Hello, How Long Has This Been Going On?

When Tao Zhiyue learned that HR was coming to Jinbei City for a business trip, his initial reaction was feeling at a loss.

Although he communicated frequently with HR these days, he also took the initiative to mention the secrets that he had hidden for more than ten years.
The duo got along in the most classic way with netizens— no one listened to them in real life, so they chose to communicate heart-to-heart in virtual reality.

However, in his eyes, Big Brother HR was always a ‘paper man'(1) that had nothing to do with real life.
They would never meet, so he did not need to worry about the changes in the other’s discovery of his identities and emotions.

(T/N: Refers to a fictional character only described in words on a page or drawn in a manga.
The person doesn’t exist in real life)

Tao Zhiyue found it incredible that the paper man would be coming to the city where he lived.

Even setting aside the distance between them being hidden behind the Internet, a gentle, kind, middle-aged straight man who was a bit of a pushover, seemed to be a person that was from another world.
It was hard for Tao Zhiyue to imagine meeting such a person offline to chat.

Tao Zhiyue regretted the fact that he casually used the prefix of Jinbei City when he changed his username in the forum.

However, it was too late to think about it now.

Tao Zhiyue looked at the message sent by HR and identified the hidden expectations behind the text.
He thought for a long time before organising the hidden meaning, forming another layer of words to politely decline meeting up with the other party.

Subconsciously, he didn’t want to have any real relationship with Brother HR.

After rejecting HR, Tao Zhiyue ushered in another weekend of being alone.
In order to prevent himself from being too bored, he set a few small rules.

If the weather was fine, he would go for a walk in the park to breathe some fresh air.
Besides, he would also be able to secretly stretch his muscles and bones along with the elderly who practised Tai Chi.

If it rained or snowed, he would head over to the supermarket to buy some vegetables and meat before making a hot pot by himself.
On days when the rain pattered or the snow fell, being able to eat a steaming hot pot at home was nothing short of the happiest moment.

Walking, exercising, and cleaning pots and pans were all energy-consuming things.
He would definitely feel tired at the end of the day and wouldn’t want to do anything else the next day.
So, he would spend it lazing around at home whilst playing with his phone.
With that, a good weekend would be over.

Nevertheless, this weekend was a rare foggy weather in Jinbei City.

There was a vast layer of white that was visible outside the window and the buildings that were situated not far away were all submerged in the grey mist.
The once bustling city became silent and blurred from the mist.

After finally making it to the afternoon, Tao Zhiyue still felt worried as he didn’t know what to do.
He played all the popular games and checked the forum repeatedly, but there were no new posts.

In his previous life, he would chat with his good friends whenever he got bored, he would ask for Amway(2), chat about daily gossip and send emoticons to each other to kill time.

(T/N: Mentioned in the last chapter, but in case anyone forgot, it’s an Internet slang that means ‘a good recommendation’)

Now, upon looking at the only friend in the ‘my friend’ list, he fell silent.

…Should he chat with Big Brother HR?

It was only yesterday that he rejected the other party’s implicit invitation to meet, which was why Tao Zhiyue became more embarrassed and did not dare to take the initiative to seek out the other.

He decided to find the books that were about to fall to disintegrate from their state of overuse to improve his cultural literacy.

In the past, he would insist on reading two books a week to ensure a certain amount of knowledge input.
Recently, he didn’t understand why he was slacking off so much.

After reading for more than two hours, Tao Zhiyue, who woke up in a daze, confirmed one thing— one must not read a book facing the window in weather like this.
Ultimately, the hazy white mist was rather hypnotic.