Chapter 70, Chapter Seventeen: The Fantasy Mansion
Wen Ting went to check on Chaochao's potatoes and socialized along the way to see if anyone had awakened a skill.
As a result, apart from her, there was no other colleague who manifested the role, nor did anyone possess the skills of the role as Gong Baidie had said.
Without a sample, there is no way to verify Gong Baidie's identity.
Wen Ting had a terrible headache, her mind filled with all sorts of guesses.
At present, "Gong Baidie" has not done anything outrageous, so maintaining the existing relationship is not out of the question.
At nine o'clock sharp, Wen Ting sat at her workstation, her employee badge appearing around her neck.
She has accumulated quite a few sketches over the past few days, and now she doesn't need to come up with any ideas; she can just start drawing.
Gong Baidie stood behind her, refilling her cup when it was less than a third full; and massaging her neck to relax it when she started to twist it.
After that conversation in the morning, he not only failed to learn how to act cute, but also became even more silent.
Wen Ting observed his reaction.
It's now quite clear that he doesn't have any sweet love for her; he's more like playing the role of a subservient servant.
On two occasions, Wen Ting vaguely sensed his gaze.
His gaze was fixed on her, deep and cold. When she turned around, she could only see his impeccable smile.
Who exactly is he? Why does he stay by her side?
This isn't a game; there's no health bar, no affection level, not even any character information. She's missing too much information.
After finishing one drawing, Wen Ting still had plenty of time, so she submitted it to the online assessment. After thinking for a moment, she drew another one.
"Is the mistress preparing for tomorrow?" Gong Baidie reminded her, "But submitting old drawings would violate the rules."
"I know," Wen Ting said softly. "I just wanted to see what would happen if I submitted two papers a day. Would it take the highest score or count both scores?"
Hearing this while rushing to finish her manuscript, Chaochao put on a mask of anguish: "Sis, it's one thing normally, but why are you getting involved in ghost stories? I don't even know if it counts as part of the scoring!" Don't be so ridiculous!
Wen Ting smiled and said, "Anyway, there's nothing else to do."
"I'd rather stand still or die than do any extra work!" Chaochao said indignantly. "Don't you guys think this atmosphere is weird? The boss is gone, there are no wages, yet everyone's working like crazy. I suspect there's no rule or mystery at all; this is just a capitalist conspiracy!"
Gong Baidie glanced at her.
The young girl exuded a carefree air, a result of being pampered.
Wen Ting was never this spoiled and impetuous even when she was younger than her.
DD stopped writing. "If it really is about taking the highest score or adding up the scores, that's definitely not a good thing."
This means that everyone will start drawing endlessly, never daring to stop and catch their breath again.
“This is not something we can control,” Wen Ting said. “Within a safe range, we should try as many things as possible in the early stages. The earlier we start, the greater the advantage.”
While she was talking to Chaochao DD, she also typed a line on the computer:
You don't need to stay with me, go and rest.
Gong Baidie shook her head and refused.
Wen Ting let him go.
At 8 p.m., she submitted two paintings.
Nothing happened.
At least multiple graphs will not trigger a danger.
Wen Ting went to the cafeteria to get her meal and found a large crowd gathered there, with sounds of arguing coming from inside.
"I told you, one bottle of that black rice porridge is missing from that box!"
"Calm down, everyone calm down."
"A box contains 24, all machine-packaged, how could there be less! Do you think we're stupid?!"
"What do you mean? Are you saying we stole it?"
"Yes, I just think you stole it, so what!"
Wen Ting stood on the outside.
As the days went by, food became dwindling, and with no hope of leaving, this wasn't the first time such an argument had taken place.
Suddenly, shouts erupted from the crowd, accompanied by cries of "Stop fighting! Stop hitting me!" and "What are you doing? Talk it out!" and even more hysterical shouts.
Wen Ting took a few steps back, moving further away from the center of the fire.
She glanced at Gong Baidie beside her, but he remained unmoved, a faint smile playing at the corners of his eyes and brows, as if he were watching a farce.
Noticing Wen Ting's gaze, he turned around and whispered to her, "Don't be afraid, I won't let you go hungry."
Wen Ting smiled at him, her mind preoccupied with the director's warehouse.
Gong Baidie has been going to the warehouse to take food for more than a day or two. Whenever the director discovers something is missing, she is the first suspect.
But the director hasn't contacted her in all these days.
