KC | Chapter 92

“Want to grab a drink together?”

“I’ve got something going on at home today, let’s do it another day, I’ll treat.” The client was one of Lin Yiran’s old customers. He had originally planned to talk through the project and then have a meal together, but when he suddenly remembered that Chen Xi had said he would come tonight, Lin Yiran had no mind to cater to the client at all, and at this moment his heart was already flying home.

Workaholics often went home after midnight, and getting home at 7 or 8 at night already counted as leaving early. Today, getting home at 6 should count as skipping work.

Chen Xi still had not come back. Lin Yiran guessed he should have been dragged off to drink by Xu Dongxu after signing the contract with Gu Lin. A little drinking was good for the mood, especially fun on the bed. He hoped Chen Xi drank less today.

In his impression, as long as Chen Xi touched alcohol, he would definitely drink too much. Today, drinking with the liquor barrel Xu Dongxu, being able to find the way home would already count as not bad.

Lin Yiran lost the mood to cook, put the fresh ingredients he had just bought into the refrigerator, and while biting on whole wheat bread, he thought: getting a dead fish drunk was fine too, at least it was still a fish, with plenty of water. Maybe while doing it, he could still spit foam, roll his eyes in pleasure, and that could be pretty fun too.

He had only taken two bites of bread when there was movement by the door, Chen Xi was back.

Lin Yiran’s eyes lit up with joy, but he deliberately held back the upward curl of his lips and put on a face of total deadpan. “Why didn’t Boss Chen bring any food back? I didn’t buy groceries today, and home is about to be unable to make ends meet.”

Signing with Gu Lin was hard, and the process was troublesome too. The many sectors under a group-style company each operated independently, the villa mansion sector was 1936, the old house renovation sector was Lin Cong, the low-end mass-market sector was Enlin, and the high-end renovation sector was Gu Lin… They had to use separate licenses to sign contracts, transfer payments, and place advertisements. Luckily, Chen Xi had been lying low in Gu Lin for a month, and he had already gotten familiar faces with the people in charge of each sector. With Xu Dongxu’s word as well, the people below were very cooperative, and after being busy all afternoon, they finally managed to get the contract done.

In Lanhai, he had to avoid looking suspicious with Lin Yiran. In Gu Lin, he had to avoid looking suspicious with Xu Dongxu. Chen Xi once again fully used WeChat’s social function, asking Xu Dongxu what time he got off work. Xu Dongxu said he was working overtime today, they would drink together another day, and also said, “The 15th is Gu Lin’s payout day.”

It had to be said that Xu Dongxu, a true emotional man, always spoke plainly and was a real good big brother. Compared with liquor barrel Old Xu, that certain big brother who looked respectable and decent was indeed not a decent person.

Chen Xi took off his shoes, went inside, and threw down his briefcase, then扑到某条大哥身上， fiercely said, “Lin Yiran, do you have anything to say to me?”

Lin Yiran: ?

So forceful, was he trying to do roleplay?

No, with this stance he should have found out something.

I’ve done too many dirty things, and now I don’t even know which one to apologize for. The more I say, the more I’ll mess up, better not say anything. If he could come back, it meant what he knew was not something important.

Lin Yiran: “I was just teasing you, I bought groceries, the fridge has fish Boss Chen likes to eat…”

“Don’t change the subject, I’ll give you one more chance, think carefully whether you’ve ever done anything sorry to me?” Chen Xi slammed a hard fist against his chest, his eyes showing fierce light.

Lin Yiran complained endlessly: “Boss Chen, I’ve been wronged. Ever since I followed you, this little one has kept himself like jade, pure and proper, only serving the boss, and has never done labor work for anyone else.”

Chen Xi said fiercely, “You used my clients to make side deals and got money from it, and you think two lousy fish can just send me off?”

“I trusted you like I was a fool, and in the end you were poaching business right under my nose, was I being too easy to talk to?”

“I gave you a chance, asked you twice and you didn’t say anything, can we still even be together?”

Lin Yiran licked his lips, thinking: I only made a side deal with Pinsheng and he got this angry. If he knew about the others, wouldn’t that be even worse?

Good thing I didn’t confess.

