Chapter 72：

That night, Huo Ran, who fell asleep very late, had a fragmentary dream.

He dreamed that he was driving a car, as if he was driving on a winding mountain road, surrounded by lush mountains on one side and cloud-shrouded canyons on the other.

The person in the passenger seat reached out to adjust the music, cutting his chosen lyrical blues into a brisk and sunny bossa nova.

Next to his elbow was a long, pale scar, somewhat blurred by the sun falling from above.

In the sound of rhythmic music, for a while, even the fog that spread all around dissipated a little.

Huo Ran looked sideways, and it turned out that the person next to him was Tao Zhiyue.

After Tao Zhiyue finished cutting the music, he lay down beside the half-rolled car window, looking wearily at the fog in the canyon.

In the dream he looked different.

Huo Ran seems to be different, he doesn't smile often, even when he is surrounded by tropical songs, he just raises the corners of his mouth slightly.

The black convertible sports car drives in the mountains, along the steep and undulating mountains, and makes sharp turns from time to time.

The front is very curved, and the position of the corner mirror is crooked.

The green trees all over the mountains and plains swayed in the wind and made a rattling sound.

The next second, Huo Ran woke up to the sound of the alarm clock.

He closed his eyes and turned off the alarm clock on his mobile phone very skillfully, then turned over and leaned to the side, reaching out his hand to catch it very relaxedly.

empty.

His hands fell directly onto the soft air-conditioning quilt.

Huo Ran finally opened his eyes in a daze, looked at the empty pillow beside him, and then looked at the phone.

7:30 in the morning.

Today is Monday, it's time to go to work.

Come to think of it, he went upstairs to sleep alone last night.

The dream that just happened is still clearly imprinted in his mind, Huo Ran got up, stepped on his slippers, and walked slowly to the bathroom.

The door of the guest bedroom was closed tightly, Huo Sihan must still be sleeping in, I don't know if Tao Zhiyue woke up.

While brushing his teeth in front of the mirror, Huo Ran recalled the details of the dream just now, and planned to share it with Tao Zhiyue after washing.

The music tastes of the two of them were actually reversed in the dream, and they were in a car together. He still drove a convertible sports car that he didn't usually like.

As expected of a dream.

The bathroom window was open, and Huo Ran, whose mouth was full of white foam, strolled to the window and glanced downstairs.

In the garden, the hale and hearty old man was indeed punching again.

Moreover, he changed his boxing style today, and his movements were slightly unfamiliar.

Huo Ran tried to study with his mind for a while, then opened the app, recorded a ten-second video with one hand, and sent it to Tao Zhiyue.

[HR: Good morning Tropical, are you up? ]

[HR: What move is this today? ]

[HR: It seems to be a little more soothing than the previous one, and it looks more studious. ]

[Tao: Good morning, just woke up. ]

[Tao: It’s a bit like Wu Qin Xi. ]

[Tao: Why is it tropical today? ]

[HR: Because I just had a dream. ]

Huo Ran was about to describe his dream, but it was as if the dream had been stolen from his mind, and he forgot it completely as soon as he was distracted.

[HR: ...It's over, and I forgot all about it. ]

[HR: I should have written it down in the memo as soon as possible. ]

[HR: Why tropical? ]

[Tao: Why is it tropical? ]

[Tao: Go downstairs for breakfast in fifteen minutes. ]

[Tao: Sihan should still be sleeping. ]

[HR: Don't do her part, the pig sleeps until noon at least. ]

[Tao: When you are on vacation, you will sleep until noon^-^]

Looking at this familiar smiling face, Huo Ran relaxed a little, even though it was insinuated as a pig.

Tao Zhiyue's mood seemed normal, as usual.

And take the initiative to invite him to have breakfast.

After washing up, he randomly selected a suit from the closet to change into. Fifteen minutes later, Huo Ran knocked on the door of Room 1502 downstairs on time.

Holding the spatula, Tao Zhiyue hurried over to open the door.

"Didn't you have the key?"

"Take it." Huo Ran strode into the door and said confidently, "But I just want you to open the door."

"..."

Tao Zhiyue glanced at him silently, then quickly walked back to the kitchen.

Today's breakfast is birthday longevity noodles. The clear soup is topped with green vegetables, poached eggs and chopped green onions. It is steaming and looks very refreshing.

"I forgot, I should eat birthday noodles." Huo Ran was surprised, "Fortunately you remembered."

"Suddenly thought of it, I'm tired of eating toast."

"Did you sleep well yesterday? Did you have any dreams?"

"Forgot, it's not important." Tao Zhi said concisely, "Anyway, I will forget it when I wake up."

"It makes sense. I remember the dream yesterday was really interesting, but I just can't remember it."

Amid the wafting aroma of the noodle soup, the two chatted casually for a while.

Throwing the bowl into the sink and filling it with water, Tao Zhi glanced at the phone, his expression became a little more serious, and he was ready to go out immediately.

