The thick documents piled up on Xiulan's desk. The coffee cups that are empty were shoved to the side and caused an unflattering smell inside the office. Though it wasn't smelly, only a few people liked this type of scent, the combination of coffee, air freshener and paper wafted through the air.
"Dandan, send me the files from the Rainbow Books publishing company. I need them before the day ends." Xiulan pinged Secretary Dandan's intercom for the nth time today.
Xiulan was in a rush to complete all the minor tasks like reviewing and signing documents and bank cheques this week. Then next week she will try to finish developing softwares that needed her help.
Her whole day was full of paperwork that she wasn't able to eat her lunch meal. All she did was drink and drink coffee. She can't believe that paperwork was more crucial than typing codes for the whole day.
She had to review and read a lot of heavy worded documents. She even had to correct some proposals and added notes for revision.
Now that her company's affiliations and clients are getting bigger, her workloads are piling up like Mount Everest.
"Fuck, I feel like I'm going to pass out anytime." Xiulan weakly mumbles while she leans her back on her chair and massages her temples.
The document in front of her might be the 30th document she signed and reviewed for today. Her head is getting dizzy and adds that she's super hungry. Too much coffee didn't help her either. The acid reflux was getting into her and making her dizzier.
She looked at the time on her laptop and it was quarter to five already. It's almost time for dismissal for her employees.
She quickly checks the CCTV footage on her laptop to see if her employees are getting ready to leave. Apparently, there are a lot of employees who will have overtime and that includes Secretary Dandan.
Xiulan sighed. This day, her brain used 70% of its capabilities. She still can't move on that doing paperwork can be such a pain in the ass.
She stands up to stretch her tired muscles and also to get some water. She had been drinking too much coffee and anytime she might get an ulcer from it.
While she refills her cup with water from the dispenser in the pantry outside her room, she suddenly heard loud gasps and giggles in the entrance.
She frowned at the noise she was hearing. She quickly peeked at what was happening when she saw her husband's tall figure. He's not with Secretary Yang Bo today and it seems that he went here on his own accord.
Xiulan quickly took a few sips on her cup before refilling it again. Now that she's feeling refreshed and not dehydrated anymore, she dashed outside to greet her husband.
Hongqi was surrounded by her female employees and they were all trying to get a good look at him. Though Xiulan was fine with it, instead it was Secretary Dandan that was alarmed and had to glare at her peers to shoo them away since it was wrong for them to gawk at their boss' husband like that.
"Honqgi, what's with the sudden visit?" Xiulan appeared with a cup in her hands while she greets back the employees who were bidding their goodbyes to her.
"Love, I wanted to see you." There was urgency in his tone and Hongqi's smile seems to be extra charismatic today. He made long strides towards his wife. He looks like he just can't wait to see her. He put his hands on her shoulders and led her back inside her room.
The employees were starstruck seeing Xing Hongqi again. They've seen him many times whenever he visits their boss but every time they see him, he's just getting more handsome every day.
Once they were inside her room, Xiulan quickly probed him. "What's wrong? Is something bothering you?"
Hongqi didn't answer her inquires but instead, he took the cup in her hands and placed it at the nearest table he could find.
Xiulan frowned at his actions. "His movements seem to be in urgency." she silently deduced.
Hongqi held onto her waist and prompted her to sit next to him on the sofa. Xiulan was a bit confused but nevertheless, she sat next to him.
"What's wrong?" She asked him again. She really doesn't have any idea why he visited her and what could be his agenda. If they will talk about something, she has zero clues.
"I just want to see you." Hongqi softly said to her while he tucks her hair behind her ear. He lovingly smiles at her and gave her a big bear-hug.
Xiulan was taken aback by his sudden sweet embrace. She was confused for a moment but eventually, she hugged him back. She really doesn't have any clue what's going on but in case her husband was feeling blue and down if this hug will make him better then she will give it to him.
