wen Jie saw her, they rushed over to inspect her from head to toe. Chi Yang let herself be spun around by the two of them before finally settling down.

Wen Jie: "Sister Chi, are you still feeling unwell? You scared us half to death."

Gu Weiwei: "Exactly. If we weren't so swamped with that convective weather these past two days, we would have gone to your place to take care of you."

Chi Yang thought they were making a mountain out of a molehill [they were making a fuss over nothing]. She wrapped an arm around each of them and said glibly, "I merely followed Director Gu's orders and rested an extra day. But since I knew you two were missing me terribly, the moment I recovered, I rushed straight back."

Gu Weiwei and Wen Jie exchanged a look and rolled their eyes.

Chi Yang set down her handbag and, remembering the work she hadn't finished on Monday, casually asked Gu Weiwei, "Sister Weiwei, I haven't finished compiling that warning summary. Do you still need it?"

Gu Weiwei's gaze swept past her and she tilted her chin toward Wen Jie behind her, smiling. "Your little apprentice has already volunteered to organize it all for you."

Chi Yang clutched her chest dramatically with both hands and blew a series of exaggerated "kisses" toward Wen Jie.

Wen Jie smiled modestly. "Sister Chi, you're always so good to me. This little bit of work is nothing."

Nine o'clock.

Gu Weiwei stood before the screen in nude high heels, with colorful images and text annotations displayed behind her.

"Dear citizens, hello everyone. I am today's spokesperson, Gu Weiwei.

According to the latest meteorological monitoring data, the severe convective weather system affecting our city has completely moved out of the region. Violent weather phenomena including thunderstorms, short-duration heavy rainfall, and strong winds have all ceased. In the coming days, the weather will gradually clear or become partly cloudy, with temperatures slowly rising.

Citizens are reminded that some road sections may have accumulated water or slippery surfaces due to earlier rainfall. Please slow down when traveling and pay attention to traffic safety. At the same time, please promptly secure outdoor items that may be affected by wind and rain to guard against secondary risks."

Meanwhile, Chi Yang and Wen Jie stood behind the monitors, keeping a close eye on the live feed.

Suddenly, Wen Jie gently nudged Chi Yang's elbow. Following Wen Jie's gaze, Chi Yang looked to her left.

Across a tangle of messy cables, Lu Yunqi stood wearing a light gray polo shirt with a light blue contrast collar, a black belt cinching her waist, and the same amber-brown framed glasses perched on the bridge of her nose. She lingered at the entrance to the studio, occasionally casting glances in their direction.

Chi Yang leaned in and whispered a few words to Wen Jie, then tiptoed toward the door, carefully closing the studio door behind her and leading Lu Yunqi a few steps away.

After waking up that day, she had taken her temperature again, around 37 degrees. She sent it to Lu Yunqi, who replied after a long pause: [ Good. There's food in the kitchen. I'm not sure if it suits your taste, but eat well and rest properly. ]

The next day, Lu Yunqi checked in on Chi Yang every few hours. Though frequent, her tone was neither warm nor cold, as if Chi Yang had merely taken a nap and they had silently retreated back to the "Miss Lu" and "Miss Chi" dynamic.

"Are you still feeling uncomfortable anywhere?" Lu Yunqi noticed that the redness in Chi Yang's eyes was gone, her bright pupils clear and flawless, and felt somewhat reassured.

Chi Yang shook her head. After a moment's pause, she thanked Lu Yunqi sincerely, "Thank you for coming to take care of me. The food that day was delicious."

This was by no means empty politeness. Lu Yunqi's cooking was light and tasty, and among all the dishes Teacher Jiang had brought over, Lu Yunqi had miraculously picked out her favorite, broccoli.

A flicker of delight passed through Lu Yunqi's eyes, but it vanished too quickly, so quickly that even Chi Yang wasn't sure she had seen it at all. In a calm tone, Lu Yunqi said, "I'm glad it suited your taste."

Just as the two stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to say next, Lu Yunqi initiated a topic, her thin lips parting slightly. "I took the pajamas that day. I'll wash them and return them to you."

Chi Yang had been about to say that those pajamas were just spares and Lu Yunqi could keep them, no need to return them. But then she thought better of it. That set of pajamas was the same style as her own, just a different color. Wouldn't that mean she and Lu Yunqi would be wearing matching couple pajamas?

'No, no, no.'

Chi Yang immediately banished that wicked thought from her mind.

"Alright. You can give them to me when we go see the house this weekend."

......

A moment later, Wen Jie and Gu Weiwei finished recording and walked out of the studio. They sidled up to Chi Yang and followed her gaze, only to see a woman's elegant silhouette in the distance.

Gu Weiwei nudged Chi Yang with her elbow and probed in her usual gossipy tone, "Yangyang, you and Miss Lu seem pretty close?"

Chi Yang hadn't expected Gu Weiwei to remember what Lu Yunqi looked like after just one encounter.

She blinked her evasive eyes and lied, "No, we just chatted a bit more on the day I picked her up at the airport."

When she turned her head, Gu Weiwei wore an expression that clearly said "I see right through you but won't say it, and let's see how long you can keep up the act."

Chi Yang felt defeated under the intense gaze and reluctantly revealed a bit more of the "truth." "Director Qin also arranged for me to accompany her to look at apartments."

Gu Weiwei frowned, thinking as she spoke, "Could it be that she was in such a hurry because she was afraid that if you got sick, no one would accompany her to look at apartments?"

In such a hurry?

