Thirsty Skin - Chapter 19

Chapter 19 – ‘Are You Inviting Me To Your House Now?’

The next morning at work, Lin Wan received a call from Xu Pingchuan, who said that he wanted to come to the company to visit Lin Wan today. Lin Wan then made an appointment with him to meet in the conference room at ten o’clock in the morning.

Xu Pingchuan brought his technical director, Guo Jun. In addition to Zhu Chizhou, Lin Wan also arranged for senior investment manager Zhou Yuang to attend the meeting.

Both parties were very interested in the cooperation on this project, and the meeting went very smoothly, but Xu Pingchuan’s eyes were still glued to Lin Wan, greedily and passionately. Zhu Chizhou glanced at him several times. Xu Pingchuan seemed to have no intention of restraining himself at all.

At noon, Lin Wan wanted to invite Xu Pingchuan and others to lunch according to etiquette, but Xu Pingchuan said that he had already booked a table and wanted to invite Lin Wan instead.

“It involves some core information that is not convenient to disclose,” Xu Pingchuan said, “I hope to speak to Mr. Lin alone.”

When he said this, he glanced at Zhu Chizhou indifferently. Zhu Chizhou’s heart skipped a beat. Before he could say anything, Lin Wan nodded in agreement, “Then Chizhou, you accompany Mr. Guo for a while.”

There seemed to be no problem with this arrangement. Zhu Chizhou couldn’t say that he didn’t want to accompany the technical director, and there was no reason for him to go with Lin Wan. Just as he was hesitating, he heard Lin Wan say, “Mr. Xu, Zhou Yuang should come with us. I’m not in charge of the specific project now, and Yuang will be the person in charge of this project in the future.”

Zhu Chizhou looked at Lin Wan and thought, ‘He is lying. Isn’t Qiuge Industrial the project he is specifically in charge of?’

However, Lin Wan looked at Xu Pingchuan with a sincere face, and the eyes behind the lenses were full of honesty and clarity, which made people not doubt what he said at all.

But Zhu Chizhou heard him thinking, 【The way you look at me makes me uncomfortable. Let Zhou Yuang take care of you from now on.】

Zhu Chizhou almost couldn’t suppress the upward smile.

This feeling was so similar to the day when they played mahjong!

Every time he thought Lin Wan had played the wrong card and became nervous, he would find out that Lin Wan was paving the way for the next move, with the purpose of catching the opponent off guard and making it impossible for him to fight back.

Zhu Chizhou was in a good mood and personally drove their General Manager Guo out for lunch.

After the three of them came back in the afternoon, Zhou Yuang mysteriously squeezed into Zhu Chizhou’s workstation and shared with him the gossip he had just obtained: “Damn, that Mr. Xu seems to be gay!”

Zhu Chizhou was alert: “What do you mean?”

“He didn’t have any core information to say that was inconvenient to be made public! We were having dinner and chatting about random things for a while, and then he started asking about the boss’s personal affairs!” Zhou Yuang seemed to have witnessed shocking news. “He asked the boss if he had a girlfriend, and the boss said no, then guess what he asked?”

Zhu Chizhou: “Oh? What did he ask again?”

“He actually asked,” Zhou Yuang imitated in a low voice, “Do you have a boyfriend?”

Zhou Yuang covered his mouth and said exaggeratedly: “Fuck, I was still present, doesn’t he pretend?! It took me a while to realize that he wanted to seduce our boss!”

Zhu Chizhou didn’t care what Xu Pingchuan wanted to do, he just asked: “How did the boss answer that question?”

“The boss pointed at me expressionlessly,” Zhou Yuang pointed at himself, “and said this is my boyfriend.”

Zhu Chizhou kicked Zhou Yuang under the table.

Zhou Yuang didn’t dodge and was hit. He bent down to brush off the dust on his trouser legs: “Damn it, why did you kick me? These are my new pants!”

“Boring!” Zhu Chizhou tapped on the keyboard, “I have to work, don’t disturb me!”

Zhou Yuang was obviously still in the excitement of gossip. “Aren’t you surprised? I felt strange when I was in the meeting this morning. Wanshen has the technology and capital. They can do this project by themselves. Why did they drag us in? Do you think that maybe Mr. Xu came to our company just to seduce our boss?”

He flirts with the boss left and right, and Zhu Chizhou is so annoyed by it. ‘Do you know that the person your boss wants to flirt with is me?’

Zhu Chizhou: “What’s so surprising? I’ve already figured out that Xu Pingchuan isn’t straight!”

“Impossible,” Zhou Yuang said in disbelief, “If I hadn’t told you, you would never have guessed it!”

Zhu Chizhou said: “My gay radar is very accurate!”

Zhou Yuang was surprised: “Aren’t you straight? Why do you have a gay radar? I don’t have any.”

Zhu Chizhou was stunned by the question. He didn’t know how to answer. He was a little angry and pushed Zhou Yuang away: “Have you finished writing the report? Project leader! Hurry up and work, don’t disturb my work!”

In the next two days, Xu Pingchuan sent messages to Lin Wan in the name of the project, and Lin Wan forwarded them directly to Zhou Yuang, asking Zhou Yuang to contact the other party. After a few times, Xu Pingchuan’s messages gradually became less and less.

On Friday, Lin Wan brought the black flight jacket to the company and returned it to Zhu Chizhou.

“Thanks.”

【Although I really don’t want to return it.】

Zhu Chizhou wanted to say that if he liked it, he could keep it, but what does it mean to give someone an old piece of clothing? He took it and said, “You’re welcome.” Then he scratched his head shyly and added, “Next time you feel cold, you can wear my clothes.”

