218 Tormenting Me

Jia Li caved in front of Wei's endearing persistence and nodded her head mutely.

"We need to talk," Eric walked into the lab, early morning.

He had decided that Hui needed to get a dose of reality asap. Else his love saga would drown even before it floats.

"Good, you are here. I was planning to come look for you later today," Hui said in a light tone.

"No, you need to first listen to me. It is high time that you make a straight forward and bold move and at least let Jia Li know that you are interested in her. You have no idea about what all is happening and can happen in a short span of time," Eric was agitated since last night's scene.

There existed an easy camaraderie between that guy and his boss' girl. And that didn't bode well for the Hui camp. He had not seen her this animated or happy in the entire span of her employment with them.

"You are absolutely right and this time I have a plan," Hui replied.

"No, you aren't understanding what… what, you agree with me and YOU have a plan?" Eric looked at him in astonishment.

Hui gave him a slightly superior look and nodded.

"That night when Ms. Lin went back home early, I spent a lot of time pondering over whether she and the complexities which she brought along with, were something that I wanted to include into my life. Eventually, after all analysing all possibilities, I reached the conclusion that she is definitely worth it. Hence, I decided that I needed to increase our proximity and give us a chance to know each other better. As of this morning, I have asked her to join me at the lab every day. There is a new client coming in and I want her to solely handle the project on our behalf with them. Since I would be working out the nitty gritty of the same personally, we would end up working together for longer hours," he explained succinctly.

Eric's mouth was agape all through the time when Hui was explaining his thought process to him. He started to clap, once his friend finished speaking.

"I see that love has improved your brain cells further, though they were sharp enough already. I never thought that I would say these words to you but you have compelled me to – I am proud of you, my boy", he said.

While coming towards the lab, he had thought that he would have a tough battle ahead waiting where he would have to first convince Hui to recognise the need for action and then propel him towards the same. Well, he had shown today who the boss was! Beware Jia Li, Ying Hui is coming for you.

Two weeks later

"I don't understand the blasted man. Is tormenting me his sole purpose in life? Every day for the past three weeks, he has been writing to me. But no mail since the past two days. Why?? Now, I am sitting and wondering if he is unwell or has he given up since I have not replied to even a single mail of his or… unfair, damn unfair," Jia Li muttered to herself.

Quickly refreshing the screen for one last time, she gave herself a mental shake and went into Hui's cabin.

Before the boss arrived, she wanted to get few things in order, as he liked. During the past fortnight, she had been roped into work in close quarters with Mr. Ying. Initially, she had been apprehensive about the change in her profile. Mr. Ying had asked her to join him in the active working of the project rather than being involved only at the administrative level. As time had passed and she had started to understand the workings better, she began to enjoy the learning and the doing.

A client wanted to use the new techniques developed by Earthly Matters to make their existent process more economic yet environment friendly. Though it involved a revamp of the client's current processes to a large extent, they were willing to do this as a long term investment. It was one of the biggest projects which Earthly Matters had undertaken and Jia Li felt honoured that she had been chosen to work upon the same.

In just two weeks, she was already speaking with the project manager on the other side regularly and was completely updated and informed about the future course of action. Mr. Ying had been a revelation to work with. He was thoughtful, kind and extremely patient, much to her surprise. She had come this far, mostly due to his guidance during all this time.

While her days were thoroughly consumed by work, evenings had been owned by Wei. He had shown up in front of her office every evening. They had watched plays, explored different eateries and ended the evenings with the customary walks. It had been delightful.