Chapter 45: Imaginary Enemy

  As soon as he entered, in this not-so-big workshop, two young men and women were busy with something. Hearing the sound at the door, the two people turned their heads simultaneously, and when they saw that Tang Wei had arrived, the male spoke up: "Ah! Isn't this the long-lost Boss Tang? What wind blew you back today? It's too strange! I know, you must have been hit by Feng Wei's deadly continuous call!"

  "Get out! You're always talking nonsense," the girl sitting across from him at the table glared at him, "If you weren't so incompetent and unprofessional, clients would be clamoring to find Tang Hao, would I need to put in so much effort?! And as for you, Tang Hao, you're also at fault! I sent you so many texts, and you didn't even bother to respond to a single one! If I hadn't kept calling, who knows when you'd deign to return to your own studio?!"

  This girl named Feng Wei is tall and slender, with fair skin, big and bright eyes, black and dense hair that falls casually behind her head, and a slightly pouty lip. Her speech sounds slightly spoiled, and judging from her demeanor, she seems to get along well with Tang Ao and the others, which is why she's so unguarded.

  "You're just a bad person who reports first, I and Boss Tang are specialized in different techniques, the focus is not the same, okay?!" The man retorted with a sentence, then found that Tang Ao didn't come alone, followed by Su Tong. He looked at Su Tong curiously and smiled at Tang Ao, "Boss Tang, you don't even introduce us?"

  Tang Ao smiled and pulled Su Tong, who was originally standing behind him, to his side, saying: "You see for yourself, from the moment I walked in through this door, you two have been going back and forth, where did I have room to interrupt? Come on, let me introduce them to you. These two are my right-hand men in the workshop, the man is called Wang Wei, and the woman is called Feng Wei. This is Su Tong."

  This boy named Wang Wei was slender and refined in appearance, if not for his outspoken personality being revealed from the start, Su Tong might have thought he was a bookworm type. After listening to Tang Hao's introduction, Wang Wei was somewhat dissatisfied and pouted, protesting: "Boss, who introduces people like that?! You said, apart from my name, you didn't introduce anything else, just like when introducing me and Feng Wei, shouldn't you also properly introduce us? - This is Wang Wei, the backbone of our studio, a rising star in interior design, and next to him is Feng Wei, our studio's famous chicken pecking at grain."

  Bang! Before he could finish speaking, a soft pancake flew towards him. Wang Wei hastily dodged and the pancake brushed past his shoulder, falling to the ground. No need to ask, the one who threw the pancake was naturally Feng Wei, who sat opposite him.

  "This is murder!" Wang Wei bent down to pick up the soft-faced ladle on the ground and brushed off the dust on it.

  Feng Wei pointed at him with her hand: "I'll go to the market and buy a fly swatter, a long-handled one. If you're still mouthing off, I won't throw my book anymore. It's a waste if it gets broken, so I'll just use the fly swatter to slap your mouth!"

  Tang Ao was used to their bickering, but he thought Wang Wei's protest was reasonable. He cleared his throat and said: "Okay, let me reintroduce. Su Tong, this is Wang Wei, the backbone of our studio and a rising star in interior design. This is Feng Wei, who takes care of many miscellaneous tasks in the studio. Feng Wei, Wang Wei, this is Su Tong, a social reporter for A City Cultural News. Apart from being a reporter, she also has another identity...

  "Hey! Boss's wife! Sorry, sorry! Nice to meet you for the first time, please take care of me! Later on, I'll have to rely on you to whisper some sweet nothings into Tang boss's ear, so he won't be too lazy and make more money, and give us more bonuses!" Wang Wei didn't even wait for Tang Ao to finish speaking, and automatically filled in the rest of the content. He immediately went forward with a smile, shook hands with Su Tong, and while shaking hands, solemnly entrusted her with an important task.

  It was Feng Wei who, upon hearing Wang say this, had her originally polite smile stiffen slightly.

