章 3: 003 Staring Gaze
Lin An held on to a subway car handle with one hand, his head bowed and cradling his laptop bag with the other, trying his best not to look at everything around him.
Yet even so, his view still unconsciously shifted slightly to the side, where the hem of a bright red tight-fitting long dress swayed gently with its wearer's movements at the edge of his vision.
That feeling just now...
It was vastly different from the usual hallucinations!
Lin An couldn't pinpoint what was different, but it seemed that the hallucinations associated with this young woman appeared more vivid.
Just like the difference between watching a video of city streets on a computer screen and actually standing on the roadside watching the streets, it inexplicably gave Lin An a sense of inexplicable liveliness and realism.
So real that the woman seemed to be truly wearing a loose and bizarre robe, so real that Lin An believed he truly saw another side of the world.
He didn't know what was going on, but he could feel a scrutinizing gaze enveloping him.
Or rather...
He slowly raised his head and gently twisted his stiff neck from looking down for too long, sure enough, on the subway ceiling, he saw a huge face that had suddenly appeared.
It was the round face of a giant black cat as wide as half the width of a train car, staring at him with glowing green eyes from a torn gap in the subway's ceiling.
The black cat was so huge that just its paw reaching through the gap could poke through the top of Lin An's head and out of his belly.
The black cat seemed to notice his gaze, curiously tilting its head, and meowed with a puzzled tone, "Meow~?"
Lin An forced himself not to react at all, as if he hadn't seen the cat, lazily twisting his neck again and lowering his head once more.
He pulled out his phone, looking towards the ceiling through the unlit screen of his phone, only to see the unblemished ceiling and gentle lights of the train, with no cat head or torn ceiling in sight.
That woman is watching me!
So is it that I see a black cat looking at me because she's watching me?
Lin An pretended to look up at the route map on the wall of the car, casually shifting his view, sure enough, he saw the woman with her arms crossed staring in his direction.
Is she really watching me?
Lin An couldn't be certain as the woman wore a pair of tea-colored sunglasses, and he couldn't confirm it well.
But as the woman bent down to look into the baby carriage when he glanced her way, Lin An hurriedly looked back at the ceiling.
The giant black cat was gone!
After a little while, several sharp, slender spikes penetrated the ceiling as if tearing open a can, directly clawing open a vast hole, and the head of a gigantic black cat appeared again!
This time...
Lin An was completely certain, because he felt the woman's gaze from the corner of his view.
"!!!"
This hallucination...
Is it a unique manifestation of someone else's gaze being projected onto me?
Then how to explain the python that seemed to want to swallow me whole in the elevator when I was leaving work yesterday?
Suddenly, Lin An's expression became strange.
He furrowed his brows, thinking about all the encounters he had in the past, and vaguely realized that this wasn't a simple explanation for his hallucinations, as many of them had nothing to do with anyone's gaze.
"The next stop, 'Second Phase Software Park Station,' is coming up. Passengers preparing to alight, please get ready..."
The train's announcement pulled Lin An's thoughts back to reality.
Life, work, another busy day is about to begin.
He followed the crowd out of the subway station, squeezed into the elevator with the throng, enduring various kinds of abnormal hallucinations all the way until he finally arrived at the office.
"Beep~"
"Checked in, Lin An, work start time 7:45 AM."
The company Lin An worked for was named 'Antler Software Development Co., Ltd.,' which had a prominent reputation in the game development industry.
But that was in the past.
With the charismatic former boss passing away from illness, the original employees were poached; what's more, some veteran shareholders took the company's projects and a large number of technical talents to start anew.
The young boss inherited his father's business but lacked his father's abilities and could now only survive by relying on his father's connections to take on some messy jobs.
"An, what the hell are you doing!"
Just as Lin An had taken his notebook computer out of his backpack, the young boss burst through the glass door of his office, walking over quickly, staring at Lin An with an unkind look.
Here we go again...
Lin An sighed helplessly, looking at this playboy, and tugged at the corner of his mouth, "Boss, what's the matter now?"
"See for yourself!"
The boss practically shoved the tablet in Lin An's face, and there it was – an animated webpage poster featuring an empress in royal attire, crooking her porcelain white finger towards the screen.
"I assigned this poster project to you alone because I thought, with your skills, it should have been especially simple. Just a bit of keyboard tapping and mouse clicking was all it would take."
Lin An rolled his eyes. Oh, make it sound any easier, why don't you.
"An, you've disappointed the high hopes I had for you," the young boss lamented with an air of deep sorrow and pain. "Look at this aesthetic judgment of yours!"
Lin An clenched his fist hard, then slowly released it, managing to muster a somewhat calm smile. He looked at him earnestly, "Boss, I'm a programmer, not a graphic designer, and certainly not good at drawing!"
