Chapter 111 Colleague Relationships
Wen Chu dreamed that she was tied to a stove and roasted, and no matter how hard she tried to break free, she couldn't get away, so she woke up from the heat.
The curtains in the lounge were drawn, letting in only a little light; the whole room was still dim. She quickly found the source of warmth: the person holding her tightly from behind.
The man had obviously snuggled up to her again after she fell asleep, and she was still resting her head on his arm, which caused her neck and back to ache.
I don't know when I fell asleep last night.
Wen Chu reached under her pillow for her phone and glanced at it. It was already 7:30 in the morning. She felt like she had been in a coma.
Just as she was about to get up, the hand that was on her waist suddenly moved up and grabbed her hand, then pinned her phone back onto the bed and pulled her closer to him.
"Sleep a little longer," the person behind me said.
Wen Chu moved his arm away and sat up, then got out of bed.
Lu Ming also sat up. He clearly didn't look like he had just woken up, and he stared at her for an unknown amount of time.
Wen Chu opened the door to leave, but Lu Ming quickly grabbed her, a hint of expectation in his eyes: "What...what is our relationship now?"
Without thinking, Wen Chu replied, "We're colleagues."
Lu Ming's eyes were filled with disbelief.
"What's wrong? Not satisfied? Oh, or do you want a superior-subordinate relationship? That's fine too." Wen Chu nodded slightly to him and said respectfully, "Good morning, Mr. Lu. I need to wash up and start work now."
Lu Ming just wanted to ask: "Why..."
"What do you mean, why?" Wen Chu broke free from his hand. "Quickly call someone to open the door."
She went outside, but came back a moment later and reminded him, "You stay here for a while, and don't let anyone see you. If they do, I won't let you off the hook."
Lu Ming: "..."
The door was opened by the person who had called her up, and Wen Chu also received a notification that the system task was completed, giving her an S-level item, the Misfortune Card. If used on herself, everyone who had ill intentions towards her would suffer misfortune for no reason. Wen Chu thought it was quite practical.
She wanted to pretend that nothing had happened last night, but obviously the other party didn't want to grant her wish. All morning, three words kept swirling around Wen Chu's head—why? It was like Sun Wukong being chanted the Tightening-Headband Mantra by Tang Sanzang.
Whatever she said to Lu Ming, he would always end with a question: "Why?" Each question contained deep incomprehension and protest.
Wen Chu was getting a terrible headache from the noise, but she still refused to give a positive response. She even secretly left work early and went home.
She finished her meal, took a shower, and was getting ready for bed when there was a knock on the door. A man, dressed neatly, stood at her door. As soon as she opened the door, he asked in a low voice, "Why?"
Wen Chu finally snapped, "Can you please stop asking?! Are you a broken record?!"
"Then what were we like last night?"
Did anything happen between us last night?
Lu Ming opened his mouth but was speechless. They had kissed, hugged, and almost gone all the way, but in the woman's words, it was as if nothing had happened.
He suffered a severe heart attack.
"I thought...we..."
"Don't think that's true. Go back to sleep." Wen Chu confronted him, "Right now, the most important thing is this project. Talking about other things will affect the progress. I won't consider anything until all the existing problems with the model are resolved. We can only be partners, colleagues, or superiors and subordinates."
Lu Ming expressed deep confusion: "...What's the impact?"
"I don't have the time or the inclination to date right now; I just want to finish this project as soon as possible."
Lu Ming's face was full of disappointment.
Seeing this, Wen Chu chuckled and leaned closer to him, saying gloatingly, "Do you regret your haughtiness last night?"
Lu Ming lowered his eyelids to look at her lips, and with a bewitching gaze, he lowered his head to kiss her. Wen Chu immediately stepped back to avoid him, leaving him empty-handed.
A mixture of grievance and regret flashed across the man's eyes. He answered sincerely, "A little."
"That's no use now." Wen Chu turned around and waved to him, intending to close the door, but was stopped by someone reaching out.
She tilted her head slightly: "What else do you want to do?"
"Are you still angry with me now?"
