Chapter 42: Dreamscape: An Empty Lot (Vote for Recommendations!)

Yuan Minhua was a fresh college graduate from the northern part of Su Province who ventured alone to make a living in Magic City.

Her family favored sons over daughters, and little by little, the money she managed to save was taken by her parents to subsidize her younger brother under various pretexts.

The family wanted her to marry an older small-time boss for the sake of her brother’s wedding arrangements.

Naturally, she was unwilling. In a fit of urgency, she met a boyfriend online who seemed wealthy and treated her quite well, buying her all kinds of things.

They quickly got married, planning to hold their wedding ceremony in his hometown during the Spring Festival of that year.

But then the man disappeared, and the worst part was that before leaving, he had taken out a loan of 500,000 yuan using Yuan Minhua’s identity card.

In other words, Yuan Minhua was tricked into a marriage, not only losing her savings but also ending up 500,000 yuan in debt.

Even after reporting to the police, the man’s whereabouts remained unknown up until now.

Since the man had used a fake identity, it was only with police assistance that Yuan Minhua was able to cancel the fraudulent marriage from the civil affairs system.

When Luxing Technology suddenly went bankrupt, she panicked and immediately sought help from the industrial park, to no avail.

She later turned to a labor arbitration organization, but recovering her owed wages still required a long wait.

These past few days, she resorted to taking a low-paying job at a small company, to be able to repay the loan promptly, otherwise, she would become a defaulter.

Du Qiu’s offer came at just the right time, which made her very grateful to Du Qiu and very committed to the company, almost willing to live there.

Hearing her story, Du Qiu couldn’t help feeling empathetic—every family, after all, has their own hardships.

If Yuan Minhua had not been coerced into marriage by her family, she probably wouldn’t have been scammed so easily.

Her situation was definitely what they call a “pig-butchering scam,” and many desperate single women have been tricked in this way.

“Ms. Yuan, look on the bright side. Our company has great prospects, and you will find your perfect partner. Life will become much better,” Du Qiu consoled.

Du Qiu’s words made Yuan Minhua’s complexion improve slightly.

“Director Du, you don’t look down on me, do you?” Yuan Minhua, impulsive, shared her unfortunate experiences, still feeling a bit uneasy.

“Ms. Yuan, that’s too serious. Everyone goes through low points in their fate. As long as one maintains an optimistic spirit, they will always overcome. I believe you can too.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

While speaking, Du Qiu organized the materials from the just-completed experiment, glanced around to ensure everything was fine, and then prepared to leave.

“Ms. Yuan, have you discussed the company’s security with the park authorities?” Du Qiu, looking at the equipment in the room, couldn’t help but ask.

“The park’s security isn’t very good. I’ve already hired people from Tianhua Security Company this afternoon. We’ll try them out for a while, and if we’re satisfied, we’ll hire them long-term.”

Yuan Minhua simply reported a few things she had completed in the afternoon.

Company registration was completed, financial accounts were activated, new office furniture and computer equipment awaited setup, and they were installing a gate at the street entrance, among other things.

Du Qiu, smiling, praised Yuan Minhua heartily: “Ms. Yuan, I did not make a mistake hiring you. You’re so capable.”

“Director Du, please don’t praise me too much, I’ll become conceited,” Yuan Minhua said with a light smile.

“How’s the recruitment for your department going?”

“There are some resumes submitted online; I’ve filtered some, and they’ll come for interviews tomorrow.”

While speaking, Yuan Minhua suddenly remembered something, “Oh right, President Sun said a friend recommended someone for sales, he went to talk this afternoon.”

“Oh, Brother Sun is now feeling the weight of the position of general manager. Good, focusing on sales.”

“Director Du, in accordance with your requirements, submissions for software engineers are not very optimistic, perhaps because our company is too new,” Yuan Minhua said, frowning slightly.

“Alright, my requirements are indeed high, and the starting salary is only average, so it’s not easy to find people. Just relax the experience criterion slightly.”

Du Qiu pondered and then added, “We could let Wu Xinghuo, who has some experience, mentor newcomers. Let’s appoint him as the software team leader for the time being.”

Yuan Minhua nodded in agreement: “Alright.”

Seeing that it was getting late, Du Qiu said, “Let’s go; I’ll take you home.”

“No need, I can take the subway,” Yuan Minhua politely declined.

“Why the formality? Come on, let’s go.”

As they left the laboratory and stood in the corridor, they looked at the brightly lit workshop where the equipment delivered by Tianqi Company that afternoon was already properly set up and adjusted.

“Oh, after we leave, the security will turn off all these lights,” Yuan Minhua stated.

“Big Stick is quick; he has arranged everything. But why didn’t he say goodbye to me when he was off work?”

“Director Du, don’t wrong Big Stick; he left just half an hour ago. He came to the laboratory door and seeing you focused, he did not dare to disturb you and told me before he left.”

“That guy, always thoughtful.”

At half-past ten at night, Du Qiu entered the dream realm again.

In his last dream, Du Qiu was observing the steel jungle and had only seen half of it before waking from the dream.

Last night, he once again experienced a dream interruption, and Du Qiu had been anxious to return.

As soon as his descent completed, he immediately controlled the visible light system of the sensory system and pointed it back at the steel jungle 3 kilometers away.

He was keen to see signs of intelligent alien life, as it would be an epoch-making event.

To be the first to glimpse would mean that humankind on Blue Star was not alone in the universe anymore!

It would mean that there was an answer to the Fermi Paradox!

Du Qiu didn’t keep the visible light sensory subsystem focused in that direction and recording because the initial state of that top camera was oriented towards the supermachine itself.

He had quietly adjusted it to scout the surroundings when no one was aware, but upon leaving the dream, he had to restore it to its initial state.

Otherwise, if the aliens detected anything unusual during his absence, it could cause chaos.

Even the video data automatically recorded by the supermachine’s intelligence core was deleted to prevent its discovery by aliens.

After descending, Du Qiu still activated several subsystems he was familiar with before moving the camera, using them to sense the surroundings and ensure there were no aliens around.

In the dream, Du Qiu tread lightly, knowing this place was a production base of an alien civilization and having gone through a machine reboot by a maintainer which caused the dream interruption.

He didn’t want to get too carried away unless he was willing to give up this trove of technological knowledge.

Faced with such a treasure of technology, a new age model youth would never choose to give up.

When the visible light system aligned with the steel jungle, which was shaped like the character “品,” Du Qiu tentatively started the video capture.

It was as if Du Qiu was seeing it with his own eyes. The steel jungle suddenly appeared before him, exactly as it was in last night’s dream.

Thanks to the miraculous dream, Du Qiu was able to remember what he had seen, allowing him to compare his observations with the memories.

Du Qiu wanted to find out what had changed in the steel jungle during the time he was absent from the dream.

Stillness, timeless in nature!

On a planet without an atmosphere, there were neither wind nor sound!

Du Qiu moved slowly, his mood sinking little by little.

He saw no changes—could this place truly be a dead city?

Du Qiu finished observing the front right square steel jungle without any discoveries.

He then turned to the left side, which differed greatly from the right. It had many more cubic structures.

That night, Du Qiu thought it was much like an industrial factory district on Blue Star, only much denser.

He scanned the place bit by bit, but the unchanged cubic structures and his sensory system didn’t provide any identification.

Just as he was feeling bored and frustrated, a clear empty lot suddenly appeared in his field of view.

Du Qiu became instantly excited!

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