After Transmigrating into the Villain’s Cat, I Dominated the Entertainment Circle – Chapter 124
by Little PandaIF Route (8)
Holding hands successfully.
Things had not been peaceful at Lin Corporation lately. High-level executives were constantly resigning or being poached, sending waves of panic through the lower ranks.
“What’s been going on? I heard Director Chen is about to resign too.”
“It looks like Lin Corporation is going under. I see everyone’s already looking for other jobs.”
“No way. I don’t want to be unemployed.”
“Might as well start looking. If it really comes to it, we can just wait for the acquisition. They can’t fire all of us, right?”
As the group of employees was chatting, a cough sounded from behind them.
They all looked up to see their manager and hastily straightened up.
“Good morning, Manager,” they chorused.
The manager shot them a glare. “You’re at the company, so do your jobs properly. Don’t waste your days on idle gossip.”
The employees shrank back and scurried to their workstations.
Seeing that everyone was present, the manager clapped his hands. “Your Director Chen resigned this morning for personal reasons.”
The news that Director Chen had left sent the office into an uproar. This confirmed at least part of the rumors—Lin Corporation might truly be facing a major crisis.
“Quiet, quiet!” The manager slapped the folder in his hands. “A new Director will be appointed as soon as possible. Just carry on as you were before.”
With that, the manager strode out of the office, not bothering with the explosive discussions that erupted behind him.
To be honest, he was panicking too.
He made his way to the President’s office and pushed open the door to find the President sitting at his desk, his expression grim.
“President, more and more people have been resigning lately.”
People loved to follow the crowd. Because so many had left, the remaining staff felt even more unsettled, which in turn led to more, faster resignations.
And they couldn’t just promote from within, as that would be tantamount to announcing to the world that Lin Corporation was really in trouble.
“What did the Li family say?” Lin Sifei’s father leaned back in his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose wearily.
“The Eldest Miss didn’t go to the meeting. Now that the marriage alliance has fallen through, the Li family isn’t very willing to work with us.”
Lin Sifei’s father snorted. “Shallow! If we don’t cooperate on this project, the Li family can’t handle it on their own. And even though they can’t handle it, they’re still so timid, afraid someone else will get a piece of the pie. Penny-wise and pound-foolish. Utterly idiotic.”
He was panting with rage, but it was useless no matter how many times he cursed them for being fools. The project belonged to the Li family, and Lin Corporation didn’t have sufficient capital.
He waved a hand, dismissing the man.
Once he was gone, he threw the pen in his hand onto the desk.
He had been telling the few who remained that Lin Corporation was in crisis because of problems with the Li family partnership. But in truth, the company’s crisis was far more than that. The most severe threat came from Luo Corporation’s targeted attacks.
Luo Corporation was a massive conglomerate. They could bleed him dry with money alone.
“Damn it, where the hell did I offend Luo Corporation for them to target me like this?”
He slammed his fists on the desk, completely unaware that the source of their fury was his own deluded attempt at an arranged marriage.
Back in the residential complex, Lin Sifei was sitting in her room. Luo Ke sat beside her, controller in hand, playing a game with her.
The game was the super old-fashioned Tank Battle.1
Accompanied by the noisy music, Lin Sifei once again succeeded in blowing up Luo Ke’s tank and let out a happy cheer.
Luo Ke gave a helpless “Aah—” and leaned back against a cushion. “I lost again.”
“You just don’t play enough games. You’re not used to the buttons,” Lin Sifei said with a smile as she looked for a new game.
“Do you like playing games a lot?”
Lin Sifei nodded while she searched. “Yeah, but I’m only so-so at keyboard games. My fingers don’t really like keyboards, and I don’t have that much time to play, so I mostly play single-player games on my phone.”
“Luo Corporation has a gaming company under it.”
Lin Sifei turned to look at her. “So? Some of the games I play are probably made by Luo Corporation.”
Seeing her lack of interest, Luo Ke stopped being coy. “Luo Corporation develops games, and we’ve also built an arcade. It has VR and things like that.”
“I’ve bought a VR set too. I didn’t think it was that interesting.”
Lin Sifei was quite old-fashioned in that regard, though the main reason was that she never had time to get the hang of it. She’d die the moment she started playing, which was too discouraging.
“The ones there are different. They’re custom-developed. And outsiders can’t get into the Luo Corporation facility. Even though you’re a celebrity, you could play there for a whole day without being disturbed.”
Sure enough, as soon as she said that, Lin Sifei turned her head. “Really?”
“Of course.”
Lin Sifei pursed her lips and put on a reluctant expression. “Well, alright then. I’ll go have a look.”
“Thank you so much,” Luo Ke said, playing along with a bit of flattery. She drove her to Luo Corporation’s gaming company.
Because she was bringing Lin Sifei over, Luo Ke had called ahead to have the area temporarily cleared and to inform the staff that a celebrity was coming, but that it had to be kept secret and not revealed to anyone.
The employees had signed plenty of confidentiality agreements and this was just one more. No one even went out to look, simply assuming the gaming company had hired a brand ambassador.
