Lowly Creature

Chapter 5

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He Zhi's biological clock is very accurate. When he woke up, it was still 7:30 in the morning. He also brought some chaos from staying up all night. When he opened his eyes, he looked to the right side first, and there was no one lying beside him.

The events of last night almost immediately appeared in his mind. He Zhi didn't even have time to wash up, so he got up and walked out of the room, and rushed down the stairs. The speakers embedded in the wall sensed He Zhi's appearance, and the surround sound began to broadcast the morning news.

Fortunately, someone is still there.

Ji Mao was sitting in the living room, staring at the beating wall curtain.

He Zhi walked over to watch, Ji Mao was sitting upright, staring at the wall with all his attention, fascinated by it, if it wasn't for the heroine in the camera who was bitterly accusing the hero, he really thought Ji Mao was watching some serious TV .

"What are you looking at?" He Zhi accosted him.

"Flowers and Butterflies," Ji Mao wrapped a pillow in his hand, watching with relish, just like Jimmy's daily life in The Last Day, "Lin Jingjing is so pitiful."

He Zhi doesn't watch TV dramas, but reads news at most. He lacks research on idol dramas, so he can't talk to them.

"I've thought about it for a long time," Ji Mao said, and He Zhi's heart skipped a beat, thinking that Ji Mao was discussing their relationship with him, but Ji Mao changed the subject and talked to him about TV dramas, "Why did Yue Yunshan suddenly break up with Lin Jingjing?" , it turns out that Shao Shanqin has his child."

"..." He Zhi looked at Ji Mao with a complicated gaze, hoping that Ji Mao could stop in moderation.

But Ji Mao didn't notice, he didn't look at He Zhi at all, and continued to tell: "Shao Shanqin had a puncture, and he is a son."

Unable to hear He Zhi's answer, Ji Mao turned his head and said, "Didn't you watch it?"

"Didn't watch it..." He Zhi retreated in defeat, "I'll go upstairs to wash up first."

He Zhi changed his clothes and went downstairs, instead of going to the living room, he went directly to the dining room for breakfast.

But he was sitting in the main seat, so he could see the heroine kneeling on the ground and crying in the wall curtain, hugging the hero's leg and saying that he would change anything.

He Zhi took a sip of the porridge and felt that the volume on the TV was turned up too much. From the moment the hero insisted on breaking up, the heroine's cry of collapse spread from the living room to the dining room, deafening.

He Zhi's daily morning news broadcast was covered up, he ate a few bites casually, walked back to the living room, turned down the volume, and talked to Ji Mao: "I'm going to the company during the day, you stay alone Can you stay at home?"

Ji Mao looked at He Zhi, stunned for a moment, said "um", and asked him, "You left me alone?"

"Is it okay?" He Zhi asked him.

Ji Mao rolled his eyes and said, "OK."

"Don't run around," He Zhi said, "I'll try to come back as soon as possible."

"Prince Luogen is going to work too?" Ji Mao put his pillow away and crossed his legs and asked him.

Seeing that he was still downcast last night, He Zhi started to provoke himself today, and said dryly, "Go and clean up the mess for you."

I also want to know how much damage Ji Mao caused when he escaped from Qianzhan Technology yesterday.

At this moment, his communicator rang, and the secretary called.

As soon as He Zhi picked up the phone, the heroine of "Flowers and Butterflies" screamed again. The volume of the TV series was obviously not turned down enough, and the cries echoed in the huge living room.

Secretary He Zhi seemed to have heard the strange voice on his end, and immediately fell silent.

He Zhi looked down at Ji Mao, who blinked at him, turned the volume to mute, and turned his face to watch the drama again.

"Continue talking." He Zhi said to the other end of the phone.

The secretary went on to report. She said that the second laboratory reported the theft of the laboratory. The stolen set of bionic robots was customized by Mr. He. Now the person in charge of the laboratory has called the police and the police are on their way.

He Zhi looked at Ji Mao, who had his back turned to him, and said to the secretary after a long time: "Understood, just let the police go through the motions."

As soon as He Zhi hung up the phone, Ji Mao pretended to be very innocent and asked him: "Have you lost anything in your company's laboratory?"

"Did you lose an inflatable doll?" Before He Zhi could answer, Ji Mao added.