Chi Yang seized on the detail and pressed further, "Sister Weiwei, how do you know she was in such a hurry?"

Gu Weiwei's surprise didn't seem feigned. "Huh? Didn't Engineer Lu tell you? At noon on the day you got sick, Wen Jie and I had just returned to the seventh floor after lunch when she rushed into our office in a panic, asking how serious your illness was. She even asked for your home address. I didn't dare give it to her at first, but she said you two used to be friends, so I gave it to her with some hesitation."

Finally, Gu Weiwei added with a hint of apology, "Yangyang, I originally planned to let you know, but who would've thought, right after Engineer Lu left, it started pouring outside. I got pulled into reporting for the whole afternoon and forgot later."

"I'm sorry, Yangyang."

Hearing this, Chi Yang quickly reassured Gu Weiwei, "Sister Weiwei, it's fine. Engineer Lu just came to my place to check on me."

Gu Weiwei recalled the torrential rain that day and couldn't believe it was just a visit. "Yangyang, were you two really friends before?"

Chi Yang gazed at the corner where Lu Yunqi's figure had disappeared, thinking of how drastically Lu Yunqi's attitude toward her had shifted. Her lips moved slightly. "We knew each other. Not well."

......

Friday.

Bureau Chief Song suddenly tagged everyone in the group chat: [ All-staff meeting in the second-floor conference room in fifteen minutes. ]

Chi Yang, Gu Weiwei, and Wen Jie grabbed their notebooks and headed to the elevator, catching one coming down from upstairs just in time. It stopped steadily on the seventh floor, and as the doors slowly slid open, they saw it was already packed with people, all seemingly heading to the second-floor meeting. They exchanged greetings.

"Hello, Director Gu."

"Hello, Director Chen."

The three of them squeezed near the entrance, and Chi Yang asked Gu Weiwei in a voice only the three of them could hear, "Sister Weiwei, do you know what today's meeting is about?"

Gu Weiwei shook her head.

No point in asking around then. If Gu Weiwei didn't know, no one in this building would. Chi Yang thought to herself.

The seating in the conference room was divided into three sections, left, center, and right, with rows of seats arranged in ascending tiers. At the front was a large display screen, and a podium sat on the left side of the stage.

Chi Yang, Gu Weiwei, and Wen Jie picked seats on the left, neither too far forward nor too far back.

The conference room buzzed with hushed murmurs.

Suddenly, the display screen lit up, and the title on the red block at the center of the first PPT slide read: Summary and Commendation Conference for the Approval and Construction of Key Natural Science Laboratories.

Right after, Chi Yang turned off her phone screen and looked up to see Lu Yunqi and Bureau Chief Song walk in through the front door, taking seats in the center of the first row.

Once the leaders were all seated, the lights focused on the podium. Director Qin stepped up, and his deep, resonant voice came through the speakers: "Distinguished leaders, colleagues, good afternoon! Welcome to the 'Summary and Commendation Conference for the Approval and Construction of Key Natural Science Laboratories.' First, let's invite Fang Ye, the lead of the approved key laboratory, to speak!"

...

As several speakers finished their presentations, Chi Yang grew bored, yawning repeatedly as if she'd wandered into a university lecture, with a wave of dense, hard-to-understand knowledge flooding her brain.

Wen Jie, on the other hand, listened with great interest, jotting down notes in her notebook from time to time.

Chi Yang couldn't help but sigh, youth is truly something.

After confirming her phone was on silent, Chi Yang quietly opened a chess mini-game and engaged in a fierce battle against the bot.

"Next, let's invite Engineer Lu to share her insights on the current research direction of the key laboratory."

Engineer Lu...

Chi Yang's gaze shifted from the intense chess match to the front, where she saw Lu Yunqi rise and walk to the podium. She wore a slightly loose blazer with the cuffs rolled up just a bit, looking sharp yet not stiff. Her amber-brown square-frame glasses sat on her face as usual, and she radiated confidence, confidence laced with just the right amount of pride, as if she could command all knowledge at will.

'Hot nerd...'

Chi Yang couldn't help but be stunned for a second.

Then she looked down.

!

She'd gotten distracted and timed out, and the bot had taken over, only for the bot to lose to the other bot. She was KO'd.

Chi Yang: "..."

Fine, she'd resign herself to listening to the lecture.

As she sifted through Lu Yunqi's presentation, Chi Yang gradually understood why Bureau Chief Song valued Lu Yunqi so highly.

Lu Yunqi's previous research direction abroad aligned perfectly with the newly approved key laboratory. This lab was currently the most important project for the municipal bureau, and the research institute where Lu Yunqi had worked overseas was among the top in the world. With a formidable talent like Lu Yunqi joining the team, Bureau Chief Song was probably grinning from ear to ear.

Seeing that Chi Yang had stopped playing games and was now scribbling in her notebook, Gu Weiwei leaned over and whispered, "Yangyang, what are you writing?"

Chi Yang snapped back to reality and immediately closed the notebook, murmuring, "It's nothing."

With that, her hand unconsciously rubbed against her clothes, and in an instant, a faint shade of cherry blossom pink spread from her cheeks to the tips of her ears.

When she looked up again, whether it was her imagination or not, Lu Yunqi casually glanced her way several times.

Chi Yang struggled to maintain her composure.

'Chi Yang, why are you blushing so hard just from chatting with someone else?'

Lu Yunqi's fingertips tightened around the clicker in her hand.

Author's Note:

Lu Yunqi: Jealous...

Chi Yang: [Scared]

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