“The Pinsheng event execution price was pressed too low, and Lanhai’s labor cost was high. Taking this job would have been time-consuming, laborious, and not profitable, so I handed it out to be done elsewhere. The Shen Yuesheng job only had ten thousand gross profit at most, and two days ago it was already transferred to Boss Chen. I didn’t pocket it privately!” Lin Yiran wrapped an arm around his waist, making the person on top of him lie across his chest, while his arm lightly patted his back.

“When did you…” Chen Xi only got halfway through before reacting. Lin Yiran was talking about the money he had transferred over as a “body sale.”

“When did you contact Shen Yuesheng?” Lin Yiran guessed that he had learned about this from Shen Yuesheng, and thinking that the two of them still had contact, he inevitably felt a bit sour.

“I…” This old dog was changing the subject, he could not follow his line of thought!

Handing off work and selling favors to Zhang Yanrong was Lin Yiran’s personal favor, it had nothing to do with me at all. If I hadn’t accidentally discovered this matter, I would still have thought I owed him money!

“Without my permission, using my key clients to hand off work, make side deals, and sell favors is just wrong!” The moral model spoke righteously.

Lin Yiran thought: key clients were originally there to be snatched, why should I need your permission to sign clients? The handed-off work doesn’t count toward Lanhai’s performance, and the money is already given to you, so why are you still fussing over moral standards?

Differences in thinking could be changed through life experience, but differences in cognition could not be changed overnight. Their understanding of outlook on life and values differed greatly, and they could never stay on the same frequency.

After 419, Lin Yiran felt nothing much, but Chen Xi felt like the sky had fallen. Now, Lin Yiran still felt nothing much, but Chen Xi was thinking about how this relationship should continue.

Before dating, Lin Yiran could choose not to tell the truth and keep a sense of boundaries; after dating, Lin Yiran was still smooth-tongued and glib, always wearing a mask.

How could one be heartfelt with someone full of lies?

The refined scum type could not understand where the moral model’s knot was, and thought one thing in his heart while saying another with his mouth. “It was my fault, I won’t do it again.”

Lin Yiran held him even tighter and changed the subject again. “Did Xu Dongxu make things difficult for you?”

Although Chen Xi was angry, the other side had admitted fault. If he kept entangling and asking more, it would only damage their feelings, so if there was a step down, he might as well step down.

“Gu Lin doesn’t have any problems, it’s estimated the payment can come back on the 15th.”

“Yo, then that’s just right, next week’s coffee is settled too.” Lin Yiran’s hands were restless, making Chen Xi itch.

They had not even finished the serious work, how could they start on the bed work first?

Chen Xi grabbed the salty pig hand and said, “The bid from Au Lai has a problem. The bidding requirement says ‘lowest bid wins,’ but their marketing boss owns an advertising company himself, so he can see the backend quotations.”

Lin Yiran understood instantly: “Stealing while guarding, colluding from the inside and outside to pocket the client’s money, huh.”

Chen Xi nodded and asked, “Brother Lin, how do we handle this?”

Lin Yiran thought for a moment and said, “Wait for the bid opening.”

Wait for the bid opening?

Wouldn’t that be completely done for?

Why were you talking just like that little green-tea type?

Chen Xi frowned and said, “Brother Lin wants me to just participate for the sake of participating?”

“Of course not.” Lin Yiran smiled and smoothed his hair, patiently explaining, “Au Lai’s marketing boss can see the lowest price, so no matter what price Lanhai quotes, it cannot possibly win the bid. The quotation before the bid opening is a variable, while the quotation after the bid opening is a fixed quantity. What we need to do is fight for possibilities in a determined event, not get stuck over uncertain events.”

Chen Xi did not really understand and was too lazy to ask about the technical terms, so he decisively adopted the most effective method and punched him right in the chest. “Speak like a person.”

Lin Yiran said helplessly, “What we need to do is, without losing gross profit, do the proposal as well as possible, and after the bid opening, spoil the winner’s chances.”

Chen Xi: Σ(⊙▽⊙”a You can still spoil it after the bid is opened?

“Brother Lin, do you know Li Ying?”

“I don’t.”

“You don’t know Au Lai’s boss, and you still want to spoil the other party after the bid opening?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you messing with me?”

Lin Yiran chuckled softly. “Of course not. Just keep your heart in your stomach and do the proposal properly, this bid will definitely be Lanhai’s.”

