Chapter 82, Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Fantasy Building

The fingers inserted between her fingers tightened continuously, and the pain from the squeezing reminded Wen Ting of finger torture.

“It hurts…” she frowned. “It hurts, Xiaobai, you’re hurting me.”

As the pressure dissipated, Gong Baidie loosened her grip and instead cupped her hands, saying, "Let me rub it for you."

He released her hand, but didn't let go of the topic: "Tell me, Wen Ting, how did you recognize him when he's in such a rotten state?"

Max has indeed changed a lot, but after five years as colleagues, he still keeps trying to get closer to her, and Wen Ting can always tell a little bit about it.

To be honest, if Gong Baidie is unhappy, simply giving him a perfunctory answer will only make him angry.

Wen Ting sighed, "You know perfectly well that I don't like him, so why are you taking it out on me?"

She chose to avoid the main issue and reason with him.

“I wasn’t taking it out on you.” If he were taking it out on her, she wouldn’t be standing here.

"Hiss—" Wen Ting suddenly gasped, "It hurts, it hurts so much there."

Gong Baidie looked down at Wen Ting's hand, "...Here?"

“Yes, here.” Wen Ting bent her ring finger. “It’s all red.”

Gong Baidie lowered his eyes. He didn't see red, but he still put his bent knuckles into his mouth.

Wen Ting twitched her little finger, "Here too."

He made a soft nasal sound and caressed the area with the tip of his tongue.

“And here too.” Wen Ting hooked her index finger and then raised her thumb. “Here as well.”

He looked up at her, and Wen Ting returned his gaze with a frank smile.

She innocently tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, enunciating each word slowly and softly, like silk threads floating in water, "Is that not allowed?"

The breathing that landed on the back of her hand became a little heavier.

He held her hand and kissed it inch by inch.

Once her hands were imprinted with his scent, Wen Ting leaned in and kissed his lips. "I like you, Xiao Bai. Do you like me?"

Gong Baidie looked at her and smiled contentedly: "Of course, of course I love you."

“Okay, I like you, and you like me.” Wen Ting pointed to each other, then glanced at the butterfly figure on the wall. “Any more questions, darling?”

There's no problem with the white butterfly.

In this atmosphere, it seemed that asking another question would be extremely disappointing and would leave Wen Ting feeling utterly dejected.

He stared intently at Wen Ting.

She must have had many men.

Did she ever flirt with Max or use such charm on anyone else without his knowledge?

Wen Ting doesn't have much romantic experience. In fact, apart from her first love in college, she broke up with the other four men very quickly.

But she has enough work experience to handle a young man more than enough.

The previous assessment day was unexpectedly interrupted, so she didn't get to see anything. This time, Wen Ting carefully observed her surroundings.

The things inside the cocoon hatched, and seventy human-butterflies haphazardly filled the walls of the four-story building—seventy in total, even the original batch of madmen who hadn't submitted their manuscripts were turned into cocoons by the Palace White Butterfly.

The light was dim, and for some reason, the power, which should have automatically restored after the energy-saving period ended, now had to be manually turned on one by one.

Wen Ting wanted to turn on the light, but the switch was located under the abdomen of a butterfly-shaped creature, covered in a layer of transparent mucus. She then withdrew her fingertips.

The butterfly barely moved, and its dark red wings were all damaged; its body was decaying and oozing pus, yet there was little stench in the air.

"Because I ranked in the top five this time, they ignored me?" Wen Ting asked Gong Baidie.

Gong Baidie did not deny it.

Wen Ting then asked, "Under normal circumstances, what would they do to me?"

"I will treat you like a flower," he said casually.

This rule is rotten. What was his purpose in setting this rule in the first place?

Gong Baidie recalled for a moment.

Yes, he wanted to see Wen Ting being pursued by her suitors.

Her expression must have been quite amusing to see her being chased by rotting, pus-oozing insects.

He became interested again and explained to Wen Ting in detail: "When the teeth in their mouthparts pierce the skin, they release toxins that corrode the flesh and blood of living people into water."

He paused, then grinned, "Have you ever eaten a frozen pear?"

Like eating a frozen pear, suck out all the juicy flesh from the punctured opening.

She was the only living person left here, but there were seventy butterflies. The thought of that scene sent a chill down Wen Ting's spine.