A smile appeared in Lin Wan’s eyes behind his glasses: “Okay.”

There was a meeting with a partner in the afternoon. When Lin Wan went out, he saw that Zhu Chizhou had nothing to do, so he called him to go with him.

Zhu Chizhou was very conscious. He opened the drawer, took out the car keys and followed Lin Wan.

Lin Wan found it funny: “This is the first private placement project you have come into contact with. I wanted you to learn a little bit, but you didn’t bring a computer or a notebook, just car keys. I’m not asking you to be a driver.”

Zhu Chizhou pressed the elevator button and said seriously, “I don’t need to bring anything, I have memorized it all.”

Lin Wan was generous in his praise, “You have a very good brain, and your business skills have improved by leaps and bounds in recent times.”

Zhu Chizhou took the opportunity to act cute: “It’s all thanks to Boss Lin’s good teaching.”

“Didn’t you really study finance in college?”

“No.”

Lin Wan was curious: “What did you study?”

Zhu Chizhou didn’t even submit his resume when he came, and his background was a mystery. On the one hand, he was brought to the company by Mr. Zhang himself, and on the other hand, Lin Wan had already changed ten assistants at that time, and he didn’t really care about this eleventh one, so he never asked about this matter.

Who knew Zhu Chizhou would keep it a secret: “Guess.”

“Science and engineering?”

“No.”

Lin Wan: “So it’s finance or economics?”

“No.”

“I can’t guess,” Lin Wan admitted defeat, “Forget it if you don’t want to say it.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to say it,” Zhu Chizhou said a little embarrassedly, “I’m just afraid you’ll laugh at me if I say it out loud.”

“Oh,” Lin Wan suddenly realized, looking up at Zhu Chizhou’s figure, “You’re a sports student!”

“…No,” Zhu Chizhou finally confessed, “I studied philosophy.”

Lin Wan opened her eyes slightly wide in surprise, “Wow, I really couldn’t have guessed that.”

“You won’t laugh at me?” Zhu Chizhou was often teased because of this.

Lin Wan shook his head seriously. “I think studying philosophy is cool, and it’s totally appropriate for a philosophy graduate to work in investment.”

Zhu Chizhou asked: “Because investment is a philosophical question?”

Lin Wan did not answer directly, but asked him instead: “Do you know Soros?”

A financial tycoon. This person is really famous in the investment world. Zhu Chizhou said, “I know.”

The elevator door opened, and Lin Wan stepped out first, turning back and smiling at him: “Then did you know that Soros also studied philosophy?”

Not sure if it was an illusion, but Zhu Chizhou found that Lin Wan’s smile was actually a bit naughty and cute.

Traffic on Friday afternoons was always more congested than usual.

At 4:50, the two men came out of the building after the meeting, and Zhu Chizhou’s black Maybach could only move slowly in the traffic.

Anyway, the car was moving very slowly. He lazily leaned back in his chair, holding the steering wheel with one hand, and turned to ask Lin Wan: “Are we still going back to the company?”

“No,” Lin Wan decided to let the two leave early, “I’ll get off at the next intersection and walk home, you can go play.”

“You don’t have any plans?” Zhu Chizhou didn’t want to go out and play, so he wanted to stay with his leader. “I’ll treat you to dinner tonight.”

Lin Wan was typing on his phone and was startled when he heard his offer. 【Great!】

Lin Wan looked at Zhu Chizhou with a cold expression and calm eyes: “You young people, don’t you have any plans for the weekend night?”

Zhu Chizhou thought his inner reaction was cuter: “You don’t have any either?”

“I have.” Lin Wan turned the phone screen to show Zhu Chizhou. Zeng Xubai asked him if he wanted to play badminton, and he just replied that he did.

Zhu Chizhou: …

So why are you thinking “great”?

The next second, Lin Wan asked him, “Do you want to go? Let’s play together.”

Zhu Chizhou was often beaten by a retired old man when playing badminton in his community. He thought he was not good at it and did not want to embarrass himself in front of Lin Wan, so he was about to refuse.

At this time, Lin Wan received another message. He looked at his phone and said, “Oh, Zeng Xubai said he just ran into Xu Pingchuan, and Xu Pingchuan is coming too.”

“Okay!” Zhu Chizhou said, looking like he really loved badminton. “I have sportswear in the car, but I don’t have a racket.”

Lin Wan’s mouth corners were raised 0.001 times higher than usual. He touched the edge of the frame with his finger and said, “I have two rackets. I can lend you one, but you have to take me home first.”

Zhu Chizhou was already familiar with Lin Wan’s neighborhood, so he took the initiative to tell the security guard the house number, drove into the underground garage, found a parking space under Lin Wan’s instructions, and said to Lin Wan, “I’ll wait for you in the car.”

Lin Wan pushed open the door and said, “I still need to change my glasses and pack my clothes. Let’s go up together.”

Zhu Chizhou took a deep breath in his heart. ‘Are you inviting me to your house now?’

Wouldn’t it be an excuse to change glasses, pack clothes, and go up to do something that would be reviewed and blocked by the director?

Ever since the last time Lin Wan tried to unbutton his buttons one by one in the car, his fingers running down his chest to his abdomen, and hugging him and touching him for an hour, Zhu Chizhou had a completely new understanding of Lin Wan. A cold director?

That didn’t exist. Being cool and aloof was just the director’s protective color.

Zhu Chizhou went upstairs with Lin Wan in a nervous and anxious mood, and secretly made up his mind that if Lin Wan wanted to do something that shouldn’t be done with him, he would never agree.

The author has something to say:

Question: If Lin Wan really has a request, will Zhu Chizhou agree?