Chapter 21
The night was deep, the hallway was quiet, the warm yellow lights, with the alpha backlit, the smiling expression all falling into Bai He’s eyes.
“Thank you, but this is yours.” Bai He politely refused.
“It’s bought for you, I was originally planning to change clothes and then go find you.” Qin Yao smiled: “Just got a bit of a stink on me in the elevator.”
Bai He heard this, his expression puzzled.
Qin Yao didn’t explain, changing the topic: “I saw you didn’t eat much of the hot pot tonight, was it too greasy?”
Bai He didn’t expect Qin Yao to notice those details, he shook his head: “No.”
“Then you just didn’t want to eat?” Qin Yao spoke to Bai He in a much softer voice: “Mood not good?”
Bai He was silent, not denying it.
“Can you tell me why?” Qin Yao lifted the cake in his hand, gesturing for Bai He to take it, seeing Bai He’s stunned hand reach up, he placed it in the other’s hand: “No need to say if you don’t want to.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to say.” Bai He shook his head: “With Zhou Sheng, it was just dealing with a blind date.”
Qin Yao raised his eyebrows: “But he doesn’t seem to think so.”
This is what troubled Bai He, he furrowed his brows: “There’s no way between me and him, I don’t understand what he means.”
“He likes you.” Qin Yao pointed out.
“We just met for the first time.” Bai He’s beautiful face scrunched up, looking serious and cute.
Qin Yao looked at Bai He’s face for several seconds, smiling, lowering his voice: “Perhaps our Bai He classmate has heard of love at first sight?”
Bai He looked up, a trace of bewilderment flashing across his face, his lips opening and closing, wanting to speak but hesitating.
Suddenly, a creaking sound burst into the ears of the two, like uncompletely dried concrete being smashed, not ear-piercing, but unpleasant to hear.
Bai He didn’t even have time to react, the person standing in front of him immediately pounced and shielded him, Qin Yao pulled Bai He into his embrace, the alpha using his hand to cover Bai He’s head, his tall figure completely obscuring Bai He.
A bang, Qin Yao let out a muffled groan.
Through the gap, Bai He saw a large chunk of wall plaster fall and hit Qin Yao’s back hard.
The delayed plot influence, it has arrived.
Bai He’s heart tightened, he even forgot to breathe, he came out of Qin Yao’s embrace, reaching out to support the other’s shoulders, his voice trembling: “Are you alright… I-I’ll call an ambulance—”
He felt for his phone, but his wrist was caught by Qin Yao’s raised hand, the alpha smiling at him: “I’m fine, don’t rush.”
Bai He’s eyes were fixed, he stared at Qin Yao’s face for a long time before finally squeezing out a few words: “Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying to you.” Qin Yao smiled lightly: “Just a superficial injury, it shouldn’t be bleeding, just need to treat it.”
Bai He grabbed Qin Yao’s wrist and pulled him into his own home, not allowing the alpha any chance to refuse.
Pushing Qin Yao to sit on the sofa, Bai He went to find the first aid kit, then brought a stool and sat down in front of Qin Yao: “Take off your clothes.”
Qin Yao paused, smiling: “Really, I’m fine.”
Bai He looked at him without saying anything.
“Okay.” The alpha placed his hands on the hem of his shirt, flipping it up, deftly taking off his clothes and revealing his toned body.
Bai He’s breath caught, he had thought Qin Yao’s figure would be good, but it was still a bit conservative, the alpha’s body was not particularly prominent with bulging muscles, but a physique between young and adult, the abs and pecs were well-trained, the shoulders were very wide, the lines of the chest and abdomen were distinct, the build was very tight, with just the right amount of muscle in every part, full of explosive power.
Bai He’s dazed expression was too obvious, Qin Yao’s slender eyes narrowed, and he lowered his head slightly, leveling his gaze with Bai He’s: “Aren’t you supposed to treat my wound?”
Bai He came to his senses, humming in acknowledgment: “Turn around.”
Qin Yao hooked his lips, obeying the order and turning around.
The injury on his back was indeed not too serious, just a scrape through the clothes, Bai He used a cotton ball soaked in iodine to clean the wound, then applied some medicine and bandaged it up.
By the time he was done, it was already quite late, Qin Yao put his clothes back on, glancing at the mousse cake on the table: “Actually, I should have asked you first before buying it, do you like cake?”
