Chapter 76

Upon entering the small world, Jian Yixin found herself on the ground floor of a high-end office building.

The windows were clean, and people in suits came and went, walking hurriedly yet confidently, exuding an air of rushing to clock in on a workday morning.

But Jian Yixin just sat quietly.

She looked at the computer in front of her and the colleagues smiling warmly around her, realizing she was a receptionist.

09 exclaimed softly, “Wow, a receptionist.”

This was the first time the host had started as a three of hearts.

Before Jian Yixin could reply, she was nudged by a colleague who whispered a reminder. She looked up and saw a particularly conspicuous woman.

This woman stood out not only because of her appearance but also because while others were dressed in suits, she wore a fur coat and heavy makeup, looking ostentatious.

She approached with her high heels clicking on the floor, clutching her fur and staring at Jian Yixin critically.

Jian Yixin followed her two colleagues, displaying a standard welcoming smile.

The woman flicked her fingers on her elbow, sneering, “Ms. Song doesn’t seem so high-spirited today.”

Noticing she was still called Song Pianxian, Jian Yixin kept a warm yet elegant smile, gazing at the woman.

The woman furrowed her brows, snorted, then turned and walked away, displaying an air of disdain towards Song Pianxian, tapping her heels harder.

Seeing her leave, the colleague who had ignored Song Pianxian all along breathed a sigh of relief and said in a sarcastic tone, “We told you not to provoke the young lady. If only you had realized your place earlier, we wouldn’t all have our salaries deducted because of you.”

The other colleague who had reminded Song Pianxian earlier said, “It’s not Pianxian’s fault. Ms. Xia is doing this all for CEO Xi.”

Song Pianxian didn’t say much. When the lobby was empty, she multitasked, receiving the information from 09 while working on a statistical sheet.

This time, her role was Bai Yueguang’s stand-in.

Seeing this, Song Pianxian basically confirmed that she would be dealing with the “CEO” identity again. Even if she didn’t read these internet novels, she had heard plenty of melodramatic plots.

Sure enough, Xi Heng, whom she was going to interact with, was the CEO.

In the previous generation of the Xi Family, there was only one daughter, Xi Wei, who married Fu Siyuan, a golden phoenix that flew out of the mountains.

Xi Wei gave birth to two children with Fu Siyuan, a boy and a girl, making a “good” character, and the family seemed happy.

However, after Fu Siyuan settled down for three or five years, he met his college sweetheart, Bai Yueguang. Because love knows no right or wrong, and coupled with the difficulty of controlling emotions, Fu Siyuan secretly started a small family with Bai Yueguang outside.

Fu Siyuan was happy outside, and out of guilt, he treated Xi Wei even better at home. Xi Wei respected his privacy and never probed into his affairs outside.

It wasn’t until their illegitimate child—Xi Heng—reached the age of five or six that both parents of the Xi Family passed away one after another. Xi Wei, injured from childbirth, stayed at home to recuperate, leaving Fu Siyuan in charge of the family. He then brought Bai Yueguang and Xi Heng back home.

At that time, Xi Heng naturally wasn’t called Xi Heng; he was named Fu Heng, but couldn’t resist his formidable mother.

When other relatives of the Xi Family came to reason and supported Xi Wei, saying, “This is your son, it has nothing to do with the Xi Family. Get out of the Xi Family quickly,” Bai Yueguang decisively made her son follow Xi Wei’s surname.

This audacious move astonished the relatives and made the aristocratic circles laugh at the joke for months, tearing relationships apart until exhaustion.

For the sake of her child, Xi Wei endured it.

From then on, Bai Yueguang and Xi Heng lived in the western city, pretending to be an aunt and nephew.

But everyone understood the dirty secrets behind it, looking down on Bai Yueguang and Xi Heng. Xi Heng grew up in such an environment and was even called “bastard” in school, often bullied.

As he matured and followed the male protagonist’s must-excel setting, he, with the support of Fu Siyuan, established a company and later acquired the Xi Family’s industry, becoming a prominent and respected business tycoon.

