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nChapter Seventy-Two: The Miserable SI

nThe knocking on the door woke Yan Jin from his dreams.

nWhen he opened his eyes, the images from his dreams faded away like the tide.

nBefore his eyes was the giant chandelier hanging from the ceiling. The glaring light stunned Yan Jin for a moment.

nI haven’t had that dream for so long…

nYan Jin quickly adjusted himself from his confusion state. He tidied his hair a little, straightened his tie, and the moment he opened that door, he was that omnipotent, unfeeling chairman once again.

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n“Chairman Yan, the exhibition booth has already been arranged. We have two hours before the start of the exhibition. Would you like to take a look?” Secretary Fang asked as she walked with her high heels, hugging a pile of documents in her arms. After working hard throughout the night, she did not seem to be tired. She was still as energetic as ever.

n“Let’s go.”

n……

nBecause he had slept very late last night, when Xiao Yu woke up again, it was already eleven in the morning. He yawned as he walked out of the cage and saw a piece of white paper clamped under the cage. It said –

nTo Fishy: I have a patient to check on in the early afternoon. I have to go. I’ll be back in the afternoon.

nXiao Yu stared at that paper for a very long time. It was then that his heavy and dizzy little brain finally registered that it was a note left by Chu Ge.

nOh, whatever. I can play a game by myself. There’s nothing else to do anyway…

nWait, isn’t today the Autumn Release Conference?

nXiao Yu woke up instantly. He utilized all four of his limbs to charge towards the iPad. First, he looked at the time. Thank god, there’s still one more hour to go. They should be making their final preparations now.

nThe Autumn Release Conference would be aired live on a special channel. When it began, the channel would automatically connect.

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nXiao Yu woke up just in time. There was still some time, which was more than enough for Xiao Yu to happily stroll around the designers’ forum and take a look at the news covering last night’s Ragnarok.

nJust like in his previous life, the Autumn Release Conference would begin after the Ragnarok competition ended. The design industry’s forum was bombarded with topics about the mystery designer. Almost everyone was discussing this completely elusive Mr. Mystery.

nDue to the fact that Mr. Mystery’s work did not have a physical item, the people in the forum could only draw their analysis based on the image they had gotten at the voting platform. There was not enough information. In addition, a single product could not reveal much. The forum comments hit a few hundred, yet no one could guess who that mystery designer was.

nThe most believable guess was that he was a guru designer from the industry who hid his identity. However, as to who that guru was, everyone had different guesses.

nIn the discussion area, Xiao Yu saw a few familiar IDs. They were all his colleagues in SI. One of them knew him personally and had sharply pointed out that the mystery designer’s style was similar to SI’s chief designer.

nBut that opinion was shot down very quickly. Almost everyone felt that SI’s employees were just sore losers that came up with a poor excuse – Even after demotion, Mr. Mystery still got third. Your SI only got eleven. You can’t just spread rumors like that even if you’re a well-known brand.

nXiao Yu silently lit a candle for his colleagues.

nAfter one night of discussing Ragnarok and the mystery designer, the hype did not die down. Instead, it got even more intense as the gossiping soul in everyone blew up the entire forum.

nAside from Mr. Mystery, news that SI’s chairman was carried away by ambulance also spread around.

nWhen Xiao Yu saw that news, he even thought that it was just a rumor. That was until he saw pictures of Zhou Jinrong lifted onto the stretcher. Then, he finally realized that it seemed to be real.

