Chapter 1: The President and the Massage Chair 01

In the height of summer, the west-facing office is overtaken by the slanted afternoon sun. Even though the blinds are tightly closed, the sweltering heat fills the room, creating a stifling atmosphere.

The only air conditioner hums loudly, yet the work atmosphere remains charged. Everyone is seated in front of their computers, their clothes damp with sweat as they furiously type away.

“Le Yang, this is the part you’re responsible for testing. Make sure it’s done before work tomorrow,” said the young man in a suit as he walked to a partitioned desk, handing over a document.

“Also, did you finish the document I asked you to do earlier? Boss is chasing me for it!”

The young man, engrossed in typing, looked up. His delicate face, full forehead, and furrowed brow became visible.

Le Yang took the document from his superior, glanced at it, and replied slowly, in a calm tone, “It’s not finished yet. I’m afraid the testing won’t be done in time…”

“Not in time?” Pang Yuqing raised an eyebrow. “Everyone’s busy, and if you don’t finish your part of the testing, who do you expect to do it? Get the document to me by five, then start the testing. You should still have time.”

“Young people need to work harder. I know you’re talented, and this work is beneath you, but we need to be practical! There are only two of us in the office, and everyone’s tasks are assigned in advance. If you don’t do it, someone else will have to help you,” the supervisor continued, rambling on.

Le Yang’s brow furrowed even deeper, which seemed a little inconsistent with his youthful face.

He didn’t respond, nor did he intend to. Silently, he took the document, and after the supervisor left, he buried himself in the shadow between the partition and the computer, hoping no one would notice.

The young man’s nose turned slightly red, his vision blurred, and he felt incredibly wronged.

Le Yang wasn’t actually Le Yang.

The older brother, who had been familiar with him before, once said that he looked fragile, with a sweet voice. He always called him “little sugar cake” until they parted ways. After leaving the place where he grew up, he gave himself a new name, Tang Bin.

Tang Bin was a parasite plant, a dodder flower spirit.

As a one-year-old parasitic plant, dodder flowers normally only live for one year.

But for some unknown reason, Tang Bin lived on year after year, eventually taking on a human form.

His older brother Koi, said he was lucky to have become a spirit.

Tang Bin didn’t know what becoming a spirit meant. He only knew that it was good to keep living and turn into a human.

But as soon as he turned into a human, he was captured and told that he would be sent to the worlds of at least seven different BL novels. Only by achieving a perfect ending with the male lead in each world could he continue to live.

He wasn’t the only one sent to these book worlds.

Before entering this world, Tang Bin had met a peach blossom spirit, who was much more experienced. They had talked.

The peach blossom spirit, who had been through many worlds, told him that there were countless beings like them, all assigned to their respective worlds to complete tasks. This was their tribulation, the final step to becoming a demon.

According to the peach blossom spirit, the task sounded simple, but executing it was very difficult.

The peach blossom spirit had already been through dozens of worlds, but had only successfully completed the task in two or three of them.

The past was too long ago, and the Peach Blossom Fairy herself could no longer remember it.

“What if we can never complete all seven tasks?” Tang Bing asked nervously.

“I don’t know.” The beautiful Peach Blossom Fairy shrugged nonchalantly. “Who cares? Anyway, the world in the book is quite fun.”

—

And this was the first world from the book that Tang Bin had arrived in.

Everything in this world, from people to objects, was so vivid and real, with human nature being complex and unpredictable, and things as varied as they could be. It should have been quite interesting.

But unfortunately, before this, Tang Bin had never interacted with any human society. All he had were the old tree uncle, who allowed him to parasitize and provided him with nourishment, his older brother Koi, who lived in a lake and talked to him, and the small patch of sky peeking through the dense tree canopy, sometimes a clear blue, sometimes as dark as ink.

So now, Tang Bing was extremely afraid.

In fact, he had already been in this world for several days.

The system said that in order for him to complete his tasks better, it needed him to adapt to this world before assigning any tasks.

Tang Bing didn’t know what that cold, emotionless voice from the system was, nor did he understand what the tasks meant, but he knew that if he wanted to survive, he had to do as the system said.

—This was the warning the Peach Blossom spirit had given him before they parted.

So, terrified, Tang Bing worked hard to adapt to this world, waiting for the system to give him a task.

Although, everything was much harder than he had imagined.

The original host, Le Yang, was a programmer, and in these few days, Tang Bin had figured out what kind of job that was. He had inherited all of Le Yang’s memories—though as a virtual character, there wasn’t much to those memories. They only consisted of endless days of studying and working, under a sky that always seemed gray.

But, in this body, Tang Bin had at least vaguely gained some information and inherited his work skills, which allowed him to complete tasks. In the office, he hadn’t made any noticeable mistakes.

Even so, despite all this, after several days of endless overtime, Tang Bin was still so frightened that he wanted to cry.

Before he started working, Le Yang had been a top student. Unfortunately, his personality was introverted and weak, and he didn’t know how to communicate with others or say no.

