In the overwhelming shock, Tao Zhiyue realized that this was a dream within a dream.
He raised his head intermittently, like a stuck robot, staring at this dream world full of magic.
Tao Zhiyue stretched out his hand, slowly pinched his face, and pulled his eyelids, his eyes welling with tears due to the stimulation of brute force.
After all these operations, the sleepiness that was left when I was woken up was completely gone, but I didn't wake up from this dream that was too real.
Nothing around me has changed. The room is filled with the dry heat of early summer, the sound of cicadas chirping is audible, a piece of fluffy bread with a bite taken out of it lies on the table, and the message from HR is still there.
[hr: These are the flowers given to me by the person I like.]
Those were clearly the flowers he secretly sent online to a brown bear in the middle of the night.
HR said that the person he likes is not a girl, but a boy.
So can he understand that... the person HR likes is him
Going a step further, can he think that the person he likes also happens to like him
The dreamlike feeling overwhelmed his rationality. Tao Zhiyue picked up the phone again, typed the question in a trance, and sent it.
[Tao: Aren’t you… a straight man?]
[hr: Speaking of which! ]
[hr: I should apologize to you for this.]
[hr: I have never had any relationship experience, nor have I ever liked anyone, so I subconsciously classified myself into the mainstream sexual orientation.]
[hr: That is wrong and not rigorous enough.]
[hr: But now that I've met you, I think I'm not a straight man. ]
[hr: No, not should, but must.]
The phone nearly fell to the ground. Tao Zhiyue stared at the few words that HR replied at the speed of light and felt like his head had turned into a running oven.
His hand shook and a string of meaningless garbled characters was sent out.
[Tao:ww]
[hr: Ah, I know this one!]
[hr: This is the Japanese word for laugh, right?]
[hr: I learned a lot of internet slang yesterday! Some of them are really funny.]
[hr：ww]
It was as if a drop of hot magma fell into his heart, melting all his thoughts. Tao Zhiyue looked at the string of ws sent by HR and once again felt that indescribable, soft and pure cuteness.
With his cute and silly profile picture, Tao Zhiyue couldn't say no no matter what.
[Tao: Yes.]
Tao Zhiyue was just about to sincerely praise HR's learning ability as usual so as to skip the previous topic that made his face blush, but HR took the lead.
[hr: Wait, are you going to praise me for my quick acceptance of new things?]
[Tao: … ]
[Tao: How do you know?]
[hr: Dr. Tao, do you think I am too old?]
It's over, I've been discovered.
[Tao: Actually… it’s not that big.]
[Tao: cute and mixed.jpg]
[hr: Doctor Tao, please listen to my explanation! ]
[hr: Actually, I am still young, but I speak in a rather old-fashioned way and I don’t know how to use emoticons, so I seem to be out of tune with most of my peers. Many people also feel this way.]
[hr: Some people even suspected that my dad was chatting online on my behalf…]
Seeing this, Tao Zhiyue, who was extremely confused, couldn't help laughing out loud.
[hr: I can prove it!]
[hr: Dr. Tao, can I call you?]
He was back to the original problem that caused his brain to crash and become insane all night, as if he was going back in time.
But this time, Tao Zhiyue chose to agree for some unknown reason.
[Tao: OK.]
… He just wanted to hear how HR would prove his age.
HR immediately made a voice call and a lively and cheerful ringtone rang out.
Not expecting his movements to be so fast, Tao Zhiyue straightened up abruptly, his expression tense, and he hurriedly prepared himself mentally.
From a stupid elementary school student to a naive middle school student and then to a young college student, after going through all the outrageous fantasies, he frowned and pressed the green answer button.
There was silence on the other end of the line. Two seconds after the call was connected, the person on the other end cleared his throat in a serious tone.
"Hello, Dr. Tao."
Tao Zhiyue felt as if he was hallucinating again.
The voice was clear and pleasant, perfectly overlapping with the fleeting glimpse in my memory.
— "Hello, are you here to try out the War of the Roses?"
"You you you are..."
Tao Zhiyue stuttered.
hr was a little excited, "Doctor Tao, do you still remember my voice?"
Tao Zhiyue spent a long time organizing his thoughts, but his nerves suddenly short-circuited and he could only blurt out a sentence without any clue.
“Are you wearing a white T-shirt…”
"It's me!" HR sounded very happy, "It turns out that Dr. Tao was so impressed by me."
too suddenly.
Tao Zhiyue's image of HR is still that of a tired and lost middle-aged man, single at an advanced age, unable to reject the same-sex people who entangle him, and with no one to talk to in life, he has no choice but to go online for help...
Thinking about the boy in white T-shirt who attracted the attention of almost all the girls and some boys that day, Tao Zhiyue couldn't connect the two together at all.
He even suspected that there was something wrong with his sleeping posture yesterday, which caused him to enter a certain parallel time and space after waking up today.
"you… "
Tao Zhiyue said "you" for a long time, and then tried hard to put together a complete sentence: "Why you?"
HR understood his meaning accurately and said in a brisk tone: "When I called you yesterday, I recognized you by your voice, but you were drunk, so you might not have been able to hear it."
"As for our meeting at the game show, it was purely a coincidence. I was also surprised yesterday."
"I think this is the fate that is often written about in novels. I never thought that I could have such a wonderful fate."
I never thought that I could have such a wonderful fate.
Tao Zhiyue picked up the bread at hand in a daze and covered his mouth which had suddenly lost the ability to speak.
The bread is delicious. When you take a bite, the rich lava egg yolk filling is full of salty fragrance.
Therefore, his last memory of that day was the HR with a young and attractive voice asking him questions seriously in the room filled with the aroma of bread.
"So, Dr. Tao, can I pursue you?"
