SIATOWITF Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Snake is Out Again, He’s Called Black Two-Flower…

Ji Mo An woke up to darkness. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and swept the hair from his forehead.

The opposite side was empty, only the computer with its screen turned off and a silently whirring small fan.

He’d accidentally fallen asleep… His neck was killing him… Ji Mo An pushed himself up from the chair and pressed the switch for the overhead light.

The dark room instantly became bright.

Ji Mo An squinted, trying to find the escaped little snake in the light.

Tsk… Nothing.

Although it was expected, it was impossible to say he wasn’t disappointed.

The tape on the floor was clean, showing no signs of having been crawled over, and the two hamsters were curled up in a ball, burying themselves in the wood shavings, seemingly sleeping soundly.

Never mind…

He should go to the lounge and lie down for a while before it got light.

Ji Mo An crumpled the tape on the floor and threw it into the trash can, then sent a message to the Special Assistant.

The snake was too small, coiled up it wasn’t even as big as a water glass lid, finding it in the huge office was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

——

“President Ji, I got a thermal imager.” Early in the morning, Special Assistant Bai walked into the cafeteria excitedly carrying a box.

It wasn’t yet official work hours, and an employee who had come to eat breakfast quickly hid behind the door after seeing the two of them.

“…Let’s go.” Ji Mo An had just finished his meal and had clearly seen her actions.

“She must be new, I remember her. Last time she ran away without greeting you and wailed in the group for half an hour, saying she wondered if she’d get fired.” Special Assistant Bai fiddled with the imager and shook his head sympathetically.

“Group,” Ji Mo An accurately grasped the key word.

“Uh, that… Their own work group, probably. I accidentally got my alt account pulled in thinking it was one of the other employees.” He’d forgotten to watch his mouth while playing with the imager… Special Assistant Bai silently slapped himself on the mouth.

“What about the surveillance?” Ji Mo An offered him a way out.

“Here.” The Special Assistant quickly followed the slope, pulling out a fist-sized white box.

“Mobile surveillance, remote control, can run on the ground.”

“Ah! Snake!”

The two had just exited the elevator when they heard the Secretary’s short scream.

“What’s wrong?” Hearing the noise, half the people in the Secretary’s office ran out.

They saw a ceramic cup rolling on the floor of the open office, and the Secretary standing there holding a cup lid, at a loss.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, didn’t get hit, right?” Special Assistant Bai hurried over to pick up the cup that had fallen upside down on the ground, and saw a small black head poking out of the mouth of the cup.

“…”

Great, the little snake that had been missing all night was apprehended. It not only looked lively but also had a red goji berry in its mouth that it had picked up from somewhere.

The thermal imager was useless…

Special Assistant Bai suddenly felt sorry for himself for knocking on the boss’s door all night and silently calculated the accumulated value of the little snake.

—–

Why did this snake like goji berries so much?

After cleaning up the mess, Ji Mo An watched the little snake, which had been put back in its tank, continue busily carrying the goji berry around, scaling the walls of the tank.

Two minutes later…

Ji Mo An quickly stood up, opened the tank, and used chopsticks he’d grabbed in the cafeteria to clamp the snake’s head.

Liked it my ass, the goji berry was stuck in its teeth.

Stupid little waste.

Glug glug…

The rescued little snake soaked itself in the water, obediently coiling into a ball, bubbles occasionally rising from its mouth.

For some reason, Ji Mo An actually saw self-doubt on the snake’s face.

“Your name is Black Two-Flower,” he tapped the glass with his pen, trying to get the snake’s attention.

Hiss.

The little snake moved, burying its head under its body, leaving only one round, golden eye to secretly peek out.

Ding-dong, ding-dong…

[You have new messages…]

The phone suddenly vibrated, and the latest message bar kept refreshing.

[Blood Shadow: 111]

[Blood Shadow: Bro, are you there?]

[Blood Shadow: Class is about to start, urgent!]

“…” He’d thought it was some anxious client, but it turned out he’d forgotten to unmute this kid.

Ji Mo An unlocked his phone, and Blood Shadow’s messages were still spamming the screen.

[Blood Shadow: Bro, I thought about it, use titles when we’re in front of others. Like this, I’ll call you Grand Overseer Bro, and you call me Vice Guild Leader.]

[Blood Shadow: I’ll send you the application forms, study them first, prepare a self-introduction, and I’ll pull you into the group tonight.]

