Xiu Ling knew her husband well. It helped that she was a good people reader to begin with. When Lin Kang froze after throwing his first shot, the wheels in her mind started to turn.
She knew her husband had had a smooth sailing throughout his life and for a man where success was to be expected, one didn't need to think hard to predict his views on failure or things that he would perceive as weakness.
Xiu Ling placed herself in Lin Kang's shoes and could see things from his perspective. She understood the man had the tendency to get mentally stuck on one thing and the need burning within him to seek and achieve perfection.
Based on these extrapolations, Xiu Ling had a fairly good idea why the first basketball throw had stumped her husband so. Xiu Ling came up with the solution after giving it some thought. When faced with a situation like this, she understood the importance of not placing the man on the spot. Shining the spotlight on him would only heighten the embarrassment and make it worse.
Therefore, the solution was to do the complete opposite of that, to act like there was nothing out of the ordinary and move on. The fact that Xiu Ling really did think her husband was overreacting and reading too much into this helped lend an air of authenticity to her plan.
To be honest, Xiu Ling did not mind that Lin Kang sucked at basketball or sports, in fact she welcomed knowing this extra layer to his character. In Xiu Ling's eyes, Lin Kang had always been perfect at everything. He even managed to win her the prize from the crane machine with one try... albeit with a little physical help.
That created the impression that the man was perfect. While there was nothing wrong with that, some even found that admirable but at the same time, it also made the man quite unapproachable.
Having an unexpected flaw like this humanized Lin Kang in Xiu Ling's eyes. She found the vulnerability that he showed to be quite winning. Knowing the man could be fazed by certain things endeared Lin Kang to Xiu Ling, even though the former had no idea about it.
Seeing how her husband had started to accept the truth, Xiu Ling could not help but deliver a good natured jab, "But before you challenge me next time, make sure you can win Lin Xi first, you're more on his level."
Lin Kang turned to look at Xiu Ling as if gauging there was a second meaning behind her words before laughing candidly. He knew she was only kidding.
The two spent the rest of their day at the arcade. They had fun and overall the date was a success.
...
The day was coming to an end and Sylvia could be found burning the midnight oil at the office. It had been a slow few weeks for news and they were running out of things to report on. Tension was high in the meeting earlier and the editor was desperate for people to come up with any idea so there would be a paper to publish tomorrow.
Ideas were tossed around but none seemed to work. In the end, it was Sylvia who suggested they return to reliable industry practice in hard times like this.
The idea was to dig through their available files to search for news that might not have been published because there were other more attractive news back then. Other than that, they could do a follow-up on stories that might have been forgotten. Readers would like to know what happened after the big news and sometimes it was worth looking into the past to see whether they had missed anything.
Of course, this was merely a nicer way of saying they were going to recycle old news. When the meeting ended, Sylvia's idea was accepted and that was a testament to how boring the last few weeks had been instead of the young woman's brilliance.
This was why Sylvia was still at her press office even though the night was already falling. Most of her colleagues had left work already but she was still there working hard. Since she was the one who suggested this idea, she felt a sense of responsibility on her shoulders. Other people had already given up but she was on a mission. She was not going to stop until she came up with something that could be put into tomorrow's paper.
Sylvia clicked on the mouse tiredly as the pictures and articles that she had done weeks or even months ago flew past on her screen. The glare was getting to her eyes since she had staring for the computer screen for hours already.
Sylvia leaned back in the chair and yawned, rubbing her tired eyes with her hands. 'Maybe I should just call it a day.'
As if mechanically, Sylvia reached out to grab the mouse and continued clicking while her mind was thinking about the inviting, fluffy bed that was calling to her from home. She did not pay much attention to the things that flitted across the screen. After all, there was a reason these pieces of news were rejected in the first place. If they failed to make the cut the first time, Sylvia could see no reason why they would suddenly become newsworthy. She started to regret proposing this idea in the first place.
A yawn escaped her lips and Sylvia poked her head out from the cubicle to look around the office. If she was the only one left, then she would have no qualm leaving the office to head for home. She would consider it a show of solidarity.
If they were destined to fail, at least they were going to fail together. All for one and one for all, right?
To her surprise, there was still a single lamp that was lit in one of the cubicles.
