'SEE YOU MORNING' 012 Check-in

Riding an underpowered electric bicycle along a mountain path, the sky was darkening, and the winding trail was gradually becoming hard to see. Li Haojun tried to turn on the headlight on the handlebar, but its equally feeble light could only illuminate a few meters ahead.
After struggling over several small hills, he finally arrived at a lit residential complex. In front of the dilapidated red-brick apartment buildings, there were only a few street lamps, and not a single soul was on the road. Li Haojun walked into a unit, and the dim corridor lights cast his shadowy figure onto the walls as he climbed the stairs step by step. He seemed to want to go home, but had no clear destination. He couldn't remember how many times he had turned back and climbed the stairs again, when he suddenly found that the upward steps had come to an end. The staircase on this side should have continued upward after turning, but instead, it led downward...
Opening his eyes, it was already broad daylight. Li Haojun realized he had just had a bizarre dream. He wanted to go to Qin Wenjing's room to see if she was up, only to find that she had already prepared breakfast. He had really slept in today.
Sitting across the dining table, Qin Wenjing had her hair tied up high today, revealing her long neck. A strand of black hair curled down from her temple, and she wore a pair of small shell ear clips and a short bright red camisole dress. Was it distance making the heart grow fonder? Or had missing their morning intimacy made it feel like three autumns had passed? Li Haojun stared at her for a long time.
Qin Wenjing held her bowl, eating porridge with a ceramic spoon in silence. Occasionally she would glance up at Li Haojun, then smile faintly and lower her head to continue eating.
"Have you stared enough?" Qin Wenjing asked.
"Yeah," Li Haojun replied happily, digging into his food with both hands, but his eyes never left Qin Wenjing.
"One piece of good news and one piece of bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?" Qin Wenjing looked up at Li Haojun and said.
"Bad news first. Bitter before sweet."
Qin Wenjing chuckled and said, "I received a company notice yesterday. You've been appointed as the supervisor of the Ellensburg factory. We might have to be apart when we go to different locations from now on."
"Oh. What's the good news?"
"Your salary will be paid in full, and it will be much higher than when you were just sleeping all day."
"Great. I'll buy you something delicious to make it up to you."
"Hmph, I'm not a child," Qin Wenjing said, lowering her head to continue eating.
"When I'm not with you, I'll just think about what nice clothes to buy you."
Qin Wenjing looked up at Li Haojun with a smile.
"Then when I can't be with you, I'll work out hard and make it up to you when I get back."
"Go away, you're getting more and more improper." After saying that, Qin Wenjing blinked her eyes at Li Haojun.
"Seriously, you need to go check in and take over the factory today. The previous supervisor left some time ago. You need to activate your administrator identity today and receive visiting guests who are coming to tour the factory."
"What kind of guests? Which company are they from?"
"I don't know the details. The system will have detailed instructions when you activate it."
Li Haojun thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll take a taxi there. It's my first time going there, I don't know the way very well, and driving myself might not be safe. Besides, we only have one car, you can keep it."
"Okay," Qin Wenjing replied with a knowing smile.
After breakfast, Qin Wenjing prepared formal clothes for Li Haojun, booked a taxi, and walked him to the door, but Li Haojun stopped her at the small courtyard gate.
"Don't see me off," Li Haojun put his arm around Qin Wenjing's waist. "Don't worry. Wait for me to come back." Then he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her gently on the lips. Qin Wenjing smiled at Li Haojun and said nothing.
Li Haojun said goodbye to Qin Wenjing and walked out of the courtyard. The taxi was already waiting. The morning sun shone brightly on the windshield of the flying taxi. The Seattle yellow taxis still retained their traditional yellow color, but had been converted into electric quadrotor drones. The body advertisements were still black, but much more aesthetically pleasing, with streamlined paint matching the fuselage lines.
After boarding the aircraft, there were a series of automatic visual and voice prompts. After confirming the destination, the plane took off with the high-pitched whine of electric motors. The teardrop-shaped cockpit had excellent visibility, seemingly a product from a sightseeing production line. As the altitude increased, he could see Qin Wenjing waving goodbye in the courtyard. Li Haojun waved back, but as they gradually moved farther away, a trace of sadness flashed through his heart. Having grown accustomed to being together every day, they had unknowingly become each other's entire world.
