Pharmaceutical Negotiator - Chapter 41

During the debriefing, Li Hua was taking notes very seriously below. Although he wasn’t involved in this project, he had also started out as a newcomer, and seeing how diligently Qi An had prepared, he wanted to give her more feedback and suggestions.

She had eaten a whole bowl of fish noodles at noon, and her mouth felt a little salty. Before the debriefing, Qi An even smacked her lips, savoring the delicious taste.

And there was Sister Si Tan, who had been stunned by Qi An’s direct kiss.

Lu Youran had been enthusiastically touting her relationship theories to Qi An these past few days. Since Sister Si Tan hadn’t pushed Qi An’s kiss away, it meant she hadn’t rejected it, and non-rejection equaled tacit approval, which equaled liking, and liking equaled a mutual journey and an immediate public announcement of the relationship.

Although this sounded quite like the perspective of a biased best friend, Qi An sincerely hoped that Lu Youran was right.

The debriefing ended, and the people below exchanged a few opinions before clocking out early.

The heavy rain forecast was expected to start at six o’clock. Letting everyone leave now meant they wouldn’t run into the downpour.

Qi An collected her USB drive and slowly began tidying up the items on her desk.

Li Hua urged her, “Just finish cleaning up tomorrow, go home early.”

“Okay,” Qi An replied, but her hands didn’t stop. This kind of aimless tidying allowed her to relax her mind.

People left the office one after another. Li Hua also left, turning off the desk lamps as he went.

The room became a little darker. Qi An finally slung her bag over her shoulder and exited the office.

Standing in front of the punch clock, looking at her droopy face and the lifeless expression devoid of spirit, Qi An finally recalled that just two months ago, she had thrown herself into her work with great enthusiasm and excitement.

In just two months, she felt like her entire skeleton had been pulled out and then forcefully shoved back in; it hurt and it didn’t fit her well.

The density and difficulty of the work overwhelmed her, and she still had to pull out some energy after work to guess whether Sister Si Tan had feelings for her.

Alas, it was so exhausting.

After clocking out, Qi An planned to go to the snack street to buy a pancake to take home and eat.

It was a little after four in August, but the sky was so overcast it looked like seven or eight in the evening. A layer of dust was stirred up on the ground, swirling with the wind, and the heavy clouds pressed down.

Qi An walked forward, hunched over with her bag slung across her body, facing the wind.

The streets were already empty. Occasionally a car would drive by, moving very fast, whoosh, and it was gone. Qi An hesitated while crossing the road, afraid that the snack street shops would already be closed, and afraid that the rain would start before she could get back home.

After much internal debate, Qi An still walked forward. When she arrived at the snack street, there were indeed even fewer shops open.

Qi An looked across, and almost all the roller shutters were tightly pulled down. Unwilling to give up, she walked a few more steps forward but didn’t see anything open, so she could only return to the subway station the way she came.

The time was approaching six o’clock, and the long-brewing rain finally began to fall.

With little preamble, boom, a magnificent curtain of rain poured down. Raindrops splattered on the ground, soaking the dust, which clung to the earth and could no longer fly up.

The color of the hardened cement road changed. Fortunately, Beijing’s drainage system was well-designed and handled the water flow effectively.

Even so, it couldn’t withstand the intensity of the rain and a speeding car.

As the car passed, the mud and water it churned up splashed all over Qi An. Qi An had tried to move to the side when she saw the car coming, but the car was too fast and too much water had accumulated on the ground. She was still splashed.

She had left home wearing a white T-shirt and long jeans. One side of her pants was completely wet, the color had darkened, and it stuck uncomfortably to her leg.

Some mud spots also splattered onto her white T-shirt, the white fabric contrasting sharply with the dark brown grime.

Qi An looked speechlessly at the car that had already sped past, then at her clothes, feeling utterly miserable and embarrassed.

She tucked her umbrella under her shoulder, tilted her neck to hold it in place, and pulled tissues from her bag to wipe the mud spots off her clothes.

