Jiang Chen got up on schedule in the morning and leisurely ate his breakfast. Under the little nurse’s suggestion, he started to stroll around inside the ward.
Team leader Qin came over to take a few glances then returned to his office.
After an entire afternoon and night’s efforts, his two assistants successfully wrote up a report for him.
Some things, you’ll never know unless you check, but once you do, the result is quite the shock.
As expected of an esports genius capable of winning the championship back then. Inside the game, he lived prosperously, illustrious and distinguished. Several trending searches were related to him.
Holding the report tightly, Team leader Qin felt his forehead twitching nonstop.
“Also this cellphone.” One of the assistants held Jiang Chen’s wristband and said: “Has been ringing since the morning.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the cellphone started ringing again.
Team leader Qin said: “Answer it.”
The assistant understood his meaning and pressed the answer button: “Hello.”
The other side fell silent for a moment before a warm voice spoke up: “Hello, may I ask if this is the relative of the cellphone’s owner? I am a friend he met in the game.”
The assistant said: “I’m not. Do you need something?”
That side said: “I saw he didn’t log in today and want to ask why.”
The assistant said: “Sorry, but it’s not convenient for us to reveal the details about the situation. You can have him contact you in the future. If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up.”
That side asked hastily: “Is he okay right now?”
The assistant said: “He’s very well. No need to worry.”
That side fell silent for two seconds: “Alright. Thank you.”
The assistant said: “No problem.”
He ended the call and looked at the Team leader: “Lao-Chen and the rest have already arrived.”
Team leader Qin nodded and went to the conference room with the report in hand. He smacked the report down in front of Team leader Chen and said: “Come, take a look.”
Team leader Chen read the content of the first page and looked up: “I already know about this.”
Team leader Qin said: “You know, yet you still allow him to mess around like this?”
Team leader Chen said: “It’s not like he’s going to tell others.”
Team leader Qin said: “Is the issue here whether or not he will tell?”
He completely lost his temper: “And this virtual reality equipment. Did you guys even check if it’s safe before you let him play?”
Team leader Chen said: “A long time ago.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
He looked at the person in front of him and couldn’t hold back his temper either: “You, Mr. Qin, on the other hand— What do you mean by locking him inside the sterile ward? He’s a real living person and has needs for social interactions.”
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He glanced around coldly: “And all of you guys, you’re really too careless, letting him play like this right after passing the danger period!”
The cryofreeze team held their breath, not even daring to breathe loudly.
They were all aware of Wooden Plaque Qin’s temper and already knew this would happen. As such, they had already done mental preparations.
Team leader Qin said: “Did you guys eat the confidentiality agreement and professional handbook? He’s only 19 years old right now, not 49!”
His cold and stern voice echoed throughout the conference room: “A 19 years old child, how much of an understanding do you know of him? Just because he’s old-Jiang’s son and the vice-director Jiang’s little brother, so you guys feel so reassured with him? Did you guys ever consider, what if he says something online? Then the entire project team will be placed on a burner. You guys are so naive that it’s quite an eye-opener for me!”
Team leader Chen said: “He was the captain of a team. He knows the severity of things, and he has signed the confidentiality agreement.”
Team leader Qin said: “He’s only obliged to keep the confidentiality agreement, but if he stubbornly ignores it, what can you do, kill him?”
“Then what do you want?!” Team leader Chen smacked the table and stood up furiously: “You’ve already checked the cellphone, and you’ve already checked the stuff on the internet. He didn’t say anything, right? After his successful awakening, he didn’t make a fuss about going home, nor make a fuss about going back to competing, can’t he just play a game?”
“He didn’t say anything because he’s self-aware. Indulging him, on the other hand, is your issue. Don’t mix these two things in the same discussion together.” Team leader Qin said coldly: “There are many recreational activities. Does he need to play that game? He’s laying in bed everyday, sometimes several hours at a time!”
“So you just cut off his internet without even giving him any warning at all, still so obstinate and narrow-minded, like an asshole.” Team leader Chen said furiously: “Why don’t you fucking cut off your own net. Let’s see how many days you can survive!”
