C46 — Dream Butterfly

When it was almost lunch time, Mu Sichen, with the help of his glasses, watched the movements of He Fei and his colleagues from an unoccupied part of the office building and waited for them to order takeout.

 

As soon as the delivery boy arrived, he would stop the boy, steal the delivery, borrow the other helmet to deliver the food, and then take the opportunity to exchange the dolls.

 

This process was probably bound to cost some money. Mu Sichen had a headache whenever he thought about how much money he had spent.

 

After settling on a plan, Mu Sichen waited intently for these people to order lunch.

 

He saw a rather boldly dressed beauty walking towards He Fei with a mobile phone, thinking that she was probably going to order lunch, he stared nervously at He Fei and the beauty, fearing that the beauty might accidentally see the tentacle of the doll when ordering lunch.

 

Who knew that the beauty even sat directly on the armrest of He Fei’s chair and leaned into He Fei’s ear and whispered, “Xiao Fei, you work too hard; you should take a break once in a while?”

 

Mu Sichen frowned.

 

It wasn’t that his roommate was too close to his beautiful colleague that made him a little jealous, but Mu Sichen had a subtle feeling.

 

 

He felt that this beauty’s face was a bit fake.

 

Not the fake brought by medical plastic surgery, but another kind; her eyes and smile were both fake and stiff.

 

He Fei had his wits about him at this point and said without looking away, “Just a moment, Big Sister Su, I’ll finish proofreading this page.”

 

The beauty known as “Big Sister Su”: “…”.

She wasn’t discouraged and continued her efforts by coming to He Fei’s ear and whispering, “Xiao Fei, aren’t you tired of working so hard? You’re just an intern; there’s no need to be so serious. Aren’t you tired? I’ll lend you my nap pillow, so you can have a good sleep and dream.”

 

After He Fei heard her words, his eyes blinked twice, obviously a little sleepy.

 

He raised his hand and touched the doll for a moment, then he was refreshed and said firmly, “I usually don’t sleep at noon; it’ll wait until I finish proofreading this page.”

 

Big Sister Su glared fiercely at He Fei and left He Fei’s seat with some disappointment.

 

Mu Sichen intuitively adjusted his sight and followed Big Sister Su.

 

Only to see her walk to an office seat and carry out a box with a bunch of pillows in it.

 

These pillows were uniform in style, with the same pattern embroidered on them.

 

It was a butterfly’s wings spread out to draw a semicircle, wrapped in a pattern similar to a brain.

 

When Mu Sichen saw this pattern, his brain suddenly froze, and for a moment it was as if he had fallen into a dreamlike state, muddled and unaware of the time.

 

In a trance, he seemed to appear in front of the eyes of a butterfly with wings, with a beautiful dream to help him fall asleep.

 

Mu Sichen didn’t know how much time had passed in a moment.

 

Hunger made him wake up, and Mu Sichen opened his eyes violently, only to feel a sore back while the sky was already dark.

 

Taking another look at the time, it was actually almost eight o’clock in the evening.

 

He had come to the downstairs of He Fei’s company at around noon, and it was 8 p.m. What happened in these eight hours? How did he lose the memory of these eight hours?

 

Mu Sichen stood up from the ground and held up his glasses. Seeing that the golden glasses were still on his eyes and hadn’t disappeared, he was slightly relieved.

 

“What happened to me in these eight hours?” Mu Sichen asked.

 

The golden glasses pierced Mu Sichen again, and this time it was different from before. Mu Sichen not only felt pain but also had the feeling that all his physical strength had been drained.

With a burst of exhaustion, he saw through the golden glasses that he had done nothing for the past eight hours, just sitting here sleeping.

 

What the hell was going on? He just saw a few pillows through his glasses.

 

The pattern on that hug pillow was, surprisingly, very much like some sort of totem!

 

 

Mu Sichen instantly got a bone chilling feeling.

 

“What happened to He Fei’s company in these eight hours?” Mu Sichen asked.

 

This time, the golden glasses showed nothing and didn’t work.

 

Mu Sichen remembered that the condition of using the golden glasses was that 2000 energy values would be deducted when wearing them, and 1000 would be deducted every hour after that. He had a total of 10,000 energy values, and at this time, he slept with the golden glasses for 8 hours and consumed just 10,000 energy values.

 

It couldn’t be that using golden glasses in the real world also required energy value, right?

 

If that was the case, he was afraid that it would take 6 hours for his energy to be restored to full.

 

By this time, He Fei had already finished work, and Mu Sichen didn’t need to look at it anymore. He tiredly got up, got on his bike, and ate something nearby to recover some energy before returning to the dormitory.

 

As soon as he opened the door and saw He Fei sitting at his desk earnestly prepping for the second half of the year’s textbooks, with the doll on his bookshelf, Mu Sichen was slightly relieved.

He Fei carefully wrote down the last word before putting down his pen and greeting Mu Sichen, “Back?”

 

“Mm.” Almost exhausted, Mu Sichen threw the backpack containing doll #2 onto the bed and said to He Fei, “How was your day at work?”

 

“Nothing much; it was pretty good.” He said,.

 

Mu Sichen: “You’ve been working for so long; hasn’t anything special happened in the company?”

 

He Fei: “How has it been long? I’ve only been working for four days; the foot you twisted last time you kicked me out of bed is still not good; I still have to go to work on crutches.”

 

Mu Sichen: “……”

 

Did He Fei still remember this incident? He thought that He Fei, who had returned to normal, had already forgotten that frightening night.

 

“But it’s also my fault; who told me to climb into your bed in the middle of the night and scare you?” He Fei shrugged and said, “So I don’t blame you for tying me up and throwing me out the door under the stress reaction; I’m a mature and sensible person who wouldn’t bother with you in general.”