The grime had already seeped into the fabric fibers. Even with hard rubbing, she could only wipe off the surface, leaving a brown stain on her shirt.

Qi An sighed, tossing the used tissues directly into her bag, and walked towards her apartment complex under the umbrella.

The rain was too heavy, and with the wind, the rain fell at a slant, densely hitting the umbrella, and also soaking Qi An’s clothes.

Since her pants were already wet, Qi An simply stopped worrying and hurried forward.

She finally entered the apartment building unit and could breathe a little easier. Qi An shook the water off her umbrella, folded it, and stepped into the elevator.

The silver inner wall of the elevator reflected the soft light from the ceiling. Qi An pressed floor seven and heard a crisp voice: The elevator is ascending.

Through the reflective silver interior, she looked at her drenched clothes and the hair plastered to her face.

She was on the verge of tears. She had spent so long preparing for the debriefing, constantly hoping for a compliment from Sister Si Tan, but she hadn’t been there during the presentation. She regretted insisting on going to the snack street for dinner, only to get soaked and not even get the food.

She regretted the question she’d blurted out in a moment of distraction, “Then why do you think I kissed you?”, afraid that Sister Si Tan would continue to play dumb, and also afraid that she would directly reject her.

“Ding, the elevator has arrived.”

Qi An left the elevator, dragging her wet body, rubbing her reddened eyes, and went back to her little home.

She hadn’t bought dinner, and ordering takeout in this weather would be too dangerous for the delivery person, so Qi An decided not to eat. She grabbed dry clothes and went to shower.

Since Sister Si Tan wasn’t around, she only put on a thin sleep dress and no bra.

Freed from restriction, Qi An leaned lazily against the sofa, feeling quite comfortable.

Her stomach was empty since she hadn’t eaten dinner. Qi An hugged a large cup and took several big gulps of water.

Then her stomach felt even emptier, as if she could hear the water she drank falling into an air-raid shelter with a “dong” sound.

Checking the time, she didn’t know what Sister Si Tan was doing, and Qi An didn’t want to call her again. Her feelings were so obvious; the more so, the less courageous and the more anxious she felt.

Lying back on the sofa like this, with the TV off and her phone resting on the side of the sofa, Qi An gradually started to feel sleepy.

She told herself internally to go sleep in bed, but her brain slowly drifted off, and she fell asleep.

The next day, dawn broke. An orange light pierced through the clouds, casting a golden-pink glow over the land.

The day was bright, and the rain had stopped.

Qi An didn’t usually follow the news and didn’t know how much damage the heavy rain had caused. Fortunately, it had come and gone quickly.

After lounging on the sofa for a while, her body’s functions gradually recovered, and Qi An started to feel a pain in her throat. Because she had curled up on the sofa in an incorrect posture, all her muscles were also sore and stiff.

Well, congratulations, she had caught a cold.

Qi An struggled to get up and poured a glass of warm water. The water flowed down her throat, causing a faint stinging pain.

She didn’t want to go to work…

She took out her phone, which had no notifications. Qi An tried to open her slightly swollen eyes and sent a leave request to Li Hua.

Li Hua hadn’t replied yet, but Qi Shenli sent a message.

“It rained heavily in Beijing yesterday, did you sleep well?”

Looking at the pop-up message, Qi An felt her eyes welling up. She sniffled and called Qi Shenli on video.

In the video, Qi Shenli was already dressed and groomed, sitting in her office. She looked at Qi An on the screen and immediately noticed something was wrong: “Why are your eyes so swollen, and what’s wrong with your voice? Did you catch a cold?”

Qi An mumbled “Mhm,” and looking at her mother, who was far away in Qingdao, the tears she had held back finally burst out, and she sobbed uncontrollably.

Qi Shenli looked at Qi An crying, feeling anxious but saying nothing, quietly waiting for Qi An to finish crying and release her emotions, then asked, “Do you have medicine at home? I’ll get an express delivery called for you.”

Qi An wasn’t sure if she had medicine at home, so she nodded again.

