After being confessed to by Mu Mian, Fang Rui couldn't sleep that night. He couldn't help but post on his Moments (WeChat social feed).
[Happy Chinese Valentine's Day. From her.]
The picture showed that rose.
Soon, Fang Rui's Moments became lively with comments.
The Director was the first to see Fang Rui's post and commented: "Fang Rui, has your account been hacked? @Li, check what's going on. How could Fang Rui post something so bizarre? We must catch whoever hacked his account!"
Li: "@Director Reporting sir, after verification, the post was made by Captain Fang himself. Report complete."
Director: "@Li You finished checking in less than 30 seconds? That's not even enough time to boot up your computer. Li, you can't be this careless with your work."
Li: "@Director Because I asked him directly."
Fang Rui: "I posted it myself."
Director: "Congratulations, congratulations!"
Li: "Congratulations boss on finally finding love."
Zhang: "Congratulations boss on getting a girlfriend."
Chen Xue: "Haha, my ship has finally sailed!"
Finance Wen: "@Chen Xue Haven't they been together for almost half a year? Why is everyone so excited?"
Chen Xue: "@Wen Before we were just shipping them, but now it's official! How can that be the same?"
Finance Wen: "Congratulations, congratulations."
Captain Li: "Fang Rui, you're terrible at dating! How could you let a young lady give you flowers? Come on, private message me, I'll teach you how to date properly."
Zhang: "@Captain Li Don't just teach Captain Fang, we all want to learn!"
Captain Li: "@Zhang You still need to learn? You're better at it than me. I often copy ideas from your Moments posts."
Wang: "Let's make a group chat, this is affecting our image."
Li: "Only friends can see Moments posts. What's the point of making a group when it'll be just us anyway? Though we could kick the Director out, hahaha."
Director: "@Li I'm still here."
Director: "@Captain Li You better not teach anyone. Your dating history made me anxious just watching it."
Captain Li: "Well... at least I've stepped on all the mines already."
Li: "Director, I was just joking! [Cute and innocent.jpg]"
Wang: "Hehe, Chinese Valentine's Day is a good day, everyone's found love."
Li: "@Wang I suspect you're taking a dig at me."
Wang: "@Li You should reflect on why you're still single when even the boss and Dr. Mu are coupled up."
Li: "@Wang Because they found each other."
Wang: "Being witty won't get you a girlfriend! You need to socialize more, don't just be a tech nerd."
Mu Mian: "Yes, I gave him that! [Proud.jpg]"
Wang: "We know!"
Zhang: "No need to emphasize!"
Li: "Keep emphasizing and you're just showing off!"
Lin Sen: "Call me brother-in-law."
Mu Mian: "@Lin Sen Brother-in-law."
Wang: "Haha."
Li: "Hahaha."
Zhang: "Hahahaha."
Zhang: "Why wasn't my proposal post this lively? Why did you all just like it without commenting?"
Li: "@Zhang Because you two show off your love every day, we're not interested in your gossip anymore. This is the boss's first time showing affection, it caught us off guard, we have to make it lively to give him face."
Fang Rui: "Thanks for all the well wishes above."
Wang: "Alright, alright, it's late, time to sleep. I need to drive my girlfriend to work the day after tomorrow."
Li: "If work is the day after tomorrow, why sleep early tonight?"
Chen Xue: "Because he's bragging about having a girlfriend."
Li: "Ahh, just a lonely single dog who can't sleep."
Finance Wen: "Add another single dog."
Chen Xue: "Why don't you two get together?"
The Director quickly jumped in to break up the potential match: "No way! One knows finance, the other knows technology; if they get together, our financial system's risk factor would be too high!"
Chen Xue: "Director, you're so strategic, truly worthy of being our leader."
Li: "Director, don't worry, we're not compatible."
Finance Wen: "Director, don't worry, we have different interests."
Everyone had an enjoyable Chinese Valentine's Day evening.
Fang Rui somewhat regretted posting that Moments update. After posting, it wasn't just his gossip-loving colleagues, but his classmates, relatives, and even his superiors who all sent their warm regards.
