“You can decide,” Yun Li said.
“If I weren’t already taken, I’d put Fu Shize and myself together,” He Jiameng said with an exaggerated look of regret. She gazed at Yun Li, perplexed. “You’ve seen him too, haven’t you?”
“At least Fu Shize is good-looking. Wouldn’t it brighten your day just to bring him lunch?” she teased, feigning disappointment with a heavy sigh.
After finishing her instructions, He Jiameng returned to her office.
Yun Li browsed through the documents on her desk, mostly product user manuals. She quickly finished reviewing them and found herself with nothing to do.
After sitting at her workstation for an hour, scrolling through news from trending topics to viral stories, still, no one else had arrived.
Just as she was about to die of boredom, Fang Yuning messaged her to assist with equipment repairs at the EAW Experience Hall, where an engineer would be present. This wasn’t part of Yun Li’s department duties; Fang Yuning likely lent her out to another department since she had no immediate tasks.
It seemed He Jiameng was right—she might end up doing odd jobs around the office.
The EAW Experience Hall was closed to the public this morning. Peering through the glass doors, Yun Li saw only darkness inside, with particles of dust dancing in narrow beams of light.
Using the employee card He Jiameng gave her, Yun Li swiped open the door. At the entrance, she opened the fuse box to find all switches already on—the engineer must be inside.
The hall was silent. For some reason, Yun Li found herself treading lightly.
After circling the first floor, she heard the sound of something heavy being dragged across the floor near a corner room. It seemed someone was already working inside.
Yun Li knocked and said formally, “Hello, I’m the new intern. Sister Yuning sent me to assist you with equipment repairs.”
No one came to open the door, but more sounds of tools clanking and moving echoed from inside.
Yun Li felt ignored.
The person inside seemed to be deliberately making louder noises.
Knocking again would feel like picking a fight.
As she debated whether to knock once more—
“Come in.”
Yun Li pushed open the door. The room was dimly lit by a small beige lamp. The air was dry, filled with the mingled scents of wood and plastic. A figure crouched in the corner, sleeves half-rolled up, rummaging through a toolbox. He picked up a screwdriver, examined it briefly, then tossed it aside.
“You’re at EAW now?” Fu Shize’s voice was low but resonant in the enclosed space.
In a professional setting, Yun Li reverted to formal speech: “Yes, thank you for your advice last time.”
Before coming, Yun Li had imagined many scenarios of meeting Fu Shize again. After much hesitation, she decided to mention being rejected by the technology department.
“I was reassigned to HR, which doesn’t match my major,” Yun Li felt like she was putting herself out there, “and I’m a bit… socially anxious.”
Fu Shize’s hands paused. He looked up, the beige light illuminating his face. He seemed skeptical: “Really?”
Yun Li froze at his question: “Does… does it not seem that way?”
Fu Shize stared at her for a while, as if seriously pondering her question.
His expression made Yun Li wonder if he was recalling how she had asked for his contact information. Originally, she had hoped to get some career advice from Fu Shize, but now she just wanted this topic to end quickly.
“Sister Yuning asked me to come help you repair things,” Yun Li said, hurrying to his side to change the subject. She noticed a frosted bag with a croissant and a cup of coffee on the floor.
Not knowing how to fix things, Yun Li felt a bit nervous.
“Is there anything I can help with?” Yun Li glanced at the breakfast on the floor. “Your breakfast is getting cold. You should eat first.”
From Yun Li’s perspective, Fu Shize wore a simple blue work uniform, with yellow electrician’s gloves covering much of his hands.
“It’s fine,” Fu Shize didn’t let her intervene. He put two light bulbs in his pocket and climbed up the ladder.
The ladder didn’t look very stable. Even someone of Fu Shize’s build made it creak loudly as he climbed. Yun Li instinctively held onto both sides of the ladder.
Fu Shize was changing two spotlights in the ceiling. He unscrewed the old bulbs, put them in his pocket, and quickly replaced them with new ones.
After coming down the ladder, he took off his gloves and tossed them aside. He went to the door to switch on the spotlights, brightening the previously dim ceiling considerably.
At the door, seeing Yun Li still holding the ladder in the distance, Fu Shize reminded her, “There’s no one on the ladder.”
Yun Li froze, embarrassed, and let go.
Fu Shize picked up the paper bag from the floor, quickly unwrapped it, and took a bite of the bread. He walked a few steps forward to check the other spotlights.
