By the time I walked into the restaurant, Li Jian and Li Baocheng had already started eating. There was a full plate of food in front of each of them, and they were wolfing down their meals. Seeing me come in, they all showed a curious expression.
"What took you so long? What did Miss Qin call you over for?" Han Baiqiang asked, his words muffled by the food in his mouth, while the other three also looked on with curious faces.
Despite their seemingly innocent faces, Xiao Buli sneered inwardly. It must have been one of them who snitched about his conversation with the guy in the peaked cap, yet here they were pretending to be oblivious, which seemed quite fake.
However, he didn't intend to call them out on it; first, because he wasn't certain who it was, and second, because pointing it out wouldn't be of any benefit. "It's nothing, just some trivial matters," he said nonchalantly as he grabbed a stainless-steel plate to get some food, randomly picking food while contemplating which one of them had tattled on him.
Li Jian was the least suspicious, as he was the team leader; if there was an issue, he could simply ask, there was no need to keep things from himself.
Han Baiqiang's straightforward nature seemed to suggest he wasn't the type to snitch, but he couldn't be completely ruled out either.
Sun Bin was the most suspicious. With his ostentatious behavior, in Xiao Buli's view, he was either too arrogant or too insecure. If he had orchestrated this stunt just because Xiao Buli played the game better than he did, it would fit perfectly with the typical melodramatic movie plot.
As for Li Baocheng, he seemed very naive, but he couldn't be cleared of playing dumb to catch the wise either.
Who would have thought that even playing a game involved so much scheming? It really wasn't easy to get by in a big corporation.
Lost in thought, Xiao Buli had already filled his plate and, as he turned around, he happened to see a familiar figure walking past him.
It was Wu Tao. The two hadn't spoken a word in half a month, but now Xiao Buli felt he could ask him for information. After all, Wu Tao was a veteran and should know some inside news.
Watching Wu Tao take a seat at an empty table, Xiao Buli walked over too.
He set his plate down opposite Wu Tao and asked with a smile, "Excuse me, but is this seat taken?"
Wu Tao looked up at him, his face immediately filled with distress. He was silent for a moment and kept giving Xiao Buli meaningful glances, obviously not wanting to be associated with him. However, Xiao Buli stood there obliviously, and after a long stare, it was Wu Tao who gave in, dejectedly saying, "No one's using it, you can do as you please."
"Then I won't stand on ceremony," Xiao Buli said as he sat down. He extended his hand to Wu Tao and introduced himself, "Hi, I'm Xiao Buli."
Wu Tao gave Xiao Buli a look, saw his sincere expression, and thought to himself how well he could pretend. Nevertheless, in order not to reveal the truth that they knew each other, he reluctantly reached out and shook hands, "Hello, I'm Wu Tao."
"Then I'll call you Brother Tao."
"No need to be so formal; I can't handle it. Just call me Taozi or Tao."
Xiao Buli ignored the underlying complaint in his tone and continued, "Then, Taozi, can I ask you about something? Do you know about the chairman's nephew?"
"The chairman's nephew? Who?" Wu Tao was taken aback, clearly having no idea who that was.
"The guy in the black jacket, who, according to Miss Qin, often comes around for no reason."
Wu Tao was completely baffled, "Never heard of it, what do you ask for?"
"Nothing much, just asking," Xiao Buli finished speaking and thought for a moment that it might be better to clarify things, so he briefly recounted the incident with the man in the cap.
After hearing this, Wu Tao was also taken aback. He glanced around and, seeing no one paying attention to them, whispered, "You didn't run into a ghost, did you?"
A ghost? Upon hearing this, Xiao Buli felt like laughing. How could there be ghosts under the bright daylight, and even if there were, they should appear at night, right? Moreover, he didn't believe in the existence of such things as ghosts in this world.
Seeing Xiao Buli's unconcerned expression, Wu Tao lowered his voice even further, "I'm not saying this without reason. It's not the first time something like this has happened. It is said that before, someone went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and saw a person playing games in the computer room. That person went over to tap him on the shoulder, and when the person turned around, guess what he saw?"
"What did he see?"
"Nothing at all, the person just disappeared into thin air."
"Is that person still at the company?"
"Yes, yes, he's from the Green Dragon Group, named Bai Yunfei, and you can ask him if you don't believe me."
Xiao Buli nodded but had already dismissed Wu Tao's view. How could such creatures as ghosts exist? It seemed impossible to get any more information out of this guy.
After a hasty lunch, Xiao Buli said goodbye to Wu Tao and went to the doorstep of the studio, only to unexpectedly find two expressionless security guards standing at the door, both looking like special police in black sunglasses, stopping Li Jian and the others from entering. Han Baiqiang appeared somewhat displeased and was loudly asking them something.
Xiao Buli patted Li Baocheng on the shoulder, "Little Li, what happened?"
Li Baocheng shrugged, "Who knows? They said the computers are broken, but even if they're broken, it shouldn't be all of them."
As the two of them were talking, Qin Shimoon walked out from the computer room, "I'm sorry, everyone, there's a problem in the computer room that needs to be addressed, so please take the afternoon off."
Since the manager had spoken, Han Baiqiang couldn't say much more. Li Jian nodded to Qin Shimoon and then turned around, "You've all heard her, we have the afternoon off, let's disband."
Although they were given time off, it's not as if they had much freedom, not being allowed to leave the company at will, so several people started chatting in the lounge. Li Jian, who could go online in White Tiger Group's computer room, didn't stay, and without him, the team leader, around, the others were less reserved in their conversations.
"How could this happen? The computers were all working fine when we logged off just now. I think there's something fishy going on here," Han Baiqiang said, glancing at Sun Bin, probing, "Sun the Great Expert, what do you think it could be?"
Sun Bin gave him a look and said indifferently, "Some things are better left unguessed if they're not meant to be known." He sat there with his arms crossed, looking as if he knew some inside information.
Xiao Buli didn't join the conversation, but he couldn't help thinking that it might be related to the conversation they had at noon.
While they were chatting, Li Baocheng, who had just gone out to the bathroom, walked in with a mysterious look on his face, "Hey, guess what I saw?"
"What?"
"A bunch of guys in protective suits with some equipment entered our computer room. I don't know what they're up to, but it looked like something out of a biohazard situation."