"Aunt Su! You..."
Seeing Li Renshu, Su Xiucen smiled somewhat helplessly, "The company’s cash flow can’t hold on much longer, right?"
Li Renshu hurried forward to stop her, "No matter whether the company’s cash flow can hold on or not, you can’t use this method. It’s too uneconomical!
"Minus 40 degrees Celsius, even just 1 minute could cause irreversible damage to your body!
"The community’s current medical conditions can only handle simple external injuries. It’s very difficult to treat frostbite and respiratory tract frostbite.
"Moreover, you’re older and female, which makes it even more dangerous!"
Su Xiucen patted her hand, "What’s economical or uneconomical about it? Although I’ve never done business, I know one thing: when you urgently need money, do you still expect others to lend it to you at normal interest rates?
"I can’t help you much in this game. Since I’m the boss, isn’t this what I should do?
"Let me go in. I can’t keep being a burden to you all. I need to do something to help.
"Twenty thousand isn’t much, but if there are no major problems, I can rest for a while and then go in a few more times. Wouldn’t that be more?"Let me try it. What if it’s not that cold?
"Alright, I’ve made up my mind. Don’t worry about me."
Li Renshu was silent for a moment, then stopped her again.
"Alright, Aunt Su, please wait a moment."
Li Renshu quickly left the CEO’s office and called out to Fu Chen and Xu Tong, who were just about to leave the company for market research.
"Give me your clothes, quickly!"
Fu Chen was stunned, "Take off clothes? Aunt Su, she..."
Li Renshu frowned, "Quickly, there’s no time!"
Without a word, Fu Chen took off his jacket, shirt, and vest. After thinking about it, he also took off his long pants.
He hugged his arms, with only boxer shorts left on his entire body.
"Sigh, if I had known this would happen, I should have bought more clothes from the vending machine before entering the game to layer on..."
The vending machines in the community sold all kinds of clothes, but since the community was always kept at the most comfortable temperature, most people still only wore simple thin jackets or shirts.
Xu Tong also took off her jacket and handed it to Li Renshu, but she couldn’t take off the long dress underneath, and the fabric wasn’t thick enough to provide much warmth anyway.
Li Renshu took the jacket and hurried back to the CEO’s office.
Fu Chen opened his mouth but ultimately said nothing, and walked toward the market research venue with Xu Tong.
"Achoo!"
Fu Chen shivered and sneezed.
...
Li Renshu also took off her outer clothing and wrapped these clothes layer by layer around Su Xiucen.
Then she thought for a moment and used Fu Chen’s pants as a scarf, wrapping it around Su Xiucen’s mouth and nose.
"Aunt Su, minus 40 degrees air could cause frostbite to your respiratory tract. You must wrap your mouth and nose well and breathe little by little.
"Also... you must come out immediately after 1 minute. Don’t think you can endure more and continue staying.
"Remember, you must come out after 1 minute!"
Su Xiucen patted her hand, "I know. At my age, what hardships haven’t I endured? It’s not like I haven’t been cold before.
"I know what I’m doing."
She wrapped Fu Chen’s large outer jacket more tightly around herself, making her figure even more hunched, then pulled open the cold storage door and walked in.
"Clang!"
The cold storage door automatically closed. Li Renshu couldn’t help and could only wait anxiously outside, keeping track of time.
...
With the closing of the cold storage door, even more bone-piercing cold surrounded Su Xiucen from all directions, penetrating through every gap in her clothing.
It was like steel needles piercing through every bone in her body.
If she had worn a thick enough down jacket, 1 minute at this temperature wouldn’t cause much harm, but the clothes Su Xiucen was wearing obviously couldn’t provide much protection against the cold.
The cold storage was small. Directly opposite was a prominent button and a timer with red numbers constantly jumping.
Only after at least 1 minute would this button be activated, and pressing the button would open the cold storage door again.
Su Xiucen kept exhaling white breath and stamping her feet slightly, but still showed no signs of warming up.
...
"Click."
The cold storage door cracked open, then slowly opened.
Only then did Li Renshu realize that the long 1 minute had finally passed. She hurried forward and embraced Su Xiucen, who was stumbling out of the cold storage.
"Aunt Su, how are you?"
Su Xiucen’s lips had turned blue, and her eyebrows were covered with white frost, but she smiled and shook her head, "I’m fine. Look, aren’t I doing well?"
Li Renshu felt like she was holding a block of ice, but still drew herself closer, "Alright Aunt Su, once is enough, once is enough...
"At worst we’ll just lose. Even if all our visa time is deducted, it doesn’t matter. Our community still has interest-free loans.
"Next time, let Lawyer Lin, Officer Cao, and you enter the game together. They’ll definitely be able to help you earn it back...
"Aunt Su, I’m going to submit the plan now. Can you... let that lung cancer employee go?"
Su Xiucen was silent for a long time and didn’t directly agree, "Can you let Little Xu come in?
"There are some things I want to tell her personally."
Li Renshu said nothing more, just hugged Su Xiucen tightly, then stood up and left the CEO’s office.
...
According to their agreement, this time it was Company 17 Limited’s turn to complete market research, so they brought back 50,000 minutes of visa time.
Fu Chen sneezed and asked, "How is Aunt Su?"
Li Renshu’s expression was grave, "Aunt Su is fine.
"Xu Tong, Aunt Su says she has something to tell you. Go take care of Aunt Su. Stay in the CEO’s office and don’t go anywhere. You absolutely cannot let her enter the cold storage again."
Xu Tong hurried to the CEO’s office.
Li Renshu looked at the company panel again.
[Company 17 Limited]
[August company account balance: 133,000 minutes of visa time]
[September estimated income: -20,000 minutes of visa time]
[September estimated expenses: 87,200 minutes of visa time]
...
In the CEO’s office, Xu Tong helped Su Xiucen wrap the clothes around her more tightly.
"Aunt Su, that work-injured employee..."
Xu Tong wanted to say more, but Su Xiucen interrupted her first.
"Alright, Little Xu, I know what you want to say.
"But can you listen to me first? During the time I’ve known you all, it seems you’ve all been taking care of me, and I haven’t been able to speak from my heart to you yet."
Xu Tong was somewhat anxious, "Aunt Su, we can talk about these things just as well when we return to the community. Right now the urgent matter is..."
Su Xiucen shook her head, "No, you must listen to me. This is very important."
Xu Tong could only nod, "Alright, Aunt Su, please speak. I’m listening..."