Chapter 308: Office Worker
In the dog days of summer, the sun blazed fiercely, its scorching rays making it impossible to lift one’s head, the fiery heat seemingly eager to roast everything on earth until it “sizzled.” The highway was bustling with traffic, kicking up clouds of dust and heat waves wherever it passed, mingled with the smell of melting rubber and unset asphalt, summer constantly tormenting people’s senses.
Ji Jian got off work at nine o’clock in the evening. He rubbed his waist for a moment, then his shoulders, standing at the back door of the Human Resources Building, gazing at the outdoor parking lot under the night sky, his expression showing some reluctance and resistance.
He was still a bit reluctant to leave the air conditioning inside the building.
Home was impossible not to return to. The only advantage of the workplace was that in summer, one could enjoy the cool air conditioning breeze without restraint. Apart from that, his simple bachelor “dog den” was millions of times better.
“Slipping away, slipping away, head back early.” Ji Jian was just about to head out when he noticed a hand pressing the door switch first. The hand’s owner quickly moved from his right side, around behind him to his left, and stepped out of the building ahead of him.
The moment the back door glass door was pushed open, the terrifying heat wave hidden in the tranquil summer night pounced like a devil. Ji Jian saw his colleague’s expression collapse instantly, from the spirited vigor of getting off work to a face full of worry from the heat in mere moments.
Ji Jian didn’t laugh. He knew he was the same. He loosened his collar, undid two decent buttons, and followed his colleague out the door. “You head back early too, see you tomorrow.”
The two walked together for a few meters, then the colleague headed to the parking lot to find his car, while he went around to the stairs at the main entrance, down to the roadside, scanned a shared bicycle, and prepared to ride home.
By the time Ji Jian mounted the bike, his colleague’s car was just exiting the parking lot, heading off in the opposite direction from where Ji Jian had left.
This was Ji Jian’s plain and unadorned day.
As a grassroots worker, nine-to-six was the work hours clearly stated in black and white, but when the leader felt your work was not saturated, it was best to “voluntarily strive” until eight.
Of course, the workplace did not advocate overtime, so there was no overtime pay, and it wasn’t called overtime.
But the workplace still maintained necessary decorum. Every person who “voluntarily strove” could get meal reimbursement of up to 50 yuan.
Reimbursement, if nothing went wrong, should be obtainable within half a year.
Ji Jian pedaled leisurely, in a pretty good mood, because this year’s Spring Festival holiday subsidy had finally been issued along with his salary in July.
Dinner reimbursement… that could wait a bit longer; maybe it would come together with the May Day holiday subsidy at year-end.
Ji Jian was a person who was easily satisfied, and he felt that only when calm and composed could he barely find a hint of coolness in the scorching summer evening breeze.
He felt the evening breeze, riding while fantasizing that tonight he might mix a non-alcoholic mojito, luxuriously set the air conditioning to 26 degrees, then hug the air conditioning blanket while appreciating a B-grade pleasure flick from across the ocean.
Lost in thought, he unknowingly arrived back at the apartment building he rented.
Park the bike, take the elevator, go upstairs.
Back at the rental, Ji Jian immediately shed all pretense, tossing his backpack casually onto the shoe cabinet, slipping into the room in slippers, then stripping off his shirt while heading to the wardrobe to find pajamas for showering.
He played “Staring At You” by “Diane, Birch,” shuffling into the bathroom with haphazard elderly disco steps.
Half an hour later, Ji Jian had showered, collected the clothes drying on the balcony, and was grinning as he lay on the beanbag chair bought half a month ago, browsing instant noodle anime on the 36-inch curved 4K display screen.
Ding dong!
Ji Jian heard the doorbell, chuckled “ha ha,” rubbed his hands, and went to open the door. “Coming, coming.”
“Mr., your takeout. Please enjoy.”
“Thanks for the hard work.” Ji Jian took the lemon tea from his combo order from the sweaty delivery guy, relocked the door, returned to the computer, and continued watching the show.
Contemporary youth’s real life scenes, whatever comes to mind.
Making his own drink could be postponed to the holiday. On workdays evenings, ordering takeout was more practical. Ji Jian thought, poking the straw through the cup lid, freeing one hand to operate the mouse, switching to a B-grade horror film called 《Rat in the Wall》 to play.
Nudge nudge nudge…
The faint sound of the roller washing machine on the balcony filtered into the quiet room. Ji Jian, fully focused on the movie, felt no disturbance, constantly attentive to the protagonist’s increasingly tense and disordered spirit as the plot advanced. He loved appreciating actors’ expressions and movements in different films, which made him very sensitive to acting skills and able to quickly judge the quality of a film or TV work from that angle.
Clearly, this recently popular 《Rat in the Wall》 was a good film. At least the protagonist Zhang Chi’s measured acting deeply attracted Ji Jian’s eyeballs. The sixty- or seventy-year-old man before him even had eyes full of acting, nearly real, as if he had truly seen some hellish scene.
Beep! Beep! Beep…
When the film was a third over, the washing machine on the balcony stopped, and Ji Jian had to temporarily snap out of his immersive viewing state. He paused the film, went to the balcony to hang the clothes, then sweatily returned to the air conditioning blanket to continue watching.
Another hour and a half later, the screen turned to thank-you credits, and the film finally ended.
Ji Jian had a face full of emotion, said nothing, made no comments, neatly exited the viewing browser interface, then glanced at the time in the bottom right corner and found it was already 11:45.
His place was not far from work, and he usually left at 8:15 in the morning, so seeing the time, he didn’t think of sleeping early but instead opened a video site’s client app and scrolled through short videos, brushing some fresh and interesting short videos for a little more relaxation.
Cheating big data would occasionally recommend short videos related to the 《Rat in the Wall》 he had just watched, like speedrun explanations, film clips, original story, and so on.
At first, Ji Jian would click on a few to watch, but having just finished the movie, he felt some “aesthetic fatigue,” switching away after a few seconds. But the big data was inconsiderate, repeatedly recommending 《Rat in the Wall》-related short videos in “you might be interested,” at which he couldn’t help sighing for the “self-righteous” little fool algorithm.
Unknowingly, Ji Jian scrolled until 12:30, but he wasn’t sleepy, still full of energy.
But he wasn’t panicked, calmly clicking into his account’s collection folder, pulling out sleep aid videos from a few very “distinctive” female anchors, selecting one to play, then lowering his head to scroll his mobile phone, occasionally lifting his head to glance at the “distinctive” bits.
The “white noise” made by the female anchor did make one drowsy after listening long enough. Ji Jian finally started feeling fatigued and put down his phone.
Watching the female anchor in the video vigorously pleasing the microphone with her mouth, he suddenly felt a bit fed up, a bit bland.
After all, he had watched and listened for a long time; the sleep aid effect of the voice was no longer effective.
Ji Jian’s gaze glanced to the nearby video recommendation area, where a strange video thumbnail and title caught his attention.
Title: Underworld sleep aid, but effective!
Thumbnail: A forest landscape painting that made one feel somewhat uncomfortable.
“Is it because I just watched a horror film that the algorithm recommended this?” Ji Jian chuckled lightly and clicked on this so-called “underworld sleep aid video.”