  Su Tong was warmly referred to as "boss" by Wang, who shook hands and entrusted him with something, leaving Su somewhat at a loss for words. He hastily explained: "You've misunderstood, Tang Yao and I are neighbors. Today we went out together to take care of some things, but halfway through he received a call saying that there was something at the studio that needed his attention, so I just tagged along to join in the fun."

  "Really?" Wang raised an eyebrow, "I still don't even know if the person living opposite our house is male or female, how old they are, or whether they raise dogs or cats. You two are neighbors and there's something that needs to be taken care of together? Boss, give me a straight answer, how credible is Su's version?"

  "For now, it's true that we're neighbors." Tang Ao's response seemed to affirm Su Tong's statement, while also leaving a hint.

  The king nodded and smiled with his eyes closed: "Understood! Understood! Hello, neighbor Su sister! The words I said earlier will be stored for now, and you can take them to heart after they come true."

  Su Tong couldn't help but admit that Tang Ao's words, which had a hidden meaning, made her heart skip a beat. She didn't know if her face turned red, and in front of Feng Wei and Wang Wei, she was too embarrassed to think about it too much, so she just pretended to laugh it off casually.

  "Tang Ao, are you here to handle the proper business or not? It's not easy to get you over here, and as a result, it seems like we're just listening to Wang Wei doing a solo comedy routine?" Feng Wei spoke up with a slightly dissatisfied tone from the side. Unlike Wang Wei, she didn't come over to talk to Su Tong or shake hands with him after Tang Ao's introduction, and during Wang Wei's teasing, she only gave Su Tong a few brief glances.

  Tang Ao nodded to her and first settled Su Tong down, in front of the two outsiders he wasn't comfortable saying anything, but in his heart he was very clear about Su Tong's current physical condition. After settling Su Tong, he went over to work with Feng Wei on those matters.

  Tang Ao had mentioned to Su Tong about the operation of this studio before. After he miraculously survived a serious illness, he lost his inspiration for interior design. Therefore, Wang Wei is the real artist in the studio. Those customers who really need decoration design are satisfied with his design, and the studio can operate normally. He indeed made great contributions.

  Feng Wei's work is harder to define. According to Tang Ao's brief introduction on the way here, Feng Wei also studied design, but her natural talent and level are slightly inferior to Wang Wei's. However, unlike Wang Wei's meticulousness in design and carelessness in other aspects, Feng Wei is a more meticulous person in all aspects. Therefore, the arrangement of things in the studio, client liaison and coordination, communication, etc., are all handled by Feng Wei alone. It can be said that she is half a designer here, and the other half has the roles of secretary, administration, logistics, etc. If she leaves, only Tang Ao and Wang Wei remain, the studio will not go bankrupt, but many things will become chaotic, and efficiency will be greatly discounted.

  Because of this division of labor, now Feng Wei and Tang Ao are both busy with their own things. On the other hand, Wang Wei is carefree and has no "debts" to pay off. So when Tang Ao went to attend to his official duties, he naturally took on the role of "chatting companion" for Su Tong, and relying on his cheerful and outgoing personality, quickly became familiar with him.

  "It's actually quite interesting, you and your boss have names that are both classic and timeless, one is 'Jing Hua Yuan' and the other is a great poet." As they chatted, they started discussing their names, Su Tong thought Wang Wei's name sounded pretty good, so he sincerely began to compliment him.

  Wang waved his hand in a helpless gesture: "Su, you really overestimated my parents' literary accomplishments. They didn't think that much! I'm a homophone with different characters, 'for the people's service'. I even asked them before why they gave me this name. Guess what they said? They said it was just because they hoped I would achieve something in the future. Anyway, the surname Wang is already very common, so we couldn't come up with anything special, let's just be practical!"

  "It's not bad, either. You wouldn't know if you didn't say it." Su Tong smiled in response, his eyes involuntarily glancing over at Tang Hao and Feng Wei, who were busy with their work on the other side.

