Chapter 2 The Director Enters the House
Lu Ren hadn't seen the director for a long time after he joined the company. He had only seen the director's photo on the employee photo display wall.
Lu Ren was not quite sure about the aesthetic standards of non-natural creatures. But from the perspective of ordinary people, Lu Ren felt that if he could take such a good-looking ID photo, then he must be the type of guy who was so handsome that he could make young girls bang their heads against the wall.
Below this overly good-looking photo, the director’s name is written: Si Yuan.
Lu Ren thought: "Even his name sounds particularly pretentious. With a good-looking face, a special identity, and a cool name, he must be the male protagonist of a popular male channel."
What’s interesting is that when Lu Ren really met Si Yuan in person, he was surprised to find that he was actually a very gentle person. The place where they first met was not the Foreign Population Survey Bureau, but on the balcony of Lu Ren’s house.
It was an ordinary night in April, the Qingming Festival had passed but the Grain Rain had not yet arrived. It was the flowering season of Sophora japonica, and the air was filled with a hint of sweet fragrance.
As a man living alone, Lu Ren's life cannot be said to be very refined, but it can be said to be regular and tidy.
That day, Lu Ren played a game after dinner, and then remembered that he had not watered the two pots of flowers he had just planted on the balcony, so he got up and watered them. Unexpectedly, as soon as he opened the balcony door, he saw a man with his back to him looking at the two plants on the balcony.
These two pots of flowers were also bought by Lu Ren from scraps he found at work.
He had just been employed for half a year when these two pots of flowers were thrown out from an unknown office on the fourth floor. At that time, the leaves of these two pots of flowers were all withered and they were dying. Lu Ren had read a lot of chicken soup about fresh room decoration on a certain website at that time, and thought of planting two pots of flowers to improve the living environment. However, after looking at the flower and bird market for a long time, he found that the large pots of green ivy were too expensive. He was not rich in life, so he thought that he could save a little bit, so he applied and brought these two pots of flowers back. After all, there was no loss if he couldn't keep them alive, not to mention that the flower pots were so beautiful.
His leader, Master Yu, was also very generous. He said that it would not cause any harm to the human body and anyone could take it away if they liked.
He happily dragged the two pots of flowers back home with a small battery, trimmed the withered leaves and branches with scissors, and then watered and added nutrient solution every day. The two pots of flowers were quite resilient, and as time went by, they not only survived, but also grew more luxuriantly.
Lu Ren carefully observed the extra "person" on the balcony. This person was tall and straight, wearing a camel-colored long windbreaker and a pair of shiny leather boots. Although Lu Ren could not recognize this outfit, he knew it was expensive just by looking at the fabric. He concluded that it was definitely not a burglar. Seeing a "person" on his balcony in the middle of the night, Lu Ren acted very calm. After all, he lived on the fifth floor, and the guy who could come up quietly in the middle of the night was not someone he could deal with just by being frightened.
Just as he was thinking, the man with his back to Lu Ren turned around and looked straight at him. He had a pair of bright eyes, and his narrow eyes were calm and distant. He had a deep outline, a straight nose, and a beautiful but not feminine appearance.
Lu Ren looked at him and thought he looked familiar. After thinking for a while, he finally recognized that this was the big boss hanging on the company's photo wall, so he politely greeted him: "Hello, Director."
After hearing this, the man frowned slightly: "Do you know me?"
Lu Ren silently complained in his heart: "You are standing on my balcony and you don't even recognize me."
But he said honestly: "I am Lu Ren from the logistics department, responsible for cleaning work."
Si Yuan probably had no impression of Lu Ren at all. He just nodded slightly after hearing this, then turned to look at the two pots of flowers: "Did you plant these?"
"I guess so. The office on the fourth floor was no longer needed a while ago, so I wanted to bring it back to improve the residential environment and beautify the living space."
Si Yuan then turned his gaze to Lu Ren: "You saved him?"
Lu Ren nodded in confusion, but found that Si Yuan was looking at him thoughtfully.
But Si Yuan didn't explain. He just said lightly, "Take good care of it."
Lu Ren thought to himself, although he knew that this flower was not a human species, he had been raising it and nothing unusual had happened. Over time, he had just treated it as an ordinary green radish. Now even the director had come to take a look. Could it be some kind of magical species that could help him reach the pinnacle of life? So he expressed his inner doubts.
Si Yuan shook his head: "It's just that it's not easy to raise."
Lu Ren sighed regretfully.
Although Si Yuan looked unapproachable, he was surprisingly gentle. He even patiently answered some of the questions Lu Ren encountered during the planting process.
