LA ⋆ Chapter 5: Bitter and Spicy

# AMENDED TRANSLATION

The next day at work, Sheng Yao's suspended heart finally gave up.

N+1, better late than never.

Cheng Ai didn't come to work. Liu, the executive assistant, had a talk with Sheng Yao, and everything unfolded exactly as Sheng Yao had imagined, courteous and polished. Talk about poor company performance, optimizing personnel structure, how he was actually a great person, being added to the talent pool, perhaps they'd meet again someday, and so on and so forth. Very dignified, very polite.

Sheng Yao had seen the company's financial reports. Business was booming. Whatever. It was pointless. Damn capitalists, firing people on a whim.

Sheng Yao sat across from Liu in the small conference room. The lighting was harsh and bright, and shadows of hurried figures passed by the frosted glass from time to time.

Liu cleared his throat: "You'll formally resign in a month. You can take your time with the handover."

With the information confirmed, Sheng Yao was no longer anxious, and didn't need to worry about his desk location anymore. He studied Liu, this mature and steady middle-aged man who was exactly what Sheng Yao imagined an ideal assistant to be. Any thorny case that reached him was handled perfectly. All the other assistants were managed by Liu. Except for him, Sheng Yao. Actually, Liu should have been the one sitting at his desk.

"If you have no other questions, then that's settled?" Liu stood up.

In the midst of scattered idle thoughts, Sheng Yao suddenly had an impulse and asked: "Why didn't the president come in today?" This question wasn't out of line, after all, he hadn't resigned yet.

Liu, who had pulled the door halfway open, turned back: "The president isn't feeling well."

Wasn't he fine last night?

"What's wrong with him?" Sheng Yao pressed.

Liu was silent for a moment, seeming to hesitate whether to speak or not, but finally he did: "Stomach trouble."

Ah, even getting sick was exclusive to the president.

Sheng Yao had never resigned before. This was his first time.

Luckily, he didn't have to endure the scrutiny of others' gazes.

Water Hippo had plenty of experience with resignations. Sheng Yao had heard her say before that in the time before resignation, the atmosphere with coworkers became strange. People who used to joke around stopped coming to talk to you. Though everyone knew it was all fake friendliness anyway, when people suddenly stopped pretending, it was pretty obvious.

But it didn't matter. You had to have the mindset of destroying the whole world. This was nothing.

Sheng Yao lay on his desk for a while, then got up and slowly began processing the files on his computer.

The diagonal space across from him was empty, and he still wasn't used to it.

At noon, the connecting corridor plaza.

Three people stood in a circle, three cigarettes burning with their own worries.

"So… I got fired."

"What!?" Water Hippo and Tony both cried out in surprise at the same time.

Usually when the three of them gathered, Sheng Yao almost never complained about work, and on the rare occasions he said anything, it was about coworkers being petty. He'd never said anything bad about the company or the boss.

Besides, buying the boss coffee every other day, entrusting him with such intimate tasks, he should have been the boss's eyes and ears, his trusted aide.

Water Hippo asked: "How could this happen with no warning whatsoever?"

"What eyes and ears…" Sheng Yao said awkwardly, fanning himself, "Actually, it wasn't completely without warning."

Sheng Yao told them about the sudden situation from yesterday afternoon, then added: "Though it might not be the reason either. I don't know, sigh."

Water Hippo clapped her hands: "Oh my god!"

Tony reacted quickly: "The boss is unhappy, pressure gets put on the boss, the boss's sexuality gets exposed, he's afraid you'll blab, so he just fires you to be safe."

Something about this didn't quite add up.

Water Hippo said: "What era is this? What's the big deal about being exposed anyway? He even dared to kiss a man in the office, and besides…"

Sheng Yao said flatly: "Besides, just half an hour before that he had me buy coffee. He knew I'd be back soon. He knew I'd be going into the office. He wouldn't deliberately have me witness him kissing a man just so he could fire me, would he?"

Tony: "That's… a fair point."

Water Hippo asked again: "So have you found another job?"

Sheng Yao: "No. It's harder now than it was three years ago. Actually, I had a feeling for a while. I sent out some applications to test the waters, but didn't get much response."

Water Hippo closed her eyes, a plan forming, and wagged her index finger: "Confess to your boss."

"Huh???"

Water Hippo flicked her cigarette ash: "Whether or not your firing has anything to do with this, confessing to your boss will make him too embarrassed to fire you."

Sheng Yao: "?"

Tony: "?"

Sheng Yao: "What's embarrassing about that?"

Tony: "Right, right!"

Water Hippo: "I can't explain this to you straight guys."

Sheng Yao: "What if he accepts?"

Water Hippo rolled her eyes: "If he was interested in you, why has nothing happened between you two in three years?"

"Oh…"

Sheng Yao hadn't had coffee with Water Hippo and Tony in a long time. Thanks to Cheng Ai, he was doing it again.

This time there was no Rui. Sheng Yao suggested going to Gun. He'd bought coffee from Gun many times for Cheng Ai, but had never drunk it himself. After he stopped working here, he probably wouldn't come back to Gun specially just to drink coffee.

By some strange impulse, Sheng Yao ordered the chili oil. Water Hippo and Tony's eyes wandered.

According to the rocker guy, it had the new generation chili, er jing tiao, and millet chili mixed in.

Actually, the taste wasn't bad.

Bitter, spicy, flavors he was very familiar with.

After returning to the office, Sheng Yao's stomach started feeling uncomfortable. He suddenly understood why Liu had said Cheng Ai had stomach trouble.

A warm, burning sensation filled his stomach. Sheng Yao held his belly and inexplicably recalled a line from "The Professional":

"Leon, I think I've fallen in love with you. This is my first love, do you know that?

I feel warmth in my stomach, like it used to be all tied up in knots, but now it isn't."