Fifth Meow

Huo Zheng keenly noticed that his thoughts had been centered on the young man he had only met for the first time, which made him feel particularly strange and somewhat uneasy.

Was it because of He Yunzhou’s small family jasper^[1]pretty daughter in a humble family. In the olden days, it refers to a shy and kind beautiful woman from a small family who was also talented. From <Collections of Yuefu Songs and Ballads – The … Continue reading style has never been tried before, so it created a novel feeling?

Otherwise, it’s really difficult to explain how much he cares for that man.

Or was it because of the spiked wine he drank before…

Thinking of this, Huo Zheng silently added a physical examination trip to his afternoon schedule. On the other hand, to get himself back on track, Huo Zheng quickly put himself back into his work.

“Stop talking nonsense. Li Yu, let’s get down to business. The third batch of test results for the ‘CALO’ system has come out, transfer them to me.”

Li Yu, who was still chattering before, instantly lost his voice after hearing these words from Huo Zheng. He scratched the back of his head, then nodded dryly.

“Yes, all the results have come out.” The moment his voice fell, a faint light flashed, and a clear projection of the electronic report of the test results and all the charts appeared in front of Huo Zheng, as well as Li Yu, who was sitting in the distant Huo Group building.   

Huo Zheng glanced at Li Yu, who squeezed out a very ugly smile at him.

Compared to many of his peers, Huo Zheng’s life trajectory is quite different — he is not the so-called rich second generation, who can freely squander their money to eat, drink, and have fun,^[2]to abandon oneself to a life of pleasureor go abroad to study art and live a good life in leisure and wealth.

The Huo Family is in a special situation. Huo Zheng must have his own strength no matter what to ensure that the Huo clan continues to operate. Of course, many of the projects he has executed before have proved his ability. At present, what he is presiding over is the most important project of Huo Group — “CALO”.

“CALO” can be called a full smart home system.

Although there are many electronic life products under the banner of smart home systems that appeared on the market before “CALO”, in Huo Zheng’s view, those childish and clumsy stupid voice-controlled electronic toys are completely different from the concept of “CALO” he designed. “CALO” is not that kind of a simple fool system that controls the lights, air conditioning, and curtains; the CALO itself constitutes the whole concept of “residence”. Without any unnecessary actions or instructions, it will automatically analyze the homeowner’s physical condition and combine extremely complex data analysis to build the most comfortable and perfect living environment for them. The complicated and boring household chores and cleaning chores will be taken care of by “CALO”. It can be said that when a house is installed with “CALO”, all the needs of the homeowner will be met without any extra effort or labor.

The operability of this project itself is quite strong, and it has a very lucrative return. Moreover, the subsequent research and development and benefits of the product are also very considerable. It is precisely because of this that even in the past few years, the research and development of the entire “CALO” project requires a terrible amount of funds to be “swallowed” every year. The group still has great expectations and support for this project…

However…

“Although there is a great degree of improvement compared with the previous results, this report doesn’t meet our expectations.” Li Yu said with a wry smile to Huo Zheng, who was staring at the data and charts with a cold face.

What the two discussed was the actual evaluation use of “CALO” before it was launched. The first evaluation was conducted two years ago. At that time, they both thought that “CALO” would pass the evaluation soon and then successfully enter the market.

But until today, two years later, when the results of the third test came out, Huo Zheng still didn’t get the data he wanted.

His gaze quickly scanned the subjective ratings of the testers and both short-term and long-term testers gave the highest ratings for the actual use of “CALO”.

“… The data collected by the physiological hormone testing instruments we installed under their skin are very unpromising.” Li Yu said dryly. 

“The human brain may deceive itself, but the body will not.” Huo Zheng took over his words and said. Then he tapped on a certain piece of data and brought it to the top.

“You call this situation ‘unpromising’?!” Huo Zheng said to Li Yu with an eerie calmness.

The series of hormonal changes on the data showed that all the people who used the “CALO” system entered a state close to mild depression at the end of the test. And the psychological condition tests they underwent afterwards also proved this.

Li Yu let out a long desperate sound that was too thin, then he grabbed his hair, and turned to Huo Zheng, his face full of helplessness, “Alright, change the preface. I think this result is simply terrible. To explain it in detail — you and I are almost done for! Oh, that’s right, you may be fine. After all, you are the Huo Family’s own flesh and blood. But I think after this project fails, Mr. Old Huo may secretly snatch me to sink in an embankment…”

Amidst the constant chattering of his friend, Huo Zheng continued to look at the various reports on “CALO”, his eyebrows locked tighter and tighter.

“Yet, no one has found out what the problem is? In theory, ‘calo’ should already be the most advanced and complete system on the market. How in the world did this damned result come about?!” Huo Zheng didn’t hold back and cursed a dirty word.

“Uh…” Just at this time, Li Yu hesitantly opened his mouth.

Huo Zheng abruptly raised his head and looked straight at him, “What do you want to say?!”

“I think it’s…” He has always been some heartless friend in Huo Zheng’s impression. At this time, he showed a somewhat embarrassed expression, “Then, don’t you think, that, the ‘calo’ system might be too depressing because it has too much of your style ah? Look, it’s just hard,^[3]making one feel uncomfortablecold, and with no character at all —”

“Didn’t you equip it with a user-friendly mode to solve this problem? Designer Li.” Huo Zheng’s expression darkened, “I think it has enough. By the way, if I find out that you tampered with the calo system’s mode in my house without authorization next time… you’ll regret it.”

Li Yu rolled his eyes.

