Work Text:
Everything started after the holiday-pirate-ghost-fiasco. Well, actually it truly started when Lin Jing was trying to enter his expense form for the month, and found that the Chief charged SID for “emotional trauma in the line of defense of humanity against cursed ghosts.” Which was a lie, not the cursed ghosts or defending humanity, but the lie about it being work. Everybody knew it was a honeymoon for him and Professor Shen. They had the photos to prove it.
Lin Jing looked up from examining the expense forms as he felt a cold draft on the back of his neck. He looked around, making sure there was no sudden appearance of the black cloak variety. You can’t be too careful, not with the way the professor can just randomly appear out of nowhere, and the chief seem to have a sixth sense when it came to him slacking off. It initially freaked him out a bit that the chief has shacked up with somebody that could squash all of them in 2 secs flat, but the professor was nice, and honestly all the best for anyone who can live with the chief and still wants to spend time with him during work hours. And OK, having them back where they are meant to be was a relief. The nearly two years of having thought the chief and Professor Shen had died were hard.
But the point is that the chief has expensed SID for the damn honeymoon, and Lin Jing has lost his bonus for the next two months because of a small mistake. It was not his fault that he couldn’t get in direct contact with the chief to warn him about the cursed ghost pirates. The chief was the one who decided to turn his damn phone off so he could spend some ‘alone time’ with his 'wife’ on the beach. As if he hasn’t been updating them via his private Weibo account about what a great time he has been having with the professor.
Lin Jing sighed, he was already suffering from being a lonely-poor-technological-genius living in a work environment full of bright eyed innocents and happy couples. Even Hong-jie, who randomly turns up at the office for ‘official liaison work’, is dating a toy boy on the side, after the whole pinning for years thing, and then assuming the leadership of YaShou. Hong-jie has decided that she was a goddess amongst men and deserved all the attention she has been missing out on. And here he was without the bonus necessary to buy the new VR headset he has been eyeing for half a year. Might as well call it a night.
As he is putting the expense forms away, his phone beeped. Looking at the notification Lin Jing swore, “Damn your happily married life.” The newest photo the chief uploaded was a photo of a table covered with delicious home cooked food, and just at the corner a pale hand can be seen. The caption read “wife cooked a delicious meal. :) [emoji: love heart, kiss face, wine glass, heart eyes].”
Life is so unfair, Lin Jing wished the boss would go back to posting every few months with links to paranormal weather patterns or weird blood spatter or something. Now, the chief updated his account about five times a day usually about how great his wife was with a photo of a ear, hands, food and just things the professor has said. It would be almost cute if it wasn’t the chief. And Lin Jing is pretty sure if Professor Shen ever found out about the chief’s habits of publicly posting everything great about him and their private life he would go all Black Cloak Envoy on the chief’s ass.
Lin Jing paused, and smiled. It is always good being the technological genius.
….
“I’m not sure how this will help,” Shen Wei said, looking at the screen with the Weibo registration page.
“I just thought it would help with the team collaboration part,” said Lin Jing, “And you can even friend chief’s account.”
“Yun Lan has a Weibo account? He didn’t mention it.” Shen Wei lifted his head to look at Lin Jing.
“Uh, probably because he is slightly embarrassed.” Lin Jing really should have thought this through a bit more.
“Embarrassed.” A slight raise of an eyebrow. Yeah, the chief was not embarrassed about anything. Definitely should have thought this one through a bit more carefully.
“Look, just see for yourself.” Lin Jing brought up the chief’s account.
Shen Wei began scrolling through the account, and the first photo was one of their kitchen counter, specifically of Shen Wei’s forearm resting on the counter, and a cup of tea. The caption read, “[emoji: sparkly love heart] Best morning. Wife is ready for work. So smart. [emoji: love heart]”. The photos that followed were of similar theme. Photos of Shen Wei’s books (my wife is brilliant [emoji: three love hearts]), his shoulders (my wife is so strong [emoji: flexing bicep, wink kiss]), his eyelashes (9mm long [emoji: blushing heart eyes]), and a host of bits and pieces about Shen Wei and how great he was, and how much Zhao Yun Lan loved him. All the while not revealing who Shen Wei was, protecting his identity, their privacy, except anyone who knew them knew who he was talking about. Shen Wei could only sit there and keep on reading.
Lin Jing might have made a big mistake. Professor Shen is not saying anything, but he is looking at every photo and reading all the caption and tags. And Lin Jing only wanted to get the chief in a bit of trouble, a tiny bit embarrassed, not anything else. Oh gods, what if the professor gets to angry that he breaks up with the chief, his family’s spirits. If that happens Lin Jing will be murdered. “It isn’t all the bad. It’s really only us - the team, and like, maybe one or two others. The chief is really protective. And I made sure that his account is locked down tight. And oh gods please don’t break up with the chief, Black Cloak Envoy!” Lin Jing might have started to sound a bit breathy near the end there buy something needs to be said so that he can continue to breathe.
Shen Wei still had his back towards Lin Jing, looking at one of the earliest photo to appear that mentions Shen Wei in a roundabout way. It was a photo of the doorway to Shen Wei’s office, and the caption read, “Sometime strangers can feel closer than those you have known for a lifetime. How strange.”
The silence was getting painful, and Lin Jing have finally noticed that the professor’s ears were red. Oh gods, he was so angry he was going red. Before Lin Jing could beg for his life Shen Wei put him out of his misery.
“Can you create an account for me?”
---
Lin Jing has had a long night. Who would have thought a 10,000 years old being of unmentionable power is completely hopeless when it came to technology. Creating the account was easy but he kept on getting texts from the professor throughout the night asking about everything to do with Weibo and filters. On the upside he hasn’t been called in by the boss yet, and everyone seems to be focused on their life so maybe he dodged a bullet. Maybe the professor didn’t say anything. Maybe he wanted an account because he was bored and not because he was thinking of embarrassing the boss. Maybe life will finally be fair for Lin Jing.
Just as he was going through his first email of the day his phone beeped. Lin Jing looked at the notification in horror. “Little Ghost King would like to be your friend” without conscious thought Lin Jing clicked yes, and clicked on the account. There was already a single photo uploaded. It was artfully done, the lighting excellent, the colours balanced, and Lin Jing recognise that fucking filter. Sitting happily in the middle of the photo was a lollipop, wrapper gone. #love of my life #happiness. And below it, the first comment, Lord of Guardians (Zhao Yun Lan), “love of my life [emoji: shiny love heart]” and immediately below it, “Lin Jing, your end of the year bonus is halved.”
Lin Jing hated his lonely genius life. And he still needed to enter those damn expense forms.
.Fin.
Postscript
Lin Jing was woken up at 2am in the morning by a notification. He looked at the message and wanted to cry.
Lord of Guardians: If you don't want to lose the other half of your annual bonus. Make sure Shen Wei’s account is secure.
And below his message an innocent message from the professor.
Little Ghost King: Lin Jing, do you think the blue or the green filter will be better for this photo? - Thank you, Shen Wei