Chapter 2
“???”
Going to jail in the book basically meant the character goes offline. Going back, he might even be able to make it to tomorrow’s morning meeting.
Yu Congyan was completely shocked by these words. Had this person finally gone mad?
He was more inclined to believe it was a bluff: “You don’t really think I have no other evidence, do you?”
“That’s even better.” Xia Wansheng was overjoyed.
Any crime should be punished by law. The longer the sentence, the greater the chance of him immediately going offline. At least prison provided food and shelter, and a regular sleep schedule. He wouldn’t have to worry about unpaid overtime and sudden death.
It was practically a paradise for a wage slave.
“Ring ring ring”
If the ringtone hadn’t interrupted, it would have likely been the bewildered Yu Congyan who went crazy first.
The ringing phone interrupted their conversation. Xia Wansheng pushed him away, reflexively swiping to answer the call with lightning speed. The person on the other end wasn’t his boss, but an urgent voice: “Brother, did you get the stuff? We agreed I’d come to pick you up, why haven’t you shown up?”
There was even evidence delivered to the door?!
Xia Wansheng’s pupils quaked. Just as he was about to advise the person on the other end to confess for leniency, an impatient voice came from the phone.
Xia Ye, with a cigarette dangling from his lips in the cold wind, clicked his tongue, saying in a frustrated tone: “Brother, are you chickening out? Let me tell you, that Yu Congyan isn’t a good guy. He’s always fooling around with little stars outside. Only by making him fall flat on his face will he realize how good you are…”
Why did this teammate’s words come with a debuffing aura? All the evidence, perfectly packaged, superb.
Xia Wansheng touched his conscience and reminded him: “Don’t say anymore, tonight’s timing isn’t right.”
Any more and it would become courtroom evidence.
Xia Ye was completely oblivious: “Tonight’s not right?! Are you out of your mind? Yu Congyan went to a hotel with a popular starlet tonight. You actually still like this kind of person, you…”
Yu Congyan was shocked by this scene of the villain acting so recklessly, even communicating right in front of him. Only when he heard this did his mouth move faster than his brain, his voice shaking: “When did I go to a hotel with someone?”
“Don’t say anymore,” Xia Wansheng interrupted, no longer caring about the sudden silence on the other end of the phone, considerately putting the phone in Yu Congyan’s arms, “You two talk, I have a headache, I’ll go take a bath first.”
The bathroom was filled with a light mist.
Xia Wansheng locked the door directly, ignoring the completely dumbfounded person outside.
He sighed, then used the hazy bathroom mirror to examine himself.
He slapped himself hard.
Hiss, it really hurt.
This wasn’t a dream.
……
Alright, Xia Wansheng didn’t know if this was a good thing or not.
In any case, he felt nothing. Living was just a slower form of dying.
After some effort, he removed the original owner’s heavy makeup. The face in the mirror looked much more refined, the aura around him becoming softer.
Only then did Xia Wansheng truly feel like he had transmigrated into a book. He tried to summon the system in his mind, but only the two previous sentences replayed in a loop, giving him a headache.
Five million…
Canary.
What could he do? This wasn’t a small matter.
He slowly lay down in the bathtub, the water temperature just right to make him drowsy. The exhaustion from days of overtime work surged over him.
Xia Wansheng had always been demanding of himself. He had finally gotten the chance to take the lead. As long as he completed this project, his year-end bonus would double, and he could move out of the urban village he had lived in for almost ten years, no longer having to endure the morning rush hour subway.
But now it seemed he had painlessly arrived in heaven, albeit a trial version.
This game was really good at teasing people.
The bathroom tiles looked expensive at first glance, not to mention this entire detached villa seemingly built on a mountainside. He could even enjoy the magnificent scenery of the misty mountains while taking a bath.
Damn capitalism.
Xia Wansheng stopped struggling with the repeating system. Now it seemed that as long as he worked hard to become the CEO’s early offline white moonlight, he could return to reality with a five million bonus.
If he succeeded, he would exchange five yuan for Indonesian Rupiah at an exchange rate of 2100, and slap it in his boss’s face, stack by stack, relieving his pent-up frustration.
Time always flies when one is lost in thought. By the time Xia Wansheng came back to his senses, the water in the bathtub had become lukewarm.