When Lu Ren was about to go in and make Si Yuan a cup of tea, Si Yuan politely refused him: "I have to go to the scene later."
After Lu Ren expressed his understanding, Si Yuan left. Lu Ren finally knew how Si Yuan appeared on his balcony, because he saw Si Yuan flying from the roof of one building to another. It seemed that he saw the "green radish" on his balcony when he passed by the roof of his house, so he stopped to take a look.
After Lu Ren secretly envied Si Yuan's face which was even more handsome than in the photo, he went back to his room and went to sleep without any psychological pressure.
Lu Ren didn't care what the so-called "going to the scene" meant. He knew clearly that Si Yuan and his "scene" were just another world with no intersection to him.
Later, Lu Ren would occasionally meet Si Yuan on his balcony. Sometimes Si Yuan was on his way to the "scene", sometimes he was on his way back from the "scene", he would always stop by to see how the plants were growing. Lu Ren also asked why he cared so much about these two pots of "green ivy", Si Yuan just replied: "I just miss them a little bit."
Sometimes he would just take a look and leave, and sometimes he would stay and drink a cup of tea made by Lu Ren. However, since there were not many cases that could alarm Si Yuan, the frequency of his appearance was also very few.
But strangely, after a while, they became friends who could talk to each other, at least in Lu Ren's eyes. They even exchanged phone numbers and WeChat, although neither party had ever contacted each other.
The two plants never bloomed, but they were growing well and were lush and green. Later, when Si Yuan came one day, Lu Ren had just cooked red bean dumplings, so he naturally served two bowls to the balcony.
Lu Ren felt that it was not appropriate to just bury his head in work, so he chatted casually: "By the way, do you know what kind of flowers I have? I can't find them online."
Si Yuan frowned as he looked at the strange dessert in his bowl, then silently put the bowl of dumplings next to him, seemingly having no intention of eating any of them.
He answered Lu Ren's question succinctly: "These are not flowers, they are two sycamore trees."
Lu Ren stared at the newly grown leaves and studied them for a long time: "Phoenix tree? It looks a little different from the ones planted on the street."
Si Yuan was very calm about this: "It's just a different species."
Then the topic changed again.
But sometimes Si Yuan would come at the wrong time. One night, Lu Ren was staying up late, drinking beer and watching a basketball game, when he suddenly heard someone knocking on the balcony door. Lu Ren had no choice but to run to open the door without taking his eyes off the TV. When he opened the door, it was indeed Si Yuan.
Before Si Yuan opened his mouth, he spoke first: "Don't talk and come in quickly, the game is at a critical moment!"
He usually waited for Si Yuan to speak first before pouring him a cup of tea and chatting with him quietly for a few sentences. He had never been so assertive.
Seeing that Si Yuan was stunned for a moment and did not move, Lu Ren was very anxious because the follow-up of the game was still waiting for him.
So Lu Ren walked behind Si Yuan, pushed his back forward, and urged him, "Hurry up, hurry up."
Si Yuan did not struggle as he was pushed forward, and finally sat on the sofa obediently as Lu Ren asked. Then Lu Ren took a sip of beer and chewed some potato chips. He said to Si Yuan incoherently, "The beer is in the refrigerator, take it yourself if you want to drink it, I'll finish watching this game first."
That night, Si Yuan finally understood the rules of basketball through Lu Ren's excited explanation and watched the first basketball game in his life.
The team that Lu Ren supported lost, and he smashed the remote control in anger. Then he asked Si Yuan: "Is that defender a fool? Can you pass the ball like that?"
Si Yuan nodded and analyzed Lu Ren's words a few more times, which made Lu Ren even more excited.
He dragged Si Yuan to scold him all night, and the more he talked, the angrier he got. When he fell asleep on the sofa, it was already five in the morning.
After drinking and staying up late, Lu Ren was not able to get out of bed as expected.
It is said that on that day, the head of the logistics team, Yu Shi, received a call from the director after a long absence.
The director came to ask for leave for the unit's cleaner. He said, "He probably won't be able to get out of bed today."
“…”
Master Yu nodded silently, but in his heart, a thousand horses were whistling through his head: "What can't be done? Why can't it be done? Why did the director call? What happened?"
Thousands of words finally converged into one thought: Don't ask why. He didn't want to know too many secrets, not to mention that this might be a fatal secret.
This matter was spread among the senior leaders of the company in a small range, and became a secret that could not be told to everyone. As a direct result, Lu Ren saw many strange looks when he was at work. He felt puzzled, but he could not find out the reason.
Of course, when a three-legged bird looks at you as if you were a monster, you will definitely feel that there are too many things to complain about, rather than confronting the bird face to face.
