Chapter 113: Chapter 109 Tem Bank
Lin Xian stared at the unfamiliar name on the unfamiliar avatar…
“Who is this? Do we have this girl in our class?”
The girl’s avatar was an adorable kitty cat, and her note in the group was Tang Xin, a name Lin Xian had no recollection of.
He wanted to click into her QQ space to see the girl’s photo, but found that the space was also locked.
So he directly messaged Gao Yang on WeChat:
“Who is Tang Xin? I don’t remember having this person in our class?”
“It’s normal for you not to remember.”
“This girl was a transfer student who came to study for a few days when we were divided into classes in our second year of high school, and then she went abroad to study. But she had joined the QQ group… I couldn’t just kick her out, could I? After all these years, she’s been lurking without showing up; I as the group admin had forgotten about this too.”
“Do these classmates who were only around for a few days need to come to the reunion?”
“Why not, the more the merrier, right? Why do we care so much? After all, she was a classmate for a few days, and who knows, she might be close with some of the girls from the class! We welcome all comers, and don’t worry about an extra pair of chopsticks.”
Since Gao Yang said so, Lin Xian didn’t dwell on it.
But he couldn’t help wondering if he was reading too much into it.
Why did that girl specifically mention his name when replying? It was as if that message was meant for him.
However, Lin Xian genuinely had no impression of this girl.
In his heart, he didn’t think classmates who had only been together for a few days really counted as classmates…
After thinking for a while, Lin Xian turned off his phone without replying in the group.
Maybe she just said it casually, without any special meaning.
Better not overthink it.
“I wonder how many people will show up to this high school reunion after five years.”
To be honest, Lin Xian was really looking forward to this reunion.
He really wanted to see many of the friends he was close to back in the day, as they hadn’t kept in touch much after going to university.
After getting up and getting ready.
Lin Xian went to the company and interviewed some recent graduates.
His team had a huge workload, and Zhao Yingjun had said to expand the team size to around thirty or forty people, all to be vetted and decided by Lin Xian himself.
The interviews were going slower than Lin Xian had expected…
But he himself was only a university graduate of half a year, and he understood the struggles of these recent graduates. Thus, he patiently listened to each student’s introduction and assured them that he would notify them of the results within two days, whether they were accepted or not, so they wouldn’t wait in vain.
He was quite fond of about seven or eight candidates, and after some thought over the next two days, he would send them offers.
After dealing with the interviews, Lin Xian returned to his private office, brewed a cup of tea, and prepared to take a break.
He sat in his comfortable executive chair, holding the hot tea, looking out at the bustling traffic outside the window.
The business district where MX Company was located was still quite prosperous.
Surrounding it were many well-known companies’ office buildings and headquarters of some commercial banks, each of their buildings quite imposing.
Lin Xian remembered the words said by CC in the dream yesterday.
Lin Xian remembered that name.
CC said those hafnium alloy safes were all shipped out of that bank.
This Tem Bank had closed for some reason, issued a notice, and set a deadline for the owners of these safes to collect their contents.
And the deadline was August 28, 2624.
If no one came to claim the safes by that date… then sorry, they could only be disposed of as waste. Hence, those safes ended up in the Waste Treatment Plant in The First Dreamland.
[So, when exactly was Tem Bank established?]
If that safe really belonged to him,
Then the time he stored something in the safe would logically be after Tem Bank was established, although he did not rule out the possibility of bank acquisitions, name changes, or restructuring… but Tem Bank was indeed a clue.
Lin Xian picked up his phone and typed Tem Bank into the search engine.
There were no relevant results.
Lin Xian tried hard to recall the name…
In The First Dreamland where he robbed a bank, due to the point of view, plus the street lamps not being lit and the bank’s sign also off, Lin Xian truly couldn’t remember the name of the bank; he only knew its location.
“Wait, it seems the sign was in English.”
Lin Xian had driven CC there once himself.
Thinking about it now, those unlit bank sign lights were indeed in English, ending in BANK, meaning a bank.
“TIMEBANK, Time Bank, or translated as TIMEBANK!”
Lin Xian figured it out.
Why there wasn’t even a penny inside that bank storage, not even the slightest hint of anything to do with money.
Because that simply wasn’t a bank for storing money at all!
Its main business must be these long-term safes, with preservation times ranging from several decades to hundreds of years.
That was the main business of [Time Bank]!
Lin Xian truly marveled at the diversity of enterprises; there could actually be such a bank in the world, and it managed to last for 600 years.
Although… it eventually closed down.
He opened his phone again and searched anew for Time Bank, TIMEBANK, and similar terms.
Still, there were no relevant results.
The web page showed various game settings and film and television works; there was no such bank in reality.
“Then one can only guess that Tem Bank hasn’t been established or begun operations in the present year of 2023, and those safes haven’t started to be manufactured yet.”
This theory was plausible.
But thinking about it…
Lin Xian sat with his legs crossed, staring across the street at the towering headquarters of various commercial banks.
