After Setting Me Up With My Ex, The Aloof Alpha Regrets It - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: She Counted Three Times; There Were Exactly Nine Zeros Before The Decimal Point.

The next day was a Monday.

As Shi Li left her residential area, a robot security guard at the gate handed her an envelope.

She opened it to find the card that Zhu Yunqi had given her the day before. Shi Li instinctively looked around. Most of the people around her were in a hurry, and there was no sign of that tall, imposing figure.

It was 8:30 a.m., the peak of the morning commute.

On her way to work, Shi Li carefully calculated her financial situation.

Her current savings were 132,000. She had a total student loan of 1.8 million from university, of which she had already repaid 720,000, with a fixed monthly payment of 15,000. Her rent was 10,800 per month, and her transportation and basic living expenses were about 7,000. The Federal medical welfare system was very comprehensive, so Shi Yu’s monthly treatment costs at the sanatorium were fully reimbursed, with zero expenditure. However, her caregiver, Aunt Zhang, was a hired artificial nurse and not covered by the reimbursement, costing 20,000 per month. The repair fee for the public property Shi Yu damaged at the sanatorium yesterday was 8,000. Her own monthly pheromone treatment was also fully free, so it wasn’t an expense.

If Shi Yu hadn’t gotten that expensive prosthetic leg yesterday, Shi Li’s annual salary would have been enough to barely cover all her expenses. She probably wouldn’t have called Zhu Yunqi so quickly.

Her rented apartment was very close to the company, only a ten-minute walk.

Before heading into the office, Shi Li went to the bank on the ground floor of the company building to check the balance on the card.

She counted three times; there were exactly nine zeros before the decimal point.

Shi Li carefully put the card back into her bag.

After entering the company, she ran into a few familiar colleagues and greeted them one by one.

The company she worked for was called Starshine Group, a military-to-civilian enterprise that mainly designed and produced non-military smart robots. However, the group kept a separate military production line to process certain mecha parts for the Federal military, a line Shi Li normally didn’t have contact with.

Shi Li was in the second design team at the group’s headquarters, responsible for the overall appearance and interactive system design of household robots. Different teams had different focuses. For example, Team 1 focused on the appearance design of service industry robots, Team 3’s focus was on the medical industry, and Team 4 often dealt with large-scale mining robots.

Monday morning was a routine team meeting. At 9:00 a.m., all members of Team 2 were present. Shi Li called them into the conference room to summarize the previous week’s work and outline the schedule for the current week.

Shi Li wasn’t very old, having just turned twenty-six. Several employees in her team were in their thirties and looked down on her for becoming a team leader at such a young age. They were often a little insubordinate. Every time she assigned tasks to a few of them, Shi Li had to put in extra effort.

At 11:00 a.m., the head of the design department called the team leaders for a meeting.

At the entrance to the conference room, Shi Li met Lin Xiaonan, the leader of Team 3 and a middle-aged female Beta who loved collecting coffee mugs.

Upon seeing Shi Li, Lin Xiaonan gave an exaggerated compliment: “Wow, you’re dressed so beautifully today. Going on a date after work?”

Shi Li smiled, noncommittal.

Last night, Wen Yue had finally received her reply and immediately agreed, saying she would pick her up on time downstairs.

It could be considered a date.

Lin Xiaonan pinched her face. “That’s right, you should smile more. Don’t always look so serious; it makes you seem fierce.”

People who met Shi Li for the first time generally thought she was aloof and severe. However, once they got to know her, they would realize that Shi Li only seemed distant. In reality, she had a very good temper, the kind you could pinch her face without her getting angry.

Her distance was simply a way of protecting herself.

The department head told them that a batch of retired military mechas would be transported back from the lower star domain next week. Starshine had arranged a collaboration with the military, who would allow them to visit and study, to see if they could apply the mechas’ appearance and functions to robots.

“Each team leader can bring one team member. You must cherish this opportunity. Not all retired mechas are open to the public. The military will send us an instructor. Watch closely, ask questions, and think hard. You’ll have to write a report when you get back, understand?” the department head said.

“Understood,” several team leaders said in unison.

During lunch, Shi Li thought about the three requirements Zhu Yunqi had made. The first two were quite formal, but Shi Li reasonably suspected that the third one was a joke.

“Cry loudly when you want to cry”—it was probably because she’d heard Shi Li cry so much that she was annoyed.

As for “report progress in a timely manner,” what counted as “timely” and what progress should she report?

Zhu Yunqi hadn’t made it clear, and Shi Li was unsure.

After some thought, Shi Li decided to report the highlights. She had taken Zhu Yunqi’s money this morning, so she had to do something.

She wouldn’t go into detail about her chat history with Wen Yue. She found Zhu Yunqi’s comm account and typed: “Zhu Yunqi, I have dinner with Wen Yue tonight.”

No, calling her by her first name seems a bit disrespectful. They’re in a client-vendor relationship now.

So she deleted it and changed “Zhu Yunqi” to “Boss Zhu.” It still felt awkward, so she changed it to “Mr. Zhu.”

A moment later, Zhu Yunqi replied.

Zhu Yunqi: [Thumbs up]

Zhu Yunqi: Just call me by my name.

