Chapter 8
Tang Yiling froze.
A few seconds passed before she answered, “Wh-why would I be jealous?”
Although her relationship with Li Lan was a little unusual.
But as the female lead, it was normal for Li Lan to interact with the male lead, right?
It was just that Tang Yiling didn’t know whether Li Lan had finished work and come back, or whether she had specially rushed back for Gu Feng.
Tang Yiling didn’t particularly want her boss to be love-brained; Li Lan didn’t seem like that type, either.
“Um, you like Gu Feng too, right?”
Qian Xueqing hesitated several times before finally asking, “I saw you give Senior Brother some cookies last semester.”
“Oh!” Tang Yiling suddenly understood. “You mean that kind of jealousy!”
She was extremely firm. “Then definitely not.”
Qian Xueqing was confused. “Then what kind of jealousy did you think I meant?”
“Nothing.” Tang Yiling brushed it off. “I just didn’t react in time.”
“Oh.” Qian Xueqing didn’t press the matter and returned to her seat.
That left Tang Yiling sitting alone at her desk, spacing out.
Actually, when she got along with Li Lan, most of the time she almost ignored Li Lan’s identity as the female lead.
But as soon as Qian Xueqing said it, she suddenly felt like Li Lan had lost her own will.
Could it be that when a character encountered a key plot point or an important person, they would turn into someone else?
Then which version was real?
Tang Yiling quietly glanced at Qian Xueqing.
Would everyone around her turn out to be NPCs without real feelings?
She couldn’t concentrate on reading anymore.
Tang Yiling took out her phone and messaged He Wenwei: “Mom, how do you tell NPCs apart from real people?”
He Wenwei replied very quickly, and her method was simple too.
As long as a character had been mentioned in the novel, they counted as an NPC.
Tang Yiling understood half of it at best. “Then do you know who my roommates are?”
He Wenwei: “You’re just a minor cannon-fodder character; the book doesn’t go into that kind of detail.”
Tang Yiling changed the way she asked: “Then do you know who the female lead Chang Yuruo’s roommates are?”
He Wenwei didn’t know that either. Even if she named Qian Xueqing and An Qi, there was still no impression at all.
Tang Yiling let out a breath of relief.
Looks like her other two roommates were real people; otherwise, the place would’ve felt a bit like an isolated island of horror.
A few minutes later, He Wenwei sent another message.
“Wait, Mianmian, your school is a four-person dorm, right? Who’s Chang Yuruo’s other roommate?”
Tang Yiling was a little helpless. “It’s me.”
That fully proved that she didn’t have much interaction with Chang Yuruo at school at all; she basically had no plot presence.
She still wanted to say something else to He Wenwei when a new message popped up.
The empty chat box she had just looked at a few hours ago had actually refreshed; Li Lan asked her, “Where are you?”
Tang Yiling let out a soft sigh. “In the dorm.”
Was her boss going to make her deliver documents again late at night?
Li Lan replied very quickly: “Dorm?”
What was there to doubt? Tang Yiling casually snapped a photo of her desk and sent it over. “Want a video?”
Li Lan went quiet.
Tang Yiling was almost ready to go to sleep when she finally got a reply: “No need. Remember to come to the company tomorrow.”
Because of the agreement, weekends no longer seemed quite so worth looking forward to.
There was only one class on Friday morning, and Tang Yiling showed up at Li Lan’s company punctually in the afternoon.
Li Lan had a client in her office.
Yan Zhenzhen pointed to the workstation behind her, indicating that it had been left for Tang Yiling.
The desk was empty.
Tang Yiling turned on the computer, but she still had nothing to do.
She leaned forward a little and asked Yan Zhenzhen, “Is it a big client? The boss is receiving them personally.”
Yan Zhenzhen shook her head. “President Li takes work pretty casually.”
The two of them were still talking when the office door opened.
That slightly older colleague she’d seen last time walked out; Yan Zhenzhen said her name was Xia Xin.
Xia Xin was on the phone and probably had another work arrangement to handle.
