AM Chapter 34

34 Two Birds With One Stone

Chen Mo listened to Liang Jingren’s words and began pursuing Xu Yilin.

One Saturday afternoon, Chen Mo made a special trip to buy a coffee and a hot milk to bring to the flower shop.

“…Still want coffee, right?” Xu Yilin chose the coffee, picking one of the two.

Chen Mo was surprised and said, “Don’t you like milk?”

Xu Yilin rolled his eyes inwardly and said, “I didn’t say that. Don’t guess my preferences.”

Seeing Xu Yilin take the coffee, Chen Mo grinned and took out the hot milk from the bag to drink himself.

“You’re not buying flowers today, right? You usually only buy flowers on weekdays,” Xu Yilin said, taking a sip of coffee and placing the paper cup aside, while flipping through the ledger.

“Yeah, just came to see you.” Chen Mo leaned on the same table, watching the pages of paper only a foot away being turned from right to left.

Xu Yilin stopped his right hand to hold down one of the pages, picked up the coffee with his left hand and took a sip, “You’re really idle.”

Chen Mo laughed, “It’s Saturday, I’m pretty free.”

What a boring conversation. Xu Yilin’s eyes twitched. He felt that Chen Mo had changed a bit since the day he formally apologized, but he couldn’t say exactly where.

But if he were to delve into it, he felt that nothing good would come of it, and it would be counterproductive. Xu Yilin stopped talking to Chen Mo, took out his calculator, and started punching numbers.

Xu Yilin reconciled the accounts for a while, then took out his phone and sent a few messages back and forth, checked a few pictures, and then put down his phone, preparing to pick out some free flowers for today to fill the flower buckets outside.

As he walked around the counter toward the middle of the shop, Chen Mo, who was sitting on a round stool scrolling through his phone, consciously put his legs down to make way.

“You…” Xu Yilin turned to look at Chen Mo.

Hearing this, Chen Mo also looked up from his phone, “What’s wrong?”

Xu Yilin opened his mouth and said, “…Why are you so quiet?”

Chen Mo was a little surprised, “Aren’t you working?”

Xu Yilin was also surprised, “Weren’t you always noisy when I was working before?”

“Was I?” Chen Mo tilted his head, as if he had lost his memory.

Xu Yilin’s mouth twitched, thinking: He really hasn’t changed. He nodded vigorously and said, “Yes. I’m working when I prune branches, clean the shop, and package bouquets. Only you treat them like child’s play.”

Chen Mo glanced to the side and casually promised, “Oh, I got it. If you don’t like it, I won’t talk nonsense and disturb you while you’re working in the future.”

Xu Yilin: …It’s kind of right, but how come it doesn’t feel quite right?

“Chen Mo, what’s wrong with you? Did you suffer some setbacks?” Xu Yilin finally couldn’t help but ask, “Is work not going well?”

“I can handle work completely,” Chen Mo said confidently.

Then, he held his phone against his chin, looked up, and pondered for a moment, saying, “Speaking of work, I remember when I used to watch someone I liked work in his room, he would throw pens and books at me whenever he got frustrated, and even yell at me to ‘get out,’ so mean.”

“Uh… were you talking and disturbing him?”

Chen Mo didn’t answer Xu Yilin’s question, only gave him a smile in return.

“Later, I took a novel and went to read it on the sofa in his room, and he never chased me away again,” Chen Mo continued.

Xu Yilin’s mouth twitched slightly, thinking: Sure enough.

Chen Mo laughed, “In comparison, you’re really gentle~ You didn’t chase me away even though I bothered you for so long before, and you even gave me flowers~”

Xu Yilin: …In the end, I was wrong. If only I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have done it in the first place.

“Sigh!” Xu Yilin sighed heavily and began to move the flower buckets that needed to be changed, “I chased you away too, it’s just that I chased you away too late!”

Chen Mo smiled smugly, like a winner, and said, “You’ve already forgiven me! I threw that broken sign in the trash!”

Xu Yilin learned to smile like him, saying, “Heh heh, if you miss that sign, it’s not impossible for me to pick it up from the trash. You can see it again the next day!”

Chen Mo pretended to be surprised and said, “Really? When are you going to pick it up? Oh my, the flower shop owner changing careers to pick up trash, big news, I have to go to the scene to film it~”

“That mouth is still as annoying as ever, Chen Mo.” Xu Yilin narrowed his eyes and smiled, holding a bucket of dirty water in both hands and using his knees to prop it up, making a gesture to splash water, “I’m busy with work right now, can you shut up?”

Chen Mo held his phone with both hands and slowly moved the small black square up, just covering the corners of his smiling mouth.

Less than five minutes later, Xu Yilin, who had changed the water, picked out the flowers, and re-categorized the flowers to be sold back into the flower buckets, glanced at the extremely quiet person sitting against the wall in the back scrolling through his phone, and muttered to himself, “He’s actually listening…”

Unexpectedly, Chen Mo heard it and immediately wasn’t quiet anymore, responding with great interest, “Of course! Oh, you spoke first this time! Don’t blame me!”

Xu Yilin forced a smile and clenched his fists, thinking: I shouldn’t have opened my mouth!!

Chen Mo focused on looking at his phone and browsing keyboard DIY accessories, occasionally bantering with Xu Yilin, who was busy working. Before he knew it, an afternoon had passed.

Watching the sunset outside the glass door gradually deepen, Chen Mo stretched and stood up, turning his head to ask, “Do you only sell one bouquet of flowers a day?”

In the three and a half hours he had been in the shop, Xu Yilin had only received one customer and sold one bouquet of flowers.

Xu Yilin frowned and said, “The day isn’t over yet.”

