Feng Xuan found it mind-boggling that she was in the office the first Monday that they encountered. After all that they had gone through, here she was again, back at her desk and chair, facing piles of folders and a calendar full of meetings.
"You seem to be doing better than I am," she told Qing Chen over lunch. They were having it in his office.
"What do you mean?" he asked, spearing a vegetable stalk with his fork.
"With work." She eyed the small pile on his table.
"Are you having trouble? Do you want me to help you?"
She shook her head. "I think I'm doing fine. It's just… somehow I can't wrap my mind on it today."
Qing Chen smiled. "You'll get the hang of it again."
She slurped some of the warm broth. "What if I don't get the hang of it again?"
Qing Chen's eyes immediately examined her. "Well, we'll just get another person to fill your position." He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. "You know you can always just do what you want, right? You don't have to work here anymore if you don't want it."
She pouted her lips, evaluating. It was not like she was thinking about this, but she wanted to know what would Qing Chen think about it. "What if…"
He raised an eyebrow at her, waiting.
"What if I want a job like… say… Wuming's?"
Qing Chen blinked at her for a couple of seconds before laughing. "You want to be an assassin?"
She was about to nod her head but stopped. She was not going to answer that. "I just want to know what you have to say about it."
"Do you really think that's something that you would enjoy?"
Her face crumpled at that. She remembered some of Wuming's stories, on how he had to remove himself from society to be able to live that kind of life. "Not really. I'm going to have to be away from you."
"And all the trouble into making your death believable."
She inclined her head to the side, and before she could stop it, "We can ask your father about that."
She knew she had stepped on some ground that she was supposed to. She expected Qing Chen's smile to drop but he just shook his head at her. "I'll make you a better plan. We'll go on a vacation, then you're going to drown. Your body forever lost at sea. Or we could go snorkeling and you were eaten by a shark."
Feng Xuan could not help but chuckle at that. "That does not sound like so much of a bad idea."
Qing Chen winked at her. "You know I have a slight flair in going over the top at times."
He seemed to be in a good enough mood that Feng Xuan could not help but ask, "Have you heard anything about your mother?"
"Not really. She should be up by now though."
Feng Xuan wanted to ask more, but thought about saving it for later. She shouldn't push all her queries to his face. He was not going to like that.
"Anyway," Qing Chen said, steering them back to their conversation. "You should tell me if want to quit your work here. You might need to change things up a bit. Find something new? Maybe the office is too quiet?"
Feng Xuan put her chin on her palm. It was almost a sigh when she said, "I wish I could be someone normal like you that can change personalities and mindsets in varied situations."
Qing Chen smiled. "You're doing great, wife."
She whispered in her mind, not as well as I thought I would.
====
Feng Xuan was not that surprised when Qing Chen shooed her out of the building after lunch. He knew that she was having trouble focusing today and told her, "I'll see at dinner."
Feng Xuan pouted, clutching her bag to her chest, but Qing Chen only smiled, kissed her cheek, and pushed her to the elevators. She just wanted to be productive but it was not really happening for her.
Looked like she had the whole day to herself. She first decided to visit her little bakeshop. But upon walking inside the mall, she saw the long line of people outisde of it.
She wasn't needed there and she would only disrupt people's workflow if they saw her there. She was surprised that she felt good seeing Gretel's thriving. Unconsciously, she was waiting for something wrong in her life.Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click <a href="#'s-rose-married-the-ceo_15939261805465305/quit-your-job_51994728694072953">#'s-rose-married-the-ceo_15939261805465305/quit-your-job_51994728694072953</a> for visiting.
But apparently, everything was in their rightful places.
====
As she was still in the search of something to problematize about—something that she could actually solve—she found herself at her cousin's door. To her relief, she did not find Liu Meilien in there, because it seemed like she was just really running away from everything that was linking her to Qing Chen's family.
Wang Yimin was at her living room, surrounded by papers with different clothing items drawn, sketched, or in actual photographs. "And here she comes," her cousin said without looking up.
"Hey," she said and plopped down the couch. "I need something to do other than working in the office today."
"What? Are you still in your vacation slump?"
"Yeah, vacation slump."
"Well, I thought you would be looking better. Something wrong?" Wang Yimin asked. "You don't look so well."
"I'm fine," Feng Xuan said, taking a stack of papers and started looking at the designs. "I'm just not in the mood to get back to work."
Wang Yimin smiled. "I hope everyone's getting vacation. I've been knee-deep in all this designs. It's like I am not making a difference."
"You of all people knew that managing a clothing line is far more stressful than it looks like."
"I know," said Wang Yimin with just a teaspoon of regret. "It's a never-ending cycle. But it's fun. What do you say?"
"To what?"
"Quit your job and be full-time in YANG?"