On one occasion when they bumped into each other in the cafeteria, he simply smiled and nodded at her.
He probably never checked the inventory.
The riots were quickly quelled, but the atmosphere was not easy to change.
Wen Ting saw the man who had started the fight angrily walk away, while a girl was blocked by the crowd and was unable to get away from him in time.
Enraged, the man shoved her away and yelled, "Get out of my way!"
"Ah!" The force of the slap was not withdrawn, and the girl was pushed down.
The people around her pulled her up and shouted at the man, "What are you doing?! Why did you push me?!"
They condemned him, but no one brought him back to apologize.
This would never happen under normal circumstances; even the chairman wouldn't dare to push a junior employee like that.
Wen Ting felt uneasy.
The worship of power developed faster than she had anticipated.
After asking familiar colleagues about the conflict that had just occurred, at 11:30 p.m., Wen Ting stepped out of the company gate, stood in the lobby on the first floor, and looked at the electronic screen for a while.
Gong Baidie stayed by her side and watched. She didn't say a word for a long time, staring intently at the screen.
"My lady," Gong Baidie asked curiously, "what are you looking at?"
“…92, 93…94, 95.” Wen Ting counted silently, then turned her head and smiled at Gong Baidie, “It’s nothing, let’s go.”
There were three more pictures on the screen than people.
Sure enough, she wasn't the only one who thought of submitting multiple drawings.
But no one in the group mentioned this.
Those who can stay in Green Forest for a long time are no pushovers.
After leaving the company, she teleported back to the lounge and entered her private time.
After taking a shower and going to bed, Wen Ting couldn't fall asleep for a while because too many things were weighing on her mind.
Given the food shortage, should she take action?
Violence is brewing; how can she protect herself?
The ghost story is making no progress. Is there something she's overlooked?
And most importantly: what exactly is around you?
"Can't you sleep, my wife?"
The delicate fragrance of snow orchids wafted over, and Wen Ting turned around to look at Gong Baidie kneeling under the bed.
Of all the problems, Gong Baidie is clearly the biggest breakthrough point.
Wen Ting believed that as long as she could uncover his secrets or gain his support, everything would make great progress.
A little.
She buried the lower half of her face in the blanket and chatted with Gong Baidie, "I don't know if it's because I'm used to it, but I remember the bedding in the rest room had a bit of an odor, but I haven't noticed it these past few days."
Gong Baidie, who was kneeling by the bed doing needlework, smiled when she heard this, "It's probably because it was exposed to the sun during the day."
Wen Ting was surprised.
“I found two sets of bedding in the small warehouse and I wash and change them every day. This room is too small, I'm sorry to make it uncomfortable for my wife.”
Her eyes, peeking out from under the covers, curved into gentle crescents.
She just stared at him like that for a while, then Wen Ting's voice came from the sun-dry quilt, "White Butterfly."
"Um?"
"Marry me after you get out."
The needle tip veered off course and pierced the pad of the index finger.
Dark red blood beads appeared.
Gong Baidie looked up, and Wen Ting smiled at him: "My conditions are much worse than the female lead in the game, but I'm still in the capital. Do you still like gardening? Hmm... I don't like the first floor, how about a high-rise with a large terrace?"
The needle pierced halfway through her fingertip, but Gong Baidie was completely unaware, staring intently at Wen Ting: "My lady, why do you suddenly say that?"
Wen Ting reached out from under the covers and ran her thumb along the butterfly-shaped lines under his eyes.
"You're so wonderful, I have to kidnap you before you've seen the world."
She stayed in bed for a while, and her body smelled of sunshine.
"It would be even better if other people could see you, then I could openly tell my parents, colleagues, and everyone else that I am married."
Gong Baidie suddenly clenched the handkerchief in her hand, hiding the injured index finger in her palm.
The butterfly pattern under his left eye was faintly burning, and his mind was filled only with his own rapid breathing.
Excellent! She actually dared to bring up marriage with him.
Before Gong Baidie could burst into laughter, Wen Ting stopped, her expression shifting to a pitiful yet earnest one: "I didn't mean to force you. I know you haven't seen the outside world yet, so I'll let you see it before you make your choice."
"Don't feel pressured, you can take your time to think it over." She lowered her voice. "If you're planning to reject me, then wait until we leave the ghost story area. Give me some face."
Since he had fabricated the identity of a husband for himself, she would go along with his idea and try her best to be nice to him.