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nZhou Jinrong fainted?

nXiao Yu did not have any recollection of this incident in his memories. He clearly remembered that after the first day of the Autumn Release Conference, Chairman Zhou even joined the employees for a meal.

nToday was the first day of the Autumn Release Conference. However, Zhou Jinrong was lying in the hospital. It was even said that he had not regained consciousness.

nComment 233: SI sure has rotten luck. Better go burn some incense. Make sure not to let anything else happen on the first day.

nComment 234: While the others lost the match but not their spirit, there goes SI, whose chairman got so pissed that he was sent to the ER.

nComment 235: SI won’t make it anymore. The new generation is replacing the old after all.

nXiao Yu did not have a particularly good relationship with Zhou Jinrong, because Xiao Yu was a designer who was hired on exceptional grounds by the former Chairman Zhou. When Zhou Jinrong took over the company, he began to groom his own trusted aide and placed many newbies into the company. These people were not respectful towards senior employees like Xiao Yu.

nHowever, regardless of what kind of personal relationship he had with Zhou Jinrong, seeing those unbearable comments against SI on the forum still made Xiao Yu feel depressed.

nThe Autumn Release Conference this time was particularly unfriendly towards SI. They dropped out from the top ten, their chairman sent to the hospital, and people even speculated that the sales volume of SI’s exhibition products would be very tragic.

nXiao Yu let out a sigh.

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nHe was not sure how things would turn out this way either. In his memories, this Autumn Release Conference’s hot topic was only supposed to be how Mr. Mystery turned the tides for YL. SI was be ranked tenth place in the end and they secured their exhibition booth. Their lukewarm performance did not attract much attention.

nThe future was slowly changing while they were not paying attention.

nEven though Xiao Yu was doing his best to repeat the events of his previous life, it seemed that things were not as easy as he thought.

nHis rebirth had caused some changes to the future.

nXiao Yu did not know if these changes were a good sign or not. However, no one could answer this question for him in this world. He just had to take one step forward and look around before he took another.

nAlthough SI seemed really tragic because of the butterfly effect caused by his existence, Xiao Yu believed that once the Autumn Release Conference began, SI would surely rise again and make a comeback.

nAfter all, SI’s exhibition products were all personally handled by him. The quality was definitely top-class standards. YL simply could not produce anything on par with them.

nThe guilt that was brewing deep in Xiao Yu’s heart was now replaced with beautiful and earnest anticipation for SI.

nWhich was why he selectively forgotten that he had done another ‘good deed’.

nYL’s exhibition products were indeed lacking compared to SI. Because of that, even with the best exhibition booth area, it would be hard to make up for it.

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nHowever –

nEarlier that morning, didn’t Yan Jin just receive a work that could represent SI’s highest quality design from Xiao Yu?

n……

nAt twelve o’clock in the afternoon, Xiao Yu was happily gnawing on his melon seeds as he watched the live broadcast.

nBefore it officially began, the reporters made a simple conclusion in regards to the Ragnarokcompetition. Unavoidably, they discussed fairly on the gossip and scandals as they praised YL for their great performance. That made Xiao Yu feel a little more a little more at ease.

nThat should be the way, he thought. Putting aside all those disheartening events, Xiao Yu was very pleased with the Ragnarok competition

nCompared to the outstanding results, what made Xiao Yu even happier was no doubt the fact that he had spoiled Lin Zhou’s plans.

nPerhaps he should even add a ‘once again’ to that sentence.

nWhen they were fighting over the deal for the overseas billionaire, Xiao Yu won singlehandedly for YL and eliminated Lin Zhou’s work. Although it did not bring any benefits toto SI, it completely ruined Lin Zhou’s ambition to replace the human Xiao Yu.

nThis time, Lin Zhou even started the scam earlier as he tried desperately to get on Yan Jin’s good side. He wanted to make use of that advantage to job-hop over from SI to YL. However, from the current results, YL still attained an extremely good exhibition placing without Lin Zhou. Even though YL’s exhibition placing was not as good, it was still higher than his individual exhibition placing. That would mean that Lin Zhou worked his butt off for nothing this time around.

nThis was what they call to plot so far yet end with nothing.

nHowever……

nXiao Yu looked at Lin Zhou’s drawing and smirked coldly.

nLogically, no matter how stunning the mystery designer’s work was, it should not affect the scores of the other designers. Regardless of how amazing Xiao Yu was or how well-informed he was about the future, it could only allow him to make his work more perfect. It was impossible to make Lin Zhou’s work become worse.

