Transmigrated as My Best Friend's Ex

126. A Pleasant Surprise

Translator: Guy Gone Bad

In Li Qinghao’s opinion, it was indecent to appear in an administrative building with a packed lunch. But for the sake of Nancheng Lie, he did what he once thought he would never do.

The packed lunch was to Nancheng Lie’s taste. Li Qinghao knew pretty well Nancheng Lie’s likes and dislikes, and vice versa. In a word, they knew each other best.

The Nancheng Administrative Building was the tallest building in this city, located in the center of the city. The building was so tall that it seemed to reach the clouds, giving a feeling of prosperity.

Unlike other companies which could only rent or buy a single storey, Nancheng Group owned the whole large building. The land was worth more than ten billion. Thus it could be seen that Nancheng Group was financially strong.

The security guards standing upright at the gate of Nancheng Group were tall and strong. Li Qinghao knew the security guards of Nancheng Group were mostly veterans.  Nnancheng Group had a top-class security system.

Li Qinghao walked straight into the building. The security guards didn’t stop him. Security guards in other places usually stopped visitors and asked them why they came. But the security guards of Nancheng Group were hired to protect the staff and visitors instead of stopping visitors from entering the building.

Li Qinghao came up to the girl on the reception desk and said with a smile, “I’m here for Nancheng Lie.” He habitually addressed Nancheng Lie by name. Ar the sight of the surprised look on the receptionist’s face, Li Qinghao finally realized that it seemed inappropriate to address Nancheng Lie without an honorific title. After all, he was no longer Han Mingxu. “I’m his cousin, and I’m here to give him this.” He showed the packed lunch to the receptionist. There was a charm about his handsome face. The receptionist replied politely, “I’m sorry but I have to call our general manager. Please wait a moment.” The receptionist picked up the phone and was about to call Nancheng Lie, but Li Qinghao stopped her. “I just came back from abroad. I want to give my cousin a surprise. If you have to confirm my identity, you can call my second cousin, Nancheng Yunsen. He met me at the airport today.”

The receptionist was a little embarrassed. “Sorry, I don’t have his phone number.”

“Oh…” Li Qinghao thought for a moment and said, “I’ll phone him, then you can ask him about my identity, okay?” He looked imploringly at her with puppy dog eyes. The receptionist was almost convinced, but she hesitated, because she couldn’t be sure if the phone number Li Qinghao was going to dial was Nancheng Yunsen’s. She was put in an embarrassing position. ‘What if this boy is really Mr. Nancheng’s cousin? He wants to give Mr. Nancheng a surprise. If I ruin his plan…” the girl thought to herself.

“What about going upstairs with me?” Li Qinghao suggested. If Nancheng Lie hadn’t asked him to be more romantic, Li Qinghao wouldn’t have come here and wasted time on the receptionist. In his opinion, there was nothing like a surprise for creating a romantic mood. He was sure that Nancheng Lie would be overjoyed to see him. Li Qinghao curved his lips into a smile.

“Good idea!” The receptionist exchanged a few words with her colleague standing next to her, and then led Li Qinghao upstairs.

The 36th floor was divided into two areas. One area was assigned to Nancheng Lie, who was the general manager and vice-president of Nancheng Group. The area included Nancheng Lie’s office, his assistant’s office and two secretarial offices. The other area was for the president of Nancheng Group. Compared with the former one, it had one less secretarial office. The general manager was to deal with all the documents submitted by the senior management, and then handed them to the president. So, more people were needed in the General Manager Area. In addition, there were two meeting rooms on the 36th floor, one for the managers and the other for the senior staff above the director level.

When the receptionist walked out of the elevator with Li Qinghao, the two secretaries at the reception desk raised their heads and looked towards the elevator at the same time as if by prior agreement.

The receptionist walked over to the secretary of General Manager Area and said, “Miss Yang, this gentleman claims to be our general manager’s cousin. He wants to see Mr. Nancheng.”

“Our general manager’s cousin?” Miss Yang looked at Li Qinghao. The Nanchengs were a very big family and had many relatives. Many of their general manager’s friends and cousins had come to their company, but she had never seen Li Qinghao before. “Just a moment, please. Let me give Mr. Nancheng a call.”

“Don’t bother.” Li Qinghao stopped her. “I’ll call him myself.”

He was now standing at the door of Nancheng Lie’s office. He believed that his visit would give Nancheng Lie a pleasant surprise. Under the gaze of the receptionist and secretary, Li Qinghao took out his cell phone and dialed Nancheng Lie’s number.

“Xu.” Nancheng Lie answered the phone as soon as it rang. “Do you miss me?” He was in a good mood.

Li Qinghao refused to answer such a meaningless question. “Come out.”

“What?!” Nancheng Lie was stunned for a moment. Soon he came back to himself and quickly ran out of his office. The three ladies outside watched almost open-mouthed as he ran fast towards them. “Xu.” Nancheng Lie came up to Li Qinghao and looked him up and down. Confirming that Li Qinghao was all right, Nancheng Lie narrowed his eyes and smiled, “Sure enough, you miss me.” He nodded his head with satisfaction. Nancheng Lie was the most narcissistic person Li Qinghao had ever met.

Li Qinghao rolled his eyes at Nancheng Lie. “Here is your lunch.” He thrust the lunch-box into Nancheng’s hands and walked straight into the general manager’s office.