Bai He stood up after putting away the tools: “I like it, thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Qin Yao opened the door to go back to his own home, turning back to Bai He before leaving: “If you have any trouble, you can come find me.”
Bai He didn’t really understand the meaning of Qin Yao’s words, he belatedly realized that Qin Yao must have just encountered Guan Jiaoyu and Bai Lu, as for why he would think Bai He would have trouble if he encountered those two, Bai He couldn’t figure it out, but for Qin Yao’s words, he still nodded in agreement.
Qin Yao left, Bai He went back to his room to rest, he had just lain down when he sat up again, lifting the thin quilt to go to the kitchen, opening the refrigerator to take out the mousse cake that Qin Yao had bought, scooping a bite with a spoon.
It was very sweet and soft, his mood seemed to have improved a bit.
…
“Still didn’t pass, still didn’t pass!!” Xia Yu leaned back in her chair, reaching up to furiously grab her own hair, howling in frustration: “What exactly do those old folks want?!!!”
Bai He placed the coffee on Xia Yu’s desk: “What’s the reason this time?”
“A long-winded speech, not a single point hitting the crux!” Xia Yu sat up, her face utterly dejected as she took a sip of coffee, looking up at the ceiling, bitter beyond words: “This product has broken the records for longest review time and most number of rejections, I’ve never encountered such a tricky review before, and the government department still doesn’t clearly state the reason!!”
Bai He leaned forward, looking at the computer interface in front of Xia Yu, which had the application terms for the ninth rejection, the reason for the rejection column filled with a lot of flowery words, hardly any related to the product.
It was obvious that the upper levels were deliberately suppressing this product.
The reason…
Bai He was silent, at this moment the office door was pushed open, the field staff came back.
The man in the lead was an alpha, the team leader Jifeng, he strode back to his workstation, picked up his water cup and took a sip of tea, seeing the Xia Yu who was lying in the chair as if half-dead, he immediately understood: “The pheromone detection bracelet failed the ninth review, we’ll have a meeting later.”
Zhao Lingyue who was right behind him stumbled, leaning against the wall and trembling: “You’re kidding, it didn’t pass again?? Damn it, what exactly do they want us to do?!”
“This is the product with the most reviews, right?” Kong Yizhou walked behind and supported the pretentious Zhao Lingyue, letting go and returning to his own seat: “It’s broken the record again, great, this life is getting more and more hopeful.”
“Anyone want a watermelon?” The long-haired girl who came in carrying a bag of fruit looked exhausted, handing out watermelons to everyone, and when she passed by Bai He, she casually patted Bai He’s soft hair: “I’ll give you an apple too.”
“Thank you, Yuzi sister.” Bai He held the apple gratefully.
Li Yuzi smiled, reaching out to pinch Bai He’s face: “You’re too thin, you need to eat more meat.”
“Sister Yuzi is feeding little Bai He again.” The last one to come in, a young man, had several cups of coffee in his hands, handing them out to everyone, then coming to Bai He, taking out a bottle of milk and giving it to Bai He: “Drink more milk, little guy, and you’ll grow taller.”
Bai He was pleasantly surprised as he held the milk: “Thank you, Yichen brother.”
“You little brat.” Li Yuzi went back to her seat, opening her computer: “The previous batch of products has all been submitted, I’ll send the link to everyone, you can go take a look.”
Everyone responded, and they all started to quietly handle their own matters, Bai He returned to his workstation, needing to sort out the documents brought back by the field staff.
This time the team went out to investigate three products, and for each product, in addition to the final government review, the products also needed to go to various communities for user experience surveys and product reviews, the process was very troublesome.
The government office had more than ten departments, handling similar content, just with different assigned products, each office had six or seven people, not many, the employees were very busy, it’s not that they didn’t recruit, but this department had extremely high requirements for employees, it was always difficult to recruit, they were very tired, but the salaries and benefits given by the president were very high, which made up for everyone’s fatigue.
After finishing the work at hand, Jifeng called everyone to the next office for a meeting.
Just a small meeting, only the few of them from their office.
On the way to the next office, Bai He, carrying the documents, looked up and saw Qin Yao.
He knew Qin Yao was also interning here, and the two would occasionally run into each other at the company these days.
Bai He nodded at him, Qin Yao smiled at him.
The alpha came towards them, greeting the team leader Jifeng: “Team Leader Jifeng, having a meeting?”
Jifeng saw it was him, nodding: “Yeah, a small meeting.”