It's not that He Zhi can't beat him, but he is just kind and soft-hearted, and just let Ji Mao: "Look at your "Flowers and Butterflies"."

Ji Mao put it away when he saw it, turned on the TV sound, turned down the volume a little more, and watched quietly.

He Zhi lowered his head to get his coat, and suddenly saw a translucent line under Ji Mao's clothes. He looked along the line, and the end of the line was a charging port, which was plugged into the spare port on the ground.

Although wired charging is a thing of the past, home improvement companies will still symbolically make some spare ports that do not affect the visual experience, in case the instrument suddenly fails.

"What is this?" He Zhi pointed to the thread and asked Ji Mao.

Ji Mao looked up at him, pulled out the interface connected to his body, and showed He Zhi: "Charging cable."

He Zhi said, "Isn't that something from decades ago?"

Looking at He Zhi's delicate expression, Ji Mao said again: "The scientific research level of your company's second laboratory stagnated ten years ago, and the charging base was too big and heavy for me to carry, so I took a spare Charging Cable."

He Zhi wrote down the matter of the charging base, picked out a car key and was about to go out. Before he reached the door, he went back and told Ji Mao: "The workers will come to clean at nine in the morning, so don't charge it then."

"Okay," Ji Mao said, "By the way, I created an identity in Wanyou.com system, applied for a chip report, and paid with your account. Have you seen it?"

He Zhi took the communicator and looked at Wanyou.com's notice, and sure enough there was a payment record. He looked at the other party's information, but it was still confidential, so he asked Ji Mao, "You did it while I was asleep?"

"I can do a lot of things," Ji Mao shook his head and explained, "Wanyou.com is best operated at 6:25, and you were still sleeping at that time, so I didn't tell you. When I find a job, I will I will pay you back."

He Zhi looked at him for a few seconds and asked, "What else do you want?"

"Do you want to know?" Ji Mao said.

He Zhi looked down at him and said, "Think."

Ji Mao glanced at the chandelier in the living room, and the light suddenly went out.

The electronically controlled curtains were slowly opened, revealing a landscape outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, and the light came in, turning the room from dark to bright.

Then Ji Mao motioned He Zhi to look at the door leading to the basement. The door lock made a light sound, and the doorknob was automatically pushed down, opening a crack.

"You have an electric sports car produced in 2050." Ji Mao closed his eyes and asked He Zhi, "Is it?"

Suddenly, there was an engine roar unique to that sports car, which was simulated by audio.

"I really know how to do a lot of things," Ji Mao said honestly, "otherwise, how do you think I got in the door yesterday?"

He Zhi looked at Ji Mao, suddenly raised his hand to touch his face, and asked him, "But I don't feel it, right?"

Ji Mao was stunned for a moment before saying, "Yes."

He Zhi couldn't see any expression on his face. He glanced at the wound on Ji Mao's arm that he had cut out. Ji Mao noticed his eyes and hid his right arm back, but he didn't hide it. Zhi held it.

He Zhi grabbed his wrist, pulled his arm to his eyes for a few moments, and then let him go.

"By the way," Ji Mao felt that the atmosphere was a bit heavy, so he said, "I'm a middle-class person this time, but I haven't decided what job I want to do. Maybe I still want to find a retro styling room and accept the artificial labor of the lower-class people. .”

He Zhi looked at Ji Mao with mixed emotions in his heart. He suddenly remembered that all the design proposals given to him by the company used Ji Mao's English name, and Jimmy from the retro styling studio didn't mention his Chinese name. , He Zhi even suspected that the Chinese name Ji Mao was given by himself.

Since he's been in The Last Day for so long, it must have been boring.

After a while, he said to Ji Mao: "Just wait here."

Ji Mao nodded, nestled back into the sofa in the living room, picked up the charging cable on the ground and plugged it in again, and continued to watch his third-rate idol drama.

He Zhi said goodbye to him, and went out absently, thinking about Ji Mao's lost face all the way.

As soon as he arrived at the company, the secretary stood at the door of his office, and the deputy director of the game testing department also stood aside, waiting for him anxiously.

"I think Mr. He should have been driving just now, so he didn't call you," the secretary came over and reported to him, "Group Leader Yu has been waiting for you for a long time."

