Chapter 1804: Special Encounter, Such Coincidence, A Unique Fate

Many people from Duan Group went to deliver documents or materials to Duan Yiyang today, and most of them noticed that their Mr. Xiaoduan seemed to be slacking off in the studio watching horror movies.

Everyone thought that maybe he was decompressing by watching horror movies since he usually has a lot of work pressure.

But...

Someone said that while watching, he actually laughed out loud, which was kind of scary?

Could it be that he’s gotten a bit twisted?

Qi Zhiyi knew nothing about these things, but the horror escape room left quite a psychological shadow on her. Once, she went downstairs in the middle of the night to get a drink of water, and Qi Zeyan was also downstairs. In the dead of night, everyone was moving quietly, and Qi Zeyan asked her softly what she was doing.

Qi Zhiyi was so scared that she dropped her cup on the floor with a scream, and Qi Zeyan got just as scared.

A few days later, this kind of after-effect gradually faded. During this time, Qi Zhiyi met Duan Yinuo once more, but Duan Yiyang was not present, to which Duan Yinuo complained a bit:

"It’s almost the end of the year, he’s busy socializing everywhere with my dad, making me seem like the idle one. Have you chatted with my brother since you added him on WeChat?"

Qi Zhiyi shook her head.

That time in the escape room was indeed quite awkward, but his firm grip on her hand made Qi Zhiyi feel that he might be a bit interested in her. However, there had been no follow-up since then.

...

Outdoors, it was freezing cold, and unless invited by friends, Qi Zhiyi rarely goes out. This changed only when Qi Lie returned to Beijing for winter break.

With the year-end approaching, Qi Zeyan and Ruan Mengxi were also busy, often unable to eat together, leaving their daughter home alone, which inevitably worried them. So after Qi Lie returned, they asked him to take his sister along whenever he went out.

The siblings were long past the age of holding hands and playing in the mud. When Qi Lie went out for a get-together with his group of brothers, it wasn’t convenient to bring along Qi Zhiyi. But, given their parents’ request, he couldn’t refuse and had to take her with him.

Qi Zhiyi originally didn’t want to go out with him—a group of guys hanging out in an internet café for a whole day didn’t sound fun—until the day Qi Lie said they were going to see some robots. That piqued her interest, so she tagged along.

Qi Lie’s friends all knew Qi Zhiyi, and quite a few had entertained thoughts about her.

With a good family background, a nice personality, good looks, and temperament, she was the type very few guys didn’t like. However, out of respect for Qi Lie, few dared to openly express interest.

Friends are too familiar with each other, knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Qi Lie felt his "gang of rascals" wasn’t a match for his sister.

I see you as a friend, but you’re thinking about my sister?

Aren’t you afraid of life teaching you a lesson?

Not daring to openly express goodwill, whenever they saw Qi Zhiyi, they would still act overly friendly. So when Qi Zhiyi showed up that day, the whole group rushed over, calling her ’sister,’ only to be kicked away by Qi Lie.

"Get lost, stay away from my sister."

"Qi Lie, we just haven’t seen ’sister’ for a long time and wanted to chat with her."

Qi Lie smirked, "Chat about what? You haven’t seen me in a while either, but I didn’t see you being so enthusiastic."

The group bickered as they walked into the venue, with the guys’ attention drawn to the robots, naturally leaving Qi Zhiyi alone.

"Zhiyi, stick close to me, don’t get lost." Qi Lie thought there wouldn’t be many people since the exhibition had been open for three or four days, but the venue was packed.

Qi Zhiyi thought it was just a robot exhibition, but when she got the Exhibition Center’s brochure, she realized that wasn’t accurate. Besides all kinds of robots, there were many cutting-edge AI technologies from top tech companies at home and abroad.

With so much high technology nowadays, the Qi Family owned a cleaning robot and a robot from a particular brand that could control home appliances by voice command. But as with any machine, long use meant developing minor issues. Eventually, it was put aside to gather dust and never used again.

Having been cooped up at home for a while, Qi Zhiyi found news of this exhibition refreshing and decided to check it out for fun.

Qi Lie insisted she followed him closely, yet he went off to try some AI sensory game, leaving her behind.

Truly a loving brother!