Seeing her fear, Gong Baidie reassured her, "Don't be afraid, Wen Ting. They're not moving very fast. You have plenty of time to ask me for help."

"Can you control them and prevent them from attacking me?" Wen Ting asked.

“I can’t control the rules I create, but I’ll always help you if you beg me.” He kissed her forehead and smiled. “I love you so much, Wen Ting.”

His tone was excited and gleeful, filled with malice, as if he were really looking forward to seeing her miserable state.

After Wen Ting explained why she left Wanluo, Gong Baidie's attitude improved a lot, but she was still not entirely innocent and harmless.

After the initial period of chaos, some twisted and malicious elements in his personality slowly emerged over time, much like a couple who had passed the honeymoon phase and no longer pretended, relaxing their posture.

Gong Baidie's malice was consistent throughout, and Wen Ting had long been aware of it, but so far they had never had a dispute, and she had never been hurt—could it be that her social skills and maneuvering techniques were so superb, even more so than she thought?

Undeniably, Gong Baidie's personality flaws were also a major contributing factor.

He hasn't escaped his character's established traits; the teachings of a matriarchal society are ingrained in his bones, making him very easy to coax.

Wen Ting had also wondered what she would do if their identities were reversed.

Ha, with that kind of power, why is she still here cleaning and cooking for others?

I really can't see things clearly.

Going down one floor, this time the wall switches were clean, and Wen Ting quickly pressed them.

"Hmm?" She asked several times, but the light still didn't turn on.

Gong Baidie glanced at her movements but made no attempt to explain.

It was still daytime, and there was no need to turn on the lights. Wen Ting didn't insist and strolled around the office area in the dim light.

The fact that the lights wouldn't turn on made her look around; something seemed to be missing from the office area—

As she passed through her office, she realized that all the computers except hers had their sleep lights off.

She tried to turn on the computer, but none of the other computers could run.

The water dispenser, surveillance cameras, and air conditioner were all off. It was only 10 a.m., clearly not yet the "energy-saving period" stipulated in the regulations...

Energy saving?

Back on the 13th floor, Wen Ting ate the brunch prepared by Gong Baidie while pondering.

After discovering Gong Baidie's identity, she ignored the "Employee Handbook".

Wen Ting opened her phone's photo album and quickly glanced at the photos of the manual she had taken earlier.

A cute little character was smiling at her in the lower right corner of the screen. Wen Ting immediately pretended to have accidentally clicked the wrong button, switched to the camera, and secretly pointed the lens at Gong Baidie, who was reading a book not far away.

Gong Baidie raised her eyes, sensing something.

Their eyes met, and Wen Ting smiled, abandoning her sneaky actions. Holding up her phone, she asked directly, "Let me take the picture."

Gong Baidie turned her head back as instructed and continued reading.

Wen Ting adjusted the filter, set the profile picture she had taken as her screensaver, and thought about the rules she had just seen in the photo album.

[II. Working hours are Monday to Saturday, 09:00-18:00. The company is open 24 hours a day, and overtime is free.]

[III. To save unnecessary energy waste, the company will only maintain basic power supply from 00:00 to 07:00 daily.]

Power should not be cut off outside of energy-saving periods. Moreover, even during energy-saving periods, the power to computers would not be cut off in order to allow employees to work overtime.

There was no power outage on the previous two assessment days, so why was there one this time?

Is it because everyone has died, the ghost story is now in a completed state, and the previous game rules are invalid?

No, she's still here. Her employee ID card appears every day, and the OA system is still assigning her tasks. If the rules were invalidated, Gong Baidie wouldn't make her draw and submit to the OA system every day.

The game isn't over; she's still a player.

[To save unnecessary energy waste]...

Wen Ting closed her eyes and recalled what DD had said before he died.

He said, "I've been thinking about what the meaning of ghost stories is."

Gong Baidie has the ability to kill them easily, and also the malice to kill them, so why should she leave most of them alive?

"Unless, we are the fuel that provides the energy."

"...burn them one by one."

Now all the fuel has been burned in one go.

Having run out of fuel, [to save unnecessary energy waste], he turned off all the power.

The sentence in Rule Two perfectly completes this sentence.

Wen Ting opened her eyes and stared intently at her phone's screen saver.

