In order to ensure the physical and mental health of employees, Chuanshuju provides employees with a number of benefits within the scope of permitted conditions.
For example, if the characters in the original novel walked into this public bathhouse, they would only see an inconspicuous signboard, a messy and shabby changing and bathing area, and a dilapidated and depressed shop that was almost bankrupt.
But if you are a staff member of Chuanshu Bookstore, after your ID is verified, you can pass through the bathing area and enter the employee-exclusive relaxation club which integrates hot springs, saunas, cinemas, high-end buffets and health care.
This was the first time the system came to such a place, and it was very curious: "Host: Can we do some health care?"
"No." Yu Tang said, "We can only get the free package."
The system asks: "What is the free tier?"
"A bathtub, a movie ticket, and a set lunch." Yu Tang said, "After we're done bathing, we'll go to the theater and sleep."
The system revolved around him, and the little red light that had been shining brightly with excitement flashed, and then dimmed in disappointment.
There were no ooc restrictions in the rest area, so Yu Tang plucked the petals off and prepared to sprinkle them in the bathtub later.
Items in the real world can be exchanged for experience points and traded directly. He didn't want to waste them, so he converted the bald bouquet into data and exchanged it for ten bubble gums from the system.
It's not that Yu Tang is reluctant to do so. The welfare benefits of the employee club are not paid in the form of experience points. Instead, it is the energy that the characters played by the system employees gain from the protagonist.
This kind of energy can be linked to a lot of data, such as favorability, appreciation, admiration... In short, it is the positive emotions and attention that the protagonist has given to them.
Yu Tang is in the affectionate spare tire department, and even among all the tool people, he is the least likely to get these so-called "positive emotions".
Hopeless and endless companionship, devotion and following, escorting all the way, and finally stopping at the destination that seems within reach.
No one will look back at them.
They are the most useful and handy tools, and they are easily discarded. Those cheap goodwills have no foundation and will dissipate in an instant, and they can't even be exchanged for a night of good health.
“The bathtub is nice too.”
Yu Tang swiped his employee card on the pose machine and enlightened the system: "There are also free sour plum soup, free barley tea and Cheetos..."
He paused and suddenly said "Huh".
The system asked: "Host, what's wrong?"
"My energy bar." Yu Tang and it leaned in front of the screen together, "It's 3 now."
After working for so long, the only time Yu Tang's energy bar had a number was when the protagonist of the second book got drunk, grabbed his collar and pressed him to the ground, with a sad and crazy look on his face, staring at Yu Tang with red eyes, as if he was trying to find another elusive person through him.
Unfortunately, it only lasted for a few seconds before it quickly fell back.
Not only did he fall back, but from then on, the protagonist of the second book looked at Yu Tang in a strange way and always wanted to imprison him.
Yu Tang couldn't see the protagonist's favorability towards him, so he was a little worried: "System, has Sui Si's favorability towards Ke Ming changed?"
"No significant changes." The system quickly checked for him, "It increased by two points, and is now 92 points. This is a normal fluctuation."
Yu Tang nodded, feeling a little relieved.
The closer you get to the maximum level, the harder it is to increase your favorability. It's not easy to increase it by one or two points. It seems that the remedy was timely. Ke Ming didn't have a bad birthday.
It was just a bit of a pity, so Ke Ming specially learned how to cook, put aside his work, and waited for Sui Si at home.
Such a romantic scene, but Sui Si's favorability only increased by two points.
Yu Tang turned off the monitoring panel. He checked the current plots of the four books and found no problems for the time being. He then confirmed the three points of energy that fell out of thin air.
For those employees who need to capture the protagonist, every inch of energy is worth an inch of gold. Once they use it too much in such places, their relationship with the protagonist will be affected and weakened, which will seriously affect the progress of the capture.
Therefore, even though the energy bars of the employees in the main department are almost full, they still calculate carefully and spend every bit of energy wisely. They dare not take a sauna instead of a hot spring bath, dare not watch a movie instead of a massage, and will not rush in for a buffet meal until they have been hungry for three days.
But Yu Tang is different.
A tool man does not need a protagonist. As long as Sui Si can divorce him smoothly and have a happy ending with Ke Ming, it will not have any impact even if he uses up all these three energies.
Having been at Chuanshuju for so long, Yu Tang has never enjoyed any real employee benefits except for the free package.
His goal is to get a divorce as soon as possible. If the source of these three points of energy is Sui Si, then he should... squander them as quickly as possible.
"System." Yu Tang asked, "Do you want to do some health care?"
system:"?"
"Do it." Yu Tang said, "Do the whole set."
Yu Tang soaked in the petal hot spring comfortably for three hours, had a full body Thai massage and stretching, and then held his plate and waited in the buffet area for the freshly fried Supreme Flame Tomahawk steak.
"System." Yu Tang asked in his mind, "What are Sui Si and Ke Ming doing?"
"It's my birthday."
