Tonight was unusually quiet, perhaps due to the cooler weather, the bustling night market downstairs had closed early.
Lin Xian opened his eyes and gazed at the ceiling. He remained motionless for a long time. He didn't even want to let any part of his skin be exposed outside the blanket; he felt a discomfort throughout his body. It was a feeling akin to being stripped of clothes, having scars torn open, and revealing your most embarrassing secrets, naked for others to see. It made his skin crawl from head to toe, giving him goosebumps.
Lin Xian rubbed his feet together on the bed, shifting the blanket to wrap himself more tightly.
He felt a mix of emotions. Adolescent embarrassments were certainly among the least favorite memories for any young man, especially those involving naive feelings. "It's so embarrassing," he muttered. If it weren't for the urgent circumstances, he wouldn't have wanted to bring up these awkward memories.
Thankfully, it was just a dream; it would reset tomorrow, and no one would remember.
But to his surprise, even the most shameful secrets were exposed, and the safe's password still wasn't correct! Lin Xian began to doubt whether the safe was really his.
"Forget it," Lin Xian scratched his head and sat up, "Let's focus on real matters."
Dreams were, after all, just dreams. The reality of going to work was more important. After putting on his pajamas, Lin Xian turned on the desk lamp and sat down to sketch the KoKo Cat from his dream onto a piece of paper.
The design of the KoKo Cat itself was simple and refined, with few details, making it very easy to draw.
In less than 20 minutes, Lin Xian completed the frontal, side, and rear views of the KoKo Cat on the sketch paper. He meticulously recreated every detail according to the memory from his dream.
"Perfect," Lin Xian wiped his hands and blew away the eraser crumbs on the desk, "With such a high completion rate, I can easily meet the deadline tomorrow."
Looking at the sketch of KoKo Cat in front of him, Lin Xian couldn't help but think of the Big Face Cat again. After these two days of dreaming, he had thoroughly understood the enmity between the Big Face Cat and the password expert, CC.
With a click, Lin Xian took out another piece of paper and began to organize his thoughts:
[Story Flow]
Big Face Cat's daughter was killed at the age of six, and he seeks revenge, needing a large sum of money.
CC, the password expert, wants to enter the bank vault. Her goal is to open Lin Xian's safe and get what's inside.
Deceiving the Big Face Cat, she claims there's a large amount of money in the bank, so they agree on a rendezvous and secret code to prepare for a bank robbery.
The Big Face Cat has always wanted to kill others and keep the money for himself; while CC plans to kill the Big Face Cat once they're inside the vault, as there's no money inside, and the Big Face Cat won't spare her, so she has to act first.
In the end, neither the Big Face Cat nor CC gets the money, resulting in a double loss.
With a slap, Lin Xian closed the pen cap.
Looking at the analysis he had written down, these were the stories of the Big Face Cat and CC, who were like NPCs in a game world, repeating this plot day after day, year after year.
Lin Xian was clear that, although he had only played with them for two nights, the enmity between the Big Face Cat and CC had been cycling for over twenty years, playing out every night, always starting and ending at the same point.
"If it weren't for me..." Lin Xian pointed the pen at the blank paper, "I would be the only variable."
All along, Lin Xian had treated his dreams like an RPG game, which was an interesting experience. In his dreams, everyone was an NPC, each with their own storyline and tasks. Lin Xian could participate freely, understand a story, participate in an activity, or change an ending. After all, in dreams, he could do as he pleased, with unlimited retries and attempts.
So Lin Xian rarely encountered unsolvable problems or unbeatable tasks.
But this time...
"The difficulty is quite high, and there are too many things I don't understand."
With another slap, Lin Xian took out another sheet of A4 paper and wrote down:
[Unsolved Mysteries]
What exactly is hidden inside the safe?
What is the password for the safe?
Why did she save me? Her attitude toward me is also very subtle and strange.
"At the moment, that's all."
Lin Xian looked at the three questions in his mind. He felt that the first two had no clues, no breakthroughs.
As for the third question...
"Why did she save me, and why is her attitude towards me so ambiguous?"
"I feel like she's not seeing me for the first time, at least she's never thought of killing me."
"But it's hard to say; she doesn't even know me."
"In fact, she seems to trust me relatively more and is willing to listen to me, trying so many passwords."
"But it's hard to say; was it just a desperate move?"
His thoughts began to get chaotic again, like they could compete for the Mao Dun Literature Prize.
Lin Xian yawned.
"Let's go to bed first. Things in dreams shouldn't be taken too seriously; there are too many unreasonable aspects."
...
The next day.
Company meeting room.
Everyone looked at the sketches on the table, shocked beyond belief!
"This... wasn't it just a rough sketch yesterday? How did we suddenly have all three views today, with such high completion! We could start production and printing right away!"
"Are you kidding? Lin Xian just casually drew a rough sketch yesterday, it doesn't mean he started designing only yesterday! With such a high completion rate now... Lin Xian must have been working hard for at least two months."
"It's so cute, I've never seen such a cute cat! I said yesterday that the potential of the cat designed by Lin Xian is huge! Once it's refined and colored... it will definitely rival Hello Kitty!"
"From a professional perspective, the design language of this cat surpasses the current era by decades. I can't even imagine... which girl could resist buying such a cute cat? Lin Xian is truly remarkable!"
...
Normally, when President Zhao Yingjun was present, everyone was more restrained and never dared to speak so loudly.
But today's shock was too great because Lin Xian's results were truly astonishing, and their inner excitement couldn't be suppressed.
One was fast efficiency, the other was high quality. If they didn't know the details, they would have thought Lin Xian had copied another company's finished product!
Today, Zhao Yingjun wore all black, looking particularly imposing and awe-inspiring. But now, as she looked down at the design sketches, she also had a smile of satisfaction on her face.
"This is an extremely outstanding brand image, far beyond what I imagined, far beyond my expectations."
"I can see that Lin Xian has put a lot of effort into designing this cat. Suddenly, I feel that just treating this cat as a mascot and printing ads is a waste. Now I have a new idea."
"But before that... we need to give this cute cat a name."
Zhao Yingjun looked up at Lin Xian, her eyes full of affirmation and appreciation.
"Lin Xian, since this cat is your design, let's have you give her a name!"
Everyone looked at Lin Xian, and many colleagues from the design department secretly gave him a thumbs-up.
"The name of this cat..." Lin Xian rested his chin and saw the logo of the 7th discussion meeting of the Rhine Brand Image Design on the big screen...
"Since the company's new brand name is Rhine."
"Then let's call this cat Rhine Cat."