“I can inspect them. You should eat your breakfast first,” Yun Li said gently. Fu Shize stopped and looked back at her.
Had she said something wrong? Or was there something on her face? Several thoughts raced through Yun Li’s mind. Seeing Fu Shize motionless, she nervously added, “You’ve been working hard all morning. I can handle the rest.”
Unexpectedly, Fu Shize just took another bite of his bread and mimicked her tone: “No need for your help.”
“…”
Yun Li learned her lesson: “Then you eat your breakfast first…”
Most of the other lighting equipment was working normally. Yun Li noted down the few with minor issues on paper, while Fu Shize slowly followed behind her.
His presence behind her made Yun Li feel pressured. Trying to appear calm, she hesitantly asked, “Are we doing anything else today?”
Fu Shize made an affirmative sound, paused, then asked, “What do you want to do?”
Yun Li’s hand froze.
What kind of question was that—what could she possibly want to do??
Shouldn’t he be the one to decide??
Fortunately, Fu Shize finished his breakfast and didn’t dwell on her answer. He told her the remaining task for the morning was to test all the other gaming equipment in the hall.
It was something she could do. Yun Li felt relieved.
Compared to her first visit, EAW had added some classic movie-themed areas and street entertainment projects like expression-mimicking prize draws and game blind boxes. Unfamiliar with the venue, Yun Li followed Fu Shize with her folder. After testing each device, she would tick the corresponding box on the checklist.
For the remaining tasks, they split up. Yun Li was responsible for the expression mimicking the prize draw machine. This machine used facial expression recognition technology. The screen would prompt players to mimic certain emotions, then the camera would record and analyze the player’s expression. The higher the matching score, the better the prize in the draw.
Yun Li had never played this before and wasn’t sure how sensitive it was.
She sat in front of the machine. Her face appeared on the screen, with colored bars in the top left corner indicating scores for various emotions and the total score.
She clicked “Start Game,” and the screen prompted: Overjoyed.
Yun Li gave a slight smile. A yellow rectangle framed her face on the screen, followed by a bright advertisement-style font displaying her total score—20 points.
This… was too difficult, wasn’t it?
Yun Li clicked to try again. When the yellow frame appeared, she immediately exaggerated her expression—raising her eyebrows, widening her eyes, and grinning so broadly her laugh lines were visible.
The screen displayed several opening gift boxes—100 points, You’ve surpassed 99% of players.
It was overly dramatic.
This game wasn’t very friendly to people who didn’t express much emotion.
After ticking the corresponding box, Yun Li operated the screen, about to shut down the machine.
Suddenly, another idea popped into her mind—
As soon as the thought emerged, Yun Li felt she might be going too far.
Just then, Fu Shize finished his testing and came over to her side.
Yun Li stepped back, lowering the folder to her thigh.
“This machine seems to have some issues. The detection isn’t very accurate,” Yun Li said while observing Fu Shize’s expression.
She… wasn’t exactly lying, was she?
The machine truly wasn’t very accurate. She had to make such exaggerated expressions to get a high score.
Having convinced herself, Yun Li felt a bit expectant, waiting for Fu Shize’s reaction.
“It’s always been like this,” Fu Shize said disinterestedly, yawning as he tapped the screen.
A few words popped up—”Elated.”
Fu Shize’s face appeared in the center of the screen, looking gloomy and serious. His tense jawline finally relaxed a bit as he seemed to be trying hard to force a smile.
A purple-gray box appeared on the screen.
The “Anger” and “Sadness” scores in the top left corner shot up.
—10 points, You’ve surpassed 5% of players.
It was quite accurate after all, Yun Li thought. But Fu Shize showed no intention of forcing a smile to get a high score, and Yun Li’s little plan didn’t succeed.
“Inaccurate,” Fu Shize said directly, walking to the side and marking a big × on the checklist. He capped the pen and tucked it into his chest pocket.
Yun Li quickly tried to comfort him with a smile, “It’s just not very accurate. We can have the manufacturer repair it.”
At that moment, the camera captured Yun Li’s face.
The score jumped directly from 10 to 100 points.
“…”
It was like telling your friend who failed an exam, “It’s okay, everyone did poorly,” only to have the teacher announce you got the top score in the grade the next second.
“Look, you still surpassed 5% of people,” Yun Li stammered, “5% of the total population is still a huge number.”
Fu Shize glanced at her: “You’re quite optimistic.”