"Come in and say." He Zhi approached the office, the detector recognized He Zhi's chip, and the door opened to both sides.

He sat on the seat and signaled them to sit down with his eyes. The deputy director of the testing department sat down, looked up and looked at the secretary, and opened his mouth to report to Ji Mao about the emergency that happened in the testing department in the morning.

After going to work at 8 o'clock this morning, the testers went to their own seats to test the game according to the shift schedule, and found that the game cabin with the number plate TL8 could not be opened, and the manager was nowhere to be seen, so he had to find a colleague from the maintenance department Come to repair, it was finally opened 20 minutes ago, and the director of the testing department was lying inside.

He Zhi frowned and asked, "Did you give first aid?"

"The ambulance personnel just arrived," the secretary said, "and sent him to the medical cabin for an examination. They reported that everything was normal, but he was still in a coma, so he was sent to the hospital."

He Zhi nodded, said he got it, and asked the secretary to take care of it, then left the deputy director alone, let him sit across from him, and said he had something to ask him.

The deputy minister wiped the sweat from his forehead.

The door behind him was closed by the secretary, and he was very nervous. Their game testing department is a group of nerds, and they are not strong in stress resistance. He is not bad like this, otherwise he would not be able to be the deputy director, but let him face it alone. For He Zhi, he was still a little scared.

He Zhi has a bad temper and scolds people at every turn. Everyone in the company is afraid of him, especially the employees in the game testing department. Because the test of the TL8 cabin has not been passed recently, which has affected the progress of the game, when He Zhi was negotiating abroad, he even arrested all the staff of the testing department in the middle of the night and held a video conference, scolding for half an hour.

Now that he is in the same room with He Zhi himself, the deputy director's psychological pressure is already critical, even if he is asked to go home and ask his wife for a passbook, he dare not say no.

"You left first last night?" He Zhi asked after taking a sip of coffee.

The deputy director immediately nodded and answered quickly: "No one has been able to clear the game cabin numbered TL8. The team leader has reported many inspections, and the colleagues in the maintenance team have not seen the problem. A few days ago, I asked the program department to look at it. I didn’t find any clues. The team leader and I worked overtime last night. Didn’t you come to the ministry? My wife called me as soon as I entered the cabin, saying that my son had a fever, and the team leader asked me to go back first.”

"I cleared the game at nine o'clock last night, so I left first and asked Liu Yue to try again." He Zhi rested his hand on the table, touching his fingers, and said casually, "What's so special about TL8? You test it yourself. ever?"

"I've tested it twice," the Deputy Minister said, "Jimmy in TL8 is very different."

"Oh?" He Zhi narrowed his eyes and stared at the deputy minister, "What's different?"

The deputy minister thought for a while, and silently recited the first sentence of "How to Talk to the Boss" that he had just read a few days ago "Speaking to the boss should be sincere, brief, and well-founded", and then slowly said: "Jimmy from TL8, We call him Xiaoji."

The company's game testing department has a total of 15 game cabins. The games in each game cabin are slightly different. It is now in the first test stage, which is similar to a small-scale internal test. The test team looks for loopholes and votes to select the best A game that meets the public's aesthetics, and then conduct a more refined test.

"The protagonist in each game cabin has an alias?" He Zhi interrupted the deputy minister and asked him.

The reason why Ji Mao calls himself Ji Mao is the transliteration of Jimmy

"Not all," the deputy minister shook his head. "Actually, in this RPG game, the characters are very templated. We call him Jimmy1 and Jimmy2. Only the one in TL8 is called Xiao Ji."

He Zhi nodded, motioning for him to continue.

The deputy minister picked up his water glass and took a sip before saying, "He has a human taste. I have been tested twice in TL8, and the feeling is different each time."

"Why is it different?" He Zhi put down the pen in his hand, leaned forward, and asked.

"I don't know how to describe the character of Xiaoji, but when I entered the game in the TL8 cabin, I can clearly feel that I am a person who is free from Xiaoji's world. I am observing him. , he was also observing me,” the deputy minister recalled, “Xiao Ji has a very cool personality. I discussed it with a few colleagues. When we were shot at the end, he didn’t respond, but he’s not a bad person... By the way, He was designed by Xiao Shen, who has left the program department, Xiao Shen is very good at details, and most of the well-reviewed characters in the previous two games were designed by him."