Wen Chu was silent for a moment, then reached out and carefully pried off the person's hand that was blocking the door, throwing it out. Before closing the door, she said, "Guess."
Back in the bedroom, Wen Chu tossed and turned in bed a few times, but she was wide awake.
Her mind was racing. She stared at the ceiling for a while, then closed her eyes and nervously checked her favorability rating.
88%.
Wen Chu felt a clench in her chest. It had only been less than a month, how could she have risen so much? Logically, she should have risen even more as time went on.
She thought that her cold treatment of him would lower his favorability towards her.
Could it be from last night...?
Wen Chu covered her head with the blanket. The air inside was thick and still, and she could hear her own heart pounding. She didn't know why her heart was beating so unusually.
System: "Attention: You have only one chance to check the male lead's affection level left! Please use it with caution!"
-
To solve the robot's emotional memory problem as Wen Chuyi envisioned, they needed to collect and synthesize data, assess costs, find partners to support data storage, redesign and optimize the memory algorithm, prevent the robot from inexplicably reverting to its initial settings due to forgetting disasters, and then repeatedly test, evaluate, and modify it. Finally, they combined this with psychological insights into human emotional needs to create the most human-like long-term dialogue mode.
The task was demanding and involved areas that Wen Chu was not familiar with. In order to maintain her god-like image in front of everyone, she put in 200% enthusiasm.
There were many problems, and she and Lu Ming, along with a group of employees, stayed up many nights.
However, Lu Ming showed great humanistic care, buying milk tea, snacks, desserts, and treating employees to meals from time to time, and also paying overtime pay, making everyone feel embarrassed to complain. Although it's hard to say what his real intentions were.
The rule in the original employee handbook that eating was not allowed during work hours was inexplicably invalidated after Wen Chu returned.
Once Wen Chuyi started working, her eating habits became irregular.
Despite this intensive feeding regimen, she gained three pounds. Looking at her increased weight on the scale, she wondered, "Can I really not take all this extra weight home?"
In contrast, Lu Ming always dressed impeccably, wearing a variety of suits and meticulously styled hair. Sometimes he sported a mature look, and other times he wore youthful polo shirts. As a result, some of the female employees who were obsessed with his appearance would eagerly await Lu Ming's arrival every morning to see what he would be wearing.
Behind their backs, this man would also play a little trick of feigning indifference, which was only visible to Wen Chu.
Sometimes she would lightly brush against Wen Chu's hand while taking a document and then immediately pull it back; sometimes she would unintentionally unbutton the top two buttons of her shirt to reveal her collarbone; sometimes she would add a decorative button to make her suit look sexier; and sometimes she would deliberately let her hair down to appear well-behaved, innocent, and harmless.
Just as Wen Chu couldn't resist taking the bait and was about to reach out and take advantage of him, the man gave her a restrained look, as if to say, "I'm seriously talking to you about work, what are you thinking about?"
Wen Chu had to admit that at times, she felt a little itchy inside, but she had to endure it.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, when everyone was exhausted and yawning, they chatted: "The boss has been showing off like a peacock lately, it's blinding me."
"There's really no difference, aren't they both courtship?"
"What snacks did you buy today?"
"Chocolate, cookies, jelly."
"If I keep eating like this, I'll be overweight."
"But I didn't see you take less. It wasn't mainly for us to buy anyway."
"That won't do. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The director can't possibly eat that much. I'll help her."
An employee came in from outside, carrying a bunch of coffees: "Afternoon tea is here today."
"Yay!" The girl who had just complained about being overweight instantly appeared next to him.
Wen Chu was chatting with the technicians when the coffee seller walked up to her, placed a cup of coffee next to her, and said with a smile, "Director, this is yours."
Wen Chu nodded and said thank you. After working for a while, she picked up her coffee, took a sip, and found it strangely delicious, but before she could think about it further, she continued working.
After she had unknowingly drunk half of her coffee, she heard the people next to her talking about today's coffee selection. Wen Chu stopped and looked at the coffee cup next to her without a label, as if she had realized something.
