The hot-blooded David Carter wanted to defend himself a little. He wanted to say how skilled he was at gaming, how outstanding his performance was, and that he often earned some pocket money from power-leveling accounts. But when Julie saw David Carter hesitating to speak, she waved her hand with an understanding look and said, “Alright, alright, playing video games is just sitting there without moving, that doesn’t really count as exercise… Your family isn’t from this city, right? How much is the property management fee at the place you’re renting? What do you usually like to do on your days off?”

These were the kinds of questions white-collar workers often ask on dates—a little trick to probe the other person’s financial situation. David Carter didn’t want to answer the first question, and as for the second… just thinking about it filled David Carter with a sense of frustration. Poor him, ever since he started working, he’d never known what a real holiday looked like!

Seeing that this topic left David Carter at a loss for words, Julie quickly changed the subject: “What famous snacks does your hometown have?”

She was clearly treating David Carter as a foodie.

David Carter didn’t mind. He already knew that this beautiful girl, best admired from afar, wasn’t his type, so he felt neither joy nor anger—he just chatted casually, simply to keep the conversation from stalling. He went along with the topic…

Julie was very skilled at steering conversations. Under her gentle guidance, David Carter talked at length about his hometown’s snacks. With Julie’s encouraging and appreciative gaze, he spoke so much that he was practically drooling, and his appetite grew…

Chapter 5: An Unexpected Surprise

After leaving the restaurant, the two of them walked back to the building. By then, most of the offices inside were already closed for the day, and the hallways were empty. Julie first signaled for David Carter to swipe the temporary access card, then went to clock in herself to record her overtime… They chatted casually as they went. After David Carter swiped the access card, he pushed the door open. Their conversation was still on the topic of snacks, but when Julie entered the office, she suddenly realized something and exclaimed, “Wait, how could your access card open our company’s main door?”

David Carter scratched his head and answered with a silly grin, “Isn’t that how it’s supposed to work?”

“This is a very low-level temporary access card. It only means you have the right to enter and exit the building. I had you swipe first to show that I was entering after you, so it would count as overtime. But how could you open our company’s main door? That’s not right…”

But it was right.

The reason David Carter always tested his access cards after receiving them was because he’d had many similar experiences since childhood. Due to the excessive static electricity he carried, many IC cards wouldn’t work properly the first time they were made, and the ones that did work after repeated attempts often, without anyone realizing, became cards with the highest level of access. As for the reason, David Carter guessed: maybe there was still some residual charge in the IC circuit, causing the original access restrictions on the card to fail.

Of course, this wasn’t something David Carter could say out loud. He pretended not to care and walked into the room toward the pile of equipment on the floor, saying casually, “Alright, alright, maybe you made the security guards nervous and they made a mistake in a rush… It’s no big deal. Just show me where to install the computer, I’ll set up the machine, and once the network cable is connected, you can turn it on and check it… We’ve got a lot of work to do, let’s not worry about these little things. Oh, and don’t worry about the copier or fax machine—just put them in place and plug them in. Let’s finish up quickly so we can go home.”

Julie asked uneasily, “After we’re done, will you give the access card back to me?”

David Carter casually tossed the access card aside and got to work. But Julie stood there looking at the card for a moment and, in the end, didn’t reach for it…

This was just another ordinary day in the life of a poor, unlucky guy like David Carter—from dawn until the next morning.

By the time all the work was done, it was already two in the morning. David Carter had originally wanted to gallantly escort Julie home, but it turned out she already had a boyfriend waiting in a car outside the hotel. So Julie said goodbye to David Carter at the hotel entrance, and David Carter, feeling a bit dejected, started up his little van, cranked up the music, and drove home, swaying all the way.

The next day, whether it was early morning or late morning he couldn’t tell, the boss Brian Cooper’s phone call woke David Carter up. He fumbled for the phone by his pillow, didn’t even open his eyes, and mumbled sleepily, “I worked until two last night, got home really late.”

Brian Cooper paused for a moment, then cheerfully replied, “Then take the morning off today… Did you park my car properly? Drive it to the office this afternoon, deliver the goods for the afternoon, and bring back the second payment.”

David Carter still didn’t open his eyes and muttered, “The copier is really heavy, moving it alone…”

“There’s an elevator, what are you afraid of? Hmm… I’ll give you a bonus—double overtime pay.”

“And you’ll have to reimburse me for a meal—the client had an employee stay with me for overtime, and I paid for that meal.”

“Having a pretty girl eat with you, that’s a sweet deal… Alright, alright… Hey, tell me, you didn’t order abalone or sea cucumber just to show off, did you?”

“I’m not that shameless—it was just a roadside food stall.”

“That’s good,” Brian Cooper breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll reimburse you for the actual amount, so you don’t go complaining to Mr. Grant when you get back…”