Xia Wansheng closed his eyes, letting the overwhelming drowsiness wash over him from head to toe. His wrists couldn’t support his body, and he slowly slid down the bathtub, the warm water gradually covering his mouth and nose. He quietly sank beneath the surface.
The spacious bathroom was silent, only the occasional dripping of water could be heard.
“Drip.”
The sound of water in the bathroom stopped. Yu Congyan subconsciously turned his head to look.
He had been talking to his assistant.
Xia Ye, who had been so arrogant with Xia Wansheng, hung up the phone in fright as soon as he heard Yu Congyan’s voice.
Only the “beep beep beep” of the busy signal remained.
Yu Congyan instructed his assistant with a cold expression: “Investigate Xia Ye, and see who else is involved in stealing secrets. If this happens again, you can all resign!”
The assistant repeatedly agreed, fearing that if the boss was unhappy, he would decide to acquire a few companies, and the entire company would have to work overtime day and night with the workaholic CEO.
Soon the call came back: “CEO Yu, we checked Xia Ye’s recent trade dealings, but haven’t found any signs that he was instructed by anyone.”
“Did you find the source of the rumor?”
“Currently, only a few tabloid newspapers have reported this news. We have contacted them all to retract it.”
The assistant couldn’t figure out the CEO’s thoughts for a moment, cautiously asking: “Do you need us to issue a widespread clarification, or…”
“Sue them. Sue them until they apologize.” Yu Congyan said mercilessly.
He wouldn’t tolerate such baseless rumors affecting the company’s stock price.
The whole thing was too unusual. A few days ago, Xia Wansheng was still trying his best to make his presence felt, now he was changing his tactics after realizing that approach wouldn’t work?
Yu Congyan warned himself inwardly: No matter what tricks the other party was planning, he couldn’t easily believe them. The tragic ending of his past life was still vivid in his mind. This time, he would personally send the traitor to hell.
In his past life, he had been careless, only focusing on blocking the overt attacks from his elder brother, Yu Xuan, but unaware of the hidden dangers.
Tonight’s events were full of suspicious points. He absolutely couldn’t let his guard down… Yu Congyan’s thoughts suddenly focused. Why hadn’t Xia Wansheng come out of the bathroom yet?
Yu Congyan abruptly stood up. Xia Wansheng’s emotions hadn’t been stable earlier, and being alone would only amplify negative emotions. Something wouldn’t have happened, would it?
Without time to think about how to interact with him in the current situation, Yu Congyan twisted the doorknob a few times with no response. He started banging on the thick glass door, inwardly annoyed that he had chosen the best soundproofing material. Now there wasn’t even a way to confirm the other person’s safety.
It wasn’t that he was afraid Xia Wansheng would die, but mainly that he wouldn’t be able to get revenge.
He had no choice but to break down the door!
With a “bang,” the bathroom door burst open. Yu Congyan strode in, searching for him.
“Xia Wansheng, what are you doing…”
What came into view was Xia Wansheng submerged in the bathtub, who knows for how long.
Yu Congyan’s mind exploded with a buzzing sound.
His deep pupils contracted sharply. He immediately reached out and pulled the soaked person out of the lukewarm water!
“Xia Wansheng, are you really crazy or faking it?!”
Although he thought he was calm, his slender fingers trembled as he checked for a pulse on Xia Wansheng’s neck.
In the darkness, Xia Wansheng felt his soul being pulled in two directions. The light in front of him grew brighter and brighter until he finally felt a blinding white light and opened his eyes with joy.
His eyes met Yu Congyan’s, who was extremely close.
Seeing him awake, Yu Congyan suddenly came to his senses. Why was he losing his composure?
With a calm expression, Yu Congyan let go, pulled him up, and then dropped him. Xia Wansheng coughed for a while before recovering, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes.
With a cold expression, Yu Congyan stepped over Xia Wansheng, who was sitting on the bathroom floor, “After you dry off, go to my bedroom and change your clothes.”
“Sorry,” Xia Wansheng had just recovered, his voice still hoarse.
Yu Congyan remained indifferent, too lazy to expose him: “Where did you learn these extreme methods? Let me tell you, you absolutely cannot threaten me. Stop deceiving yourself.”
