Chapter 141 — Old Buffon's Origins
Years of Heartflutter · Page 201 of 214
"Hello, Lin Yanhe. I'm Zhao Sisi—just call me Sisi from now on." Zhao Sisi extended her hand warmly. She had vaguely learned something of Lin Yanhe's circumstances from Zhang Bin, and toward this girl who shared such an ambiguous connection with Yan, she naturally felt she ought to be friendly.
Though as a woman she did not much approve of Yang Ce's arrangement, Zhao Sisi was the sort of girl with a strong sense of the bigger picture. Everything she did now revolved around Zhang Bin, and Yang Ce was Zhang Bin's best friend—so of course she would not put Yang Ce in an awkward spot.
"Hello, Sisi. Then you can call me Zhiyun." Lin Yanhe hurriedly shook Zhao Sisi's hand.
To be honest, Zhao Sisi's strength lay in advertising and publicity; company management was not really her forte. For a while Zhang Bin had handled everything—after all, he had a father who was a boss to advise him from behind the scenes, so dealing with the problems of running a company had not been too hard. Zhao Sisi had always just played a supporting role.
But these past few days Zhang Bin had been in the hospital, and the whole weight of the company had fallen on Zhao Sisi's shoulders, leaving her feeling she was not quite up to it. Now, seeing that Yang Ce had brought in help—and an economics student from their school, no less—she was naturally delighted.
"Li Dadong, what do you say? Willing to stay and help out at the company?" Yang Ce asked, looking at a thoroughly bewildered Li Dadong. And his way of addressing him had changed from the old teasing "Big Winter Melon" to a plain "Li Dadong."
"Huh? Me?" Li Dadong blinked, thinking he had misheard. "You mean you're asking me to come work at your company?"
"That's right," Yang Ce said with a nod. "Is that something you'd consider?"
"This company?" Li Dadong asked, still not quite certain.
"Yes, this company," Yang Ce answered.
"Lin Yanhe's here too?" Li Dadong still could not quite believe it.
"She is," Yang Ce said firmly.
"Then why ask me at all?" Li Dadong was all the more baffled. By any normal reckoning, a man could not dodge his romantic rival fast enough—he would try every trick to send the rival far, far away. Yet here was Yang Ce, planting him right beside Lin Yanhe. What was that supposed to mean?
"To ask you to help out at the company, of course," Yang Ce said with a shrug. "I'm inviting you here, so naturally it's to help."
"But—" Li Dadong was lost. He could not tell what Yang Ce was really after. Was he sincere, or testing him, or plotting something?
"Li Dadong, don't read too much into it." How could Yang Ce fail to see Li Dadong's misgivings? "The truth is, Zhiyun has always thought of you as her elder brother—now, and always. You two may not have become lovers, but there's no reason you can't be family. All this time, you haven't been back to Zhiyun's house, have you? You've been avoiding her, haven't you?
That's not something Zhiyun wants to see—and it's not something I want to see either. Our generation is mostly only children; no elder brothers or sisters, no younger ones. For Zhiyun to have a big brother closer than a real one—that's a kind of happiness.
And now you're the one destroying that happiness. So I'm giving you a chance, and I hope you'll take it. Of course, whether you want to or not is up to you—I won't force you."
"Let me think it over." Li Dadong was visibly moved by Yang Ce's words. What Yang Ce said was true—these past weeks he really had been avoiding Lin Yanhe.
Because it was so awkward; he did not know what to say when they met. Li Dadong somewhat regretted his rashness. If he had not, in a moment of impulse that day, confessed his feelings in front of Lin Yanhe and her boyfriend, there would be no awkwardness now.