“I beg you, I’m making the one last saving measure for our dying project! Fuck. I just hope you, Huo Zheng, Mr. Huo, Boss Huo, you can be a little bit, just a little bit…” Li Yu stretched out his hand and gestured in front of Huo Zheng at the little gap between his index finger and thumb, “… you can become a little bit more like a person! I wanted to complain when I tried ‘calo’ before. God! It’s like living with you when I’m with it. Let alone happiness, that system is simply a thing that makes people’s moods collapse!”

Huo Zheng sneered.

“First, what you tried at that time was only the initial mode of ‘calo’, which indeed had too many shortcomings, but don’t forget that you changed all the areas that made you feel uncomfortable. Second, I have followed your lousy idea to live in this damned ghost place to experience the so-called ‘ordinary people’s lives’, and it has proved to be of no use. Combined with that farce last night, I can only regret to say that all your proposals are as bad as ever —”

“Hey, Boss Huo,^[4]the word LY used here is 总 (zǒng) which could also mean a chief or someone of high position such as 总裁 “zǒng cái” chairman; CEO. So I just used ‘boss’. please excuse me for a moment, would you please take a look around yourself? You call this an ‘ordinary people’s lives’? You’ve just moved your snail shell from a seaside villa to an ordinary commercial housing complex. Now that you’ve lived outside for so long, I’m afraid that you haven’t even set foot in a real ordinary person’s home ba!” Li Yu sent out a scathing taunt mercilessly.

An ordinary person’s home?

Food, round and bulging cat, messy furniture, and a man’s eyes that were so gentle that they seem to be able to drip out water… The fragmented scenes suddenly flashed by Huo Zheng’s mind.

“Of course I have,” Huo Zheng responded confidently.

“……”

Li Yu instantly got stuck in a shell.

He paused for a moment before looking at Huo Zheng with a skeptical expression, “You’re lying ba.”

Huo Zheng had already found his rhythm at this time. He briefly described to Li Yu the furnishings and the atmosphere of He Yunzhou’s house in his memory and slightly used some linguistic skills to make him sound as if he was really familiar with the living room where he had only stayed for a short while.

“… Oh yeah, and the cat.” Huo Zheng pretended to say inadvertently, “Ordinary people have cats in their homes.”

Li Yu choked for a long time before faintly speaking, “You… couldn’t have been deceived, right?”

Huo Zheng abruptly turned his head and gave Li Yu a rather icy glare, “Sadly, I’m afraid I’m not as stupid as you think.”

……

Several hours had passed since the end of that headache-inducing work with a rather unpleasant prospect.

Huo Zheng decisively shut down the entire communication system before Li Yu started talking nonsense again.

In a flash, the holographic projection of his friend and the layers of data diagrams all dissipated in the air.

The room became unusually quiet and dead in a split second.

Huo Zheng sat still on the sofa for a moment, his high-speed brain plunged into a long-lost void.

After the results of the CALO system came out, Huo Zheng could already foresee what kind of trouble he would face next. And although Li Yu behaved half-assed, Huo Zheng could still keenly perceive the other party’s hidden frustration and hesitation.

[Safety, happiness, and warmth. The place where CALO is located is your most comfortable home.]

Huo Zheng pulled up the advertising slogan written by the marketing department for the CALO project when it was first put into research and development. He quietly looked at the line and let out a long sigh.

“Safety… Happiness…” Huo Zheng murmured and repeated.

He really didn’t understand. Obviously, “CALO” was already so perfect, but there’s still no way to bring people a sense of happiness?

But when he thought of this, Huo Zheng couldn’t help but once again return his thoughts on the young man with a gentle smile.

In that dilapidated little house, eating the breakfast personally made by the other party… that kind of mood…

Huo Zheng’s mind moved slightly. He took out his phone and opened WeChat.

As mentioned before, his account was purely set up to solve his physiological needs, so most of those “friends” he added were also his bed companions.

Those people probably know this too, so all the pictures and text displayed in his friends’ Moments^[5]status updates, pictures, and videos that users can share with their friends or a select group of friends in their Moments feed.all exude a strong sense of invitation.

It is also precisely because of this that in those straightforward or euphemistic Moments, the content posted by the young man, whom he only exchanged WeChat this morning, is particularly conspicuous.

[A small boat rowing and rowing:^[6]He Yunzhou’s name 舟 “zhōu” means ‘boat’ and the character used here is 小船 “xiǎochuán” which means small/little boat.

Have a good meal today, too!

Beef.jpg Lamb.jpg Chicken breast.jpg

Mussels.jpg Tenderloin.jpg Chicken drumsticks.jpg

Eggs.jpg Saury.jpg Lamb liver.jpg]

In a sea of dark brown and light brown muscle selfies, what He Yunzhou posted was a real meat picture. Obviously looking somewhat bloody. Huo Zheng still couldn’t help but click on each picture and look at it carefully.

“Pfft, seriously… is this going to make a Manchu-Han imperial feast^[7]A sumptuous feast. Please see sample picture below.for me?”

Seeing those rich meat products carefully prepared, Huo Zheng only felt that Hu Yunzhou was really stupid and cute in this regard.

He has never met such a clumsy person. He only made an appointment for a meal in the morning. Those informed and tactful bed companions who are familiar with the routines will meticulously choose their clothes and wait for the “main course” after dinner, but He Yunzhou will only foolishly show fresh and rich ingredients in Moments.

This behavior isn’t really interesting to speak of, but Huo Zheng unexpectedly found himself eating this set so much that even the previous extremely heavy mood suddenly became lighter.

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Manchu-Han Imperial Feast: