Chapter Text
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The digital clock on the bedside table shows 2:00 in bright red color. It is late in the night or early in the morning, Xiao Zhan is completely oblivious to how late it is.
He set out to go to sleep at around 11 PM like every night. But once in bed, he was hit with a sudden inspiration that made him jump out of the bed to his study room. He picked up his pencils and started sketching the face whose features flashed in his mind when he was in bed. The facial features of the image in his mind are not very clear. He is trying to sketch based on how he felt the electricity jolted his body when that image appeared in his mind.
It has been a long time since he felt so excited to draw something. He has been working as a designer and most of the time, in his work, he needs to compromise based on what the client wants rather than explore his creativity to the maximum extent. He has been so busy for the past few months, he barely gets to draw anything outside of work, as his work would take up most of his time and energy.
Tonight, though he was exhausted when he went to bed, the image that came into his mind when he was about to fall asleep, jolted him upright. And for the past 3 hours he is completely focused on his drawing. Though at this point he is drawing from his imagination the more distinct the features in his drawing become, the more sure he is that it is the same face that appeared in his dream.
When he finally finished with the intricate details of the drawing and shading, he let out a satisfied sigh looking at the picture. The face has sharp features, with a small face and high cheekbones. Though he couldn’t recollect if the face in his drawing belongs to a real person that he ever met, it still filled him with an inexplicable feeling of content.
He added his signature at the bottom of the page along with a heart symbol with a dot next to it. Feeling exhilarated with his small outside work project, he went to bed and had the best sleep that he had in a long time. His dreams revolved around the person from the drawing.
When he finally woke up at 7 AM with the alarm blaring loudly, he couldn’t recollect any of the dreams he had except that they are happy dreams and the feeling of euphoria hasn’t left him yet. Feeling content, he got out of bed to get ready to go to his work. Once he was ready for work, he strolled through his study room one last time to look at the gentle face from his drawing. Though he didn’t know why, he couldn’t help but wish that he could meet that face in real life.
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Over the next one week, every night when Xiao Zhan is about to fall asleep, a vague thought or image flashes into his mind which left him with the same feeling as the first night he dreamt of that face. Each night he spent most of the night trying to pour life in his dreams using his art. Surprisingly, no two images that flashed into his mind were the same, though there is one thing consistent in all those dreams. It is that Man.
Though he slept lesser and lesser each night by the end of the week, he is more excited and feeling alive than he felt in a long time. Over the weekend, he spent most of the time going through each of his sketches and realized that except for the first sketch which has the face of the man, the rest of them included two people in various settings.
One of them is with two people lying over a picnic blanket in a large grassy field and staring into the blue sky with white clouds.
Another one is both of them standing shoulder to shoulder on a beach staring at the sunset in the horizon, each with their hand on the other person’s waist.
And in one of them both the Man from the dream and Xiao Zhan were looking at each other with a hearty laugh on their faces.
A smile crept on Xiao Zhan’s face when a thought suddenly invaded his mind. “What if the two people in those pictures are the man from the dream and himself?”. He let out a chuckle thinking even if that man would become his friend, he wouldn’t spend such intimate moments with any man. Would he? He never really thought of being in such a romantic and intimate setting with another man. He doesn't remember the last time he laughed so heartily. Ever since he joined his current company which is a small startup company, as a designer, he had to work his ass off to meet the deadlines. With the small team he works with, he feels close to being with a family. But they can never fill in the large hole he feels in the heart. But looking at his drawing, Xiao Zhan couldn’t help but feel great content filling the hole in his heart. Xiao Zhan shook his head with a sigh, pushing away the silly thoughts about the Man and decided to spend less time staring at those drawings.
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Xiao Zhan woke up panting on Monday morning and was trying to pull his thoughts together to understand why he is panting and feeling so confused. He looked at the clock showing 5:20 AM. He focused on figuring out what woke him up and slowly realized that it was a dream. He realized that last night, he didn’t wake up with any thoughts/images jolting him when he was about to fall asleep. So, for the first time in a week, he fell asleep at his usual bedtime, and if not for this dream, he would’ve slept like a baby until 7 AM.
The dream. When he could finally recollect what happened in the dream, he understood why he woke up panting and sweating from it.
In the dream, he kissed. He kissed the Man.
