Compatibility - Chapter 65

Chapter 65

The break room was a good place to slack off during work hours. After all, sitting in the office, you couldn't loaf around in plain sight. But step out for a wander, chat in the break room, and drink a coffee, and half an hour passed just like that.

WCRR Corporation's break room was spacious, complete with a small alcove devoted to making coffee, and it was a favorite spot for many employees to gather and chat. That meant all kinds of gossip could be heard here as well.

Song Nanyin stood quietly in front of the coffee machine, waiting for her cup to finish brewing, absentmindedly listening to the tidbits her colleagues in the outer room casually brought up. Every so often, a familiar name drifted in.

Zhang Kai, Liu Zhaoran, and even Luo Ning appeared with considerable frequency. Song Nanyin rolled her eyes in boredom inwardly, reflecting that it really took messy affairs of the heart to stir people's urge to gossip. Switch the topic to work, and none of these people would be nearly so eager.

Of course, she wasn't all that eager to listen either.

Song Nanyin chuckled to herself, then suddenly noticed that the sound of conversation had died down, replaced by a faint cough. The cough was clearly being suppressed; despite the effort to hold it back, sound still leaked out.

Hadn't someone once said that the only things in this world that cannot be endured are love and a cough? As for the former, Song Nanyin found it absurd and laughable, as if it had no right to appear after those four words "cannot be endured." But a cough really was hard to endure, and what's more, this cough sounded somewhat familiar...

"Director Liu, are you still not better?" The silence broke then, and listening to the conversation outside, Song Nanyin understood where the faint sense of familiarity she'd just felt had come from.

"I'm a little better now. I was just going to get some hot water to take my medicine." Liu Zhaoran said softly, her voice indeed much hoarser than usual, and she couldn't help coughing a few times mid-sentence. In fact, Song Nanyin knew about this: Liu Zhaoran had messaged her the day before yesterday, saying she felt unwell and had a high fever.

At the time, Song Nanyin had been staying at Chai Yue's place, enduring Chai Yue's curiosity and nosiness as she explained how she and Liu Zhaoran had suddenly "broken up." With no other way around it, Song Nanyin had to make clear that the two of them had been nothing more than friends with benefits.

Since it was only friends with benefits, an ending was an ending; no special reason was needed.

As she was thinking this, the coffee was finally ready. Carrying her cup out of the alcove, Song Nanyin was bound to run into the people outside. Not knowing Song Nanyin had been inside, the group hastily tried to recall whether they'd said anything bad about her, and their expressions were rather comical.

Song Nanyin stood at the end of the line, intending to fill another cup of hot water to drink later, when Liu Zhaoran turned around to look at her of her own accord.

"Team Leader Song, you go first. I'm not in a hurry." Liu Zhaoran said softly, her smile as gentle and flawless as ever. Song Nanyin frowned at her, feeling that this wretch Liu Zhaoran had become just as annoying as she used to be.

She knew perfectly well that Song Nanyin didn't want to talk to her, didn't want any more unnecessary entanglements with her, yet she insisted on provoking her anyway. Song Nanyin kept her face cold. Since Liu Zhaoran said she could go first, she didn't stand on ceremony, stepped past Liu Zhaoran to fill a cup of hot water, then turned and left without another word.

Seeing her reaction, Liu Zhaoran lowered her eyes, somewhat dejected. The colleagues around them watched this scene and exchanged glances.

So it really was true that Team Leader Song and Director Liu didn't get along.

Song Nanyin knew that what she'd done might not be proper, but when it came to Liu Zhaoran, she still couldn't keep her composure. Back in the office, Song Nanyin lowered her head and sipped her coffee. After a while, her phone lit up, sure enough, with a message from Liu Zhaoran.

The content was a photo: steaming hot water and fever-reducing medicine. A moment later, another message came.

"Nanyin, I'm not feeling well. I miss you very much."

Well, there it was. She'd skipped even the pretense this time and gone straight to playing for sympathy. Song Nanyin couldn't be bothered to look at it again and simply turned off her screen. But she couldn't deny that her heart had been stirred a few times by that Black-Hearted Lotus, Liu Zhaoran, sending ripples across the already unsettled lake of her heart.

