Death Spiral [Infinite Flow] - Chapter 47

Chapter 47 – Watermelon

Over the next few days, Xu RenDong resumed his normal working schedule. This time it was different to last time. He had become accustomed to the rhythm of the ghost world and did not manifest any obvious trauma after coming out. He thought about it and it was probably because the number of deaths this time was relatively small.

Calculating it, he died five times the previous time and only two times this time. The progress was obvious.

After nine deaths in the ghost world and after returning to his real life, he regained his enthusiasm for work. He never knew how the percussive sound of a computer keyboard could be so sweet before and how the unchanging office scene could be so reassuring. Even his fierce female boss looked pleasing to the eye, transforming from a violent shrew into an amiable elder.

After all, when the boss gets angry the most she would do is throw a folder at your face. She won’t actually take out a hatchet and hack you to death.

So amiable!

With this level of ideological awareness, Xu RenDong’s work efficiency has improved a lot.

However, in the eyes of his colleagues, Xu RenDong’s changes were incredible. This beautiful man who looks like a star entered this large financial firm after graduating from a prestigious school. After being assigned to this small department, he has always been diligent and conscientious. He rarely communicated with anyone outside of work.

In their profession, people usually change jobs every six months or so and salary increases are achieved through job-hopping. But it has been four years since Xu RenDong graduated. In the past four years, the colleagues around him have changed wave after wave and even his immediate boss has changed from a bald middle-aged person to a sexy, arrogant sister. However, Xu RenDong has been staying in this position honestly, never bringing up promotions or salary increases, and never asking to change departments.

Speaking of which, the other colleagues in the department are now all his juniors. Liu JiaQi was trained by him during her internship period, so strictly speaking she could call him “Master”. However, everyone including Liu JiaQi, couldn’t get close to him. This is not because Xu RenDong was cold and ignored people. On the contrary, Xu RenDong was serious and reliable at work, meticulous when doing things and very patient when it came to teaching newcomers. It’s hard to find any shortcomings in him.

But it was precisely because there were no shortcomings that everyone felt like this person was difficult to approach.

He didn’t smoke, drink, stay up late, or be greedy. He didn’t have any bad habits but he doesn’t judge other people’s preferences. Whether it is women, football, cars that men love to talk about, or gossip, weight loss, or shopping that women love to talk about, anything you say to him, he will look at you with those deep and calm eyes. He would listen to you seriously and then… there was no more.

He doesn’t seem to be interested in anything.

He doesn’t even use emoticons on WeChat!

Naturally, everyone in the department kept away from him. Even the girls in other departments of the company who initially had designs on him, after being frustrated by his various polite and estranged demeanour, gave up. They said that the male god should just stay a male god in the sky, and that they would look for a mortal to date instead. He really was too high.

You can only look from a distance and can’t play with it.  That’s what Xu RenDong was like.

However, right now Xu RenDong actually posted an emoticon in the work group, “So-angry-but-I-still-have-to-maintain-my-smile-(crossed out). Work-makes-me-happy.jpg”.

Everyone was so horrified that the first reaction was not “Oh my God, Xu RenDong also collects emoji” but “Fuck Xu RenDong has been hacked, it must not be him!”

It wasn’t until the next day when everyone discovered that it was not the boss who had stolen Xu RenDong’s phone last night. Then they realized afterwards that Xu RenDong seemed to be a little different from before.

The one who felt this most was Liu JiaQi. Because when she asked if anyone wanted to order milk tea with her, Xu RenDong actually said that he wanted to see the menu!

When Xu RenDong took her mobile phone and browsed the takeaway interface, Liu JiaQi was moved to tears. Oh my! Does Xu RenDong drink milk tea?

“This… what is a Dragon Ball?” Xu RenDong’s question interrupted the outpouring of tears in Liu JiaQi’s brain.

Liu JiaQi glanced at the phone: “Oh this. It’s an ingredient in milk tea, it’s a…er, something similar to pearls.”

Xu RenDong asked again, “What is HanTian and AiYu?” Liu JiaQi explained them one by one. After listening to her, Xu RenDong thought about it carefully and ordered a few ingredients to add and then returned her phone: “I’m done.” Liu JiaQi saw that he wanted to try everything like a child and couldn’t help it. She smiled like an old mother: “If you want it all, you can order this- “everything in a cup” – it has everything but the price is cheaper than if you order it separately!”

“Is that so? Let me change it.” Xu RenDong leaned over, held up her hand holding the phone and swiped the screen a few more times, changing the drink he ordered to “a cup of everything”.