The system called up the surveillance video: "There's a power outage. The water heater and air conditioner don't work. Sui Si took a cold shower and spent half the night fixing the switch. Now he and Ke Ming are eating cake and stir-fried potatoes with onions while lighting candles."
The system held the oolong tea ice cream roll, but still couldn't figure it out: "Why stir-fry shredded potatoes with onions?"
Yu Tang: “…”
Yu Tang took the hot Supreme Tomahawk steak and found a table to sit down.
He had lived in Sui Si's apartment several times before. It was bought when Ke Ming discussed with Sui Si about buying it because he wanted a stable place to live.
At that time, Ke Ming was only popular, but he was tightly controlled by the company, and the money he earned could not be taken out in the short term. Sui Si cut off contact with his family because of Ke Ming's matter, and stopped using the Sui family's money. At that time, the studio had just been established, and it was difficult to turn over funds.
The two of them scraped together their money and bought a not-so-big apartment.
Sui Si cherished that apartment very much. Even when his career got on track and he moved his studio to a core area where land was extremely expensive, he never bought another place to live.
Sui Si wanted to make Ke Ming feel safe, to make Ke Ming believe that he could live an ordinary life with the daily necessities of life, and to let Ke Ming know that no matter what time it was, there would always be a home waiting for them.
Warmth is warmth.
The problem is that the apartment was bought cheaply, the location is remote, it is old, and the electrical system has problems every now and then.
Yu Tang went to inspect the circuit regularly, but only a month later, Ke Ming burned the meter box that had just been repaired.
"Host." The system was also checking the records of that timeline. Halfway through the verification, a small red light suddenly flashed, "Sui Si still owes you money!"
"They owed tens of thousands of dollars, and they didn't have enough money to buy a house at the time."
Yu Tang nodded: "If we apply for a loan, it will definitely alert the Sui family."
At that time, Yu Tang was still Sui Si's assistant and had saved tens of thousands of yuan. He knew Sui Si was short of money, so he mustered up the courage to knock on Sui Si's rest room and handed Sui Si a whole plastic bag of new and old cash.
Sui Si had seen checks since he was a child, and later when he was with Ke Ming, he had a few more cards. He had never seen anyone running around with a bag of cash like this, and he almost thought Yu Tang had gone to rob a bank.
"Sui Si said that the host should take the money owed from the studio's surplus."
The system continued to scroll down: "But in those two years, the studio was actually operating at a loss. Not to mention no surplus, sometimes the bonuses for the staff could not be paid, and the host had to take private work to make up for it."
System: "Yu Tang ate cold steamed buns and instant noodles every day, and was overloaded with work, so he got stomach problems at that time."
Yu Tang cut a piece of tender and juicy steak.
The system stood firm, holding the ice cream and continued to ask: "Later, when the studio became rich, why didn't the host take back the money he owed?"
Yu Tang took the black pepper juice and said, "It's not that I don't want it. Once the studio has money, I will end my internship and entrust the role to others."
The hosted character is no longer controlled by the employees and will return to NPC mode. It will be temporarily generated when it is needed as a tool. The rest of the time, it only exists as a data stream.
In other words, Yu Tang will only be generated as a character when Sui Si needs him, and will not take any action the rest of the time.
The advantage of this is that it reduces the burden of world data operation and maximizes the system operation speed, but after all, the mobility is too poor and the additional plot extension is insufficient. When Yu Tang came back to take over the role, he didn't even have a decent place to live because there were no related side quests.
"Host, host, please sleep here today."
The system discussed with him: "We can make a projection and put it in the studio, so that Sui Si can find you."
From the perspective of the plot, Yu Tang personally sent Sui Si back to the home where Ke Ming was. He was unwilling to go back to the hospital, and the most likely place he went was the studio.
Yu Tang never went to college. He followed Sui Si at the age of nineteen, had a fake marriage with Sui Si at the age of twenty-two, and will be twenty-five in a few months.
There was no self in his life. For five years, all his courage was placed on Sui Si.
Being suddenly torn away from Sui Si's life, he had nowhere to go.
Yu Tang knew about this matter. He originally wanted to go back to the studio and sit there overnight. When the system reminded him, he remembered that there was this function: "Can the projection respond?"
"No problem, as long as Sui Si talks to you."
The system guarantees: "The projection cannot start interaction on its own, but we are trained. As long as Sui Si talks to your projection, the projection can immediately operate into the character setting and give a response that fits the plot."
Yu Tang was relieved: "Okay."
The system followed Yu Tang through the four books, and wanted him to have a good sleep, so it happily flashed a little red light and used the last 0.5 energy points to book a king-size bed room for Yu Tang.
Sui Si stood in front of the window, his chest inexplicably feeling lighter.
It was as if something was invisibly taken away from him. He felt relaxed, but it felt like there was nothing behind him. He wanted to take a step back, but he was too confused to know where to retreat to.