It had been a few days since Song Nanyin moved out of Liu Zhaoran's place. Over these days, the two saw each other at the company, but in most cases Liu Zhaoran didn't presumptuously speak to her, and Song Nanyin likewise chose a "we're not close" stance, treating it as if the two of them were just coworkers.

At night, Song Nanyin occasionally thought of Liu Zhaoran, and of the "absurdity" she had lived through over the past half year and more. Song Nanyin didn't consider herself someone whose life had seen great ups and downs. To her, living alone up to now might already be off the track of most people's lives.

From the mutation of her body, to being discovered by Liu Zhaoran, to living together and becoming intimate, and now to this affection, every single thing sounded unbelievable. Yet when these changes were woven into the small details of daily life, together they covered no more than a short span of just over half a year.

That night, Song Nanyin heard Liu Zhaoran's true feelings for the first time, but she found she couldn't be happy about it at all. This was the affection she'd dreamed of, spoken to her from Liu Zhaoran's own mouth, yet it had come too late, and too conveniently.

Song Nanyin didn't want to make such speculations, but Liu Zhaoran's actions had precisely confirmed her suspicions. The other woman had long since noticed that Song Nanyin liked her, yet had never let on, which showed her thoughts hadn't been wholly on Song Nanyin.

Or perhaps the darker possibility was that Liu Zhaoran had actually noticed, she just hadn't been willing to face it. What if she hadn't exploded that night? The two of them might have kept on with that kind of relationship, and Liu Zhaoran wouldn't even have explained her past with Luo Ning, or her plans.

Still less would she have confessed that she liked Song Nanyin.

What did that make her? From start to finish, she was the only one being played for a fool. She was like a marionette, pulled around however Liu Zhaoran pleased.

Thinking of all this, Song Nanyin smiled in self-mockery. She'd heard that first loves were bound to run into trash, but this first love of hers was too surreal for words...

Near the end of the workday, Liu Zhaoran packed up her things, planning to head up to the 21st floor early to find Song Nanyin. Just then, there was a knock at the door. Liu Zhaoran said, "Come in," and saw Luo Ning walk in from outside, holding several boxes of medicine, clearly meant for her.

"How are you? Feeling any better?" Luo Ning looked at Liu Zhaoran with concern, the worry in his eyes plain to see. If it had been before, Liu Zhaoran would have spared some patience for the man in front of her. But now, with her thoughts all on Song Nanyin, she had no interest in Luo Ning's gestures of goodwill.

"Thank you, I'm fine, already much better. Luo Ning, actually... you don't need to put so much thought into me. I said that day that I hoped you'd think it over carefully; in the same way, I've been rethinking our relationship."

Liu Zhaoran spoke softly but didn't take Luo Ning's medicine. Her hint was unmistakable. Luo Ning, after receiving the necklace that day, had also pondered the deeper meaning in Liu Zhaoran's words. Add in the fact that since this reunion, Liu Zhaoran had shown no warmth in any respect, and it was actually quite easy to see the signs.

He wasn't the type to cling and pester. He was simply curious about what had made Liu Zhaoran change her usual ways. Luo Ning had thought Liu Zhaoran was the same kind of person as him: they would choose the optimal option, and they appreciated and liked clever people.

That was also one of the reasons Luo Ning had insisted on coming back to find Liu Zhaoran despite his parents' objections. But as things looked now, it seemed something or someone had influenced Liu Zhaoran. Luo Ning was a little curious who this person was, and what they meant to Liu Zhaoran.

"All right, I understand. But you should still keep the medicine. I hear it works well." With that, Luo Ning turned and left. Watching him leave, Liu Zhaoran breathed a slight sigh of relief for no reason she could name.

She sat down wearily in her chair. The itch in her throat made her cough uncontrollably, and once a cough started, it tended to go on without end. Liu Zhaoran covered her mouth with a tissue and coughed until her eyes brimmed with tears. Only after drinking a full glass of water did she manage to suppress it.