nInitially, the design that Lin Zhou had could possibly get into the top ten.

nIt was a pity that Lin Zhou and the mystery designer’s drawing were both couple rings.

nNot many individual works were selected in the first place. Among them, couple rings were even rarer. How rare? Two pairs – Mr. Mystery and Lin Zhou.

nIn such circumstances, when the judges were giving their evaluation, they would unconsciously compare the two pairs of couple rings. Mr. Mystery made its appearance first and stunned the audience, which raised the judges’ anticipation. That was why Lin Zhou was forcefully downgraded.

nIt was simply a case of bad luck. If Lin Zhou’s work was evaluated before the mystery designer, he may have had a chance to get into the top ten.

nWhat a pity, senior.

nXiao Yu thought maliciously. See, even the gods aren’t willing to help you.

nIt was ten minutes past twelve when Chu Ge came back in his white lab coat.

n“Squeakk.” Xiao Yu waved his hand to express his welcome.

n“I’m back. What are you watching?”

nChu Ge walked in front of Xiao Yu and his big brain instantly blocked half of the screen.

n“Squeakk.” Go away.

nXiao Yu reached out his little paws to push him.

n“Hey, isn’t this the Autumn Release Conference?” Chu Ge was shocked when he realized the content of the video: “Tch tch tch, how in love with Yan Jin can you get?”

nThat sentence made Xiao Yu daze out for a moment. What has watching the Autumn Release Conference got to do with Yan Jin?

nAlso, I don’t like Yan Jin at all, okay!? I hate Yan Jin the most!

n“Give up, there’s so many people at the conference. There’s no way they can capture Yan Jin. Plus, he will not join the crowd at the exhibition area. If you really miss him, just start a video call with him.” Chu Ge carried on talking as he did not noticed how dark Xiao Yu’s face got.

nXiao Yu got frustrated as he exited the broadcast, opened the memo app, and slapped angrily against the keypad: “Scram. Don’t annoy me.”

n“Okay, okay. I’ll be in the room. Just squeak for me if you need anything.” Chu Ge relaxed as he quickly scampered away.

nBut just two steps away, he remembered something and returned.

n“Your voice is too small, it might not be possible to hear with all this soundproofing. Why don’t we add each other on QQ? It’ll be easier to play matches in the future.” Chu Ge took out his phone: “We can even talk about Yan Jin’s gossip and it will allow me to understand the life of a person who treats his pet as his girlfriend.”

nXiao Yu grabbed a melon seed by his side and threw it at Chu Ge’s face. It was a pity that his strength was just too small and he did not cause any damage at all.

n“Speaking of which,” Chu Ge caught the melon seed and threw it into his mouth. He munched as he asked: “Do you demons have a human form? When are you going to transform to let me see?”

n“There isn’t one. Scram. Ask again and I’ll delete your friend request.” Xiao Yu typed.

n“Oh don’t be like that~ Once you turn into a human, you can spend all day with Yan Jin. Speaking of which, are you male or female? Do you demons have reproductive systems like humans?”

nSeeing how the topic got derailed, Xiao Yu made a prompt decision to close his iPad screen and disappear into his cage.

nXiao Yu huddled in his little house as he watched Chu Ge, who had lost his conversation partner, return to his room. It was then that he sighed in relief.

nWhen he walked out of his cage and returned to his iPad, Xiao Yu’s mood was suddenly sullen.

nTo change into a human…

nHe stretched out his little paw as he thought. A few sharp nails poked out from his paw pads.

nHe had unknowingly become more used to this body. Recently, when he played those mini games on WeChat, he even got into the top three among his friends.

nIt seemed that being a hamster was not that bad – there’s food, water, games, a career and Yan Jin.

nHold on, the last one is not a critical point.

nBut… he did want to turn back into a human.

nHe really, really wanted to.

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