The result of reminiscing about the past was that Chen Jia tossed and turned in bed, not falling asleep until one in the morning. When she opened her eyes the next day, it was already 7:50 AM.
She hurriedly changed clothes, brushed her teeth, and rushed out to hail a taxi. Even though the driver drove fast, she still arrived at the company late, clocking in at 8:02.
The company started work at eight, and most employees were already in their seats, making the late Chen Jia especially conspicuous.
Chen Jia walked to her workstation with her head down, coincidentally running into Manager Xing, who was just coming out of the break room.
Manager Xing, with his sparse hair slicked back with oil and hands clasped behind his back, said to Chen Jia, “Late again? Can’t you leave home a little earlier?”
Chen Jia gave an awkward smile and said, “There was some traffic congestion on the way. I’m sorry for coming in late.”
“Honestly, you young people these days—always late or leaving early. When we ask you to work overtime, you make all sorts of excuses.” Manager Xing grumbled under his breath. “Last time I asked for suggestions, not a single one of you gave anything useful. So why are you even here? Just coasting through the days?”
Manager Xing was scolding the chicken to warn the monkey, using Chen Jia as the target. The other employees kept their heads down, not daring to make a sound.
Only after Manager Xing left did Chen Jia sit down.
She tossed her bag onto the chair, fuming inside.
Being late already meant losing pay and the full-attendance bonus, and on top of that, he had to keep nagging about it—and in front of all her colleagues, no less.
Chen Jia had always been thin-skinned. She had nearly burst into tears just now, her face already flushed red.
If Manager Xing had kept scolding her, she definitely would have cried.
Lili stole a couple of glances at her and saw her eyes were red. She thought better of saying anything.
Ten minutes later, seeing that Chen Jia seemed to have calmed down a bit, Lili leaned over to talk to her. “You’re so unlucky. This should be your first time being late this month, right? And you had to get caught by Manager Xing.”
Chen Jia also felt she was down on her luck. “Ugh, I can’t believe it. And then he went on about leaving early and overtime—I don’t even know who he was scolding. It’s infuriating. I’ve never once left early.”
Lili chuckled and moved on to another topic. “Wang Xiaoqing is dating someone.”
“Who?” Chen Jia was very surprised and also impressed by how well-informed Lili was.
“The intern who started last month—that tall, big-built guy. I saw him waiting for Wang Xiaoqing to get off work yesterday when I was staying late, and he even carried her bag for her.”
It suddenly dawned on Chen Jia. “No wonder Manager Xing was so cranky this morning. So it’s because Wang Xiaoqing is dating someone.”
Lili suddenly nudged her, and only then did Chen Jia notice that Wang Xiaoqing was standing right beside her, holding a document.
Wang Xiaoqing’s face darkened. “Manager Xing scolded you this morning because you broke company rules by being late. Isn’t it normal for him to scold you? What does that have to do with me?”
With that, Wang Xiaoqing stalked off.
Chen Jia immediately felt a pang of regret. She hurried after her and finally caught up with Wang Xiaoqing at the restroom entrance.
Chen Jia said, “Wang Xiaoqing, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it. I deserved to be scolded for being late. I was just really angry and felt unlucky—I was only two minutes late, but before, when others came in half an hour late, Manager Xing pretended not to see it. The way he scolded me today was just so humiliating…”
“You’re talking about Zhao Wen, right? He’s Manager Xing’s nephew, so of course he pretended not to see anything!” Wang Xiaoqing turned around, her expression still not looking great. “Manager Xing likes to take his anger out on you, so why drag me into it?”
“Because I heard from other colleagues before that Manager Xing was pursuing you.”
“Who did you hear that from?”
Chen Jia looked left and right, not wanting to reveal Lili’s name. Actually, Lili had only mentioned in passing that Manager Xing had touched Wang Xiaoqing’s hand—she never said anything about pursuing. It was Chen Jia herself who thought the word “pursuing” would be less hurtful to Wang Xiaoqing.
She was weak and couldn’t help Wang Xiaoqing, nor could she bear the chain reaction of failure that came with openly helping someone. All she could do was tuck this matter away in a corner of her memory.
These days, it was hardest to be a good person.
“It’s just… everyone’s talking about it…”
Wang Xiaoqing suddenly let out a sigh. “I didn’t expect everyone to know. Manager Xing is really annoying. Next time, don’t put my name and his together. I have nothing to do with him—if there were any handsome guys around, wouldn’t I go for them instead of him?”
Seeing that Wang Xiaoqing seemed to be in a slightly better mood, Chen Jia asked curiously, “So you’re really together with the intern?”
At the mention of the intern, a hint of a smile appeared on Wang Xiaoqing’s face. “Yeah, I’ll treat you guys to a meal sometime.”
“I won’t intrude on your little world for two.”
“What’s the big deal? I don’t plan on staying here long anyway. By then, you can just treat it as a farewell dinner.” Wang Xiaoqing only then realized she’d said more than she should, so she stopped mid-sentence and walked away.
