Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 754: Happy

Translator: CKtalon

On the 647th floor, Room 14.

After Jiang Baimian finished writing up the contributions that she needed to submit today, she stood up, rubbed her shoulders, and said to Long Yuehong and Bai Chen, “Since we have nothing to do, let’s go to the training room for some exercise.”

“Alright!” The person who replied wasn’t Long Yuehong or Bai Chen but Shang Jianyao, who had suddenly appeared at the door.

Jiang Baimian glanced at him and scoffed. “Didn’t you say that you wanted to experience the board’s exclusive canteen? Why are you back so early? It’s not even noon!”

As far as she knew, there was no so-called Board of Directors exclusive canteen at all. There was only the management’s exclusive canteen. Of course, the directors had special treatment when they went to any exclusive canteen for management. It was equivalent to having a private room with special dishes served.

Shang Jianyao sighed in disappointment. “It’s because I’m too early that I could only wait in the corridor on the fifth floor. The guards found me unsightly and that I was a stain on the environment, so they kept urging me to leave.”

The fifth floor of Pangu Biology’s underground building was the Management Zone.

If you weren’t an Awakened in the Mind Corridor and had a high status, those guards definitely wouldn’t just be persuading you… Jiang Baimian smiled and said, “And you came back just like that?”

“Otherwise? I’ve always been law-abiding and a model employee.” This was indeed how Shang Jianyao thought of himself.

Jiang Baimian laughed. “It will be difficult for you to go to the fifth floor again. Without the higher-ups there inviting you and obtaining permission in advance, you won’t be able to enter.”

This was still a relatively relaxed situation. If anything happened, the alert level would rise. Employees who didn’t obtain permission couldn’t even press the corresponding elevator button if they wanted to go to the fifth floor or lower.

As for the fire escape routes, they would definitely be sealed. Furthermore, there were many of them. The ordinary employees and management used different stairs.

“It’s fine. I’ve already spoken to them; they will open the door for me when the time comes.” Shang Jianyao smiled smugly.

“Spoken to them?” Long Yuehong asked in confusion.

Shang Jianyao nodded in all seriousness. “That’s right. I made many friends there.”

Made friends… The corners of Long Yuehong’s mouth twitched in response.

Jiang Baimian asked in exasperation and amusement, “Since you’ve already made friends, why did you return? Can’t you just stay on the fifth floor?”

Shang Jianyao frankly replied, “What they said does make sense. I agree that me squatting there waiting is quite unsightly.”

Did you make friends with them to be convinced by them? Jiang Baimian rolled her eyes and gave up on following Shang Jianyao’s train of thought.

She pointed in the direction of the changing room. “Let’s go to the training room.”

“The spot you’re pointing in doesn’t seem right,” the honest Shang Jianyao pointed out.

Jiang Baimian flew into a rage out of humiliation. “So you don’t change before training?”

“Oh!” Shang Jianyao clapped, making Jiang Baimian feel like killing him.

Long Yuehong and Bai Chen didn’t dare to interject or speak.

After the team members changed and entered the training room, Jiang Baimian was in no rush to find someone to spar with. Instead, she did some aerobics to warm up her muscles bit by bit.

As she practiced, she glanced not far away and teased, “Why are the two of you so affectionate when you’re stretching each other? Give me back my eyes!”

Long Yuehong immediately felt embarrassed, while Bai Chen was completely unaffected and replied, “You can also find someone to help you stretch.”

Jiang Baimian opened her mouth and was speechless.

Rage rose in her that she had no qualms about doing anything. She turned her head to Shang Jianyao and said, “Come, let’s have a fight first!”

Shang Jianyao gasped exaggeratedly. “Don’t hit the face!”

The two of them put on their armor and boxing gloves, walked to the middle of the training room, and began sparring.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bang! Bang!

Jiang Baimian attacked like a raging fire. Her fists were like dragons, beating Shang Jianyao as he ran around cowering.

“Why did you use all your strength today?” Shang Jianyao asked in confusion as he ran and blocked.

Jiang Baimian smiled brightly. “I’m happy today!”

To be honest, she was indeed in a good mood. As she had successfully returned home last night, she took the initiative to mention that only the Eighth Research Institute remained to be found for the subsequent missions when faced with Madam Xue’s complaints of ‘not knowing when she will be out on another mission’ and ‘don’t make us parents die after our child.’ She then said that the subsequent missions would be left to the company. They only needed to do some of the things assigned to them and didn’t have to go out all the time.

This made her parents very happy.

Jiang Baimian’s mood improved when she saw that they were happy. Therefore, she made Shang Jianyao experience her happiness.

…

495th floor, Zone C, Room 11.

