latelenovela Chapter 512 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (123)
Chapter 512 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (123)
Standing there amidst a jumble of beautiful lights, I looked somewhat bewildered at the courtyard.
“Ah…” Lu Liruan froze, her hands stopping moving.
Hearing her voice, An Tang, who was still behind, turned around and saw Lu Liruan and Liao Tingyuan staring at each other silently, the light shining on the two good-looking people.
It looks like something out of a fairy tale.
"Why are you here so late?" An Tang hurriedly called into the house. Zhao Linchuan turned off all the lights before An Tang reached out and opened the door.
"I...I've come to pick Ruan Ruan up from get off work." When Liao Tingyuan walked in, he naturally took the ornaments from Lu Liruan's hand and placed them on the fence that Lu Liruan was going to put higher up.
"Huh?" Lu Liruan thought to herself, she didn't know about this, why wasn't she told?
Seeing Lu Liruan's confused expression, Liao Tingyuan smiled and said, "I think it's getting dark now..." He and Lu Liruan looked at each other. Lu Liruan felt that Liao Tingyuan, like herself, had missed each other lingeringly after not seeing each other for a few days.
“I drove here today. I was planning to go shopping with Li Ruan after get off work!” An Tang patted Lu Li Ruan on the shoulder.
She had meant it with a slightly teasing tone, so she was looking at Liao Tingyuan when she turned her head and saw the little girl staring at her with a conflicted expression.
what?
Shouldn't she have decisively rejected him and gone back with Liao Tingyuan?
The two of them haven't seen each other for several days, shouldn't they have a good talk?
But looking at the little girl, her big eyes seemed to say, "I want to go shopping too..."
"I saw that dress last time I went there, and after thinking about it, I still want to buy it~" Lu Liruan smiled shyly and said softly.
Liao Tingyuan raised an eyebrow, glanced at Lu Liruan, and was about to say something.
Seeing An Tang speak first, "Didn't you try it last time? Then I can just buy it for you when I pass by later, right?"
After she finished speaking, she looked over Lu Liruan's shoulder and gave Liao Tingyuan a wink, as if to say, "I've really done right by you, haven't I?"
Zhao Linchuan heard no sound outside for a long time, so he ran out. When he saw Liao Tingyuan, he was stunned for a moment, then waved excitedly: "Brother Liao! You're back!" His enthusiasm made Lu Liruan and An Tang turn their heads slightly.
Once inside, Lu Liruan noticed that Liao Tingyuan was wearing a thin black trench coat, even though the temperature had suddenly dropped outside.
"Aren't you cold?" Lu Liruan touched his hand that wasn't wearing gloves, and her hand shivered from the cold. But Lu Liruan didn't let go. Instead, she held his hand in her own palm and warmed it naturally.
"I didn't expect the temperature to drop so suddenly the day I went back to get my clothes," Liao Tingyuan explained, not pulling his hand away, letting Lu Liruan hold it.
At this moment, Lu Liruan no longer wanted to go shopping.
"Warm yourself up for a bit. After we leave the yard, let's take a taxi back together. Otherwise, you'll both get sick."
An Tang had already brought over a cup of hot lemon tea: "Are Sister Fang and the others alright?"
“It’s nothing serious. The people who visited them a few days ago called to say they caught the flu at home.” Liao Tingyuan nodded. “It’s normal for it to spread to people who haven’t been in the space recently, and the symptoms are all the same, which proves that it’s just a simple illness.”
Lu Liruan: ? ?
That sounds so strange.
Liao Tingyuan knew that this explanation was strange, but there was indeed no instrument that could detect whether a specific space would cause specific disease symptoms.
This is merely speculation.
It has not been confirmed yet, but because the boss attaches great importance to it, research has already begun. However, the sample size is not large, and most of them have been shown to be unrelated to space, so they have no research value.
I even called my boss to report this incident.
The boss took it very seriously and specially arranged for relevant doctors to conduct tests and extract biological samples... Liao Tingyuan was supposed to come back the day before yesterday, but due to various reasons, he stayed until today.
"It's good that it's not... It's better than actually affecting your health." An Tang sighed.
Because these are unknowns, and it seems that they do not have any obvious impact on the staff of the unit for the time being, and conducting these observations and studies will also consume a lot of funds and research manpower.
At a meeting early this morning, some branch leaders suggested reducing spending in this area because the current research seemed to be aimless.
