“Leaving already? Don’t go, Brother Yang! There are still three skewers we haven’t served. What’s the rush? We can always skip the drinks, right?”

Luo Hao thought Bai Yuyang was worried about having to drink.

Brother Yang really couldn’t hold his liquor.

They had been drinking a little fast just now.

Everyone else wanted to do their best to persuade him to stay, too.

From high school until now, Bai Yuyang always seemed to be busy. Getting him to sit down for a meal was practically impossible.

But drinking wasn’t why Yuyang wanted to leave... Hearing what they’d been talking about had just made him feel awful again.

Just as he got to his feet with a wry smile and waved his hand...

His phone rang.

Who could it be this time...?

Yuyang glanced at his phone screen on instinct. The call log showed more than twenty missed calls from the past hour, and now this one.

This time, the caller was his supervisor at work.

This call... He didn’t want to answer, but he couldn’t ignore it either.

He picked up and held the phone to his ear. A middle-aged man’s somewhat anxious voice immediately came through the speaker.

“Hello? Hello! Yuyang, are you still near the office?”

“Hello, Section Chief Zhang. What do you need?”

Yuyang didn’t say whether he was nearby or not, keeping himself an escape route.

When the classmates gathered around the table heard Yuyang discussing work, they stopped talking and instinctively fell silent.

The voice on the other end continued, “Yuyang, if you’re free, could you come back to the office and put in some overtime? None of our programmers are on the night shift today, and Xiao Liu, who was supposed to be on duty, called in sick. And wouldn’t you know it, our software started acting up right now.”

“I thought it over. You’re not a programmer, but you’re the closest one on the schedule who knows programming. If you haven’t gone far, come back and give us a hand! If we have to wait for the programmers from downtown to get back, the company could take a huge loss.”

While Section Chief Zhang was talking, Yuyang turned on speakerphone.

He wanted his buddies to hear it, too.

Now he had the perfect excuse to leave.

Seeing Yuyang standing there with his phone and a wry smile, Luo Hao and the others felt exhausted on his behalf.

Good grief. Even a company this big expected people to drop everything and work overtime.

With his supervisor calling personally, there wasn’t much room to say no.

But then, Bai Yuyang had been personally chosen by the chairman.

When Section Chief Zhang realized Yuyang wasn’t answering right away, he hurriedly added,

“We’ll pay you five times the usual overtime rate. And I’ll talk to Mr. Tang more about your promotion, Yuyang!”

Well, judging by that tone, if they couldn’t fix this problem, it sounded like Section Chief Zhang would be the one held responsible.

Yuyang had already been planning to leave, and the office wasn’t far away. He might as well swing by and help. Computer programs weren’t difficult for him to deal with.

“All right, Section Chief Zhang. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Great! Great! Come as soon as you can, Yuyang.”

“Got it.”

Bai Yuyang wasn’t in the mood to say anything more. He hung up right away.

“You guys heard that, right, Luo Hao?” Yuyang shrugged and got to his feet again. “That’s working life for you—you don’t get to call the shots. I’d love to hang out longer, but overtime’s staring me in the face. What am I supposed to do, get myself fired?”

“Haha, don’t worry, Brother Yang. We get it—work comes first. There’ll be plenty of chances to hang out again. And if you ever need anything... Well, I doubt you’ll need our help, but if you do, just tell us!”

The others stood up, too, to see Yuyang off.

“Next time, for sure.”

Yuyang answered jokingly.

Having a bunch of troublemaking friends from high school wasn’t so bad after all.

After that, Yuyang picked up his suit jacket and draped it over his shoulders. He called another cab and headed back to the office without lingering.

“All right, Section Chief Zhang. The program’s back to normal. I need to stay here for another hour. If nothing goes wrong, then it’s completely fixed.”

On the top floor of the Kongfeng Group building, with a view over the entire nighttime cityscape of Qifeng City, Yuyang had fixed the complicated program that had been troubling everyone on the floor in no time.

Section Chief Zhang, standing nearby with a slightly bald head, adjusted his glasses. The tension in his brow eased, and he finally let out a sigh of relief.

“Ah, Yuyang, thank you so much for today! No wonder Mr. Tang picked you himself—you’re truly exceptional!”

“Haha... You’re too kind, Section Chief Zhang. If that’s everything, could you let me stay here alone for a while? I need a quiet place to check what caused the problem.”

“Of course, of course! Take your time. I’ll take the others out.”

Yuyang had no intention of checking what caused the problem. He was simply at the end of his rope and wanted to be alone for a while.

One thing after another... And even now, he still hadn’t worked up the courage to tell the girls his decision.

Bai Yuyang, Bai Yuyang... Aren’t you just running away?

You’ve already made up your mind. So why can’t you be more resolute?

Once everyone else had left the server room, Bai Yuyang was all alone in the vast space.

He lowered his head in thought, watching his phone ring again with a hesitant gaze.

Should he keep hanging up...?

How long was he going to keep doing that?

Maybe it was the alcohol, but this time he got worked up and didn’t even check who was calling. He grabbed his phone and hit answer.

“Hello?”