She blinked, picked up the coffee cup with a mixture of doubt and disbelief, took another sip, and was immediately shocked.
Why does this coffee taste so much like the coffee she makes in real life?
When she was bored, she studied coffee grinding and ingredients, and had her own unique but niche method of making coffee. She can say with certainty that it is quite different from what is available on the market. How did it end up here?
The system is so meticulous that it even copied this? It can't be this attentive to her, can it? Isn't she a sinner being punished?
She immediately leaned over and called to the person who had just bought the coffee: "Xiao Chen, did you make this coffee separately?"
Xiao Chen smiled and said, "I didn't mean to. Secretary Luo just gave it to me. It's hard to say who made it."
Upon hearing this, everyone exclaimed "Oh!" again.
Wen Chu smiled calmly and said, "Stop joking around."
She opened her phone, thought for a moment, and sent a text message: "Did you make the coffee?"
Lu Ming: [Hmm. How is it?]
Wen Chu's eyelids twitched, and she asked again, "What's the recipe?"
Lu Ming: [I won't tell you. Just tell me if you want some.]
Wen Chu suddenly felt indignant that her idea had been beaten to it or plagiarized, and that the other party was even smug about it.
But she never did that when she came here.
She didn't believe that the two of them could be so in sync that they even made coffee in the same way.
It must have come from reality.
In reality, only one colleague who was on good terms with her and also interested in coffee knew her recipe, and they had talked about it when they had nothing to do.
Surely the system couldn't have implanted her memories into Lu Ming's head just to make him please her and increase his favorability?
She didn't think she had that kind of status within the system.
So she kept asking him how to make the coffee, but Lu Ming kept her in suspense and insisted that it was just his own coffee-drinking habit. She got so angry that she kicked him and stopped asking, but she still had some doubts whenever she thought about it.
For future research and development, a more sensitive sensor is needed. After conducting research, the product department surprisingly pointed to Hsieh Rui as the best product for evaluation.
Wen Chu could hardly forget the colorful expression on Lu Ming's face when he saw the Xie Rui logo on the PowerPoint presentation. And after their discussion, they indeed felt it was very suitable.
Lu Ming remained silent with a dark expression, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
Lu Ming was unaware of her relationship with Qi Siyan and still considered Qi Siyan a potential threat. So, before Wen Chu could even suggest talking to Qi Siyan, Lu Ming volunteered to do it himself.
How could Wen Chu possibly let him negotiate in person? The purpose of the negotiation was to lower the price as much as possible and promote long-term cooperation. If Lu Ming were to negotiate, wouldn't the negotiations fall apart in less than twenty minutes?
So, under the pretense of wanting to "let's see" some more, she secretly arranged to meet Qi Siyan first.
The other party's attitude towards her was as friendly and gentle as ever, and his conversation was humorous. But it was clear that this time, it was more because of interests and her background. The burning, restrained look in his eyes disappeared. Wen Chu felt much more at ease and comfortable, and she also understood Qi Siyan's true personality better.
The other party was a seemingly gentle and harmless man with gentlemanly manners, but he was also very shrewd and self-interested. However, this was a common trait among people born into wealthy families, and there was nothing wrong with it.
They still got along very well. Over the course of an afternoon, they talked about many topics. Wen Chu listed out all the benefits of the cooperation between the two parties and even used the negotiation tips that Lu Ming had taught her in real life. In the end, she secured the deal at the lowest price.
But she didn't know if it was Luo Wen who betrayed her, because as soon as she went out, she saw Lu Ming standing not far away with his eyes blazing and looking like he had come to catch her cheating.
She shivered from the cold air emanating from the person and instinctively tried to slip away, but was pulled back and shoved into the car. The car doors were locked, and the other person seemed determined not to leave until they gave her an explanation.
Wen Chu didn't take it seriously at first, as this person had been jealous for a long time. However, she noticed that the other person's body was stiff and trembling uncontrollably due to excessive excitement, and his breathing was very rapid, as if he was experiencing symptoms of respiratory alkali poisoning. Only then did she realize the seriousness of the situation.
