Chapter 1

『Lemon Reverie / Author: Ming Kai Ye He』

『Status: Completed』

『Summary:

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Working in the same building, taking the same elevator, avoiding the same rain.

I don’t know his name. X stands for unknown, so let’s call him X.

·

On the eighth month of secretly loving X, fate first stirred the wings of a butterfly.

–

Mu Ning: “Have you heard a saying? Whoever says ‘What is our relationship now?’ first loses.”

But in the second year after the game launched, her “dream” gradually collapsed amidst the real-world workplace struggles: the narrative planner was taken away by a large company, and the new leader arrived from another team, soon starting to exclude the old ones and promote his own people.

Mu Ning’s main narrative writing duties were assigned to other writers. In two consecutive versions, *Oath of the Eternal Night* made headlines due to the mismatch in the male lead’s character design, and the comments section was filled with “frontier lords”’ complaints about rights.

During the version review meeting, the new leader and the operations team shifted blame onto each other, completely avoiding responsibility.

Mu Ning lives near the campus. The apartment manager in the tenant group sent a notice: equipment maintenance on Saturday means power outages until five o’clock.

Waking up naturally, Mu Ning grabbed her laptop and went to the nearby WStage Café—this café was recently collaborating with *Oath of the Eternal Night*, and the collaboration ended this Sunday.

These past days, Mu Ning has been fixing issues with the stories she wrote. It was only today she had time to visit in person.

On a gloomy rainy afternoon, the café was crowded—half people avoiding the rain, half like her, trying to attend the event.

Mu Ning usually sits by the window. Today, due to high traffic, the good seats were taken. She wandered around and found a small empty round table, put down her work tools, and went to the counter to order food.

Five human-shaped signposts stood side by side. Perhaps because Valerius was created by Mu Ning during the second beta test, she could always notice him among all the characters.

Mu Ning silently took a photo of Valerius’s character poster, then ordered a limited-edition specialty drink called “Velvet Berry Latte” inspired by his character design. The drink came with a cup cover featuring Valerius’s illustration.

The next hour, Mu Ning drank the hot latte while efficiently switching between job boards, WeChat chat windows, and a property fanfiction document that started with just 300 words titled “No X, no exit.”

Closing her laptop, Mu Ning stretched and went to the bathroom.

WStage Café is located at the corner on the first floor of the commercial building, with the bathroom on the second floor.

When Mu Ning returned, the café had changed its customers.

Walking toward the small round table, her gaze unconsciously swept over the surroundings.

The floor was smooth, but she suddenly stepped into a slight gap like a pit.

When did that happen?

She stood still, slightly stunned.

Opposite, in some unknown time period, a seat by the window was occupied by X.

With broad shoulders supported by a loose black short-sleeve T-shirt, under gray translucent light, the laptop screen projected dim white light onto his face, making his skin appear pale and lifeless.

Everyone in the park carried a smell of lack of sleep and insufficient light, and X was no exception. Yet this didn’t affect his handsome appearance, as if viewed as a separate layer.

It was the sparkling emotion depicted in comics using dot paper and decorations, the breath held by artists who couldn’t help but capture it in close-up shots.

And his handsome appearance was clearly not just for her alone, as the other men around him occasionally cast curious glances. Whether he occasionally whispered with his sister about trying to get his WeChat contact info, Mu Ning didn’t know.

At least she felt that urge every time, but each time it only remained as a fleeting impulse.

Mu Ning returned to her original seat.

Still facing the computer screen, but her mind had refused to receive any information about gossip, job ads, or otome stories.

The flow of gazes extended slowly through the room, blocking out all external distractions and quietly approaching his location.

He typed on the keyboard at a steady pace, paused occasionally, took a sip of coffee, then put it down again. There were five limited-time special blends available at the store, but he avoided them because the coffee cups featured the default white background with black text.

Mu Ning had never been lucky; she could only win the “sunny day” prize at annual meetings. So, even though they worked in the same park, encounters with X were rare—and that wasn’t surprising, as in this 300-meter-square tech park where it took just 3 minutes to walk from one end to the other, over 500 companies lived there, housing more than 40,000 people.

Meeting someone here was like catching a specific bee in a narrow hive where 40,000 bees fly around.

Mu Ning would mark the day she met X as her lucky day.

Today was especially lucky, as she got to spend a long time with him in the same room, instead of fleeting encounters at store shelves, three minutes waiting in front of the elevator, or ten minutes waiting for a car on rainy days at the park entrance.

Mu Ning allowed herself to peek at X for half an hour, but her thoughts were interrupted by a WeChat message from a tenant in the group.

A message from another tenant asked whose cat it was in the living room, and the cat kept meowing angrily.

Attached is a video: usually mighty American Shorthair now cowering next to the shoe rack, making sounds between “I’m so scared, help me” and “Get away from me.”

Mu Ning quickly replied, “Mine! I probably left it outside when closing up. I’ll come back right away~”

Wearing a fear-induced stress response, Mu Ning quickly packed up and left her seat.

Before leaving, she took one last look at X.

How unfortunate.

