After finishing his final meeting at that lousy company, Qin Zhen had a brief chat with Mu Xiaoxiao about his future plans, coordinated the transfer of account credentials, and left.
As he walked toward the entrance, he bumped into Yang Xiaoliang, whose face was bruised and patched up. Without a word, the other guy aggressively stepped forward with his phone out, staging a low-effort, self-directed performance on the spot.
“Qin Zhen, you really didn’t need to treat me this way. I was only accidentally interrupting your conversation with President Zhu. After all, we are all part of the same company.”
“Sigh, I really didn’t mean it just now. I really didn’t.” Yang Xiaoliang feigned weakness as he leaned against the wall.
Qin Zhen furrowed his brow in deep disgust, repeatedly dusting off his clothes as if he was immensely bothered by the idea that Xiaoliang’s thick layer of foundation might have rubbed onto his shirt.
This entire scene was witnessed from start to finish by Mu Xiaoxiao, who had hurried over to talk to Qin Zhen about his salary from the previous month. Instead, she caught Yang Xiaoliang’s phone appearing to record something the entire time.
That crew was large and messy, with educational backgrounds and moral characters all over the place. Many masked monsters and freaks could make a decent living as long as they had no shame.
The sensitivity she had built up over five years in this industry told Mu Xiaoxiao that a storm was brewing.
Sure enough, the video filmed by Yang Xiaoliang went live in a rush that very afternoon. The footage looked like it had been accidentally captured, with heavy background noise and a shaky camera, which paradoxically gave it an air of authenticity.
Internet gossips waited around all day for drama, and combined with Yang Xiaoliang’s recent gaming community notoriety, the video quickly climbed to the fifth spot on the trending searches.
Plenty of people were flaming the faceless Qin Zhen, while others expressed heartbreak for Brother Xiaoliang. Yet another faction was digging into who these two individuals even were, sarcastically remarking that nowadays just about anyone could trend and make a fool of themselves.
Naturally, Mu Xiaoxiao couldn’t just sit idly by. She reported the matter to the company, but to her surprise, the management not only obscurely threatened her against revealing the truth, but even paid to push the trending search higher.
They dressed it up under the guise of treating it as a contribution the two of them were making to the company, claiming that once the situation escalated enough, management would step in to resolve it.
Mu Xiaoxiao had a blinding headache from anger, and she now completely understood why Qin Zhen had suddenly decided to leave the company.
Trash streaming companies were precisely like this, eager to put everything out in the open with traffic as their supreme priority. As long as it grabbed eyeballs, making money was the ultimate rule.
If she hadn’t signed an agreement, she would have quit ages ago!
At 6:00 PM, Qin Zhen came home after handling the rear-end collision at the traffic management bureau.
The weather was scorching hot, and the air conditioning in his clunker was far too weak, leaving him thoroughly overheated.
He rolled his neck, loosened his tie with three fingers, rolled up his sleeves, and pulled a grey senior-citizen phone out of one pocket. He fished out the expensive watch from another pocket, tossing it onto the table alongside a 100-yuan towel still in its plastic bag.
“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t buy one?” Shen Jin’an sneered, reaching out to pick up the oversized-button elderly phone.
Qin Zhen had no energy to argue, scanning the room from inside out. Just as he was about to ask something, Shen Jin’an gave him a sidelong glance and said coldly, “I won’t steal your things.”
“True, I don’t really have anything worth stealing here anyway. A thief breaking in would probably end up leaving me a donation instead.”
Qin Zhen slumped onto the sofa, his long legs with nowhere to rest inevitably brushing against Shen Jin’an’s legs.
Shen Jin’an quietly pulled his leg back without a word, so Qin Zhen edged closer again. When Shen Jin’an shifted away once more, Qin Zhen closed the distance.
Summer was sticky and humid, but Shen Jin’an felt exceptionally cool to the touch. He was wearing a pair of Qin Zhen’s athletic shorts, the length hitting right at the knee and making it hard not to want to draw closer.
The phrase “ice-skinned and jade-boned” suddenly popped into Qin Zhen’s mind, though he immediately found himself ridiculous, failing to understand why he was acting so unhinged toward another grown man.
During their final shift, that familiar dagger gleamed brightly under the light, causing Qin Zhen to pout and sheepishly pull his legs back.
