‘SEE YOU MORNING’ 120 The Difference Between Pets and Beasts

Lin Yuhui has a good quality: when he realizes he is wrong, he admits it immediately, never making excuses or justifying himself to save face.
Back in the office, standing in front of his desk, he announced loudly,
“Excuse me everyone, I have to clarify that what happened between me and the boss just now was a misunderstanding.”
After saying that, he sat down and went back to his work as if nothing had happened, feeling no embarrassment about his pride. Only a fleeting thought crossed his mind: was there also a misunderstanding between Cerise and me? She and Sapphire still kept talking nonstop behind his back about dating and blind dates. If there was no one suitable for her here, what was the point of bringing it up all the time? Lin Yuhui really couldn’t understand it.
Another time, Cerise and Lila whispered to each other for a long time across from his desk, then Cerise said something in Japanese, and the two of them giggled uncontrollably.
Although Lin Yuhui didn’t understand Japanese, he recognized that line from a Japanese drama called 101st Proposal, a love story between an older man and a not-so-old woman. But that was just a dramatic interpretation, completely different from reality, and the circumstances were not the same either. Compared to Lin Yuhui, the male lead in the drama had no health problems, seemed to have no opinions or life ideals, and was perfectly suited to play the role of a long-term doormat boyfriend.
The female lead in the drama was also different from Cerise. She never stayed out all night, nor did she have a large group of backup suitors around her. She was single only because her boyfriend had died unexpectedly, and she could play the cello. In a way, she was exactly Lin Yuhui’s type. Even though Cerise was saying the same lines as Kaoru Yabuki to Lila across from him, she couldn’t compare to her temperament and connotation, let alone her kindness and character.
Yet there was still a tiny spark of fantasy in Lin Yuhui’s heart that refused to die out: would she change for me?
Pulling his attention back from his wandering thoughts, Lin Yuhui focused on how to express his apology to the boss again.
He was a man of character and had some skills in the industry. His boss, a PhD who had founded this company, was also an outstanding person. The fact that he had hired Lin Yuhui without sticking to conventional standards reminded Lin Yuhui of a series of comics he had made many years ago, which roughly embodied the idea that there are no weak soldiers under a strong general.
Lin Yuhui had been a die-hard Formula 1 fan for many years. After losing his job years ago, he had a lot of free time. Coinciding with Trump’s MAGA movement, he also developed an interest in politics. This comic series combined these elements, titled The Difference Between Pets and Beasts. Using a comparative approach, he took the clear number one and number two driver positions and ironclad team strategy execution under Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, and Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, as positive examples to mock the Italian Ferrari team’s incompetence in watching its two drivers fight internally. Then he expanded it to the political circle: when the Abe couple visited the United States, Trump pushed them off the red carpet, making their status no different from dogs in front of their master. Lin Yuhui photoshopped them into Akita dogs. Of course, Lin Yuhui also made excuses for each of them. Trump’s slogan was: For America. Abe’s was: For Japan. His wife’s was: For her husband. So whether rude or humble, they all had their own dignity. Next, Lin Yuhui mocked Moon Jae-in, predicting two outcomes for him with Korean characteristics: if the president was purged, he would end up as dog meat on the table; if he worked hard for his American master, he would enjoy wealth and honor and fall under the pomegranate skirts of Korean girl groups. The finishing touch was a photo of Putin riding a bear, and Trump dressed as Santa Claus, with the Twitter blue bird pulling the sleigh. Lin Yuhui posted this series of pictures on his WeChat Moments.
Then that afternoon turned out to be extraordinary. The boss’s wife seemed particularly satisfied after seeing it. Of course, the employees praised that her husband had capable and individualistic people under his command, and she was so pleased that she sent a message asking David to tell everyone jokes when he had time. The otherwise perfect Friday workday ended with such pleasant feedback.
Even when there was no work, Lin Yuhui would come to the office every weekend because he had no better place to have lunch and dinner, and the company canteen was his best option.
Cerise had never come to this office on Saturdays or Sundays. On the contrary, Lila, who often followed her around, would come over on weekends from time to time. She was younger and plain-looking. Perhaps because she admired Cerise’s beauty, she always liked to hang out with her, or maybe it was to attract attention. But in Lin Yuhui’s opinion, this actually reduced her chances of finding a partner. The reason was simple: she couldn’t match Cerise’s beauty, and following her trends weakened her own competitive advantage of being different. It was really naive. In fact, Lin Yuhui had tried to hint at this to her before, but she wouldn’t listen, or simply didn’t understand. There was nothing he could do about it; everyone had their own fate.
But this weekend, she volunteered to take over a job that originally belonged to Cerise: preparing the text for the export equipment customs declaration form. Lila sat diagonally across from Lin Yuhui, and to complete the task she had taken on, she kept walking back and forth between her desk and the printer.
Like every weekend, Lin Yuhui was checking online news about the epidemic situation and international news. Trump had been having a terrible time at the hands of the Democratic Party since Biden took office, after losing the 2020 election. Lin Yuhui even noticed that his responses had become erratic, and he could only shout at the top of his lungs, making useless noises. He wondered if he would be sent to prison by his political opponents. After all, he had failed to seize the opportunity when he was in power.
“David, have you ever made customs declaration documents like this? Oh no, I can’t get it right,” Lila called from diagonally across, waving the paper template as she asked for help.
“No,” Lin Yuhui thought it was funny. Why would she take on Cerise’s work? But he couldn’t just stand by and watch her struggle, so he added,
“I’ll take a look for you.” Lin Yuhui never promised any results, because he didn’t know if he could do it, but once he accepted, he would do his best to achieve it.
Lin Yuhui checked the specific situation. It turned out that due to the precision of Word’s control over the print position of page elements, copying the template file was indeed quite difficult. Fortunately, he had experience editing documents in the bidding department. After adjusting the print control details, the two of them worked together, one in front of the computer and the other at the printer. After several experiments, they finally achieved sufficient print accuracy.
After completing the task, Lila felt a great sense of accomplishment. Lin Yuhui stood in front of the printer, watching her excited expression from a distance. He didn’t quite understand why she had taken on this job that wasn’t hers. He also didn’t understand why she often came over to show her face but never took the initiative to talk to him to get closer. Although he had no feelings for her, if she had taken the initiative and focused on him wholeheartedly, who knew what might have happened.