“About the pheromone detection bracelet?” Qin Yao didn’t beat around the bush, speaking directly: “Can I sit in and listen?”
Jifeng nodded again: “Of course.”
Entering the conference room, everyone sat down around the long table, Bai He sat at the end, taking out a notebook to take notes, Qin Yao came over and leaned in next to Bai He’s ear: “No one sitting next to you?”
Bai He nodded.
Qin Yao casually pulled out the chair and sat down.
Jifeng soon got into the main topic.
“The bracelet failed the ninth review, the reasons given by the upper levels have three points.” He read out those three paragraphs in a cold voice, his expression impassive.
“The problem with the bracelet is essentially a ‘can or cannot’ issue, in this case, the key is whether it can, before we can get into where exactly it cannot.”
“The key is to emphasize feasibility, and feasibility requires the product to have both advantages and avoid disadvantages.”
“Fundamentally, the problem comes down to the word ‘reason’, so how should we reason? This requires a dialectical approach.”
Jifeng finished reading the reasons given by the upper levels, looked up, his icy gaze sweeping over the gaping group.
“Isn’t this just nonsense?” Zhao Lingyue covered his face in despair, crying out: “Damn it, if they don’t want to approve it, just say it directly, why talk all this bullshit!”
“The trash essays I used to write are just like this.” Xia Yu grimly smiled, laughing and then howling: “Listening to a speech, wasted ten years of study!!”
“So what do we do this time?” Li Yuzi was still relatively calm, looking at Jifeng at the front of the table: “Change the reason and reapply?”
Jifeng’s face was as calm as the snowy ground in winter, he spread out the documents, crossing his arms: “Let’s talk about the first point first, what do you think ‘can and cannot’ means?”
The people present were stunned, Yichen lowered his voice and said to the side of Bai He: “Team Leader Jifeng has a kind of calm craziness, I feel like he’s going to break at any moment.”
“I’m not that easily broken.” Jifeng tapped his fingers on the table: “No side-chatting during the meeting, Yichen, warning you once.”
“Ugh.” Yichen covered his mouth, making a zipping gesture with his hand, obediently shutting up.
No one offered any insights, Jifeng was silent for two seconds: “None?”
“I have.” Bai He spoke up, everyone looked at him, he paused for a moment, pushing back his chair and standing up, his voice natural: “Since the team leader is asking for opinions, I’ll just share my personal thoughts.”
“Go ahead.” Jifeng nodded.
Bai He flipped open his notebook.
“The function of the bracelet is to detect pheromone concentration in the 50-100 meter range, which means it can detect alphas or omegas who have entered the estrus period or heat period within this distance,” Bai He said: “If widely used, if the bracelet detects an alpha entering the estrus period, those wearing the bracelet may automatically stay away to avoid trouble, but if it detects an omega entering heat, will those wearing the bracelet really stay away?”
Everyone was silent, Li Yuzi interjected: “This issue was actually discussed when developing this product, human nature is hard to predict, perhaps some may have ill intentions towards that omega, but if most people know there is an omega in heat nearby, those with ill intentions probably won’t dare to act rashly.”
“Should, but not absolutely.” Bai He continued: “Any uncertain factors may lead to an irreversible situation, the government is advocating for enhanced protection of the omega group, they won’t allow anything that threatens the omega group, not at all.”
The office fell silent again.
“These principal issues were mentioned before.” Kong Yizhou spoke: “But there’s one point, if we cancel the function of the bracelet detecting omega heat, and only make it able to detect alpha estrus, the public survey part may not pass, you all know, society advocates ABO equality, some people with distorted thinking may feel this is targeting the A group…”
“How is that targeting, really…” Yichen muttered in distress.
“It’s not necessarily to cancel the function of detecting omega heat.” Bai He flipped another page: “I’m thinking, can we add an alarm function to the bracelet? When it detects an omega in heat or an alpha in estrus, the nearby bracelets will automatically call the police and hospital, giving a time difference to alert the police and alert the wearer, so the police have time to arrive.”
Silence, everyone looking at Bai He, Jifeng didn’t speak, sitting next to him, Qin Yao smiled and turned on the speakerphone on his phone: “Mr. Qin, what do you think?”
A few seconds of silence on the phone: “Reserve opinion, notify the department to try modifying the product.”
“Okay.” Qin Yao hung up the phone, tilting his head and smiling sweetly at Bai He: “Our little Bai He is so smart.”
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