149 The Fourth Dream
Lying on the soft hotel bed, Lu Qi recalled everything she had experienced in the past two days. Closing her eyes, the boy’s face seemed to float before her eyes again, especially the astonishment when they first met around the corner, and the embarrassed expression afterward.
“That kid probably likes me…”
Lu Qi murmured to herself, then suddenly pulled the quilt up and covered her face.
After a while, she gradually fell asleep.
Then, a brand new dream unfolded.
In the dream, a few years later, she resigned from Penguin Company and started her own business. But her excellent track record in the gaming industry helped her attract a lot of investment and connections, so the first game she made recouped its costs and even made a slight profit. Next, it was time to continue steadily and expand the company.
At this time, a newcomer joined the company. His comprehension and aptitude were quite satisfactory, and even his looks were not bad. As the company boss, it was obviously quite normal for Lu Qi to pay attention to such a potential employee. But the more she paid attention, the more surprises she found this kid brought her.
Chatting with him, he could always say things that made her eyes light up. Their train of thought in conversation was surprisingly compatible. Favorite music, favorite movies, favorite books, and even their views on many issues were surprisingly similar.
Assigning him tasks, after initial clumsiness, he could quickly get the hang of it, and she almost never needed to teach him a second time.
Taking him out to play, his interests were also quite similar to hers. He liked to try new things, from bungee jumping to skydiving, and could always play together with her.
The longer they spent together, the less she treated him as a subordinate employee, and he became a close friend, even… an ambiguous object of affection.
But later, she found that this kid seemed to be very lucky with women, and there was more than one girl gathered around him. However, Lu Qi, who had never been willing to lag behind since childhood and grew up in day-after-day competition, how could she retreat because of this little obstacle?
What’s more, she held the kid’s source of income in her hand, which was a huge, unique advantage.
Until one day, that yellow-haired girl named ‘Han Yixuan’ finally aroused her sense of crisis, so on a Sunday, she sent an overtime notice to that kid, while no other employees received it. Even the employees who were originally working overtime were sent home by her.
Then, in the office with a lone man and a lone woman…
That kid wanted to refuse at first, but later he couldn’t help it.
The end of the dream was Wang Heng sitting on the desk, tidying up her messy hair, and saying jokingly: “Sister Lu, I kind of don’t want to work hard anymore…”
Lu Qi suddenly opened her eyes, lifted the quilt, and sat up.
Looking around and tracing back her memory, she finally realized that everything just now was just a dream. Although it was very long and realistic, it was indeed just a dream.
It was a dream, but it was enough to make her completely understand her own heart.
Staring at the still bright night view of Edo outside the floor-to-ceiling window, Lu Qi was in a daze for a long time, then suddenly let out a long breath.
“You, don’t need to work hard anymore…”
**
A night passed, dawn broke, and Wang Heng sat up, got dressed, and got out of bed.
Going into the bathroom, he picked up a disposable toothbrush and squeezed toothpaste onto it. While starting to brush his teeth, he looked up at the mirror and saw that the face in the mirror was full of exhaustion, with obvious dark circles around the eyes.
All night long, he barely slept for a minute. His mind went back and forth thinking about the memories of the first timeline and the experiences of the second timeline so far. Thinking, reflecting, and pondering the direction of the future…
After brushing his teeth, he splashed cold water on his face with both hands to wake himself up a bit more.
Walking out of the bathroom, he casually pulled a few tissues to wipe his face, picked up his phone, and saw a text message from Lu Qi.
【How about we go to Akihabara today?】
Wang Heng thought about it honestly.
Maybe he wasn’t a hardcore otaku, but he was still quite interested in that so-called holy land for otaku.
But what if the decisive factor of Lu Qi was added?
No, there was nothing to be afraid of!
After thinking it through, Wang Heng looked at the little hamster silently playing dead on the table and said, “I’m going out with Lu Qi today, so I won’t take you.”
The hamster jumped up quickly and said in surprise, “You’re enlightened?”
“Enlightened?” Wang Heng sneered. “I just found out that some futile things are useless no matter how hard you try. Deliberately distancing myself from them seems to always fall short.”
“Mhm, fall short!” The hamster nodded and repeated.
Wang Heng pointed at it. “You still have the nerve to chime in? Who do you think caused it to fall short!”
The hamster patted the table. “Okay, this time it’s my fault, blame me, blame me. So now that you’ve figured it out, you won’t do futile things in the future?”
Wang Heng: “I’m just saying that there’s no need to deliberately avoid them in the future, but I didn’t say I would actively start a harem.”
The hamster was stunned. “Not start a harem?”
Wang Heng said confidently, “This is learning the lesson from the first timeline. In the first timeline, I had a relatively deep relationship with each of them first, and then let them know the existence of others. When they knew about the existence of love rivals, they had already invested too much sunk cost, which was very troublesome.”
The hamster said thoughtfully, “In other words, you want to put everything on the table now?”
Wang Heng smiled and snapped his fingers. “That’s right. Modern society is not ancient times. Many girls are very assertive, and the four of them have distinct personalities. As long as they know there are competitors, and more than one, they definitely won’t foolishly invest!”
Logically speaking, this statement obviously made sense. But…
Considering the current situation of the four girls, considering their existing affection, and certain events that might happen in the future, the hamster remained silent, only casting a pitying look at Wang Heng. It had already seen that the owner’s back was once again filled with invisible flags, like an old general on a stage.
But Wang Heng didn’t notice the hamster’s gaze because he was holding his phone and replying to Lu Qi’s text message.
【Okay, where shall we meet?】
Less than half a minute later, Lu Qi replied: 【Could you trouble yourself to come to the hotel where I’m staying? I checked the map, it will be very convenient to go to Akihabara from here.】
Wang Heng was about to reply ‘Okay’, but suddenly realized something and deleted those two words.
A few seconds later, the text message he sent was: 【I’ll wait for you downstairs at the hotel, is that okay?】
Soon, Lu Qi replied: 【Of course, sorry to trouble you.】
Wang Heng breathed a sigh of relief.
Although he decided not to deal with it passively anymore, if Lu Qi asked him to wait in the hotel room, it would be too dangerous. He remembered the office accident in the first timeline clearly…
