Chapter 83: He Sits, You Stand; He Eats, You Watch
Because he was dressed too casually, Liang Bo was excluded from President Shou’s workplace socializing that evening. Thus, he ordered a cup of milk tea and sat in the car playing with his phone.
Shou Jiaxun’s dinner began at 6:30, and Liang Bo entertained himself in the car until past seven.
At that moment, a stylish young handsome guy came over and knocked on the car window. “Brother, my phone is dead. Can I borrow your power bank?”
Liang Bo rolled down the window and instinctively sized up the other person. The boy was at most sixteen or seventeen, quite good-looking, with large puppy eyes and a tiny black mole like a pinhead on the tip of his nose. He had a playful and cute smile, and his accent was from the south. Judging by his outfit, he should be an Omega.
“I don’t have a power bank.” Liang Bo smiled at him. “There’s a charging station in the lobby of that hotel up ahead. Go borrow one there.”
The boy immediately looked frustrated and held up his phone toward Liang Bo. “It’s already turned off automatically; I can’t scan the code. Can you let me charge it in the car for two minutes? Just until it can turn on.”
Liang Bo put on an innocent face and shook his head. “I can’t, kid. I’m just a driver; I can’t let people onto the boss’s car casually.”
The boy was persistent. “I can charge it while standing outside the car.”
Liang Bo couldn’t find a reason to refuse, so he had to hand out one end of the charging cable connected inside the car.
The boy plugged the cable into his phone and asked Liang Bo with a grin, “Brother, how long have you been a driver?”
Liang Bo brushed him off casually. “I haven’t even finished my probation period.”
“Are rich people easy to serve?”
“They’re alright.”
The boy laughed twice and teased, “He sits while you stand; he eats while you watch.”
Liang Bo squinted at him, offering a fake compliment, “Wow, you understand everything. You’re so talented.”
“Isn’t that how it is in the TV shows?”
Liang Bo countered, “Are you talking about historical dramas?”
The boy suddenly let out a hiss of pain. He had grown tired of standing and wanted to lean against the car, only to be burned by the residual heat from the engine. He rubbed his arm pitifully.
Seeing his bad luck, Liang Bo couldn’t help but feel some sympathy. He unlocked the car and invited him, “Come sit in the back seat for a bit.”
The boy nodded, pulled the door open himself, and got in, then pushed the door on the other side open and got out, not staying in the car for a moment.
Liang Bo, puzzled by his strange behavior and confused expression, leaned over the window to press him, “You’re done charging? What’s that supposed to mean?”
The boy stood outside the car with his arms crossed, still looking up to talk to him. “I bet with my friends that I could sit in your car for a moment.”
Liang Bo was amused and waved him away. “Alright, goodbye.”
A few minutes after the boy left, he returned and knocked on the window again, calling Liang Bo out. “Brother, come play games with us.” As he spoke, he pointed to the phone in Liang Bo’s hand, signaling for a game team-up. “Just at that dessert shop next door.”
Liang Bo looked up. “You mean that ‘Guoran Little Shop’?”
The boy nodded. “Their ice porridge is cheaper than in my hometown. I’ll treat you.”
Liang Bo raised an eyebrow, then got out and locked the door. He walked with the boy toward “Guoran Little Shop,” bragging as he went, “Do you know who my boss is? My boss is the big boss of this shop.”
The boy immediately changed his tune. “Then you treat us.”
“Hah!” Liang Bo was a bit speechless, but he also found the other person quite interesting. In the end, he chose to let the kid have a small advantage. “I’ll give you a few discount coupons.”
After saying that, he proactively added the other on Feixin and sent over a dozen electronic coupons from his accumulated employee benefits.
The boy was surprised. “Your boss really is the owner of this shop!”
Liang Bo nodded with a grin. “That’s right.”
“Impressive, impressive!” The boy’s manner was exaggerated, looking like he hadn’t seen much of the world, as he praised randomly.
Liang Bo teased him on purpose, pressing further, “Do you think my boss is more impressive for selling ice porridge, or am I more impressive for being a driver?”
