Chapter 30

Chapter 30

An Nuo spent another day recuperating at home.

By afternoon, his fever hadn't returned, and his discomfort was gradually subsiding—everything was moving in a positive direction.

By the morning of the third day, all symptoms had vanished, save for a lingering, slight weakness.

After a follow-up hospital visit confirmed he was in the clear, An Nuo returned to the company that afternoon to resume his internship.

It wasn't that he was particularly passionate about the job; rather, his departure had been too abrupt, and his absence too prolonged.

An Nuo felt deeply self-conscious about it, fearing misunderstanding, and it weighed heavily on his mind.

Yet, he had only worked a day and a half, while his absence stretched to two and a half days—his time away exceeded his time at work. Returning now, everything felt unfamiliar once more.

Fortunately, no one suspected anything about his relationship with Lu Yunyan; that particular worry was merely An Nuo overthinking.

The permanent staff barely knew him, and frankly, no one cared whether he lived or died.

Among the interns, he only knew Sean and Lenny.

Sean remained as aloof and indifferent as ever, giving An Nuo the cold shoulder. It was doubtful he even wondered what had happened.

Lenny, being more outgoing, sociable, and a lover of gossip, didn't need An Nuo to pry. While they were slacking off in the break room, Lenny initiated the conversation: "I heard Mr. Lu chewed you out so badly you almost threw in the towel on this internship?"

"…………"

While this explanation was preferable to the truth, it wasn't exactly a glowing endorsement.

It made An Nuo seem fragile, spineless, and utterly lacking in resilience.

"Well…"

"The afternoon you left, people from the Omega Protection Union came to investigate."

"...Huh?"

An Nuo's eyes widened in curiosity.

"Investigate what?"

"They were investigating whether you'd been bullied at work. On your second day, an alpha boss scolding an omega intern so severely he almost quit—of course the union would come to check out the situation."

So now the story was that he quit.

It seemed there was an informant within the company.

Otherwise, how could such a minor incident warrant the Omega Protection Union's attention, and from such a peculiar angle?

And you couldn't even argue that the angle was wrong.

On the surface, it certainly looked that way.

"But Mr. Lu was out that afternoon, and he was out yesterday, too… It's quite a coincidence, isn't it? You came back this afternoon, and Mr. Lu returned as well."

"……"

Oh no.

Viewed this way, that detail seemed even more suspicious.

Lenny asked, "Are you okay now? Do you feel nervous or scared when you see Mr. Lu?"

An Nuo nodded with genuine feeling, "...A little scared, yeah."

He truly was a little scared.

Though the reason for his fear differed, his words were sincere.

The only upside was that it provided An Nuo with a ready-made excuse.

Since everyone already suspected it, he might as well go along with the narrative.

"...But honestly, Mr. Lu didn't really scold me that much. I just have a pretty low tolerance for pressure, I guess. It was a bit much for me."

"A couple of days resting at home did the trick... hmm, I think I can handle it now."

Lenny patted his shoulder reassuringly, "Hey, don't worry about it. Just ease back into it."

"Anyway, if it comes up, people will just think Mr. Lu was too harsh, scolding a new intern like that."

An Nuo felt a pang of sympathy for Lu Yunyan, but then he suddenly realized something.

"...Wait, will everyone know that intern is me?"

Lenny gave him a "what do you think?" look. "I mean, it's pretty obvious, isn't it? You're really good-looking and you stand out."

With his black-to-gray-to-white gradient curly hair, like a Siamese cat’s coloring.

And those sapphire-blue eyes, like actual gems.

Forget whether An Nuo's overall looks were a ten or not—those two features alone made him instantly recognizable in any crowd.

Lenny added, "Besides, there are only three interns in the secretarial department."

"……"

Leaving the break room, An Nuo’s already low spirits sank even further.

He had a premonition that if he ever became a full-time employee here, his unofficial title would likely be, "Look, that’s the intern who got scolded by Mr. Lu and almost quit on his first day."

He consoled himself that it was still better than everyone finding out about him and Lu Yunyan.

Returning to his seat, he saw Lu Yunyan’s Executive Assistant distributing something.

"Mr. Lu was on a business trip the past couple of days. The local glutinous rice balls there were quite good, so he specially ordered some. They just arrived this morning—everyone, please try them."

Free local specialties, gifted by the boss—whether they liked them or not, the employees had to at least pretend to appreciate them.

Only An Nuo silently returned to his seat, not daring to move.

Because the Executive Assistant had witnessed him hitting Lu Yunyan and was currently the only person in the company who knew.

An Nuo couldn’t bring himself to look at him.

He could only play dead at his desk, wishing he could bury his head in his keyboard, desperately trying to make himself invisible and mentally chanting: *Don’t see me, don’t see me, don’t see me.*

Little did he know, he was the very reason Lu Yunyan had sent those glutinous rice balls.

Because Lu Yunyan knew he loved them.

If An Nuo brought them from home, he would feel too self-conscious to eat alone and end up sharing with others.

He was also afraid others might not like them or even dislike them, which would just lead to an unnecessary emotional drain.

Lu Yunyan couldn’t just give a portion to An Nuo alone either.

As much as he wanted to pull such a mischievous stunt, he really couldn’t risk agitating An Nuo easily now.

So he simply decided to give everyone a portion.

