The summer heat was oppressive, and the sun shone brightly, causing the towering office buildings to reflect a dazzling glare.
Cen Shuixi hurried along, fine beads of sweat covering the tip of her nose as she quickly descended the stairs in the emergency stairwell.
She glanced at her watch. The hands pointed to three fifty.
The entrance to the underground parking lot was right in front of her. Cen Shuixi swallowed against her dry throat and reached out to push open the door.
The next second, a refreshing blast of cold air from the air conditioner swept across her forehead.
Cen Shuixi opened her eyes in a daze and found herself standing outside an office. Her back was covered in a cold sweat.
The tapping of keyboards gradually filled the air. The employees in the office area were working quietly and orderly, while the clock on the wall pointed to three thirty five.
An employee passed by and nodded at her.
“Good afternoon, President Cen.”
Cen Shuixi widened her eyes.
“…I’m trapped in a ghost loop.”
The employee covered his lips.
“President Cen, you really know how to joke.”
Cen Shuixi was speechless.
What kind of hellish place was this?
She had woken up from a nap at noon and somehow found herself standing here, still wearing a neat business suit and skirt. Heaven knew she had never worn clothes like these before.
From what she had observed, this building belonged to the Cen Group, and she was President Cen. All these employees knew her.
But the most terrifying thing was that she could not leave the building, no matter what she tried.
Over the past few hours, she had taken the elevator, used the stairs, gone to the rooftop and pretended she was going to jump, clutched her chest and pretended to have a heart attack, and tried all sorts of things, but none of them worked. The moment she stepped outside the building, she would return to the office entrance, and even the time would reset to three thirty five.
It was as though the game kept refreshing to the same save point, or a television drama kept replaying the same episode.
Cen Shuixi stood there quietly for a while, scratched her hair, then turned around and twisted open the office door.
The office was decorated in black, white, and gray, with an extremely cold and rigid style typical of a domineering company president. It did not suit her personality at all, though it certainly resembled her older brother Zhuo Yu’s style.
Cen Shuixi scratched her head and dropped onto the sofa.
At first, she had thought she had been kidnapped. Although she was a lazy person who could barely manage household chores and knew nothing about farming, her older brother was a powerful company president, so there should still be some profit to be squeezed out of him.
That was why she had been determined to find a way out. After trying several times, however, she realized that this situation was far too bizarre to have been caused by another person.
Since things had come to this, she might as well eat first.
She had gone up and down the building so many times that her back and legs ached, her stomach was empty, and her legs were practically cramping.
Cen Shuixi sprawled on the sofa without a care for her image and pressed the shortcut button on the desk phone.
“Bring me something to eat.”
Although she did not know where this was or who these employees were, since she was President Cen, she should at least have a secretary or assistant.
Sure enough, a young and cheerful voice answered through the phone.
“Certainly, President Cen.”
Soon, there was a knock on the door. Cen Shuixi stared blankly ahead.
“Come in.”
A young man with a short haircut pushed a small food cart into the room, his smile bright and cheerful.
“President Cen, afternoon tea is here.”
Cen Shuixi’s gaze focused on the name tag beside his suit pocket. The name written on it was Assistant Han.
She stared at it for a little too long, and the man looked at himself in confusion.
“What’s wrong, President Cen? Is there something wrong with me?”
Cen Shuixi said, “…Assistant Han?”
“Please give me your instructions, President Cen.”
The employees in the office were all incredibly robotic. After experimenting so many times, Cen Shuixi had discovered that even if she clutched her chest and collapsed onto the floor, the employees would only say, “President Cen, the floor is cold. Please don’t sleep on the floor.”
This Assistant Han was a new character. She had never seen him before, so perhaps there was a breakthrough hidden in him.
Cen Shuixi sat up and cleared her throat.
“Do I have anything else scheduled this afternoon?”
Assistant Han answered while arranging the afternoon tea.
“You still have one meeting to attend.”
Another meeting?
What the hell was this place supposed to do?
She was an impostor. What meeting could she possibly attend?