The boy’s expression faltered—how would he know? He was just praising casually.
Fortunately, they had already stepped into the little shop by then. Several teenage kids in the tea area immediately waved to them. Once Liang Bo and the boy reached them, someone immediately asked, “Ar-jiao, what’s his name?”
Liang Bo looked at the boy with a face full of surprise. “Your name is ‘Ar-jiao’ (Donkey Hide Gelatin)?”
The boy clicked his tongue and corrected him, “My name is ‘Yu Jiao.’ The ‘Yu’ from ‘Yu Ji’ and the ‘Jiao’ from ‘Pride’.”
His companion immediately exposed him, “It’s ‘Lü-jiao’ (Donkey Gelatin), haha.”
Everyone cheered together, and the matter of asking for Liang Bo’s name was forgotten. “Lü-jiao” went to the counter to order a few more bowls of ice porridge, while Liang Bo was immediately pulled into a game team-up by the kids.
Everyone had food and drink, playing games under the air conditioning, with constant laughter and jokes.
Liang Bo heard that none of these kids had an Imperial Capital accent and asked curiously, “Are you here on a trip? Or a summer camp?”
Ar-jiao said, “Neither. Guess again.”
His companion complained with a smile, “How could he guess? We’re here to work.”
“Child labor!?” Liang Bo was shocked. “You all should be minors, right?”
“Summer jobs,” Ar-jiao said as he fished a postcard from his backpack to show Liang Bo.
On the card was a group stage photo of the boys before him; it looked like a teenage boy idol group.
Liang Bo was slightly surprised as he re-examined the six boys at the table. Each was very sweet-looking and indeed had some star potential.
“Are you all Omegas? Your parents didn’t come with you?”
Ar-jiao said, “We’re off today; the manager doesn’t care.”
His companion added, “Look at us—who here looks the least like an Omega?”
Liang Bo shook his head. “I can’t tell…”
These kids were too young; their primary sexual characteristics were only just maturing. How could anyone tell their secondary gender?
They played until Shou Jiaxun called. Liang Bo said he was at the “Guoran Little Shop” next to the hotel and told Shou Jiaxun to find him there.
The building where Shou Jiaxun had hosted his dinner was adjacent to the office building where the little shop was located, so he pushed open the shop door within two minutes.
Seeing him, Liang Bo immediately called out loudly, “I’m here… Wait a bit while I finish this round.”
“Alright—” Shou Jiaxun replied from a distance, heading off to the shelves to pick out some snacks before going to the counter to pay.
Ar-jiao turned to ask Liang Bo, “Is he really your boss?”
Liang Bo raised an eyebrow. “Of course.”
Ar-jiao turned to look at Shou Jiaxun, who was using the self-checkout. Just then, a shop assistant came out to greet him, “Hello, boss.”
Shou Jiaxun nodded. “Hello. Good work… please help me bowl some dessert.”
The shop assistant turned with a smile to open the freezer, teasing casually, “Thank you, boss, for coming to help boost our shop’s turnover.”
“As I should.” After finishing at the self-checkout, Shou Jiaxun took the bowl of sweet soup ice porridge from the assistant and reminded them with a smile, “I think the air conditioning could be turned up a bit more.”
The assistant quickly explained, “It’s usually kept very high. Today there are a few kids sitting there eating ice porridge all evening; I was afraid they’d catch a cold, so I turned it up a few degrees.”
Shou Jiaxun raised an eyebrow and gave the assistant a look of praise with a smile. Then, carrying his snacks and small ice bowl, he strolled over to sit at an empty table next to Liang Bo.
Liang Bo’s new friend, Ar-jiao, swooped over to sit opposite Shou Jiaxun. While his fingers tapped the phone screen to conquer the game, he asked the young President Shou with a face full of curiosity, “Are you really the boss of this shop? You’re so young. Are you an Omega? …Your driver is so bad at gaming; how does he usually help you ‘carry’?”
Liang Bo frowned and snapped back, “Where am I bad at gaming? I’ve been carrying you guys the whole time!”
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