Chapter 82
Chapter 82
“You’re here to apply for a job?” The nurse looked utterly baffled.
Qiao Yu nodded firmly.
A cleaner earned sixty thousand a month here. Not the measly six thousand Shang Yan was offering.
He was done sitting in that stupid office. He was coming to the hospital to mop floors.
Seeing how pale and sickly he looked, the nurse couldn’t help hesitating. “Are you sure you’re not ill?”
“I’m not. I’m in great health. Don’t be fooled by appearances.” Qiao Yu tugged at his own hair and flashed her a brilliant smile. “I’m just a little alternative, that’s why I dyed my hair like this. If you don’t believe me, you can take me for a physical.”
Still doubtful, the nurse pulled a form from a drawer and pointed at the elevator behind her. “Then fill this out and go to the seventh floor to see our director.”
Qiao Yu nodded obediently and lowered his eyes to the form.
The first section was perfectly normal: name, place of origin, education.
Qiao Yu filled it in truthfully: Qiao Yu–Yan City–third-tier bachelor’s degree.
The second section: How long have you been dead?
Uh… which one should he put?
Three years or two weeks?
A little tricky…
Forget it. Three years it was!
In the real world, this question probably counted as… work experience?
And the longer the work experience, the better, of course.
The third section: Position applied for.
Answer: Cleaner. I simply love keeping company with brooms and mops. I love labor. Labor makes me happy.
After Qiao Yu filled out the form, he got into the elevator. The elevator was rather old, and it jolted to a halt for a split second as it rose. The light overhead flickered wildly, making Qiao Yu’s eyes ache. Impatient, he kicked the elevator doors.
Clank-
That kick fixed the elevator again, and it reached the seventh floor without further trouble.
The instant the elevator doors slowly opened, Qiao Yu’s vision went black.
When he opened his eyes again, it was already close to evening.
Kong Xianya sat beside him and handed him a boxed work meal, her face wooden. “You actually slept during work hours?”
They were all getting the same salary, so why did he get to do that? ( .′︵‵.)
Qiao Yu accepted the boxed meal, his expression perfectly serious. “I didn’t want to sleep either. This computer must have placed a curse on me where I fall asleep the moment I look at it.”
Kong Xianya felt as though her intelligence had been insulted. Pointing at the boxed meal, she said solemnly, “The director told me to watch you finish eating.”
“Mm…” Qiao Yu rubbed his sleepy eyes. “Where is he?”
“Clearing an Instance.”
“Hm?”
Seeing that his usual carefree look was gone, replaced by a rare trace of worry in his eyes, Kong Xianya couldn’t help feeling curious. “Are you two together?”
Qiao Yu took a bite of rice and smacked his lips.
So this girl still thought of him as a stand-in?
But he mischievously chose not to explain. Instead, he lowered his long lashes and looked as if he wanted to speak but didn’t dare, appearing both wronged and innocent.
“Is he not good to you?” Sympathy appeared in Kong Xianya’s eyes. Whenever she read novels, those stand-ins were always especially pitiful. They lost their bodies, lost their hearts, and might even lose a kidney…
Qiao Yu swallowed the rice in his mouth and smiled like a sweet, clueless innocent. “He’s all right to me. Don’t worry. Even if he isn’t good to me, it doesn’t matter. I have legs. I can run away on my own.”
Kong Xianya: ??
Wait, why aren’t you following the script?
How am I supposed to respond to that?
Seeing Kong Xianya frowning with her little face all scrunched up as she tried to work up the right emotions, Qiao Yu smiled and leaned closer to start fishing for information. “By the way, how much do you know about the Nine Lives Live Stream?”
Kong Xianya was only too happy for Qiao Yu to break the awkward silence and immediately told him everything she knew. “I work in logistics, so I only know some surface-level stuff. But there is one thing I heard from the seniors.
“Actually, saying the Live Stream Room appeared in the real world three years ago isn’t quite accurate. The earliest it should have been was four years ago.”
At this point, she leaned closer to Qiao Yu and lowered her voice. “And the first batch of streamers to enter the Live Stream Room were all from Yan City. After the Instance ended, the surviving streamers reported the matter to the state.”