This way, everyone had some, and An Nuo could eat his portion without reservations.

After everyone else had taken theirs, the Executive Assistant personally delivered An Nuo’s portion to him.

With a polite and friendly attitude, he tried hard to suppress any urge to be sycophantic: "This one is for you."

An Nuo kept his head down, quickly reaching out to take it: "...Thank you."

He was exuding covert awkwardness.

The Executive Assistant really didn’t want to be part of their dynamic, but at this point, he already was.

Who cared if he was willing or not?

He also wondered to himself—An Nuo was practically the group’s prince consort, so why on earth did he choose to be a mere intern instead of doing something else?

Was this some underhanded new scheme of Lu Yunyan’s?

Some prince consorts were actually covert imperial inspectors in disguise?

Slipping in among the interns to monitor who wasn’t working seriously?

Terrifying.

Absolutely terrifying.

After delivering the items, the Executive Assistant left, everyone returned to focusing on work, and An Nuo could finally relax.

His phone suddenly buzzed repeatedly.

Glancing down at the screen and seeing it was a message from Lu Yunyan, An Nuo frowned and ignored it.

It couldn’t be anything important.

And it couldn’t be anything major anyway, no need to respond.

He really needed to have a firm talk with Lu Yunyan after getting home—could he please not spend all day pestering an intern?

Wasn’t he supposed to be swamped?

Where did he even find the time?

But since An Nuo ignored him, he soon received another message from Lu Yunyan on the company’s internal messaging software.

Because it was work-related software, if the recipient didn’t open the message, the dialog box would stay displayed on the screen.

With no choice, An Nuo clicked on it.

A jumpscare.

Lu Yunyan’s private photo popped up instantly, quickly taking up a quarter of the computer screen.

It was a suggestive abs photo.

Shot from a top-down angle, Lu Yunyan’s face wasn’t visible, but it was clear the photo was taken in his office.

His distinctly veined hand lifted his shirt, revealing cut, muscular abs.

An Nuo panicked, even unable to find the close button.

Just then, Sean leaned over: "An Nuo, you weren’t here the past couple days, your spreadsheet—"

His voice cut off abruptly.

There were small privacy screens between seats to protect privacy; normally, when working at their computers, no one could see what was on their neighbor’s screen.

But Sean had moved his chair, leaning halfway over to talk to An Nuo, and naturally saw the photo on the screen.

Silence.

He quickly slid back to his own seat.

An Nuo was mortified and simply exited the app entirely, making the photo disappear from the screen.

"...Did you want to tell me something? What about the spreadsheet?"

An Nuo leaned toward Sean, just relieved Lu Yunyan’s face wasn’t visible and that Sean wasn’t the gossipy type. With just a glance, he probably wouldn’t figure anything out.

Sean turned his head, his eyes indeed lacking any hint of gossipmongering, just a mild disdain, as if saying: *You omegas are all like this.*

"You weren’t here the past couple days, so I finished your spreadsheet, but a lot of the formatting was off. So I made a new template—just input the data from now on."

"...Okay, okay, thank you, thanks for handling it."

"Mm, I’ll send the file to you."

"There are still some spreadsheet tasks. Since you’re back, you can take it from here."

"...Okay, I’ll do it, I’ll do it."

An Nuo signed back into his internal account, and sure enough, Sean had already sent several files.

An Nuo: "Thank you [rose][rose]"

Sean didn’t reply, but the message was quickly marked as "Read."

Lu Yunyan also sent a new message.

An Nuo clicked on it with dread.

Thankfully, this time it was just text, no more inappropriate photos.

Lu Yunyan: "Read, no reply?"

Lu Yunyan: "Why aren’t you replying?"

How dare he ask why he wasn’t replying?

An Nuo picked up his phone and glanced at the messages Lu Yunyan had sent him.

Lu Yunyan: "Did you eat the glutinous rice balls?"

Lu Yunyan: "There are a few new flavors mixed in. Try them and see if you like them."

An Nuo: "Withdraw that photo you just sent!"

An Nuo: "Withdraw it right now, this instant!"

An Nuo: "Don’t leave any trace on the company’s internal network! What if someone sees it?"

If it were possible, he would have charged into Lu Yunyan’s office to punch him again.

Lu Yunyan: "Just clear the chat history. There won’t be any traces left."

An Nuo: "How can you be sure?!"

An Nuo: "Every character of data leaves a trail! What if it gets exposed?! Then the whole company would know!"

Lu Yunyan: "That’d be a good thing for me."

An Nuo: [no response]

He felt instantly drained of all strength and resolve.

He’d forgotten again.

Only he was opposed to making this public; Lu Yunyan would just get off on it.

An Nuo really wanted to claw the walls.

An Nuo: "The doctor said not to provoke me. I’ve just gotten a little better, and now you want me to have a relapse?"

Lu Yunyan: "Of course not."

Lu Yunyan: "But can’t I even send a few photos and messages? We’re so far apart—who’s gonna know?"

An Nuo: "That depends on what kind of photos they are. Was that last photo even appropriate? (sent with a knife emoji)"

An Nuo: "How could you take such a photo in the office? Have you no shame?"

Lu Yunyan: "Figured out I just took it?"

Lu Yunyan: "You were looking pretty closely."

Lu Yunyan: "Want to see more? I can keep taking them."