Given how awkward and cringeworthy this emoji was, Zhou Mi wanted to delete it too, but ultimately couldn’t bring herself to be so ruthless. She chose to ignore it and instead consulted about what concerned her most:

[Can I go back to work now?]

Zhang Lian replied: How is your physical condition currently?

Zhou Mi sent back an energetic bicep emoji: Great, strong, and robust, capable of handling all kinds of work with ease.

Zhang Lian: Next Monday, then. Don’t rush things. Cheng Xi said you should rest more after going home.

Zhou Mi replied: How can I not be anxious? If I don’t return to the company soon, I’ll be removed from Yan’s list.

Zhang Lian: Aren’t you officially involved in any projects yet?

Feeling like a knife had stabbed her heart, Zhou Mi clutched her chest: But if I rest any longer, I’ll be replaced by other interns, with even fewer opportunities to prove myself.

Zhang Lian replied: There will always be opportunities if you stay at Aoxing.

Zhou Mi pressed her lips: You’re being so perfunctory.

Zhang Lian said: What would count as not being perfunctory, opening a back door for you?

Zhou Mi quickly refused and explained: Is that what I meant? I just want to get back to work sooner.

Zhang Lian: Next time, speak clearly. Don’t always make it sound like you’re hinting at something, causing misunderstandings.

Zhou Mi had no way to defend herself: Aren’t you the one who overthinks things?

Zhang Lian seemed unwilling to waste time on this topic: When will you get home?

Zhou Mi glanced at the road signs outside the window, then at the time in the upper right corner of her screen: Probably in about fifteen minutes.

Zhang Lian: Find a convenient place to talk. I’ll call you in half an hour.

Zhou Mi: Is my bedroom okay?

Zhang Lian didn’t reply further.

After arriving home, Zhou Mi immediately used the excuse “I’m tired from the car ride and want to rest” to quickly retreat to her room.

Even though her mother was anxiously trying to pull her to the sofa to chat and ask about more of Zhang Lian’s details and their “dating specifics.”

Sitting at her desk, Zhou Mi nervously waited until almost ten o’clock while scrolling through Weibo. Zhang Lian’s call arrived as promised, not a minute late nor a second early.

Zhou Mi put on her earphones with a proper attitude: “Hello, boss.”

The man went straight to the point, his tone difficult to discern emotionally, somewhat cold and distant: “Zhou Mi, let me ask you something first.”

Zhou Mi sat up straight as if listening to a master’s lecture: “Go ahead.”

Zhang Lian asked: “These past few days in the hospital, you were constantly typing on your tablet. What were you doing?”

Zhou Mi hesitated: “Don’t laugh at me when I tell you.”

Zhang Lian said, “As long as you’re not writing a novel, I won’t laugh at you.”

Zhou Mi was speechless for a second: “Didn’t I hear from you last time that Yan took on Enmei Organic Milk’s project? I was bored in the hospital, so I collected and organized data and materials on several other similar types of milk, trying to make a competitor comparison. I also organized some activity pages that I felt were good, like H5 and such.”

Zhang Lian seemed somewhat surprised, his tone softening a bit: “Is that so?”

Zhou Mi replied: “Yes.”

Zhang Lian asked: “Why did you do this?”

Zhou Mi said, “To maintain work sharpness. I was afraid that when I went back, I wouldn’t know anything and couldn’t keep up with everyone’s pace.”

“And then?”

“That’s it.”

Zhang Lian laughed lightly: “Taking initiative to find work is good, but doing work without letting anyone know—are you providing welfare? It’s not even welfare, it’s equivalent to wasted effort.”

Zhou Mi humbly asked for guidance: “Then what should I do?”

Zhang Lian said unhurriedly, “You’re on leave, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make your presence known to your supervisor. Send what you’ve done to her.”

Zhou Mi went to her suitcase, squatted down, and took out her tablet: “But I’ve never done this before. It’s just an attempt. I’m afraid it’s too amateurish and might have the opposite effect. Besides, I haven’t even joined the project team. Wouldn’t it seem presumptuous?”

“You’re just an intern. There’s no such thing as being presumptuous or not. You just need to let your leader see your proactive attitude. Of course, if what you’ve done has a good level of completion and reference value, that would be icing on the cake.”

Zhou Mi looked down and opened the document, scrolling through it roughly. Not feeling very confident, she instinctively asked: “Can you help me look at it?”

