Chapter 77 No Pretending, Actually I’m Rich

Chapter 77: No More Pretending, I'm Actually Rich

Even before Lin Jianyuan resigned, the frequency of frog manifestations in the company had already been very low.

Probably because he often had random outbursts around Jiang Chen, ever since he was diagnosed with a mental illness, Jiang Chen had significantly reduced the frequency of calling meetings.

According to Lin Jianyuan's observations, frogs mostly appeared during Jiang Chen's meetings.

Occasionally, there were a few times when it wasn't a meeting but when Jiang Chen was spouting ridiculous nonsense.

The small slit on his throat would suddenly crack open, spitting out frogs with a rapid sputtering sound.

This proved that Jiang Chen's meetings equaled spouting nonsense.

Everything made sense now.

"Instructor, these frogs should mainly be concentrated…"

Lin Jianyuan was just about to guide everyone when, as soon as he entered the office building, holy cow.

Ribbit, ribbit.

Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit…

Frogs! Everywhere!

Frogs surged and pushed against each other like seawater.

There were so many that they couldn't even fit in the lobby on the first floor of the office building. Several had even hopped outside.

Strangely, the frogs would vanish as soon as they were exposed to sunlight.

As if they dissipated instantly.

Wait. Going directly from solid to gas should be called sublimation.

…Which also made sense.

After all, frogs are amphibians that prefer damp environments and can't be exposed to direct sunlight…

Lin Jianyuan was shocked by the number of frogs before him.

Holy crap, how many times had Jiang Chen bombarded everyone with his nonsense while he was gone?

The frogs had already filled the entire office building!

The comrades who entered the building together also had their mouths twitch.

Before coming, the instructor had given them a heads-up, saying that these heretics weren't very dangerous but there were quite a few of them.

But no one said there would be this many!!!

There wasn't even room to step inside!

Fortunately, ordinary people couldn't see the heretics, or else just walking in would trigger frog-induced trypophobia with all these densely packed frogs.

What was even more disgusting was that it was still the tail end of summer, and the weather was still hot.

So many people were wearing sandals or flip-flops as they walked into the office building.

Thus, the combatants watched as these ordinary people waded through the dense, countless frogs with their bare calves and the tops of their feet.

"Ribbit."

Some frogs were kicked away.

"Squish."

Some frogs were stepped on and flattened.

But more, many more frogs, just hopped and hopped.

Their wet, slimy frog skin brushed against people's insteps, ankles, and calves.

Hop. Hop.

Just watching was enough to imagine that moist, sticky, slippery sensation.

So disgusting!

The combatants all wore looks of utter disgust.

Since there were so many frogs, everyone temporarily turned off the alarm sound on their mobile terminals.

Otherwise, with 80 "heretics detected" alerts per second, even if the frogs didn't drive people insane, the alarm sound would.

However, only the repetitive alarm sound was turned off.

If a new heretic was detected, the mobile terminal would still sound an alarm.

The instructor coughed, and everyone made an effort to compose themselves.

Following the initially agreed-upon plan, they split into teams.

After the Management Bureau's onboarding training, everyone had learned the principles of field operations.

First, ensure the safety of the public.

Second, adhere to the confidentiality principle to avoid causing panic.

It was important to know that heretics feed on negative emotions.

Different heretics have different diets.

But most heretics consume negative emotions like "fear," "unease," and "anxiety."

So, when dealing with heretics, it was crucial to avoid causing mass panic among the public.

This would directly lead to the heretic feeding heavily, drastically increasing its combat power.

Team D- members had poor physical fitness, but they weren't incompetent overall.

So they had long since devised a plan.

They would use various methods to temporarily divert or evacuate the crowd.

After the heretic was contained and all contaminants on-site were cleared, they would pretend nothing happened, pack up, and leave.

The office building had 23 floors in total, and each floor had been assigned.

Lin Jianyuan decisively chose the 13th floor—his old company’s floor.

Returning to this familiar place, he felt a twinge of nostalgia.

When he arrived at the company entrance and saw the familiar time clock behind the glass door, he experienced a weird, dreamlike feeling, as if he had come to work.

As if none of those crazy changes had happened.

As if everything were just a dream during a lunch break.

As if he were still that mentally ill person.

As if the floor were still covered with frogs spat out by Jiang Chen’s nonsense.

Everything…

felt like…

a dream.

That rising sense of dread surged within him once more.