However, these congratulations reinforced one fact: he had a girlfriend now.
Mu Mian told her hacker friend about having a boyfriend. Her friend asked puzzled, "Didn't you already have a boyfriend?"
"Why would you think that?"
"Look through our chat history, the name 'Fang Rui' appears so frequently, and you even sent me his photo, which I said was handsome. I thought he was already your boyfriend."
"He wasn't then. But he is now."
"That's good. After I got a girlfriend, I worried you wouldn't find a boyfriend and might end up alone."
"I used to be scared of that too, but Fang Rui said he'll stay with me, so I'm not scared anymore."
"Now neither of us will end up alone!"
"Yes."
Mu Mian told Shen Xiyin about this. Her sister wasn't surprised and said, "Little Mian, you've grown up."
"Sister, now that I have love, does that make me normal?"
"When you have love, whether you're normal or not doesn't matter anymore, because in his eyes, you'll be unique."
Mu Mian thought for a while, then sent emails to her adoptive father's lab seniors. They had joked before that if Mu Mian ever got a boyfriend, she must tell them.
She had promised. Being someone who keeps her promises, she sent emails to each of them. When she saw Jiang Yinian's email address, she thought for a moment, then sent him one too.
She waited for a long time, but none of the seniors replied. Mu Mian knew they probably wouldn't respond anymore. Since her adoptive parents passed away, she hadn't been able to contact them. Her sister also refused to mention them.
Perhaps they no longer used those lab-affiliated email addresses, or perhaps after her adoptive father's death, the bond connecting them had broken, and they no longer wanted to deal with their troublesome junior. Either way, they had lost contact.
Ding dong, an email came in from Jiang Yinian.
[Mu Mian, I'm glad you've found your own love. Wishing you happiness.]
Mu Mian replied: [Thank you. I hope you can find your own love too.]
Jiang Yinian didn't reply again.
Although they had confirmed their relationship, Fang Rui and Mu Mian's interactions remained largely the same as before. Mu Mian didn't blush when seeing Fang Rui, and he didn't look at her with lovey-dovey eyes. To outsiders, they still appeared like purely professional colleagues.
But in the morning when leaving home, Mu Mian's greeting changed from "Fang Rui, good morning" to "boyfriend, good morning."
Mu Mian said: "Fang Rui, from now on your name equals boyfriend, so when I call your name, it's the same as calling you boyfriend. So I'll still say, Fang Rui, good morning."
"Okay."
"Fang Rui, you haven't said 'girlfriend, good morning' to me yet."
"Girlfriend, good morning."
"From now on, my name equals girlfriend, understand?"
"Mu Mian, good morning."
On Monday at work, Fang Rui bought milk tea for Zhang and the others. They sensibly accepted without teasing.
Firstly, there wasn't much to tease about - Fang Rui and Mu Mian weren't as openly affectionate as Zhang and Chen Xue. Secondly, they had already been warned by Fang Rui, and their 2000-word self-criticism reports weren't finished yet.
During the morning meeting, Wang shuffled into the conference room with a battered face. His left cheek had several scratch marks.
Zhang exclaimed in surprise: "Wang, weren't you dropping your girlfriend at work this morning? How did your face get scratched up like this? Who did it? How dare they assault a police officer - aren't you going to report it?"
Li reminded him: "He is the police."
"Well, there was a medical dispute at Shu's hospital entrance. A female family member lost control and tried to attack a nurse. I couldn't just stand by, so I intervened, and this is what happened."
Chen Xue asked: "Is your girlfriend okay?"
"With me here, how could anything happen to her? That female family member just lost her child, and I felt sorry for her, so I didn't pursue her responsibility. Her husband took her away."
At this moment, the dispatcher informed them that they had received an emergency call. A medical accident had occurred at Jiangzhou University Second Affiliated Hospital, and the patient's family member was insisting it was a murder case, demanding police intervention.
Zhang asked Wang, "Which hospital does your girlfriend work as a nurse at?"
"It's the same hospital where this incident happened. I wonder if the person who called the police was that woman from earlier? She seemed mentally unstable."
