Chapter 47: Work

"Let me tell you, I'm super amazing now..."

Doudou forcefully squeezed up to Shen Siyuan, who was busy at the moment, wanting to talk to him.

Annoyed beyond measure by her persistent buzzing, Shen Siyuan shot Yin Xingyue a look, signaling her to drag Doudou away.

Since Monday was his only workday of the week, he had to finish a whole week's worth of tasks today so he could loaf around with peace of mind for the rest of the week.

Added to that was the proposal he wrote for Zhou Zhengdao last week; after two days over the weekend, Zhou Zhengdao had proposed a slew of revisions, all of which he had to handle today.

Consequently, he was so busy he didn't even have time to drink water, let alone take a paid toilet break.

"Don't disturb Big Brother while he's working," Yin Xingyue said, pulling Doudou away.

"But I want to play with him," Doudou said with a hint of grievance.

"You'll have to wait until he's finished."

"Sigh, adults are so boring."

Doudou rested her chin in her hands and squatted down on the floor.

Yin Xingyue squatted down beside her as well.

Doudou added, "I don't even want to become an adult anymore."

Yin Xingyue pursed her lips and said softly, "You can't become an adult anyway."

"Why?" Doudou tilted her head to look at her with a foolish expression.

"Because you're already dead. You're a ghost now, not a human," Yin Xingyue replied tartly.

"Then can I become a big ghost?" Doudou asked curiously.

"No," said Yin Xingyue.

This should have been a rather sorrowful topic, but as the two of them discussed it, it carried a somewhat comical tone.

Hearing this, Doudou looked deeply disappointed and asked, "Does that mean I can only be a little kid forever?"

"What's wrong with being a little kid? What's so great about being an adult?"

"When you're an adult, you can eat whatever you want, go wherever you want to play, and there are no mom and dad saying you can't do this or go there..." Doudou ticked off the perks of being an adult on her chubby little fingers.

"But everything you just mentioned requires money," Yin Xingyue pointed out.

"Then I'll earn lots and lots of money!"

Doudou spread her arms wide to indicate an astronomical amount of money.

"To earn money, you have to work. When you work, you won't have time to play, and you won't be able to go wherever you want—just like Big Brother..." Yin Xingyue pointed at Shen Siyuan, who looked like he was working himself to death.

Doudou was dumbfounded. How could things be like this?

"Is being an adult really that miserable?"

"Of course. So what's so good about being an adult? Being a kid is carefree; you don't have to consider so many things," Yin Xingyue said.

She didn't want to grow up either. How wonderful it would be if she could stay small forever, without needing to study, without being taken back by her mother, and staying by her grandmother's side all the time.

She was missing her grandmother a little. She looked at the busy Shen Siyuan, hesitating whether to tell him that she wanted to go home and visit her grandma.

"Carefree?"

Doudou rubbed her chubby little chin with her small hand and let out a silly smile.

Hearing her giggle, Yin Xingyue withdrew her gaze and looked at her. "If you're bored, I'll teach you martial arts. Big Brother asked me to teach you."

The martial arts Yin Xingyue referred to was naturally the "Embracing the Wind's Slumber."

Shen Siyuan had spent over an hour teaching it last night. Yin Xingyue had quickly picked up all of Shen Siyuan's movements, whereas Doudou, being naturally lively and restless, learned a complete mess of it.

Thus, Shen Siyuan had handed this arduous task over to Yin Xingyue, asking her to teach Doudou in her spare time and try her best to get her to master it.

"Okay!"

Actually, Doudou wasn't resistant to learning "Embracing the Wind's Slumber"; in fact, she was quite enthusiastic, treating it more like a game. It was simply because she was too small and found it hard to settle her mind that her postures ended up crooked and leaning in all directions.

Doudou stood up and immediately struck a pose hugging the cosmos.

Yet, no matter how Yin Xingyue looked at it, something felt terribly wrong.

"Can you not stick your butt out so high? You look like Donald Duck..."

Doudou had a very low threshold for humor; a single sentence from Yin Xingyue had her rocking back and forth with laughter.