"Right~" The young boss nodded as if it were a given, lightly patting Lin An on the shoulder, "So you should thank me, An. It was my keen eye that discovered your unique aesthetic sense and potential, broadening the possibilities of your career."
Oh, thank you so much!
Thank your entire family, even!
And here you are, planning my career, how very considerate of you.
Lin An glanced at an empty seat in the corner of the office. If that capable graphic artist hadn't decided to quit, claiming no future under your leadership, would you have come to me?
"Ahem~ cough~"
The young boss, having noticed Lin An's gaze, let out a couple of coughs and placed the tablet on Lin An's keyboard. "An, you should trust my judgment. You are definitely capable, it's just that you're slightly clueless about the key aspects of this field."
Lin An paused for a moment, then looked down at the image on the tablet. Honestly, while he couldn't say that the drawing quality surpassed that of other artists, it was certainly up to par.
The refined facial features catered more to the domestic aesthetic rather than the foreign one usually preferred by the industry, giving the ancient costume theme a more dignified look.
"What's the key?" Lin An expressed his bewilderment.
Suddenly, the young boss's expression lit up spectacularly, like a dry bud blooming into a fresh chrysanthemum. In fact, in Lin An's eyes, the pink collar of the boss's suit no longer resembled the neck and head but a large cluster of beige chrysanthemums.
The young boss, with a dreamy gaze, lifted up his hands to gestate rhythmic lines, palms shaking.
He raised his eyebrows, "Got it?"
"Look at what you've done here. I'm not saying it isn't good-looking, she is indeed stunning, I almost licked the screen."
"But she isn't rich!"
With the same look of heartfelt distress, the young boss continued, "The key point is, she's not generous!"
A spasm twitched at the corner of Lin An's eye. He felt helpless. He didn't get it at all. "Boss, this is really asking too much of me..."
"I believe you can do it." The young boss's face was earnest, "I'll add a year-end bonus for you!"
"It's not about the year-end bonus..." Lin An was somewhat helpless, plus it was only the end of May. The year-end bonus was a long way off.
"An, hard work pays off," the young boss said, hand on Lin An's shoulder. "I've finally connected with 'Suxin Software Development Company.' This is just the beginning. If we can get the subcontract for the big project they're about to launch, I could restore my father's legacy! This is a matter that must be carried out with determination..."
The young boss rattled on, and Lin An's expression grew more and more peculiar.
If the posts online weren't lying, the company that poached the key technical personnel when the former boss passed away was this 'Suxin Software Development Company'!
You call this restoring your father's legacy?
I bet your dad would be so furious, he'd rise from his coffin just to give you a good thrashing!
"This poster is for the website his sister is setting up to draw traffic. Just do your best to show Suxin Software our Antler Software Company's capabilities!"
Just then, the front desk girl approached, her steps brisk. "Boss, Mr. Chen from Suxin is here for a visit."
The young boss momentarily stunned, his eyes suddenly gleamed, and he whispered urgently to Lin An, "Make sure you do a good job!"
With that, he hurriedly followed the front desk girl towards the reception area of the company.
"Oh my, Mr. Chen, what an honor it is to have you! Just today I was wondering why the sparrows were chirping so happily~~" The young boss's sycophantic voice came through.
Lin An pursed his lips and reached to press the power button on the desktop computer, only to catch sight of a huge fluffy black paw appearing next to his workstation.
His movements halted for a moment, then resumed as normal as if nothing happened, settling into his seat and watching the startup screen on the monitor.
Then, the paw came a step closer, and Lin An could almost feel the fluffiness of its touch.
A gigantic black cat face loomed in front of Lin An, its huge green vertical pupils reflecting his own silhouette.
"Giggle giggle, don't be like that, I just took my kid out for a stroll, and before I knew it, we ended up at the bottom of your company building, so I thought I might as well come up for a visit."
"Oh my, Mr. Chen~ That's such fate~~"
The black cat suddenly turned into a puff of black smoke and vanished, and Lin An looked up just in time to see a young woman pushing a stroller and wearing a red tight-fitting dress, laughing and talking as she walked into the boss's office with the young boss.
A little while later, the glass door of the boss's office opened again, and the young boss came out excited, wildly waving his hands at him, "An, An, come over here quick!"
The fluffy sensation attacked him again.
A head peeked out from behind Lin An, rubbing against his cheek and stretching forward. Then, the black cat's large face turned to stare at Lin An, its mouth filled with sharp teeth wide open.
"An, I'm calling you, hurry up."
Lin An silently stood up, lips pursed, and walked towards the boss's office. The black cat, almost brushing the office ceiling with its head, followed closely behind him.
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