The thrilling three-day paid vacation is almost over, and Tao Zhiyue has returned to his normal nine-to-six life.
When he went to work the next day, Tao Zhiyue brought two full boxes of braised beef. This time, his experienced colleagues swarmed over and lined up in an orderly manner.
It was just past nine in the morning, but the whole office was filled with a happy atmosphere of lunch.
Wang Heng was extremely excited: "Brother Tao, I didn't expect that you would remember what I just said casually that day. I am so touched."
"Today's is even better than last time, super tasty! How did Brother Tao do it? It's amazing!"
Tao Zhiyue tried his best to control himself from looking at his hairline, and while his colleagues' attention was on the plastic lunch box, he quietly pulled Wang Heng aside.
He was a little embarrassed to speak, and hesitated for a long time. However, Wang Heng patted his chest very considerately and said, "Brother Tao, is there anything you need my help with? Just tell me! I can do anything!"
"..." Tao Zhiyue was embarrassed, "It was the night before last, I drank too much, and then..."
"Yeah." The slow-witted Wang Heng waited attentively for him to continue, "I drank quite a lot too. That barbecue place is really good."
Tao Zhiyue gritted his teeth: "Did I say anything weird? Or get drunk or something like that..."
Wang Heng finally reacted, with an expression of having discovered a new world, "Ah, so Brother Tao, don't you know what you look like when you're drunk?"
The moment of social death was approaching, but Tao Zhiyue unexpectedly calmed down and whispered, "You can tell me, I can bear it."
"Actually, I'm not drunk. Brother Tao was probably frightened by my PP message." Wang Heng laughed, "Let me think about how to describe it... Well, Brother Tao talks more than usual after drinking, and his face turns red."
That was still normal. Tao Zhiyue was about to feel relieved when he heard Wang Heng continue.
"And you look so well behaved! No matter what people say to you, you will say: OK. For example, if someone says cheers to you, you will whisper: OK, and then pick up the glass and drink it in one gulp. Everyone will be stunned."
"Several girls were so excited that they asked you for your PP number, and you agreed. They even offered to join the group. It seemed that you were completely different from your usual distant attitude!"
"By the way, when we were about to leave, you received a voice call, but you acted like you didn't know the person. I said to you, Brother Tao, how could you not recognize someone when you were drunk? Then, Brother Tao, you seriously refuted me and said, "I know you, you are Wang Heng, I am not drunk."
"Anyway, it was very cute! So I remember being in jail, and someone said they wanted to record it, but they were stopped hahahaha."
Tao Zhiyue: …
Well, this life has come to an end once again.
He felt numb, his entire body enveloped in shame, and he simply couldn't bear it.
It's easy to imagine that the casual chat that HR said before was definitely to comfort him.
Tao Zhiyue couldn't even imagine what he had said to HR during the nine-hour phone call the night before.
Or, what HR said to him, and how he responded...
Tao Zhiyue said goodbye to his enthusiastic colleague Wang Heng in a daze: "Thank you, goodbye."
Wang Heng was oblivious to his pain and said cheerfully, "Brother Tao, remember to call me next time you drink. I have a good drinking habit and can even tell you jokes!"
…
Thank you, there won't be a next time, he is a joke now.
I could have been happy, but it was men who ruined me.jpg
Tao Zhiyue returned to his workstation after daydreaming and tried to get into work mode, but he just couldn't calm down.
Colleagues he met along the way all looked at him with a strange kind of affection in their eyes.
In the PP friend list that has become extremely busy and crowded, HR with a cute avatar is floating at the front. I sent him a message an hour ago, but he hasn't replied yet.
[hr: Good morning^-^]
When Tao Zhiyue saw this smiling face that had been present throughout the entire process of his acquaintance with HR, he felt sick all over.
Yesterday, HR asked me on the phone in a very seductive voice if I could pursue him.
Tao Zhiyue never thought that he would hear these words from a person of the same sex in his lifetime.
So he answered without hesitation: "The water is boiling, I'll go get some water."
Then Tao Zhiyue hung up the phone in embarrassment and hid in the bathroom as if he knew the way there well.
Standing under the gurgling shower head, Tao Zhiyue could not tell whether it was the hot water that made his skin red, or the high temperature of his body that heated the water.
The faint smell of alcohol that remained yesterday was washed away by the water, but every word HR said took root in his mind, constantly attacking his sanity.
He fell in love with a middle-aged, unfashionable man online whom he had never met before.
They actually met in real life, and the other person turned out to be young and handsome.
The innocent male netizen who looks like Aquaman said seriously that he wanted to pursue him.
Tao Zhiyue even suspected that he should be the real protagonist of this bloody BL novel he had transmigrated into.
After staying in the bathroom until he was almost fainting, Tao Zhiyue tiptoed out. Fortunately, the HR did not send him a series of questions, giving him time to catch his breath.
Tao Zhiyue didn't dare to calm down. In order to find something to distract himself, he ran to the supermarket and bought a lot of beef and braised meat seasonings. He came back and slowly washed, cut and cooked them, doing his best to kill time.
During this period, he cut his fingers twice while cutting meat, burned the back of his hand once when he touched the wall of the pot while stewing meat, and hit his head three times when he was standing in front of the range hood in a daze.
At this moment, Tao Zhiyue, who was wounded and disheartened, was sitting in front of the computer. His colleagues around him knew nothing about this and were contentedly enjoying the fragrant braised beef. Maybe they were also recalling the eye-opening robot last night.
And the culprit, Lovely Bouquet, sent a new message.
[hr: The game show closed yesterday, and this business trip ended successfully.]
[hr: cute and mixed.jpg]
[hr: Dr. Tao, I have to leave tomorrow.]
[hr: Do you want to meet me before you go back?]