Chapter 238: The Renewal of an Old Instance
Come afternoon, a wave of work tasks abruptly descended.
Bai Cha dove straight into a whirlwind of busyness.
Unsurprisingly, working overtime tonight was unavoidable.
Her department pushed through their tasks until nearly midnight before wrapping up and off-shifting.
Off-shifting at long last, Bai Cha rubbed her throbbing, swollen head, heading to the pantry first to fetch a glass of water.
“Oho, Xiao Bai, you haven’t left yet!” Team Leader Xu appeared to have restored his original state once again.
“Not bad today! Managing to hold out—I originally assumed you were going to faint all over again.”
Bai Cha paused briefly, continuing to sip her warm water.
“Seriously, Xiao Bai, don’t hold a grudge against me either. A person like me… well, maybe my words sound a bit harsh at times. Look, if you’re merely coming over to muddle through an internship to deal with school, that’s completely fine. But look at you—fainting away for an entire day! Fortunately, our task today didn’t kick off until the afternoon, or else… say, when a task drops down the line, what happens if you abruptly faint out of nowhere?”
“If you ask me, your best bet is to hurry and find a boyfriend while you’re young and pretty—at least you possess the capital right now. Otherwise, once you grow older and your health deteriorates, who’s going to want you? No one wants to take on a deadweight burden, right?”
“Hurry up and get married while you’re young, pop out a child, tie a man down, and then you won’t need to come out here and collapse from exhaustion.”
Team Leader Xu looked at her with an air of earnest, fatherly advice, yet his eyes held no shortage of gloating delight.
“Thank you for your suggestion. I’d suggest you hurry up and get married as well; your hair is nearly all fallen out. I hear baldness is hereditary—if you don’t get married before it all falls out, people will spot it at a single glance, and even blind dates won’t prove easy then.”
Bai Cha stood up, offering a flawless, picture-perfect smile.
Team Leader Xu’s lips twitched as he stroked his hair. Watching her depart, he grit his teeth and tagged close behind.
Bai Cha ignored him completely, standing before the elevator to await its arrival.
The issue of work delays—she had pondered it back when she fell asleep in the office two instances ago.
The game was fundamentally forcing her step-by-step away from a normal life.
Her day-to-day existence would inevitably suffer disruptions.
Team Leader Xu was by no means the sole individual making such remarks in private.
It was simply that Shen Qingchen extended care to her, a fact everyone was aware of.
The elevator arrived with a chime.
“Xiao Bai, ah…”
The moment they stepped into the elevator, Team Leader Xu picked right back up where he left off.
“I can tell, you know—are you little girls far too insecure and overly sensitive? You get unhappy over a couple of light remarks and just have to snap back, covered in prickles like a hedgehog. Look, everything I said is the honest truth. If I don’t lay it out for you, your family will sooner or later say the exact same things to you…”
“My parents are already dead, so they can’t lecture me,” Bai Cha cut him off cold.
Team Leader Xu choked briefly, then pressed on: “Well, that makes it all the more reason for you to make use of your youth and capital to get married early! Otherwise, without parents to support you or family to help raise children, which man would want you? It’s only out of good intentions that I’m laying down the hard truth for you—this is simply how society works!”
The elevator reached the ground floor.
Bai Cha ignored Team Leader Xu entirely, striding away with broad steps.
“Hey! Xiao Bai, don’t leave! It’s so late, it’s unsafe for a girl alone—I have a car and can give you a ride!”
Team Leader Xu caught up in two or three quick steps.
Bai Cha pondered quietly, considering how to shake him off.
“Xiao Bai, wait for me right here, I’ll go fetch the car.”
Saying this, he made his way toward the parking lot.
Seizing the window, Bai Cha turned her head and walked off directly.
“Eh? Xiao Bai? It’s really far too late—it’s already past one in the morning, very dangerous!”
He yelled out two more times from behind. Seeing that Bai Cha was set on leaving, he ultimately gave up.
“Tsk, I acted out of pure good intentions… these young girls are far too sensitive, can’t take two words of advice.”
Bai Cha’s apartment wasn’t far from here to begin with—a mere ten-minute walk that required zero rides from him.