“Xu.” Nancheng Lie was pleasantly surprised. A few seconds later, he came back to his senses and immediately followed Li Qinghao into the office. With a bang, the door shut after him. The three women outside were bursting with curiosity.

The receptionist breathed a sigh of relief. She was lucky not to ruin Li Qinghao’s plan. His visit did indeed give Mr. Nancheng a pleasant surprise.

Some employees gathered at the door of the secretarial office to watch the fun. Seeing that Nancheng Lie went back to his office, they rushed out and asked, “Who’s that boy?”

“He claimed to be our general manager’s cousin.”

“I don’t believe it. I’ve never seen Mr. Nancheng so excited.”

“Yes! We all know that Mr. Nancheng is gay. Maybe that boy is…” A female secretary blinked. They exchanged a knowing look with one another.

“Is our general manager a pedophile?”

Women were more or less gossipy. After knowing of their boss’s sexual orientation, they instinctively paid more attention to homosexuality. As a result, they knew more about the gay community. As senior intellectuals, they were all open-minded.

A male secretary refuted, “You have an overactive imagination.”

In the opinion of male secretaries, that boy had a puritan streak in him. Men and women saw things differently. The female employees were curious about their general manager’s private life, as were the male employees. But Nancheng Lie and the male employees were of the same sex, so the male employees had a much stronger desire to find out why their boss liked men compared with the female employees.

After all, they were men, too.

The secretaries outside the general manager’s office were burning with curiosity. In the office there was an atmosphere of romance.

Nancheng Lie sat on the sofa with the box lunch in his hands, looking at Li Qinghao with loving eyes.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Li Qinghao felt uncomfortable because of Nancheng Lie’s intense, passionate gaze. Nancheng had been staring at him with a smile like a fool since they came into the office.

“Look at my eyes, Xu. Do you see the love in my eyes? I love you so much.” Nancheng Lie opened his eyes wide so that Li Qing could see more clearly.

They were so close that Li Qinghao could see his own reflection in Nancheng Lie’s dark eyes. Li Qinghao suddenly remembered that Nancheng Lie had a lunch box in his hand. He instantly pushed Nancheng Lie away for fear of overturning the packed lunch. “Aren’t you hungry? Eat it while it’s hot.” God knew what was happening in Nancheng Lie’s mind.

“I’m full at the sight of you.” In fact, Nancheng Lie was not hungry. That was just an excuse to arouse sympathy. But he was deeply touched by what Li Qinghao did. That was just a joke, but Xu took it seriously. He even bought him a packed lunch.

“Xu…” His soft voice was like a sweet melody, tugging at Li Qinghao’s heartstrings. Nancheng Lie put the lunch-box on the tea table and then leaned towards Li Qinghao.

“What are you doing?” Li Qinghao raised his hands and put them on Nancheng Lie’s chest, trying to push him away. “Get away from me, it’s so hot.”

“Don’t worry. My office is air-conditioned.” Nancheng Lie pulled Li Qinghao’s hands down from his chest and once again leaned towards Li. “Xu, I can’t help loving you.” He trapped Li Qinghao between the sofa and his chest. “Your heart ached for me when you heard that I hadn’t eaten a thing since this morning, didn’t it?”

“Humph! You are a huge man, built like an oak tree. I believe that you can go without food for days.” Li Qinghao tried to struggle himself free from Nancheng’s arms, but soon he found it was pointless to even try to resist. So he stopped struggling and let Nancheng Lie lean against him.

Nancheng Lie refuted, “What?! I’m tall and thin. How can you describe me as a hefty boor?” With that, Nancheng reached into Li Qinghao’s clothes and stroked his smooth skin.

Li Qinghao rolled his eyes at Nancheng Lie. “Knock it off!” He grabbed Nancheng’s hand and continued, “I had lunch with your second brother. I think it a shame to waste food, so I packed the leftover food for you.”

What he said cooled down Nancheng Lie’s passion. He withdrew his hand and looked at Li Qinghao. “Did you really have lunch with my second brother?” He had been working hard so as to finish the rest of his work as soon as possible. In this way he could go home early and spend more time with Xu. But he hadn’t expected Xu to have lunch privately with his brother. It was outrageous!

“Yes.” Li Qinghao sat in a relaxed posture. He closed his eyes and felt sleepy. “You go and eat first.” He tried to fight the sleepiness that overwhelmed him and urged Nancheng Lie to have lunch.

The tiredness on Li Qinghao’s face tugged at Nancheng Lie’s heartstrings. Nancheng felt a sense of heartache. “Are you tired?” Although Li Qinghao became younger, he was still weak and sickly. The weakness caused by the TRKS virus and the leg injury caused by the accident two years ago were still tormenting him. He was still suffering from the after-effects.

Li Qinghao answered casually, “I’ll be fine after a good rest.”

“I hope so.” Nancheng Lie pressed Li Qinghao to the sofa and let him rest his head on his lap. “You have a sleep. I’ll give you a massage.” Nancheng Lie put his slender fingers on Li Qinghao’s temples.

“Ah… Be gentle.” It was the first time Nancheng Lie gave a massage, so he wasn’t very skillful at first. “Good, that’s it. I feel so comfortable…” The office was filled with groans. Gradually, he quieted down and fell asleep. It was so quiet that Nancheng Lie could only hear Li Qinghao’s quiet, regular breathing.