Chapter 108: Dimension 15

The door to the office remained firmly shut.

The clock on the wall ticked steadily onward, while the brilliant sunlight outside gradually shifted to a dim, reddish-gold hue.

Yu Bai chatted with Yu Siming for a while, but the latter kept receiving work calls and had to step aside with profuse apologies to deal with them.

Yu Bai asked the young woman at reception to bring some snacks and tea. After thanking her, he settled in alone to wait in another meeting room.

He curled up on the comfortable sofa and first gave a concise report in the four-person group chat that Qiao Jinmei had started, summarizing the new discoveries so far—like the near miss with the Prince and the speculation about mode switching.

Qiao Jinmei was the first to reply.

[!! Really?! There’s really an alien prince lurking among humans?! Little Bai, you’re amazing!]

[I’m out on the streets investigating! I’ve heard a ton of random gossip, not sure if it’ll help you guys, but I’ve noted it all down anyway!]

[Oh yeah! If you hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t have thought there was anything weird about the animation effects vanishing. It just felt normal all along… Man, this brainwashing is so subtle and insidious. Scary stuff!]

Amid the Boss Lady’s rapid-fire voice messages, Li Nanxiao’s text popped up.

[The animation mode disappeared, and I sensed it. I wanted to tell you, but I was swamped and couldn’t get away.]

[Good thing people’s emotions aren’t on display anymore. All the arguments and chaos should die down, and everyone’s breathing a sigh of relief.]

[As for the Prince issue, let’s talk in person. I’ll come as soon as I’m done. Meet at the bun shop?]

Yu Bai waited a moment, then glanced up at the silent office. His fingers danced lightly across the screen.

[Sure. We’ve got a bit more to handle here, then we’ll head over.]

New messages crisscrossed in the group chat, but the account with the default avatar and nickname stayed silent.

Still busy, so no time to check messages, huh?

It hadn’t even been a full afternoon since entering this blended timespace, and they’d already made major progress. Yu Bai wasn’t in any rush. He waited patiently.

After exchanging intel with his companions, he scrolled through the day’s news on his phone but found nothing useful. He also chatted a bit with Yan Jing, the local from this timespace.

When the switch to animation mode happened today, Yan Jing had been giving a boxing lesson to a student with an infuriating temper. The exasperation he’d been hiding instantly turned into cartoonish black lines of disdain sprouting from his forehead.

That sparked a full-blown argument starting with, “What the hell is that supposed to mean?!” “Huh? I didn’t mean anything!” “You look down on me, don’t you? It’s written all over your face!”

The hot-tempered student flew into a rage and threw a punch.

Yan Jing dodged it beautifully and instinctively countered with one of his own.

From there, the two went at it back and forth, turning the lesson into a real spar.

As a gym coach who was built like a tank with ferocious muscles and had taken second place in a provincial sanda tournament, Yan Jing naturally won without breaking a sweat.

At the same time, he earned a blistering tongue-lashing from the gym manager and a roared order—delivered right in front of the bruised and battered student—”Get the hell home and reflect for a week!”

[So, it was a total win-win!!]

[I got a week off, hehe! Little Bai, you’ve been busy writing articles these past couple days. Wanna go out and have some fun?]

Yu Bai looked at the gleeful message and chuckled softly, but he didn’t agree right away.

[Not sure yet. I’ll let you know later.]

In the past, he would have dragged Yan Jing out without hesitation, explained everything from start to finish, and roped him into the search for the Prince.

But now, an unexpected variable had cropped up.

During that trip to the Go Timeline, he’d learned that Yan Jing seemed to be quite afraid of Xie Wufang.

And Xie Wufang appeared to have some aversion to this frequently goofy human.

In short, they didn’t care for each other?

Yu Bai wasn’t clear on the exact reason and occasionally puzzled over it.

This awkward feeling of being stuck in the middle, unsure what to do…

For Yu Bai, who had long regarded Yan Jing as his one true friend, it was a novel experience.

He had zero experience handling something like this.

As Yu Bai mulled it over silently in his mind, he glanced up again at the office.

Shadows shifted vaguely behind the frosted glass, like a landscape shrouded in mist.

Speaking of which, what was Xie Wufang talking about with Sister Hong?

They’d been in there so long.

Had the lesson already started?

A moment later, Yu Bai set his phone aside, his thoughts wandering. He handed the tissue box to the young man beside him—whose eyes were still red and puffy—and offered another awkward consolation.

“…My condolences.”

Yu Bai was comforting the Prince’s “late” assistant.

The assistant had returned from crying his eyes out in the bathroom. Catching sight of Yu Bai triggered fresh memories of the elevator ordeal, and tears gushed out anew.

“How could it be so sudden? I kept telling him not to be so reckless!”

It was sudden, all right.

…So you really don’t find it illogical that the guy you just survived a stuck elevator with turned around and died in the bathroom?!

“Why eat in the bathroom of all places? Couldn’t he hold out until after his shower? Waaah, I didn’t even get to say goodbye—”

Yu Bai grumbled inwardly until he heard that grief-stricken accusation. For an instant, he fell silent.

