Rong Yi lay in the luxurious and spacious private room of the private hospital, her pretty face deathly pale, resting against a snow-white pillow, giving off a delicate and fragile illusion.
Linda sat beside her, peeling an apple for her. “Yi, didn’t the doctor say it’s just an acute back strain and the X-ray didn’t show anything serious? Why do you have to stay in the hospital for 5 days?”
Yi: … Are you asking me? It’s not like you weren’t the first one to take a bathroom selfie with me.
In any case, she wouldn’t show her face at that company where she had practically died socially.
The private hospital room was ample, with the only flaw being its cost. Fortunately, Yi, besides money, had no other advantage, so she directly booked a 5-day single VIP room.
With the lucky carnival every 7 days, she had 2 days left to recover her strength at the gym, perfect.
Although she wasn’t going to the company, Yi’s workaholic nature couldn’t be changed. She was pale, hunched over on the hospital bed tapping on her laptop.
“I’ve almost finalized the contents of this afternoon’s presentation. I’ve emailed you the changes needed. You know the details. Coordinate with Zoe to smooth out the meeting,” she instructed Linda.
After acknowledging, Linda exchanged the apple for Yi’s laptop, letting her rest, and then busied herself at a small table by the bed with her own laptop.
Fan Xingze entered carrying a large bag of medication, clenching the medical records and insurance card under his arm, furrowing his brows. “Why aren’t you resting properly? You have me to handle the presentation. Relax.”
It wasn’t Fan Xingze boasting. Yi knew clearly that despite their conflicts, when it came to professional work, he was a dependable and trustworthy teammate.
Sensing the subtle tension between the two, Linda excused herself to prepare for the meeting at the company, leaving the room.
After the chaos of the morning settled, Fan Xingze finally realized he was the reason for Yi’s current state. Feeling a rare twinge of guilt, he accompanied her to the hospital, arranging doctors’ visits, transfers, paperwork, and medication meticulously like a very responsible party at fault.
“I’ve got a new piece of code from the system where that code you were interested in before originated,” Rong Yi summoned the floating screen and opened Luna’s steel nurse code for her.
Fan Xingze looked blankly as she gestured and pointed in the air.
“…Doctor!” Suddenly, he took a step forward, pressed the bedside call bell urgently, and shouted in the communication system, “Doctor, come quickly! She hit her head hard!”
Rong Yi grabbed his hand, whispered “Shut up” through her teeth, and shooed away the doctor and nurse who came in response quickly.
She gestured to the floating screen in front of her, “This is the interface of that system, you just can’t see it. I can’t make a copy of the files in the system for you, I can only transcribe them, okay?”
Fan Xingze: “…An interface I can’t see?”
“It’s hard to explain to you.” Rong Yi reached for her laptop on the sofa, “Give it to me, or I’ll go get it myself.”
Fan Xingze hurriedly handed her the laptop, hesitated, and said, “I have to go prepare for the afternoon meeting, your meals for the next few days are sorted, remember to eat on time, and take your medicine too. Don’t overwork yourself, rest more.”
Impatiently, Rong Yi hummed her agreement and ushered the babbling big shot back to the company.
She diligently copied the code, when suddenly a notification sound came from the communication system on the floating screen.
Opening it, she found Raymond had created a small group chat for the comrades who were storming Gikas Castle together.
Rong Yi joined in, and after some random chatting, they discovered that other than Tasha and Anton in Russia, Luo Huayue, Zhong Zhi Ming, and her were in the same city, while Raymond and Zhang Haiyang were in the neighboring city.
With everyone on a break in the game for a few days, all resting coincidentally, Rong Yi mentioned her injury, and they planned to meet in her city the next day.
Rong Yi chuckled to herself, never realizing that while her long-distance relationship with her younger boyfriend had yet to materialize, she had already met up with her game friends.
With her waist injured and feeling off all over, she had to be careful of her movements even while typing, and with nurses coming in midway for pain relief patches and massages, she lost a lot of time.
By the time she finished transcribing the code and sent it to Fan Xingze, it was already 10 pm.
Fan Xingze did not reply. He was someone who clearly distinguished between work and personal life, with extremely high efficiency at work and never responded to work emails or messages after hours. Rong Yi actually appreciated this about him.
Due to her boyfriend’s “cute” emojis that night (details in Chapter 26: A Little Valentine’s Day Extra), Rong Yi slept deeply and peacefully, waking up the next day feeling much better, with the pain in her waist significantly reduced and able to get out of bed.
Before lunch, Rong Yi was almost back to normal activities, as long as she didn’t make any sudden movements.
She packed up, put on light makeup, and prepared to meet her gaming friend.
Just as she opened the door, she ran into Fan Xingze.
He held bags of fruits, snacks, and nutrition products, looking surprised, “Where are you going?”
Rong Yi didn’t hide anything and truthfully told him.
Fang Xingze frowned, “What you need now is rest! What game friends…” He looked at Rong Yi, who had already changed his shoes and ignored him, sighed, “Alright, I can’t convince you, so I’ll go with you!”
Rong Yi: …No, who asked you to come along?!
“…Anyway, that’s how it is. So my colleague insisted on coming along. I’m really sorry.” In the hotel box, Rong Yi apologized to the players at the table.
In reality, Raymond didn’t dress flamboyantly like in the game, but his handsome mixed-race appearance still attracted attention.
He looked up and down at Fan Xingze, who was sitting beside Rong Yi, “Is this really not your boyfriend?”
“No,” before Rong Yi could speak, Fang Xingze dryly said, “Rong Yi was hospitalized, her boyfriend didn’t even show up. He’s not as caring as I am, a colleague who genuinely cares for her.”
Rong Yi rolled her eyes, “He’s overseas, in a time zone difference of 12 hours. Didn’t you know?”
Fang Xingze snorted and fell silent.
Luo Huayue, holding her face, kept peeking at him, whispering to Zhang Haiyang, “Oh heavens, he’s so handsome, Rong’s colleague is really handsome, oh my!”
Zhong Zhiming coughed, “Um, we were talking about the game, won’t he find it hard to understand?”
Those who hadn’t experienced the game found these tales unbelievable, many players who spoke about the game to ordinary people were considered mentally unstable.
This made discussions about the game only spread among players and not on a large scale.
“Don’t worry about that,” Rong Yi said, “He’s the tech guru at our company. I previously obtained some game code snippets; he can crack them.”
“Really?” Zhong Zhiming was extremely surprised. “You mean this colleague of yours has a chance to crack the game?!”
Cracking the game, regaining freedom, was what many trapped players dreamed of!
“At the moment, the data is not enough. But step by step, there will be a day of victory,” Rong Yi showed her familiar confident smile.
In the game, she was like a steady compass needle. No matter how bad the situation, as long as she remained stable, there would be a turning point.
Raymond saw this quality in her, hence organizing this gathering.
If he didn’t firmly grasp such a person, he would regret it for a lifetime!
He stood up and walked to Rong Yi’s seat, kneeling down in front of everyone.
“What are you doing?!” Fang Xingze’s reaction was even bigger than Rong Yi’s, quickly standing up, glaring at Raymond with hostility.
Raymond reached out his hand, his voice low and magnetic, “In the presence of friends who have experienced life and death together, Rong Yi, my little rose, would you be willing to—”
“—team up with me?”