  Wang noticed Su Tong's gaze, but because of Tang Ao's meaningful introduction when they first met, he had a different understanding of the relationship between Su Tong and Tang Ao. Now, he naturally misunderstood Su Tong's intentions, thinking that she had other ideas. He quickly lowered his voice and said to Su Tong: "Su Jie, Feng Wei has one major characteristic - her mouth is very bad, never sparing anyone. However, her heart isn't bad, it's actually good. She's not like me, a self-proclaimed expert; as a woman, she's shy and takes time to warm up. This isn't your first time here, but since you're not familiar with her, she didn't show much affection. Don't take it to heart. We often rely on her help in handling many things around here. If not for that, I'd only be good at design, completely clueless about other matters. You must know what kind of person the boss is - a free spirit who doesn't care about making money as long as he has enough. It's unrealistic to expect him to put all his energy into running the studio. Feng Wei and I have been working here until now because we share similar interests with the boss, and it feels good to work for him without feeling stifled or humiliated. But ultimately, if not for Feng Wei managing everything like a housekeeper, reminding us at every turn, this studio would've gone bankrupt long ago. By then, sharing similar interests wouldn't be enough to keep us alive."

  Su Tong smiled and nodded, but Wang Wei's words were meant for himself. Su Tong understood perfectly, but Wang Wei had misinterpreted her meaning. She was also very clear about it, but this wasn't the time to explain. The more she explained, the more unclear it would become - that's what they called "the more you paint, the darker it gets". If she were to clarify now that she wasn't bothered by Feng Wei's attitude towards her, or even less so by Feng Wei's attitude towards Tang Xiao, Wang Wei probably wouldn't believe her. On the contrary, he would think she was being dishonest. So she just let him misunderstand.

  Su Tong thought she wasn't a woman with a keen sense of observation, but women are always more sensitive than men, whether it's intuition or instinct. Especially when facing Feng Wei, who is also a woman, and same-sex people always understand each other better. From the moment they entered the door, Feng Wei and Tang Xiao spoke with an attitude that showed their closeness, from her gaze to her deliberate avoidance of Su Tong, all these signs indicated that Feng Wei had some feelings for Tang Xiao. As for whether it was a short-term infatuation or a deep-seated affection, Su Tong couldn't know. No matter whether Feng Wei considered herself as an imaginary enemy, she could only feel helpless and unable to change the situation. This made her feel somewhat uncomfortable, after all, who would want to be treated as an imaginary enemy without reason? If she were really Tang Xiao's girlfriend, she could have stood up for herself with confidence, but now her role was more awkward, not being anyone special to Tang Xiao. Even if Tang Xiao showed obvious care and concern for her, and never tried to hide it, before any substantial change occurred in their relationship, they were both single, and other pursuers had the same opportunity to seek happiness for themselves. Whether or not to accept them was up to the person being pursued to decide, and outsiders had no right to interfere.

  In addition, from Su Tong's own perspective, she thinks that Wang Wei and Feng Wei have been arguing with each other all the time, neither of them giving in to the other. However, in reality, Wang Wei actually has a good impression of Feng Wei. This can be seen from the fact that he is afraid of offending Feng Wei, which would affect her work here. He may also see that Feng Wei's attitude towards Tang Ao and towards him is quite different, but this big boy chooses not to expose it.

  Two people chatted for a while, in the middle Wang Wei was called over to help with something, Su Tong sat alone on the small sofa by the door, flipping through the magazines beside her. After Wang Wei finished helping, he came back to keep her company and chat, until the sky outside had completely darkened, Su Tong didn't seem anxious, but Wang Wei himself couldn't sit still, his stomach growling loudly with hunger.

  "Hey, I'm saying, isn't it almost time to go? Are you going to keep the boss here working overnight? Let's talk about the rest tomorrow," he said, shouting at Feng Wei on the other side, "Look at what time it is! I'm starving, and Su Jie is still waiting!"

  "It's okay, don't mind me, I'm not in a hurry, you don't have to accompany me on purpose, go buy something to eat!" Su Tong hurriedly said to Wang Wei. She didn't dare to go out alone after dark now, but it wasn't reasonable to let Wang Wei starve with her either.

  Feng Wei glared at Wang Wei with dissatisfaction: "The emperor is not anxious, and the eunuch is anxious to death!"