HE KISSED A MAN.
After the initial shock of kissing a man wore off, Xiao Zhan started going through the dream in his mind vividly. Once both his body and mind was taken over into the dream state, he could feel the Man’s kiss and how his mind completely blanked out and his entire body responded to his kiss and to him. Xiao Zhan took several deep breaths to calm his mind and when he finally got ready to go back to sleep, he hoped that the dream would continue once he fell asleep.
And when he woke up next after a restless sleep, to a blaring alarm, he couldn’t help but be disappointed. There was no dream, no kiss and no Man.
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Over the next week, he noticed that he is no longer dreaming about the Man which left him feeling frustrated. He decided to use his own imagination for his drawings and started making drawings of them being together. Together in love. All of his drawings showcase the two inseparable men deeply in love with each other. Xiao Zhan has also started sketching out Manga with both of them as the main characters with silly, cheesy conversations between them.
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On Thursday, by the time Xiao Zhan arrived at work, he was already exhausted. He had been drawing for his new Manga most of the night. Though he is exhausted due to lack of sleep, he still felt content and much happier than before.
When he reached his desk and put his bag down, Zhuocheng was the first to greet him.
“Did you just roll out of the bed?”
Xiao Zhan rolled his eyes and said, “Something like that”.
Zhuocheng pulled his chair closer to Xiao Zhan and told him in a low voice, “Guess what? Madam Yu has invited everyone for a staff meeting for this morning. I haven’t seen her involved in our work affairs ever since I joined here. So there must be some big news.”
“Maybe we are getting new clients?”
“Feng Mian used to announce such news. Do you think it’s about the merger we keep hearing about?”
“Mn. I guess we’ll know in an hour.”
“By the way, what happened to you? You really look like shit. Are you not getting enough sleep?”
“I am fine A-Cheng. I guess I could use more sleep”.
Just then Xuan Lu walked to her desk which is right next to Xiao Zhan’s and announced, “I want to eat Hot pot today. Who is joining me?”
Zhuocheng raised his hand and jumped up from his chair to show he is more than ready. Xuan Lu laughed gently and asked, “A-Zhan, what about you?”
“Of Course Jiejie, count me in”.
Xiao Zhan is very close to Xuan Lu. She is gentle and sweet with everyone. Zhuocheng and Xiao Zhan always felt very protective of her and never said “No” to her.
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That evening, Xiao Zhan went to eat Hot pot with his friends Xuan Lu, Zhongcheng and Yubin. None of them were in a good mood.
Xuan Lu tried to cheer them up, “At least we will all still be together, in the new office.”
Yubin chimed in, “Yea, and the rest of the gang will get severance, so they don’t have to worry too much. They can definitely find a good job elsewhere.”
Yubin joined them late at the meeting where Madam Yu has announced that a big company called Gusu Lan Ltd, has acquired their startup company and they would be announcing it officially on next Monday. Everyone at the meeting went still when she announced that only the design team along with all of their clients would be merged with Gusu Lan. And the rest would have to start looking for a new job.
Though his closest friends will still be with him after the merger, Xiao Zhan couldn’t help but feel sad as the rest of their friends and co-workers that they have been working with for the past one year will no longer be with them. In the meeting Madam Yu has also announced that before the merger Feng Mian is taking his retirement. So it will just be Xiao Zhan, Xuan Lu, Zhuocheng and Yubin who would be moving to the new company.
Starting from next week, few employees from Gusu Lan would be working alongside them to set the future direction for their team and to take over their projects and clients.
Zhuocheng, in his usual sarcastic tone said, “I am more worried about that Gusu Lan marketing team we need to work with. I hope we can get along with them.”
Xiao Zhan laughed, “We have to get along with them. It’s not an option. Don’t worry too much. They will be just like our own folks. It’ll take some time to get used to things, it's no different from starting a new job in a company.”
“Zhan Zhan, the forever optimistic.” Yubin poked him on his arm.
“Yep, that’s my A-Zhan”, Xuan Lu said with the most genuine and kind smile.
Zhuocheng, rolled his eyes.
By the end of the meal, everyone’s mood got a little better. They decided to stick with each other no matter how things would turn on with the Gusu Lan team.
