Chapter 848: Zhuang Zhou Dreaming of a Butterfly (3)

Editor: Dragon Boat Translation 3

“Gao Qi…You broke up with me!”

Zhao Yu reminisced about his first love, Gao Qi, who had recently broken up wtth him. Feeling downcast, he called a few colleagues to join him for a drink. Intoxicated more by his emotions than the alcohol, he quickly lost consciousness after just a few drinks. His colleagues took him to a hotel, and not long after, he woke up.

“It seems like breaking up isn’t that big of a deal…”

Zhao Yu smiled, realizing he wasn’t as heartbroken as he thought. It was as if, upon waking, love and heartache had ceased to matter.

“Love, after all, is not everything…”

He rubbed his chin and wondered aloud, “But I feel like I’ve forgotten something important…”

“Could it be the content of my dream?!”

Zhao Yu racked his brains, trying to recall what he had dreamed about, but nothing came to mind.

The sense of melancholy and emptiness lingered in his mind.

Forget it, I won’t think about it anymore…”

Though he had sobered up, Zhao Yu still felt a bit sleepy. Forcing himself to stay awake, he set an alarm on his phone before lying back down and turning off the light.

The next day.

“Ring, ring—!”

An ear-piercing alarm sounded.

Zhao Yu instantly woke up.

He turned off the alarm and glanced out the window. “It’s morning already…”

Then he looked at his phone: 8:55. “Time for work…”

Stretching, he got up.

Rushing into the bathroom, he brushed his teeth in a minute and washed his face with warm water.

Staring at his reflection in the mirror, Zhao Yu was taken aback.

“Is this really how I look?!”

He felt bewildered, finding the person in the mirror unfamiliar.

“The last night’s dream. What was it about that I can’t stop thinking about it even now?”

Zhao Yu chuckled, grabbed a towel, and roughly dried his face.

Returning to the bedside, he checked to make sure he had his phone and wallet before leaving the hotel.

Twenty minutes later.

“Beep- Checked in!”

Zhao Yu noted the time; there were still ten minutes before work started.

“Old Zhao, you’re here!”

“Rumor has it you got so drunk after three beers yesterday that they had to carry you out!”

As soon as he walked in, a few colleagues greeted him with amused smiles.

Zhao Yu forced a sheepish smile, hurriedly crossed the lobby, and slipped into a room.

This was his workplace, a foreign trade company.

Zhao Yu majored in e-commerce, and after graduating, he borrowed some money, added his savings from part-time jobs during college, and bought some stock to start an online shop.

He thought that with his e-commerce skills, he would easily surpass many online shop owners.

The end result was that his goods piled up and couldn’t be sold. He barely made ends meet, and after a year of futile efforts, he had to sell everything at a low price.

In the end, he didn’t make any money; instead, he lost over a hundred thousand yuan.

And as if that wasn’t bad enough, his relationship with his once-loving girlfriend fell apart due to the financial stress, leading to constant arguments for a year and eventually breaking up.

-Sigh, if only I were still at the lunar base, I wouldn’t need to earn money…”

Talking to himself, Zhao Yu suddenly froze.

“What lunar base?!”

He felt slightly confused, then quickly dismissed it as his imagination running wild.

“Anyone up for a game of LoL?”

Just as he was pondering, a guy diagonally across from him looked around and called out.

“Zhao Yu, do you wanna join?”

Zhao Yu shook his head at the invitation, “Not in the mood today…”

Soon, a few other colleagues started shouting, “Log in, log in.”

This was his current job-slacking off at work, a so-called e-commerce operations position.

It was nothing like Zhao Yu had imagined, nor like the grand vision he had of making a big impact. His daily tasks involved editing images and writing copy. There were no assessments, no supervision; he just clocked in and out on time and attended meetings at the end of the day.

At first, Zhao Yu would take notes during meetings, thinking he could learn and prepare for his next entrepreneurial venture.

But to his dismay, the department head would always talk about the company’s vision and goals or boast about the sales department’s achievements in overseas markets and how much money the company made.

“This job is perfect for coasting until retirement…”

Zhao Yu sighed, habitually opening Photoshop on his desktop, then grabbed a coffee from his drawer and went to make a cup.

After wandering around and returning, he saw colleagues either watching dramas, playing games, or chatting online. Hardly anyone was doing actual work.

“Our department really gets paid to do nothing…”

Zhao Yu shook his head and casually remarked.

Hey, isn’t it thanks to the sales department being so good?”

A girl watching a drama nearby heard him and replied with a smile, “I heard the top salespeople can earn two hundred thousand yuan a month. I’m thinking of gaining more experience and then moving to the sales department to learn from them…”

“But the salespeople have to travel abroad for business. Do you have what it takes?”

Zhao Yu chuckled.

The girl pouted, rolled her eyes, and put her headphones back on to continue her drama.

Zhao Yu refocused on his screen, took a sip of coffee, and started to daydream.

After a long while, he minimized Photoshop, moved the mouse to the LoL icon, and hovered over it for a while but didn’t double-click.

His favorite game didn’t even interest him today, for some reason.

“Is this post-breakup syndrome?”

Zhao Yu felt out of sorts, as if he had lost his purpose, and like he had forgotten something important.

He was at a loss, not knowing what to do..