When Chen An entered the room again, the group was already playing cards.

Cheng Lele was among them, holding a hand of cards with the faces half-tilted up so that almost everyone present could see them. Like a fool, she was frowning and muttering to herself as she calculated which cards to play.

Chen An sat down beside her unobtrusively and said, “Play a pair of aces.”

Cheng Lele played the pair of aces without thinking.

“We’re on the same team!” shouted the employee across from them.

Cheng Lele said, “Oh oh, sorry about that, Huang Wei.” But she didn’t turn back to blame Chen An for his misguided directions.

Following Chen An’s request, the blond guy brought over a cup of warm milk. Because of his DNA, he immediately reached out to take it for her, pressing his fingertips against the rim of the cup to test the temperature.

Then Chen An placed the cup beside Cheng Lele. Afraid she might knock it over with her elbow, he reminded her to drink it quickly. Cheng Lele took it and drank it all in one gulp like taking medicine. Then her tongue licked around her lips, and she handed the cup back. Chen An took it from her.

Everything was so natural, just like when Chen An used to supervise Cheng Lele drinking milk as a child. But the other people held their cards, their gazes filled with shock as they looked back and forth between Chen An and Cheng Lele.

No boss would supervise their subordinate drinking milk. Chen An was the first to realize this. The second before, he had been warning himself that this wouldn’t happen again, and the next second his hands and feet seemed to not belong to himself. Cheng Lele was like the moon—no matter how far apart they were, no matter how long they’d been separated, and no matter how calm as a deep sea he usually was, when the time came, he still had to experience high and low tides, surging and roaring.

However, only Chen An was trapped by love. Cheng Lele would only be trapped by the card game. She didn’t notice anything wrong with what had just happened. Holding her cards and frowning, she turned to ask him, “Which one should I play?”

Chen An said, “Play it yourself.”

Cheng Lele pouted, thought for a long time, drew out one card, causing Huang Wei to shout, “Hey, sis, why did you play that one?”

Cheng Lele’s card skills were inferior, and feeling embarrassed about dragging down her teammate, she focused on chatting instead: “Huang Wei, when does your school start?”

Huang Wei was a part-time student, only a freshman, who had gotten into a private university in western China. Because of the pandemic, she had been taking online classes the whole time and still didn’t know what her school looked like.

Huang Wei said, “Probably not until next semester. Sis, did you go to school in Beijing? Is it convenient to follow celebrities there?”

Cheng Lele said, “I don’t follow celebrities.”

After saying this, she guiltily glanced in Chen An’s direction.

Chen An didn’t expose her, pretending that all those magazines, posters, CDs, and autographed photos he had spent a fortune buying back in the day had been fed to the dogs.

Shen Dafeng said, “Huang Wei, if you’re such a celebrity fan, why didn’t you choose Beijing when filling out your college applications?”

The warning light in Cheng Lele’s heart flickered—she felt this topic was subtly starting to implicate her.

Huang Wei shot back, “Easy for you to say. Did you not go to Tsinghua because you didn’t want to?”

Beep beep beep—Cheng Lele felt this topic was too dangerous. After all, the person sitting next to her didn’t go to Tsinghua indeed because he didn’t want to. But why he didn’t want to involved that sensitive part again.

Cheng Lele changed the subject: “You’re a celebrity fan? Which celebrity do you like?”

“Liang Yuchao! I’m a topic moderator for Chaochao!” Huang Wei appeared especially excited when mentioning her idol, dropping several cards.

Cheng Lele was stunned. The first time she heard this name, he was still lukewarm. She had even specially searched for him on Baidu. She hadn’t expected him to suddenly become wildly popular this year.

Cheng Lele asked, “You like Liang Yuchao? If there’s a chance, I’ll get his autograph for you.”

Huang Wei’s eyes filled with hearts: “Really? I really love him. He was a top student before entering the entertainment industry.”

Cheng Lele made a dismissive sound: “Then you haven’t seen a real top student.” The national mathematics olympiad gold medal was still engraved on his left arm, but unfortunately she couldn’t show it off. How frustrating.