After Yu Congyan finished his speech, he noticed Xia Wansheng’s confused expression.
“You misunderstood.” Xia Wansheng said sincerely, “That’s not what I was going to say.”
Yu Congyan’s expression was cold: “The matter of the contract is under investigation. The results will naturally tell.”
Xia Wansheng continued to shake his head, “No, I just wanted to say, your shirt seems to be…not water-resistant…”
“…” Yu Congyan swore he would never try to keep up with Xia Wansheng’s train of thought again. He glanced at him and turned to leave.
Xia Wansheng had just been pulled out of the icy water, soaking wet. The collar of his shirt had been slightly pulled open in the commotion, his delicate collarbone faintly visible.
Yu Congyan found even looking at him irritating.
A moment later.
In the bedroom, Xia Wansheng held the obviously oversized pajamas in his hands, hesitating: “I have clothes in my bedroom, I’ll go back and change…”
Yu Congyan closed the “Microexpression Psychology” book in his hands and said coldly: “You want to escape my surveillance? Xia Wansheng, let me tell you, it’s not that easy.”
Xia Wansheng looked troubled: “Do you really have to watch me change?”
The system didn’t say the arrogant CEO in the book had such hobbies.
Yu Congyan chuckled: “Considering the threat you posed earlier, until you tell me who instructed you, you won’t leave my sight for a second tonight.”
Xia Wansheng tried to explain: “Really, no one instructed me…”
“Then change here.”
“…” Xia Wansheng gave up resisting, turning his back and unbuttoning his shirt one by one. The waterlogged shirt became semi-transparent, faintly revealing the outline of his abs.
Yu Congyan couldn’t look away, but he feigned indifference: “What’s with the injury on your left hand?”
Xia Wansheng looked down and noticed a half-inch long cut on his left wrist. He recalled: “I must have accidentally scratched it in the bathroom.”
Who in their right mind would accidentally cut their wrist in the bathroom?
Xia Wansheng must think he was an idiot.
Numerous social news reports flashed through Yu Congyan’s mind. Was it another attempt to gain his sympathy?
Yu Congyan gave him a deep, cold look, finally dropping a sentence: “I’ll inform the housekeeper to put away all the knives in the house tomorrow.”
To prevent similar “accidents” from happening again without his knowledge.
“…Suit yourself.”
Xia Wansheng didn’t expect acting to be as tiring as working overtime. All he wanted now was to turn off the lights and sleep, and in the morning, think about whether there had been some misunderstanding.
Xia Wansheng reached out to turn off the bedside lamp, but Yu Congyan suddenly grabbed his wrist, his eyes deep, as if he could see through his true identity.
“What now?” Xia Wansheng was getting impatient.
Yu Congyan’s gaze was probing: “I remember you mentioned before that you’re afraid of the dark, and you need light to sleep.”
Yu Congyan became even more certain: This person was full of lies, constantly playing him.
His motives must not be simple…
“Slap,” his thoughts were suddenly interrupted. Xia Wansheng ruthlessly slapped away his well-defined hand and reached out to turn off the bedside lamp.
“That was a lie.”
The bedroom fell into darkness.
Xia Wansheng fell asleep peacefully, leaving only the usually calm Yu Congyan tossing and turning, staring at the blurry crystal chandelier in the dark.
Could there be something seriously wrong with his mental state? Or did he have some incurable disease? Or a split personality?
The more Yu Congyan thought about it, the more he felt that there must be something bigger going on. The most urgent thing was to wake the person involved and ask him clearly.
Xia Wansheng was sleeping soundly when he suddenly felt a strong shaking on his shoulder, mixed with calls.
Was his boss giving him work assignments at 3 a.m. again?
Xia, the wage slave, didn’t want to deal with it, turning over and burying himself completely in the soft quilt.
Yu Congyan had no choice but to open his communicator and ask his doctor friend, “Were there any problems with Xia Wansheng’s recent test results?”
There was no reply.
After all, it was 3 a.m.
Yu Congyan dialed a number. A pleasant female voice answered:
“Sorry, the number you have dialed is switched off.”
“…” How could they sleep at their age when they should be striving?