It was indeed quite late right now.
Drawing a utility knife from her bag, she walked in the direction of her apartment.
The utility knife was something she carried constantly, precisely as a safeguard against unsafe conditions when working overtime late at night.
Fortunately, nothing usually transpired anyway.
Ordinarily, she wouldn’t draw it out either; today’s exception was purely prompted by Team Leader Xu’s chatter.
Returning to her apartment and washing up, two in the morning had already arrived by the time Bai Cha lay down.
Unsurprisingly, she fell into a dream once more.
Bai Cha dreamed of Mother Han.
Han Hongmei held her hand, bringing her home, before bending down to look at her, speaking: “Were you happy at school today?”
Bai Cha nodded, hearing her own voice utter in a thoroughly childish tone: “Happy! I played with Peng-peng today, and I even won a big red flower during the school’s practical activity today!”
Saying this, she drew a red flower from her backpack.
Yet Mother Han paid zero mind to the flower, her attention drawn instead to her fingers.
Her expression shifted abruptly as she grabbed her hand.
“How did your hand get injured?! No, school is far too dangerous—you cannot go to school anymore!”
Bai Cha froze, just about to explain that she was fine, when a sudden wave of pain shot through her stomach.
Lowering her head to look, she discovered an umbilical-cord-like strand connecting her to Mother Han, though its far end rested in Mother Han’s palm.
Right now, a surge of power seemed to be transmitting through the umbilical cord, working to smooth away that tiny, long-scabbed wound on her hand—yet the process proved excruciatingly painful.
Bai Cha woke up from the pain.
Inhaling a sharp breath, she stroked her belly.
That sensation of pain seemed to linger on her navel still.
What on earth is this?
Is this a newly spawned instance derived from the “Passing with Flying Colors” instance?
Bai Cha checked the time; it was barely five in the morning.
Unable to fall back asleep after waking up, she opened the game app; an instance had indeed updated on the interface.
[System Notice: Invitation card detected. The renewed instance “My Mother” sincerely invites your arrival.]
[Countdown: 1 day, 20 hours, 56 minutes.]
Bai Cha fell silent.
No matter how she looked at the timeline of this instance, it didn’t seem to conflict with her next regular instance.
Meaning across these seven days, she would likely clear two instances back-to-back.
Splendid—work was going to look even more awkward now.
She harbored zero resistance toward entering this instance; she had originally wanted to go in and ask Mother Han whether Han Yingying should be sent to reality or kept for her.
Mainly because Mother Han hadn’t perished, and had assisted her as well.
Yet looking at things now… realizing her daughter’s death had failed to wake her up after all; her obsession had grown even heavier instead.
Resembling a swing from one extreme to another.
She no longer forced her daughter to study to the death, shifting instead to refusing to allow her to suffer even a single scratch.
Bai Cha let out a soft sigh.
And judging by that height perspective in the game, she appeared to be a young child once again.
Incapable of sleep, Bai Cha simply got up to wash and cook a meal.
By seven in the morning, she dispatched a message to Shen Qingchen.
Bai Peach Oolong Tea: Sister Shen, you’ve probably noticed that my instance frequency is unusually high, right?
Bai Peach Oolong Tea: I wanted to ask before but didn’t know how to bring it up. Entering the game… I seem to have entered on behalf of my roommate. The game stated my account holds an anomaly, which is why I enter an instance every seven days. Do you know what’s going on with this situation?
Bai Cha hadn’t expected an immediate reply from Shen Qingchen, given that she had mentioned entering an instance today.
Unexpectedly, the other party replied at lightning speed, placing a direct phone call over.
“I’m entering an instance in ten minutes. I was wondering why you were entering instances so frequently—I assumed you were trying to grind instances!”
“Entering on someone else’s behalf… I’ve actually encountered this before. A guy in our guild named Liu Yuchen entered on behalf of a friend. It’s a long story—I’ll send him a message when I drop into the game to have you two add each other as friends… Oh, we aren’t friends in-game either! Step inside for a moment then; come to the Chenhuan Guild.”
Following her instructions, Bai Cha arrived at the Game Town, locating the Chenhuan Guild.