[Blood Shadow: That’s it, gonna be late, talk later.]

[Blood Shadow: Oh, right, Guild Leader said don’t be perfunctory, she’s gonna do a spot check on the weekend.]

[Blood Shadow: File.]

‘Ability User Application Statistics (Elite Selection Edition).’ Ji Mo An, who had worked enough overtime last night, was taking the rare opportunity to slack off at work.

He had originally thought it was just kids playing around, but he hadn’t expected that these application forms were actually pretty good.

Ability: Wind Control… Ability Characteristic: Induces gales and storms, good at main C attack. Self-rating: S-level, cleared dungeons…

Ability: Memory Manipulation + Mind Reading…

Ability: Illusion Creation…

Such creativity, Ji Mo An flipped through the application forms one by one, some even had weapon illustrations, each one gaudy and novel.

Hiss…

The withdrawn little snake didn’t know when it had swam over. It rested its head on the groove of a small branch, its eyes clearly reflecting the glare of two white screens.

“You want to watch too? Can you understand, little thing?” Ji Mo An raised an eyebrow and simply guided the file to the computer and zoomed in on it.

……

“President Ji.” Special Assistant Bai came to knock on the door again.

“Enter.” Ji Mo An quickly pressed Alt+Tab, switching the page to the work interface before the Special Assistant walked over.

“President Ji, Meng Qingyan sent an invitation, inviting you to attend Xu Xuan Pavilion’s third anniversary exhibition, “New Life,” next Wednesday. The electronic invitation has been sent to you.”

Special Assistant Bai brought a delicate light green envelope with a pearl tassel hanging on it.

“I remember the Dragon Travel Auction is next Friday, I have to arrive a day early, check the time.” Ji Mo An took the invitation and placed it on his desk.

“The “New Life” exhibition is in Shan Lan, the auction is in Xuan An, the air commute between the two places is three hours.”

“Yeah, send a reply. Go on Tuesday, tell them they don’t need to pick me up.”

“Okay, President Ji. I’ll go customize the itinerary.”

……

“Go home with Xin Xin this weekend, don’t sneak out again, Auntie at home won’t be able to find you.” Ji Mo An waved the invitation, the round pearl swinging left and right in front of the little snake.

“Hiss…” The little snake stood up and swayed with the frequency of the pearl.

So pretty…

Ji Mo An looked at the little snake’s golden eyes and suddenly curved his eyebrows.

“Speaking of which, the initial drafts for the Listening to Rain Series have been completed. How about letting them make a gemstone chain for you?”

“Hiss…” The little snake tilted its head as if it understood, its little red tongue flicking and tapping the glass.

“Oh, right.” Ji Mo An looked at the little snake’s obedient appearance and liked it more and more, “I’ll give you a little toy.”

A few minutes later… A panting woman pushed the door open.

“Little toy?”

“You call this a little toy?!”

Meng Xiao, wearing high heels, was just about to put down what she was holding when she heard Ji Mo An’s description of the thing and immediately objected, pressing down on the square-wrapped black velvet cloth.

“This jade is delicate, lustrous, white and warm. The two streaks of light yellow are perfectly positioned. Carve the snake’s body from this, the yellow can be right at the position of the eyes.”

Ji Mo An opened the velvet cloth, revealing a piece of white jade inside.

“Then polish it from the middle, so it can hold water.”

“Say again what you want to use it for?” Meng Xiao forced a smile, and you could faintly hear the sound of her molars grinding.

“Make a water bowl for my Black Two-Flower…”

“I want to hit your head with my high heels right now.”

“Insulting your superior, no year-end bonus,” Ji Mo An said lightly.

“Sorry, sir.” Meng Xiao admitted her mistake very simply.

“But I would like to remind you that our company does not have a series of products related to jade.”

“So?” Ji Mo An raised an eyebrow, measuring the size of the jade.

“So this jade is a finished product sent by a partner.”

In other words, this jade was very expensive, and ridiculously so.

“Miss Qingyan sent an invitation, anniversary exhibition, next Wednesday.” Ji Mo An handed her the envelope.

“I’m not going.” Meng Xiao snorted.

“Oh. Then I’ll take Emily.” Ji Mo An took back the envelope.

“Hey… you,” Meng Xiao subconsciously wanted to grab it.

“Going or not?”

