Chapter 76: He Actually Didnāt Wear Pants to the Meeting!
As Liang Bo turned his back to tidy his clothes, Shou Jiaxun fished out a cigarette from somewhere and popped it into his mouth.
The dazed Omegaās eyes were slightly hollow, as if he had lost his focus. His shirt was draped over his shoulders but unbuttoned; his pants were pulled up, but the fly remained undone.
His sweat-soaked bangs were a mess across his forehead, and every cell in his body exuded a sense of lingering lethargy.
Liang Bo gazed at his heart’s desire sprawled on the sofa, dazed for a few seconds. His mind was filled with only one thought: he wanted Shou Jiaxun to belong to him, and him alone.
The reality, however, was that although they had shared the most intimate of acts twice now, the first time was an accident and the second was a “one-night stand.” There had been no clear progress in their emotional relationship.
Liang Bo wasnāt even sure if Shou Jiaxun would say “pretend nothing happened” again in the next second.
Or, to be safe, immediately run downstairs to buy emergency contraceptive pills.
But this time, he was truly worrying over nothing. At this moment, President Shou had finally begun to seriously contemplate: I am an Omega. I need him physiologically, and aside from the physical part, I really like him. And he loves me… plus, he’s so sexy.
We actually… maybe… possibly… perhaps… really should get married?
Facing the pensive President Shou, Liang Boās eyes suddenly stung, his heart heavy with sorrow. What exactly do I have to do to reach the inside of your heart?
Of course, he didn’t dare say this out loud. Before Shou Jiaxun was ready to be “serious” with him, pushing too hard would only be counterproductive.
It was just like his last proposalāShou Jiaxun had turned and bolted. Yet today, when he mentioned a “one-night stand” where neither side needed to take responsibility, the otherās attitude had actually softened.
Liang Bo pursed his lips, hiding his thoughts. He leaned over, picked up the lighter from the coffee table, held it before Shou Jiaxun, and clicked it to produce a flame.
Shou Jiaxun didn’t accept the Alphaās kindness. He tilted his head away from the flame and took the cigarette out of his mouth, deciding not to smoke after all.
Liang Boās heart chilled halfway. He awkwardly tucked the lighter away and asked in a low voice, “Back to your place, or mine?”
Shou Jiaxun glanced at his phone, then shifted his gaze out the window.
It was 4:30 in the morning; the sky was almost breaking.
“I say… shouldn’t this kind of question be discussed beforehand?”
Liang Bo sighed softly, forcing a smile as he persisted with his suggestion. “Letās go to my place then. My place has a bathtub. You can take a hot bath; itāll be more comfortable.”
“Mm.” Shou Jiaxun nodded and finally began tidying his clothes. At the same time, he instructed, “Help me pack my laptop.”
Liang Bo followed the instruction but felt a bit puzzled. “Itās so late. Why are you bringing your laptop home?”
Shou Jiaxun let out a long, complaining sigh. “After that little ‘stunt’ with you, those two hours of sleep I got earlier were for nothing. Once I close my eyes later, I don’t know if I’ll be able to crawl out of bed in the morning.”
Liang Bo immediately understood. “Thereās an architecture confirmation meeting with the technical outsource team this morning. If you canāt get up, Iāll help you set up a remote link. With Brother Fan, Little Bai, and me keeping a close eye on things here at the company, I don’t think it’ll be a problem for you to follow up remotely.”
Shou Jiaxun nodded repeatedly. “You really are my… hehe.”
Liang Bo pressed, “Iām your what?”
What Shou Jiaxun had almost blurted out was “virtuous inner helper” (wife), but the words died on his tongue when he remembered that if they got married, he would be the “wife.”
Even though Liang Bo was currently working for him, he should try to be careful with his words. If he wanted to live a good life together, he had to provide basic respect.
“What exactly?” Liang Bo urged with a grin.
Shou Jiaxun smiled back at him but kept his mouth shut tight, refusing to say a word.
After arriving at Liang Bo’s small apartment in the school district, they each took a shower and then went to separate rooms to sleep. As before, Shou Jiaxun slept in Liang Bo’s father’s room, while Liang Bo slept in his own.
Sleeping apart was a silent mutual understanding between the two; they didn’t explicitly discuss it. The bunk bed in Liang Boās room was quite narrowāmore than enough for one person but cramped for two.
The bed in Father Liangās master bedroom was large enough, but they had just finished doing that kind of thing. If they slept together and couldn’t control themselves… it would be disrespectful to the owner.
Liang Bo set an alarm for nine o’clock. After getting up and doing a quick wash, he immediately went to his father’s room to set up a dedicated conference line and adjust the camera for Shou Jiaxun.
Then he set a wake-up alarm for Shou Jiaxun at ten oāclock and ordered breakfast delivery for around ten-fifteen. Finally, he stuffed the dirty clothes they had taken off the night before into a paper bag and carried them out to a laundry shop in the same residential complex.
After Liang Bo settled everything and left with peace of mind, Shou Jiaxun was woken up at ten o’clock by the delivery man’s knocking. Wrapped in a quilt, he paced around the floor… unable to find any clothes to wear.
At 10:30, the branding department of “Guoran Trade” and the technical specialists from the outsourcing company entered the conference room on time to wait. Shou Jiaxun was two minutes late. When he finally appeared on the projector, he was wearing an excessively sober “old man shirt.”
The shirt was a low-saturation old blue short-sleeved top with a black collar and black sleeve cuffsāunderstated and stain-resistant. Usually, there would be a small logo on the left chest that determined its price. It was a timeless bestseller for men in their fifties and sixties.
Although Shou Jiaxun wasn’t physically at the company, his silhouette was projected onto the white screen next to the slides. Dressed so agedly, he gave off a lingering “ghostly” vibe no matter how one looked at it.
