"Touch me!"
"You will gain strength and speed!"
"Go for it, you're the best!!!"
On the half-marathon track,
a staff member in bright clothes held a sign and stood by the side.
Every participant who passed by would instinctively reach out with their left hand to touch the sign.
Chen Jianhai also stretched out his left hand to touch it.
To his surprise, the moment he touched it, the system panel's data surged even higher.
Chen Jianhai twitched the corner of his mouth and withdrew his hand reluctantly.
Fortunately, the system was smart enough,
after recalculating the value distribution, it compressed the skyrocketing trend arrow accordingly,
but even compressed, it looked like the Monkey King shooting to the sky.
Chen Jianhai was always worried that this "monkey" might just leap out of the Buddha's palm and poke a hole in the sky.
Out of fear,
to be precise, because he was scared,
Chen Jianhai's legs stopped hurting, and his breathing became steadier,
his attention fixated on the system panel before him,
and so, half anxious and half excited, he finished the half-marathon.
After reaching the finish line and collecting his towel and related items,
Chen Jianhai finally had a chance to thoroughly examine the system panel, finding the "minimize" button,
then took out his phone,
first taking a photo of his half-marathon medal, and then a selfie showing his robust, sun-tanned face.
He posted them directly to his WeChat Moments.
Then, with his arm around Xiao Lang's shoulder, the two of them limped back to the hotel.
...
The half-marathon race was over,
but the full marathon was still ongoing.
If there was one project in his hotel that Chen Jianhai had invested in most successfully,
it was definitely the spa!
Lying on the soft, comfortable massage beds, feeling the massage therapists' soft yet firm touch,
Xiao Lang couldn't help but let out a moan:
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, take it easy..."
Chen Jianhai immediately scolded: "Mind your manners!"
What the heck,
swearing is one thing, but there are employees around, have some decorum!
Just as he said this,
the pressure on his foot suddenly intensified!
"Oh crap...!!! Easy, easy."
He howled for several seconds before slowly exhaling,
turning his head,
he saw Xiao Lang giving him a disdainful look.
Chen Jianhai, thick-skinned as ever, nonchalantly picked up his phone.
"Whoa!"
"So many likes and comments?!"
Chen Jianhai looked in surprise at the numbers under his post and opened it.
Just the list of people who liked it filled more than half a page,
with flattery comments like "Boss Chen is so handsome," "Boss Chen is amazing!" and "Boss Chen participated in 'Little Horse'" flooding in,
as he read, a puzzled expression appeared on his face.
"Who are all these people liking and commenting?"
Chen Jianhai wasn't someone who posted on WeChat Moments often,
and even when he did, he barely got any likes or comments. To be honest, he rarely received any.
This was the first post he made since he got the system,
but the comments were way beyond his expectations.
Besides familiar faces like uncles, aunts, teachers, and classmates,
even people he hadn't spoken to in ages were now liking his post and crowding the top of the list.
"Who are these people?"
Chen Jianhai clicked on the first few unfamiliar names,
but their profile pictures and names clearly didn't belong to anyone he knew, and there were no chat records either,
likely people who added him ages ago and had been lying dormant in his friend list, suddenly popping up today.
Though a bit...awkward,
this feeling of being showered with praise was pretty awesome! Ha ha ha!
Chen Jianhai grinned foolishly.
He extended his right index finger,
scrolling through the comments and liking every single one that praised him.
While doing so,
a comment suddenly popped up:
Su Jie: "The medal photo is very clear, nice phone camera."
Chen Jianhai's finger paused,
is this guy praising my marathon or my phone?
"Haha, it's all thanks to Su Ge's good taste."
Chen Jianhai edited the message and was about to send it when a strong sense of danger washed over him.
Wait!
There are only a few people in the hotel industry in Nanjing.
What if replying to Su Jie makes Wen Zifan, Ning Youyou, Bai Cheng, and the others notice?
Although he received seven phones,
each giver thought their gift was unique.
Thinking of this,
Chen Jianhai quickly deleted the draft and, after some thought, retyped:
"Because the person who gave me the phone has great taste~"
Send!
Now that's perfect!
Sure enough, Su Jie replied with a "[thumbs up][sunglasses]"
As Chen Jianhai was scrolling through his WeChat Moments comments,
Xiao Lang's voice came from beside him,
"Boss Hai, are these two people your hotel employees?"
"Why haven't I seen them at your place?"
Chen Jianhai leaned over: "What do you mean my employees?"
Xiao Lang's phone was showing the live broadcast of the "Little Horse" event,
a reporter was interviewing two volunteer staff members,
and beside them,
a pale-faced participant was sitting on the ground, holding a bottle of mineral water, seemingly too exhausted to move.
"What's going on?" Chen Jianhai asked curiously.
Xiao Lang explained:
"The report says this participant was running beyond his physical limits, even fainted once but still wanted to continue,"
"and these two medical staff forcibly stopped him."
"Now the reporter is interviewing them, asking which hospital they work at, and they said they're employees of the Little Island Hotel."
Chen Jianhai was stunned.
He hadn't heard of any of his employees being selected as volunteers for the "Little Horse" event!
He took Xiao Lang's phone, zooming in on the screen.
He knew the name and face of every employee in the hotel,
but he was certain that these two were definitely not his employees.
"But if they're not from the hotel… they look really familiar."
Chen Jianhai scratched his head in confusion.
"Where have I seen them?"
Just as Chen Jianhai was racking his brains,
a small, barely noticeable detail on the screen caught his eye.
"Oh my god, it's them!!!!"
Chen Jianhai sat up abruptly,
his eyes fixed on the two girls' interlocked pinky fingers on the screen,
so shocked he couldn't speak.
If Chen Jianhai's eyes were any sharper at that moment,
he would have noticed that the participant, who had been sitting on the ground looking dejected,
was now also staring wide-eyed at the two staff members holding pinkies,
crushing the bottle of mineral water in his hand with a "snap."