Shi Li’s brain hadn’t processed it yet, but her hand had already automatically replied: “Got it.”

Oh, the terrible reflexes of a worker.

…

Zhu Yunqi felt like she was being watched from the moment she woke up.

She asked her smart butler, “Has anyone entered the house?”

The smart butler replied: “Master, your mother brought an Alpha here thirty minutes ago. Height one hundred ninety-eight centimeters, weight ninety kilograms, carrying a laser short knife and a particle gun. I don’t have the authority to authenticate him, so I don’t know who he is. My apologies.”

Zhu Yunqi understood.

Taking her bank card and access pass wasn’t enough; her mother had specially hired someone to keep an eye on her.

From the description, the person was a big guy, probably a bodyguard hired from a security company. Zhu Yunqi calmly sniffed the air and indeed detected a faint scent of an unfamiliar Alpha. There were also subtle, unfamiliar footsteps from downstairs.

Going downstairs, the Alpha bodyguard was pacing back and forth in the living room, as if on patrol. Her mother, her other mom, and her sister were not home.

Zhu Yunqi’s gaze swept over him. He was wearing sunglasses, with two particle guns tucked into his waist, and a laser short knife in his left pocket. Most likely, he was a left-handed person with a high combat value, estimated to be S-class or higher.

Zhu Yunqi walked over and asked his name.

“Panther,” the Alpha said. It was his work codename.

“Alright, Panther. Please stay here. I’m going out.”

Panther immediately followed Zhu Yunqi toward the door.

Zhu Yunqi said, “Would you please stay here?”

Panther replied, “I must protect your safety.”

An active officer from the “Silver Snake” Federal ace legion needs a bodyguard to protect them?

Zhu Yunqi laughed and spread her hands. “Fine, since it’s my mother’s wish, I’ll just stay home like a good girl.”

With that, she turned as if to walk back.

But the moment Panther turned, she swiftly stepped behind him and disarmed the particle gun and short knife from his left side with lightning speed. Panther’s muscles tensed, ready to counterattack, but in the next second, something cold and shimmering with silver light was pressed against his throat.

Zhu Yunqi’s long hair was loose, and the object in her hand was the “hairpin” she used to tie her hair up. Made of a special silver-diamond steel from the Black Star Belt, it looked like ordinary steel on the surface but could cut through iron like mud and even pierce the outer shell of a starship. It would have no trouble breaking human skin.

Zhu Yunqi hog-tied Panther and left him on the sofa on the first floor. She unloaded the magazines and gave them to the smart butler to take to the garbage disposal plant for harmless treatment.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Panther. Since you refused my request to go out alone, I had no choice but to retaliate a little,” she said politely, placing a bottle of water in front of Panther and thoughtfully unscrewing the cap and inserting a straw. “Remember to drink when you’re thirsty. My mother will rescue you when she gets back.”

She headed for the door. As she walked, she elegantly swept her smooth, black hair up with that “deadly” hairpin, her movements graceful.

She could have secretly slipped out. As the captain of the “Sea Snake” squadron, Zhu Yunqi’s strength wasn’t in direct combat but in stealth, reconnaissance, and assassination.

But she deliberately wanted to make a point to her mothers.

…

Zhu Yunqi wandered aimlessly through the capital city. Z3291 was a highly functional planet, and its biggest feature was its urbanization. You couldn’t see any beautiful natural scenery here; as far as the eye could see, there were endless skyscrapers. Even the food had to be transported daily by a star train from nearby planets.

Before she knew it, she had arrived at the Starshine Group Headquarters.

The Starshine Group Headquarters consisted of three buildings. The first floor of each building had no offices and was used for an employee cafeteria, a fitness and wellness center, and a product exhibition hall, respectively.

Zhu Yunqi went to the product exhibition hall. The hall was full of various robots: humanoid-simulating robots, flying robots that looked like birds, cubic robots with wheels and light panels, and standalone mechanical arms…

In the “Home & Household” section, she saw several exceptionally beautiful humanoid robots, with the designer’s name credited as Shi Li.

After technology had evolved to a certain point, the functional development of household robots seemed to have hit a bottleneck. At this point, the aesthetic design of the robots became more important. The functions of all products were almost the same, so the consumer’s choice came down to the external design and interactive experience.

One of Shi Li’s designs won the “First Prize for Federal Household Robot Design” last year.

Zhu Yunqi stayed near the Starshine Headquarters until 6:00 p.m.

At exactly six o’clock, a black standard family car stopped in front of Building B. A moment later, Shi Li appeared, wearing a sapphire blue, fitted linen dress and beige high heels. Her hair was styled in exquisite, gentle curls, and the yellow earrings on her ears were like flowers blooming beside her cheeks.

Zhu Yunqi recognized Wen Yue as the person who got out of the car. She held a small bouquet of red roses and immediately handed them to Shi Li.

Through the thick soundproof glass, Zhu Yunqi’s hearing became no different from an ordinary person’s. She hid behind a door and saw Wen Yue eagerly try to take Shi Li’s hand. After Shi Li refused, the two talked face-to-face. Wen Yue’s expression was a mix of crying and laughing, and then Shi Li got into Wen Yue’s car.

Zhu Yunqi decided to follow them.

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