CH 21

An old life is still a life, after all.

After painting for two hours, the feeling of nausea rose again. Xu Youyuan couldn’t hold on and went to bed early.

Hoping that the “Restart Magic” would be effective, she still had a lot of things to do.

When she was about to fall asleep, her mobile phone vibrated. Xu Youyuan looked and it was Cang Lu’s reply.

“It’s all in accordance with your ideas. I totally believe you. Let’s meet again after the plan is written down. Do you need an assistant? I’ll arrange a capable one for you.”

Xu Youyuan glanced at it and didn’t reply. She was so tired that she fell asleep again before putting down her phone.

It was a new day when the hot sun rose. The busy people on this crowded planet gradually woke up and started a new day of struggle with their own perseverance.

Shi Yue arrived at the CRUSH Building on a public electric scooter, parked the scooter in a special parking area, and looked down at her phone while she carried her bag.

“Boss Shi!”

Entering the building, the cold air from air conditioner and colleagues’ greetings came together.

“Hello.” Shi Yue looked up and saw two colleagues from the business department. The little girls who had just been recruited ran up to her and squeezed into the elevator with her.

After they entered the elevator, a large group of people crowded in, all of whom were rushing to clock in to work. In order not to be late, they had to squeeze this way.

Shi Yue saw that her colleagues were being squished by two sweaty men and looked pale. She took the initiative to step back, closer to the corner, leaving a little space.

“Thank you!” The girl next to Shi Yue was petite, with curly brown hair and an always energetic appearance, which made her look like a puppy with a teddy bear cut. She hugged her briefcase, huddled closer, and leaned on Shi Yue’s chest.

Shi Yue leaned her head to one side and looked down at her mobile phone.

“Eh, Boss Shi, you are also playing Reshaping the Universe?” Little Teddy seems to have found something new, “What’s your name? Which galaxy is your base built in?”

Shi Yue smiled, “I don’t play much, just for testing competing products.”

“Then you have to register an account! What’s your account name?” Little Teddy stretched her neck to look at Shi Yue’s phone. Shi Yue slid the page of her mobile phone to the WeChat interface, and her sister’s voice message came in.

Shi Yue stuck her mobile phone to her ear, and Little Teddy caught nothing.

Shi Yue listened for a while and pressed reply: “Well, I see.”

“Boss Shi, do you have an older sister?” Little Teddy kept asking where she lived, whether she lived with her family or by herself, and which school she graduated from, even more detailed than household registration.

Shi Yue patiently answered a few gossips at the beginning. Seeing that she was asking increasingly excessive and prying, she impolitely closed her smiling face, held her phone with screen locked, and only looked at the changes in the number of floors above the elevator.

Shi Yue was sweet and young. She was different from the bosses of other companies. The most obvious thing was that she was about the same age as many fresh undergraduates. Many employees recruited by the company were several years older than her.

Shi Yue had a good personality and was young. She seemed to be a social freshman. The college students who just came out of the ivory tower usually shout “Boss Shi”, but it was difficult to really take her as the boss.

Little Teddy came to the company less than a month ago. She had met Shi Yue three times and thought she was just an ordinary colleague. She even borrowed a meal card from her in the staff cafeteria, and only after holding her hand and walking together, she heard that she was the boss of the company. Little Teddy was surprised for a long time.

Little Teddy was from the operations department, with a team leader and a director. Apart from the company-wide meetings, she basically had nothing to do with Shi Yue.

It’s rare to see Shi Yue. Little Teddy was so excited that her brain got hot and got out of control. After Shi Yue cooled down, she also regretted it.

Once the boss who usually liked to laugh was silent, she immediately built an ice wall all around her body. Not to mention gossip, Little Teddy almost lost her breath.

Little Teddy understood this time that the sweet girl was an illusion, and Shi Yue was the boss, no different from any boss she had ever seen.

Yi Rushuang, who joined the company together with Little Teddy, had been standing beside her without saying anything.

From the time they met Shi Yue in the lobby just now, she smelled that Little Teddy was going to make trouble. She only hated that she had come at a bad time, and was caught in such an accident, which made her boss feel angry. She was afraid that she would be drawn into the camp of stupid kids like Little Teddy.

It was not easy to get to the 47th floor. Shi Yue took the lead in getting out of the elevator. Little Teddy dared not enter the offices and while trembling, pulled at Yi Rushuang:

“Am I dead?”

Yi Rushuang looked at her coldly: “Watch yourself. After all, the boss is the boss.”

“I know, but I always forget when I see her.”

“Now you can remember?”

“I remembered… Rushuang! Will I fail to pass probation?” Little Teddy grabbed Yi Rushang with tears rolling in her eyes, hoping that Yi Rushang could comfort her.

Yi Rushuang: “Yes.”

Little Teddy cried, and Shi Yue, who had already entered the offices, suddenly appeared again, which made Little Teddy stop crying immediately.

“Rushuang.” Shi Yue said, “Come here.”

Yi Rushuang left Little Teddy behind, and following Shi Yue, quickly walked through the corridor and entered her office.

Yi Rushuang’s superior hadn’t arrived at the offices yet, so Shi Yue directly asked her for data. The marketing department and the planning department were also called together. As soon as Shi Yue arrived at the offices, she held a meeting for two hours. The meeting ended near lunchtime.