Bai Fan held back as long as he could, but in the end, he couldn’t resist roasting his old classmate. “Boss, are you determined to create a generation gap between us?”
Shou Jiaxun gave a dry, awkward laugh, looking embarrassed. “Oh, you found out so quickly? I do have that intention.”
Before his voice even faded, a loud “Ding-dong!” suddenly erupted from the speakers. The dozen or so people in the conference room checked their phones and computers simultaneously, wondering whose device was crossing lines.
In the end, it was President Shou in the projection who swiped his phone to check a message.
Liang Bo asked on Feixun:
[What are you wearing on your bottom half?]
He had recognized at a glance that the “old man shirt” Shou Jiaxun was wearing belonged to his father. Then he realized he hadn’t prepared any undergarments or clothes for Shou Jiaxun at home.
So the question was… did Shou Jiaxun find the drawer where he kept his underwear?
While feeling ashamed, Liang Bo reminded the boss during the meeting, “President Shou, please turn off your central audio channel and just leave the voice line open.”
“Oh, oh, right. Let me find the audio control…” Shou Jiaxun lowered his head, his right hand on the mouse while his left hand hid under the table to reply to Liang Bo:
[Guess?]
Liang Bo immediately sent back a sticker: [A bare-assed bunny pooping without toilet paperāwhat a mess.] This time, the central channel didn’t make a loud noise.
Shou Jiaxun lowered his head to send Liang Bo a small [Butcher’s Knife] icon, then asked his colleagues with a straight face, “Is everyone here?”
Liang Bo quickly responded, “President Guo went to the restroom; he’ll be here in a moment.”
As soon as he spoke, Guo Ran pushed the door open and walked into the conference room empty-handed. He froze for a moment, looking at Shou Jiaxun on the white screen. “…What’s your situation?”
Shou Jiaxun waved at him. “Uncle, Iāll go to the company this afternoon.”
Uncle Guo frowned. “Did you stay up all night again?”
Shou Jiaxun gave a sheepish smile and told a small lie. “No, no, it’s nothing. Let’s start the meeting.”
Because the digital project their branding department was incubating would have the offline store members of “Guoran Loves You” as its first batch of core users, Uncle Guoāwho had always focused on buying and selling fruit and didn’t understand digital clientsāwould participate in the project as an important consultant.
However, a “consultant” didn’t involve specific execution work. In an execution-style meeting like today’s, he was mainly there to observe.
To put it bluntly, he was quite idle.
Therefore, within a few minutes of sitting down, he discovered many problems in Shou Jiaxun’s projection.
Thus, like Liang Bo, he pulled out his phone and quietly sent a message to the young President Shou:
[Where are you? Whose clothes are those? Are you in a relationship? How old is the other person?]
Shou Jiaxun replied to his uncle while the newly hired IT and outsourcing technicians discussed the data architecture:
[Xiao Liangās fatherās.]
Although it was only five words, it perfectly covered the answers to all four questions.
Uncle Guo instinctively turned to size up Liang Bo. Seeing that the other was fully concentrated on the meeting content, he silently clicked on Liang Bo’s chat window:
[Congratulations]
Afterward, he even conveniently sent the other person an electronic red envelope.
Before Liang Bo could discover this celebratory red envelope, someone else knocked on the door and leaned halfway in to find Guo Ran. “President Guo, a gentleman surnamed Yan is looking for you. I said you were in a meeting, and he said he could wait, but he hoped I would come and let you know first.”
“I don’t have any appointments these few days…” Uncle Guo’s face went blank for a moment, but he quickly reacted, stood up, and walked straight out.
Reacting along with him was Shou Jiaxun in the projection.
As Uncle Guo stood up, he also stood up abruptly. However, while Uncle Guo was walking out the door, he was “walking out of the frame.”
Everyone in the conference room was instantly dumbfounded because they saw… Shou Jiaxun’s lower half wasn’t wearing pants!
Only Liang Bo breathed a secret sigh of relief, thinking to himself that at least he had the sense to wrap a bath towel around himself.
Shou Jiaxun soon realized that even if he stood up, he couldn’t catch up to Guo Ran. He could only sit back down and issue orders with a furrowed brow. “Liang Bo, go with President Guo quickly! See what the situation is.”
Upon hearing this, Liang Bo immediately dropped his laptop, stood up, and chased after Guo Ran.
At this moment, while everyone else was likely completely confused, Shou Jiaxun, Uncle Guo, and Liang Bo had clearly all guessed that the “gentleman surnamed Yan” was Guo Duoyuās biological Alpha father, Yan Xin.
He had previously asked for his son on Guo Ran’s “Little Red Flower” account. Now that he had seen his son, he had come to Guo Ran’s company. Although it was unknown what he wanted to do?
No matter what he wanted, it certainly wouldn’t be anything good.
Uncle Guoās brow was locked tight as he walked like the wind, seemingly prepared to rush over and kick the person out the front door.
Secretary Luo Yi followed closely behind him, and Liang Bo followed Luo Yi. The three of them reached the company reception area as if in a light jog.
But when they saw the visitor from a distance, they suddenly skidded to a halt.
Because the “Mr. Yan” sitting on the sofa in the visitor area had snow-white hair, sunken cheeks, and deep, clear wrinkles. At the youngest, he had to be over sixty… perhaps even seventy.
Seeing Guo Ran, the old man immediately pulled out a very bitter smile, stood up, and took two somewhat hesitant steps toward Uncle Guo. “Xiao Ran, long time no see. Your appearance… seems to not have changed at all.”
Uncle Guoās brow twitched slightly, his gaze depressed and his expression extremely uncomfortable. “Elder… please sit. Please sit down first.”
Recommended Reads