During his high school years, when he was bullied in an alley, he met his Bai Yueguang, Nie Lingbo.

Since then, he couldn’t forget her.

When it came time to apply for college, Xi Heng’s mother, Bai Rong, wanted him to go abroad, but he refused and attended the same university as Nie Lingbo.

By the time he was admitted to the university, Nie Lingbo had already left.

Men always wanted to achieve something before showing off their feathers in front of women, but just as he got the money Fu Siyuan embezzled from the Xi Family and started his own business, Nie Lingbo left for abroad without turning back.

After she left, she didn’t come back for seven years.

Xi Heng was in extreme pain, feeling very uncomfortable, and had to find many substitutes to alleviate his longing and physical needs.

Noses alike, eyes alike, faces alike, temperaments alike, even names alike, he tried them all.

Although he didn’t go around shouting, “I like Nie Lingbo,” anyone could see through the efforts he made.

Businessmen who wanted to cooperate with him targeted his preferences, as the original body was the one who dug Nie Lingbo out of university and sent her to Xi Heng.

The signing of that contract went exceptionally smoothly because the original body resembled Nie Lingbo so much, covering the upper half of the face, the lower half of the face was identical.

Xi Heng cherished this resemblance greatly. Seeing the original body’s innocence, he was inspired and started a pure romance with the original body.

Unable to win Nie Lingbo’s heart, obtaining the heart of someone so alike was also a kind of compensation—after all, his physical needs were not lacking for a solution.

Song Pianxian could probably guess the rest of the plot.

It seems Bai Yueguang is definitely going back to the country.

She flipped through and found Xia Lei, who had just appeared, turns out to be Xi Heng’s fiancée.

Her background was from the orphanage, working hard and receiving scholarships, all the way to admission to S University.

Approaching graduation, her thesis was blocked by her supervisor, so she had no choice but to meet her “benefactor”.

After graduation, Xi Heng, with an extremely strong sense of control, wanted her to work as a secretary and stay by his side, but Xia Lei disagreed upon hearing the news.

Xi Heng wanted to fight to the end, but when Xia Lei told Bai Rong, she refused. But since her son is her biological child, in order to have her son all to herself, she intervened and suppressed the original body into a receptionist.

The original body was naturally aggrieved, but Xi Heng promised her that he would never marry Xia Lei, so she endured it.

A top student from S University working as a receptionist for love.

The current plot is that yesterday, Xia Lei just deducted the original body and her colleague’s salary. Feeling wronged, the original body went to Xi Heng’s house to find him.

She waited at the door all night, but Xi Heng didn’t return all night.

Song Pianxian:…

She felt her body; surprisingly, being young is good, not catching a cold even after blowing cold wind all night, full of vitality, unlike the previous world.

As long as her mind and body were okay, Song Pianxian didn’t have too many demands.

The crisp sound of Song Pianxian’s keyboard under her command never stopped, and the statistical table was almost done.

She swiftly saved it to the USB drive and planned to print a hard copy to deliver to the office. The remaining data would have to be reviewed later.

First, she asked 09:

“What are the inconsistencies in this world?”

09 replied, “There are two points.”

“One is the plotline. The original body is the kidnapped daughter of the richest family. Although it was a time when technology was not advanced, the fact that the daughter couldn’t be found under their noses for so many years lacks credibility.”

“The second is the romantic storyline. Originally, Xi Heng couldn’t choose between Nie Lingbo and the original body. After the original body was recognized by the richest family, the two of them immediately got together. Xi Heng’s motives are unclear, and the sudden change is suspicious.”

Song Pianxian proceeded to the office, walking calmly, and nodded:

“What is my task?”

“One, make the plot reasonable. Two, make the romantic storyline reasonable.”

“Just reasonable?” Song Pianxian confirmed.

“Yes, in the old-fashioned novels, they only pursued sensational and melodramatic plots, neglecting a lot of rationality. This is the biggest problem in the small world.”

Song Pianxian understood roughly.

After asking about the most important plot points, she inquired:

“Then… how do we find Qing Lu?”