He Zhi took a pen and wrote the word "Shen" on the paper, and then asked the vice minister, "Is that so special?"

"Mr. He, you have only played this version of TL8, maybe you don't have a deep impression," the deputy minister shook his head, "He is so human, I have played games for so many years, this is the first time I have encountered such a game.

"Mr. He, you also know that our game has an anti-addiction mechanism, which isolates the interaction between some users and characters, and The Last Day is a game that comes with the game cabin. The main purpose of the design is to show customers our For the game cabin function, the skill requirements of the game are very low, and most of the time is selected.

"In addition, the logic of the RPG game is simple. In order to take care of the customer experience, the dialogue of the game is extracted from the database to ensure that it will not be the same every time. The database is privately created by the programmer, but Jimmy from the other 14 cabins replied My things are pretty much the same, except Xiaoji.

"Xiao Ji doesn't like to talk, but when he talks to me, I feel that he really looks like a person. So every time I fail to pass the level, I don't succeed in convincing me. You know, I am a straight man after all. And family, let me chase a man—”

"Okay," He Zhi interrupted him, drew a horizontal line under the recorded Xiao Shen, and issued the order to evict the guest, "You go out."

The deputy minister also felt that he had said too much, so he immediately shut up and walked out with a slight bow.

He Zhi waited for him to close the door, then called the secretary, and asked him to call up Jimmy, the director of the programming department in charge of TL8 game cabin programming, and then find out where the TL8 program backup is, and find a new game cabin to help him install it.

After hanging up the phone, he looked at the word "Xiao Shen" on the white paper, and wrote Xiao Ji next to it.

Xiaoji.

He is cool and not a bad person, if you observe him, he also observes you. Such a Ji Mao, why did he fall in love with He Zhi

He Zhi drew a tick next to Xiao Ji, and the secretary knocked on the door and came in.

"Mr. He, the director of the program department and the director of the testing department have a good relationship. I heard that the director was unconscious this morning, so I asked for leave to visit him." The backup should be in the computer of Shen Shun, who left the job, and there should be several versions burned for backup, but... his computer can't be turned on, and the backup can't be found.”

He Zhi stared at him expressionlessly, just when the secretary thought that He Zhi was going to tell him to fuck off, He Zhi opened his mouth and said, "Understood, let's go out."

He Zhi was the only one left in the huge office.

He Zhi stared at the paper in front of him, thinking of the person who told him about the plot of the idol drama in the morning, and began to feel on pins and needles again.

He put the pen aside and looked at the time. It was nearly eleven o'clock. He picked up the communicator and hesitated for a while, then dialed the home phone.

Sure enough, the worker picked it up, and He Zhi asked her, "You haven't left yet?"

The first time the worker received a call from He Zhi at home at this time, he couldn't figure out his intentions, so he just told the truth that he had just finished cleaning.

"Let Ji Mao answer the phone." He Zhi coughed and ordered.

"Who is Ji Mao?" the worker asked hesitantly.

He Zhi was stunned, and said, "Forget it, you go back first."

The worker looked at the mop on the side, hung up the phone in a fog, put away the cleaning tools, and left He Zhi's house.

He Zhi held his breath and waited ten minutes with his watch before calling home. This time, Ji Mao finally answered.

He Zhi almost thought that Ji Mao ran away by himself, and asked him a little aggressively, "Where are you?"

"I'm at your house," Ji Mao said calmly, "otherwise, how would I answer your phone call?"

"I called just now, why doesn't the worker know who you are?" He Zhi asked in a low voice, holding a pen in his hand and scratching on the paper.

Ji Mao was silent for a while, and said truthfully, "I couldn't cover my arms, and I didn't want to be seen, so I went to the attic of your house, but the workers didn't come up."

Hearing that He Zhi didn't speak, Ji Mao enlivened the atmosphere. He opened the wall curtain and said to He Zhi, "You don't trust me too much."

"That's because you know how to do too many things." Half of He Zhi is borrowing Ji Mao's steps, and the other half is telling the truth. He hasn't figured out the relationship with Ji Mao, even if he does, he still wants to Know where Ji Mao is at all times.