It's completely pointless; it's better to wait until a real problem arises before conducting any research.
"It was rejected outright by the boss alone." Several people sat on the sofa, listening to An Tang recount what had happened.
"Sister Tang, how did you know?" Lu Liruan asked curiously.
“When the meeting was going on, the boss couldn’t find anyone to accompany him, so I went and worked as his assistant for a few days,” An Tang said casually.
The boss said with great distress, "Should I hire someone specifically as an assistant? But the people who can be assistants are all ordinary people. It would be a waste to have someone who can enter the space as my assistant..."
"You were doing just fine without an assistant before, weren't you?"
An Tang didn't want to listen to his nagging, so she maintained her smile.
“Other organizations all have secretaries and assistants…” The boss went to print the documents himself, feeling disappointed. When he came back, he also made An Tang a cup of coffee.
"Have you been watching some weird TV series lately?" An Tang took the coffee and sipped it. "You know, things are different here. Even leaders have to learn to do their own things."
The boss almost spat out his coffee.
Why do I feel like being a boss is both busy and frustrating?
The reason he asked An Tang to come with him was because there were no other people in the company who would come to open the app. Most of them didn't open it, and a few were still in their personal spaces.
Liao Tingyuan has been at work lately, waiting for his boss to finish speaking to him...
“Although the boss usually seems quite unreliable,” An Tang said, taking a sip of water. “He can still make many decisions on his own.”
"For example, he immediately decided that this research must continue."
"If many people develop obvious symptoms, wouldn't it be too late? Our work requires people with special abilities to do it, but we don't provide them with any guarantees. Are we going to tell them that we'll only start caring about their health when they actually have problems? How are you going to talk to your staff?"
“That’s what the boss said at the time…” An Tang smiled and said, “That’s probably part of the reason why the boss has such a good reputation among the employees.”
Lu Liruan nodded in deep agreement. A boss who is willing to care about the health of his employees is indeed a good boss, and employees will be more willing to work for such a boss.
"Anyway, we've been allocating funds for research all this time..." An Tang collected the empty glasses from the group. "Alright, it's about time. You can all go home now. I'm going to lock up the door and go shopping with some friends. Anyway, Li Ruan isn't going~"
"If you want to go shopping, I'll take a taxi back first," Liao Tingyuan said quietly to Lu Liruan.
Lu Liruan thought to herself, "Teacher Liao is really gentle and considerate of others in every way."
"Let's go home! You're finally back, let's celebrate!" Lu Liruan grabbed her coat and pulled Liao Tingyuan along with her other hand.
Although he didn't know what they were celebrating, Liao Tingyuan didn't argue with Lu Liruan, and the two of them were walking out...
Liao Tingyuan saw Zhao Linchuan squatting in the yard.
Lu Liruan: ...?
"Wait a minute, I'm going to say something to him!" Lu Liruan realized something. Liao Tingyuan pressed her down in the lobby on the first floor, signaling her to stand there and not move. Then, he tiptoed towards Zhao Linchuan with his phone flashlight on.
Zhao Linchuan was slightly taken aback when he saw that it was her coming over.
Then Lu Liruan stared at him, lowered her voice, and whispered, "Don't use Teacher Liao as an experiment!"
Lu Liruan was all too familiar with his appearance and expression!
He was clearly planning to stick the chewing gum on Liao Tingyuan's shoes again and continue the experiment. Earlier today, he had said that the perception of two people was easy for him, and he wanted to try to conduct experiments with more people.
"Why! Anyway, Brother Liao won't get angry!" Zhao Linchuan said confidently.
Teacher Liao wouldn't be angry, and Lu Liruan agreed with that, but...
She felt a little awkward. The experiment on Lao Cheng was actually permitted by Sister Shiyi. As for Lao Cheng, he would not raise any objections as long as Gao Shiyi gave permission. This was a fact that everyone acknowledged.
Fan Zhenxiang was alone all day, and this wasn't the first time Zhao Linchuan had used him for experiments.
But Teacher Liao was different from them, and Lu Liruan felt a little awkward. She was with Teacher Liao both at work and after get off work. Although Lu Liruan didn't know exactly how far Zhao Linchuan could sense, she just felt... a little awkward.
Lu Liruan herself couldn't explain it. She didn't realize that subconsciously, she had already compared herself and Liao Tingyuan with Gao Shiyi and Lao Cheng.