When all the people are dead, he has no source of energy.

Wen Ting suddenly understood and couldn't help but laugh at her phone.

Gong Baidie caught a glimpse of her smile out of the corner of her eye.

She smiled radiantly at her phone, while the game program residing on the phone told Gong Baidie that she was looking at the picture of him she had just taken.

He put down the book and scooped a spoonful of her favorite snow orchid fragrance into the incense burner.

...

The third assessment day passed uneventfully.

Wen Ting continued her lazy life, eating, being affectionate, and drawing in her spare time. The only difference was that she started making demands.

"Would it be nice to put a carousel here?"

She pulled Gong Baidie along and gestured towards the hall, "I've always wanted to ride the carousel."

Gong Baidie asked in confusion: "A carousel?"

“It’s like the kind in amusement parks.” Wen Ting pulled out a carousel image from an old game scene for him to refer to. “I never rode it when I was a kid, and I’m too embarrassed to ride it now that I’m older.”

"Can you make it?" she asked expectantly. "It doesn't matter if it's small."

This was the first time she had made a request regarding their home.

The same theme of a carousel appears in "Desktop Lovers," and in another episode produced by Wen Ting, the male lead takes the female lead on a ride.

Gong Baidie briefly recalled the scene from that unit, snapped her fingers, and gray smoke billowed in from all directions, condensing into a white carousel in the hall.

Wen Ting's eyes lit up.

She smiled and kissed Gong Baidie on the cheek. "Together?"

Gong Baidie wasn't interested. "Go ahead, I'll wait for you here."

"Let's go together." Wen Ting held his hand and gently shook it. "When we went on dates to the amusement park before, none of them wanted to go with me. Xiao Bai, kind and understanding Xiao Bai, I want to play with you. Can you be my first playmate? Please—"

Gong Baidie narrowed her eyes.

He held Wen Ting's hand behind his back, said nothing, and walked straight to the carousel.

Wen Ting smiled and pointed to the top, adding, "It would look proper with lights and music."

As she wished, the equipment immediately lit up with dazzling colored lights, and melodious music echoed throughout the hall.

Wen Ting hugged the unicorn's neck and spun around to the music.

So that's how it is... she thought.

That's all there is to it.

She sat for a long time, trying out every single chair.

Seeing her rubbing her bottom as she came down, Gong Baidie took her hand and said, "Why did you suddenly think of playing this?"

“I can’t get out for a while, and there’s no internet access, it’s so boring.” Wen Ting changed the subject, “But then I thought, this might not be such a bad thing.”

"Um?"

“After we go out, we’ll have to go back to work and won’t have any personal time. We can take advantage of this time to go on our honeymoon.” She laughed and grabbed Gong Baidie’s coat. “I should have thought of this sooner. We’ve wasted so much time.”

"How about we ride the roller coaster next?" She looked up, her eyes sparkling. "There's always a line for the roller coasters at the amusement park. I've been there several times but never got to ride one."

"Xiaobai, how about we tear down the other floors and build a roller coaster instead?"

"[What?]" the swallow chirped behind the white butterfly. "[Tear down four floors to build a roller coaster? How much energy would that take!]"

"[I won't allow it.]" It flew to Gong Baidie and warned him, "[You've already killed everyone, and this woman won't even have a tiny bit of negative emotion left for a week. I won't allow you to waste her like this!]"

“Okay,” Gong Baidie said.

"Really?" Wen Ting hugged his neck and happily pressed her cheek against his. "Thank you, darling. I'll cook today."

"So happy?" He thought amusement parks were the most clichéd date, something countless players had complained about as old-fashioned.

“Of course.” Wen Ting rubbed his cheek. “You have no idea how long the lines for roller coasters are. Nobody wants to stand in line with me in the sun for two or three hours.”

"You won't play this or that," Gong Baidie frowned. "Then what are they taking you to the amusement park for?"

"The same old things: rafting, haunted houses, themed restaurants, fireworks shows, and taking photos, taking photos, taking photos." Wen Ting counted on her fingers, "Oh, and the Ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel is also a popular attraction. Someone once paid someone to queue up for the Ferris wheel so we could ride it quickly."

"Why not hire someone to queue for the roller coaster?"