Chen Xi’s nose and eyes were all scrunched together. He racked his brains and still could not figure out Lin Yiran’s way of thinking. He had no connections and the price was not even the lowest, yet he still wanted to win the bid?

With so many bidding parties, Lanhai did not have a single advantage, so why would Au Lai let them win?

After the Gu Lin battle, Chen Xi was no longer that reckless hothead with courage but no brains. Relying purely on a burst of momentum might indeed create a chance to sign key clients, it was just that the probability would be very low. If Xu Dongxu had not been dissatisfied with the “nephew” and suddenly switched sides at the last moment, Gu Lin would absolutely never have cooperated with Lanhai again. And when he had argued with Lin Yiran, he had only had blood and passion, and had not understood the twists and turns involved. To put it bluntly, he had only signed Gu Lin, that key client, because he was lucky and ran into it.

Now, Au Lai was facing the same problem. Knowing full well that this bid would not be won, then why still charge forward?

If signing Gu Lin had a chance as slim as winning the lottery, then signing Au Lai’s contract was even lower than winning the lottery.

“Are you brainwashing me?”

Lin Yiran did not answer, but asked back, “You don’t believe me?”

Chen Xi said unhappily, “Like hell I believe you!”

Lin Yiran pulled off his belt, his voice lazy. “Then let’s make a bet. If this bid doesn’t win, I’ll run ten laps around Au Lai shirtless. If this bid wins, you do it with me on the Treadmill desk.”

Maybe because he had been tired from running around through Gu Lin’s departments all afternoon, Chen Xi had a very good appetite and ate two bowls of rice. Lin Yiran, on the other hand, was a bit lacking in appetite and stopped using his chopsticks after only a couple bites.

“Why isn’t Brother Lin eating anymore?” Chen Xi gave him a chopstickful of snow peas. In his memory, Lin Yiran always controlled his diet whenever he ate, and even very good dishes never made him eat much more. He really had the vibe of fasting and cultivating immortality.

Lin Yiran said, “You pissed me off.”

Chen Xi rolled his eyes hard. “Your mouth, cursing, negotiating, insulting people, and telling jokes, it can do everything. Who could possibly piss you off?”

Lin Yiran was used to planning everything he did: weekend morning runs, Mondays for concentrating on handling cases, weekdays spent participating in proposals by day and attending social engagements at night… He had never considered his own physical condition. Feeling sleepy in the afternoon or lazing in bed in the morning, in his view, were all excuses for not wanting to work. For the extremely perfectionist Lin Yiran, planning was iron law, and in order to complete his set goals, he had tormented himself quite a lot over the years.

He remembered one time after a social engagement when he got home late at night, Lin Yiran suddenly remembered there was a case he had not finished. He turned on the computer and worked halfway before feeling too sleepy. He lay on the bed preparing to sleep, but could not fall asleep. His brain kept reminding him that there was work unfinished, and his overly strong ambition for his career forced him to continue working in a self-abusive way.

Because there were too many cases piled up in his hands, the workaholic did not allow himself to slack off. Over time, self-abuse became a habit.

Sustained high-intensity work was just part of daily life for Lin Yiran. These days, being close and intimate with Chen Xi, he had suddenly relaxed, and so the illness came along with it.

Seeing that Lin Yiran’s face looked bad, Chen Xi got up and walked behind him, slowly massaging his temples. “With the way you are, and you still want to play Treadmill desk, that’s just you thinking about it.”

Lin Yiran nodded. “My body really is not what it used to be. Originally I just wanted to steadily be labor, work bricks every day and earn some pocket money, but I didn’t expect the client to squeeze me dry, and then you came to squeeze me too. This life really is impossible to live.”

Boss Chen rarely showed concern for labor, and said generously, “You don’t need to move, I’ll be on top.”

Lin Yiran chuckled. “Is that the excuse you came up with to avoid washing dishes?”

Chen Xi lifted the hem of his shirt and reached inside, starting to make up a little rhyme again. “Shaking it after a meal, you can live to ninety-nine.”

For dog-man couples in the heat of love, there was no conflict that could not be solved by sleeping once. If there was, then sleep a few more times.

When Boss Chen shook, his head was full of Treadmill desk. In his 25 years of life, he had never wanted to lose so badly.

Author’s note:

Treadmill desk: treadmill office desk

You can run while working.