Omega Manual chapter 50
The Bridge Builder
Shelley looked at Irey in astonishment, his mouth opened and closed, but no words came out.
However, Irey didn’t intend to continue the topic, he sat up from the bed, unzipping his suitcase, searching inside, “Speaking of which, there’s something good I want to give you, but I never had the chance.”
“Are you Santa Claus? Why do you have so many things to give?” Shelley adjusted his mood in two breaths, putting the rose back into the bottle.
Irey took out two sets of brand new clothes from the suitcase, unwrapping them one by one, revealing two sets of pajamas with cartoon foxes and bunnies printed on them.
“…Irey Halton.” Shelley’s eyes were full of speechlessness, “Do you have some sort of problem?”
“What’s wrong? They’re adorable.” Irey held the pajamas in his hand, turning them over and over, “It took me a while to find your size, and it happened to be a set, one for you and one for me…”
“Wear on your own!” Shelley looked at the two pajamas with extreme disdain, stepping back.
“But how can that be? They’re a set, couple’s outfits.” Irey emphasized, “It would be too lonely for me to wear them alone.”
“Who cares about you!”
Irey knelt on the bed, holding the bunny pajamas in his hand, gesturing on Shelley’s body, “Really, I imagined it for a long time when I bought them, thinking you’d look particularly cute in them.”
Shelley’s scalp tingled from his sudden approach, retreating from one end of the bed to the other, “What, what are you doing… stay away from me!”
As he backed away, Irey moved forward persistently, holding the pajamas, “Come on, just fulfill my wish, can’t you? Really, you’d look especially cute—”
“No!” Shelley had no choice but to cower in the corner of the bed, feeling goosebumps all over his body.
Seeing the other’s firm attitude, Irey took a step back, sighed, “I just thought the weather was getting colder, so I wanted to give you a warmer set of pajamas. This set is pure cotton, warm and comfortable, and won’t fade. It cost over seven hundred for both… but if you don’t like it, I can’t force you to wear it, forget it.”
With that, Irey shook his head while folding the pajamas back.
One of the things Shelley hated most about himself was probably that he could always see through Irey’s little tricks, yet he couldn’t ignore them.
Knowing it was a trap set by the other party, but still blindly diving in with closed eyes.
“Enough, just give it to me.” Shelley reached out to Irey in despair.
Irey smirked triumphantly, stuffing the pajamas into his hand. “I knew you wouldn’t want me to waste money, boss.”
“Shut up,” Shelley said harshly, pulling the reddened pajamas over his head.
His frame was still too thin; the fabric of the bunny pajamas hung loosely on him, the collar slightly open, revealing a glimpse of his clean collarbone.
His flushed ears matched perfectly with the adorable bunny pattern, adding to his cuteness.
“Are you happy now?” Shelley uncomfortably tugged at the collar, avoiding eye contact with Irey.
Irey paused for a moment, his breathing hitched, then lowered his voice, pretending to be calm. “Boss, can you put your hand on your head?”
Shelley did so, puzzled. “Like this?”
“Then extend your index and middle fingers, bend the other fingers.”
“Like this?” Shelley tilted his head, completely unaware of what he was doing.
The next moment, Irey swiftly grabbed his phone and snapped a photo.
In the photo, Shelley, who had recently shed tears, had a slight redness around his eyes, and the cartoon pajamas made his skin look even fairer. He wore a completely innocent expression, one hand propped on the bed, the other supporting his head, forming a cute ear shape.
As soon as the shutter clicked, Shelley realized what had happened. The blush spread quickly from his fair cheeks to his ears.
“Halton!” Shelley reached for Irey’s phone.
Irey chuckled, weakening a bit even in the face of his natural height advantage, “You’re just too cute. I knew I picked the right outfit.”
“You’re scheming and taking advantage!” Shelley strained, reaching for his phone. “Delete the picture!”
“Nope.” Irey agilely passed the phone between his hands. “Unless you delete the pictures of me from your phone.”
“I’m not deleting anything, you delete yours!”
“Seriously, can you even listen to what you’re saying? Do you have any sense of fairness?”
“I’ll pay you, I don’t have to be fair.”
“What a heartless capitalist—”
Of course, in the end, Shelley couldn’t grab Irey’s phone.
The tumult of the day in the snow seemed to drain him of all his energy. He quickly became tired, yawning one after another. By the time Irey finished washing the dirty clothes and tidying up the luggage items by the bedside, Shelley was already leaning against the headboard, asleep.
Irey chuckled lightly, adjusting his head to make him lie down properly, then pulled the blanket up.
“Halton…” Shelley murmured sleepily, like a child lacking security, reaching out into the air.
“Here, sleep.” Irey caught the empty reaching hand and tucked it back under the covers.
Whether Shelley heard his response or not, it seemed like he had let go of some worry. His furrowed brows relaxed a bit, and in no time, he was breathing steadily, sound asleep.
Irey sat by the bedside, looking sideways at the window. The curtain blocked the view outside, but a faint moonlight seeped through the crack, casting a peculiar light spot on the bedside table next to his hand.