The drone flew along its dedicated commercial route. Looking down at the earth from this height, Li Haojun gradually felt the vastness of the free world. How could a bird with wings not yearn for the blue sky? "Great expectations" was an apt description at this moment. Comparing his current mood with how he had felt earlier, Li Haojun realized his emotional shift and couldn't help but sigh at the mixed experiences of life.
The flight speed was fast, and they arrived soon. At the factory entrance, the layout was the same. This time, he went to the control room himself, completed biometric identification, and activated his administrator account. Looking at the various status display reports and real-time monitoring data on the console, a faint sense of superiority from being in control crossed Li Haojun's mind. After savoring the feeling for a moment, he quickly got down to business. He sent a message to Qin Wenjing to let her know he had arrived safely, then checked the logs and work plan. It turned out that today's visitors were from "Paris Splendide" of the French Fashion Consortium. The two sides had been long-term strategic partners for many years. The other party was involved in the fashion, modeling, and body care industries, and was also a shareholder investor. The information showed that the visitor was a woman of French ethnicity, the West Coast Regional Development Manager, who was mainly coming to discuss regional development support issues. Li Haojun thought to himself, she'd better speak English, otherwise he'd have to use a real-time translation device. He casually prepared some materials for the upcoming presentation. The time was almost up, so Li Haojun went downstairs to wait for the guests at the factory gate.
The early summer morning sun was warm on his skin. The factory was located in a quiet suburban area, and the breeze carried the fresh scent of grass and trees. Even though he was waiting, Li Haojun didn't feel like he was wasting his time. Free sunbathing, free oxygen bar, and getting paid for it—what more could he ask for?
Had he slept for too long? Or had he been in a single environment for too long? That's why going out today felt so refreshing? Li Haojun wondered. In his free time, he couldn't help but think about what Qin Wenjing was doing right now. He was just about to chat with her when he saw a car coming from far down the road, getting closer and closer. It was a black Lincoln Continental Extended, very American style.
The car circled in front of Li Haojun, and he saw that there was no driver—it was autonomous. Then the vehicle slowly stopped near the factory gate. Since there was no driver, to show gentlemanly manners, Li Haojun hurried forward to gently pull open the door. At that moment, the passenger was also pushing the door open to get out. When the other person stood still, Li Haojun introduced himself.
"Hello, I'm Ethan. You must be Ms. Marceau?"
"Sophie Marceau. Hello," the other person replied, shaking his hand while taking off her sunglasses and putting them in her bag.
Sophie looked to be in her thirties, well-maintained. She had wavy brown hair falling over her shoulders, a round face with a pointed chin, soft features, a pair of silver diamond-shaped earrings, naturally thin and long eyebrows, a straight nose, and large brown-green eyes. Her upper eyelids were curved and elongated, with the outer corners slightly lower than the inner ones, giving her a gentle and modest demeanor.
"Welcome. Please follow me," Li Haojun seemed to realize he had been staring at her face a bit too long, and quickly invited her into the factory. As he turned to lead the way, he glanced back to confirm that no one else was getting out of the car. His gaze returned to Sophie, who was nodding and smiling, walking beside him.
"Thank you for coming all this way alone," Li Haojun made small talk as he led the way.
"It's fine. From Tacoma Airport."
"Oh, so you've been on the road all morning." With that, Li Haojun led Sophie to the lounge first. A service robot came over, offering coffee, black tea, and snacks.
"Please sit down and rest for a while. Help yourself to whatever you'd like to drink," Li Haojun greeted the guest politely. The arrival of this beautiful woman had inexplicably excited him. Knowing she had traveled a long way, he thoughtfully added,
"We just passed the clerical offices, conference room, and factory operation room. This is the lounge. Further ahead and to the right are the restrooms, changing rooms, and showers. That's basically all the facilities in the office building."
Sophie smiled faintly, took a few sips of tea and said, "Thank you for showing me around the factory today. I'm going to touch up my makeup, and then we can start."
"Not at all. We have plenty of time today, no rush. Please go ahead," Li Haojun said, opening the door and leading her there before returning himself to set up the projection in the office and program the factory robots.