“No,” Zhang Lian refused without mercy: “My time is much more valuable than yours. I don’t have time to teach you hand in hand.”

“Oh, alright,” Zhou Mi mumbled weakly: “Is there a difference? Aren’t you teaching me ear to ear right now…”

His tone was indifferent: “Next time, keep it in your heart. Otherwise, I’ll pull your ear.”

“…” How could he always come up with these half-flirtatious, half-admonishing remarks so effortlessly?

Zhou Mi’s ears reddened slightly. She remained silent for a moment, then pretended to be obedient, enunciating each word: “O-kay-then.”

Zhang Lian was amused by her impish manner: “Do you know what to do now?”

Zhou Mi curled her legs up on the chair, chin resting on her knees, not very confidently replying: “I think so.”

“You think so?” He was not satisfied with this ambiguous answer.

“I know, understand, completely comprehend!” Zhou Mi’s words were as crisp as if she were calling out during military training.

“Good, hanging up.” Zhang Lian ended the call without saying goodbye.

—

After putting down her phone, Zhou Mi quickly copied the documents from her tablet to her computer, carefully organized and refined them once more, then packaged them with proper and polite text content and sent them to Ye Yan’s email.

Watching the “message sent successfully” notification, Zhou Mi let out a long breath, comfortably hugged her legs, and leaned back in her chair.

From discovering her pregnancy until this moment, nearly twenty days had passed. This was the first time she felt so relieved, like escaping from a shaded area to bathe in sunlight, floating upward as lightly as dust.

She lazily narrowed her eyes for a while, but her mother’s loud call for her to come out and eat dinner pierced through the door, shattering this moment’s soft-filtered light.

Estimating it would be a perilous banquet, Zhou Mi flattened her lips, slipped on her slippers, and did some mental preparation before walking out.

When she sat down at her designated seat at the dining table, the first thing that caught her eye was a large bowl of milky white anglerfish soup with king oyster mushroom slices and tender tofu, looking rich and delicious.

Tang Peili eagerly handed her a soup spoon: “Finish the soup before eating rice.”

“The doctor said there’s no need for excessive nourishment, just eat and drink normally.” Zhou Mi accepted with both hands, muttering a word of resistance.

Tang Peili turned a deaf ear and continued serving rice for her husband and herself.

Zhou Xing glanced at his wife, then looked sympathetically at his daughter: “Just drink as much as you can.”

Zhou Mi sighed inwardly and weakly scooped a spoonful into her mouth.

Her mother had deliberately used less salt, making the fish soup taste far less appealing than it looked.

Zhou Mi lowered her head and drank several mouthfuls in succession, feeling that the water level had barely decreased. She couldn’t help but feel resentful: “They didn’t serve such huge bowls at the hospital. I’m not a hippopotamus.”

Tang Peili began to mock: “Everything at the hospital is good, the doctors are always right. Why don’t you just live there for life and never come back? Your mother is just a housewife, not fit to serve such a precious scholar like you.”

Zhou Mi hadn’t expected her to still be holding a grudge. She quickly used her chopsticks to pick up a large piece of fish meat and stuffed it into her mouth, lavishly praising her mother to appease her: “Of course, home is the best, because home has mom. Mom’s cooking is the best in the world, and mom’s love is unmatched.”

Tang Peili’s expression finally brightened. She sat down and ate a couple of mouthfuls of rice from her bowl, then asked curiously: “Has Zhang Lian contacted you?”

Zhou Mi said: “Yes, he has.”

Tang Peili raised her eyebrows and followed up: “Did he ask if you got home safely?”

“Yes.” Zhou Mi deeply admired Zhang Lian’s prophetic abilities. She calmly showed this WeChat conversation to her mother for a glance, to prevent her from over-speculating.

Tang Peili took one look and beamed with joy. She even took out her phone from her apron pocket, looking at the text messages she had received last night, sharing and exchanging with her: “Look, your new boyfriend knows how to care for people.”

Zhou Mi: “…”

Zhou Xing snorted, speaking coldly: “You should marry him for your second marriage, then.”

Tang Peili gave him a fierce glare: “What nonsense are you talking about? I just think our Mimi has finally opened her eyes, her taste has improved, and she knows what kind of man is truly reliable.”

Zhou Xing put down his chopsticks and rubbed his head with a convinced expression, perplexed: “He did this to your daughter, and you still call that reliable?”

“Do you know he did it on purpose?” Tang Peili’s elbow pointed severely outward: “And it’s not like he didn’t take responsibility. He’s not young anymore. Losing the child probably hurts him more than our daughter.”

