Mo Ran watched her boss flip the papers like they had personally wronged him.
His brows bunched together in a scowl, a scowl that had permanently made a home on Gu Wei's face for the remainder of the week.
Mo Ran herself was a calm blankness, her usual state of expression, and she couldn't take the torturous flipping Gu Wei was giving the papers.
Mo Ran rapped her fist softly against her desk, drawing Gu Wei's attention.
"Can you stop making the papers suffer, please?"
Mo Ran's words confused Gu Wei for a second before he looked down and saw the haggard state the papers in his hands were.
And not only the ones he was holding, but all the whole scattered papers with Sign Language motions printed in them were crumpled beyond recognition.
Chastised, Gu Wei smoothed out the ones in his hand, hoping to save them at least, but they were already ascending to the paper heavens.
Mumbling a "Sorry" to Mo Ran, Gu Wei dropped the abused papers and rubbed his face, leaving his hands there for a while, then swiped up, running it through his hair and back to rest on his nape folded together.
His desk was in the back of the room, directly opposite the door, while Mo Ran's was to his left side, unappropiately smaller than his.
Although her seat was questionable, Mo Ran's salary was bubbling like soup, and Gu Wei was even considering promoting her to manager.
He spent too much time outside the shop for him to call himself a manager without feeling shame, and Mo Ran had progressed in learning quite fast.
All Gu Wei needed for that to happen was one more person to replace Mo Ran as accountant.
That meant Gu Wei had to staff hunt for an experienced candidate.
Another added work to his piled-up work.
A rapping on a desk once again brought Gu Wei out of his thoughts, and he gave Mo Ran his full attention.
"Are you okay?"
Mo Ran said, a weird, worried look on her face, a look Gu Wei had been given on very rare occasions.
Gu Wei was surprised by the question, and it took some time before he answered.
"Uh, yes, I'm okay. Why're you asking?"
Mo Ran gestured to his face.
"You've been frowning for a whole week. Aren't your eyebrows tired? It's none of my business, but you look stressed to the bone. I think I see wrinkles…"
Gu Wei's scowl made a full comeback. He placed his raised hands on the table.
"You just want to say something bad about your boss. Go back to work."
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Mo Ran turned serious.
"I'm not kidding, you should stop frowning if you don't want permanent wrinkles on your face."
Gu Wei paused at Mo Ran's no-nonsense tone and agreed with her.
"Okay, I got it, boss. I'll stop frowning 'cause you hate wrinkles."
It was Mo Ran's turn to scowl at him, and she shook her head in an 'I give up' way and returned to her typing on the computer.
"I wonder where you got that horrible sarcasm from."
Chuckling at Mo Ran's mumbling, Gu Wei folded the edge of an already pained paper, completely lost in thought.
His hands systematically folding the folded edges over themselves.
Mo Ran wasn't wrong.
Gu Wei had been frowning and scowling at everything for the past week for many reasons.
The main being the impending arrival of his parents.
Gu Wei dreaded it like a cold shower.
Didn't want his Nana to try that thing again, where she urged him to pay attention to his parents this time and 'let them in'.
So yes, Gu Wei was furrowing his brows permanently, and he wasn't in a good mood. Hadn't been in one after that horrible night with Ha Xing.
One of the things that adding to his scrunched up face was also his and Ha Xing's precarious living around each other these days.
Plus the annoying memory in Gu Wei's head that refused to show itself, hiding like an ant in the crevices of his brain.
Gu Wei had been using NeuroPlexamine for the whole week, but still no results after that small glimpse of his treating Zhai Mei's hand. It always stopped there.
Talking to Zhai Mei had helped then, and Gu Wei hadn't missed a single conversation with her, but no swoosh of memories ever came.
Gu Wei was becoming desperate to the point where his fingers always hovered to ask Zhai Mei what it was, but he never did.
Thank the heavens. It would be both embarrassing and rude if he asked, 'So did I try to kiss you on the bench that day?'
So that wasn't even an option.
Successfully folding the paper till it was one long stripe of thickness, Gu Wei unveiled his work, his frown deepening at the bland lines on the paper as it tried to curl back in on itself with the numerous amounts of folding it had gone through.
Mo Ran eyed the papers in pity.
A jingle sounded outside the room. Gu Wei groaned.
No, no more customers.
The number of appointments they got after Gu Wei's stunt with social media was growing.
A good sign of a prospering business, but Gu Wei was too old for it.
Mo Ran stood and exited the room to greet the shuffling feet outside, and Gu Wei sighed in relief.
If it was someone at Mo Ran's level, then Gu Wei was free to be lazy.
The voices outside could be heard through the door, one louder and more cheery than the other low grumble of Mo Ran's.
Gu Wei wasn't sure if any of his customers had a voice as loud as that, and it was oddly familiar.
Pushing off his desk, Gu Wei left his refuge space and pushed the doors open to have a peek at this new person.
Gu Wei's customers consisted of both people who were verbal and non-verbal, as some relatives learned sign language because they were a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) or were acquainted with a Deaf person.
They learned to communicate better with them, and it was very common.
The moment Gu Wei glimpsed a leg with high punky heels, he groaned again, pulling the door closed slowly so he wouldn't make a sound.
But this stranger had already saw his black hair poking out and called out happily, "Gege! Gege!"
Caught in action, Gu Wei groaned one last time, pasted a smile on his face, and went to greet Ling Jie.
She was sitting on one of the cushion chairs, wearing ripped jeans and a hole-filled turtleneck.
Worn on top of everything was Shi Yi's signature leather jacket.
Gu Wei swore it was Shi Yi's jacket, as the size was too huge on her frame but contributed beautifully to her rockstar look.
Mo Ran was sitting on the opposite chair with textbooks on the table between them.
Standing beside his baby sister, Gu Wei ruffled her hair.
"What are you doing here? Finally decided to learn something for a change, eh?"
Ling Jie humphed at him.
"Ge thinks too low of me. I'm here for Zhai Mei, It's frustrating not knowing what you talk about every time. Plus, I want to communicate comfortably with Zhai Mei Jie. There's so many things we have to talk about."
Gu Wei chuckled and took the seat beside Ling Jie, introducing a confused Mo Ran to his friend.
"Mo Ran, this is Ling Jie, my baby sister. Ling Jie, my accountant and future manager."
This was the first time Mo Ran had heard anything about her promotion, and her eyes widened in shock.
Ling Jie bounced on her chair and leaned towards the other woman.
"I know, I know! I've heard so many things about Mo Ran Jie. Ge has told me all about the times you've saved him from himself. It's an honour."
A bow was followed with this.
Gu Wei rolled his eyes. "Nobody's saving me from myself. Don't exaggerate."
Mo Ran finally got over her shock and smiled shyly at Ling Lie.
Gu Wei choked on air at the blush forming on his accountant's face, shocked to the core at the realisation that Mo Ran had blood in her veins.
Mo Ran's cheeks were a bright red as she replied to Ling Jie's praise.
However, anything she said whooshed past Gu Wei's ears as a soft hand lightly tapped on his shoulder.
Gu Wei's nose flared slightly at the familiar lemon scent surrounding him, and warmth spread in his chest as he turned in his seat.
Already knowing who he was going to find behind him.
Zhai Mei hugged herself and tapped her hands twice on her arm, giving a quick thumbs up after, a small lazy smile on her face.
'Wei Wei, hello.'