I slept for an entire day in my dormitory. By nighttime, I couldn’t sleep anymore, and after tossing and turning for a long while, I finally got up and played handheld games all night. On Monday morning, I went to work in a dejected state. Walking to work, I thought Lin Yusen would probably mock me again when he saw my condition, but as soon as I entered the office, I heard some terrible news.

“Vice President Lin seems to have been in a car accident.”

No way? My drowsiness instantly vanished as I remembered my wish at the temple… Could it be…

I grabbed Jiang Ya, who was spreading the news, and anxiously asked, “Is he alright?”

Jiang Ya gave me a suspicious look, her tone immediately turning sour: “Nie Xiguang, why are you so worried? I didn’t realize you cared so much about Vice President Lin?”

Then she turned and left without giving me any useful information.

Fortunately, there was soon a department meeting, presided over by General Manager Zhang, who usually didn’t handle practical matters. Manager Zhang announced that while Vice President Lin had been in a car accident, thankfully it wasn’t serious, though he would need several weeks of rest.

“I’ll take over Lin’s work this month, but with the factory expansion project ongoing, we’ll still need his input occasionally. We need someone to deliver documents to and from Vice President Lin’s home, not too frequently, just once or twice a week. Who’s willing?”

Manager Zhang looked around at us. While others were stirring with interest, I jumped up first: “Manager Zhang, I’ll go.”

Everyone turned to look at me. I coughed and explained, “First, because I’ve been following the expansion project, and well, everyone knows Vice President Lin has a very poor impression of me.”

Thinking of the usual situation, some colleagues’ gazes softened slightly.

I continued, “So I want to take this opportunity to improve Vice President Lin’s impression of me.”

And to ease my guilty conscience~~~ That’s the main reason.

I looked at Manager Zhang with sparkling eyes. Manager Zhang, probably dazzled by my enthusiastic gaze, immediately decided: “You’ll go then.”

So the next afternoon, I headed to Vice President Lin’s home with a stack of documents. A housekeeper in her fifties opened the door, and being aware that someone from the company would come, she was very polite.

“Hello auntie, is this Mr. Lin Yusen’s home?”

“Yes, yes, you’re from his company? He’s waiting in the study, please come in.”

I changed into slippers and followed her toward Lin Yusen’s study with the documents. However, at the study door, I got cold feet, suddenly feeling like a criminal going to meet their victim.

I held the housekeeper back: “Auntie, how is Vice President Lin? Is he okay? What did the doctors say?”

“He’s fine, fine, nothing serious, just aggravated an old injury! He just needs rest, shouldn’t walk too much right now, and shouldn’t stand for too long.”

He can’t even walk?

I hadn’t known my wish would be so effective, making him disappear just like that, and so dramatically… A few days ago I was full of annoyance toward Lin Yusen, but now I only felt guilty.

I hesitantly asked the housekeeper, “…Would it be inconvenient for me to go in? Maybe you could help me hand these documents to the Vice President?”

The housekeeper said, “Oh, let me ask Mr. Lin, young lady, please wait a moment.”

She was about to knock when Lin Yusen’s deep voice came from inside, “Who’s out there?”

“Mr. Lin, it’s an employee from your company, a clever young lady bringing you documents. Should I let her in, or would you like me to bring them to you?”

The study went quiet for a moment.

“Let her in.”

I pushed open the study door, and my first anxious glance went straight to Lin Yusen.

He was indeed sitting in a chair.

The floor-to-ceiling windows provide perfect lighting. He wore a light gray sweater with a thin blanket over his knees, head lowered as he read a magazine.

Although there wasn’t a hint of dishevelment or impropriety about him from head to toe, I couldn’t help but see him as someone who could barely walk.

“Vice President Lin.” I nervously walked up to him and handed him the documents.

He met my gaze.

“It’s you?”

I said sheepishly, “Yes, everyone else was busy.”

I could hardly say I came to see how badly my curse had affected him, so I had to make up such an unconvincing excuse. His gaze was analytical, and feeling guilty, I quickly lowered my head.

He closed the magazine he was holding and put it aside, took the documents, and instructed the housekeeper, “Aunt Chen, please show her to the living room.”

That “sitting” lasted over an hour, and I nearly fell asleep on the sofa. Eventually, I had to take out my phone and play games to stay awake…

I didn’t see Lin Yusen again before leaving. The housekeeper gave me the reviewed documents and another note.

“The sir said to bring the contracts on this list tomorrow.”

I was stunned for a moment – wasn’t it supposed to be once or twice a week? Why did I need to come back tomorrow? Looking down at the note, that flowing, familiar semi-cursive writing was unmistakably Lin Yusen’s.

The next afternoon, I promptly delivered the documents to him again, then prepared to wait in the living room.

Sitting in the living room was boring, but I tragically discovered that in my rush to leave, I’d left my phone at the office and couldn’t even play games. So when leaving the study, I carefully asked, “Vice President, may I look at the magazines in the living room?”