Team leader Chen was so enraged and sonorous that the entire ceiling seemed to be shaking.
The cryofreeze team and Team leader Qin’s two assistants silently lowered their presence, no one daring to say anything carelessly.
Sure enough, Team leader Qin had a stormy look on his face: “You created this issue due to negligence in your own work and now you’re even self-righteously blaming it on me……”
With a creak, the door of the conference room was pushed open.
Everyone looked over in unison and saw it was Jiang ShiLan who walked inside.
Team leader Qin moderated his cold aura and asked: “Vice-director Jiang, is something wrong?”
Jiang ShiLan closed the door behind her and said: “I was the one who first gave him the virtual reality equipment. I was also the one who bought the cellphone. I was the one who asked Team leader Chen first, so he agreed.”
Team leader Qin said ‘En’, and looked towards his assistant.
The latter handed over both the virtual reality equipment and cellphone to her. Team leader Qin said coolly: “As the vice-director, the cyrofreeze team is unrelated to you. I hope you won’t randomly interfere in the future. As the relative, I hope you can cooperate with us a little. If there’s nothing else, you can leave. We still need to continue our meeting.”
Also aware of Wooden Plaque Qin’s temper, Jiang ShiLan knew it was useless for her to stay here. Seeing the looks Team leader Chen kept shooting her, she left exasperatedly.
She went to Jiang Chen’s sick ward. Seeing her little brother currently watching Xie ChengYan’s movie, she went over to watch it together with him.
Jiang Chen didn’t even look away: “I relapsed again?”
Jiang ShiLan said: “No.”
Jiang Chen understood: “What’s going on with the new Team leader?”
Jiang ShiLan said: “He’s not doing it out of ill intentions. He’s just strictly impartial and unyielding, never considering feelings, only rules and regulations, and not afraid of pissing people off.”
Pausing briefly, she said: “But he’s only considering the situation, not personally targeting you. He does have some objections towards Team leader Chen and the others.”
She’s aware that her little brother’s temper couldn’t be considered good either, so she introduced Team leader Qin thoroughly.
Team leader Qin and Team leader Chen were classmates. In terms of abilities, he was the best of the best. Back then when the higher-ups were selecting the person to be in charge of the cryofreeze project, they picked between him and Team leader Chen. However, considering his personality, they were afraid he couldn’t handle the relationships with the volunteers’ families properly, so they chose Team leader Chen.
Now that the project has stalled without advancing, the higher-ups sent Team leader Qin over as well, wanting to try again.
The higher-ups only allowed Team leader Qin to bring two people, so he needed to learn how to get along with the people on the cryofreeze team.
If it were strangers, perhaps he would have restrained himself slightly, but even that was to a limited extent. But right now, he knew both Team leader Chen and the cryofreeze team, so he took over immediately. That’s why before he started going off, he requested Jiang Chen to enter the sterile ward.
Jiang Chen said: “How long do I have to stay here for?”
Jiang ShiLan said: “At most a week. He doesn’t like to waste time. Most likely, the result of his argument with Team leader Chen will come out in a week.”
Jiang Chen nodded.
Jiang ShiLan watched with him for a while and then went to work.
Jiang Chen quietly finished watching the movie, found someone and asked for a deck of poker cards, then drew cards with the two AIs.
When Team leader Qin entered, there were already 3 strips of paper stuck to a certain person’s forehead.
He had cleaned up the fury that occupied his entire body. It was completely impossible to tell that he had been quarreling with someone.
Seeing that he had even put on the sterile outfit, Jiang Chen thought to himself, when a person wants to play pretend, they have to consider all aspects; this is actually quite good.
Team leader Qin said warmly: “What are you doing?”
Jiang Chen said: “Drawing cards and comparing the numbers, then sticking paper strips.”
Team leader Qin sat down in the chair next to the bed: “Sounds pretty interesting. How about I play two rounds with you?”
Saying this, he reached out and drew a card.
Looking at the 5 in his own hand and the 4 in the other’s hand, Jiang Chen swallowed his words of refusal back down.