He felt that Tem Bank should be established soon.
In The First Dreamland, Big Face Cat had said that hafnium alloy safes were not common at all; he had never seen them out there; CC also affirmed this, which suggested that perhaps due to cost, hafnium alloy safes had not become mainstream.
The concept of a “Time Bank” was quite the gimmick in itself. If they claimed that all the safes in the bank were made of hafnium alloy, that would be quite a striking marketing approach, fitting their product positioning.
Lin Xian looked up at the warm sun in the sky:
“Perhaps my time to deposit in the safe is coming soon.”
He wasn’t sure when it would be.
A few months from now?
But in any case, it should be soon.
Actually, Lin Xian wasn’t too concerned about this.
Because he had already written a letter to his future self, and had imprinted his thoughts with steel, assuring that whatever time and place he encountered the hafnium alloy safe, he would definitely set the password to 29990203.
With this temporal butterfly effect, as long as he stayed resolute, the likelihood was that the safe’s password would become this 600 years in the future.
Ding-ling-ling, ding-ling-ling, ding-ling-ling————
The landline phone on the desk rang. Lin Xian saw on the caller ID that it was a short number from Zhao Yingjun’s office.
He answered the phone.
Upon picking up, Zhao Yingjun’s voice immediately came through the receiver:
“Lin Xian, come to my office.”
22nd floor, Zhao Yingjun’s office.
With a thud, the heavy double-password door opened, and Lin Xian entered the office.
Everything here remained the same as always, unchanged.
The thin layer of dust on the coffee table and sofa seemed to have gotten thicker, and the files on the massive office desk were still cluttered, piled up in stacks.
Lin Xian always felt that Zhao Yingjun’s office had a kind of magical power, as if it could freeze time itself, making everything here eternal.
Some of the leaves on the green plants had turned yellow – who knew if the busy Zhao Yingjun even had time to water them.
She truly needed a secretary more than anyone else, yet she resisted having one more than anyone else.
It seemed… the previous secretary really had upset her, making her find it hard to trust others.
Zhao Yingjun took a sip of brewed flower tea and set the glass cup on the table:
“Lin Xian, please prepare a Rhine Cat dossier for me, detailing the mascot’s image, style, and design background, etc. I’ll show it to the composers during our next meeting.”
“The Rhine Cat Doll has been very successful, very popular, but in the eyes of these composers… they might still have some misconceptions about Rhine Cat.”
Lin Xian remembered Zhao Yingjun mentioning a few days ago that she was going to attend a gathering of composers, and then talk to one of them about writing a theme song for the Rhine Cat’s music video.
It seemed the last composer they talked to hadn’t agreed.
“Didn’t things work out with that last composer?” asked Lin Xian.
She nodded, smiling faintly:
“That gentleman thought our Rhine Cat image was too childish. He said he had never written theme music for a cartoon character before… in short, he declined gracefully.”
Although he felt slightly annoyed to hear someone speak of Rhine Cat in such a manner, it was the truth.
Seeing Lin Xian remain silent, Zhao Yingjun smiled:
“It’s okay, quite normal. Each composer has their own preferred styles and domains. Collaboration has to be mutual.”
“But your Rhine Cat is flawless. Whether it’s the juvenile market or the mature market, its sales and popularity are very high, and the market itself is the best proof. I think if one day we can’t make it in the cosmetics market, transforming into a toy company might not be out of the question.”
Lin Xian knew she was joking and therefore didn’t continue along that line.
He was very clear that Zhao Yingjun wouldn’t transform MX Company into a toy company.
Considering the dream where, 600 years later, MX Company’s skyscraper towered, suppressing the steel behemoth and breaking through the sky…
Lin Xian felt it was conceivable that they might instead become a super heavy-industry titan.
“Don’t worry about the theme song for the music video; we have many other composers to consider.”
Zhao Yingjun took another small sip from her tea cup and whispered:
“Second-tier composers are quite approachable, and even some top-line composers are not difficult, as long as the price is right. But I still hope to find the most elite composer for Rhine Cat. I think it’s worth a shot.”
“Calling you here today, I wanted you to compile all sorts of materials on Rhine Cat, so we could better introduce her to these top composers later on.”
“Alright,” Lin Xian agreed right away.
At that moment, he could somewhat understand Chu Shanhe’s doting devotion to his daughter.
He loved Rhine Cat too and wanted the best for her.
After returning to his office, Lin Xian organized various materials on Rhine Cat, especially its image and design background, and then sent them in digital form to Zhao Yingjun.
After that, he clocked out.
He had important things to do in his dream tonight.
Waste Treatment Plant 314,
The four garbage trucks arriving at 23:19,
Tens of thousands of waterlogged books on board,
A treasure trove of history and knowledge!
“I hope I can find the two books I want most among these waterlogged books.”
After Lin Xian finished his nightly routine and turned off the lights, he lay in bed.
He closed his eyes and turned over.