AADWFL Chapter 17
by Suxxi“Xiao Zhou, you’re here.”
Before An Ning could even stand up and peer past Zhou Yehua to see who it was, that familiar deep voice came from the doorway.
“Ah— yes. Hello, President Yu, I was just here to report some work to President An,” Zhou Yehua replied quickly, recovering from her brief shock. “I’m done now; I’ll be heading downstairs.”
Yu Xiuming nodded slightly, not asking further. He stepped aside to let Zhou Yehua out, indicating that he himself would be entering next.
He waited until Zhou and the others disappeared into the stairwell before walking in at an unhurried pace, closing the door behind him.
The steady tap of his leather shoes on the floor echoed rhythmically — calm, precise, deliberate. He moved neither fast nor slow, yet as the distance closed, An Ning felt a growing pressure in the air.
“President Yu,” he greeted softly, his voice still nasal from the lingering cold.
To be fair, An Ning wasn’t trying to sound soft — he just sensed that Yu Xiuming seemed a little displeased and instinctively adjusted his tone to be gentler.
Combined with his stuffed nose, those two words came out almost like a kitten’s mewl — a little coaxing, a little cute — enough to smother even a blazing temper.
And that’s why An Ning was caught off guard when he realized his instincts had completely missed the mark. Because when Yu Xiuming stopped in front of him, he didn’t look angry at all.
“How are you feeling?” Yu’s eyes flicked toward the cold medicine packaging still lying open on the desk. “If the medicine isn’t working, I’ll have a doctor come check on you.”
An Ning blinked, baffled by his boss’s concern. “I’m fine, really. It’s just a cold — it has to run its course. The medicine’s working; it’ll pass in a few days. No need to trouble anyone.”
“It’s no trouble.” Yu Xiuming finished inspecting the medicine, then casually sat down on the sofa like he owned the place. “If you need anything, tell me. Having a doctor come by the house isn’t a big deal.”
An Ning suddenly felt a bead of sweat roll down his back. Was it just him, or was the office unusually warm today?
What on earth was going on?
It was just a cold! Yet one after another, people were treating it like a national crisis. The flood of concern was beginning to feel overwhelming.
From acquaintances at the dinner gathering — fine, that was just politeness — to his subordinate Zhou Yehua, who’d only come up because she overheard something… it was odd, but still understandable.
But Yu Xiuming?
Absolutely not normal.
That much, An Ning was sure of.
As for what exactly was off — well, there were so many “off” things today that he couldn’t even pinpoint one.
Yu Xiuming smiled mildly. “You were right — quite a few of them do take the subway to work.”
An Ning chuckled, oblivious. “You heard that? Yeah, what a coincidence. Zhou said she heard from Haiyun Group’s assistant that I caught a cold, so she came to ask. I just reminded them to dress warm — with the weather cooling down, the subway crowd’s a breeding ground for colds.”
Yu’s expression softened slightly — apparently, that explanation soothed him.
So it was because Zhou came asking that An Ning mentioned it.
“Right — President Yu, was there something you needed to discuss?” An Ning asked, finally circling back to the main point. Normally, if the boss wanted something, he’d just call — no need for a personal visit.
Yu’s tone was calm, almost casual. “Nothing major. I was walking by, heard Zhou Yehua talking, and wondered if there was an issue with the executive office. Just came in to check.”
All right, that made… some sense.
The office was soundproof, but Zhou hadn’t fully closed the door earlier — she’d only pushed it halfway shut — so Yu must have overheard their conversation as he passed.
“Alright then,” Yu said as he stood up to leave.
An Ning saw no reason to insist he stay. He said a polite goodbye and, as an afterthought, asked what Yu wanted for lunch so he could order from their usual private kitchen.
Yu responded as usual, though this time he added, “Ask the chef what’s good for someone with a cold. Have them send that instead. Their chicken soup is excellent — get a portion for lunch.”
Later, sitting in the break room with a bowl of steaming chicken soup in hand, An Ning found himself oddly dazed.
Why did it feel like the entire world had gone off-kilter just because he caught a cold?
Especially when he looked up and saw Yu Xiuming sitting across from him at the same table, eating quietly, with that same faintly concerned gaze — the dissonance hit him all over again.
He shut his eyes and decided to focus on the soup.
To be fair, Yu’s recommendation was spot-on — the soup was delicious.
Three days later, An Ning had fully recovered. The fickle autumn weather finally stabilized into something mild, and colds were no longer a threat.
Life returned to normal.
So normal, in fact, that An Ning didn’t even notice when Yu stopped texting him each morning to tell him he didn’t need to come upstairs early.
Every day, he went up anyway — sometimes bringing an umbrella or jacket if the weather looked uncertain, sometimes just carrying Yu’s bag.
Yu accepted it all wordlessly, as if that stretch of uncharacteristic distance between them had never existed at all.
At the same time, An Ning’s little savings stash was gradually growing.
After running the numbers several times, he couldn’t help but feel that Yu Xiuming had been unusually generous lately—handing out all kinds of extra bonuses.
Although An Ning wasn’t sure whether his boss’s careless generosity might eventually harm the management of the family business, one thing was clear—for him, this was nothing but good news.