After all, they were someone else’s things, I didn’t want to browse without permission.

Without looking up, he said, “You won’t understand them.”

Huh?

“They’re all foreign medical journals.”

“Oh, then I’ll wait outside.” I prepared to slip away, feeling quite embarrassed.

“Wait.”

I looked at him.

“Stay here,” he said expressionlessly. “I might need to ask you some questions.”

…

Delivering documents come with pop quizzes now?… I silently sat down on the sofa, but after more than an hour, he acted as if I didn’t exist and didn’t ask me a single question. Only when it was time to leave did he speak: “Aunt Chen has to return to Shanghai tomorrow afternoon, you’ll let yourself in.”

He called Aunt Chen in: “Give her the key.”

“Huh?” What’s going on?

“Unless you want me to open the door?”

“Oh.”

I somewhat dazedly took the key from Aunt Chen, feeling extremely strange. I was just delivering documents, how did I suddenly end up with a key to his house?

Only after walking out did I realize – I had to come again tomorrow! That means three consecutive days at his house?

I didn’t even dare imagine my colleagues’ looks.

Maybe I should pretend to take leave tomorrow and secretly come to his house? No, no, wouldn’t that make people’s imaginations run even wilder?

Before I could come up with a foolproof plan, the time to visit Vice President Lin’s house had arrived. This time, not just Jiang Ya and the others, even Ying Jie’s eyes clearly said – you’ve developed something with Vice President Lin, haven’t you?

Well, since everyone was so suspicious anyway, I… stopped being nervous!

I confidently took the documents to Lin Yusen’s home.

Apart from letting myself in, everything was the same as before.

Just exceptionally quiet.

In the late autumn afternoon, Lin Yusen was reading documents as usual, and I was sitting foolishly on the sofa as usual. My gaze wandered from the trees outside the window to the books on the shelves, to the vase on the table, and finally landed on the empty water glass beside the vase.

Out of concern for a patient, I volunteered, “Vice President, would you like me to get you some water?”

His document-flipping motion paused for a moment before he slowly turned the page, but didn’t speak. Just when I thought I’d overstepped, he gave an almost imperceptible nod.

I quickly grabbed the glass and ran to the kitchen, lifted the kettle, and found it empty.

I poked my head back into the study doorway: “Vice President, it might take a few minutes, there’s no hot water, I need to boil some.”

He looked up at me briefly, then looked down again. I scratched my head, taking his silence as agreement, and ran back to the kitchen to watch the kettle boil.

Once the water was ready, I poured it and brought it to the study, carefully offering it to him.

“I added some ice from the fridge, so it’s not too hot, you can drink it now.”

But he didn’t take it. His gaze lingered on the glass in my hands for a while, then slowly moved to my face.

“Nie Xiguang, why do you feel guilty?”

“W-what?”

“Your face can’t hide your thoughts,” he said flatly. “Since your first visit, I could tell you felt very guilty. Why?”

“I…”

I felt uncomfortable under his gaze, thinking I hadn’t meant to curse him… But how should I answer? Tell him I cursed him at the temple, so he got into a car accident? That’s not even scientific…

He didn’t wait for me to finish my “I.”

“Nie Xiguang, this is my second car accident,” he said, looking at me, his voice low and measured.

“The last accident ended my career.”

Career? I was stunned for a moment before realizing he meant his former profession – a surgeon who wielded a scalpel.

For a surgeon, the most important thing…

My gaze unconsciously fell to his hands. His hands were very beautiful, long, and powerful with distinct knuckles. I imagined how pleasing it must have been to watch these hands holding a scalpel.

“Your…” I stopped myself in time, feeling a wave of regret.

“My hands.” He nodded, staring at me unblinkingly as he said: “If this car accident could stir up some distant memories for Miss Nie, I would be very pleased.”

What distant memories?

I looked at him in confusion: “What are you talking about?”

He didn’t answer.

But his gaze seemed to freeze instantly. He withdrew his look, and that measured, deep voice quickly turned cold.

“You may leave.”

The next day I was notified that I no longer needed to deliver documents to Vice President Lin. I belatedly realized – had I offended him again?

Mr. Lin, you’re way too easy to offend!

I held my head and thought hard but couldn’t figure out what I’d said wrong.

“It’s over,” I told Ying Jie worriedly. “When he comes back, I’ll face an even more tragic overtime hell.”

However, I was wrong this time. Two weeks later when Lin Yusen returned, he acted as if he’d completely forgotten there was someone like me in the Management Department, thoroughly sidelining me. Once when I was browsing the internet during work hours, he passed right behind me and didn’t even seem to notice.

Ying Jie congratulated me: “Xiguang, looks like those document deliveries were effective after all. See, Vice President Lin isn’t making you work overtime anymore.”

Is that so?

Was it just my imagination? Why did I feel that Lin Yusen’s attitude toward me had gotten even worse?