“Looks like it was right for me to come and boost your KPIs every day before,” Chen Mo said, putting his hands on his hips.

Xu Yilin’s mouth twitched slightly, speechless, “What KPI are you talking about? Who wants you to boost KPIs…”

“Hey, the sun is setting, aren’t you going to eat?” Chen Mo changed the topic and suddenly asked.

Xu Yilin shook his phone and said, “I ordered takeout.”

Chen Mo opened his mouth, but closed it without saying anything.

Xu Yilin always felt that he wanted to say something, and felt that he had to say something—otherwise, it would be like deliberately teasing him, making him even more uncomfortable. So Xu Yilin took the initiative to ask, “What’s up with you?”

Chen Mo was about to walk out when he heard this, and turned to look at Xu Yilin.

“I was originally going to treat you to dinner.” Under the backdrop of the red sunset, Chen Mo’s entire face was reflected in red, but it looked particularly mature.

Xu Yilin was stunned for a moment, and laughed, “That’s unlucky.”

Chen Mo lowered his eyes and pondered for a moment, then raised his eyes and smiled, “It’s okay, let’s make an appointment next time.”

Xu Yilin was stunned again. He actually felt that Chen Mo was very well-behaved at this moment.

Maturity and well-behavedness, two contradictory words and two temperaments that should have been contradictory, appeared on one person at the same time, and that person happened to be Chen Mo. Xu Yilin felt that he seemed to be suffering from hysteria, or that something was wrong with his eyes.

When Chen Mo pulled open the door to walk out, Xu Yilin suddenly stopped him, “Chen Mo, aren’t you taking flowers?”

Chen Mo held the stainless steel doorknob and looked back, with a very puzzled expression, “I didn’t buy flowers today.”

“Didn’t you bring me coffee?”

“I treated you to it, is there a problem?”

“…There’s a problem,” Xu Yilin narrowed his eyes and said deeply.

Seeing this, Chen Mo laughed, he curved his eyebrows and said as the last bit of red from the sunset disappeared on the horizon, “Don’t worry, don’t think too much, I’m just treating you! After all, I’m pursuing you!”

Chen Mo left very dashingly, leaving the swinging glass door disturbing the silent flower shop.

The last sentence he left behind made Xu Yilin react for a long time. When he came back to his senses, it was already dark outside.

The moment the streetlights in front of the shop lit up, Xu Yilin blurted out, “Holy shit!!”

He finally really came back to his senses—it wasn’t that my eyes went dark, it was just that the sky really darkened!

After that Saturday, Chen Mo still often went to the flower shop to pass the time, he would bring a coffee and a hot milk, or a coffee and a hot cocoa, or a hot milk and a pearl milk tea…

In any case, Xu Yilin would always choose one from them.

But he was different—he wanted both!

At 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Chen Mo squatted outside the gym on the fourth floor of the Daxing Group company building and waited for Liang Jingren, who was wearing a sports vest and shorts, carrying a briefcase, and a large bottle of water in the crook of his arm, to walk out.

Liang Jingren’s first reaction when he saw Chen Mo was to frown, and then ask, “What are you doing here?”

Chen Mo found this reaction unfamiliar because he had finally managed to smooth out this reaction, which was too “sharp” for him, into a smooth and rounded one two months, almost three months ago—Liang Jingren should have been used to his appearance.

Chen Mo chuckled twice and asked, “Why can’t I come?”

Liang Jingren didn’t answer, nor did he continue to stand at the door, he just lifted his foot and walked away.

Chen Mo followed closely behind, almost chasing after him and asking, “Why didn’t you come to the cafeteria yesterday? And you didn’t call me? Did you have a last-minute social engagement? Or were you working overtime? Did the meeting run late?”

“And the day before yesterday too, the receptionist said you didn’t come the day before yesterday, don’t you have to go to work on Monday? Is Daxing Group entering the four-day workweek reform so quickly?”

“What about today? Why are you so late today? Isn’t your gym alarm set to end at 6:45? Did your phone break?”

Finally, Chen Mo chased into the elevator all the way, Liang Jingren had nowhere to retreat, and could only face him.

But there were other people in the elevator, so Chen Mo didn’t say anything.

It was only one floor to the cafeteria, so soon, the elevator doors opened.

After exiting the elevator, Liang Jingren strode out, and Chen Mo, who had been squeezed into the corner, hurriedly trotted to catch up.

When he arrived at the cafeteria, Liang Jingren was just about to put his water bottle and briefcase on an empty dining table, Chen Mo quickly ran over and snatched both items away, hugging them tightly in front of him. Liang Jingren was speechless at the blatant robbery in front of him.

What made him even more speechless was that the person who robbed him was actually shouting at him angrily, “Why aren’t you paying attention to me?!”

Liang Jingren crossed his arms and said, “I have nothing to say to you.”

Chen Mo was still angry and said, “But I have something to say to you!”

“Tsk, such as?”

“I’ve been listening to you and pursuing Xu Yilin, but he doesn’t seem to realize it yet, which is the same as you.”

“…”

“Oh right, I didn’t buy flowers today! If you want them, I’ll send them to you later…”

“Chen Mo,” Liang Jingren sighed, “Put my things down.”

Chen Mo looked down at the table, then looked up at Liang Jingren, “This table is a bit oily…”

“Behave.”

Chen Mo pursed his lips, his hands slowly lowered, but only dropped a few centimeters before his arms tightened again.

Chen Mo opened his mouth and conceded, “Go find a napkin and wipe it first, it’s really dirty.”

Liang Jingren sighed and also conceded, turning to ask someone he knew for three tissues and wiping the entire table twice.