2. Hello, takeout! _1

Glance after glance, another glance!

Scrolling through short videos is really so joyful!

Who knew my own life could be this interesting!

Song Tan also wants to play!

This world is so interesting, if I could always be this happy, there's no need to cultivate...no, it wouldn't hurt to start cultivating later.

Anyway, there's no spiritual energy around these days, and cultivation is twice the effort for half the result, not worth it.

The cultivator Song Tan pondered her decision, feeling that it wasn't the so-called "procrastination" she often heard about, but rather the mysterious sixth sense of cultivation.

In any case, she calculated it with a pinch of her fingers, now was the perfect time to play with her phone!

It's just that the screen is pretty badly cracked...

The next moment, a call suddenly popped up on her phone—

"Song Tan! Where's the PPT you were supposed to do! Why haven't you sent it to me yet?!"

Song Tan: ...

What is a PPT? Who is this?

She reviewed her memories and discovered that in her past life, it was because her boss suddenly demanded a PPT, which caused her to hurry to the company in a taxi.

Luck would have it that just as her car reached Ninghai Bridge, she got into a chain collision.

"Also, why didn't you come to work today! Skipping work for a day will cost you 500! Do it again, and you're fired outright!"

Song Tan: ...Although she couldn't remember just yet, it didn't stop her from getting angry.

Just by looking at this outfit, she knew, how much does a month's salary even amount to?!

Song Tan rubbed her temples, took a deep breath, and tried hard to recall the endless overtime tasks at the company, as the wish brewing deep in her heart grew more and more restless—

[I want to go back to my hometown]

[I want to be with my parents and younger brother]

[I don't want to go to work]

This thought was so strong that Song Tan made her decision in an instant—

"..."

Shoot, I've been away from work for too long, what am I supposed to say now?

Ahem...

"Is that the boss? Just hold on a second."

...

Ning City is just an ordinary provincial capital, forever under construction, covered in dust and dirt.

And Ninghai Bridge is a newly built overpass, connecting the north and south, saving on tolls, costing 55 yuan by taxi from where Song Tan rented a place.

Normally, she wouldn't take a taxi, but her boss said the PPT was urgent, and she also thought about the other work she had in hand, so she indulged in the luxury of taking a taxi.

Who knew she'd get into an accident...

This time leaving the house, her shabby phone was clearly still useable, Song Tan tried scanning the code somewhat unfamiliarly, and without another word, called a taxi and went back onto Ninghai Bridge.

More than half an hour later, she arrived at the company downstairs—don't think too much, it's not some big corporation. Song Tan, an ordinary graduate from a second-tier college and hailing from a rural background, couldn't even get into big companies.

This company she worked for was renting the third floor of this building, doing various kinds of outsourced work.

Her major was the all-purpose finance, and at the time she had no choice but to enroll wherever she could get into.

After graduation, she attended a campus recruitment, cluelessly listened to an HR (later found out to be an ordinary employee) promise the moon, and then was recruited by this company.

Now, after being whipped by society, she was a jack-of-all-trades 007 agent—planning, operations, post-production, editing, promotion, and a filler of all gaps rolled into one.

Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, as long as there was an assignment, even if on her period she'd take the medicine and still crawl to work.

"Internship salary 5000, regular monthly salary 7500, sounds not bad, right?"

"But despite the capital's lackluster development, housing prices have shot up, averaging fifteen thousand. The room Song Tan rented, even being an outdated residential space barely legal at twenty square meters, was nearly a thousand bucks a month."

"Transportation, food, daily necessities... she saved everything else."

"After paying, Song Tan couldn't help sighing, 'Only over sixty thousand left in savings, that's quite a lot.' Who would have thought her past self was such a frugal girl!"

...

In the middle of the day, a mix of food smells wafted through the small company's office area, where a young female colleague beckoned her over:

"Tantan, why didn't you come this morning? Have you eaten?"

Unable to remember her name, Song Tan silently walked over and spotted her name tag—

Huo Xueying

Looking at the claypot rice in the foil container in front of her, the aroma of the food mingled with something else, making her feel quite uncomfortable.

"I had a car accident this morning, just got out of the hospital."

Huo Xueying fished out a fried egg from her box:

"Ah—open up, I'll treat you to this!"

"If the hospital let you out, then you must be okay—Wang the Skinflint definitely won't give you a subsidy now!—compensation is tough to get anyway, you should have lied in the hospital for a couple of days! Eat the egg to recover your strength!"

Song Tan's stomach growled in agreement.

Although the gesture was a bit too familiar, Huo Xueying seemed like a good friend, so after a brief hesitation, she opened her mouth and gently bit into the egg.

As her teeth met, a bizarre taste rolled in her mouth—a mix of the egg's smokiness, impurities in the food, the richness of oil, and an indescribably nauseating sensation that caused a sudden twist in her gut and her stomach began churning.

This food? Forget about increasing her cultivation base; continuing to eat food filled with such impurities could mean she might not achieve Foundation Establishment in this lifetime, let alone reach Golden Core.

Song Tan held back and managed to swallow that small bite of egg.

Huo Xueying was ready to feed her another piece, her heart aching for the young girl who saved money by eating sparsely; she was both well-behaved and pitiful, and Huo Xueying felt sorry as a friend.

But Song Tan shook her head, "I won't have more, it tastes weird." Weirdly unappetizing.

Huo Xueying didn't hesitate to take the egg back and bit off a large piece: "What's weird about it! It's 25 yuan a portion!"

"But indeed, it's not as good as the food at home. According to my mom, takeaways don't taste like vegetables; they're all just thick oil and sauces."

Song Tan touched her stomach, she was actually hungry too.

She hadn't eaten anything from last night until this morning, only now realizing she was an ordinary human with a fleshly body that needed food.

She hesitated for a moment: "Is it the quality of the ingredients? Then I... I'll order something better." The deficiency of Spiritual Energy meant the ingredients were too impure.

Thinking of the strange taste of the food she just encountered, this time, she focused on the more expensive dishes.

Surely, that would mean the quality of the ingredients was better, right?

While waiting for her takeaway, Song Tan asked, "The boss wants a PPT... that's...?"

It had been too long, she truly didn't know anymore.

Huo Xueying was unconcerned, casually saying, "Which PPT? You mentioned you'd started it yesterday, why don't you check your computer again?"

Song Tan moved to her cramped cubicle, sluggishly turned on her computer, and opened up the half-finished PPT on the desktop—pictures, text, format—

She looked through everything carefully and thoroughly.

But...what about the rest? How was she supposed to finish it?

Opening other folders—sure enough, she didn't know how to do any of it!

Song·Cultivator·Tan steadied herself, immovable as a mountain.

If she didn't know, then she didn't know—she'd had enough of hard work in two lifetimes; this time, she was not going to be a wage worker.

Just then, there was a loud call from the entrance of the company: "Hello, your takeaway is here!"