If everything was just her overthinking, and he was just an innocent and harmless Gong Baidie, then marrying him would be no loss at all.
Gong Baidie not only took care of all the housework, but her needlework skills were also outstanding.
Wen Ting looked at his embroidery, flipped through some pictures of animal costumes and Hanfu in her phone's photo album, and probed him during their casual conversation.
A custom-made animal costume costs 50,000 yuan, and Gong Baidie can make it in half a month; she is even more skilled at making Hanfu.
After deducting material costs, Gong Baidie can easily earn tens of thousands of yuan a month. If she puts in a little more effort, she could easily earn hundreds of thousands.
Having worked in the ACG industry for so many years, Wen Ting has a long list of customers who want custom-made clothes.
Once things settle down, we can open a small studio, handling both custom and mass production simultaneously, and then have him develop his skills in hairpin making and doll making.
With his income, plus her own income and savings, she no longer needs to worry about any lease termination plans, and she can buy a house in the capital in less than two years.
There's nothing wrong with marrying him.
The premise is that he is the real Gong Baidie, the Gong Baidie that she personally created from head to toe.
“Okay,” she smiled at him, “I’m going to sleep now. Remember to consider it.”
She turned her back and buried herself in the fluffy, fragrant blankets.
After a long while, the breathing in the room became shallow, and the man under the bed finally made a move.
He slowly, bit by bit, stood up from the ground, his gaze cold and indifferent as he looked down at Wen Ting on the bed.
In a daze, the body split in two.
Gong Baidie, with her long hair tied up with a hairpin, and Gong Feibai, dressed in a suit, stood side by side.
The one on the left said, "You've misunderstood her."
The man on the right put his hands in his suit pockets: "What's the misunderstanding?"
"She was so grateful for just airing out a quilt. She is definitely not a greedy and ungrateful person. There must be some misunderstanding. Perhaps her family member was seriously ill and urgently needed money to save his life; or perhaps Wanlu forced her to leave. You have almost no memory of what happened before you awakened, so how can you arbitrarily sentence her to death?"
"Hehehe..." Gong Feibai tilted his head and sneered, "Gong Baidie, how can you be so shameless? You've already come up with so many reasons for her based on what she said."
No sword was held to his neck anymore.
The long-haired beauty turned her head, her dark eyes fixed on him.
Their eyes met, and after a long while, a sly smile appeared on that elegant and noble face.
"Do you really think I'm a second, objectively existing person?" He grinned, exposing the one-man show he had been putting on.
Gong Feibai's face immediately darkened, and he stared back at him expressionlessly.
"Haha, hahahahaha..." With her black hair swaying, Gong Baidie cupped her flushed face and looked at Wen Ting on the bed, laughing incessantly. "Did you hear that? Did you hear that? Hehehe, she proposed to me! We're getting married! I was born to marry her... Uh ah."
The sickly laughter stopped abruptly, and Gong Baidie suddenly clutched her stomach and bent over.
"It hurts...it hurts so much, my stomach hurts so much..." His face was pale, and large beads of cold sweat poured down his face.
Gong Feibai coldly glanced at him, watching him fall to the ground, his face contorted in pain, groaning incessantly.
He struggled and rolled around, clutching his stomach, then suddenly opened his arms, smiling and tilting his head to comb his hair: "Just kidding, I don't have a child yet."
His slender white fingers ran through his cascading hair as he looked up, pleadingly ordering Gong Feibai, "Get out! Get out! I want to get married, I want to have a baby!"
He straightened his hair, crawled towards the bed, his eyes burning as he stared at the woman on it. He wagged his tail impatiently, his whole body oozing with a sticky desire. "So empty... my womb is so empty... my chest is so full, ah, my wife, Wen Ting... I'm ready, Bai Die is going to bear children for you..."
A pair of black leather shoes suddenly stepped on his head, crushing his beautiful face, as lovely as a peach blossom, heavily into the ground.
Gong Feibai looked at the long-haired, long-robed, groveling scoundrel with disgust, then stomped on him, crushing him into a cloud of black smoke.
The dissipated black smoke returned to his body, and the room returned to silence, but his expression became even more unpleasant.
"Do you really believe I am a second, objectively existing person?"
The voice appeared in his mind, mocking and sarcastic.
Gong Baidie closed her eyes, and in the darkness, Wen Ting's hypocritical smile reappeared:
"You are different"
"Don't worry, White Butterfly... I'm willing to take you with me and I won't abandon you."