Assistant Han finished arranging the food and prepared to leave. Before stepping out, he turned back.
“President Cen?”
Cen Shuixi looked at him.
“Hmm?”
Assistant Han wore a secretive, gossiping smile and gave her an encouraging thumbs up.
“Make sure you replenish your energy and have fun.”
With that, he walked away with a grin.
Cen Shuixi was stunned. Why did she feel as though she had missed some extremely important information?
She thought about it for a while but could not figure it out.
Forget it. She would eat first.
The table was covered with all kinds of exquisite pastries and fruit. Cen Shuixi pushed all those chaotic thoughts aside and stuffed herself until she was full.
She had to admit, the food tasted excellent. It was almost as good as the afternoon tea at Zhuo Yu’s company.
Thinking of Zhuo Yu, Cen Shuixi unexpectedly felt a little sad.
Why could it not have been Zhuo Yu who was trapped in this hellish place instead? If that were the case, no one would be able to control her.
“Ding.”
Her phone vibrated with an incoming notification.
Cen Shuixi immediately jumped to her feet.
Right, she still had her phone. There might be useful information on it.
She found the phone on the desk and unlocked the screen. There was no password. WeChat was filled with a long string of red unread notification dots, all from names she did not recognize.
She scrolled down, and her expression gradually became more colorful.
This President Cen certainly had a very interesting private life.
All the earlier messages had unread notification dots, but there was one person whose message was marked as read. The contact name was Secretary Zhuo.
What kind of name was that?
Cen Shuixi silently complained to herself.
The moment she opened the conversation, two flirtatious messages appeared before her eyes.
“Your toy is waiting for you in the bathroom.”
“There will be new tricks today.”
There was also a voice message underneath. Cen Shuixi hesitated for a moment before choosing to convert it into text. A string of moans appeared on the screen.
She looked at the time the message had been sent.
Three thirty.
Well then, the breakthrough was here.
So the correct schedule for this President Cen was to receive the message and then go to the bathroom to meet her toy.
No wonder every time she left the building, she would return to the office entrance and the time would reset to three thirty five.
It seemed she really needed to make a trip to the bathroom.
Cen Shuixi put her phone away, stuffed another piece of watermelon into her mouth, and stood up.
Before leaving the office, she took a look at the private bathroom inside.
There was no one there, so the person must definitely be in the public bathroom.
Cen Shuixi raised an eyebrow.
She was certainly bold.
The public bathroom was behind the office area. As Cen Shuixi walked toward it, she continued scrolling through the chat history between the two people.
It turned out that “Secretary Zhuo” was not actually his name. He was President Cen’s secretary, but there was hardly anything proper in their chat history. It was filled with all kinds of suggestive messages, so there was not much useful information.
When she reached the bathroom entrance, Cen Shuixi turned off her phone.
Someone walked out toward her.
It was Assistant Han.
He smiled and greeted her.
“Good afternoon, President Cen.”
Cen Shuixi nodded. The two passed each other, one entering and the other leaving.
The moment Cen Shuixi stepped into the bathroom, she heard a burst of loud activity.
The woman’s voice was high enough to rival an opera singer, while the man said viciously, “Why didn’t you make a sound just now? Were you afraid your husband would hear you? Are you cheating on him with me behind his back?”
Cen Shuixi heard every word clearly.
Assistant Han really had it hard.
Cen Shuixi looked around the bathroom. It was clearly a bathroom shared by men and women, and every stall door was closed.
Amid the uninhibited sounds coming from both the man and woman, Cen Shuixi quietly walked around once and focused on the final stall.
The door handle was red. This was the second occupied stall.
Just as Cen Shuixi stopped in front of the final stall, a translucent pop up window about the size of a sheet of B5 paper suddenly appeared before her eyes, startling her into taking a step backward.
When she moved, the pop up window moved along with her field of vision, as though it were a window attached to her gaze.
What was this thing?
Cen Shuixi forced herself to remain calm and looked carefully.
Inside the pop up window was an open book. Most of the pages were blurry, with only a few lines of text clearly visible.