Hongqi caresses her lower back tenderly and whispers to her "Let's have a date."
Xiulan immediately blocked his request. "I'm still busy. Let's do it once I have some free time."
"You haven't eaten anything, right? That's not good. Come on, just a quick early dinner date." Hongqi tightens his embrace and sweetly pecks on her temples.
Hearing the word dinner made Xiulan's hungry stomach grumble loudly like a monster. He's right, she must eat and an hour or two of slacking off won't delay her anyway.
She agreed to have an early dinner date. They went to the nearest mall that Hongqi co-owns with Pierre. They went to the fifth floor where the luxurious and top-rated restaurants reside.
Once they ate their dinner, Hongqi still insisted to have more time with her by slowly walking at the man-made garden inside the mall.
There aren't many people here right now since he asked the mall personnel to prevent people from coming to this side.
Xiulan felt that something is wrong with Hongqi so she agreed to stay with him for a little longer. Her work can continue early tomorrow anyway.
She started to open a topic about animals and movies since Hongqi was really quiet and only held her smalls so tightly.
Their evening stroll composed of her talking a lot and babbled a lot of useless information that Hongqi seems to know already. It was weird that she talked more than Hongqi and he was unbelievably quiet.
She somewhat guessed that Hongqi might be stressed or something that's why he needed some company tonight. He's always clingy but today's clinginess was very different. So Xiulan speculated that Hongqi might be really feeling blue today.
"Do you have any love songs that you like?" Hongqi suddenly asked out of the blue. They were talking about a baboon's red butt and it's nasty nature of eating other monkeys but this husband suddenly asked something so random. Xiulan can't help but frown a little bit from his sudden question.
"Uhh… yeah. Of course." Xiulan answered and pierced him with a concerned look.
"What is it? Tell me." his tone suddenly rose a few octaves and his eyes glimmered.
Xiulan doesn't get why he suddenly got so excited. "Most of the love songs that I like are from the 80s to the early 2000s. I'm not sure if you know any of it," she answered honestly. She quickly tried to think of the titles of those songs.
"Maybe… but I'll try to know them for you." Honqgi charmed and pulled her closer to him. "Come on, tell me."
Xiulan really doesn't get why he suddenly asked but it caused her back to have goosebumps.
"So Into You by Tamia. I really liked that song for some reason. I kept hearing that song from my older sisters until I liked it myself. I prefer alternative and rock songs but scratch that, I like all genres." Xiulan shared too much information again.
"Okay, I'll mentally note that. I think I somewhat know the song." Hongqi muttered. He looked at her and asked like a little kid again. "What else, love? Hmmm?"
Xiulan scratched her head and for some reason, her head can't think of any love songs.
"Er… I really can't think of any of it right now. But this one is my long-time favorite, Madonna's Crazy For You. Do you know that? Whenever I hear that song, I feel like falling in love." Xiulan happily said and her smile was really sweet when she shared that information.
Hongqi can't take his eyes off from her. Shit, he doesn't know that song. He was never interested in love songs. "To be honest, I've never been interested in love songs." he suddenly blurted and gave a shy, awkward smile at Xiulan.
Xiulan chuckled from his honesty. "Idiot, then why are you asking? You even made me think of thousands of songs in my head."
"Sorry… I just want to know you better and know the things you like. Of course, it'll be embarrassing that I don't even know your favorite love song." Hongqi confessed. He said it with a straight face and Xiulan can't help but blush a little from his sweet-talking.
"I see..." Xiulan was a little bit speechless. She, herself, doesn't know Hongqi's favorite love song as well. Actually, she only knows his favorite food, favorite color, favorite country and the type of woman he likes.
"I don't know your favorite love song too. That's even for both of us." Xiulan muttered just to get rid of this awkwardness.
Hongqi stared at her and was quiet for a moment. Suddenly, his pale handsome face brightened and he happily asked her.
"Then… do you want to pick a long song for us?"