TuxedoTranslations

Chapter 8

After three-plus weeks of daily cake deliveries, the routine finally ended.

Zhuang Yanyu returned to his healthy eating habits: eating until 70% full in the morning, perfectly full at noon, and a light meal in the evening with low oil and salt.

The main difference now was that he woke up an hour earlier every morning to go jogging.

The more he had enjoyed those cakes before, the harder he now ran every morning.

Having been human for over three months now, Number 011 had experienced another tough human reality—gaining weight takes just a few days, but losing it can take months, and even then, it might not be possible.

Despite the difficulty, he saw a positive side: he had successfully navigated the first phase of this adjustment period.

He had told the truth and declined his friend’s gift, and his friend wasn’t upset. This showed that the early phase of their adjustment was going smoothly.

This experience also gave Zhuang Yanyu some inspiration.

Good things can be shared between friends! His friend had discovered a delicious cake and wanted him to try it, so he sent it. So, if Zhuang Yanyu later found something tasty or fun, couldn’t he send it to his friend too?

However, because Zhuang Yanyu was quite disciplined about eating and living healthily, he rarely ate out, and his chances of discovering great restaurants were slim.

So he decided to focus on comfort instead.

One day, a coworker mentioned, “Sitting like this is exhausting, and my neck hurts. Looks like I’ll need to get a neck and shoulder massage this weekend.”

Another coworker responded, “Nothing we can do—most of us who work on computers end up with neck pain. But you can get a neck massager; it’s pretty relaxing.”

Zhuang Yanyu perked up; his friend also sat at a desk all day.

A couple of days later, a neck massager was delivered to the CEO’s office by security.

Coworker: “What’s that you’ve got, Zhou Quan?”

Zhou Quan: “A heat therapy device. I’ve got tendinitis, you know. As customer service, we’re typing all the time, so my wrist and fingers can’t handle it. I bought this to ease the pain.”

Coworker: “Does it help? I have tendinitis too.”

Zhou Quan: “It’s pretty good, really relaxing. Doesn’t hurt as much.”

Zhuang Yanyu perked up again. He didn’t know if his friend typed frequently, but it couldn’t hurt to prevent tendinitis.

A few days later, another heat therapy device was delivered to the CEO’s office.

Coworker A: “I got a new keyboard wrist rest—this one’s soft and really comfortable, way better than my old one!”

Coworker B: “I’ve been wanting to replace my wooden wrist rest. I sweat so much, and it doesn’t breathe well. Send me the link!”

Silently, Zhuang Yanyu asked for the link and ordered one.

With his ears open for any helpful tips, Zhuang Yanyu gradually sent a steady stream of items to the CEO’s office. Even the security team delivering packages started to wonder, “Mr. Wen’s office sure is getting a lot of packages these days…”

Meanwhile, Wen Chenxi accepted everything Zhuang Yanyu sent and even sent small gifts in return.

Receiving these, though, he started worrying about the little employee’s salary. If he kept buying things for him, would he have enough money left?

So he raised his salary—and gave him a bonus!

But he couldn’t just keep giving raises to the 16th-floor service center, right? That would be too odd.

So he raised salaries across the whole headquarters.

The finance department, however, started to feel the strain. With so many employees at headquarters, this raise added up to a significant expense. With such high outflow, the company’s year-end profit might fall short of its goal, which wasn’t ideal.

Yet at the end of the month, the finance department found that not only had profits not decreased, they had actually doubled!

Upon investigation, they discovered that the pay raise had greatly boosted employee morale, making everyone work harder. This led to the early launch of some products and systems that would have been released the following month!

By moving up the timeline, costs were reduced, and lower costs meant higher profits.

The finance department was collectively astonished, thinking, “Wen Zong really is exceptional! We were too shortsighted!”

With that, everyone felt more certain that staying at Azure Technology was the right choice and worked even harder.

The company seemed to take on a fresh new look, a transformation that Assistant Lin, as the CEO’s special assistant, couldn’t ignore.

He noticed that even the usually cold CEO’s office had become unexpectedly cozy and down-to-earth. There were flowers on the windowsill, adorable figurines on the desk, and a soft, stylish wrist rest by the computer.

Especially with the massage devices on the sofa, Lin Lin felt a new sense of closeness to the CEO, realizing that he, too, dealt with office ailments.

This emboldened him, and after finishing a round of work reports, he couldn’t resist mentioning the recent changes in the company to Wen Chenxi.

Wen Chenxi raised an eyebrow, completely surprised that his attempt to give Zhuang Yanyu a legitimate salary increase had led to such a reaction.

This week, Zhuang Yanyu was temporarily assigned to the Engineering Department again. Unlike the Technical Service Department, the Engineering Department was so busy that he rarely had time to check his phone. It wasn’t until lunchtime that he saw a message from his father.

His father said that a lot of the fruit he had grown was ripe. Since there was too much for him to finish, and he didn’t have time to sell it, he had packed a large sack and sent it to the city with a rural driver for Zhuang Yanyu to share with his friends.

Zhuang Yanyu sent Wen Chenxi a message first, asking if he wanted some fruit.

[Zhuang Yanyu: It’s all grown by my dad—very fresh, delicious, and pesticide-free.]

[Wen Chenxi: Okay.]

Zhuang Yanyu was thrilled. **[Great, I’ll go pick it up after work and bring it to you tomorrow.]**

[Wen Chenxi: Where will you pick it up? Isn’t it being delivered by courier?]

[Zhuang Yanyu: No, it’s not a courier. The driver brought it into the city.]

This was unfamiliar territory for Wen Chenxi.

[Wen Chenxi: A driver from the countryside? Why not use a courier service?]

[Zhuang Yanyu: Couriers have routes, going from one warehouse to another, which takes longer and risks the fruit losing its freshness.]

[Wen Chenxi: How about same-city delivery?]

[Zhuang Yanyu: The area’s pretty remote, so same-city couriers are rare. Sometimes it’s days before they come. But there’s a shuttle bus to the city every day, so people in the village prefer sending items with the shuttle driver, and there’s a fixed pickup point. You just have to go there to get it.]

Reading this, Wen Chenxi raised an eyebrow slightly.

Zhuang Yanyu never avoided talking about his hometown or the fact that he came from a rural background, even though his family was very poor.

It made him seem sincere.

Wen Chenxi tapped his fingers on the desk, then made a call to Assistant Lin. “Cancel the dinner plans.”

Assistant Lin sounded uncertain. “Tonight’s dinner is with the director of Xiao Group. Are you sure you want to cancel?”

Wen Chenxi just gave a brief “Hmm” and replied, “Reschedule.”

After ending the call, he sent a message to a certain junior employee: [I’ll go with you after work.]

Seeing this message, Zhuang Yanyu’s eyes lit up with excitement, and he even replied with extra exclamation points: [Great!]

[Zhuang Yanyu: I haven’t seen you in so long!]

Even though they worked at the same company, they almost never crossed paths!

The last time Zhuang Yanyu saw him, Wen Chenxi was getting into a car and didn’t have a chance to talk!

It had been over two months since their last fishing trip together at the farm!

Wen Chenxi smiled slightly and was about to type a reply when another message from Zhuang Yanyu arrived.

[Zhuang Yanyu: I really want to talk to you, not just over WeChat.]

He really wanted to talk to his friend, to chat about life.

Especially since he’d had so many reflections lately and so much to share about his views on life.

Wen Chenxi paused for a moment, looking at that message, and finally responded with a simple “Hmm.”

—

Author’s Note:

PS—

Wen Chenxi: I can still keep my composure! (If I give in too easily, he won’t cherish it.)

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