The busy Shen Siyuan was drawn by Doudou's giggles and glanced over at the two of them.

Yin Xingyue shot Shen Siyuan a helpless look.

Shen Siyuan gave her an encouraging smile and went back to his work.

"Stop laughing. Tuck your butt in."

"It's too big, I can't tuck it in! My mom said my butt looks like an elephant's butt," Doudou said, giving her backside a wiggle.

"Copy my stance."

Yin Xingyue struck the "Embracing the Wind's Slumber" pose once more.

Her knees were slightly bent, her body squatted down a fraction, and her arms formed a circle embracing the empty air.

"It's a slight squat, not sticking your butt out. Imagine you're holding something in your arms..."

Doudou looked very puzzled. She was clearly squatting!

She looked down at herself. Her legs were simply too short; it was completely impossible to tell she was squatting—it only looked like she was sticking her bottom out...

---

"Nobody rush to leave after off-work hours; we're having a meeting," Zhou Chuan stood up to remind everyone.

As soon as his words fell, a chorus of groans erupted from the team.

"You've got to be kidding me, Boss? When did you learn this trick of holding meetings after work? Why didn't you hold it during all those working hours?" Wang Chao was the first to protest.

"The meeting room was occupied by the planning department all afternoon. What could I do? I had to wait until after work."

"Do we have to go to the meeting room?"

"Duh! We all need to go over last month's data analysis report together. Wait, don't tell me you haven't written yours yet?"

"Uh..."

"Look at you, what do you even do all day?" Zhou Chuan was furious.

He didn't object to people loafing on the job, but the prerequisite was that you finished your work first before slacking off—after all, he was still the boss.

"What about the rest of you?" Zhou Chuan asked the others.

"I've already written mine."

"Me too, already sent to your inbox."

"I finished mine last Friday."

...

As various people chimed in, Zhou Chuan's expression eased slightly.

His gaze then fell back onto Wang Chao.

"It's always you. You always drag your feet, never doing anything until the very last minute."

"Boss, I genuinely forgot this time. I'll do it right now, guaranteed to finish before the end of the day."

With no other choice, Zhou Chuan told him to hurry up and sat back down.

Every month, everyone had to do a data analysis for the game project they were in charge of. If they met the revenue targets, everyone was happy, and during the meeting, a few casual words would suffice to brush past it.

If they missed the revenue targets, it would be analyses from every possible angle—from holiday events to system gameplay, everything would be dug up and reasons dissected frame by frame.

Of course, the usual conclusion of the analysis was simply that this batch of players just wasn't up to par...

Zhou Chuan was a pretty good boss and didn't waste much of everyone's time with the meeting, but even so, by the time they came out of the meeting room, it was already 7:30 PM.

By the time Shen Siyuan grabbed some dinner outside and returned home, it was almost 9:00 PM.

He rode his e-bike downstairs, and just as he parked it, old man Lu Guanchang, whom he hadn't seen for several days, hurried up to greet him.

However, the old man didn't dare get too close. His gaze fell upon Yin Xingyue and Doudou, who were wreathed in gloomy wind and circling around Shen Siyuan, revealing a look of awe and dread.

In particular, the uncontained flames flickering on Doudou made his soul skip a beat; getting too close sent sharp pains stabbing through his spiritual core.

Yet, alongside his fear, there stirred a subtle undercurrent of envy and jealousy.

He had begged time and again for Shen Siyuan to help him meet his ex-wife and daughter, and the other party had only reluctantly agreed; yet these two little girls had effortlessly attained great fortune and become extraordinary.

What he didn't know was that although he had hidden his jealousy well and didn't show it outwardly, the moment the thought arose, the tumors on his face multiplied, almost taking on a pus-filled appearance. This was the external manifestation of the mind taking shape through physiognomy, something that could not be concealed.

Shen Siyuan naturally noticed, but he didn't pay it much mind. Instead, he asked, "Did you find your ex-wife and daughter?"

Old man Lu nodded hurriedly. Being a ghost made traveling much easier; following some past clues and after several days of effort, he had truly managed to track them down.