Sui Si smoked two cigarettes, slowly put out the cigarette butts on the windowsill, and returned to the bed.
Ke Ming had fallen asleep. When he heard the noise, he opened his eyes drowsily.
"Are you worried about something?" He noticed the smoke coming from Sui Si's body. "Is it about work?"
Sui Si smiled and shook his head.
He is a few years older than Ke Ming and always feels that he has an obligation to take care of Ke Ming. He does not want to involve Ke Ming and share the pressure with him.
Ke Ming raised his head and looked at Sui Si.
Ke Ming had just washed up before going to bed, and his hair was still a little damp. He was indeed good-looking, and looking at Sui Si like this, he didn't look as flamboyant as he did on stage, but rather like a gentle student who was naive to the world.
Sometimes Sui Si would wonder, although Yu Tang was younger than Ke Ming, why did he have such a sophisticated and worldly temperament? Why couldn't he be as simple, bright and clean as Ke Ming
"I was thinking that maybe we should move to a new place."
Sui Si didn't think about it anymore. He also threw back the quilt and lay down, dimming the lamp: "Buy another house and put it in your name?"
"I can't remember." Ke Ming smiled, "I don't have a star status in the imperial capital, how can it be recorded under my name?"
Sui Si was stunned.
He had never cared about these things before. His heart sank for some reason and he frowned: "Without star status, I can't buy a house?"
Ke Ming laughed: "Of course, you need a work visa and you can only apply for the qualification after five years... What's wrong?"
Ke Ming stopped talking, looked at Sui Si's suddenly strange expression, and held his hand: "It's not like I don't have a place to live. If I can't buy a house for the time being, then I can't buy one. Why are you in such a hurry?"
Sui Si was silent and nodded.
It seemed as if something hard was blocking his throat. After a long pause, he whispered again, "No hurry."
He patted Ke Ming on the back and said gently, "Go to sleep."
Ke Ming had been working for a few days to celebrate Sui Si's birthday, and he was indeed very tired. He buried himself in the faint smoke on Sui Si's shoulder, closed his eyes, and soon his breathing gradually became stable.
Sui Si opened his eyes and remained silent in the darkness.
On the way home, the driver went to see Yu Tang, and when he came back he told him that Special Assistant Yu had been standing on the street corner.
Sui Si thought that Yu Tang would not always stand there.
Yu Tang said that he bought a small apartment. Yu Tang has been his assistant for so many years, and he should have money. Yu Tang should have his own life and return to his own home. Sooner or later, it will happen, and Yu Tang will have to get used to it.
It is better to suffer a short pain than a long one. You have to be ruthless and cut off some things.
It was too late, so Sui Si didn't ask the driver to take a detour to see Yu Tang. He rushed home directly and gave the gift to Ke Ming.
Ke Ming is young and still has a childish temper. When he saw the limited edition tie he had been looking forward to for a long time, he was so happy that he forgot to be angry and just seriously criticized him for not bringing flowers this year.
Sui Si joined Ke Ming in making trouble, thinking to himself that Yu Tang also had his own home to return to and would not always stand there.
But Yu Tang does not have a star registration in the imperial capital.
Sui Si knew that Yu Tang did not have Star citizenship and would not have a work visa.
The studio was not a formal company and was still in its early stages of operation. During the five years that Yu Tang had been with him, everyone in the circle knew him as Yu's special assistant, but he had no name or status and no official work certificate.
Yu Tang couldn't afford a small apartment at all.
Why did Yu Tang lie to him
Sui Si lay on the pillow, he touched his cell phone and said to himself, Yu Tang might have rented a house somewhere. He could rent a house even without star status. Yu Tang must have a place to go. It is impossible that he really has no place to live.
Sui Si pulled back his arm little by little. He lay down for a while and then slowly sat up.
It's impossible that he really has no place to live. Yu Tang has been his assistant for five years and played his spouse for three years, but he doesn't even have a proper place to live.
This is outrageous.
Sui Si did not disturb Ke Ming. He returned to the living room quietly. He originally wanted to send two messages, but after editing them to the end, he took the video phone that was directly connected to the studio.
People in the studio have joked that Special Assistant Yu is the one who comes the earliest and leaves the latest every day. Whenever people contact the studio, he will reply immediately. It is as if he simply lives in the studio every night.
Sui Si leaned on the sofa, looking at the records sent by Nie Chi on his mobile phone, the records and frequency of Yu Tang's visits to the psychologist, and the medicine in Yu Tang's drawer.
Yu Tang came to help him deal with Ke Ming's birthday today, and he looked completely normal.
Sui Si looked at the screen. The video call was connected. The light on the other end was dim, but he could see someone sitting opposite him.
Yu Tang’s desk.
Yu Tang sat at his desk.
Completely different from his gentleness and calmness during the day, Yu Tang looked at him without any movement or expression.
He didn't speak, and Yu Tang didn't speak either.
Like a pale, lifeless shadow.