So, Qi Zhiyi wandered around by herself until she stopped in front of a large screen.

A participant was playing chess with artificial intelligence, and the match was intense, drawing quite a crowd. Qi Zhiyi watched for a few glances.

**

In an office at the venue, a male supervisor was reporting work.

"...Many people came to see the exhibition this year, with excellent feedback from the interactions with AI, along with some suggestions and requests. Here’s the collected information, please take a look."

The supervisor handed over the documents, but the person in front didn’t take them, focused instead on the computer screen. Leaning slightly, he peeked at the monitor.

The screen was cutting to a scene of a participant playing chess with AI, a technology their company developed.

"Ever since that match with Chen Wang, the number of people coming to experience this increased a lot this year. It seems like inviting Chen Wang was the right choice," the supervisor smiled.

Chen Wang is the hottest Go player this year, young but a top figure in the Go world. His match against AI prompted intense discussion and speculation, and the company that developed this technology is Duan Group, with the event spearheaded by Duan Yiyang, earning high praise in the industry.

"Most inquiries this year have been about this AI technology."

"Everyone finds the experience excellent."

The supervisor assumed Duan Yiyang was deeply invested in watching the match and handed him the relevant documents.

He was the person in charge of Duan Group’s exhibition activity, and Duan Yiyang was purely here for inspection today.

At this moment, he was intently watching the live transmitted monitoring video on the computer, making the supervisor extremely nervous; his focused demeanor made him suspect there was an undetected problem.

"I’ll go check out the scene," Duan Yiyang said, closing the laptop and preparing to leave. "Leave the documents here, I’ll look at them later."

"Mr. Xiaoduan, I’ll accompany you." The supervisor dared not let Duan Yiyang go alone; if any problems arose, he could make adjustments promptly or risk facing consequences later.

"No need, carry on with your work, I’m just going to look around."

The supervisor saw his determined attitude and said nothing more.

However, as soon as Duan Yiyang left the office and entered the venue, the supervisor sat in front of his office monitor, watching his every move...

He didn’t stop in front of any company’s booth, heading straight to Duan Group’s exhibition area, making the supervisor anxious, sweating palms repeatedly rubbing together.

Though Duan Yiyang had just joined the company, trained by the old chairman, his demeanor was mature for his age, keen-eyed, and everyone found him more challenging than his father, so they took him seriously.

The supervisor kept his eyes glued to the screen, only to see their Mr. Xiaoduan standing on the periphery, not entering the exhibition area, initially puzzled.

Until he saw him bend down toward a young woman, his face turned pale as if he had seen a ghost.

I thought you were there to inspect the work, could it be that you’re...

Chatting up a girl, trying to hit on her?

...

Qi Zhiyi was watching the big screen, but the crowd made it impossible to move forward. Fortunately, the broadcast screen was large enough to see the human-computer confrontation in real time from the back of the crowd.

With so many people, jostling was inevitable, so it was normal for someone behind her to get close. Qi Zhiyi was focused on the screen and didn’t pay much mind until a familiar voice came from behind her:

"Qi Zhiyi——"

She knew that voice too well, it was the voice from the haunted house, the voice that became her lifeline, calming her just by speaking.

She turned slightly, meeting his eyes.

The two stood close, and everything around seemed to quiet down for a moment, like she could hear his shallow breathing.

Smooth and light, warm and encompassing.

He bent over slightly, greeting her close to her ear, his breath warming her right side.

If any closer, they’d likely brush against each other’s faces.

The venue lighting was too bright, and the close distance made every feature of his face—his brows, nose, and lips—clear as day.

Qi Zhiyi pressed her lips together before uttering two words, "What a coincidence."

"Not a coincidence."

"Hmm?"

"This is our company’s exhibition area."

"..."

Duan Yiyang hadn’t expected to run into Qi Zhiyi here. Recently, he had been busy, nearing the year’s end, attending social events with his father to meet more people and pave the way for future work.

Today’s outing was a break amidst busyness.

Unexpectedly, he met her. Few girls came to this place, a unique stroke of fate.

Meanwhile, Qi Lie was engrossed in an AI sensory game, utterly unaware that a wolf was eyeing his sister a few hundred meters away.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.