"Anyway, no... Take it away right now!" Lu Liruan squatted down next to him, and the two of them looked like two mushrooms.
Liao Tingyuan couldn't hear what the two were saying, but he saw one mushroom reach out and pat the head of the other mushroom's sister.
Lu Liruan asked suspiciously, "You didn't stick it on my head, did you?"
Zhao Linchuan: "...Really not. If I dared to get involved with you, wouldn't you kill me? Sister Tang would teach me a lesson, and Brother Liao wouldn't let me off either." He was very prescient.
"Besides, it's too easy to spot if it's stuck in your hair..."
"You really thought about it, didn't you?" Lu Liruan narrowed her eyes.
Zhao Linchuan blinked, using the flickering light in the courtyard.
Lu Liruan: I knew it.
"And..." Lu Liruan's face showed a hint of disgust: "You've had that chewing gum for days, why haven't you thrown it away yet? It's still sticky!"
Zhao Linchuan turned his head away. He wouldn't tell Lu Liruan that he had to soak the remaining chewing gum in water for a while every day to keep it sticky.
This is really disgusting.
In short, despite Lu Liruan's insistence on refusing, Zhao Linchuan finally picked up a small piece of chewing gum from the ground and threw it into the flower bed in front of Lu Liruan: "Really, there isn't any, just this one."
"Really?"
"real!"
"If you dare to do this secretly, I curse you so that next time you go to the barbershop, the hairdresser will ruin your hair!" Lu Liruan threatened, seizing the other party's weakness.
Then Zhao Linchuan picked up another piece and threw it into the flower bed.
Lu Liruan: ...Am I getting too familiar with you? Even though we've only known each other for a few days.
"There really isn't any left this time." Zhao Linchuan sighed. His hair was the most precious thing to him. He had been like this since he was a child. Although his parents and many other people used to say that he was a boy and shouldn't have long hair, and shouldn't cherish his hair so much.
When he was in high school, his homeroom teacher even made him cut his hair very short and ugly... But since he met Lu Liruan, she has never seemed to find his hobby strange. She naturally thought that he could like whatever he wanted and even discussed hairstyles with him.
Lu Liruan had no idea what Zhao Linchuan thought of her. She just thought Zhao Linchuan's hairstyle looked pretty good. Her salary had been quite good recently, and she wanted to change her hairstyle next month, so she asked him if he had any recommendations for hair salons.
As for who should do what and what they should look like...
Lu Liruan felt that it had nothing to do with her, and what right did she have to define what someone should be like? It didn't matter what anyone was like, as long as they could live a healthy and happy life... This was Lu Liruan's most beautiful wish as a corporate slave.
Anyway, Zhao Linchuan seems to be living a happy life, and Lu Liruan gets along quite well with him, so that's fine.
Finally, Zhao Linchuan stood up, and Lu Liruan waved to Liao Tingyuan, indicating that he could leave. Liao Tingyuan wasn't particularly curious about what Lu Liruan and Zhao Linchuan were doing.
But Lu Liruan herself couldn't keep her mouth shut. Before she even got into the taxi, she blurted everything out: "He still wants to use you as an experiment! Of course I won't allow it!"
"Yes, thank you Ruan Ruan for protecting me." Liao Tingyuan replied naturally, looking at the ride-hailing display on his phone.
He was already used to the little girl's constant chatter, and these past few days at the hospital and with Xiaoyu, he felt it was unusually quiet.
Although Xiaoyu talks a lot, Liao Tingyuan never thinks about what he says, and doesn't even listen to him, just like before.
The only person who could make him patiently and naturally listen to every word the other person said was Lu Liruan. Liao Tingyuan realized this and felt it was quite good.
He only wanted to hear what the little girl had to say.
The moment Liao Tingyuan turned on the lights after returning home, he felt a surge of emotion.
"I'm going to change and take a shower first. Just hang this coat I'm wearing by the door. I'll wash it separately tomorrow when I have time," Liao Tingyuan instructed Lu Liruan.
"Okay, Teacher Liao, what would you like to eat? I'll order takeout first."
"Anything you want is fine with me," Liao Tingyuan's voice came from the bathroom, mingling with the sound of running water.
After ordering takeout, Lu Liruan looked up and suddenly felt that the lights in the house were brighter after Liao Tingyuan came back, and the empty feeling was gone.