Lin Jianyuan raised his left hand and looked at his palm.

The light bite mark was still there.

Xie Yu.

Was real.

Not an illusion.

His Xie Yu, his roommate, his lover.

Was real.

Was real.

The slight trembling deep in his bones faded.

Lin Jianyuan made a fist, squeezing that barely noticeable, shallow bite mark tightly.

His emotions settled once again.

"Your Majesty," the squeeze toy finally noticed something was off and asked worriedly, "Are you…"

Little Stone: "Wow, he’s already calling him 'Your Majesty.' Squeeze Chief really knows how to flatter. Not like me—I just keep my head down and get stuff done for Bro Yuan~"

Frogs croaked everywhere.

Their croaking rose like waves.

A green tide surged toward Lin Jianyuan.

Lin Jianyuan tossed the Angel Eyeball and the Maw of the Abyss outward with a flick of his hand and said calmly, "Get to work."

Angel Eyeball & Maw of the Abyss: "Got it."

Both the plush eyeball and the black plastic bag had been fixed. Whenever Lin Jianyuan wished, he could decide whether they were visible to humans.

This was one of the effects of the Mark Xie Yu had given him.

The Angel Eyeball fluttered its three pairs of wings, while the Maw of the Abyss hovered beneath it, mouth wide open.

Wherever the black plastic bag passed, frogs were sucked right up.

Like a high-powered vacuum, it was extremely efficient.

—This move was something Lin Jianyuan had invented while doing household chores.

He had originally intended to use this combo move to replace the vacuum cleaner for corners the robot cleaner couldn’t reach, but later realized it wasn’t gonna work out.

Because the Maw of the Abyss was an idiot.

This thing with shark teeth couldn’t tell furniture from trash. If let loose to vacuum, it would rip up the floorboards and suck them down too.

After being ganged up on by Xie Yu and Lin Jianyuan a few times, it shaped up a bit.

It went from being a super idiot to just a regular idiot.

But the current task was just catching frogs.

Even this idiot could get that right.

After all, if it messed up again, Lin Jianyuan wouldn’t mind using some physical persuasion again.

Lin Jianyuan stood outside the company, watching the eyeball with teeth autonomously collect frogs.

For some reason, as soon as he got close to the company, he had the urge to smoke.

He even started to feel a bit annoyed.

Talk about PTSD.

Just as Lin Jianyuan was about to find a place to smoke, he heard a familiar voice in his ear.

"Bro!!!"

Pei Shuo’s excited voice.

Lin Jianyuan turned around and indeed saw Golden Retriever, eyes all bright and shiny, tail wagging like crazy as he ran toward him.

"Bro! What are you doing here!" Pei Shuo’s eyes shone with excitement. "How come you didn’t come in!"

Lin Jianyuan shrugged: "They’ve got a new receptionist. I don’t have my keycard anymore. No big deal—I was just in the neighborhood."

Earlier, when he stood at the company entrance, there was a new receptionist behind the glass door.

He glanced from a distance; they’d seen him but didn’t know who he was, so they ignored him and went back to what they were doing.

And Lin Jianyuan’s keycard had been turned in ages ago.

The moment he was stopped at the door, he really felt it hit him: "I don’t work here anymore."

No.

It should be—

"I finally fucking quit that shithole, hell yeah!"

That said, he was still happy to see his former colleagues.

"Lin Jianyuan! Long time no see!" Qin Shi, who had been adding water to the health kettle, put it down in surprise.

"Lin Jianyuan?!" Su Zhiwei, who had been arguing fiercely with a client, dropped his keyboard, his tough-guy eyes instantly welling up with tears. "What brings you here! How have you been lately!"

Everyone gathered around, and Lin Jianyuan was touched.

The squeeze toy and the little stone climbed onto his shoulders, one on the left and one on the right, admiring the colleagues' enthusiasm.

Shy LEGO, terrified by the crowd, hid deep inside his pocket, trembling.

Maw of the Abyss and the angel eyeball pretended to spectate while taking the chance to slack off.

Lin Jianyuan shot them a glance.

The eyeball-mouth vacuum immediately stopped slacking and got back to work.

"I'm doing great. Really, hahaha..." Lin Jianyuan replied with a smile to everyone's concern.

The number of frogs on the floor was dwindling.

The office gradually shifted from gray back to color, and everyone seemed to regain their vitality.

Lin Jianyuan glanced at his old workstation and noticed it was still empty.