Shi Yue invited everyone to eat, and booked a booth at the Cantonese Restaurant downstairs. A group of eight people went there together.

Shi Yue ordered two dishes and asked her colleagues to order the others.

When they were ordering, Shi Yue took out her phone and logged in to the mobile terminal of “Reshaping the Universe”, where she can view logs, set hosting, and process some basic information.

She listened to her colleagues chatting while checking her phone.

In fact, everyone talks about the same content at each gathering. The most talked about topic was the industry gossip, followed by how terrible AI was now, and how the whole society would be when they were old. Now people were afraid of marriage, no one was married, and no one had children. What should we do when this generation retires and no one pays taxes?

The retirement age had been pushed again and again. The 60 year old lady was cleaning, and the 70 year old man was still repairing pipes.

Who was once unwilling to get married began to think about whether she should make up her mind to cross the threshold of marriage, and who was married began to think whether she could overcome the psychological barriers and raise a child to provide in their old age.

“My neighbor is an aunt who lives alone.” Yi Rushuang said, “Yesterday, when I passed by her house after work, I heard dogs barking and falling sounds inside. I knocked at the door for fear of an accident. It opened after nearly half a day.”

“Ah? Old woman living alone? Sick and faint?” The colleague said, “Look, how terrible it is to live alone. There must be someone around when you are old, or no one will know if you die at home.”

“So scary.”

“I’m not exaggerating. Do you watch the news? Dare you? It’s all reports like this. The old man who lived alone was dead for more than a month, and his body smelled so bad that the neighbors could smell it. Only when she called the police did she find that the body had maggots.”

“Eh… we are eating! Don’t be disgusting!”

Shiyue didn’t look away from her phone and said to Yi Rushuang, “You should go to see your neighbor aunt more. An old life is still a life, after all…”

Yi Rushuang was 26 years old, three years older than her boss. Shi Yue’s words were very serious, but the content was strange. She hesitated a little. She didn’t know whether the boss wanted to adjust the atmosphere or give serious instructions. She was always an old fashioned girl and could only honestly answer:

“Yes.”

In fact, Shi Yue said this without thinking at all. She kept looking at her mobile phone and wondered.

The “auntie living alone” finally woke up.

Xu Youyuan was woken up by the noise of quarrelling next door.

The sound insulation of this old building was very poor. She could hear clearly when someone passed by the corridor with some words, not to mention a heart rending quarrel.

The sun was setting in the west, and there was a little cool wind, which made the small windows swing from side to side.

The sun shone into the small room and easily lit the bed. Xu Youyuan sat beside the bed with her eyes glazed over and her hair disordered. It took a long time for her brain to start working again.

After looking at the phone, on top of the numerous push notifications it showed 18:09. It’s not sunrise, it’s sunset. Had she been sleeping since last night?

Yesterday, she felt a little uncomfortable, didn’t play games or draw much, and went to bed early. Now she still felt sick. She hadn’t eaten all day and was not hungry. No appetite.

No way she was actually sick, right?

The mobile phone rung, it was Shi Ye’s holographic video chat.

Only then did she find that Shi Ye had called her about ten video chats, and she was asleep, missing them all.

Xu Youyuan picked up and got up to wash.

“You’re still alive?!” Shi Ye was very excited when she came up. The image projected in the room was just a kick at Xu Youyuan’s buttocks. Of course, it would not really kick Xu Youyuan. The image would pass through Xu Youyuan’s body.

“Alive.” Xu Youyuan brushed her teeth and washed her face. She was surprised to find that her eye bags were very obvious and old. Why did she feel ten years older after being ill? She quickly found a facial mask and gave first aid.

“Why didn’t you make any noise all day? I thought you were dead. I was so worried that I wanted to skip work and rush to you.”

“I’m fine. I guess I was just a little unwell after eating bad food. Still far from dying.”

“Are you better now? Will you come out for dinner when I get off work?”

“It’s better, but I don’t have much appetite…”

“Don’t worry. Xiao Yue won’t come, just you and me. Don’t be afraid.”

Xu Youyuan sniffed: “Why I’m afraid, does she have three heads and six arms? I just have a bill to settle with her, let her come.”

“So you want to see her so much.”

“… Don’t joke. Why me? I still haven’t finished my painting. I’m really not idle.”

“I’m afraid that you will be frugal and eat bad food again. I want to take you to eat some healthy food. Good intentions are not rewarded well.” Shi Ye said, “By the way, where is your new home? I haven’t been there yet.”

“The West Suburb JuHeYuan, it’s so remote that the autopilot can’t find it. I’m OK. I may not really have a bad stomach. Don’t worry about it. It’s probably because I’m angry with your sister.”

Shi Ye immediately asked: “You have contacted a lot in private. What did she do to make you angry again?”

Xu Youyuan wanted to complain to her friend about the immoral things Shi Yue did to her in Reshaping the Universe. Suddenly, she thought about it and said, “Tell me, are you a spy sent by Shi Yue?”

Shi Ye: “What kind of spy can I be?!”

“I won’t tell you, you are not reliable.”

Shi Ye: “??”

“I’m going to hang up, there is still a lot to do.”

Shi Ye’s mouth was wide open, and she wanted to address a lot of grievances. Xu Youyuan didn’t give her a chance, but slapped her face and cut her off.

The Shi family were unreliable now.

Xu Youyuan just wanted to draw quietly to make money, make games to make money, and make all kinds of money.