"It's a lot, but I haven't finished watching "Flowers and Butterflies." Ji Mao answered absent-mindedly, the voice of someone talking on his end, the idol drama hasn't finished yet.

This time it's not a quarrel, a man and a woman are kissing each other over there, and there is a provocative soundtrack, which sounds very nasty.

He Zhi just heard that the deputy director of the testing department finished talking about Jimmy, and now he wants to take a look at Ji Mao, and insists on having a video chat with Ji Mao.

Ji Mao was immersed in the nasty plot, spoke casually, and pressed the video button only after repeated requests from He Zhi.

After a few seconds, Ji Mao's T-shirt sleeve edge and half of his wrist appeared on He Zhi's screen.

Ji Mao leaned against the table, rubbing his arm against the edge of the camera, out of shape.

He Zhi forcefully asked him to stand back, Ji Mao stepped back obediently, and his upper body finally appeared in the camera, but he still didn't look at the camera, his eyes were glued to the wall.

He Zhi looked at Ji Mao, and accompanied Ji Mao to listen to a TV episode in silence before asking, "What are you going to do after watching it?"

"I don't plan to do anything." Ji Mao said slowly, he only gave He Zhi one side, one hand was naturally drooping, the other hand was holding the wireless communication device, his lips moved slightly when speaking.

His eyebrows and eyes are so gentle and sweet, if you don't listen carefully to what he said, you will think he is talking to someone.

"I'll go home for dinner tonight." He Zhi stared at the screen and announced suddenly.

Ji Mao was stunned there, glanced at the camera, said "oh", and said dryly: "But I don't know how to cook."

"The chef will come over to cook this afternoon." He Zhi tried his best to slow down his tone, he was really not very good at talking.

He Zhi didn't have a kitchen machine at home, because his mother was a hidden egalitarian and was happy to hire lower-level workers.

"Don't go to the attic anymore. If you are afraid of being seen, you can find a coat in my closet." He Zhi said.

"Give me your coat." Ji Mao's TV series played the ending song, so he turned off the TV, turned to the screen, folded his arms and focused on looking at He Zhi and asked He Zhi, "Is it a little big?"

"It's fine if you can wear it or not." He Zhi said.

Ji Mao glanced at him and said, "You can also stay in the attic."

"What can it be?" He Zhi was caught by his glance, his heart moved, and he decided to kill Ji Mao's hobby of staying in the attic in the cradle, "I will lock the attic when I come back."

"The chef asked me what should I say?" Ji Mao asked casually, he left the scope of the camera, seemed to open the door, and walked outside, the ambient sound became more open.

"She won't ask," He Zhi listened carefully to the voice on the other end, and wanted to ask Ji Mao why he opened the door, but he seemed to be interfering with Ji Mao when he asked, so he had to say, "I'm just telling you, don't Just hide."

Ji Mao gave an "um" at the other end and didn't speak again.

He Zhi waited for a while, and Ji Mao asked him softly, "Is there anything else?"

"When will your chip arrive?" He Zhi searched for a topic for a long time before uttering a sentence.

"Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow," Ji Mao sighed, and asked He Zhi, "What exactly do you want to say?"

He Zhi wanted to ask Ji Mao what happened last night, but he was still thinking about his words, so Ji Mao spoke again: "It's nothing, I'll hang up."

He Zhi was blocked by Ji Mao when he was full of questions, but it was not too late to talk at night, so he was willing to say goodbye to Ji Mao.

He Zhi hung up the phone and heaved a sigh of relief. He had never done anything unscrupulously. Thinking back to the last time he was so nervous, it might have been during the second genetic screening test when he was three years old.

He Zhi called the inside line to let the assistant in, but the assistant knocked on the door tremblingly, looking at He Zhi with a little fear.

He Zhi remembered that he had sent him a message last night telling him not to come to work, so he knocked on the table and asked, "What are my plans for tonight?"

The assistant immediately opened the notebook and read the schedule to him: "Chairman He asked you to have dinner with him in the evening, as well as Mr. Li's family from Chengye Group."

"No," He Zhi waved his hand, "Let the chef cook a meal at home, and I'll eat at home."

The assistant walked out of He Zhi's office and found himself keeping a job, which was like a big prize from heaven, so he went to work full of energy.