A moment later, Sophie returned. The two went to the conference room, where Li Haojun used the projector to introduce the factory's structure and layout, briefly explained the body care-related products, production capacity and development status, as well as user feedback and market research data. Sophie sat at the round conference table, leaning sideways against the edge of the table, her right arm resting on the table supporting her chin, quietly absorbing the information. Her serene face, elegant posture, and focused expression only added to her allure. Li Haojun also glanced at Sophie from time to time during his presentation—her eyes, her face, her figure. After the basic introduction, to avoid boredom, Li Haojun asked,
"Would you be interested in touring the production workshop?"
"Absolutely," Sophie gave a positive answer without hesitation, which surprised Li Haojun. Generally speaking, women weren't interested in mechanical, electronic, or chemical things.
He got a hard hat and helped Sophie put it on. "Please follow me this way," Li Haojun said to her.
Walking through the production gate of the workshop, a welcome red carpet made of anti-slip maintenance mats was laid on the floor. Robots lined up on both sides of the factory building to form a welcome team.
Sophie turned her head to look at Li Haojun. "WOW, very creative," she praised. As soon as the words left her mouth, she started walking forward.
Li Haojun pressed the remote control in his hand. The speakers on the robots on both sides of the queue began to play music, with different robots playing different instrumental parts—brass, strings, woodwinds, percussion. With the first urgent notes of the brass section, Sophie immediately recognized it: Mendelssohn's Wedding March. Her step froze mid-air, her mouth open as she stared at Li Haojun, pointing at the playing robot band.
Li Haojun quickly extended his hand to lead the way and said, "May the cooperation between our companies last forever."
Sophie threw her head back and laughed loudly, then continued walking forward. Her trench coat was open, revealing a fitted high-neck white blouse on top and a tight black professional mini-skirt below. Her waist, legs, and hips were perfectly proportioned, exuding femininity. And her gait was even more professional, her high heels walking in a straight line on the red carpet.
For lunch, Li Haojun simply treated Sophie to a local working meal, and the two ate casually in the lounge. Sophie was very cheerful, and they chatted about some work and life topics, keeping it general since they didn't know each other well. But her brown-green eyes, long eyelashes, and the way her eyes sparkled when she spoke left a deep impression on Li Haojun.
At the end of the meeting, Sophie also praised Li Haojun's creativity when they parted, and gave him a polite kiss on the cheek. Li Haojun, for his part, had already impatiently called a flying taxi, eager to get home.
On the way back, Li Haojun thought about the day's events, his impromptu grand gesture, that Wedding March. He also reflected on whether he had been too excited. Was it because he was so starved for social interaction that he felt the need to show off in front of a beautiful woman? Or was this just his nature? Or was this how things were supposed to be between men and women, and he was being too hard on himself?
He soon arrived back at the little house he had been longing for. From the yard, he could already see Qin Wenjing sitting in front of the computer in the living room, still wearing that bright red short dress.
Walking into the living room, Qin Wenjing stood up to greet him when she saw Li Haojun return. Li Haojun put his arm around her waist, kissed her on the lips, and then pushed her down onto the bedroom bed.
"What are you doing? It's broad daylight, you're so annoying," Qin Wenjing complained coquettishly, hitting his shoulders weakly with her hands.
Li Haojun pinned her down, silencing her with kisses as he entered her body. As the rhythm quickened, Qin Wenjing closed her eyes and slowly turned her head to the side. As Li Haojun's rhythm and intensity increased, Qin Wenjing parted her lips slightly, breathing deeply. Perhaps her bright red dress today had been for this very moment, and the tide of her love for Li Haojun gradually swelled. Li Haojun matched her state, one arm tightening around her waist and hips, the other wrapping around her back, holding her taut body close. Qin Wenjing also wrapped her arms tightly around Li Haojun's waist, trying to hold onto all of him. After several more thrusts and contractions in their closest union, everything finally stilled.
When everything had calmed down, Qin Wenjing's cheeks were flushed. She buried her head in Li Haojun's chest, catching her breath.
Li Haojun looked at the woman in his arms, but the image of another woman lingered in his mind—her posture, her face, her brown-green eyes. Li Haojun didn't know whether his efforts just now had been for Qin Wenjing or because of Sophie. He didn't know if he was afraid of forgetting Qin Wenjing or if he wanted to forget Sophie.