Then he sighed softly and comforted the man again. “Don’t be too sad. I’m sure he’ll have a happy next life.”

It wasn’t just consolation—it was the plain truth.

The Prince was probably off causing mischief somewhere else already.

Yu Bai figured that after one of the Prince’s identities “exited stage left,” the reactions from those around him depended on how long they’d known him and how close they’d been.

The two receptionists downstairs, who’d only met the Prince a handful of times, merely expressed some regret.

Xiao Ming the agent was sad, of course, but he’d spent less time with the Prince than the assistant had, so he wasn’t as devastated.

Even the assistant, crying his heart out now, would gradually forget the Prince ever existed after some time passed.

As if the man had never been there at all.

That was the consistent rule in this anime world.

The assistant wiped his face with a tissue, his voice choked as he thanked Yu Bai. “Th-thank you. Sorry, I couldn’t keep my emotions in check.”

Yu Bai kindly looked away. “It’s fine. I understand.”

Touched, the assistant hesitated, then ventured cautiously, “Um, Mr. Yu…”

Yu Bai responded, “Yeah?”

“Please, you and Mr. Xie—don’t eat bread in the bathroom! It really can choke you if it expands!!”

The warning came straight from the heart.

“…”

Yu Bai’s expression twisted in a very peculiar way, bouncing between speechlessness and laughter.

Finally, he managed a calm reply. “We won’t.”

Enough already—he never wanted to hear about this ridiculous cause of death again!

As Yu Bai fought to keep his mouth from twitching upward, he caught the long-awaited movement in his peripheral vision.

Sister Hong, beaming with smiles, pulled open the office door and glanced back at the young man behind her.

Through the somewhat noisy air, Yu Bai saw her lips moving as she said something, extending her hand toward Xie Wufang.

It was clearly the standard farewell gesture: a handshake.

Seeing this, alarm bells blared in Yu Bai’s head. Without a second thought, he shot to his feet and strode over, his interruption arriving before he did.

“—Hold on!”

No casual handshakes!

Xie Wufang’s icy body temperature would terrify any ordinary person whose worldview hadn’t been updated yet.

The two in the office turned toward the voice.

Sister Hong’s outstretched hand hung in midair. Seeing the inexplicable tension on Yu Bai’s face, she inexplicably curved her lips and said warmly, “Has Mr. Yu been waiting long? Sorry about that. This meeting ran longer than expected.”

Only after blurting it out did Yu Bai realize how rude it sounded. Embarrassed, he scrambled for an excuse. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your chat. I just suddenly remembered something urgent I needed to discuss with him…”

As he explained, he couldn’t help glancing at Xie Wufang’s hand.

The taller man was looking down at him.

Those beautiful eyes swept over Yu Bai’s anxious expression and the point where his gaze had landed.

A flicker passed through the serene depths of his eyes, rippling into something thoughtful.

His slender, jade-like fingers remained at his side, showing no intention of reciprocating the handshake.

Nor did he buy the excuse and ask what the urgent matter was.

Xie Wufang said softly, “I know.”

Then he turned back to the woman and bid her a polite farewell. “Thank you for today.”

Yu Bai blinked, caught off guard.

Sister Hong didn’t press. She withdrew her hand without a fuss, smiling as she said, “Thank you. Someone will contact you later to set up the exact shooting time.”

“Mr. Yu has some urgent business, so I won’t hold you up any longer. Leave Old Yu to me.” Jiang Peihong raised an eyebrow. “By the way, I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m Jiang Peihong.”

Finally, she waved to the two of them, her eyes sparkling with mirth. “It was great meeting you both today. I hope we can have a pleasant collaboration. I’m really looking forward to seeing you next time. Bye-bye.”

Even after they had left the company, Yu Bai still hadn’t fully processed what had happened.

A scheduled shoot? A pleasant collaboration…?

Of course, he knew his agent Xiao Ming was dead set on getting both of them into show business.

But hadn’t Xie Wufang said he had no interest in acting?

Curious, Yu Bai asked, “What are you going to shoot?”

“An ad,” Xie Wufang replied.

…Huh?

Filming a commercial wasn’t exactly the same as becoming an actor.

Still, why had Xie Wufang suddenly agreed to do an ad?

From what Yu Bai knew of him, this definitely hadn’t been his own idea.

It must have been Jiang Peihong’s invitation.

With that thought in mind, Yu Bai’s curiosity deepened, and he blurted out, “Are you interested in shooting ads?”

“No.”

Xie Wufang answered promptly. The gray-blue surface of his eyes reflected the bright gaze of the man beside him. He paused for a moment before adding, “It’s an exchange.”

The response caught Yu Bai off guard.

Without thinking, he pressed, “What kind of exchange?”

But this time, unlike his usual straightforward replies, Xie Wufang didn’t answer right away. His deep gaze stirred with complex emotions that no one else could decipher, flowing silently within.

The air hung in unusual silence for a moment. Yu Bai felt a flicker of surprise and hesitated before saying, “I was just asking casually. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to…”

At almost the same moment, that familiar low voice spoke up again.

“Sorry,” the man said earnestly, his tone grave from such close range. “I don’t want to say.”