Chapter 13: Company Outing (Part 1)

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“To ensure the physical and mental well-being of all employees, the company has organized a group tour. The team-building activities will be split into two groups, scheduled for next Monday and the Monday after that.”

“Below are the time, location arrangements, and the list of participants.”

This was the notice sent by the company on Friday evening.

When Yuan Fu saw the list, it was already Monday. Scanning through the names, she found her own on the list.

The destination was Lin City.

Lin City?

Isn't that where Yu Xin’s parents live?

Yuan Fu rubbed her face, gathered her spirits, washed up, and headed out. She bought six baskets of soup dumplings and a large cup of soy milk, secured her suitcase on the footrest of her electric scooter, and leisurely rode toward the company.

After parking her scooter at the company, exchanging greetings with patients along the way, she found her colleagues gathered in the lobby on the first floor.

There were over twenty of them, all looking at her in unison. Not far away, a military green company bus was parked.

Feeling somewhat puzzled, she checked the notification on her phone; she had arrived ten minutes early at the lobby.

It was 8:49 a.m., one minute before the required time.

“Has everyone eaten breakfast?” the supervisor asked loudly upon seeing her.

Everyone replied they had eaten, so the supervisor led the group onto the bus. Yuan Fu placed her luggage inside and climbed aboard, carrying the soup dumplings.

The bus was designed to hold 37 people. On both sides of its body, the words “Worry-Free Psychiatric Hospital” were neatly painted in white, with a contact number written in Arabic numerals below.

Yuan Fu chose a window seat in the last row and began eating her breakfast.

She took a sip of soy milk and gazed at the bustling street outside, sensing that the passersby were casting strange looks her way.

The bus jolted as it left Jiang City and entered Lin City. Situated at a high elevation with steep and perilous roads, the scenery here was breathtakingly beautiful, attracting many tourists.

Lin City also had a river called the Du River, whose waters surged ceaselessly, spanning both banks. The bridge over it, the Du River Bridge, was a popular spot where many lovers pledged their lifelong devotion every year.

The journey lasted two hours. A few minutes after crossing the Du River Bridge, the supervisor led everyone off the bus to check into the “Worry-Free Hotel” at the foot of the mountain.

Yuan Fu glanced at the name and fell silent.

Her roommate was becoming increasingly resourceful.

Whether it was due to the supervisor’s favor or someone’s intervention, Yuan Fu was assigned a single room.

She lay on the bed alone and closed her eyes to rest.

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This was a five-day company retreat: today was free time, tomorrow was hiking, the day after would be at an amusement park, then surfing by the sea the following day, and Friday was free again. After lunch on Friday, everyone would take the company bus back to Jiang City.

After hearing the phone call last night, she had trouble falling asleep.

Now, she took this chance to catch up on some rest.

*

Her consciousness lifted, and she found herself in a classroom.

The room was large but contained only a teacher’s podium and four desks and chairs. Above the blackboard hung a red banner with bold characters: “The harder you work, the luckier you get.”

Standing inside, Yuan Fu suddenly saw four distorted shadows appear. Three faces became clear.

Two boys and one girl, all dressed in autumn high school uniforms, their youthful faces still tender. The fourth shadow was the shape of a girl around the same age, looking rather dull.

For a moment, she couldn’t tell whose dream this was.

One boy appeared gentle and sunny; the other’s face was tense and cold.

From her vantage point as an observer, Yuan Fu could tell that the girl had feelings for the cold boy.

She rubbed her brow and sighed inwardly—was this some kind of high school romance?

She sat on the podium, watching the dialogue.

The sunny boy grew depressed and called out to the dull shadow, his lips trembling, voice filled with pain and barely audible: “A Shui...”

The cold boy said harshly to the girl, “You see? Zhang Chenxi only likes A Shui. He doesn’t care for you at all. You’re just a clown causing trouble!”

Yuan Fu blinked in confusion.

The girl looked at the boy with disbelief.

Covering her mouth, tears streamed down her face. “You’re lying, you’re lying… You must be lying to me…”

Yuan Fu remained silent. Had her years of reading people failed her?

Did the girl actually like the sunny boy?

Yet all she could feel now was the girl’s anguish, and Yuan Fu guessed she was the dream’s protagonist.

Then the cold boy said to her, “Your mother took my father away, and now you want to steal his love for A Shui too. You’re just a third party ruining people’s relationships!”

The girl crouched on the floor, hands clutching her head, repeatedly crying out: “It’s not like that, you’re wrong, it’s not like that…”

Even from several meters away, Yuan Fu could sense the tangible weight of her pain, rivaling that of the boy called Zhang Chenxi.

She sighed, unsure what to say, feeling a bit bewildered.

Are high school romances really this deeply etched in the heart?

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She recalled her own high school days but remembered little—mostly sleeping during the day, reading a bit at night before lights out in the dormitory. At night, she was immersed in dreams, mostly watching classmates go mad over a book with no words or fleeing from shadowy monsters.

Thinking of the old woman who had appeared in a recent dream, Yuan Fu intended to comfort the girl.

Before she could approach, the dream began to shatter.

Yuan Fu:!

*

Slowly opening her eyes, she saw the white English graffiti on the hotel ceiling.

Her heart beat faster, overwhelmed by the pain of two high school students. Sitting up at the bedside, she caught her breath.

She checked her phone: 12:31 p.m.

Her stomach grumbled faintly.

She sighed and touched her flat stomach.

Eating like this every day, not to mention saving money, she was barely making enough to eat. She needed to find someone who could cook for her.

She checked the map on her phone; there was a nearby food street.

Two high schools were close by—one was the city’s No. 1 High School, the other a private school.

The private school was on the other side of the Du River Bridge. Judging by its name, it seemed like an elite institution. She searched online for photos of its classrooms but found nothing remarkable.

High school classrooms were generally quite similar, and dreams were also influenced by the dreamer’s perspective.

Yuan Fu’s intuition told her it was the private school.

She washed her face and looked at her slightly haggard reflection in the mirror.

Pausing, she rummaged through her suitcase and took out a brand-new lipstick. Returning to the bathroom, she awkwardly outlined her lips.

Her full, crimson lips stood out vividly in the mirror.

She frowned, then dabbed the lipstick lightly on a tissue, softening the red hue. Overall, it improved her complexion compared to bare lips.

After a few glances at her reflection, she suppressed the strange feeling within, looked around the room, found nothing else to take, grabbed her phone, and stepped out.