Luo Ke got the necessary clearance and led Lin Sifei to the game hall, which was filled with all kinds of equipment.
The moment she stepped inside, Lin Sifei’s eyes went wide. She wanted to try everything she saw.
An instructor was on hand to give introductions and help start the equipment. A few of the less safe machines were left off.
“Those have certain physical fitness requirements, so we won’t be turning them on. You can play any of the others as you like.”
Lin Sifei nodded and rushed excitedly into the sea of games.
Luo Ke smiled helplessly and waved a hand at the instructor, telling him to go about his business.
Lin Sifei liked to play one game until she was sick of it, so she spent almost the entire afternoon with a VR headset on, slicing blocks and having a wonderful time.2
“You like this game that much?”
“It’s a stress reliever,” Lin Sifei said with a grin, waving the controllers in her hands.
The VR scenery was very realistic. Lin Sifei chose a horror game for the two of them to play together.
Eerie music played, and a dilapidated old mansion appeared before their eyes as if it were real.
Lin Sifei was a little scared and started talking to Luo Ke.
“Don’t be afraid, it’s just a game,” Luo Ke comforted her softly.
Lin Sifei was still afraid. “That’s easy for you to say, but it looks so real.”
“Haha, well, it seems their R&D is pretty good, then.”
Just as Lin Sifei was about to nod, a female ghost suddenly lunged at her, making her shriek.
Luo Ke shook the bell prop in her hand, and the ghost was immediately driven away.
“Are you okay?!”
Lin Sifei took a deep breath, her face a little red—partly from the scare, and partly from embarrassment. To think she’d get this freaked out by a game!
She took another deep breath and tried to recover her composure. “I’m fine,” she said calmly. “I was just a little out of practice.”
“…” Out of practice with VR?
But Luo Ke didn’t call her out on it and continued walking forward with her.
After that, Lin Sifei started getting into the swing of things. She became a natural at chasing away ghosts, solving one puzzle after another, and was soon nearing the end.
She had just gotten the final key to clear the level and was about to ask Luo Ke for praise when a sharp roar echoed, and a horde of ghosts went berserk.
“Ahhh—!”
Lin Sifei and Luo Ke immediately turned and ran for their lives.
In her panic, Lin Sifei turned into a dead end and was cornered by the ghosts.
“Luo Ke!” Lin Sifei squeezed her eyes shut, involuntarily crying out Luo Ke’s name.
She saw a blur as Luo Ke appeared in front of her, taking a hit for her.
Before Luo Ke could say anything, the two of them, trapped in the dead end, met their doom together under the female ghost’s ultimate attack.3
Game over.
Lin Sifei took off the VR headset, feeling as if she were in a dream. “Luo Ke…”
“Hm?” Luo Ke took off her headset as well and was fixing her hair.
“It’s nothing.” Lin Sifei smiled, feeling a bit sheepish. She didn’t know why she had suddenly called out for Luo Ke just then.
And she hadn’t expected Luo Ke to actually turn back from the correct path to shield her.
“It’s already dark.” Luo Ke stretched her body and walked to the window.
Lin Sifei hummed in agreement and joined her, looking down at the cars coming and going on the street below.
“What do you want to eat tonight?” Luo Ke asked suddenly.
“I want barbecue.”
“Okay,” Luo Ke agreed readily.
Lin Sifei turned with a mournful look. “I’ve gained one kilogram recently! If I keep eating, my manager is going to kill me.”
“It’s fine. We’ll keep it from her. If no one tells her, how will she know?”
Lin Sifei swallowed. She was shamefully tempted.
“Well… I’ll just have a little bit, then.”
“Deal.” Luo Ke smiled and took her hand… by the wrist.
Lin Sifei glanced down, then seemed to casually fall half a step behind. She pulled her hand upward slightly, just enough to slip it out from Luo Ke’s grasp on her wrist and slide it down into her palm.
Luo Ke’s lips pressed together slightly, but she couldn’t stop her eyes from curving into a smile.
It seemed she was another small step closer to success. They had already progressed to holding hands. Could marriage be far behind?!
Filled with confidence, Luo Ke couldn’t help but order a huge table full of food when they got their barbecue.
Lin Sifei’s self-control was poor to begin with. Staring at the feast of grilled meats, she gulped…
Time to eat!
As for gaining weight and her manager’s angry roars, those were problems for the future. Happiness came first!
The author has something to say:
The IF route should be ending soon. Who would have thought my initial plan was to finish it in three chapters ORZ
Footnotes
- Original: 坦克大战 (tǎnkè dàzhàn). This almost certainly refers to ‘Battle City,’ an extremely popular multiplayer game for the Nintendo Famicom (NES) released in 1985.
- This is a clear reference to the popular VR rhythm game ‘Beat Saber,’ where players slice oncoming blocks with virtual sabers.
- Original: 共赴黄泉 (gòng fù huángquán), an idiom meaning ‘to go to the Yellow Springs together.’ The Yellow Springs is the underworld in Chinese mythology, so this is a poetic way of saying ‘to die together.’
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