Liu Zhaoran glanced at her phone. The end of the workday had already passed, which meant that even if she went over now, she probably wouldn't catch Song Nanyin. The message she'd sent had gone unanswered; in fact, Liu Zhaoran had already guessed that Song Nanyin wouldn't respond to her.

Because of the physical constitution of the ABO Human Species, Liu Zhaoran rarely fell ill in this world. In the nineteen years she'd been here, she'd only had a cold once, a few years ago, when she'd been too busy with work.

This fever had come on fierce, and the root cause was Liu Zhaoran's own doing. On the first night Song Nanyin left, she drank a lot of alcohol, dozed off in the middle of her bath, and didn't wake until the small hours of the morning.

Her whole body was cold and aching, and her head throbbed so painfully it felt like it would explode. Only at that moment did Liu Zhaoran learn how hard a fever was to endure. She wanted to order medicine, but no one would deliver at that hour, so she could only grit her teeth and hold on until morning to buy fever-reducing medicine.

Even then, Liu Zhaoran's mind had been surprisingly clear, and she'd thought about a great many things. At first, she'd simply missed Song Nanyin, thinking of the Little Lion's good qualities, thinking that if she were here, she would at least hold her.

Then Liu Zhaoran had naturally gone on to think of the rotten things she'd done. In fact, she'd sensed that Song Nanyin liked her.

It was just that, at the time, Liu Zhaoran had automatically ignored that affection and paid it no mind. It wasn't until later, when she realized how much she cared about Song Nanyin, that she began to regret what she'd done.

Liu Zhaoran understood that this was her own fault, so the sadness and torment she felt now were hers to bear. She'd just given Luo Ning his hint, and presumably he wouldn't pester her anymore. Now all she had to do was think about how to win Song Nanyin back.

Liu Zhaoran wiped the tears at the corners of her eyes, touched up her makeup, and only then left the company. When she got home, she didn't rest right away. Instead, she forced herself to stay alert and went to the study, where she opened the safe.

She'd wanted to check something a few days ago, but the discomfort in her body had kept her putting it off until now.

When the case opened, lying inside was a pale pink object. In shape, it closely resembled a slim watch, but the color was somewhat childish, a poor fit with Liu Zhaoran's style.

Liu Zhaoran glanced at that touch of pink, a flicker of distaste passing through her eyes, but she picked it up anyway and fastened it around her wrist. Then she inserted the chip Luo Ning had given her earlier into the watch-like object.

As the chip went in, the pitch-black screen suddenly flickered with light, though the glow was so faint it seemed it might go out at any moment. Sure enough, before long the screen began to flicker wildly, then sank back into darkness, and no matter how Liu Zhaoran touched it, there was no reaction.

"It seems it still doesn't work." Liu Zhaoran took off the device, somewhat dejected. This wasn't a watch, but a communicator from Liu Zhaoran's world, something like a phone in this world, called a Light-Brain.

The Light-Brain, however, was far more advanced, and it was an essential item for everyone in that world. A person's ID, sex, identity information, and even property certificates were stored within it. Everything one might use in daily life could be kept in the Light-Brain for convenience, so it could well be called a miniature all-purpose computer.

This was the only thing Liu Zhaoran had brought from that senior apprentice sister, and it was her only remaining chance of going back. Unfortunately, this world's energy clearly wasn't enough to sustain the Light-Brain's operation, and within a year it had stopped working.

Liu Zhaoran had thought that the chip Luo Ning gave her might help some, but as it turned out, the effect was negligible. At that thought, Liu Zhaoran looked at the Light-Brain with some frustration.

With an adult Light-Brain, the energy inside could generally last for decades. But unfortunately, Liu Zhaoran's Light-Brain was a minor's device.

Members of the ABO Human Species were born with their own Light-Brain. Before coming of age at sixteen, the Light-Brain they used was this kind of adolescent device, with many functions incomplete. It was roughly equivalent to this world's elderly person's phone, or a children's smartwatch, if you will.

Liu Zhaoran sighed and put the Light-Brain back into the safe.

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