After starting work, even though he earned a decent salary in a first-tier city due to his education and abilities, his quiet and introverted nature made people feel like he was aloof. As a result, everyone in the office would call on him for the most difficult and tedious tasks. His supervisor would make things difficult for him, and though his colleagues didn’t bully him, everyone was too busy to help.

Le Yang lived a very lonely life in this bustling city.

For Tang Bin, the brain-heavy work wasn’t hard.

What was hard was that he couldn’t stand this loneliness.

And the fear and confusion about the unknown tasks.

But work had to be done.

“Whoo, whoo.” Tang Bing took a few deep breaths, forcing back his tears. He tried to encourage himself, then buried his head back into his work.

—He hadn’t received his task yet, but Tang Bin had heard from his older brother Koi, about the horrors of the human world. In this place, people are ruthless and will devour you without leaving a bone. To survive here, you need money, ability, and connections, or you’ll be eaten up by society.

Tang Bin was self-aware. He lacked the latter two.

But he knew that the job of the original person could bring him money—lots and lots of money. So, he couldn’t afford to lose this job. He didn’t want to be eaten. Just thinking about it was painful.

“Hey, Le Yang!” Tang Bin heard the voice while he was buried in his work.

Someone was calling him.

He looked up and glanced around, instinctively sniffing. Hu Xiaobing, sitting at the desk diagonally across from him, paused for a moment, then asked, “…You’re not crying, are you?”

“No.” Tang Bin answered hoarsely.

After a moment of thought, Hu Xiaobing said, “Don’t worry about the testing. Once I finish this task, I’ll help you with it.”

Tang Bin shook his head. “No need, thank you.”

Hu Xiaobing froze again—he had worked with Le Yang for a year, and although Le Yang’s voice hadn’t changed, recently, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something about it sounded… odd? Especially with that whiny tone in his voice, it gave off a soft, fluffy feeling that made him want to pinch Le Yang’s cheeks.

“Don’t be so polite with me.”

When things go to extremes, the opposite reaction is often protection. That voice stirred a sense of protectiveness in Hu Xiaobing, something he didn’t even realize. Without further thought, he stood up from his desk, reached over, and grabbed the folder from Tang Bin’s desk.

“You helped me with work a couple of days ago, so it’s only right that I help you now,” Hu Xiaobing said.

A few days ago, Hu Xiaobing had fallen sick with a fever, his temperature nearly reaching 39°C, but he hadn’t been able to go to the doctor because he still had work to finish.

Tang Bin had felt sorry for him and broke the rules by helping him complete his tasks, allowing Hu Xiaobing to rest.

But that was definitely a forbidden action.

—The cost of a high salary was this: when work came up, no matter if you had a cold or even needed to be hospitalized, you still had to finish the job.

The office was busy, everyone had their own tasks to take care of. If you had time to help someone else, it meant that you didn’t have enough work of your own.

But Tang Bin didn’t know anything about these office rules.

Even when his supervisor was giving him a hard time, he still hadn’t realized what was going on.

Tang Bin didn’t have the time to argue with Hu Xiaobing out of politeness. His head was filled with the thought that it would be better to just finish his work sooner.

As a flower spirit who had just come into contact with human society, he hadn’t developed emotional intelligence yet.

Tang Bin kept his head down and worked diligently.

At 9:20 in the evening, with Hu Xiaobing’s help, Tang Bin finally finished his work.

This was more than an hour earlier than he had anticipated.

It wasn’t too late, around nine o’clock, at least he could go home, take a hot shower, and wouldn’t have to sleep in the office.

Tang Bin stretched lazily, sincerely thanking Hu Xiaobing: “Thank you!”

He finally smiled, his face flushed from hours of staring at the monitor, and for the first time, he looked a little cute.

Hu Xiaobing quickly averted his gaze: “No need to thank me. Hurry up and go. I need to go home and sleep.”

Tang Bin replied, “Mm-hmm, I’m leaving now.”

Hu Xiaobing muttered, “I’m exhausted. Once this damn project is over, I’m definitely taking a couple of days off!”

Tang Bin remembered that Hu Xiaobing’s cold hadn’t fully recovered, and hurriedly said, “Then hurry up and get some rest!”

Hu Xiaobing paused for a moment, then snapped back to reality and muttered, “Alright, I’m going,” grabbing his bag and heading out of the office.

Both of them rented apartments outside the Fifth Ring Road in the city, but one lived to the south and the other to the north, so they weren’t on the same route.

Tang Bin double-checked all the electrical outlets in the office, turning off all the lights before taking his briefcase and leaving the office building.

At this time, there was still the subway. In fact, 10 o’clock marked another rush hour in the city, with many people finishing work late and squeezing onto buses and subways. The humid, stuffy city, almost trapped under a giant glass dome, was just beginning to buzz with nighttime activity.

Tang Bin took the subway and got off at the designated station.

Thanks to the faint memories of the original person, he understood some basic life knowledge the original had frequently dealt with, so he had no real problems with daily life.

After exiting the subway station, Tang Bin, with his stomach growling in hunger, hurried to the nearest large shopping mall.