Xu RenDong’s palms were warm and dry and Liu JiaQi was suddenly touched by him. Her whole body seemed to be electrified. Until Xu RenDong sat back in the chair to continue working, the delicate and soft touch on the back of her hand still lingered.

“Fuck…” Liu JiaQi was secretly startled, “Why are you being so strange all of a sudden!”

Liu JiaQi finally calmed down and returned to her desk. Her phone vibrated and she received a red envelope from Xu RenDong. It was marked as milk tea money and the comment added was “thank you”.

Liu JiaQi looked at the red envelope pattern behind Xu RenDong’s name and couldn’t help but make a face.

Oh my! Xu RenDong actually gave me a red envelope!

Everyone knows that Xu RenDong didn’t know about red envelopes. Don’t even talk about grabbing red envelopes in the departmental chat group, even when the head of the company at the company’s New Year’s Eve dinner passed out awards to every person according to the number of heads, Xu RenDong person would not even click on it. Because he was so removed from everybody so they almost had no interactions involving money. Hence of course they never used red envelopes with him.

But now, he actually sent her milk tea money!

She wanted to make a post to her circle of friends to record this historic moment!

Of course, Liu JiaQi was still very reserved. She did not post it to the high-profile Moments, but shared it privately with her little sisters group. However, as a male god who never showed any fireworks, Xu RenDong’s milk tea news quickly spread throughout the company. Some people even quietly ran out of their department and through a gap in the middle of the frosted glass door, secretly observed whether or not Xu RenDong was really drinking milk tea.

Xu RenDong didn’t notice any of this at all. He just thought that the milk tea was too sweet and the ingredients in it were even sweeter. He glanced at Liu JiaQi’s table, thinking no wonder Liu JiaQi’s milk tea contains only one kind of pearl.

Liu JiaQi was gossiping with her sisters on WeChat and suddenly she noticed the gaze from a distance. Looking up, it turned out to be Xu RenDong. The two of their eyes met  and the corners of Xu RenDong’s mouth curled up slightly, forming a beautiful arc. He seemed a little shy and quickly turned his head away. Liu JiaQi’s heart immediately exploded.

  Ahhhhhhhhhhh he was peeping at me ahhhh!

Liu JiaQi lowered her head ripplingly, flicked her fingers, and reported to her little sisters in excitement: Is the senior suddenly interested in me?! Hahahahahaha!

But in fact the only feeling that was in Xu RenDong’s heart at this moment was:  embarrassment.

Why is it that every time he took a peek at others, he would be discovered? Lian Qiao’s innate keenness was already enough to deal with, how come Liu JiaQi’s was also so good?

Xu RenDong thought for a while and clicked on Liu JiaQi’s circle of friends. From top to bottom, the content was: ah, this is delicious. Oh that’s delicious too. Ah ah ah.  Everything is delicious. {It’s all food.}

Xu RenDong recalled how Lian Qiao behaved at the barbecue stall, “Ah, ah, I want this, ah, ah, I want that, ah, ah, I want it all”. After some rigorous thinking, he thought it was love. This keen insight must be developed by people who love to forage food. After all, they have to look around and listen in all directions when they’re walking around. That way they can find the best restaurants at the earliest opportunity.

Well, it was a very reasonable conclusion.

At this time, Wang XiaoGang happened to pass by Xu RenDong’s desk and glanced at him unintentionally: Fuck?! Isn’t this Jiaqi’s circle of friends? !

Xu RenDong was actually looking at Liu JiaQi’s circle of friends?!

Wang XiaoGang suppressed his excitement. He returned to his seat calmly, took out his mobile phone calmly, and quietly announced his discovery to their small inter-department group chat which didn’t have Xu RenDong in it.

Liu JiaQi: “Ahhhhhhhhhhh!”

Gu XuFeng: “Ahhhhhhhhh!”

The isolated Xu RenDong suddenly felt the atmosphere around him become weird. He raised his head suspiciously and the other three immediately put down their phones with solemn expressions and started typing on the keyboard.

 Xu RenDong: “…” Was I being too paranoid?

Anyway, it’s not like these people would kill him. Right now he was in a law-abiding society.

Thinking this way puts him at ease. Xu RenDong drank the overly sweet milk tea and continued the work at hand.

Today was Friday. It was unknown what kind of good thing happened to the boss but she actually came out at four o’clock and announced that everyone could go home early if they were finished with their work. Xu RenDong’s work was almost done. Seeing that his colleagues were still happily playing on their phones, he said goodbye to them and left the company.