“Take a day off, take the medicine, and rest well. Although your job is stable, taking leave is too much trouble. If your boss doesn’t approve your leave, then let’s quit and come back. Mom will find you a job.”

“Where is Zhang Si Tan? Hasn’t she returned from her business trip?”

Qi An shook her head, not daring to say that Zhang Si Tan had run off because she had kissed her.

Qi Shenli comforted Qi An for a while, and also told her that she had visited Qi Zhiguo yesterday, saying he was doing well inside and that Qi An didn’t need to worry.

Qi An kept nodding, feeling somewhat comforted in her heart.

After hanging up, she called Lu Youran. Lu Youran was also very worried, as she hadn’t seen Qi An so downhearted since the incident with Qi Zhiguo.

In front of Lu Youran, Qi An was less reserved with her emotions. She wailed loudly, using her hoarse voice to shout about her grievances of the past few days.

She had called Sister Si Tan, but her assistant had answered. When she asked if Sister Si Tan knew why she had kissed her, she had vaguely said they would talk when she returned. She had prepared for the debriefing for so long, only for Li Hua to be the only one listening attentively.

And there was yesterday afternoon, the pancake she didn’t get, and the mud that splashed onto her clothes.

“That pancake is especially delicious! I didn’t rush to leave because of it, but it was closed, it was closed!”

Qi An cried dryly, constantly repeating the story of the closed pancake shop.

Lu Youran knew she wasn’t truly upset about the closed pancake shop but had found a vent, so she focused all her sympathy on that point.

Another message popped up at the top of her phone. Li Hua expressed his concern and told Qi An to ask her direct superior, Zhang Si Tan, for leave.

Qi An asked Lu Youran if she should go and ask.

Lu Youran: “Of course you should go. Your voice is so hoarse, you must take a day off!”

“Wait a minute, I’ll send you a template.”

Qi An asked, “What template?”

“A leave request template!” Lu Youran screenshotted a leave request template she had saved before and sent it over. “I’m telling you, everything about your kind of workplace is great, except that taking leave is so rigid. You have to go from one department to another. I saved this template thinking you might need it. Just copy what’s on it and send it!”

Qi An looked at the screenshot Lu Youran sent, looking doubtful: “Will this work?”

“Why wouldn’t it work? Everyone online sends it like this.”

“Okay then.” Anyway, Sister Si Tan didn’t want to talk to her, so she would reply to her in this formal, business-like tone.

Qi An copied the format from the screenshot and sent it to Zhang Si Tan: “Leader, I would like to request one day of leave today (August 20, 2024). I’m feeling unwell today, and the hospital results have not yet come out, requiring further examination. I will arrange my work in advance and coordinate with Li Hua. You can message me or call me if you have any matters.”

“Hiss, are you sure this is okay?” Qi An was still suspicious. “I didn’t even go to the hospital for a check-up.”

“Aiya, you don’t understand. If you just say you’re feeling unwell, your superior will definitely think you’re making a fuss over nothing, not coming to work for a minor sickness. You have to show a hospital certificate, understand?”

“Got it.” Qi An made an OK gesture.

After hanging up, the express delivery ordered by Qi Shenli arrived. The courier couldn’t bring it up, so Qi An had to put on a jacket and go down to get it.

Once out of the unit building, Qi An noticed the whole complex looked washed clean. The cement ground was dark in color, and the sunlight shining on it only made the small puddles sparkle more, spreading out endless ripples.

The greenery in the complex was leaning haphazardly. Even though the wind had stopped, they couldn’t return to their original shape. Some branches had been snapped off and lay on the ground, and the property management people drove a vehicle over to clear them up.

“It looks like these big trees also had a rough time yesterday,” Qi An murmured, going to the concierge room to pick up the medicine.

After mixing the cold medicine powder and swallowing a few capsules, her phone rang right on time.

Qi An picked up her phone to see that it was a video call request from Sister Si Tan.

She didn’t want to answer, though she didn’t know why she was trying to avoid it.

Qi An cleared her throat, intentionally making her voice sound hoarser, and pressed the green button: “Sister Si Tan.”