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That weekend, Xiao Zhan switched off his phone and spent the whole two days working on his Manga, taking short breaks only when necessary. By Sunday evening, he felt completely drained but utterly satisfied. He felt a strong affinity to the character of the Man from his dream and the interactions between them felt more and more real.
Even the story plots with arguments between the two characters felt very natural and made Xiao Zhan smile throughout. He couldn’t explain the affinity he felt towards this Man from his dream.
He had a light dinner and crashed in bed and slept peacefully till the alarm woke him up the next morning.
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Monday morning, Xiao Zhan dressed more carefully than he usually does for work. He wants to give a good first impression to the Gusu Lan team that their design team is capable and self-sufficient.
He is the first to arrive at work and checked all of their four desks to ensure they are not too cluttered. Except Yubin’s everyone’s is immaculate. With a small head shake, he quickly cleared the trash from Yubin’s desk and organized his papers.
Xuan Lu and Zhuocheng walked while he was still clearing Yubin’s desk.
Xuan Lu said, “Oh I was hoping to arrive early so that I could do that A-Zhan. But this A-Cheng needed a ride and I realized just today that he takes forever to get ready.” and she ducked down to dodge the plush animal toy Zhuocheng threw at her.
After half an hour, when Yubin walked in leisurely to his desk, he made an exaggerated movement with a loud shriek, holding his chest and slowly turned around to look at his amused friends and said, “Where did my desk go? Did they kick me out as well?”
“Stop being a drama queen, Yubin. A-Zhan cleaned up your desk, we also discovered A-Cheng’s favorite snacks that went missing a while ago”.
Yubin looked at Xuan Lu and said, “What, you guys found my new year present for you? That is not fair. I was hoping to surprise you guys.”
Xuan Lu and Xiao Zhan laughed at Yubin, while Zhuocheng rolled his eyes.
Just then a group of people led by their front desk receptionist, walked by the corridor towards their conference room.
Yubin, without even trying to suppress his rude curiosity, got up from his chair and gawked at them. The moment they entered the conference room, he hurried over to Xiao Zhan and said, “Zhan Zhan, they look like college students. I hope we don’t have to babysit them.”
“Yubin, stop being rude. Keep your mouth in check until we get to know them better.”
“They do look pretty young.” Zhuocheng chimed in. “Thinking about handing over all those hard earned clients and projects to a bunch of teenagers doesn’t sound scary at all.”
Just then Feng Mian’s office door opened and he along with Madam Yu walked someone over to the conference room. Just before Feng Mian entered the conference room, he waved over to Xiao Zhan asking him to come over.
Xiao Zhan jogged over to the conference room and Feng Mian closed the door behind them.
“How come they didn’t call us all in?” Zhuocheng exclaimed.
“They must know your reputation already and didn’t want to scare those little kids away.” Yubin teased Zhuocheng and dodged quickly when a heavy book flew his way.
“Shut up!”
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When Xiao Zhan entered the room, Madam Yu introduced him to the person who he saw walked in from Feng Mian’s office. “A-Zhan, this is Mr. Liu. Mr Liu, this is Xiao Zhan, the senior member of the 4 person design team that would be transitioned over to Gusu Lan”.
Mr Liu, gave a kind smile and stepped forward stretching his hand to Xiao Zhan, “Hello Xiao Zhan. Please call me Haikuan. As part of the acquisition, we have decided to keep this office. We’ll just rename it to Gusu Lan. We have been looking into branching out our office facilities from headquarters and we really loved this cozy place, we can have our creative teams work from this office.”
Hearing that, Xiao Zhan smiled and said, “That sounds great. We really love this place too. And glad to hear we can continue working from here.”
Haikuan turned to the three people sitting and introduced them to Xiao Zhan. “This is Fan Xing, Ji Li and Guo Cheng. They are part of the marketing team that will be working closely with you guys. The Marketing manager is Wang Yibo, he handles multiple teams but he is in the process of transitioning the other managers so that he could focus on our new venture as we have high hopes for that venture. He is busy with some presentations today so couldn’t come over, but he will be here tomorrow. For the first couple of weeks he may have to shuffle his time with other projects as well, but once the transitioning is over, he’ll be here most of the time.”
Xiao Zhan shook hands with the three excited faces and Madam Yu gestured to the front desk receptionist to show them to their seats.
