Chapter 10: 1.0
1965 Words
A week.
Li Mo holed up at Mountain Hideaway Coffee for a full week.
He arrived at 10 a.m. every day and left at 5 p.m. He didn’t dare order lemonade anymore—it was too expensive—so he switched to plain water.
Liu Ruyan never showed up, but her assistant came every day, ordering the same three things: an Americano, a latte, and a tiramisu.
Over the course of the week, he figured out a few things.
Xinghai Group employees had their lunch break from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and this coffee shop saw its peak traffic between 11:40 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.
Liu Ruyan’s assistant came by once or twice a day—always around 11:40 a.m. in the morning, but not necessarily in the afternoon.
He didn’t know the assistant’s name, but her face looked familiar: short hair, a gray skirt suit, walking quickly, and speaking even faster.
The shop’s owner was a man in his fifties with graying hair. He wore an apron and brewed the coffee himself. Whenever the assistant arrived, he’d strike up a conversation: “Is Ms. Liu busy today?” or “Were you satisfied with the beans last time?” His tone was very friendly.
This indicated that Liu Ruyan was a regular customer—not just a casual visitor, but a long-term one.
Li Mo jotted all this down in his notes.
Looking back now, he just wanted to laugh at his own stupidity.
She’s the chairwoman—she has an assistant to run errands for her. He didn’t even need to come downstairs.
The “chance encounter” route simply wouldn’t work in a coffee shop.
His bank balance had dropped below two thousand, and nothing had happened.
He hadn’t even caught a glimpse of Liu Ruyan.
“I can’t keep dragging this out.”
He tossed his phone onto the bed and lay back, staring up at the ceiling.
The question-mark-shaped water stain on the ceiling seemed to have grown a bit larger since last week.
“I’m going about this the wrong way.”
He stared at the stain and muttered to himself, “Even if I camp out downstairs at her company for a hundred days, she’s not going to fall from the sky.”
He rolled over and felt the business card under his pillow with his fingers.
Liu Ruyan. The corners were curled, the paper had been soaked in sweat several times, and the writing was a bit smudged.
“Treat me to a cup of coffee sometime.”
She’d said that herself.
Li Mo stared at the phone number on the card and swallowed hard.
“Maybe… I should just call?”
No, that’s too abrupt.
What would he say? “Hi, I’m the guy who hit your car last week. I’d like to buy you a coffee?”
Her first reaction to a call like that would be to think he’s a scammer.
What about a text message?
“That sounds even more like a scammer.”
He pressed the business card to his chest and thought about it for a long time with his eyes closed.
Suddenly, he sat up.
“No, I was thinking about the wrong thing.”
He didn’t need to ask her out; he just needed her to see him.
He just needed her to remember his face.
All he had to do was go from being “the stranger who hit her car” to “that guy who looks kind of familiar.”
How could he make her see him?
She didn’t go downstairs to buy coffee, she didn’t use the main entrance—she always came and went through the underground parking garage.
That left only one possibility.
Wait for her somewhere she’d go.
Not at the office, but somewhere outside the office.
Li Mo picked up his phone and started searching.
“Liu Ruyan public events”
Nothing.
“Xinghai Group recent events”
One result.
A charity dinner sponsored by Xinghai Group, next Wednesday at the InterContinental Hotel in Jiangcheng. Admission requires an invitation.
He locked his phone and tossed it onto the bed. An invitation.
He wouldn’t even be able to get through the door.
“Forget it.”
He got up, went to the kitchen to cook a packet of instant noodles, and crouched at the table to eat.
Before he’d finished his noodles, his phone buzzed.
A notification from a job-hunting app.
He tapped it instinctively, bracing himself for yet another “not a good fit.”
But this time, it wasn’t.
[Your application for the “InterContinental Hotel Banquet Service Temporary Worker” position has been viewed, and the employer has invited you for an interview.]
Li Mo’s noodles hung mid-air. InterContinental Hotel. Banquet service.
Temporary worker.
He put down his chopsticks and read the notification again.
He’d applied three days ago. That day, while searching for information on Star Sea Group, he’d casually applied to every job opening in the area without even looking closely.
“InterContinental Hotel…”
He opened the job details.
Job Description: On-site service for large-scale banquets, including guest escorting, food service, and beverage service.
Work Hours: July 19 (Wednesday), 4:00 PM to 10:00 PM.
Pay: 300 yuan/day.
Requirements: Presentable appearance, height 175 cm or above; prior service experience preferred.
Li Mo’s heart began to race.
July 19, Wednesday.
The charity dinner sponsored by Xinghai Group was also on a Wednesday, and it was also at the InterContinental Hotel.
He didn’t need an invitation.
He could walk right in as a server.
“Damn…”
He stood up from his stool and paced around his rented room twice, forgetting all about the instant noodles he’d made.
The interview was the next day.
The hotel’s HR department was located in a tiny office inside the staff entrance on the first floor.
The woman interviewing him was a plump middle-aged woman wearing the hotel’s ID badge, which read “Sister Zhao.”