“Have you seen his breakout work? That web series ‘Love at the Time of Parting’?”

Shen Dafeng commented from the side: “Just hearing that name, it must be a sticky, cheesy, brainless drama.” His words resulted in Huang Wei stomping on his foot.

Cheng Lele casually drew out a card: “What’s it about?”

Huang Wei said, “The male lead that Liang Yuchao plays and the female lead are a pair of siblings. The older brother was adopted and fell in love with his younger sister, but the younger sister only sees him as her brother. Then one day when the sister was sleeping, the brother kissed her…”

Cheng Lele’s cards trembled, and she suddenly stood up, shouting loudly, “Hey, isn’t anyone going to sing? Who’s singing next door? Why don’t we go check it out?”

Her face was like it had been dyed with paint, red through and through.

Tao Yu had just come out from the next room. Hearing Cheng Lele’s excited statement that exceeded her usual decibel level, he immediately ran over and ingratiatingly said, “Manager, want to sing? Do you like Eason Chan?”

Cheng Lele said with a dry throat, “Eason Chan, of course I like Eason Chan. I’m his die-hard fan, I can sing every one of his songs.”

“Alright, the next song is one I requested, also my favorite, ‘Siblings.’ I’ll let you sing it.”

Looking at this group of people who specialized in pouring oil on fires, Cheng Lele wanted to cry but had no tears. She said, “I don’t know how to sing this song.”

“Huh? That song—” Tao Yu, thinking Cheng Lele had forgotten, started humming it himself, “Let us be hypocritical, have feelings, don’t waste them, a couple who can’t be lovers, acting intimate like two siblings…”

Cheng Lele wanted to rush up and cover his mouth. Pushing and shoving, she went out the door: “No more Eason Chan, let’s sing BLACKPINK.”

After going out, she secretly glanced at Chen An with her peripheral vision. She didn’t see very clearly, but instinctively felt little brother’s expression wasn’t very good.

Sigh, how could his expression be good? Each and every one of them was stepping on his wound.

Cheng Lele played ostrich, singing two or three songs with her head down in the karaoke room. Using going to the bathroom as an excuse, she passed by the card-playing room but didn’t see Chen An. She couldn’t help but go in and ask, “Where’s Boss Chen?”

Shen Dafeng said with the voice of experience, “Boss Chen left. Bosses, you know, they basically just come to settle the bill, show their face and that’s it. It’s not appropriate for them to stay the whole time.”

“Oh.” Cheng Lele asked hesitantly, “What was his mood like when he left?”

Shen Dafeng carefully recalled: “Not very good.” He paused, “Probably spent quite a bit of money today.”

Huang Wei said disappointedly, “Never thought our boss looks so handsome but is such a penny-pincher. So disillusioning. Not like my Chaochao, who pays out of his own pocket to buy food and drinks for his fans.”

Cheng Lele was furious with her, thinking she wouldn’t give her Liang Yuchao’s autographed poster even if she got one—the instigator was now biting back. But due to her leadership position, she couldn’t be so petty as to squabble with this rookie.

She sat down, poured herself a glass of water, and asked, “That TV series ‘Love at What-whatever-thing’—”

Huang Wei perked up hearing this and enthusiastically promoted it: “It’s ‘Love at the Time of Parting.’ Sis, go watch it. If it’s not good, I’ll cut off my head for you.”

Cheng Lele thought, what would I do with your head, I can’t even kick it like a ball. “Just be this enthusiastic when selling tickets in the future. In this drama, what happened to the male and female leads in the end?”

Shen Dafeng interjected, “Of course they got together. Do you even need to ask?”

Cheng Lele said, “But didn’t the younger sister not like the older brother?”

Huang Wei said, “She liked him later.”

“How did she come to like him later?”

“She liked him after being kissed.”

Cheng Lele rolled her eyes: “One kiss and she likes him? Then she never really saw him as a brother, right? If someone else came and kissed her, would she also like that person? This drama is so cliché.”

Huang Wei vacillated between defending her idol and considering her supervisor’s feelings, ultimately choosing silence.

