Chapter 33: Suspicion

It seems Mr. Andy does not know either, Jiang Hui thought, lost in her own reflections.

Having spoken with him previously, he had claimed that he was solely responsible for all negotiations. Yet, this other person had suddenly appeared, their attitude clearly clashing with Andy’s. It was evident that some issue had arisen behind the scenes.

Jiang Hui was not familiar with the internal workings of their conglomerate, nor did she wish to involve herself in their disputes. However, the matter had to be clarified, so she said, "This morning, someone claiming to be an employee of Helios contacted me via message, insisting that I go to the Helios Group in person for negotiations. I thought that sounded different from what you told me yesterday, so I ignored it."

Upon hearing this, Andy’s brow furrowed deeply. With this confirmation, he had more or less pieced the situation together. It meant that this morning, the group had not yet changed their minds and had indeed dispatched a different mediator to deal with Jiang Hui. It was only later—perhaps because Jiang Hui had rejected or blocked their attempts, or for some other reason—that the group’s attitude had shifted abruptly, leading them to ask him to return and finalize the deal with her.

The turnaround was drastic and sudden. Andy felt certain that something had occurred behind the scenes of which he was unaware. Pushing the thought aside, he decided not to delve into it, merely remarking offhandedly that the group's diplomatic department had likely failed to coordinate properly and had not communicated the company's true intentions.

He did not mention his own fallout with the Helios Group. Having been in the industry for some time, he had enough experience to see that Jiang Hui’s resentment toward the corporation had reached a boiling point. If she knew the full extent of the internal instability, she would likely be even less inclined to reach a settlement. It was better to avoid unnecessary complications—he could only offer his silent apologies to Ms. Jiang. He simply wanted to resign from this wretched company smoothly.

Jiang Hui did not dwell on it further, naturally assuming it was just a case of poor communication between departments in a large corporation. However, she knew that for this new round of negotiations, certain things had to change. She decided to increase her demands for compensation. She now knew that the death of the original owner of this body was inextricably linked to a Helios Group product—or rather, that they were the primary culprit.

Yes, she knew the original soul was gone; she had realized it only moments ago.

Until this morning, she had been uncertain whether the original owner had truly passed away, treating it merely as a hypothesis. But after taking the mental stabilizer, she finally gained a vague understanding of what "mental power" was. Unless her perception was flawed or her brain was malfunctioning, within the range her mental power could reach—even throughout her own body—there was no other presence.

Nothing. It was empty. She was all alone.

In that moment, she sensed that the original soul had likely vanished from this world. Such a tragedy was something the Helios Group could never compensate for. Jiang Hui wanted to seek some justice for her predecessor.

Andy expressed his understanding of this, secretly thinking that if Jiang Hui felt the monetary compensation was insufficient, there was still room to negotiate—it all depended on whether the group was willing to pay. He even felt a flicker of schadenfreude. They deserved it; they had refused to settle when they had the chance earlier. Now that they were crawling back, they would have to bleed for it. Ms. Jiang was doing the right thing; she shouldn't let such a heartless conglomerate off the hook so easily.

Andy recorded the new terms Jiang Hui proposed and then chatted about some trivial matters, which helped ease the tension between them. It wasn't until Mr. Andy felt awkward enough to suggest ending the conversation that they finally concluded the discussion.

Closing her light-computer, Jiang Hui let out a long sigh and leaned back against the sofa. The room was quiet, with a cool breeze circulating through the living room. Despite having nothing to do, a profound sense of exhaustion washed over her.

After a while, she remembered to check the time. Oh, that’s right, Andy had mentioned he was the one negotiating with her yesterday. At the time, she hadn't paid much attention, but now that she processed it, it meant it was still the same day—she hadn't slept for a full day and night as she had imagined.

With this thought, she swiped open her light-computer to check the time, her eyes fixed on the bottom right corner. She froze. *Wait, why is it still this time? Only an hour has passed? I only slept for two hours? That’s impossible.*

*It felt like twenty-four hours had passed in my dream... or at least close to it.* She recalled her experience; she had spent at least twenty hours struggling in that space.

*No, that’s not right.* She had just spoken with Andy, and the call itself must have taken an hour. She had rested for a bit after ending the call. She should count from the moment she woke up.

Jiang Hui felt her thoughts becoming sluggish. She clumsily opened her communication logs. Looking at the records from when she logged into the light-computer today, she traced the timeline from just before she took the mental stabilizer to the moment she woke up to answer Andy’s call.

*In between... hmm, only about half an hour? Is there anything more ridiculous than this?!*

*I only slept for half an hour?*

*Does time in the interstellar era work this way? It was the same last night, and it’s the same today.*

Jiang Hui couldn't wrap her head around it. She felt as though she had overlooked something, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't remember what it was.

She sat for a while, tidied up the living room, put away the remaining mental stabilizers, and then opened the light-computer to continue learning about the interstellar world. While in the hospital, her mind had been cluttered, and with so many people around, it hadn't been convenient to explore much. Besides, even if she had wanted to, she lacked the strength.

Things were different now. She knew she had effectively become the original owner of this body, which meant she would likely be living in this world for a long time. She had to understand everything about this world to avoid making mistakes that could lead to trouble later.

Jiang Hui decided to start with general news sections, but she immediately ran into problems. Her knowledge of this interstellar world was truly lacking; she had to rely on the fragmented memories left behind by the original owner to verify even basic common sense, let alone the people and events that even the original owner hadn't been clear about.

Seeing the overwhelming array of news sections on the light-computer, she felt a headache coming on. After persisting for a while, she had to give up and look for another way.

However, there is always a way. Just as she was agonizing over this, she caught a comment from an interstellar citizen under a news feed, noting that the adult news sections were quite different from the youth ones, and that the latter had far too much content filtered out.

*Oh? So there’s a youth section for the news feed?*