Zhou Mi was almost having digestive problems listening to this. She began to rub her temples: “Can we please not talk about this? Just thinking about it gives me a headache.”

“Alright, alright, we won’t talk about it anymore,” Tang Peili lovingly stroked her forehead, changing the subject: “When are you going back to work?”

Zhou Mi thought for a moment, not very certain: “Next Monday, I guess.”

Tang Peili’s gaze swept across father and daughter like a searchlight: “Zhang Lian’s parents want to meet us for lunch on Sunday. Can both of you make time?”

“So soon?” Zhou Mi put down her soup spoon, her appetite completely gone after being hit with this bombshell announcement.

Zhou Xing, meanwhile, displayed an attitude of indifference: “I’ll try my best.”

“What do you mean you’ll try?” Tang Peili decisively redirected her spearhead toward her husband: “It’s about your daughter’s lifelong happiness. You want to be absent?”

“How did this become a lifelong matter?” Zhou Mi’s eyelids fluttered several times in disbelief: “Is there any need to rush like this?”

Tang Peili looked back at her with a serious expression, somewhat self-satisfied: “You don’t even know how much your advisor likes you. When she talks to me about you, it feels like she’s your birth mother. With her son being so outstanding, she still acts as if she’s afraid you won’t accept him and will feel wronged—does she have some kind of illness?”

Tang Peili let out a hiss, picked up her chopsticks, and pondered as if no one else was present: “But that’s not right either. After all, she was preg… Could it be she has a terminal illness? That doesn’t seem right. He’s tall and robust… and his appearance and complexion are very good…”

Zhou Mi exchanged a blank look with her father, both speechless.

—

In the afternoon, Zhou Mi, who had intended to take a nap, tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. Finally, she dug out her phone from under her pillow and sent a WeChat message to Zhang Lian to communicate.

Three capitalized English letters: SOS

Plus two Chinese characters: Help me

After a few minutes, the man replied with a “?”

Zhou Mi’s fingers flew across the screen: Do you know about the meeting between both families on Sunday?

Zhang Lian replied: Yes.

Zhou Mi said: Then why are you so calm? And you didn’t even tell me.

Zhang Lian: Didn’t we already discuss this?

Zhou Mi: Are you going to go through with what we talked about before???

Zhang Lian: We’ll play it by ear.

Zhou Mi sighed to the heavens: I haven’t even figured out what to do yet.

Zhang Lian asked: What haven’t you figured out?

Zhou Mi carefully chose her words: Saying it is one thing, doing it is another. I don’t want to “fake marry” you.

Zhang Lian: You think I want to?

Zhou Mi sent back an expression of united front against a common enemy: So we’re on the same page?

Zhang Lian: Let’s talk strategy first.

Zhou Mi couldn’t come up with more plans and could only try to lighten the mood: I’m in the client department, not the strategy department.

Zhang Lian showed no mercy: That joke wasn’t funny.

Zhou Mi sighed: Then what should we do?

She suggested: Why don’t you tell my mom you have a terminal illness? Due to your side being so enthusiastic, she’s already started suspecting this at lunch.

Zhang Lian probably laughed lightly: What terminal illness?

Zhang Lian: Named Zhou Mi?

Zhou Mi opened her mouth, took three deep breaths to alleviate the violent tendencies surging up, and then calmly said: Rest assured, at worst it’s just a minor cold, which can be quickly cured.

Zhang Lian: I hope you can keep your word.

How could this person switch so smoothly between being considerate and cold-blooded? Zhou Mi’s forehead was nearly smoking. She immediately ended the conversation.

However, not long after, another message came from him.

It seemed to be a screenshot.

Zhou Mi opened it to take a look, and a myriad of emotions welled up. She didn’t know whether to cry or laugh, to be smug or aggrieved.

It was a screenshot of a chat in the company management group. The content was from her leader, Ye Yan, who had thrown the screenshot of her email into the group with an incredulous tone:

Can you believe it? The intern I’m mentoring went for hemorrhoid surgery and still prepared a decent competitor analysis for me. I haven’t met such a sensible intern in almost a year.

After a moment of dead silence in the chat box, Zhou Mi’s spirit collapsed, but she still decided to ask for clarification: Wasn’t it appendicitis surgery?

Zhang Lian’s reply conveyed completely insincere helplessness: If she misspoke, there’s nothing I can do about it.