“…”
Fortunately, Fu Shize was already used to this machine and had good self-awareness.
By the time they finished checking the equipment, it was lunchtime. As they were about to leave after shutting down the small room, Yun Li noticed an arcade machine at the door of the outermost room. The introduction stated that the VR game inside was adapted from a classic arcade game.
When Yun Li was in elementary school, arcade games were all the rage in Xifu. After school, she often secretly went to play with her classmates, vowing to play together forever.
Back then, she didn’t have much pocket money, so she saved up one or two yuan each week. Later, when Yun Ye started elementary school, Yun Li saved her living expenses so they could play together on weekends.
As technology advanced rapidly, Yun Li later continued playing those games with Yun Ye on game consoles at home. Her old friends faded away with time.
Seeing Yun Li stop in front of the arcade machine, Fu Shize waited for a moment and asked, “Want to try?”
Yun Li: “Oh, can we?”
Fu Shize made an affirmative sound.
Yun Li felt a bit shy, “I used to play with classmates often when I was little. Arcade games were very popular then, and I’m familiar with several games inside.” Realizing she had been talking about herself, she asked, “Did you play this when you were young?”
“No,” Fu Shize replied.
Yun Li: “Then what did you usually play as a child?”
Fu Shize: “Mainly played with my nephew.”
Yun Li: “Oh… What did you play with Fu Zhengchu?”
Fu Shize: “He liked to play house.”
Yun Li: “?”
Fu Shize turned on the power. Inside the room were about a dozen small motorcycle simulators. Fu Shize went to the back to remotely activate two machines. They agreed that she would take the left one and Fu Shize the right.
Yun Li operated the screen, choosing ‘2p’ (two players). Next was choosing their relationship, which would presumably determine the game scenario.
The screen displayed several options, and Yun Li froze. Only parent-child, spouse, or lovers could be selected.
Choosing the other two would be too suggestive, so Yun Li decisively selected ‘parent-child’.
Fu Shize: “…”
Not knowing how to explain her motives properly, Yun Li said sheepishly, “I think this word describes our relationship more accurately…”
Fu Shize: “…”
He reminded her: “There’s a next page.”
“…”
Yun Li wished she had thick glasses—she hadn’t even noticed the big ‘next’ button below. Since it was already locked in, Yun Li couldn’t change it and went directly to the next page.
The next page asked them to choose which machine the guardian would operate.
Yun Li strongly suspected the game designers were deliberately courting bad reviews. How could they design such a ridiculous entry interface?
Yun Li automatically set Fu Shize as the father and herself as the daughter.
Fu Shize didn’t speak, but his gaze seemed to pierce through her back, making Yun Li nervous. She awkwardly suggested, “Or I could be the mother, and you could be…” Yun Li couldn’t bring herself to say “son.”
Fu Shize: “…”
Thankfully, the subsequent operations went smoothly. After completing the basic settings, they entered the actual game. The gameplay required riding on motorcycles equipped with motion simulators to mimic driving.
Yun Li had never worn the equipment before and didn’t know what to do after climbing onto the motorcycle. Seeing this, Fu Shize got off his bike and walked to her side to remind her: “It will shake quite a bit later.”
Leaning down, he tapped a footrest near her shoe, “Step on this.”
Yun Li obediently placed her feet on the footrests.
Fu Shize turned his head and asked, “Shall I strap you in?”
The question sounded oddly embarrassing. Yun Li mumbled a faint “Mm.”
It felt different from her first visit to EAW when fear had mostly enveloped her emotions. Now, she watched as Fu Shize wrapped the straps around her ankles and tightened them. Unconsciously, her gaze moved upward, lingering on his collarbone.
Just as he finished securing Yun Li’s equipment, Fu Shize noticed her unwavering gaze and looked up: “Too tight?”
Yun Li blushed: “No.”
After fastening her other safety strap, Fu Shize returned to his position. Once they both put on their VR goggles and entered the game, a motorcycle shop appeared before them.
Yun Li saw a person nearby wearing sunglasses and tight sportswear, presumably Fu Shize in the game. He nodded at her after selecting a motorcycle model.
The game entered a countdown.
Didn’t she need to choose a motorcycle? Yun Li felt confused.
When the game officially started, Yun Li realized the issue—
Because they had chosen the parent-child mode, the system defaulted to them riding one motorcycle together.
She sat behind Fu Shize, with his back right in front of her.