It was early summer and the sun shone bright and hot onto his body. Xu RenDong went to the underground garage to pick up his car but the temperature inside the car didn’t  drop for some time. He was soon sweating.

Xu RenDong opened the window a little, letting the warm wind blow in. The shadows of the trees on the urban roads were mottled and the June sunlight shone through the gaps between the leaves on the windshield for a while, right into Xu RenDong’s eyes making him a little dizzy. He heard cicadas screaming and suddenly he felt like he was in a good mood.

He had a memory of when he was a child in the orphanage, running and playing with his friends on the lawn in the yard.

That was when he was very young and he hadn’t yet noticed that he was the only one no one wanted to adopt. At that time he was still very happy and didn’t think he was any different from others. He also didn’t think that those little friends who lacked hands and feet, had crooked facial features, or even couldn’t even speak, were any different from him.

It was great back then.

That time seemed like a lifetime ago.

Xu RenDong stopped the car in front of the traffic lights. He watched the beating countdown and sighed softly.

There was a young couple who were crossing the zebra in a playful manner. The girl laughed brightly and leapt up to hit the boy on his head. The boy hid his head and ducked with a smile on his face. From time to time he pulled the girl a bit and said: “Be careful! There’s cars around!”

Xu RenDong’s gaze couldn’t help following them until the car behind him honked the horn impatiently.

He recovered and quickly started the car up. Suddenly, he noticed a fruit shop on the side of the road.

His heart suddenly moving, Xu RenDong didn’t hesitate. Instead he turned around and stopped in front of the fruit shop. Before long, he settled the bill and returned to the car holding a fat watermelon.

He liked watermelon very much. He likes the sweet taste, fresh and watery taste. When he was young, he liked to eat watermelon at the orphanage but the conditions at the orphanage were not so good. Each child could only get a small slice of watermelon. He always hoped that he could hold half a watermelon and dig at it with a spoon. This wish lasted until he grew up.

 After gaining economic independence and although he had money to buy watermelon, he encountered a new problem: he could not eat so much by himself.

Even if it was a small watermelon, he usually can only eat half of it and the other half can only be put in the refrigerator. But even if he took the watermelon out of the fridge and waited for it to return to room temperature, he would still get diarrhea after eating it. His stomach has always been weak.

In fact, it was not only watermelon but also other food. It’s too monotonous to order one dish when you eat alone but he couldn’t eat two dishes on his own. This state of being made him feel quite lonely.

But things were different now.

Putting the watermelon in the passenger seat, Xu RenDong sent a WeChat message to Lian Qiao: I bought a watermelon, do you want some?

After waiting for a while, Lian Qiao did not reply. Xu RenDong thought for a while, fastened a seat belt around the watermelon, then started the car and drove towards the apartment. However, when he returned to the apartment holding the watermelon, Lian Qiao, who used to reply to messages within seconds, still hadn’t replied.

He looked at the time: it was already five o’clock in the afternoon. Even if Lian Qiao slept in, he couldn’t sleep in this late. Could it be that he went out?

Xu RenDong sent another message: Are you at home?

The green, black and shiny watermelon was quietly placed on the table. Xu RenDong stared at the watermelon for a long time, then picked up the phone again. Lian Qiao still hadn’t replied. Suddenly he felt a little uneasy. He got up and, walking out of his house, approached Lian Qiao’s door and knocked on it.

“Lian Qiao? Are you there? Lian Qiao?” 

There was still no reply.

The feeling of anxiety became stronger. Xu RenDong dialed the voice call and waited for the other person to answer. However a few minutes passed and there was still no response from Lian Qiao’s side. Xu RenDong looked at Lian Qiao’s portrait on the screen and then at the shut door of his apartment. A terrible thought suddenly occurred in his heart.

—Could it be that Lian Qiao entered the elevator again?

No, no, after entering the elevator, the time outside stops flowing. Therefore, in the eyes of outsiders, this person would not disappear, and they would not even notice any abnormality.

Unless—

Unless—he has already had an accident!

In the warm and bright June day, Xu RenDong felt like he had instantly been plunged into an ice cave.

***

The author has something to say:

Lian Qiao: You didn’t take me along when you ordered milk tea, I’m ignoring you! (Misunderstanding)

The girl is not cannon fodder, there are not many scenes with her. It’s purely for comic relief, don’t worry.

***

The author has something to say:

RenDong: an old man who tried to pretend to be a young man but was seen through in a second.