"Old Fang asked us to arrive early today. It seems that there is something to do. There are a lot of news. I'm going first, remember to lock the door."

When he was putting on his shoes at the entrance, Huo Ran, who hadn't had enough soup, went to see him off at the door.

Huo Ran hesitated for a while, and finally said with a relaxed tone: "If there is anything, you can tell me."

In the middle of the night, he looked at the diary for a long time in a daze, and thought of many ways to ask questions, but still felt that it was inappropriate.

Everyone has their own secrets that they can't talk about. It may be a private land that will never be opened to the public. This is normal, and he originally planned not to ask.

But Huo Ran felt that Tao Zhiyue's secret was very special, like a gully between him and the outside world.

He wanted to smooth out the gully.

Now I just took this opportunity to speak out.

So he repeated and emphasized: "You can say anything."

Tao Zhiyue bent down to tie his shoelaces, tied a beautiful knot, and then looked back at him.

"I will."

He pushed open the door, and turned around with a smile amidst the exceptionally clear creaking sound.

"Wait until I figure out what to say."

The door is closed.

Tao Zhiyue quietly took the elevator downstairs, left the community, and got on the bus.

He is obviously already trying hard to make himself forget the plot of the novel.

There are only words in the novel, and it just so happens that the author is not very good at writing. The characters are rigid, the dialogue is blunt, and many plots and behaviors are also very bizarre.

Occasionally, when Kong Kong is jealous, he can hypnotize himself. This novel just uses the same name as Huo Ran, and the characters are completely different.

However, last night, Tao Zhiyue, who had suffered from insomnia for a long time, saw the scene before the car accident in the novel in his belated sleep.

He sees everything from God's perspective.

Winding mountain roads, heavy fog, corner mirrors that don't work, sharp brakes, and music that stops abruptly.

Although Huo Ran in the dream has a different personality, he has the same face.

The person sitting next to him seemed to be him, but he was extremely strange.

Tao Zhiyue hoped that he would soon forget this dream after waking up, but contrary to expectations, it corresponded one-to-one with the words of the novel settled in his mind a long time ago, vividly engraved in his memory, like acting in a movie.

On the way to work, the noisy human voices, chirping birds, and unrestrained horns failed to divert his attention.

When he arrived at the company, Tao Zhiyue went straight to his work station, preparing to use his work to numb his disobedient brain.

Most of the members of the project team arrived. Fang Shiwu was typing while staring at the screen with a very serious expression.

Tao Zhi remembered the group messages he had received in the morning, and was about to ask what was going on today, when he caught a glimpse of the slightly red eyes of the artist Song from the corner of his eye.

The atmosphere seemed a little dignified, and no one spoke.

He was a little surprised, he moved lightly, and suddenly forgot the heavy thoughts in the morning.

Program Xiaohuang came out of the kitchen, holding a cup of hot water, and carefully placed it in front of Xiao Song.

Xiao Song was no longer as lively as before, so he whispered thank you.

Tao Zhiyue sent a private message to Xiao Huang who had returned to his desk and sat down.

[Tao: What happened? ]

[Xiao Huang Xiao Huang: Didn't you watch the group last night? ]

[Xiao Huang Xiao Huang: Our game has been copied and beaten up. ]

[Xiao Huang Xiao Huang: Oh, what a disaster. ]

Seeing the message he replied, Tao Zhiyue was very surprised.

[Tao: Something happened yesterday, I didn't pay attention to the news. ]

[Tao: We didn't even do a test, the gameplay hasn't been made public yet, how could it be copied? ]

[Xiao Huang Xiao Huang: Li Hui was copied, a pixel-level imitation. ]

[Xiao Huang Xiao Huang: Shuyu cried when she came in the morning, and I didn't know what to do. ]

[Xiao Huang Xiao Huang: Will you comfort girls? ]

[Tao: I have never encountered such a situation...]

The more Tao Zhi thought about the development progress in the past three months, he keenly found the key link.

[Tao: Is it because of the suction test done at the end of May? ]

[Tao: Only then were the vertical paintings and videos released. ]

[Tao: I remember that the publicity picture with characters on the official blog was only posted last week, so the action was not so fast. ]

[Xiao Huang Xiao Huang: It should be, there are only a few platforms for art style testing, and the games that are going to be released in China are basically tested on them, so it is not surprising that some people are staring at them. ]

[Xiaohuang Xiaohuang: After more than two months, they probably took the old games they made and used them directly, and changed the details of the ready-made paintings drawn by Shuyu, and then let the art imitate this style to make a point Resources, just changed their skins and went online. ]

[Xiao Huang Xiao Huang: You said that this group of people have free time to watch others make dirty tricks, can't they put in some effort to play games? It's disgusting. ]

After complaining, Xiao Huang sent a few screenshots of the game, Tao Zhiyue clicked on it, and it was indeed a pixel-level imitation, and the scene was exactly the same as the vertical drawing of the characters.