【Bathroom / Two People . The toy in the bathroom made President Cen feel extremely satisfied.
After three exhilarating hours, President Cen put on her clothes and calmly washed her hands. She looked at the man who had been thoroughly played with inside the bathroom and smiled seductively.
“I never expected you to have such a flirtatious side.”】
Cen Shuixi was speechless.
What on earth was this thing?
Cen Shuixi tried clicking on the page, but there was no response. The words simply floated there in front of her eyes in a completely unscientific manner, glowing brightly and making themselves impossible to ignore.
The battle in the neighboring stall was still going strong.
Cen Shuixi hesitated. This pop up window certainly did not look like anything legitimate.
She thought about it for a while, then turned around and tried to leave.
The moment she stepped out of the bathroom, she returned to the final stall.
That familiar feeling of dizziness came over her again.
So every single step had been locked in place. If she did not follow whatever this thing wanted, she could not go anywhere.
Cen Shuixi let out a long breath. With the determination of someone marching bravely toward her own demise, she reached out and pushed open the bathroom stall door.
The page was still glowing before her eyes, swaying with her vision and partially blocking her view of the man sitting on the toilet with his legs spread open.
Before Cen Shuixi could figure out how to speak, the man spoke first.
His voice was hoarse, yet extraordinarily calm.
“Who sent you? The Zhao family or the Sun family? I know what you want.
Let me give you one piece of advice. The Zhuo family will never…”
That familiar, cold voice rang out.
Cen Shuixi froze.
She waved her hand in front of her eyes, and the lines of text scattered for a moment before returning to their original position.
She finally saw the man clearly.
His shirt collar was disheveled, and his suit trousers were wrinkled. His chest and abdominal muscles were tightly bound by red ropes, making them bulge prominently.
His black hair was disheveled across his forehead, while a tie was wrapped around his eyes.
Only his high, sharply defined nose and tightly pressed pale lips were exposed, along with his clean and sharply defined jawline.
Who else could he be if not Zhuo Yu?
After Zhuo Yu finished speaking, the other person did not respond at all.
He was normally the one giving orders. When has he ever been in such a miserable state?
The identity and intentions of the other party were unknown, yet they had managed to bind him and bring him here without making a sound, leaving him in such a filthy place. They were clearly no good.
In the suffocating silence, Zhuo Yu heard footsteps approaching.
His muscles instantly tensed.
“You…”
Before he could finish, he caught a faint, sweet and refreshing scent.
It was the fragrance of magnolia.
It was her.
He hesitated.
“Shuixi.”
Cen Shuixi’s hand stopped in midair as she reached out and removed the tie covering his eyes.
The light suddenly stabbed into his eyes. Zhuo Yu narrowed them slightly.
His pupils were dark and deep, while his lashes at the corners of his eyes were thick and black, resembling black butterflies about to take flight.
Cen Shuixi held the tie, which still carried his body heat, and leaned against the door with a casual smile.
“I was going to scare you, but you actually recognized me. How did you manage that?”
Zhuo Yu slowly blinked once. He did not answer her question. Instead, he looked around the bathroom, then lowered his head to examine the decorations on his own body.
The bell around his neck jingled noisily whenever he moved.
Finally, his gaze landed on Cen Shuixi.
Clearly, none of this had anything to do with her, yet under Zhuo Yu’s sharp and scrutinizing gaze, she inexplicably felt guilty.
“Why are you looking at me? I didn’t do this.”
Zhuo Yu moved slightly, and the bell rang again with a crisp sound. He closed his eyes as though he could barely tolerate it.
“Untie me first.”
“Oh…”
Cen Shuixi bent down and was about to help him when she suddenly stopped and said sincerely, “Brother, I really didn’t do this.”
Zhuo Yu replied, “…We can discuss this later. Untie me first.”
Cen Shuixi was about to argue again when she suddenly noticed his hands bound behind him. His wrists had already begun turning purple.
She hurriedly untied the ropes, feeling even guiltier.
While she had been eating and drinking her fill in the office, had he been tied up in the bathroom this entire time?