“Why do you keep holding a knife around? It kills the mood. I just wanted to ask what you ate today. You didn’t go hungry, did you?”
Shen Jin’an’s dark, pretty eyes stared at him unblinkingly for a few seconds before he finally looked away, sneering, “Are you genuinely concerned about the plight of a robber?”
“Robber” was just a casual word Qin Zhen had tossed out at the hospital when Shen Jin’an had no valid reason whatsoever for insisting on following him home, looking like an armed intruder.
Qin Zhen loved to joke around and spoke whatever came to mind, never imagining Shen Jin’an would hold onto it until now.
“Why are you such a grudge-holder?” Qin Zhen shrugged, leaning back lazily. “In the end, I still let you stay, and I bought you things. Did you actually eat anything or not?”
He had left in a rush that morning and forgot to pick up provisions for Shen Jin’an.
Shen Jin’an narrowed his eyes, seemingly unable to figure out what Qin Zhen was playing at. He stared at him with ambiguous intent before finally nodding and spitting out a single flat word: “Yes.”
Qin Zhen had nothing more to say, poking at his phone. The internet was in an uproar over today’s events, filled with a mob of uninformed netizens flaming him online.
[Does this streamer have any shame? Relying on legs a bit longer than our Brother Xiaoliang’s, he dares to bully people so blatantly. It’s so infuriating even a passerby feels heartbroken. Has nobody called the police yet?!]
[Our Brother Xiaoliang is so pitiful. The video didn’t even catch the other guy’s face; he must be some greasy, ugly loser with zero fans. His only redeeming quality is probably his long legs, and he’s just jealous because Brother Xiaoliang is too popular lately.]
[Judging by Brother Xiaoliang’s implication, does this guy have some kind of connection with the company’s general manager? Isn’t this blatant workplace bullying? If we hadn’t happened to see this, God knows how other streamers are being pushed around behind the scenes.]
[Yeah, yeah, everyone don’t get sidetracked. The main point is that this guy used special workplace relationships to suppress peers. It’s terrifying to think about. Hardworking office slaves, let’s unite! Don’t let the heat die down!]
[Who even is this streamer? Which creator goes by the real name Qin Zhen? I’m crowdfunding a thousand cuts, I’ll take the first slash.]
[It’s been five minutes, and people still haven’t dug up Qin Zhen’s info? Netizens these days are slacking.]
A long train of comments mindlessly followed along to dish out “justice.”
Bullying your sister.
You don’t even know whose daddy you’re blindly trying to claim out here.
Qin Zhen cursed everyone flaming him in his mind and turned around to call the police.
Let the cops pull the surveillance footage. He loved watching a spectacle, and the messier that crappy company got, the happier he would be.
Meanwhile, Mu Xiaoxiao was stamping her feet in anxiety at home. She was a true visual-first person and had known Qin Zhen for three years. Netizens could trash him for anything else, but calling Qin Zhen a greasy, ugly loser was something she simply could not tolerate. She had never seen anyone in real life who was more handsome than Qin Zhen, period!
As the sole insider, she made a frantic ring-tone chain call to Qin Zhen, offering to privately start a livestream to explain or record a video clarification.
Qin Zhen rejected all of it, stating he had already called the police.
After trying to persuade him for ages, Mu Xiaoxiao wished she could reach through the air and strangle the lazy Qin Zhen. By the time the police finished their investigation and issued an official statement, Qin Zhen would probably have been flamed into a sieve, and at that point, people might not even believe it.
The emperor was not worried, but the eunuch was stressing. Fed up, she gave up trying to manage it and changed into clothes to take a shower.
When she came out, she noticed another message sent by Qin Zhen on her phone:
[Forget it. Do you really think people would believe you if you spoke up? You have no evidence, and you’re still an employee of the company. Watch out for them plotting against you behind your back. Considering our friendship, let me give you a reminder: pay more attention to your boyfriend.]
Mu Xiaoxiao let out a scoff, tossing her phone onto the desktop.
What could possibly be wrong with her boyfriend? He was the most honest, harmless programmer imaginable, with nowhere else to go outside of work.
Still, Qin Zhen’s warning about being targeted behind the back wasn’t entirely unreasonable. The guy always looked so carefree, yet even now, he was still looking out for others?