Chen Jia thought to herself, no wonder—with Manager Xing around, Wang Xiaoqing really had no future here.
During Chen Jia’s lunch break, Wang Xiaobao forwarded her a link, saying: Someone started a post to trash-talk you.
Chen Jia opened the link—someone was spreading rumors about her on Baidu Tieba’s Lun Tianxia game forum.
“Shocking, the true face of Peach, the top-3 healer on XX server, is actually like this”
“The OP is a nobody from the same guild as her. I’m sure everyone is familiar with the healer ID ‘Peach,’ right? That’s right, she’s the real-life girlfriend of Pingbaike, the number-one assassin on the leaderboard. Last week, Pingbaike even gave out cash red packets in-game for Peach’s sake. Today, let me expose Peach’s true face to everyone.”
“Peach used to be a paid companion in Honor of Kings. As a companion, she would even disguise her voice, putting on a loli-style squeaky voice to play games with her clients. Some clients just liked that kind of thing. Then Peach got more clients, and she privately asked them to transfer money to her, and she even had online romances with several of them. It wasn’t until her reputation in the Honor of Kings companion circle was ruined that she ran off to Lun Tianxia. There are plenty of wealthy clients in Lun Tianxia. Peach first crafted an image of herself as a rich, beautiful woman, then only played with high-combat-power players with white hair. The white-haired players thought Peach’s family was wealthy and would send her fashion items. Even her previous master—the one who severed the master-disciple bond last week—had a wife in real life but still sent Peach things. Peach tasted the sweetness of it all, and even hooked a big fish like Pingbaike. The two even met in person. Peach is quite pretty in real life, but her intentions aren’t right. Pingbaike doesn’t know any of this—Peach’s past. To keep Pingbaike stable, she kicked out all those friends and masters. A green-tea gold-digger is now getting married and crafting her image. In real life, she should be a woman on her second marriage, with a kid over ten years old. Maybe she really is that pretty—otherwise, why would Pingbaike want to marry her? I hope Pingbaike keeps his eyes wide open, and her relatives and friends should be careful too—who knows when she might swindle their money…”
What a brilliant story… Truth and lies mixed together become pure malice. The post was made in the morning, and by noon it already had several hundred replies.
Floor 1: cy
Floor 2: xx district here to spectate. Who’s Peach?
Floor 3: Damn, she’s actually from our district! @Friend1 @Friend2, come get the tea quick.
…….
Floor 24: I’m in that guild too! But Peach and Pingbaike are both very low-key—they only show up during guild wars. Was her voice really put on? I’ve never even heard it. Has anyone heard it? A recording would be best—post it so everyone can judge whether it’s actually a fake voice.
Floor 25: I’ve heard it. Once after a guild war ended and most of the squad had dispersed, she chatted with a few people for a bit. Honestly, she sounded quite cute, but I don’t think it was put on—her voice sounded perfectly normal.
……
Floor 55: Peach is really a green-tea bitch. She used to have a flirty thing with that Jiangjun in the guild, and later she cucked Jiangjun for Pingbaike. Jiangjun was so furious he straight-up destroyed Peach’s account.
Floor 56: 666, a role model for us all. That’s exactly how you should treat a green-tea bitch.
Floor 57: Watch your language upstairs. Jiangjun is a damn account thief, isn’t he? Peach has already filed a police report.
Floor 58: Although Jiangjun’s methods aren’t right, it’s still so satisfying! I’m a woman and I still think Jiangjun did a great job.
Floor 59: Stop pretending, Floor 58. Your profile history already exposed that you’re not a woman. Cut the “I’m a woman and I still” act.
……
Floor 221: Isn’t it normal for high-combat players to play with other high-combat players? I only pick friends who spend money like I do—what’s wrong with that? Playing a game doesn’t mean I have to support the poor.
Floor 222: So is there any actual evidence? Just a bunch of chat logs—who’s going to believe that?
Floor 223: Right. Is the rich guy really that stupid? Give me a hundred rich guys like that.
Floor 224: Rich guy from Floor 221, let’s get to know each other! Do you care about gender?
Floor 225: What’s so great about having a few stinking bucks on Floor 221? Talking so harshly—you’ll never even get four dishes on your table in this lifetime.
…
Floor 350: Am I the only one curious about how pretty Peach really is? Even this person digging up her dirt didn’t badmouth her face—feels like she’s some kind of celestial beauty.
Floor 351: Actually, Peach looks pretty average… When Lun Tianxia first launched, we were in a small friends-and-family group, and she did post a photo, but I can’t find the record anymore—who bothers saving other people’s photos for no reason? So this OP doesn’t even know what she really looks like, which means all of this is definitely fake.
Floor 352: The OP’s IP is from City B, huh? Wasn’t that account-stealing bastard Jiangjun’s IP also from City B before?
…