Team leader Qin’s time was limited. He couldn’t stay long.
Ten minutes later, he exited with a forehead covered in paper strips and sweat from being smothered inside the sterile outfit, and started to examine the research results with Team leader Chen and the others.
The two team leaders had almost 20 years of plastic friendship. When arguing, their faces flushed red in anger. When not arguing, they co-existed calmly and peacefully, seriously discussing the cryofreeze project. Occasionally, when they had differing opinions, they’d start arguing again after a few words of disagreement. For a moment, the people in the cryofreeze team felt they were all in danger and even circumvented Team leader Chen as well.
Outside, the explosive atmosphere continued. Inside the sterile ward, it remained quiet and tranquil.
After Jiang Chen finished eating, he strolled around a few laps and took an afternoon nap as usual. When he woke up, there was no game to play, so he simply started scrolling through videos of competitive matches.
The videos have long since been downloaded into the AIs. The last time he stayed in this ward, he saw a portion of them, but didn’t finish watching. Now he started to watch the rest.
Originally, he was scrolling through them in order, starting from 30 years ago. However, since he’s been constantly playing with Fang JingXing lately, he was somewhat curious. As such, he jumped straight to Fang JingXing’s portion, planning to watch the league Adonis first.
At this time, Fang JingXing logged in as usual.
Looking through his friend list, the Wardcaster was still not online.
In the morning, he had asked Xie ChengYan. Xie ChengYan only knew that the Wardcaster was fine, but didn’t know anything about the rest.
Still not seeing the person at this time, he couldn’t help but ask: “Just what kind of illness does he have?”
Xie ChengYan said: “My mom didn’t tell me.”
Fang JingXing stared at his childhood friend.
Xie ChengYan said: “…… Since my mom said everything is fine, then everything is fine. Just wait a bit more.”
This ‘wait a bit more’ lasted for three more days.
During this time, Fang JingXing had attempted to contact the Wardcaster, but Jiang ShiLan’s assistant answered every time.
Because Jiang ShiLan had placed the virtual reality equipment and the cellphone in her office and she knew Fang JingXing, naturally she couldn’t answer. So it had to fall on the assistant.
The little assistant was polite and courteous, telling him it was inconvenient for the patient. Other than this, they said nothing else
Fang JingXing had no other choice but to hang up the phone and start livestreaming when it was time.
He met up with his squadmates and followed them to the dungeon, but his heart was not on the game at all.
Everytime he called, it’s always the medical staff who answered. Today, he even specifically picked a time after a meal, but it was still the same. In other words, the Wardcaster’s family was not by his side? Or was there some kind of situation that prevented the Wardcaster from even replying to messages?
Was he in a sterile ward?
It’s already like this and these people were still telling him everything is fine?
“……Captain Fang, what do you think?”
“Captain Fang?”
Fang JingXing returned from his thoughts: “En? What?”
The squadmate fell silent briefly and said: “We’re discussing if we should play the hidden dungeon.”
The memories of the dungeon’s first clear flashed across his head. Fang JingXing’s thoughts instantly floated away somewhat.
At that time, he felt like they had already become very close.
Perhaps in a few more days or a few more weeks, they might be able to meet in person.
In the end, however, it was so close yet so far.
The Wardcaster was right in this city, in a place that he might just ‘pass by’ while driving around on a whim. Yet he has no idea how the other was doing right now, what his mood was, what he’s thinking. He couldn’t even chat with him.
Perhaps right at this moment, or the next second.
During a certain time, without any warning at all, he could completely lose that person forever.
😱✨😱✨
Awwww😭
Thank you for the chapter! 🫶
I am curious who blow up first 🤔.
I kind of want to see Jiang chebf5bkowuo
bruh this feels so emotional but captain Fang, did you know that before you even become a fertilized egg you already “lost” Xiao Ji once? xD
captain fang finally realizing the terrifying reality of having close online friends i wonder what he’ll do next 🤔
Team Leader Chen, Team Leader Qin…
I ship it