Sister Zhao glanced at him, her gaze lingering on his face for two seconds.
“Have you ever worked as a waiter before, young man?”
“I helped out in the school cafeteria,” Li Mo said. In reality, he’d just helped the ladies collect trays.
Sister Zhao gave him another once-over from head to toe and checked a box on her form.
“Alright. Report to the staff entrance on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. Wear black pants, a white shirt, and dress shoes. You’ll need to provide those yourself.”
“Okay, thank you, Sister Zhao.”
He had a white shirt—one he’d bought for his ID photo in his senior year of college—and it still fit.
He didn’t have black pants, so he’d have to buy some.
And he certainly didn’t have leather shoes.
He opened the map app and searched for the nearest wholesale market.
……
Wednesday.
3:28 p.m.
Li Mo stood at the entrance to the InterContinental Hotel’s staff entrance, his white shirt tucked into black pants, wearing synthetic leather shoes he’d bought at the wholesale market for 120 yuan—they felt a bit stiff underfoot.
Sister Zhao assigned him a post at Entrance 2 of the banquet hall, where he was responsible for guiding guests and serving drinks.
“Don’t let your hands shake when you’re serving drinks, and don’t knock the glasses. Whatever the guests say, just smile and nod—don’t say a word. Got it?”
“Got it.”
“This is Star Sea Group’s charity gala. All the bigwigs will be here. Don’t screw this up for me.”
“I won’t.”
Li Mo changed into the hotel’s standard vest and bow tie, standing beside Entrance 2 with his hands clasped behind his back.
At 5:30, guests began arriving one after another. Every time someone walked in, he instinctively glanced their way.
Suits, evening gowns, jewelry, perfume—the finery on each person was enough to keep him afloat for half a year.
6:10.
A black Maybach pulled up at the hotel’s main entrance.
The doorman opened the rear door.
Li Mo’s breath caught for a moment.
Liu Ruyan stepped out of the car.
Today she wore a dark green mermaid-style gown, her hair pulled up, a pair of diamond earrings dangling from her earlobes, and nothing around her neck.
Standing under the lights, she stood out from everyone else—it wasn’t a matter of beauty or lack thereof.
It was something that radiated from her very bones, making one instinctively want to stand up straight. Li Mo’s hand clenched the edge of the tray behind him.
In the virtual world, Liu Ruyan called him “Master,” clung to him to be cute, knelt between his legs, and tilted her face up like a puppy.
When the Liu Ruyan before him now swept her gaze his way, he almost lowered his head.
She was a completely different person!
No, she was the same person, but her aura was different, and the pressure she exuded was different.
This Liu Ruyan was the real deal!
Li Mo stood rooted to the spot, watching her walk toward him through the main entrance, accompanied by that familiar-looking assistant and two men in black suits.
As she passed by Entrance 2, she was less than three meters away from him, and Li Mo’s heart was pounding in his chest.
Just then, Liu Ruyan’s gaze swept over—not intentionally, just a natural shift of her eyes, sweeping past the entrance, past the attendant standing nearby. Past him.
It paused for a moment, very briefly, less than a second, then moved on.
Liu Ruyan continued walking forward, her high heels clicking against the marble floor, her pace unbroken.
But Li Mo saw her eyebrows twitch slightly, as if she were recalling something.
She didn’t turn back.
Her assistant leaned in to say something; she nodded once and walked into the banquet hall.
Li Mo stood where he was, his back completely soaked.
Not from the heat—it was that glance.
She had seen him.
She paused.
Even if she hadn’t recognized him, she had paused.
The corner of Li Mo’s mouth twitched, barely perceptibly.
……
10:30 p.m.
The banquet ended, the guests dispersed, and Li Mo changed back into his own clothes. He exited through the staff entrance, clutching three hundred yuan in cash—Sister Zhao had paid him on the spot.
Standing on the steps by the hotel’s back door, the night breeze blew in, cool and crisp.
The blue panel popped up.
It was different from the dull, gray one before.
It was bright.
The text on the panel was flashing.
[Cooling complete.]
[Start simulation? (1.0)]
Li Mo stared at the “1.0,” his pupils contracting sharply.
There hadn’t been a version number before.
Now there was.
1.0!
“It’s changed…”
He stood beneath the streetlight at the bus stop, his finger hovering over the interface.
Earlier that day, he’d exchanged a glance with Liu Ruyan at the banquet.
The system had come out of cooldown, and now it had a version number.
His hunch was right.
Every time his relationship with Liu Ruyan took a step forward in reality, new content would unlock in the simulation world.
“1.0…”
He repeated the number to himself.
The bus arrived, its brakes screeching loudly.
Li Mo put away the panel and boarded the bus.
He found a window seat in the back row and sat down, his forehead pressed against the glass.
The streetlights outside the window receded one by one.
His mind was filled with that single moment when Liu Ruyan’s gaze lingered as she passed by him.
Less than a second.
But it was enough.
- Writer