As he calculated his bank balance, he had a dazed sort of realization: if his boss kept up the habit of giving out bonuses that were counted in tens of thousands every time he completed a task, then maybe—just maybe—it was time to start thinking seriously about buying a house.
He reopened his laptop, logged into a few familiar real estate sites, browsed through listings with deep thought, and after narrowing down a few options, he contacted the agents to schedule viewings.
Ever since the disastrous birthday banquet for Yu Linshan, the three masters of the Jialin Garden residence hadn’t seen each other.
Over the next two months, the so-called family gathering days were attended only by Yu Xiuming, who would return home as usual, spend a day or two with Tao Kang at the villa, and then go back to work in the central business district—never once crossing paths with Xu Jianan or Yu Linshan.
And perhaps that was for the best.
As far as An Ning knew, Yu Xiuming had little desire to see his parents anyway; when he did, it was purely out of obligation, maintaining the barest veneer of filial politeness.
Without that burden, An Ning found that the smaller dinners—just the three of them, Yu Xiuming, Tao Kang, and himself—felt warm, even relaxing.
That evening, when they returned to Jialin Garden, Tao Kang was full of questions at the dinner table. He eventually asked about Yu Xiuming and An Ning’s upcoming business trip to Lunzhou two days later, on Monday.
The company’s headquarters were in Binzhou, while the Lunzhou branch was a new expansion within the past year. There was now a need for Yu Xiuming to travel there for a meeting.
Since the meeting had been moved up on short notice, and Yu Xiuming couldn’t be bothered to have everyone adjust their schedules for his sake, he decided to simply advance his and An Ning’s trip—departing Monday instead of Friday.
“Since you’re already here,” Tao Kang said between bites, “why not stay two nights and leave straight from Jialin Garden on Monday?”
Yu Xiuming nodded—he had the same idea. “I’ll trouble you then, Uncle Kang.”
Normally, they would pack up back at their own place, with An Ning handling all the preparations. But if they were leaving from Jialin Garden, Tao Kang would naturally take over those duties.
“No trouble at all,” Tao Kang said cheerfully. Knowing they’d be staying made him genuinely happy; the usually quiet villa would finally feel lively for a couple of days.
After dinner, An Ning received a message from the real estate agent, which reminded him that he had forgotten to reschedule his house-viewing appointments.
He quickly sent a short message to the agent, explaining that he had to postpone due to a sudden business trip, then turned his attention to helping Tao Kang prepare luggage for Lunzhou.
This trip would be a long one—they’d be staying in Lunzhou for at least half a month.
Yu Xiuming’s itineraries were always arranged entirely by the President’s Office, and An Ning was the one who handled everything. No one in the company knew his boss’s schedule better than he did.
Ordinarily, someone in Yu Xiuming’s position wouldn’t have just one personal assistant handling everything. People of his status usually had several assistants—or even an entire team—split into work and personal groups: one team managing business affairs, another dealing with daily life.
By that logic, it was almost unheard of to have someone like An Ning—a senior executive who also doubled as a personal aide.
And in their social circle, there were few like Yu Xiuming—someone who relied exclusively on a single person for everything.
Yu Xiuming, long used to having just one assistant, found the arrangement comfortable.
It was, however, exhausting for An Ning—though, truth be told, the “original” An Ning had always been happy to endure it.
Nowadays, considering the frequent pay raises and generous bonuses, An Ning was more than willing to keep enduring it.
Still, Tao Kang couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.
“Xiao Ning, don’t you ever get tired doing everything on your own?”
He was helping An Ning pack up the materials and clothes that Yu Xiuming would need for the trip—though in truth, An Ning was the one doing most of the organizing while Tao Kang merely lent a hand.
Young Master Yu, having never done such things himself since childhood, was absolutely hopeless at it.
He had tried to help at first, but given that his “help” only created more work for them, both men had unanimously chased him out of the room.
Although it was An Ning’s first time handling the logistics of a business trip since transmigrating into the novel, the muscle memory remained intact.
He packed the luggage calmly and methodically, his movements practiced and precise—so much so that Tao Kang, who had originally wanted to help, found himself with nothing to do.
“Xiuming’s gotten more and more particular since you started taking care of him,” Tao Kang said with a helpless smile, sitting down to sip his hot tea.
An Ning’s face was already flushed from his busy work, but at that remark he paused, looked up, and gave a sheepish smile. “It’s not that bad.”
Tao Kang snorted softly. “When he was little, he wasn’t like this at all. Only after you started working with him did he become so particular—clearly, you’ve spoiled him.”
That made An Ning’s heart skip a beat.
After all, he wasn’t sure whether Tao Kang knew that the original An Ning had secretly harbored feelings for Yu Xiuming.
If everyone around them had simply been pretending not to notice all along, he’d really want to crawl into a hole.
But Tao Kang’s tone was open and casual—it didn’t sound like he knew.
An Ning’s cheeks warmed further, though luckily they were already red from the earlier bustle, so no one could tell the difference.
He glanced at Tao Kang’s expression—still perfectly normal—and finally let out a quiet sigh of relief.
So he didn’t know.
Good. That made things easier.
The past mistakes had been corrected; he wasn’t about to fall foolishly for his boss again.
Author’s Note:
A bonus calculated in tens of thousands? I want that too 😳
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