Shen Dafeng, finding it not lively enough, added fuel to the fire: “I’m guessing at the beginning the male lead was very poor, but then it turns out his biological parents are from a conglomerate family, right?”

Huang Wei asked, “How did you know?”

Shen Dafeng was disdainful, and Cheng Lele was also disdainful: “Same old formula. Isn’t there any plot where the male lead stays down and out?”

“Sis, are you talking about ‘Prince Turns into a Frog’?”

Cheng Lele thought about Chen An’s family situation over these seven years: “Oh, maybe he was never really a prince from start to finish.”

“Always a frog? Then you should watch ‘Country Love Story.’ Currently domestic idol dramas don’t support this.”

Cheng Lele stood up angrily: “So our country’s idol dramas have corrupted you young people! Each one with high expectations but low abilities!”

“Sis, where are you going?” Shen Dafeng shouted from behind.

“To the bathroom!”

Huang Wei asked, “Why is the manager’s temper so bad?”

Shen Dafeng said, “She’s under a lot of stress. Try working seven days straight from morning to midnight and see how you feel.”

Huang Wei nodded: “But the boss is so stingy, he probably can’t give the manager much money, right?”

“Tongda pays her salary, what do you think?” Shen Dafeng acted worldly-wise.

“Oh, that’s fine then. Such a big company like Tongda must be generous with money. For the sake of money, being a bit tired is acceptable.”

Another person chimed in: “Hey, don’t you think there’s something weird between Boss Chen and the manager?”

“You’re just noticing now? I saw them holding hands at the entrance the other day.”

“What?!”

“It’s a husband-and-wife business, what’s so surprising about that?”

“No wonder Boss Chen’s eyes kept sticking to the manager. I thought he was going to sexually harass Manager Cheng.”

“When you’re that handsome, it’s not called sexual harassment, it’s called devotion.”

“Exactly, I welcome Boss Chen to sexually harass me anytime.”

“What kind of values do you people have?”

“Mind your own business. If Manager Cheng sexually harassed you, would you be excited?”

“Tsk.”

…

While the employees gossiped behind her back with everyone talking at once, Cheng Lele had been sitting on the toilet for quite a while. She pondered sending a message to comfort little brother, but didn’t know how to begin.

It was she who had brought harm to little brother. If she went to comfort him, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t cause secondary harm.

Cheng Lele sighed in distress, once again thinking of the dream she had yesterday when she was dazed and drowsy. Should she try it with little brother?

But everyone was an adult now. Dating wasn’t just about chatting. Back then, just one kiss was enough to horrify her for several months. If things went further, wouldn’t she go into shock for a year?

If they dated and she couldn’t endure it and backed out, that would be an even greater sin.

She took out her phone, opened WeChat—there were several red dots on Chen Xiaomu’s avatar.

Opening it, this person had actually sent links to download porn, with the caption: “Japanese content for women, suitable for your enlightenment.”

Cheng Lele thought, I watched “Lust, Caution” in a big theater when I was little—I was enlightened much earlier than you.

Then she started thinking wildly again. Little brother didn’t already like her back then, did he?

She just didn’t understand—perfectly good family affection, at which stage did something go wrong that it suddenly underwent a qualitative change?

Huang Wei’s loud voice penetrated several walls, and she could still hear a few notes of her singing even in the bathroom.

Cheng Lele thought of that wretched drama “Love at the Time of Parting” and, with the attitude of learning from it, opened a video app and searched for clips from Liang Yuchao’s idol drama.

Opening the first episode, the male lead was showering under the spray, showing off his abs for ages. Then the camera turned, and the male lead came out of the room with a towel wrapped around his lower body, was caught by the female lead, embarrassing her so much she covered her eyes.

Cheng Lele thought, this younger sister probably has some serious issues.

In the past, during summer when the neighborhood frequently had power outages and it was unbearably hot, little brother would study shirtless. She even knew where each mole on little brother’s back was located. If she had been like this younger sister, wouldn’t her eyes have developed cataracts from covering them so much?

Did the screenwriter even understand what it meant to be siblings who grew up under the same roof?