Mu Sichen: “……”

 

He felt that this roommate had really become better and better after being bewitched by the evil god.

 

“Little Mu,” He Fei said to Mu Sichen in a serious tone. “What’s the point of being a human being? The most important thing is to keep a normal heart and look at the world with a clear and rational mind. Look at you; your stress response is so irrational. What should you do in society in the future? There are too many tests in society; you have to learn to be rational.”

Mu Sichen got up and went to the bathroom. He was tired; he wanted to take a shower and go back to sleep. He didn’t want to pay attention to this housemate ever again.

 

At this time, He Fei stroked his chin and said, “But you asked if there was something going on in the company… It’s just that before I went to the company, there was an employee who died suddenly. That’s why their company was especially short of people, and that’s why they recruited a group of interns.”

 

Mu Sichen’s footsteps paused, and he turned back to He Fei, asking seriously, “How did he die?”

 

He Fei: “I heard it was a nap that killed him.”

“In fact, our company is not a 996 company; the welfare treatment is quite good; at noon, they’ll also specially arrange time for employees to take a unified nap and also give employees sleep by folding chairs or pillows.”

 

[TN: 996 — The 996 working hour system (Chinese: 996工作制) is a work schedule practiced illegally by many companies in China. It derives its name from its requirement that employees work from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, 6 days per week]

 

“The employee who died suddenly must have been in poor health. I heard he slept at work all the time, and the boss couldn’t say anything about him. But the more he slept, the thinner he became, and he almost became skin and bones.”

 

“That day after the nap, everyone got up; he was still sleeping; the manager was a little angry; he walked up and pushed him but he just sank straight down; and everyone realized he had been dead for more than an hour.”

 

This matter, combined with the pillow pattern that he saw through his gold-rimmed glasses, creeped Mu Sichen out.

 

“Have you ever napped? Ever taken one of their pillows or folding chairs?” Mu Sichen asked.

 

He Fei: “Of course not; don’t you understand me? I never like to sleep at noon; how nice is it to have time to play a game? And the pattern on that pillow and folding chair of theirs is so ugly; to what extent is it ugly? To the extent that I feel dizzy just by looking at it, and I’m about to throw up.”

 

“Our office lady Su insisted on giving me a pillow, but I dare not take it. I can’t even eat when I see that thing, but my octopus doll looks good.”

 

“It’s so uncomfortable to think of disgusting things. I’ll look at my little octopus to clean my eyes.”

 

He Fei winced and hastened to look at the doll seriously; his somewhat uncomfortable look gradually became soothed, and his whole person seemed to have sublimated in appearance.

 

This look of his was so similar to Chi Lian and Cheng Xubo, who felt nauseous after seeing the picture of the octopus doll.

 

“He Fei, can’t you not go to work?” Mu Sichen asked.

 

“How can that be? I signed a one-month internship contract, and I promised my parents that I would work hard. Moreover, mature and sensible people should be brave enough to face difficulties and challenges, keep their promises, and never be a person who breaks his promise; otherwise, I won’t even have the qualification to look at the octopus doll!” He Fei looked at the doll and suddenly said, “This doll has a tentacle that looks extraordinarily round and beautiful and holy.”

 

Mu Sichen looked at the doll and decided it was better not to exchange the dolls.

 

He Fei’s company wasn’t right; the pattern on that pillow must be some sort of totem.

 

Mu Sichen had long suspected that the game world and the real world were infiltrating a little bit. He thought that it was because he had inadvertently brought the octopus doll back; he didn’t expect it to happen earlier than he knew.

 

A problem that couldn’t be ignored was in front of him.

The real world wasn’t safe.

 

It was just that all of this happened so secretly that those who hadn’t experienced it didn’t know about it, and those who had experienced it were affected by the power of the otherworldly world and wouldn’t tell it to the outside world.

 

He Fei was indeed mesmerized by the octopus doll and fell into some inexplicable obsession.

But he was also protected by Qin Zu’s power.

 

He wouldn’t retrieve the doll until he figured out what was going on with the company; let it protect He Fei.

 

Mu Sichen washed up and got into bed, saw the backpack containing doll 2, and had a headache.

 

This thing had cost him hundreds of yuan; was it that useless?

 

He’d just use it as a cuddle pillow. Mu Sichen’s expression twisted as he stuffed doll #2 under the covers.

While He Fei was turned into a self-disciplined young man with a normal routine of going to bed early and waking up early by the little octopus, Mu Sichen couldn’t go to bed so early anymore.

 

He had lost too much money in the meantime and had to make good money tonight.

 

On weekday nights, customers appeared quickly, so Mu Sichen quickly received a job.

 

He slept for 8 hours during the day, but he was refreshed at night and accompanied the client until more than two in the morning.

 

The client wasn’t yet satisfied and went offline to rest, and Mu Sichen also put down his hot mobile phone, stretched a lazy waist, and was ready to sleep.

 

At this time, he saw a doll with a luminous glow hobbling and falling from He Fei’s bed, and then slowly crawling to his bed with a disabled body.

 

This time, the doll’s movements were more skilled, and it only fell twice before it got onto Mu Sichen’s bed.

 

However, Mu Sichen picked it up with one hand and said in a low voice, “It’s better for you to follow He Fei now; I’m a bit worried about him. I will go to his company tomorrow to take a look; until then, please.”

After saying that, Mu Sichen easily jumped off the bed and placed the pirate doll that had come over the mountain to him back on He Fei’s bedside.

 

The doll glared at Mu Sichen, watching as he returned to the bed, snuggled doll #2 under the covers, and fell into a deep sleep.

 

---