Soul Patch

Chapter 61 Not What It Used to Be

Bai Yu seemed very excited today, snapping his fingers and humming a little tune every now and then.

When I went to the cafeteria for lunch, I saw Wenjie across the table and tapped the table to remind him to eat more at lunch, since he would inevitably drink a lot at night and it would be good to have some food in his stomach.

Wenjie gave a blank "hmm" and thought, rather unkindly:

If Bai Yu knew that the girl he met tonight would lead to his stabbing death two weeks later, would he still be interested in her?

Finally, it was time to get off work, and Bai Yu urged Wen Jie to go to the time clock early to queue up.

"What do you mean I should go to line up earlier? Don't you need to clock in?"

Bai Yu leaned close to Wen Jie's ear and said mysteriously, "Xiao Wen from the administration department recommended the attendance tracking app to me, so I can clock in using my phone!"

Wenjie looked at Bai Yu, who had his arm around his shoulder, and was momentarily puzzled:

Why is Bai Yu sometimes inexplicably cold to him, and sometimes inexplicably warm to him?

Bai Yu had no idea about the test questions, let alone know that he was trying his best to save his life!

I don’t understand!

The two got into Bai Yu's Tesla, and Wen Jie's gaze was unconsciously drawn to the control screen in front of the driver's seat.

The screen is approximately 12 inches square, with touchscreen fingerprint control, and automatically switches from the main menu to a 3D road condition simulation display when in standby mode.

Wenjie pointed to the motorcycle and car models on the screen and asked, "Is this live?"

"Otherwise what?" Bai Yu asked back, turning the steering wheel.

Wenjie turned to look at the back of the car and sure enough, there was a motorcycle following behind it.

To be honest, that motorcycle was pretty cool, and Wenjie couldn't help but turn his head to take another look.

"What are you looking at?"

"It's nothing!" Wenjie turned around, looked at Bai Yu who was staring straight ahead, then looked down at his phone for a while before glancing at Bai Yu again, seemingly unwilling to give up.

"What's wrong? Just say it..."

Bai Yu noticed that Wen Jie was preoccupied, so he raised his right hand and put it on Wen Jie's shoulder, acting as if they were old friends.

"Uh..." Wenjie was just feeling a bit down and wasn't interested in these kinds of drinking parties at all.

He agreed to accompany Bai Yu to complete a system task.

But he couldn't tell Bai Yu any of this, cough cough! He cleared his throat and made up a random excuse:

"Could you also send me notifications for your attendance tracking app?"

"Hahaha!" Bai Yu couldn't help but burst into laughter. Wenjie had also learned to be cunning and sly. "Sure, sure!"

Bai Yu opened WeChat on his phone and sent a voice message in a chat box:

"Dude, have you arranged everything?"

"Don't worry! We're all here. Where are you guys?"

Amidst the noise, a man's voice drifted over indistinctly.

"This is..." Wenjie became excited upon hearing it. The voice was so familiar; he had heard it for four years in college. He recognized not only the voice but even the snoring: "A bold and flamboyant voice!"

"You're pretty good, kid! You recognized his voice right away!"

Bai Yu smiled and looked at Wen Jie as he spoke:

We were saying we had a surprise for you!

Wenjie quickly opened WeChat, found Zhang Yanglai, and sent him a voice message:

"Zhang Yang, weren't you preparing for graduate school entrance exams? How come you have time to hang out with us?"

"Jiezi, it's because I missed you! You haven't contacted me since your internship started. How's it going? Is your internship going well?"

Zhang Yang's nasal voice came through.

Every time Wenjie listened to Zhang Yang speak, he suspected that someone was pinching his nose so he couldn't breathe.

In fact, Zhang Yang only has rhinitis.

"Who would dare bother you while you're preparing for graduate school? My internship is just so-so!"

"What do you mean 'so-so'? Wenjie has already been confirmed for the position."

