This year’s weather was both hot and dry, making summer unbearably long. Every few days, sporadic autumn rains fell intermittently. The rainfall was so light it could barely moisten the ground, but the weather did finally cool down a bit.
In the third week after Cheng Lele returned to Taixi, she received a notice from the higher-level Cultural Radio, Television, Press and Publication Bureau, requiring the legal representatives and main operating personnel of all cinemas under its jurisdiction to attend a safety and epidemic prevention meeting in Mining City.
Based on the legal advisor’s recommendation, Chen An hadn’t served as the legal representative of any company, including Ping’an Joy. However, the cinema acquisition had been handled rather urgently. Tang Xin had first registered it under Chen An’s name as legal representative, but they hadn’t yet had time to handle the name change procedures.
Since it was required by an official document, Chen An drove Cheng Lele to Mining.
Mining was about an hour’s drive from Taixi. As soon as Cheng Lele got in the car, she yawned listlessly, saying she had drunk too much coffee the previous day, causing insomnia. Now the sleepiness was backlashing. Before the car even left Taixi, she was already fast asleep, leaving her superior to drive alone—she was probably the most unaware subordinate ever.
But Chen An still turned up the air conditioning temperature a bit, turned off the music in the car, reclined her seat for her, and covered her with a piece of clothing.
Although the subordinate was unreliable, the superior still knew how to care for his subordinate.
When they reached the parking lot outside the Cultural Bureau building, Cheng Lele woke up. Her eyes were still hazy. She scratched her face and sat in her seat in a daze.
“Let’s go,” Chen An urged her.
Cheng Lele asked: “What time is it?”
Chen An said: “We’re already at the scheduled time.”
“Oh no, oh no, the seats in the back rows have definitely been taken.” As Cheng Lele spoke, she hurriedly got out of the car. Walking quickly inside, she said: “Older brother, I’m counting on you today. I’m really so sleepy. Once the leader starts reading from the script, I’ll definitely pass out. You’re a top student—take good notes, and I’ll catch up on the material later.”
Chen An felt he had no dignity as a superior at all: “No time for catch-up lessons. Listen yourself. I already told you this when we were in school.”
Cheng Lele pointed to a nearby convenience store: “Then let me go buy a cup of coffee to keep myself alive.”
Chen An pulled her back: “If you keep yourself alive any more, you’ll have no life left. You won’t be sleepy if you sit in the first row.”
After signing in and entering, sure enough, in the huge conference room, only the seats in the center of the first row were empty. According to epidemic control requirements, they had to sit with empty seats between them. Cheng Lele didn’t even have anyone to hide behind.
The leaders were speaking right above her head, and the cameraman was moving around. Cheng Lele didn’t dare to sleep lying down. While taking notes, she yawned behind her mask, then silently wiped away tears after yawning.
The first half of the meeting was about production safety, and the second half was about epidemic control. There was a fifteen-minute break in the middle.
The moment the leader announced the break, Cheng Lele collapsed on the table with her pen still in hand and fell asleep.
Chen An walked over to look and discovered that the handwriting in Cheng Lele’s notebook was almost flying off into the sky. Fortunately, he had clearly recorded all the content that needed to be noted. Although it was a bunch of very official, watery speeches full of neat parallel sentences, he worried that after she woke up, she would complain to him about it, so he still listened and recorded meticulously to the end.