Her gaze swept across the office and settled on Tang Yiling.
“You, come here.” Xia Xin waved her over.
She handed the document in her hand to Tang Yiling. “Go in first and take notes.”
Yan Zhenzhen looked at Tang Yiling, unable to hide her sympathy.
There was no helping it; among everyone in the office, Tang Yiling was the only one with nothing to do.
She took the notebook and knocked on the office door.
Li Lan’s voice came from inside. “Come in.”
There were only two people in the office.
The client sitting opposite the desk was a young girl.
Li Lan hadn’t expected the one walking in to be Tang Yiling either.
She looked up and watched Tang Yiling sit down to the side, then motioned for the girl to continue.
Tang Yiling flipped through the earlier content.
The client was named Zheng Lexin; she was only two years older than Tang Yiling and seemed to have just graduated.
Zheng Lexin smiled at Tang Yiling. “I was actually planning to go back to my hometown to get set up on blind dates.”
“Never expected to suddenly receive an interview notice from the Tang Group a few days ago.”
Li Lan folded her hands together. “There are more opportunities in big cities.”
“Right.” Zheng Lexin agreed. “Life in my hometown would’ve been predictable at a glance.”
“This time, I’ve even got to thank the Tang Group for finding their biological daughter!”
“Once the chairman got happy, every department expanded their recruitment, and I got hired.”
The Tang family? Biological daughter?
Tang Yiling looked up. Could it be such a coincidence?
After that, Li Lan and Zheng Lexin talked about the details of the renovation.
A few days ago, the company had been promoting free renovations on the street in order to increase visibility and produce a few strong case studies.
Zheng Lexin had taken a flyer that day and, with a skeptical attitude, come to give it a try.
She was renting a place, and her goal this time was to make her home more livable.
There wasn’t much that could be changed; they could only start with soft furnishings.
Zheng Lexin wanted the home to be centered around warm tones, with a cozier feeling.
If possible, she also wanted a spot where she could paint and store her manga.
Tang Yiling wrote down every single one of those requirements.
The conversation continued intermittently for over an hour before they finally finished.
Li Lan received another phone call.
Tang Yiling took the initiative to see Zheng Lexin out.
Probably because they were about the same age, they had an inexplicable sense of closeness.
Zheng Lexin was very happy and talked a little more. “On the day of that event, nobody believed it, but I was the only one who signed up.”
“I guess I just really needed something like that.”
“I was especially willing to take a gamble; and it actually came true!”
Getting excited, Zheng Lexin looped her arm through Tang Yiling’s. “I was born in a small town.”
“My best friend from middle school got married and had a child last year. If I went back, I’d probably end up on that road very soon too.”
Tang Yiling understood. Her original city hadn’t been big either.
If someone didn’t live according to the usual script, the people around them would even secretly point and whisper.
Because of that, after graduating, she had decisively stayed in the city where her university was located.
Work was hard, but in some ways it also kept her away from marriage pressure and gossip.
“So I’m really grateful to Tang GeYun.” Zheng Lexin paused. “That should be the name, right?”
“Congratulations to her for going home, and congratulations to me for getting hired.”
The elevator arrived; Zheng Lexin waved at Tang Yiling. “Then I’ll leave it to you all.”
Tang Yiling put on a professional smile. “Once the design draft is ready, we’ll contact you again.”
After the elevator doors closed, she stood in front of them for a while longer.
So it really was because Tang GeYun had been found that Zheng Lexin got hired by the Tang Group.
Tang Yiling seemed to understand something all at once.
A so-called NPC could actually have such a huge impact on ordinary people’s lives.
No wonder the Administration Bureau had to deal with awakened employees.
No wonder they needed them to play their roles, and even assess plot completion.
Tang Yiling returned to the office.
Somehow, a sense of responsibility and mission had been added to her shoulders.
However, that burst of enthusiasm for work didn’t last long.
She saw Li Lan standing at her own desk, looking down at something.
No, wait!
She had casually tossed her keys onto the desk earlier!
