Chapter 28
An Le was happy, and Lu Heng seemed to be in a good mood as well.
Li Jie, hearing that someone would be sharing his workload, lost his irritability and immediately said with a smile, “Hello, Boss’s wife. We’re colleagues now. Let me introduce myself. My name is Li Jie. You can call me… Brother Li.”
His name was a bit awkward. Whether it was Li Jie, Jie Ge (Brother Jie), Jie Jie (Jie Jie), Xiao Jie (Little Jie), or Da Jie (Big Jie), calling any of them out loud would be mortifying.
But Lao Li (Old Li) sounded too old, and Xiao Li (Little Li) made him feel inferior. For now, “Brother Li” was the best appellation he could think of.
However, as soon as he finished speaking, Lu Heng said in a cold voice, “You dare let him call you that!”
Li Jie: …
An Le also thought Li Jie’s name was hard to address. Calling him “Brother Li” felt too intimate. After thinking for a while, he said, “Hello, Master Li. I… am An Le.”
Li Jie: …
Lu Heng suppressed a smile and touched An Le’s head, “Right, call him that.”
He was praised!
An Le was very happy, his eyes shining brightly. Afterward, Lu Heng took him to dinner before sending him home.
As soon as An Le got home, he was very excited. He sent a message to Xiao Xiao: Xiao Xiao, Lu Heng found me a job today! I’m starting tomorrow. I’ll have money soon!
After a few seconds of silence, Xiao Xiao replied: Really? How much is the monthly salary?
An Le: …He… he didn’t say.
Xiao Xiao: Idiot!
An Le replied with two giggling emojis.
Xiao Xiao sent a voice message. An Le quickly clicked on it to listen: “Le Le, be bolder at work. Tomorrow, ask him for a labor contract to sign, make sure it’s a formal contract, and be sure to ask about the salary…”
An Le took notes while Xiao Xiao spoke. After chatting with Xiao Xiao for a while, he started trying on clothes.
Xiao Xiao said to dress nicely for work.
He looked at the old clothes on the windowsill but ultimately decided to wear the new clothes Lu Heng had bought for him.
Just as he changed, his phone rang. He didn’t pay attention to the number; thinking it was Lu Heng calling, he picked up, “Mr. Lu~”
“Mr. Lu?”
The voice on the phone was laced with mockery. An Le’s smile instantly vanished, and his blood seemed to freeze.
“So, you really hooked up with Lu Heng, my dear brother?”
Brother…
The person on the other end of the phone was An Yi.
Understanding this, An Le froze, his eyes instantly reddened, unable to speak.
An Yi: “Why aren’t you talking?”
“You ran away for two years, and you forgot who you are?”
“An Le, find some time to come home. Father and I miss you very much…”
Before An Yi could finish, An Le hurriedly hung up.
Then he looked at the incoming calls and messages on his phone screen, his eyes filled with terror. He fearfully threw his phone to the ground.
Almost instantly, the phone fell silent, and the room fell quiet.
An Le looked at his trembling hands, and after a few seconds, crouched on the floor, hugging his legs and sobbing softly…
——
The next day, An Le still wore the same clothes he’d changed into last night. After An Yi’s call, he didn’t change. He’d spent the night crouched by the bed in those clothes.
At dawn, he got up in a daze, washed his face, brushed his teeth, and then went downstairs to find Lu Heng.
Lu Heng said he would pick him up to go to work this morning. His phone was broken, so Lu Heng wouldn’t be able to reach him, so he had to go downstairs early.
But as An Le hurried downstairs, Lu Heng’s car pulled up right in front of him. Both were surprised. An Le called out in a fluster, “Mr. Lu.”
Seeing him rushing to the roadside, Lu Heng frowned from the back seat, “Why are you down so early?”
An Le: “I… I just wanted to be a little earlier.”
He opened the car door and got in. Only after he entered did Lu Heng notice that the omega’s eyes were swollen, and his spirits were low.
Lu Heng: “Why are your eyes swollen?”
An Le trembled in fright, hastily looked up at Lu Heng, then quickly lowered his head, whispering, “No, nothing. I… I had a little trouble sleeping last night…”
He hadn’t slept well because of insomnia, so his eyes were swollen.
This was a good, plausible reason.
But Lu Heng knew that not many people’s eyes swelled from lack of sleep; it mostly happened after crying before bed.
But since An Le wasn’t saying anything, he wouldn’t press him, because he’d seen the fear in An Le’s eyes.
An Le was afraid that Lu Heng would ask him more questions. If Lu Heng knew about his past life, would he look down on him?
The An family matter…
He had originally planned to ask Lu Heng to help him resolve it, but now, at this stage, he didn’t dare to speak up.
Before, he just wanted to escape his current situation. Now, while wanting to escape, he also wanted to make a good impression on Lu Heng.
He wanted Lu Heng to like him.
He wanted to find Xiao Xiao and ask him what to do, but his phone was broken. Even if it wasn’t broken, he couldn’t contact Xiao Xiao in front of Lu Heng to discuss this.
An Le’s heart grew increasingly troubled, and his emotions became frantic. Suddenly, he felt a warmth enveloping him, calming his mood.
He looked at Lu Heng with tear-filled eyes. Lu Heng directly reached out and hugged him, whispering, “If you’re unhappy, you can tell me directly; you don’t have to endure it yourself.”
Li Jie, driving in front, sensed that Lu Heng was releasing pheromones again, and grumbled as he raised the partition.
“Mr. Lu, Mr. Lu…”
In Lu Heng’s arms, An Le still said nothing, only calling “Mr. Lu” intermittently, his voice soft and pitiful.
Lu Heng didn’t press him; he just held him, gently patting his back to comfort him.
By the time they reached the company, An Le’s emotions had mostly stabilized.
He followed Lu Heng upstairs. He didn’t know why, but he felt like someone was watching him. He kept his head down the entire way, only relaxing after entering the office.
Looking at the luxurious office, An Le was stunned. He had never been to such a place before; it felt novel.
But after looking around the office, he found that all the items were neatly arranged, and the floor was very clean—he didn’t need to clean.
As he was secretly looking around, Lu Heng suddenly grabbed his wrist.
Lu Heng pulled him to the office chair and sat him down: “Sit down first. I’ll arrange for someone to bring over a desk and chair, and then I’ll go to the bathroom.”
An Le didn’t know that there was a bathroom in the CEO’s office and thought that Lu Heng was telling the truth. He nodded and whispered, “Okay~”
Lu Heng was about to leave but felt his clothes being tugged.
He turned around and saw An Le looking at him with swollen red eyes, full of longing.
Lu Heng wasn’t unfamiliar with this kind of situation, being looked at like this by a beautiful omega. Before, he would push them away, telling them coldly to get lost, but facing An Le, he didn’t know how to react.
He paused, deciding to ask patiently, “What’s wrong?”