She probably won’t go out again tonight. Mu Ning headed toward the door, then turned back to the counter and ordered a concrete cake as dessert after dinner.

The clerk handed her a wrapped paper bag. As she turned, her breath caught on a faint cold scent.

Smell is the most resilient sense—it always accurately matches someone, a place, a time, a scene, or an object. This scent is closely related to X.

Her breathing slowed instantly, and her gaze followed through the corner of her eye.

X held a laptop and walked to the shared charging station, unlocking his phone and scanning the code. After a moment, a charging pad popped out from the compartment.

He pulled out the cable connected to port C and connected it to the laptop.

His eyes lifted, stopping at the top right corner of the screen, then his brows furrowed slightly.

Perhaps the charging power was too low to power the laptop.

X removed the cable and put the charging pad back in its compartment.

Mu Ning’s breathing paused for a moment, then an unprecedented courage surged as blood pumped throughout her body and returned to her heart, making her feel like a balloon suddenly inflating.

As X turned around, Mu Ning quickly retrieved the charger wrapped neatly in the power cord from the bag and handed it to him.

X’s figure stopped abruptly.

His gaze dropped for a moment on the charger, then he lifted his eyes to look at her face.

Mu Ning curled her lips into a smile and said, “It seems you need to charge your laptop. My computer is from the same brand as yours, so it should work.”

Situations where one helps the other during work are not uncommon in the park.

Perhaps because of this, X reached out without hesitation and took the charger, “Thank you. I’ll charge it and give it back to you later.”

Until now, X had been the silent male protagonist in black-and-white comics.

Hearing his voice for the first time, it was sharper than expected, like purified water with ice added, in a transparent glass.

“You’re welcome…”

“Which seat are you sitting in?”

Mu Ning hesitated briefly and pointed to the small round table where X had sat earlier.

Perhaps the laptop’s battery was nearing the shutdown threshold, and since there was an important task at hand, X said, “I’ll give it back later,” then walked back with the laptop.

The rain had lessened, so there was no need to hold an umbrella anymore.

A cool breeze blew, and only then did Mu Ning realize how hot her face was.

The light drizzle made her hair damp and fluffy.

After walking for twelve minutes, Mu Ning returned to her apartment, carried the cat “Xiao Wa” into her room, opened a can to calm her emotions, applied light makeup in the bathroom, and quickly walked back to WStage.

The café was still bustling, with every seat taken.

Mu Ning immediately looked toward the window.

X was no longer there; the two seats next to her were occupied by a couple.

And the round table she once sat at now belonged to someone else.

Mu Ning stood still, feeling disappointed.

This was the eighth month of her secret crush on X.

Not only did she still not know his name, his company, or the floor where he worked…

But she also had to pay for an apple charger.

Chapter 2

“Mengmeng: So why don’t you just ask for his WeChat?”

“morning: That would be too intentional, right?”

“morning: I originally planned to ask when he gave me back the charger.”

“morning: Who knew?”

“morning: Half an hour! Just half an hour! He ran away!”

“morning: The original one! So expensive!”

“Mengmeng: Hahahaahahaahahaaha”

“Mengmeng: Aren’t you in the same complex? Why not post a missing person notice there?”

“morning: Would that make him socially embarrassed?”

“morning: Forget it, wait for another encounter.”

“Mengmeng: Good luck to you.”

“morning: /sob”

Mengmeng is Meng Jiayin, Mu Ning’s graduate classmate. After graduation, both went to Bincheng to work. Mu Ning joined the game studio as a narrative planner, while Meng Jiayin worked at a mobile phone company as a public relations specialist.

Initially, the two shared an apartment. Later, the mobile phone company moved to a separate office building, making Mengmeng’s commute longer and the shared living unfeasible. Thus, they both found new housing, striving for an extra half hour of sleep in the 996 work schedule.

A laptop is essential in the lives of office workers, as one never knows when a boss might post a bizarre task that requires half an hour to complete via Feishu.

996 isn’t a limit on capitalists exploiting workers—it’s simply the extent to which the body can stay in the office.

Mu Ning uses her iPad and laptop with the same charger. The current phone charger isn’t incompatible, but it’s too slow.

Three days later, she still ordered a new charger online. It’s not the original brand—she chose a different brand she favored earlier. The charging cable is detachable and more convenient than the original.

If she never meets X again, she will generously give the charger to him.

A month passed.

Mu Ning got used to the new charger, but only occasionally remembers the old one still with X.

After countless revisions, she still hasn’t decided to apply—Valerius’s birthday is coming, and at least she needs to finish the birthday version first. Then, two more months remain until the end of the year. Considering the year-end bonus, it’s not impossible for her to wait a bit longer.

In the morning, a meeting was held, and in the afternoon, Mu Ning prepared the requirements document for the Valerius birthday card.

The requirements document outlines the visual concepts for the Valerius birthday card—including clothing, actions, expressions, settings, and atmosphere—translated into detailed text for the art team to execute.

The document was sent to the new narrative planner, “Gua-jie,” for review. It was not until 8:30 p.m. when Gua-jie finally sent a feedback message, a 50-second voice note.

Mu Ning took a deep breath and chose to convert the voice note into text.