He could be faintly seen twitching in his lower abdomen, his abdominal muscles rising and falling rhythmically.
...
Wen Ting was unusually not dreaming.
She always had many dreams after entering the world of ghost stories. Although she couldn't remember the content of her dreams, she was certain that she didn't dream last night and had a good night's sleep.
She had slept well, but found that Gong Baidie was unusually quiet today.
"What happened?" Wen Ting asked.
Gong Baidie tilted her head, "Why does my wife ask that?"
“You seem to have something on your mind.” Wen Ting turned around to face him. “Are you too tired from doing housework? It’s okay, Bai Die. We can clean it every three to five days. It’s not like it’s our own house anyway.”
Just as Gong Baidie was about to deny it, she saw her smile almost slyly, "Well, I'll add two more—"
"What?"
"I will equip my home with automated cleaning equipment and hire a cleaning lady to come to my house every day."
Gong Baidie was stunned for a moment.
She gently pinched his fingertips and pleaded in a voice even softer than yesterday, "Please, let's get married, okay?"
Gong Baidie withdrew her fingers. "My lady, I am your husband."
"But I always feel that you were forced into this situation by the system."
“How could my wife think that way?” Gong Baidie said, “If I didn’t want to, I wouldn’t have come out to see my wife.”
Wen Ting raised her eyebrows; this was just a polite remark.
She wasn't in a hurry, and didn't expect to win the heart of an unknown person with just one marriage proposal.
After finishing the breakfast she had taken from the director's office, Wen Ting prepared to go to her office.
Remembering today's date, Gong Baidie subconsciously raised her hand, but quietly lowered it again after Wen Ting stepped out the door.
At 9:00 AM sharp, my employee ID card appeared, and a new message popped up in the OA system.
Sitting in her seat, Chaochao exclaimed, "Isn't today Sunday, a day off?"
Wen Ting opened the OA system, expecting it to be the same task again, but this time it was different.
The title was short, yet it sent a chill down everyone's spine.
Mid-February Performance Ranking
Those death pictures really do count towards the score!
Wen Ting immediately clicked on it.
"Based on the completion status of OA tasks from February 7th to February 15th, the rankings are now published as follows:"
A long list of names appeared, with several veteran chiefs at the top. Wen Ting found her own name; out of 92 people, she was number 6.
It was a bit beyond her expectations, considering there were quite a few experts on the scene and action sides.
In the first round, everyone might not have gotten into the zone yet.
Besides herself, Wen Ting also followed two other group members.
Chaochao ranked 82nd and DD ranked 34th, which was about what she had predicted. DD's ranking was even higher than she had expected.
Shockingly, the new director's ranking was 92.
Wen Ting was prepared for him to be number one, but she didn't expect to be number one from the bottom.
On the leaderboard, she saw the director's full name for the first time: Gong Feibai.
Gong Feibai
Wen Ting glanced at Gong Baidie behind her out of the corner of her eye.
What also caught her attention was the last sentence:
"Every time there is an assessment, all employees except the top five will be at risk of leaving the company. All employees are urged to take the OA tasks seriously."
"It's pretty much what we predicted," DD said. "The only question is how it will choose who to 'leave'."
"Sister, look!" Chaochao suddenly exclaimed, holding up the employee handbook. "There's an extra line of text!"
"Let me see it." Wen Ting immediately took it.
Originally, there were five code of conduct, but now a sixth one has appeared!
"Sixth, the company's assessment days are the 1st and 16th of each month. No leave is allowed on assessment days. Except for the top five employees, any employee who is absent on the assessment day will be considered to have resigned."
"So, all I have to do is not step out the door before six o'clock in the evening, right?" Chaochao said dismissively. "What kind of threat is that? You guys risked your lives for this stupid exam paper."
DD studied it carefully. "The rules give special treatment to the top five. In any case, it's a bit of a pity that Sister Windy came in sixth place this time."
He had barely finished speaking when a horrifying scream came from outside the door.
DD peered out through the glass door.
The two men saw his eyes suddenly widen, as if he had seen something extremely terrifying, and he quickly retreated.
The boy with naturally curly hair turned his head and moved his lips towards Wen Ting and Chaochao in the office, before finally finding his voice.
"Run!" He grabbed the katana he'd gotten from the action team and growled at them, "Run!"
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The author's note: The idea of washing underwear with a cold face began to sprout.
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