He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

Pei Shuo caught on and said with a grin, "Bro, after you left, they couldn't hire anyone to replace you! Isn't that hilarious? Even though the job market is so tough out there, nobody wants to jump into this hellhole. Jiang Chen said back then, 'If you won't do it, there are plenty of others who will.' But look, it's been so long, and not a single applicant has shown up..."

"Actually, I've been lowkey ranting about our company on Xiaohongshu," Qin Shi leaned in and whispered. "I saw someone asking about the company's benefits, and I immediately went anonymous to play the good Samaritan."

"Holy shit, I saw that post too," Su Zhiwei burst out laughing. "I also DMed them to warn that this place is a hellhole—definitely don't jump in!"

Everyone laughed heartily.

Someone asked concernedly, "So how are you doing now? Did you find a job?"

As soon as the words were out, the room fell silent.

Everyone shot subtle glances at the speaker, who then remembered—Lin Jianyuan had mentioned before leaving that he’d already found a new job.

One his wife had referred him to.

But as everyone knew, his wife...

That familiar look of sympathy and sadness reappeared in their eyes.

Lin Jianyuan rubbed his chin, wondering if he should tell them he now earns 200,000 yuan a month and has a permanent position.

Was that something he could share?

Would it violate a confidentiality agreement?

But just then, an even more annoying voice than the slimy frogs came from upstairs.

"Well, well, what do we have here."

Jiang Chen leaned against the second-floor railing, looking down with a sarcastic tone.

"If it isn't Lin Jianyuan! No wonder everyone suddenly stopped working. So the old colleague is back."

Everyone's smiles froze.

Eyes rolled collectively.

"Get back to work, now!" Jiang Chen snapped. "He's unemployed—do you all want to be unemployed too?"

Jiang Chen had heard about Lin Jianyuan's situation.

Now that Lin Jianyuan had quit, Jiang Chen no longer had to worry about this lunatic causing trouble here.

After all, he was an outsider now. If he dared to act up, Jiang Chen could just call the police and have him thrown out.

Maybe even get him hauled off to a mental hospital.

Lunatics should stay put in mental hospitals!

Not run around harming people!

Under Jiang Chen's undisguised threat, everyone swallowed their anger and reluctantly returned to their workstations.

Pei Shuo also looked furious. As he passed by Lin Jianyuan, he whispered, "Bro, just ignore him. I'll sneak over to chat with you later."

Lin Jianyuan glanced up at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen looked down from above, shaking his leg triumphantly.

Wearing an arrogant expression that screamed, "What can you do, you lunatic?"

Clearly, he’d forgotten the pain once the wound healed.

People with low intelligence are like that.

They remember the food but not the beatings.

But times had changed. Lin Jianyuan was now with the Bureau, with a permanent position no less. He couldn’t just act recklessly in public.

Besides, he was still on a mission.

If anything went wrong, he wouldn’t be the only one taking the fall—the team leader would also be dragged into the mess with him.

Well, no choice then.

Only one solution left.

Lin Jianyuan sighed and raised his hand. "Everyone, hold on a sec. Give me a minute."

Everyone paused.

Jiang Chen frowned angrily. "Lin Jianyuan, what do you think you're—"

Before he could finish, a series of WeChat notification sounds cut him off!

Ding-dong!

Ding-dong!

Ding-dong!

Dings chimed repeatedly.

Everyone lowered their heads to check their phones, then blurted out in shock.

"Holy crap! Lin Jianyuan, why the hell did you suddenly send me money?!"

"Holy crap, I got money too!"

"Holy crap, ¥1688!"

"Holy crap, I got ¥1688 too!"

"Holy crap!"

"Holy crap!"

"Holy crap!!!"

Shocked exclamations kept coming!

Jiang Chen widened his eyes, his face full of disbelief, and quickly lowered his head to check his own phone.

But WeChat was empty though.

There were no new messages.

Everyone there had looked down at their phones and burst out with "holy crap."

Guess who wasn’t included~

Jiang Chen: "..."

"Because the Red Envelope limit is only 200, I did a direct transfer."

Lin Jianyuan said humbly.

"Sorry, I'm done pretending."

Lin Jianyuan raised his head and shot a teasing glance at Jiang Chen.

"Actually, I'm rich."

Pei Shuo: "What?"

Qin Shi & Su Zhiwei: "What??"

Jiang Chen: "What the????"

Jiang Chen's eyeballs almost popped out of his head.