On the middle floor of the mall was a food court. The food there wasn’t particularly tasty, but it was cheap. It was economical and convenient, without the need to pay for packaging or delivery fees like with takeout. A meal there was much cheaper than ordering food to the office. So, as long as it wasn’t too late or he wasn’t too hungry, the original would always have dinner there.

When it came to Tang Bin, he had inherited this habit.

But tonight was an exception.

Tonight, he had been so focused on his work that he had forgotten to eat dinner.

Earlier, he’d smelled the scent of takeout in the office, and realized he should eat, but that thought was quickly replaced by more lines of code, and before he knew it, he had completely forgotten about dinner.

In the end, it was probably because he was a bit slow.

His brain could never handle two things at once.

Tang Bin sniffed in frustration and suddenly remembered that Hu Xiaobing, who had stayed to help him with work, probably hadn’t eaten either…

A wave of guilt hit him.

He could deal with himself, but he had also made Hu Xiaobing skip dinner… He quickly pulled out his phone, intending to call him and ask if he had eaten, but then remembered it was already so late, and calling might disturb him.

Tang Bin stood there, indecisively pacing back and forth. Finally, he decided that he would treat Hu Xiaobing to lunch tomorrow as an apology.

For lunch, he ordered the most expensive takeaway—sweet and sour pork and “Gugu chicken”—a meal the original person loved but only ever ordered on special occasions, never on regular days.

Takeout in big cities was ridiculously expensive, just like many people who came to make quick money here. The original person wasn’t picky or particular about food—he would eat whatever was cheap and never wanted to spend more money just to satisfy his taste.

Tang Bin didn’t understand why, but he didn’t think it was wrong either.

He had inherited all the habits of the original person and never wasted money on food.

But when it came to treating others to a meal, that was different.

Just thinking about the delicious, sweet-and-sour meat… Gugu! Tang Bin’s stomach growled again.

Oh no!

He had gotten so lost in his thoughts that he forgot to keep walking! Tang Bin glanced at the time—10:30… it seemed like it was just about the time when the food court would be closing!

He rushed into the mall, panting, and as expected, the food court on the middle floor was already closed.

The sweet female voice in the mall was announcing that the mall would close in half an hour. Tang Bin, out of breath from his run, felt even hungrier. He pressed his growling stomach with one hand and walked to a nearby rest area, frowning.

In addition to the long benches, there were a row of pay-to-use massage chairs. A big, burly man was angrily kicking one of the chairs.

A woman beside him was pulling at him, telling him not to damage public property, but the man cursed, “This thing, other brands are 10 yuan for 20 minutes, but this one—10 yuan only gets you 18 minutes! And it’s not even good! There’s no pressure, I don’t even feel the pain! What a scam!”

“The manufacturers are different, so the prices are different,” the woman replied. “Why didn’t you check before scanning? Come on, stop making a scene.”

The woman dragged the cursing man away, and by now, there were hardly any people left on this floor. Tang Bin walked up to the chair with two footprints still visible on it and took out a wet wipe from his bag to clean off the marks.

“Everything has a spirit, even a chair shouldn’t be treated like this,” Tang Bin murmured, smiling at the battered leather massage chair.

Then, he made up his mind, turned, and sat down on the chair.

It was strange—once his back and bottom made contact with the chair, he sank into a soft cushion, as if lying on a carefully arranged bed. Tang Bin couldn’t help but hum in comfort.

The original person had used this kind of chair when his neck hurt after long hours of work, but the memory was unremarkable. Before this, Tang Bin had never imagined a chair could be this comfortable.

He suddenly understood why it was so expensive.

He really couldn’t understand why the angry person had blamed the chair earlier.

Tang Bin carefully adjusted the armrest with his finger, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the QR code on it. Without thinking, he took out his phone and scanned it.

The ten yuan fee was affordable. Tang Bin thought for a moment—since he hadn’t had dinner and would have to eat instant noodles at home, he was actually saving quite a bit of money.

He made up his mind and paid the fee.

—Just sitting here was so comfortable, so the feeling when the chair moved must be even better.

“Welcome to use the Aimoji massage chair.”

The payment was successfully processed, and from somewhere hidden within the chair, a voice with an incredibly magnetic tone came through the microphone.

Unlike the sweet female voice typically associated with massage chairs, this was a pleasant male voice—deep, but not overly so.

Unfortunately, Tang Bin wasn’t familiar enough with the world around him yet, otherwise, he would have noticed the difference.

At this moment, Tang Bin was completely absorbed in the vibrations and massage provided by the chair, oblivious to everything else.

His eyes were half-closed, long, thick eyelashes fluttering slightly. The corners of his lips curled up, and two strange reddish patches appeared on his cheeks, his face radiating a deep satisfaction, as if he were in the utmost state of comfort. He even let out a soft, contented sigh…

Five minutes, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes…

The vibrations continued, and Tang Bin remained unaware as the lights on this floor gradually went out.

Of course, the person who was supposed to check and close the shop strangely didn’t notice him either.