“Brother?! You finally answered! Where are you? I was so worried! Qingyu’s been looking for you, too. What are you doing?”

The caller was Bai Yuyang’s younger sister, Bai Yuxi.

Though they’d only recently learned that they weren’t actually related by blood.

“Xiao Xi... Did you... see the decision I sent you?”

“I saw it. Does that matter right now? The important thing is, where are you? Are you safe?”

“Huh...?” Yuyang didn’t know how to respond for a moment.

But because he doted on his younger sister, he still told her where he was and assured her that he was safe.

It sounded like she’d been reassured. She paused, then spoke in an incredibly gentle voice.

“Brother, you’re always like this... You’ve made your choice, but we haven’t given up. No matter how long it takes, I’m going to win you back...”

“Xiao Xi? Hello? Xiao...”

Beep, beep, beep...

The call ended.

Knowing Bai Yuxi, Yuyang figured she’d probably come straight to the office.

After that call, Yuyang didn’t feel any better.

If anything, he felt even worse.

He slumped into a chair, his thoughts a mess. What did she mean, they hadn’t given up...?

If that was the case, what was he supposed to do...?

At times like this, Yuyang knew he needed to distract himself first and calm down.

And wasn’t there already a way to do that, right at hand?

Yuyang was a pretty seasoned anime fan, after all.

Time to go all out!

He was usually so frugal he could’ve been called a miser. But he opened a few mobile games he played and, with a pang, made more than a dozen in-game purchases!

How’s that for a move?!

His wallet hurt so much! Surely that would distract him a little!

He watched the charges keep popping up on his bank card...

No... Now his heart hurt even more.

“What’s wrong with me... Doing something this stupid. Whatever. I do feel a little better.”

If one kind of pain could just barely outweigh another, that counted as a kind of relief.

Since he’d already spent the money, Yuyang looked out at the dazzling nighttime view and decided to open the gacha banner and do a few ten-pulls.

With my luck this bad today, surely I can get something amazing on the first pull in a game, right?!

But... he got carried away.

In every game, every ten-pull hit pity—and the worst kind of pity at that. There was no hope in sight.

“Damn it! Get lost!”

Yuyang completely lost it.

Under the weight of all that pressure, he threw his phone onto the floor.

Then he picked it up... and anxiously checked to see if it was damaged.

“Ugh... I’m so sick of this, so sick of it! If I could do it all over again, I’d rather never have met any of you! Because of all of you, how could I let even one of you go?! Do you think I wanted to choose?!”

“I’m just an ordinary person, too! I have responsibilities! How could I keep putting off answering you forever?!”

“I... *cough, cough*...”

Had he gotten too worked up and choked on his spit?

Had the terrible gacha luck made him so mad he’d choked?

Neither was right...

Just now, Yuyang had thrown his phone and shouted at the top of his lungs.

The server room was full of employees outside, and he’d made no effort to contain his emotions. Yet not one person came in to see what was going on?

The room wasn’t even soundproof.

And hadn’t it been strangely quiet in here for a while now...?

The server room shouldn’t have been this quiet. There should’ve been at least the sound of machines running. Now, there wasn’t a sound at all.

Yuyang felt a tightness in his chest. This wasn’t the heartache he’d felt earlier—it was literal pain.

He clutched his chest, forced himself to his feet, and walked over to the window. When he looked outside, his eyes widened.

He was utterly astonished.

The traffic that had once filled the streets… had all come to a standstill.

The neon lights, once bright with every color, had all turned into a shade Yuyang couldn't describe.

The pain in his chest grew more and more intense, until Yuyang winced in agony.

What the hell was going on…?

He could feel his consciousness gradually growing hazy, like that half-asleep, half-awake state just before you drift off.

This was definitely not normal.

Yuyang forced his eyes open through the pain, but the cars in the distance seemed to have merged with the lights, until he could no longer make them out.

And… everything seemed to be moving backward.

Those lights… that scenery… they shouldn't have had any direction at all, yet in Yuyang's eyes, they were definitely rushing backward.

Unable to make sense of these strange phenomena, Bai Yuyang lifted his head against the immense pressure and reached out as if to touch something. Then, with all his strength, he shouted:

“Can someone just tell me what the hell is going on?!”

As soon as he finished shouting,

his consciousness went completely blank.

The world, too, seemed to finally fall silent again.

……………………

“Big brother? Big brother! Wake up! Don't scare me! Did you have a nightmare, big brother?”

A sweet, soft voice sounded beside Bai Yuyang's ear.

As he slowly opened his eyes, the voice gradually grew clearer.

Then…

Once Bai Yuyang's mind had fully cleared, he recognized the person in front of him—someone more familiar than anyone.

A cute girl with silver hair and blue eyes, about 156 centimeters tall, tears welling at the corners of her eyes from worry.

It was Bai Yuyang's younger sister, Bai Yuxi.

“Huh… Xiao Xi? How did I get here…? Wasn't I at the company…? Why are you crying? And why are you wearing your high school uniform…?”

Bai Yuyang sat up.

There were too many questions he wanted to ask, but there was so much to take in.

He didn't even know where to start.