Wen Ting paused, then tucked her hair back and smiled, "Maybe I don't look like the kind of girl who likes roller coasters, so they were afraid of scaring me, and I didn't tell them beforehand."

Gong Baidie lowered her eyelids slightly, leaving behind a nonsensical chuckle: "I understand."

Suddenly, a rumbling sound came from below. Wen Ting looked down from the balcony and was shocked to see that the windows and exterior walls of the floors below the 13th floor had disappeared, leaving only the supporting pillars.

"Let's go." Gong Baidie reached out her hand. "Let's go have some fun."

Wen Ting was momentarily dazed.

When he smiled in a less eerie way, he was elegant and refined, transforming back into that aloof and refined young gentleman.

As she sat on the speeding roller coaster, her cheeks stinging from the fierce wind, she felt a sense of bewilderment.

Aside from her first love, her four subsequent boyfriends were all quite nice. They respected her opinions and asked her where she wanted to go and what she wanted to do.

Why didn't she say anything?

She said she wanted to ride roller coasters and drop towers, that she was afraid of ghosts, and that she didn't want to get her clothes and makeup wet while rafting.

Why didn't she tell them?

Why did she say that to Gong Baidie...?

Because she was going to exhaust his energy.

Because she wanted to kill him.

She wants to get out; she must return to a civilized world with a sound legal system. Her life cannot be confined to this place.

That's it for now.

When Wen Ting got off the roller coaster, she wasn't very scared, but her legs suddenly went weak and her brain couldn't tell which way to go.

Her left and right feet tripped together, and the moment she lost her balance, she was caught.

Gong Baidie supported her, "Feeling nauseous?"

Wen Ting shook her head.

She gripped his forearm, her eyes brimming with tears, and laughed as if drunk, "One more time! Xiaobai, one more time! I want to ski, ice skate, and bungee jump too!"

"Impossible!" the swallow exclaimed angrily, flapping its wings. "Absolutely impossible! Don't forget how much energy you still have!"

"I'll think about it," Gong Baidie said.

"Please," Wen Ting shook his arm, tilting her head back to kiss his chin, "I love you, okay?"

Swallow sneered, "[That's hilarious.]"

Gong Baidie's fingertips caressed the spot where she had been kissed.

"Not enough?" Wen Ting understood his gaze and, through his shirt, gently licked and kissed his neck.

She hugged his waist, looked up at him, and mumbled in the midst of their continuous kisses, "Say yes, Xiaobai. I've never played like this before. Only you will play with me."

"My dear Rapunzel, my beautiful long-haired princess, you are the best, aren't you?"

She was like silk that was constantly being tightened, endlessly entangled and worn.

Gong Baidie's Adam's apple bobbed uncontrollably.

He grabbed Wen Ting's chin, silencing her sweet words, and murmured between their intertwined lips and tongues: "Call me by my original name, Wen Ting."

In the OA system, the name "Gong Feibai" in the third performance evaluation ranking list has quietly changed to "Gong Baidie".

Swallow's eyes revealed grief and indignation.

It saw the woman hook her arm around Gong Baidie's neck, a smile playing on her lips.

“Okay,” she said. “Then the white in ‘Little White’ is the white in ‘White Butterfly’.”

Gong Baidie remained silent for a moment, then sneered.

"Whatever you want." He pressed Wen Ting down onto the roller coaster and loosened her collar. "I'll give you the energy to have fun."

Swallow realized in despair that it was over, the ghost story was completely over, and there would be no more benefits.

-----------------------

Author's note: Yanzi: I'm really fed up with these love-obsessed people. No matter how rich they start, they can turn them into paupers.

-If Wen Ting were a broadcaster-

"Thank you everyone for your help. Windy is just a little bit away from making it to the homepage!"

"Thank you for the Ferrari, second-ranked Faye Wong~ Thank you, Your Highness, love you, sending you love~"

"Oh, Brother Xiaobai is online too? Thank you~ Thank you for the gift, Brother Xiaobai~ Windy wink~"

Wen Ting glanced at the assistant opposite her, who then logged out of Fei Yangsi's account.

Yanzi: Are you stupid?! This is the streamer's trick!

Gong Baidie: She calls me brother.

-

Magical Girl's motto: Floating Bubble Wall! (Floating bubble shield!)

The witch's motto: WW—Windy wink~