Forced correction procedure

Lin Jingshang softened his breathing, quietly picked up his thin coat hanging on the back of the chair, and wanted to cover Xie Dang with it.

Just as the coat was about to touch his shoulder, Xie Dang suddenly opened his eyes. His gaze was sharp, without the slightest trace of sleepiness, and he stared straight at Lin Jingshang.

Lin Jingshang's hand, holding up his coat, froze in mid-air.

Xie Dang's gaze shifted from his face to the coat in his hand, pausing for two seconds. Then, without saying a word, he simply reached out and naturally took the coat, draping it over his shoulders.

"Finished?" His voice was slightly hoarse.

“…Hmm.” Lin Jingshang withdrew his hand, his fingertips feeling inexplicably hot.

"Then let's go home."

Xie Dang stood up, put away the tablet, and draped the obviously too-small and mismatched jacket over his arm with a smooth and natural movement.

"Let's go, I'll take you back." He looked at Lin Jingshang, who was still sitting in the chair.

The world's will remains silent, seemingly having completely given up the struggle. There's no forced plot, no romantic moments, not even a gentle reminder that the weather is getting colder.

Lin Jingshang was happy to have some free time, and even began to think that it would be nice to just be an ordinary office worker and occasionally have some ordinary interactions with the president.

He began to get used to some of Xie Dang's seemingly abrupt but actually thoughtful actions.

After the cleaning lady accidentally dirtied and took away the neck-relieving cushion on his workstation, a brand new, identical cushion appeared the very next day, without a sound.

The coffee beans in the company's break room were inexplicably upgraded, from the cheap, mediocre ones to a variety with a rich aroma. The administration department issued a notice saying it was an "improvement of employee benefits," but Lin Jingshang had smelled the exact same coffee aroma on Xie Dang.

Every Wednesday afternoon, Xie Dang would happen to have a non-urgent meeting that required basic data from the marketing department, and then he would walk over to Lin Jingshang's workstation to listen to his five-minute report on the data overview. At the end of the report, he would always leave behind one of those beautifully packaged handmade lemon candies.

Everything happened so naturally, without any superfluous words, and without any pre-arranged affectionate gazes or racing hearts.

Lin Jingshang gradually relaxed.

He would always collect the lemon candies Xie Dang left behind in a small glass jar, the wrappers shimmering in the sunlight. Occasionally, he would complain on WeChat about Manager Zhang's new flashy tie, or share news about the buy-one-get-one-free offer at the newly opened milk tea shop downstairs.

Xie Dang's replies are usually so concise as to be almost stingy.

【ugly. 】

[Excessive sugar content.]

But at least, he will come back.

During lunch break that day, Lin Jingshang and several colleagues were eating in the restaurant. In their casual conversation, they mentioned the new intern in the president's office.

"I heard he's a top student who returned from overseas, incredibly handsome, and has super high emotional intelligence!" The receptionist's eyes lit up. "He even brought Mr. Xie some cookies he baked himself yesterday!"

Lin Jingshang paused for a moment while picking up food with his chopsticks.

Another colleague immediately chimed in, "Yes, yes, I heard that too! It seems that President Xie actually accepted it!"

"Wow—you accepted it? Doesn't President Xie never eat these sweet things?"

"Maybe he's interested in her? He's young, promising, and considerate..."

Lin Jingshang silently chewed the rice in his mouth, suddenly feeling that today's Kung Pao Chicken was a bit too sour.

He glanced down at his phone; his chat history with Xie Dang was still from yesterday. He had sent a photo of a plant in the office with new leaves, and Xie Dang had replied with an "Mm".

He twitched his fingers, thinking of sending a message, such as "I heard the cookies are delicious?", but then he thought the question was incredibly stupid, making it seem like he cared too much.

He locked the screen, forcibly suppressing the inexplicable bittersweet feeling.

In the afternoon, Lin Jingshang was a little absent-minded at work. The numbers on the reports looked like a group of tadpoles swimming around, impossible to catch.

Just before he was about to leave work, he received a message from Xie Dang, which was a picture.

He clicked on it and saw a beautifully packaged cookie box lying in the trash can, next to which was a half-finished latte that looked sickeningly sweet.

The image was accompanied by the text: "Too sweet, what a waste."

Lin Jingshang stared at the picture and those words for several seconds, and the corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up. The feeling of being upset in his heart just now instantly vanished.

He replied with an "Oh".

After thinking about it, I added another emoji of a rabbit hugging a carrot and nodding frantically.

The other party did not reply.

Lin Jingshang's mood had brightened considerably. He hummed an off-key song, quickly finished his work, and prepared to leave on time. Just as he shut down his computer and stretched, the air in front of him suddenly began to fluctuate violently without warning.

The glowing subtitles, which had disappeared for nearly half a month, reappeared in an unprecedented, almost frenzied manner, their color a glaring scarlet: 【!! Warning! Core plot severely delayed! World stability continues to decline!】

[Initiate emergency mandatory fix procedure! Highest priority!]