She noticed that Lu Ming seemed to be overly anxious.
Wen Chu panicked and could only hug him to calm him down before going to the hospital. Lu Ming held her tightly, his voice hoarse: "How could you lie to me because of him? Why did you meet with him in private? Do you still have feelings for him? I told you he's not a good person, why didn't you believe me? You and he talked all afternoon... What did you talk about? You never talked to me for this long. What do you see in him? Have you been meeting with him in private behind my back?"
Lu Ming didn't tell anyone that he had a dream in which Qi Siyan harbored evil intentions towards him and almost did something bad to him. The dream was so realistic that it made his heart clench with anger, and he almost ground his teeth to powder. He wished he could beat the man up in real life.
"I just wanted to resolve the cooperation issue, and I was afraid that if you talked, it would fall apart." Wen Chu didn't dare to use these words to provoke the other party anymore. The man refused to go to the hospital and just kept holding her. Wen Chu comforted him for a long time before Lu Ming's cold and stiff limbs gradually regained feeling.
Afterwards, Wen Chu, still feeling uneasy, asked Aunt Sun about Lu Ming's situation over the past year.
Lifeless and taciturn, yet even a single unintentional glance from him could send chills down one's spine.
They were all too afraid to chat with him casually, let alone ask him about his affairs. Aunt Sun only noticed that there seemed to be other bottles of medicine in the drawer when she was helping someone get stomach medicine.
Lu Ming seems to still be taking some kind of medication.
Wen Chu had been interacting with people much more often, but she never saw Lu Ming taking any medication. Most of the time, he was the same as before. She had no idea what kind of negative emotions Lu Ming was being attacked by behind her back.
Since the other party hadn't brought these things up with her, Wen Chu didn't ask any further questions and could only silently keep an eye on his situation.
The so-called year passed in the blink of an eye for her, like taking a long nap. She originally thought Lu Ming was the same, but now it seems that only her time was accelerated, while everyone else, including Lu Ming, truly endured a long and difficult year.
The mere thought of it was suffocating for her, let alone the person actually experiencing it. After all, she had personally witnessed the pain of losing a loved one.
Thinking this way, she found it difficult to gauge who had suffered more between her and Lu Ming.
The system did act inhumanely many times, but at least she knew the truth of the matter from beginning to end, leaving Lu Ming with a long, confusing, self-blaming, bewildering, and hopeless experience.
Just like... he and she, they were both people who needed to be punished.
She didn't understand the necessity of the system doing this, since the thoughts and states of everyone here except her were controllable. But it could also be for energy conservation, or perhaps the emotions that evolved this way were more genuine and more moving to her.
If it is the latter, then the system has indeed achieved its purpose.
In the days that followed, the system would occasionally release some small side quests, but the style gradually went astray. For example, you could braid Lu Ming's hair, successfully pretend to be a ghost and scare people, make someone's heart rate exceed 120 for one minute, tell a lame joke to make someone laugh, make someone cry once, induce someone to say funny lines, and so on. The corresponding rewards were all very useless A and B grade items, such as sleep aid cards, appetite improvement cards, and work-time drowsiness elimination cards... The dressing room was also upgraded, and you could put on makeup with one click.
It was when she was trying to scare people by pretending to be a ghost in the middle of the night that she saw Lu Ming's notebook.
Wen Chu assumed that Lu Ming had a healthy sleep schedule and would definitely be asleep by the early morning, so she made an excuse to stay at his house that night. She planned to sneak into his bedside in the dark, jump up, and scare him, which was sure to work. But she didn't expect that when she opened the door, she would awkwardly stare at the man sitting on the bed with a pen in his hand.
When asked what she wanted, Wen Chu could only make up a story that she couldn't sleep and wanted to hear him tell ghost stories.
She thought she was a genius. She could tell ghost stories with the lights off, and when people were fully immersed in the story and reached the scariest part, she could scream or suddenly jump up to scare them, and still complete the task.
But before that, she noticed the notebook in Lu Ming's hand; he was recording his memories of the day. Lu Ming didn't try to hide it; she said she wanted to see it, so he showed it to her.