Once they left, Haikuan continued, “I have already talked to Madam Yu and Feng Mian. Since this is Feng Mian’s last week, we were hoping you could step into his shoes and lead the design team. Yibo is an efficient manager but he is not very familiar with the designing. So I hope you both have a happy collaboration.”
Xiao Zhan slightly bowed, and said, “I will definitely do my best to help out whatever the marketing team needs.”
Feng Mian patted Xiao Zhan’s back and said to Haikuan, “You don’t need to worry about Xiao Zhan. If anyone could..., you know, do this..., you know…, it will be him.”
Xiao Zhan was confused and looked at Feng Mian expecting him to spill the details. But to his disappointment Feng Mian didn’t elaborate further. Haikuan also simply nodded his head.
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Xiao Zhan walked Haikuan over to his teammates and introduced them. Haikuan also gestured to the three marketing team members to cover over and introduced both the teams to each other. Once all the introductions were over, Haikuan announced Xiao Zhan’s promotion to the team. Xuan Lu, Yubin and Zhuocheng clapped their hands beaming widely.
Haikuan turned to Fan Xing, Ji Li and Guo Cheng and told them that Yibo would join them here tomorrow and with a warning look that said, “You guys better behave yourself”, he waved to everyone and left.
Right after Haikuan left, Yubin walked over and said loudly, “Wow, he seems intense.”
Ji Li and Guo Cheng looked at each other with a mysterious smile. Ji Li then turned to Yibo and said, “If you think Haikuan is intense, you wait until you meet our Boss Man Yibo.”
“Why, Is he scary?” Yubin asked them. By then out of curiosity, Zhuocheng also joined him.
Guo Cheng said, “Scary? That’s an understatement.”
Fan Xing smacked at Guo Cheng’s arm and turned to Yubin, “He is not scary. He is a little strict and not very talkative. So he comes out as a bit intense. But he is great at his job though he is very young.”
Xuan Lu joined them and said, “Enough talking about someone who isn’t present here. Let’s talk about A-Zhan’s promotion. We should all celebrate.”
Xiao Zhan, who was quietly listening to all of their conversation turned to Xuan Lu and said, “Jie Jie, why don’t you just say you want to eat hotpot again?”
Yubin, “Yep, the only difference is this time Zhan Zhan would pay for everyone.”
Ji Li joined them and said, “Well, you didn’t leave us much choice. How can we say no if you insist like that.”
Yubin let out a loud whistle and put his arm around Ji Li’s shoulder and said, “Whoo, I like that spirit. We are going to get along really well.”
Xiao Zhan said, “I am happy to take you guys, but do you want to wait until your manager Mr.Wang Yibo also joins us?”
Both Ji Li and Guo Cheng looked stunned. Fan Xing stepped forward and said, “That may not be a great idea. It may take our manager sometime to warm up to new people.”
Yubin smiled and said, “It’s ok Zhan Zhan, we can invite him over next time. For today, let’s all go this evening to celebrate your promotion.”
Xiao Zhan smiled and agreed. Even after he got back to his work, he couldn’t shake off the uneasy feeling towards Yibo that started since Haikuan’s comments in the conference room. He let out a sign and hoped everything would go smoothly and forced his mind to focus on the work.
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That evening, after he had hotpot with his friends and the new colleagues, Xiao Zhan felt happy that they could all get along so well so quickly. Something in his mind warned him it wouldn’t be so easy with their boss though.
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Next morning, when Xiao Zhan came to work, the others, including Yubin, were already there. He looked at Yubin in mock surprise. Yubin swat at him, winked and said he is too excited to meet their new marketing manager.
Xiao Zhan let out a laugh and slid into his chair and soon got immersed in his work. After sometime a deep voice startled him and with a dazed look, he turned to see the owner of that voice.
A tall handsome man with small eyes and high cheeks with a barely noticeable smile, stretched his hand and said, “Good morning, I am Wang Yibo. You must be Xiao Zhan.”
Xiao Zhan sat in stunned silence looking at the beautiful man. After a few seconds he slightly recovered and realized that he was staring at the man with an open mouth and immediately shut his mouth. He got up and without taking his eye off the man, silently shook his hand, and tried to calm his erratic pulse. How could this even be possible? He had never met this man before, yet he knew him very intimately.
Because he is the Man from his dreams.
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