After dinner, Long Yuehong—who hadn’t gone home to sleep yesterday—nervously opened his door.

Long Dayong, Gu Hong, and Long Aihong sat in their respective seats as they watched the LCD screen on the television cabinet by the wall.

Long Yuehong had used contribution points to exchange for this before his last mission.

It was said that a company had moved it out of Swamp Ruin 1, and the company had returned several screens to them.

This thing was actually useless in Pangu Biology. After all, the Entertainment Department had only recently considered the possibility of forming a television station. The LCD screens in the company’s Rec Center were really just used to show some information or to give people who liked to sing during weekends a background when there were the corresponding activities.

In very few cases, the Entertainment Department would send specialized personnel to play Old World films to enrich the employees’ leisure lives.

However, the Long family had a laptop that Long Yuehong had brought back with him; it contained a large amount of Old World entertainment. Compared to the small laptop screen, it was clearly better to play the content on a larger LCD screen.

“I’m back.” Long Yuehong glanced at the flickering scene on the LCD screen and recognized that it was a drama serial that he found garrulous.

“Okay.” Gu Hong nodded.

Long Dayong turned his head to look at the door and casually said, “Ah, you’re back.”

With that said, he cast his gaze back at the LCD screen.

Long Aihong didn’t even raise her eyelids. She didn’t say a word and was abnormally focused.

Although he didn’t receive the attention he deserved, Long Yuehong heaved a sigh of relief. He then casually found a seat in the living room and sat down to watch the television with his family.

After an episode ended, Gu Hong seemed to come to a realization and reprimanded Long Yuehong. “Why didn’t you say anything when you entered?”

Long Yuehong didn’t know how to respond. His experience was to just ignore the comment.

As expected, Gu Hong’s focus quickly shifted. She smiled and took out an irregular cube made of light-yellow paper from her pocket.

Gu Hong then looked at the window and suppressed her voice. “Here, a Babymaker talisman!”

“What talisman?” Long Yuehong reached out to take it with a confused expression.

Gu Hong smiled. “The Babymaker talisman! It can bless your wife with a child soon.”

Long Yuehong glanced at his mother suspiciously. “Where did you get it?”

He remembered that only the older generation had such a culture of using Babymaker talismans. At his parents’ generation, genetic enhancement technology had already matured. Many problems of infertility had never been inherited, so there was no need to pray for additional blessings.

However, nothing was absolute. Genetic enhancement could only be said to have eliminated some problems in advance, but the effects of everyone’s enhancements were different. Some were good, and some were bad. For example, Long Yuehong himself was only 1.75 meters tall after genetic enhancement.

Gu Hong replied righteously, “From your grandmother!”

“Alright.” Long Yuehong casually accepted the Babymaker talisman and stuffed it into his pocket.

As Bai Chen had asked him to stay at home today, he had nothing to do and decided to visit the Rec Center to have a chat with his old classmates and friends he hadn’t seen in months.

After entering the Rec Center, Long Yuehong casually swept his gaze around and suddenly felt a little down. He saw the newly transferred Rec Center’s PIC.

This lady didn’t live on the 495th floor; she only came here to work every day.

Sigh, why would a nice person like Grandpa Chen be infected with the Heartless disease… What a sudden disaster… Long Yuehong sighed inwardly and walked to a corner of the Rec Center.

The Old Task Force had now preliminarily confirmed that the reason Chen Xianyu—the former PIC of the 495th floor’s Rec Center—was infected with the Heartless disease was that a few New World powerhouses from the company had temporarily returned during First City’s uprising to guard against any accidents. This inevitably resulted in a portion of the Heartless virus leaking from the New World into Pangu Biology.

Long Yuehong had just sat down, and before he could adjust his mindset and search for an acquaintance, he heard Shang Jianyao’s voice.

“Everyone, everyone, what song do you want to hear? The Spring Welcoming Singing Competition is about to begin. I need more practice.”

Long Yuehong looked over with a blank expression and saw Shang Jianyao wearing a dark-blue coat and holding a microphone as he stood in front of the Rec Center’s LCD screen to seek everyone’s opinion.

Beside his feet, the small black speaker with a blue bottom was prepared to fire at any moment.

The people playing cards, playing chess, and chatting in the Rec Center replied, “It has to be more festive!”

“It has to make people happy listening to it!”

…

Shang Jianyao listened seriously and waved his hand. “Give me a minute.”

He squatted down and adjusted the small speaker’s playlist.

Before long, he stood up, and music sounded.

Shang Jianyao’s body began to sway with the rhythm, and his voice sounded through the microphone. “Congratulations on becoming rich.

“Congratulations on being wonderful.

“The best ones, please come over.

“The bad, please leave1…”