[Generate the ultimate scene: a business dinner.]

[Key Event: Xie Dang is framed by a business rival and drugged with a special substance. Lin Jingshang mistakenly enters the room, and they have a physical relationship, thus establishing their relationship.]

[Execution countdown: 72 hours.]

[Note: This command is irresistible and has logical priority above all else! Failure will trigger an elimination mechanism!]

The red text flickered, like a dying heart making its final struggle, a sense of madness almost overflowing.

Lin Jingshang's smile froze instantly, and the color drained from his face. He grabbed his phone, and his fingers trembled as he opened that familiar chat window.

Almost the instant he opened the app, Xie Dang's message popped up, containing only three concise words: 【Saw it?】

【71:59:32】

Lin Jingshang stared at the constantly fluctuating numbers, feeling a bit breathless. The annihilation mechanism sounded truly terrifying and impossible to ignore. His knuckles turned white as he typed in the chat box: 【What to do?】

Xie Dang's reply was swift and surprisingly calm: "Conventional interference methods have failed; a new strategy is needed."

An hour later, at Xie Dang's apartment.

This was Lin Jingshang's first time visiting Xie Dang's place. Unlike the cold and aloof CEO style he had imagined, the apartment was decorated in a minimalist style, with black, white and gray as the main colors. It was very spacious, somewhat empty, and clean, like a showroom that no one had ever lived in. Only the three monitors placed side by side on the desk indicated the owner's abnormally efficient work habits.

"Sit down." Xie Dang poured him a glass of water, then stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the endless stream of cars, their headlights forming a river of light.

Lin Jingshang held the water glass but didn't drink it immediately.

"That banquet..."

“I know.” Xie Dang interrupted him, turned around, his face expressionless. “The invitation is already in my email. The time is 8 pm the day after tomorrow, at the Hyatt Hotel’s top-floor banquet hall.”

"Can we... not go?" Lin Jingshang asked.

"The instruction is of the highest priority and cannot be ignored." Xie Dang walked to the desk and pulled up a video recording that looked like a surveillance video. On it was a stream of glowing code that Lin Jingshang was extremely familiar with.

“I analyzed the backend data flow, and this time it used the highest level of authority. If we are forcibly absent, it will directly interfere with the real-world logic, such as causing an elevator malfunction to trap us inside, or creating an unexpected traffic accident to ensure that we are where we should be.”

A chill ran down Lin Jingshang's spine. He had no doubt that the will of this world would do something like this to advance the plot.

“So, we have to go,” Xie concluded. “But how to get there and what to do after we get there are the only variables we can control.”

He operated the computer, brought up the floor plan of the top floor of the Hyatt Hotel, and zoomed in on the pre-set accident room.

“Mr. Wang from the rival company, Hongyuan Group, will be responsible for drugging me. According to the script, I will feel unwell an hour after the banquet begins and be helped to this room by my assistant to rest. And you will accidentally enter this room because you took the wrong turn.” Xie Dang pointed at the entrance of the room with a laser pointer. “The time difference is about ten minutes.”

His tone was calm, as if he were analyzing a market report, but the content made Lin Jingshang's ears burn and he didn't know what to do with his hands and feet.

"Substantive relationship..."

Lin Jingshang repeated the words with difficulty, feeling as if his face was on fire. He glanced quickly at Xie Dang and noticed that the other's earlobes also seemed to have an unnatural blush, although his face remained expressionless.

“This is the result it set.” Xie Dang looked away from the screen. “But the process may not be.”

He switched the screen, revealing a long string of complex chemical formulas and pharmacokinetic data.

"I checked the types of drugs it can use that fit the plot. Most of them take effect quickly and are metabolized quickly. The key is that ten-minute time difference, and..."

He paused, looked at Lin Jingshang, his gaze deep: "Can we find a loophole before the drug takes full effect, or... create an outcome that it cannot determine?"

Lin Jingshang was stunned: "The manufacturing result?"

"For example, what if it's not just the two of us entering the room?" Xie Dang lowered his voice.

Lin Jingshang's pupils contracted slightly, and he instantly understood what he meant: "You want to involve a third party? But won't that trigger other punishments?"

"Risk and reward go hand in hand. It's betting that we have to follow its script, and we're also betting that its core logic has a more important standard for judging the outcome than the process. As long as the final relationship is established and the outcome can be established in some form, it may determine that the task is completed and stop the erasure process."

This plan is bold, crazy, and full of uncertainty, but it is also the only possible way for them to break the deadlock.

Lin Jingshang continued to ponder: "Therefore, we need an absolutely reliable person, and we need a meticulous plan—how to bring that person in, how to evade the world's surveillance..."

"Mm." Xie Dang nodded.

"We have three more days, which is enough time for us to prepare."