15 Chapter 15- Of Mice and Men (2/2)
”We should go whereever Hao Mei usually goes... I want a big night too!” Li Qiang's suggestion roused another loud cheer and Mei wondered what his odds were of escaping work unseen by his colleagues.
His juice was missing when he reached his desk, and in its place was a large coffee and a foam container which smelled like fried rice and ginger chicken. He smiled as he sat down, taking a mouthful of coffee just as a curse echoed around the office.
”Damn you KO.” Li Qiang stormed over, laptop in hand. ”What do you think this is?”
KO put his juice down, put the lid back on it, and saved his work before finally condescending to look at the screen.
”Mice.”
”I can see it's mice. I'm not stupid. Why did you put mice on my laptop and how can I get rid of them?”
”Cat.”
Laughter erupted as more of their peers gathered around.
”Does he need a cat to chase the mice... or is it because he was being catty?” Wang Wei clapped Li Qiang on the shoulder. ”Silly man. Didn't you learn from Old Man Yu's mistake? Keep your claws out of Mei-ge. He's got a guard dog. Woof woof.” The last was said in a stage whisper that, of course, everyone heard and found absolutely hilarious.
Mei hid his face in his hands. He hadn't gotten enough sleep to deal with this.
”It's good to see everyone has already finished their work in time for a holiday. I'd hate to see people staying overtime tonight just to get work finished.” Xiao Nai's voice sent everyone scurrying back to their desks, leaving just him and Yu Ban Shan standing behind KO and Hao Mei. Li Qiang cleared his throat and held his laptop out to Xiao Nai.
”Laoda, he gave my computer mice. How do I fix it? I'm not a hacker!”
When neither Xiao Nai or KO looked compelled to fix it for him, Mei groaned and waved a hand to bring him over. Barely looking at the keyboard he typed in <command = cat> before putting his head back in to his hands. The others watched as, with a meow, the screen flashed black before returning to Li Qiang's homescreen. Li Qiang retreated, bowing his thanks, as Ban Shan scratched his chin.
”How did you know that would work?”
”It was obvious.”
”Not to me.”
”Bet it was obvious to Laosan.”
Xiao Nai inclined his head, and he exchanged glances with KO. Mei rolled his eyes at the pair.
”Seperated at birth, were you?” Shaking his head, Mei went back to reworking the code. ”Just think about it as though it was Xiao Nai who was doing things... but with not as cold a sense of humour.” (A/N: my understanding of a cold sense of humour, from reading transations of Chinese novels, is that it's a pretty poor sense of humour. Kind of like dad jokes but even less funny. I could be way off the mark but that's what I've taken away from translations etc.)
”Ah!” Ban Shan nodded, his face lighting up with comprehension before falling as he thought about it further. ”That's kind of scary.” He gave a theatrical shiver as he headed to his own desk, leaving Mei to concentrate on clearing his own workload before the end of the day.
Focussed so intently on his computer, Mei missed seeing Xiao Nai slip a very full, white envelope, to KO... missed the whispered exchange... missed the consoling pat on the back that KO received and the eyebrows that both raised in his direction.
Text from: Number One Chef
[Dinner?]
Text to: Number One Chef
[Where?]
Text from: Number One Chef
[My place.]
Text to: Number One Chef
[You're cooking? I'm in!]
When he thought about it, Hao Mei seemed to be finishing more and more of his work days with a smile.