“…Going.” Meng Xiao nodded honestly this time, her eyes following the envelope back and forth.

Da da… Ji Mo An tapped the pure white jade.

“I’m going to contact a jade carver right now.” Meng Xiao hugged the jade and walked out of the office with a da da da sound.

New Life

[Meeting you is a new life.]

Ji Mo An watched her figure disappear at the door, lowered his head and sent a few messages on his phone.

[Got your sister sorted out, don’t forget to give me the reward.]

[OK] The other party quickly sent a reply.

—–

Time flew by until it was time to get off work. It was rare to not work overtime today, and the happiest was Special Assistant Bai.

“President Ji, everything is taken care of.” Special Assistant Bai placed the tank on the table, “The boss will come over tomorrow night to install the climbing tank.”

“Okay.”

“Hiss…”

“President Ji, then I’ll go first, I’ll take the hamsters home.”

“Hiss…”

“Go.”

“Hiss…”

“What’s the matter with you again?” Closing the door, Ji Mo An walked to the tank, watching the little snake busily circling around inside.

It looked extremely eager to come out…

“Do you want to come out?” Ji Mo An was a little tempted, but he didn’t forget that the other party was a snake.

He went to the cabinet and took out leather gloves, then moved the tank to the open balcony.

The little snake darted out the moment the door opened, quickly climbing into Ji Mo An’s palm, coiling itself into a ball, and then raised its chin, looking at him with its round golden eyes.

“Hiss~”

The little snake flicked its bright red tongue, suddenly turned around and opened its mouth, biting its own tail.

“This is… for me?” Ji Mo An was completely stunned as he watched the little snake put a small scale in his palm.

“Hiss~” The little snake lowered its head and rubbed his fingertip, slowly climbing back into the tank and squeezing itself into the small hole of the hiding place.

Are snakes… this smart?

Ji Mo An held the scale in one hand and subconsciously swiped his phone with the other.

[Search: Are snakes intelligent?]

The official answer was that snakes are relatively low-intelligence animals that survive by instinct and intuition.

But…

People who raise pets always have a natural filter for their little darlings.

[Everyone, my little snake is becoming a spirit, sob sob sob, it’s really so smart…]

[For real, I saw my snake looking at me with tears in its eyes as soon as I got home today, it must miss its mom.]

[Today I got Orange Treasure to learn how to balance a ball on its head in half an hour, and it voluntarily wears a hat…]

Ji Mo An was successfully overwhelmed by all kinds of praise posts and solemnly put the scale, which was only a few times larger than a needle tip, into a display box, lining up with a pile of valuable gems.

……

Nine o’clock in the evening… Ji Mo An’s phone rang on time.

“Xin Xin?”

“Big brother! Here I come!”

City Number One High School would arrange for boarding students to make phone calls every night at ten o’clock, but each person only had five minutes.

Ji Mo Xin had called her parents yesterday and was going to call her brother today.

“The snake’s here with me, it’s doing well, I haven’t found its owner, I’m going on a business trip this weekend, you take it back to raise.” Ji Mo An anticipated Ji Mo Xin’s questions.

“Yay!” Ji Mo Xin gave a cheer.

“How’s the guild? How’s your chat with my Vice Guild Leader?” she continued to ask.

“It’s okay, he sent me the information, and said he wanted to pull me… um…” Ji Mo An then remembered that he had muted the Vice Guild Leader.

“I haven’t joined the group yet.”

“Aww.” Ji Mo Xin didn’t care, “Bro, I ran eight hundred meters today, I’m so tired. Hehehe, my deskmate’s next-door deskmate sneaked out over the wall at noon to buy us blueberry cake, so delicious.”

“Cake? If you like it, I can have the school add…”

“Aiya, no, it’s more exciting to eat secretly, Bro, I’m gonna call Mom, don’t forget to pay the balance for the clothes you bought me.”

Ji Mo Xin hung up the phone with a snap.

“…” Never mind, Ji Mo An clicked on the Vice Guild Leader’s icon and immediately saw the densely packed messages inside.

Sure enough, muting him was the right choice.

“Good night.” He took one last look at the little snake obediently coiled up in its tank and closed the bedroom door.

“Hiss…”

The little snake raised its head in the darkness, its round eyes glowing with golden light.

Click…

After a crisp sound, the small door of the tank opened in response.

“Hiss~”

[The snake is out again~]