[Xiao Huang Xiao Huang: We all watched it. How many revisions did Shuyu make to have this effect. The click-through rate of that test was also very good. When it is officially launched, it will definitely become popular. ]

[Xiao Huang Xiao Huang: As a result, now they are using our hard work to hype up Lihui's stunning and beautiful painting style, tricking a bunch of players into it, and then selling it as dog meat, and forcing Krypton to beat their heads. ]

[Xiao Huang Xiao Huang: Many players felt that they were cheated at first, and they were just upset, and simply sent scarves to prevent everyone from falling into the trap. ]

[Xiao Huang Xiao Huang: After a few days of tossing around like this, last night, maybe the flow of water plummeted, and they actually started to stir up the popularity of the promotional pictures we posted last week, saying that we plagiarized. ]

[Xiao Huang Xiao Huang: It’s a really good trick to beat back and divert attention. Now our official blog is full of criticism. No one says that their game is bad. They feel sorry for the plagiarized fairy painter. The daily turnover ranking has even risen . ]

[Xiao Huang Xiao Huang: My head is getting dizzy with anger. ]

[Xiao Huang Xiao Huang: If I were Shuyu, I would cry in anger. ]

Looking at his description, Tao Zhi remembered the game Huo Sihan mentioned yesterday that only Li Hui was amazing.

He didn't even look at his phone last night, not knowing what happened.

He looked at the completely copied screenshot of Lihui with mixed emotions.

Amid Xiao Huang's clacking and tapping on the keyboard, the rest of the project team members also arrived one after another.

Seeing that everyone was here, Fang Shiwu stopped what he was doing and pushed his glasses.

"You should all know about the plagiarism."

Everyone nodded silently.

"This happened suddenly, but don't worry too much. Xiao Song has a time record every time he submits a drawing, as well as the drawing process map, plus the test record on the platform. I have roughly sorted it out just now. It’s pretty strong evidence.”

"I posted it in the group, and everyone has a look. If there is any problem, or if there is something that can be added, just tell me, and I will post it on the official blog later."

"The other party will definitely not be able to provide such a complete timeline, so don't panic. I am communicating with the legal affairs on legal issues, and they will definitely make them pay the price."

Under his reassurance, the atmosphere finally improved a little. Song Shuyu kept nodding beside him while holding a cup of hot water.

"Finally, try not to be influenced by these people. This is the most important thing. We have not made any mistakes. All accusations and criticisms based on misunderstanding are meaningless and have nothing to do with us."

"I told the boss that if you really can't go in for work today, you can even go to the lounge to play games together. I asked you to come here because I am afraid that if you stay at home and have nothing to do, you will brush your scarves. If you see something that sounds bad, you will get angry. "

"Anyway, you can legally fish with a salary today. Don't miss this rare opportunity." Fang Shiwu joked, "I'll keep busy, and you can always come to me if you need anything."

Tao Zhi looked carefully at the evidence Fang Shiwu posted in the group, and raised some ideas.

Then he opened Visual as usual, facing the familiar interface, with his fingers on the keyboard, but he had no thoughts for a long time, and his mind was in a mess.

[It's an official, not a croak: I'm trying not to look at the scarf, it will definitely kill me if I look at it, and it will be very painful if I don't look at it. ]

[It's an official, not a croak: Are you going to play games? ]

[Tao: Good. ]

In the break room, a few people who were not in the mood to work gathered together to choose the game discs on the shelf.

Through the glass door, I can see my aunt busy in the open kitchen. The countertops are full of vegetables and raw meat. Today's lunch looks like it will be very rich.

The scent of longevity noodles in the morning still lingers in my nose.

Huo Ran must have finished the soup.

Xiao Huang chose a disc, stuffed it into the game console, and distributed the handles to them.

On the super large-screen TV, a beautiful and grand opening animation gradually appeared.

Tao Zhiyue was distracted for a long time, until Guan Yudong next to him pushed him: "Don't think about it, the glasses will definitely be taken care of, it's about to start, look at the screen."

"I was thinking of something else."

Tao Zhiyue looked at the screen according to his words. The background of the screen was very realistic. The three protagonists with vivid expressions stood still in the center of the screen, waiting for them to operate the handles and then make corresponding actions.

"What's the question?" Guan Yudong asked curiously.

While waiting, the character controlled by Guan Yudong jumped up, and the character controlled by Xiao Huang took advantage of the opportunity to punch Guan Yudong.

The character controlled by Tao Zhiyue was still motionless.

He slowly organized the language.

"If one day, you are suddenly told that you are a character living in a game."

"Someone has designed the plot and written the script. Everything that happens in your life may not be accidental, it is all a pre-arranged plot."

"And you are a person who doesn't believe in fate."

"How would you react?"