After several more Instances, everyone discovered that the Live Stream Room was shockingly contagious.
To prevent panic, the streamers had no choice but to be placed under strict surveillance.
Once those streamers were quarantined, the measure did prove effective. For an entire year, there were no further reports of anyone being pulled into the Live Stream Room.
But three years ago, everything changed.
All over the world, large numbers of streamers began appearing, claiming they had been pulled into a supernatural Live Stream Room. From that point on, the matter could no longer be contained.”
Qiao Yu narrowed his eyes and guessed, “So Yan City was chosen by the Live Stream Room as a testing site back then?”
Kong Xianya nodded. “You could put it that way.”
No wonder…
Qiao Yu lowered his head thoughtfully. When he ate, he looked refined and obedient.
For some reason, Kong Xianya watched him a little longer. In the end, she still did not reach out to pat his head.
After all, that would seem rather impolite.
After thinking for a moment, she offered some comfort anyway. “You don’t need to worry too much. Director Shang is a Black-Name Streamer. His combat power is ridiculously abnormal. He’ll definitely come back safely.”
Qiao Yu looked up and gave a perfunctory smile. “Mm.”
Sigh. Such a well-behaved little brother. How could anyone have the heart to use him as a substitute?
Kong Xianya huffed inwardly. She had actually misjudged him. Director Shang was the ultimate scumbag!
At six in the evening, it was time for Qiao Yu to get off work. He went to Shang Yan’s office to get his backpack and witnessed a jaw-dropping scene.
The colleagues who had been drinking tea and reading newspapers during the day were now all swamped with work, each busier than the last. The peaceful, idyllic atmosphere had abruptly turned into utter chaos.
Endless ringing phones filled his ears.
Calling it lively would be an understatement!
Qiao Yu saw the older woman who had helped him handle his onboarding paperwork that morning waving at him. He immediately averted his gaze, pretended not to see her, and slipped into Shang Yan’s office.
Then he slowly locked the door behind him.
Mm. He was sleeping here tonight. He was not going back out.
Qiao Yu tossed his backpack onto the desk, then leaned sideways and collapsed onto the sofa. His eyes half-lidded, he yawned.
Suddenly, he sniffed. A faint scent of body wash drifted into his nose. He sniffed again. It was the one Shang Yan usually used.
Looked like that guy slept here every day. Even the sofa had picked up a subtle trace of his scent.
Wrapped in that familiar smell, Qiao Yu drowsily closed his eyes.
Right before falling asleep, he vaguely remembered that his nose seemed to have recovered.
Truly worth celebrating~
[Beep, beep, beep-Live Stream Room loading…]
[Loading complete!]
As soon as Qiao Yu came back to himself, someone shoved a broom into his hands. “Hurry up and get to work. Clean this ward. Someone will be staying here soon.”
Qiao Yu stared at the plain white tiled floor for a while, still a little dazed.
Had he entered an Instance?
“Qiao the Janitor, I’m talking to you!”
Qiao Yu lifted his head to look at the speaker and found a slightly plump middle-aged woman standing opposite him.
She was dressed in a nurse’s uniform, but her face was somewhat pale and her expression stiff.
Her name badge read: Head Nurse: Yu Jinzhi.
“What are you standing there for? Hurry up and work!”
Right. In his dream, he seemed to have applied for a janitor position.
Qiao Yu thought of that sixty-thousand-yuan monthly salary and immediately tightened his grip on the broom, bent down, and started sweeping.
As he swept, he secretly glanced at her and found that aside from looking a little pale, this Head Nurse Yu’s words and actions were no different from a normal person’s.
Head Nurse Yu, meanwhile, watched Qiao Yu’s back as he slacked off even while working and shook her head with a sigh. “He won’t work unless he’s pushed. Did the director hire him for his face?”
As soon as she finished speaking, a patient in a hospital gown was wheeled out of the operating room.
Qiao Yu heard the sound and glanced over. The only thing that stuck in his mind was that the patient was Baldy, with a shiny, smooth scalp and not even eyebrows…