After hearing Wenjie's words, Bai Yu shouted at the top of his lungs towards Wenjie.

“Aren’t you the same?” Wenjie retorted, not to be outdone.

"I'm not even close to getting started yet!"

Bai Yu just smiled. In fact, his parents had already made arrangements for him. He would be transferred to the review business group as soon as his internship ended.

The research team spent a lot of time traveling to the market and collecting grassroots data, but their salaries and career prospects were not ideal.

The audit team is different; they are involved in core business operations, have good benefits and ample opportunities for promotion.

Bai Yu's father told him the news the day before yesterday, which lifted his spirits after days of depression.

Sometimes I think that a person's family background is much more important than their personal efforts.

The workplace is like a battlefield, and Bai Yu has already won a complete victory in his first battle in the workplace before it has even ended!

Wenjie struggled desperately, but all that awaited him was the fate of either staying or being eliminated.

This gave him a great sense of superiority, and even the psychological imbalance caused by Wenjie stealing his girl was lessened!

"Hehehe, how long has it been since we brothers got together?"

Hearing Wenjie and his companion praising each other, the man next to Zhang Yang couldn't help but chime in.

Wenjie and Baiyu were both stunned when they heard the voice that suddenly came out in each other's voice messages.

"Oh my god, boss!"

The two exclaimed in unison, "So all four of us from our college dorm are together today!"

"Boss, didn't you head south to take over the family business?" Wenjie excitedly shouted into WeChat.

Looking back, oh no, my hand wasn't on the voice send button. How embarrassing!

"What wind blew our rich kid here?"

Bai Yu stretched his neck over again and started joking with the boss.

"Try it again, I didn't press it properly!"

"..." Bai Yu glanced at Wen Jie with disdain and gave a helpless smile.

Amidst the lively chatter, Bai Yu's car turned into the bar street, not stopping but driving straight ahead, circling around the back of the street.

A row of upscale restaurants appeared before Wenjie's eyes.

In Wenjie's mind, a two-story building with a welcoming waiter at the entrance is considered high-end.

Bai Yu quickly parked the car in front of a restaurant with an ancient palace style. Wen Jie looked at the restaurant's signboard hanging high.

The heavy black signboard bears four large, gold-plated characters: Zhang Family Courtyard.

After getting off the car, Wenjie and his group were led by a waitress in a red cheongsam to a private room called "Yixuan Pavilion".

As soon as Wenjie pushed open the door, the atmosphere instantly exploded. Wenjie was warmly embraced by Zhang Yang, followed by the dormitory leader.

"I can't breathe, cough cough!"

Wenjie finally managed to break free from their embrace, reached out to straighten the chair next to him that had been knocked askew, and bent down to carefully tidy up the chair cover embroidered with dragon and phoenix patterns.

Bai Yu followed closely in, and the four of them huddled together again.

Wenjie looked at the chair cover that was almost rubbed off and sighed helplessly.

They exchanged cigarettes and lights, stood arm in arm and chatted for a while before sitting down. Bai Yu then called to the door for the waiter to bring the food.

While waiting for the food to be served, the group eagerly started a conversation, from anecdotes and funny stories from their college dorm life to their current situations, with laughter frequently emanating from the private room...

However, the conversation soon veered towards mutual flattery among men.

Once you enter society, you'll be divided into different classes, and the purity and simplicity of school life will be gone.

Wenjie dealt with this so-called social interaction with a sullen expression, his eyes glancing towards the window.

He felt uncomfortable, even though the atmosphere in the private room was lively.

The setting sun slowly sank below the window, the streetlights lit up one after another, and the night, like a black silk veil, gradually enveloped the scenery outside the window.

In a fleeting glance, Wenjie spotted the back of a motorcycle rider wearing a helmet.

The man slowly approached the motorcycle, climbed on, and leaned over the handlebars.

With a whoosh, the motorcycle shot off like a wild beast.

(End of this chapter)