Next to the light spot was his phone. More accurately, the phone Shelley gave him.
Yesterday, Shelley told him that Caroline and Jenny’s footage had been transferred to this phone. From now on, whenever he wished, he could watch that footage on his own phone.
Irey wasn’t one to pry into others’ private lives.
Perhaps influenced by the environment of the lower city, he had always lived by the golden rule of “none of my business” and “none of your business.” From taking on Shelley’s commission to embarking on the journey with him and developing a subtle ambiguous relationship, throughout the whole process, he had never really probed into his boss’s pre-disaster work and life.
If he wanted to talk about it, Irey was willing to listen. The parts Shelley didn’t want to talk about, Irey never felt the need to inquire.
After all, everyone had their own life and secrets they didn’t want others to know. Interaction between people was about taking what you needed from different perspectives, maintaining a certain distance was beneficial to both parties.
But he underestimated Shelley’s importance to him.
Shelley’s silence made him glance sideways, Shelley’s smile improved his mood, and Shelley concealing things made him restless, even though he knew deep down that the other party had no obligation to divulge.
He couldn’t just stand by and watch everything about Shelley anymore.
Just as Shelley had no reason to search for that video for him.
Irey picked up the phone from the bedside table, the faint light from the screen illuminating his face.
He had never bought a smartphone, but he knew how to use the internet. He also knew that this phone contained backups of many data and information from the pre-disaster internet and old websites.
He tapped on the icon, typing “Shelley Manta” into the search bar that popped up.
As expected, the information that popped up was as numerous as the sea, densely packed across the entire screen.
Irey clicked on the top encyclopedia entry, where a half-body photo of Shelley hung at the top of the entry.
Short hair, wearing a suit, with rimless glasses, emanating a completely different icy aura from now.
Under the photo was a long paragraph of introduction.
—Shelley Manta, CEO of Manta Technologies, senior network chip engineer, the youngest recipient of the “Technology Lifetime Achievement Award” in history, hailed as the “Father of the Modern Internet”.
—Appointed CEO of Manta Technologies at the age of 22, successfully developed the Manta MX chip system in the same year, winning multiple technology awards and several related patents.
The following year, the personalized data flow calculation system was developed. Once it went online, it received widespread acclaim. Now, it has comprehensively covered the field of internet applications and is known as the “contemporary internet bridge”.
At 25, he led the development of the Manta HY intelligent management system, igniting the second wave of the terminal technology revolution and creating a new miracle in the history of human technological applications.
Shelley Manta is undoubtedly the world’s leading tech genius, a leading figure in contemporary technology. It is said that every project he develops brings him billions in patent income, and these unique high-tech inventions have brought irreplaceable convenience to modern life.
Today, Mr. Manta is leading the development of the 3D holographic imaging and void projection technology project, expected to be completed next year. If this project comes to fruition, the bottleneck of terminal technology will be broken through once again, marking a new milestone in the history of human technological development.
Below the entry, there were over three thousand fervent discussions among tech enthusiasts, with the latest one floating at the top, saying: “We’re about to see the legendary virtual projection technology released! I’ve been waiting for this day for so long! Mr. Manta has once again created a new miracle in the history of human technology, it’s like a dream!”
And the time this comment was posted was one hour before the meteor shower hit the earth five years ago…
Irey stared at the text for a long time, then cut it out of the page and clicked on other web pages.
Some articles praised the new technology inventions at length, some analyzed how much wealth he actually possessed, some slandered him with rumors about his chaotic personal life, and some vividly described gossip about him being the least favored son of Chairman Lao Manta, despite his high achievements.
Countless reports and articles crowded together, with numerous people discussing them. In their mouths, the CEO of Manta Technology was sometimes the savior of humanity, sometimes a dissolute son with a chaotic private life, but never the Shelley Manta he knew.
He put on his headphones and finally clicked on a video interview from four years ago. Shelley in the lens was confident and spirited, with a mild gaze tinged with the sharpness and confidence unique to geniuses, contrasting sharply with the deferential attitude of the interviewer.
The first half of the interview was full of product promotion that Irey couldn’t understand. In the latter half, the reporter began to ask questions related to his personal life.
“Since you became the CEO of Manta Technology, you have brought billions in revenue to the company and your personal assets are in the top three of the rich list. Have you ever thought about using these assets in fields other than technology manufacturing?”
Shelley thought for a moment, smiling as he replied, “Not much at the moment. Until technological innovation reaches a bottleneck, I should mainly invest my money and energy in the development of new technologies. But if there is an opportunity in the future, I might want to travel or something.”
“Are you interested in traveling?”
“Not particularly, it’s just that my work is too busy now, I don’t have time to go out.” Shelley said, “There’s a place I’ve always wanted to see, but never had the chance.”
“Oh, what kind of place?”
“Mount Yinbu. In the uninhabited area of the northern cold zone.” Shelley smiled, “If I were to die one day, I think I would want to be buried on the top of that mountain.”