Soft Whispers

A worker who wants to slack off vs. a boss with strict standards

1.

After graduating from college, Ning Cheng didn't follow the crowd and take the civil service, postgraduate, or public institution exams. Instead, she chose to become a laid-back corporate drone.

By day, she was a polished office worker. By night, she was a drained, listless fish.

One evening, she happened to open an app called "Whisper." She tapped around on the screen, and a captivating voice came through her earpiece.

"Ding-dong! The boyfriend you ordered to lull you to sleep has arrived."

The unexpected voice startled Ning Cheng, and she was about to leave.

Then the voice on the other end spoke again: "If you leave, I'll get fined. Please, please don't."

There was something so pleading in his tone that it was hard to refuse.

And so, they stayed connected on the call for two hours.

Having someone lull her to sleep wasn't bad, Ning Cheng thought.

"See you tomorrow."

They tacitly agreed on a time to meet again.

The sleep service continued, in a rather ambiguous fashion, for a week.

On the eighth day, Ning Cheng suddenly discovered that someone else had booked her sleep-service boyfriend first.

"Become a Super Member to unlock the right to ignore the person who booked him."

She paid without hesitation.

And so, he became her exclusive sleep-service boyfriend.

2.

Her coworkers were all talking about the incredibly handsome manager who had suddenly joined the company that day.

Ning Cheng wasn't impressed. So what if he was handsome? Once he became her boss, he'd turn into a demon who'd eat people alive.

To her surprise, the new manager was very strict about work, but never asked employees to work overtime.

Still, she would complain about her boss, like when she was on a call with her sleep-service boyfriend.

After all, complaining about the boss and the company was one way for workers to relieve stress.

Then one day, Ning Cheng happened to catch sight of a familiar icon on her boss's desktop.

It looked like "Whisper." Was he interested in voices too?

A voice sounded behind her, its familiar, husky tone close to her ear.

"Ning Bao finally found out."

No one called her that except her sleep-service boyfriend on "Whisper."

Could her sleep-service boyfriend really be her direct boss?!

This had to be a ghost story.

2023.8.11

Theme: Embark together on a healing journey through sound.