Tang Yiling ran over and stopped in front of Li Lan. “Um, I can explain.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose; it’s just that…”
She lifted her head slightly and looked at the big boss.
Li Lan’s expression gave nothing away, and Tang Yiling steeled herself and tried to shift the blame. “It’s that charm; it breaks too easily.”
Li Lan’s brows moved almost imperceptibly.
“But it really is pretty,” Tang Yiling said quickly. “I’ve already reordered one online!”
“No need.”
Li Lan glanced at Tang Yiling and stepped aside to leave. “Come to my office.”
After her boss walked away, Yan Zhenzhen looked at Tang Yiling again with sympathy.
She even hid her hand under the desk and gave her a cheering gesture.
Tang Yiling obediently followed Li Lan into the office.
She lowered her head and stood by the door, looking like a child who had done something wrong.
“Come here. Why are you standing so far away?” Li Lan said as she opened a drawer.
Like a magic trick, she took out a fluffy orange charm from inside. “This one’s sturdier. Use this.”
“Isn’t that unnecessary?”
Tang Yiling didn’t move. “My new bunny will arrive the day after tomorrow.”
Li Lan looked at her, her hand still suspended in the air, with no intention of pulling it back.
Tang Yiling hesitated for a moment, then still stepped forward and took the orange charm.
She didn’t squeeze it tightly; the soft fluff made her palm itch a little.
Li Lan’s attention was on the computer screen, and she was apparently replying to someone’s message.
Tang Yiling stood in front of the desk, a little awkward.
Li Lan wasn’t saying anything; she couldn’t have called her in just to give her a charm, could she?
Even if they had that kind of relationship, Li Lan didn’t need to treat her especially warmly or enthusiastically.
But she didn’t need to be this cold either, so quiet it was pitiful, completely ignoring her existence.
Did a wealthy boss keeping a little bird in a golden cage not usually feed and interact with it from time to time?
Sometimes she could clearly feel that Li Lan treated her as if she were some lifeless thing.
As Tang Yiling thought about it, her lips unconsciously pouted slightly.
Li Lan suddenly turned to look at her. “Why aren’t you sitting?”
The expression of dissatisfaction hadn’t even had time to fade.
Tang Yiling simply asked directly, “President Li, what did you need me for?”
Li Lan extended a finger and tapped the desk lightly twice. “I think your notes are very good.”
“Have you had contact with similar work before?”
“You really think I did a good job?”
Tang Yiling’s expression changed instantly, the corners of her mouth lifting.
The leaders from her previous world had liked to put people down.
She had always looked forward to hearing someone acknowledge her work like this; she hadn’t expected to hear it from Li Lan.
“Pretty good.”
Li Lan nodded. “So you’ve done similar part-time work before?”
Only then did Tang Yiling realize that a young lady from the Tang family couldn’t possibly have work experience.
“I filled it in by following the earlier format.” The young lady could be proud and confident. “I must be really smart; my comprehension’s good too.”
Li Lan gave a faint “Mm.” “Sort out the client’s requirements and hand them over to the colleagues in the design department.”
Tang Yiling nodded. “Okay, then I’ll head out first.”
Just as she was about to leave, she was called back again.
Li Lan said, “Wait here for a bit. I’ll leave after I finish this.”
Leave? Now?
Tang Yiling glanced at her phone. “It’s only four.”
Li Lan: “It’s Friday.”
Tang Yiling was a little baffled. “What’s wrong with Friday?”
Li Lan looked at her but didn’t speak.
After a few seconds of confusion, Tang Yiling finally reacted.
The agreement said that every weekend, she had to stay at Li Lan’s house.
And the only reason Tang Yiling could think of for this was that Li Lan wanted to relax on her days off; incidentally, she could also exercise her rights as the wealthy employer.
Her cheeks started to redden uncontrollably.
Tang Yiling looked away, avoiding Li Lan’s gaze.
At the moment she didn’t see it, a faint smile moved across Li Lan’s lips.
“What I mean is, we’re getting off work and going to the supermarket together.”
“We’ll cook dinner when we get home.”