He Married Him for Love, Then His Assistant Became His Husband in Probation novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Take-Home

Lu Chen reviews documents at the Su estate, Su Yu falls asleep on his shoulder, and at dinner Su Yu tells his parents in front of everyone that he likes Lu Chen.

Mrs. Su put a fourth bowl of soup in front of Lu Chen before he had finished refusing the third.

"You're too thin," she said. "Eat."

"Mrs. Su, I only came to review the tender documents."

"You can review and eat. People do both."

Lu Chen looked at the bowl.

Then he picked up the spoon.

Su Yu, across the long dining table, watched him eat the first mouthful slowly and with great care.

Su Yu had brought the files home at six, because the office had started to feel like a place where he was being watched.

That was true, and it was also true that the estate had a sofa.

"We read it together," Lu Chen had said at the door, with his bag in both hands. "You hold the pages. I'll explain what's wrong in them."

That had sounded like work, and Su Yu had agreed at once.

By eight o'clock Lu Chen had marked eleven problems in the bid documents with a red pen and the dining table was covered in paper.

Su Yu had read three of the problems.

The fourth was on the second page of a supplier list, in small print, and the print had started to move.

His head went down onto the table.

Then it went sideways, found something warm and steady, and stayed.

Lu Chen's shoulder was narrow and smelled faintly of paper and tea.

Su Yu was asleep before he could be embarrassed.

He woke up two hours later with a crease on his cheek and the dining room lamp turned low.

Lu Chen had not moved.

His pen was in his left hand, the right arm hung at his side, and every sheet of the red-marked bid was squared in a neat stack.

"Your arm," Su Yu said.

"It's fine."

"Is it asleep?"

"It has been for an hour," Lu Chen said. "I didn't want to wake you. You were snoring in the key."

"I don't snore."

"The key of B flat."

In the doorway Mrs. Su put a finger to her lips.

She was holding a tray with two cups of milk, and she backed out of the room very slowly, smiling at the floor.

Dinner was at nine, which was late even for the Chairman.

He sat at the head of the table, still in his suit, and he looked at his son's face with a startled kind of pleasure.

"You've got colour," he said. "Did you work?"

"I read three problems," Su Yu said. "Lu Chen found eleven."

"That's a good ratio," the Chairman said. "Start with three and double it."

"He's good," Su Yu said. "He's the only person who tells me when I'm bad at things. I like him."

Nobody moved.

Mrs. Su's chopsticks stopped halfway to her mouth.

The Chairman put down his glass without looking at it.

Lu Chen, to Su Yu's left, was holding a bite of fish a few inches from his lips.

"Like him how?" Mrs. Su said.

"Like him," Su Yu said. "Like, like. Is there another way?"

Lu Chen set the fish back on his plate.

Mrs. Su put her chopsticks down and turned to her husband.

The Chairman had gone very still, and then, slowly, he started to smile.

"Well," he said. "A year with one fool, and now a boy who can read."

"Dear," Mrs. Su said.

She leaned across the table and took her son's hand.

"Then you have to do it properly. Three things. First, flowers."

"I'll have someone send some," Su Yu said.

"Someone."

"The florist near the office. They have a subscription."

"Su Yu." His mother's voice was kind and absolutely unmoving. "Flowers you choose and carry yourself. Second, you work properly. You don't doze through a project with him sitting there."

"That's unfair, I was resting my eyes."

"Third," Mrs. Su said, ignoring him. "When he needs help, you help. Not later. Not by phone."

"Yes, Mama."

The Chairman cleared his throat.

"In my opinion this is the first sensible decision you have made in two years," he said. "Eat your fish."

Lu Chen had not said a word since the moment he put his fish down.

He was looking at the tablecloth.

His ears were red again, and his right hand, the one that had gone numb under Su Yu's head, lay open next to his plate.

Su Yu looked at that hand for longer than was polite.

Then he looked up and found that Lu Chen was looking at him.

"Vice President," Lu Chen said, in the dry voice he used for contracts. "That was not on the agenda."

"Was it a problem?"

Lu Chen picked up his chopsticks.

He took a long time choosing the next bite of fish.

"Eat," he said at last. "The soup is getting cold."

He had not said no.

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