Wen Chu originally wanted to check if Lu Ming had really recovered all his previous memories, but the more she turned the pages, the more silent he became.
During the time she was in a coma, Lu Ming's diary was filled with records of her treatment process, her diet and daily life, the doctors he found, and the treatment plans he used.
A021, October 29.
I'm preparing to try electrotherapy.
A021, November 3.
It failed. Her eyeballs twitched, but the doctor said it was a natural reaction.
...
A021, December 15th.
Spinal cord stimulation, 50 Hz, 30 min. Blood pressure rose slightly at the end of the night, but there was still no sign of waking up.
...
January 4, 2022.
Brain stimulation for one hour yielded no response.
...
May 16, 2022.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy was attempted, with oxygen inhalation at 1.5 ATA for 60 minutes while her cell phone ringtone was played. Her heart rate increased by 5 beats per minute, but there was no external response.
...
June 21, 2022.
One tablet of amantadine and one intravenous drip of cytidine diphosphate choline to promote brain metabolism. 30 minutes of midday sunlight plus 0.5 mg of melatonin to regulate circadian rhythm. Her skin is paler; she needs more sun exposure.
...
July 11, 2022.
I'm not sure if I'm seeing things, but her brow seemed to furrow slightly. We've scheduled another appointment with a specialist tomorrow; hopefully, it will be more effective.
...
These seemingly normal written records occasionally feature pages filled with her name. At first, they are normal, but they gradually become messy and chaotic, with dense handwriting crammed together on the page, which looks shocking. It makes one wonder what state the person who wrote these words was in, as if they had been on the verge of collapse countless times and could only silently vent their pain by writing her name.
These words echoed in Wen Chu's heart for a long time, and she could not calm down for a long time.
Lu Ming awkwardly closed the notebook, stopping her from reading further. He casually glossed over that dark period, but then asked her if the dreams he had recorded had actually happened.
Wen Chu naturally said no without hesitation.
After she deliberately changed the subject, they skipped that part again, and Lu Ming began to tell her ghost stories.
Wen Chu listened attentively, intending to seize an opportunity, but she didn't expect this guy to be so ruthless. He had so many terrifying ghost stories in his mind. Wen Chu listened for half of the story but couldn't find a chance to scare him. She had already shrunk into the quilt because of the chill down her back. She covered her ears and asked him to stop talking, but he seemed to get more excited. He forcibly took her hand off her ear and continued to tell her vivid stories, making many frightening gestures.
When he recounted how the hospital nurses searched the morgue for his severed hand, Lu Ming, his expression unreadable, tucked the blanket around her even more, his voice still low: "No matter how hard the nurses searched, they couldn't find where her hand had fallen. Suddenly, her bloodshot eyes lit up, and she looked towards a corpse on the morgue bed in the corner. She finally knew where her hand was..."
Wen Chu tensed up, closed her eyes, and pursed her lips, waiting for an answer.
"So...her hand was here."
Despite being wrapped safely in the blanket, Wen Chu was suddenly grabbed by a large hand. She cried out in surprise and instinctively burrowed into the man's arms.
Lu Ming took the opportunity to hug her and chuckled softly as he looked down.
Wen Chu's heart stopped. After regaining her senses, she punched Lu Ming hard in the back twice in anger: "Lu Ming, are you sick?! Get lost!"
"I don't really understand why you, with such a weak heart, would come all the way here in the middle of the night to listen to my ghost stories," Lu Ming said without a hint of shame, and then hugged me tightly and wouldn't let go.
Wen Chu sat in someone's lap for a while to recover. After listening to several chilling stories, she felt a cold sweat running down her back and dared not move, afraid of being haunted by the ghost child in the hospital or the corpse on the ceiling.
Lu Ming patted her back like he was comforting a child, trying to soothe her.
Wen Chu had planned to rest for a while before going downstairs, but unexpectedly, she fell asleep while being patted on the back.
They slept together in each other's arms that night.
When Wen Chu woke up the next day, she was furious and cursed the man for being so scheming.
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