Xiu Ling knew her husband well. It helped that she was a good people reader to begin with. When Lin Kang froze after throwing his first shot, the wheels in her mind started to turn.
She knew her husband had had a smooth sailing throughout his life and for a man where success was to be expected, one didn't need to think hard to predict his views on failure or things that he would perceive as weakness.
Xiu Ling placed herself in Lin Kang's shoes and could see things from his perspective. She understood the man had the tendency to get mentally stuck on one thing and the need burning within him to seek and achieve perfection.
Based on these extrapolations, Xiu Ling had a fairly good idea why the first basketball throw had stumped her husband so. Xiu Ling came up with the solution after giving it some thought. When faced with a situation like this, she understood the importance of not placing the man on the spot. Shining the spotlight on him would only heighten the embarrassment and make it worse.
Therefore, the solution was to do the complete opposite of that, to act like there was nothing out of the ordinary and move on. The fact that Xiu Ling really did think her husband was overreacting and reading too much into this helped lend an air of authenticity to her plan.
To be honest, Xiu Ling did not mind that Lin Kang sucked at basketball or sports, in fact she welcomed knowing this extra layer to his character. In Xiu Ling's eyes, Lin Kang had always been perfect at everything. He even managed to win her the prize from the crane machine with one try... albeit with a little physical help.
That created the impression that the man was perfect. While there was nothing wrong with that, some even found that admirable but at the same time, it also made the man quite unapproachable.
Having an unexpected flaw like this humanized Lin Kang in Xiu Ling's eyes. She found the vulnerability that he showed to be quite winning. Knowing the man could be fazed by certain things endeared Lin Kang to Xiu Ling, even though the former had no idea about it.
Seeing how her husband had started to accept the truth, Xiu Ling could not help but deliver a good natured jab, "But before you challenge me next time, make sure you can win Lin Xi first, you're more on his level."
Lin Kang turned to look at Xiu Ling as if gauging there was a second meaning behind her words before laughing candidly. He knew she was only kidding.
The two spent the rest of their day at the arcade. They had fun and overall the date was a success.
...
The day was coming to an end and Sylvia could be found burning the midnight oil at the office. It had been a slow few weeks for news and they were running out of things to report on. Tension was high in the meeting earlier and the editor was desperate for people to come up with any idea so there would be a paper to publish tomorrow.
Ideas were tossed around but none seemed to work. In the end, it was Sylvia who suggested they return to reliable industry practice in hard times like this.
The idea was to dig through their available files to search for news that might not have been published because there were other more attractive news back then. Other than that, they could do a follow-up on stories that might have been forgotten. Readers would like to know what happened after the big news and sometimes it was worth looking into the past to see whether they had missed anything.
Of course, this was merely a nicer way of saying they were going to recycle old news. When the meeting ended, Sylvia's idea was accepted and that was a testament to how boring the last few weeks had been instead of the young woman's brilliance.
This was why Sylvia was still at her press office even though the night was already falling. Most of her colleagues had left work already but she was still there working hard. Since she was the one who suggested this idea, she felt a sense of responsibility on her shoulders. Other people had already given up but she was on a mission. She was not going to stop until she came up with something that could be put into tomorrow's paper.
Sylvia clicked on the mouse tiredly as the pictures and articles that she had done weeks or even months ago flew past on her screen. The glare was getting to her eyes since she had staring for the computer screen for hours already.
Sylvia leaned back in the chair and yawned, rubbing her tired eyes with her hands. 'Maybe I should just call it a day.'
As if mechanically, Sylvia reached out to grab the mouse and continued clicking while her mind was thinking about the inviting, fluffy bed that was calling to her from home. She did not pay much attention to the things that flitted across the screen. After all, there was a reason these pieces of news were rejected in the first place. If they failed to make the cut the first time, Sylvia could see no reason why they would suddenly become newsworthy. She started to regret proposing this idea in the first place.
A yawn escaped her lips and Sylvia poked her head out from the cubicle to look around the office. If she was the only one left, then she would have no qualm leaving the office to head for home. She would consider it a show of solidarity.
If they were destined to fail, at least they were going to fail together. All for one and one for all, right?
To her surprise, there was still a single lamp that was lit in one of the cubicles.