09 whispered, “The new humans enter the world through another channel. I cannot sense her identity in the small world.”

Song Pianxian frowned slightly. So even teaming up couldn’t confirm Qing Lu’s identity?

09 couldn’t automatically identify the identity of new humans, otherwise in the first world, she wouldn’t have mistaken Qing Lu and treated her as a native.

“Will she be one of the characters in the data?” Song Pianxian rephrased the question.

“That’s certain. She must be related to our mission.” 09 quickly replied.

Song Pianxian felt relieved.

In that case, they would meet sooner or later.

After delivering the documents, Song Pianxian didn’t immediately return to the front desk. Instead, she went out for a while.

When she returned, she carried three cups of coffee.

Zhao Ying, her colleague, glanced at the coffee and sighed lightly, “You seem quite relaxed.”

Beside her, Li Wan said, “Pianxian, you’re back. Assistant Meng was looking for you just now.”

Meng Yue is Xi Heng’s person.

Song Pianxian hadn’t spoken yet. Zhao Ying said leisurely, “Oh, Li Wan went up for you.”

Li Wan’s smile became unnatural, “I thought, I should give a response… Pianxian, you won’t blame me for meddling, will you?”

Song Pianxian walked to the front desk, divided the coffee, and smiled, “Thanks for going up there.”

Li Wan’s expression relaxed, and Zhao Ying cut in.

Song Pianxian took out two envelopes from her coat pocket and handed them over.

“What’s this?” Li Wan asked curiously. Her subordinate immediately took them, opened one, and exclaimed, “Huh, why is it money? Pianxian, aren’t you supposed to be broke?”

Zhao Ying glanced at Song Pianxian, “What’s going on?”

Song Pianxian said, “Yesterday, it was my fault that you all got fined. I should make up for it.”

Yesterday, the original body should have indeed been fined. To earn money, she had to work part-time after work every day, tutoring high school students at educational institutions. Therefore, she always felt drowsy at noon.

With Xi Heng around, the supervisor dared not mention it. Unfortunately, Xia Lei caught them yesterday and even enforced a “collective punishment.”

It should be her responsibility to pay this money, as the original body was indeed at fault.

Moreover, Song Pianxian smiled and looked at Li Wan, who quietly counted money despite claiming to be poor.

After clearing the debt of gratitude, she could proceed with the next move.

Zhao Ying didn’t take it, “I don’t lack money to spend. It’s just my bad luck to have my salary deducted. You don’t need to pretend to be kind.”

Song Pianxian glanced at Li Wan with difficulty.

Li Wan felt embarrassed holding it, reluctant to return it, hesitating.

Song Pianxian smiled slightly, “Li Wan has accepted it. If you don’t take it, how can I feel at ease?”

Li Wan felt even more awkward holding the money, not returning it nor keeping it, feeling embarrassed with a flushed face.

Zhao Ying glanced at Li Wan, chuckled meaningfully, took the envelopes without even looking at them, and casually put them aside.

This incident was just an episode. When it was almost time for lunch, Meng Yue came down again.

At this moment, Song Pianxian was conversing with several international friends from Germany.

Speaking fluent German, Song Pianxian pointed to directions on the map for them, even chatting and laughing with them, while Li Wan and Zhao Ying could only watch on in amazement.

Meng Yue was also stunned. He had never seen Ms. Song speak German before.

After waiting on the side for two minutes and seeing that there were only 10 minutes left until lunch break, and Song Pianxian had to go to the garage to wait for the CEO, he had no choice but to step forward and interrupt their enthusiastic conversation:

“Ms. Song, the CEO invites you to have lunch together. Please come with me.”

Song Pianxian paused.

How strange.

Did the CEO in this world not even bother to use a phone?

For trivial matters, he sent people to disturb others at work.

Giving Meng Yue a meaningful look, Song Pianxian’s tone was concise and forceful:

“It’s working hours.”

Zhao Ying & Li Wan: ?

Meng Yue: …

Huh?

For work, Song Pianxian declined the CEO’s invitation…?

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Translator: Glariosa
Editor: Ruu

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