When Dreams Are Within Reach

The young man might be new and unaware, but while Bei Wei appears cheerful, outgoing, and easy to get along with, the truth is she treats everyone that way. She is quite enthusiastic with everyone, just as she used to call Zhang Yang "Brother Zhang" every other breath back in the day.

In reality, this is simply Bei Wei's way of navigating the workplace.

Zhang Yang knows his own worth, so naturally, he couldn't possibly harbor any illusions, but that new guy, confident in his own excellence, ended up falling for it hook, line, and sinker.

"Then... then can't I even pursue you?" the boy asked, still somewhat unwilling to give up.

"Zhou Song, don't waste your time on me," Bei Wei shook her head with an amused smile. "Wouldn't it be better to spend this effort on your work and yourself?"

With things laid out so clearly, the boy, who also valued his pride, instantly turned pale and walked away, looking utterly dejected.

"How many have crashed and burned now? Zhang Yang, what kind of person is Bei Wei actually looking for? How can her standards be so high?" Xiang Youde muttered.

"She has a good personality and is surrounded by many guys," Zhang Yang shook his head. "If you were a handsome hunk with a crowd of girls around you, your standards would be high too."

"Aside from a bit of thinning hair, I've got thick eyebrows and big eyes; I've still got some handsomeness left," Xiang Youde retorted stubbornly. Recently, he had been frequenting a plastic surgery clinic, hoping to get a hair transplant and use it to boost his competitiveness in the dating market.

"But Zhang Yang, you... wait? You've lost so much weight!"

Xiang Youde stared at Zhang Yang, exclaiming in surprise.

"I've shed a bit." It was just weight loss, and Zhang Yang naturally didn't want to broadcast it everywhere. Since Xiang Youde asked, he replied nonchalantly.

"Good for you, losing weight on the down-low, getting ready to find a girlfriend?" Xiang Youde looked him over and shook his head. "But you're losing it too fast; the skin on your face is sagging and making you look old. I've got some little French breads here, want a few?"

As he spoke, he tossed a few small French breads onto Zhang Yang's desk.

Zhang Yang looked at the breads, thinking of the cartons of milk and snacks still sitting in his drawer, and a wave of appetite instantly surged within him.

I didn't eat breakfast, it shouldn't matter if I have a little something now, right?

After all, skipping breakfast isn't good. What if I get dizzy or have low blood sugar from hunger?

Eat it, just eat it!

In just a few seconds, all sorts of obstacles on the road to weight loss came swarming out. Fortunately, in the end, Zhang Yang gritted his teeth and shoved all the breads into his drawer in one go.

Endure a little longer; he absolutely could not fall at the final hurdle!

Under the desire for an income of ten thousand a day, all those obstacles instantly turned into paper tigers.

By nine or ten in the morning, the hunger reached its peak, but once he pushed past that period, the sensation vanished into thin air. Zhang Yang knew this meant his body, having failed to secure food, had begun to tap into its liver glycogen.

The intermittent fasting didn't leave him dizzy or lightheaded; instead, it made his mind clearer and his work efficiency higher.

Work that usually took the better part of the day to finish was already seven or eight-tenths done before lunch.

On the eve of the lunch break, colleagues set aside their work in twos and threes, preparing to head downstairs to eat.

Not far away, Bei Wei walked past, laughing and chatting with a few female colleagues.

"Xiang Youde, Zhang Yang, there's a promotion for the new shop downstairs, why haven't you two professional foodies gone yet?" Sister Liu from the design department joked as she passed by.

Xiang Youde looked at Zhang Yang. "Are you going? If the two of us order a large portion of pickled fish, it'll definitely be enough."

"You go ahead, I'll skip it today," Zhang Yang shook his head, taking a sip of water to suppress the hunger in his stomach.

"You can't just not eat because you're losing weight, right? At worst, just eat a little less?" Xiang Youde advised.

Zhang Yang remained unmoved and shook his head again.

Hearing that Zhang Yang was losing weight, several female colleagues were surprised, and even Bei Wei cast a curious glance at him.

Seeing that he couldn't persuade Zhang Yang, Xiang Youde had no choice but to give up.

"Fine, forget it, I'll go by myself."

Xiang Youde went downstairs, and the surrounding colleagues followed suit one after another. In the blink of an eye, only Zhang Yang was left at his desk.

"I've been hungry for so long, why hasn't the task been completed yet?" Zhang Yang couldn't help but feel a bit anxious. He was at the critical moment, and with an income of ten thousand a day within reach, he absolutely could not drop the ball now!

It was midday, and he had no heart to rest, so he simply went downstairs to walk around, hoping to burn off a few more calories.

When work resumed in the afternoon, the supervisor, Wang Shijie, came over to arrange overtime for the night.

"The project is quite tight. Everyone in the project team will work overtime tonight; we'll count it as compensatory leave later."

Immediately, there was a chorus of sighs.

Zhang Yang listened absentmindedly. The overtime he usually detested didn't stir a ripple in his heart; his mind was entirely occupied by the task.

He swore that if his body held up and he could push through to reach his target weight, he would definitely treat himself to a proper reward tonight—though, of course, not that kind of reward; that stuff was bad for the body.

"I've done what I needed to do. Whether I can eat that long-coveted Wagyu beef feast on time tonight depends on you."

In the face of an income of ten thousand a day, talking about food seemed vulgar.

At 5:30 PM, the surrounding employees left one after another, leaving only Zhang Yang's project team still working.

"Zhang Yang, still not eating tonight?" Xiang Youde asked.

"Not eating," Zhang Yang shook his head. It wasn't that he was being stubborn; he truly had his own unspeakable reasons.

As evening fell, the sky outside the office gradually turned dark.

Their office building was located in Jiading, far from the central urban area of the Magic City, but at this hour, everyone could look through the floor-to-ceiling windows and see the extreme prosperity of the skyline in the distant direction of the Bund.

The offices in the distance were pitch black as the leaders had already gone home, leaving only this group of wage earners. Looking at the prosperity of the Magic City, yet knowing none of it had anything to do with them, some of the colleagues couldn't help but feel a sense of melancholy.

"Busy every day, busy every day, yet in the end, we still have to return to our hometowns. How many people can actually stay in Magic City?"

"What's being busy now? In a few years, you'll get married, have kids, and support a family right on schedule. That's when you'll be a horse in a harness, forced to follow a set path with no chance to ever turn things around."

Outside the door, Bei Wei and a few other girls had just stepped out to grab their pizza delivery.

"Everyone, want to have some?" Bei Wei opened several large pizza boxes and invited her project team colleagues over with a beaming smile.

The seven or eight members of the project team stopped their conversation, laughing and chatting as they walked over to eat.

"Zhang Yang, Zhang Yang! Are you coming or not?" Not far away, Xiang Youde waved, holding a slice of seafood pizza in his hand.

Zhang Yang waved him off.

"Fine, Zhang Yang, you're really impossible, aren't you? Will it kill you to have a slice?" Xiang Youde chewed on the fragrant pizza, completely unable to understand Zhang Yang's behavior today.

Stubborn, obstinate, and extreme.

How could he possibly know why Zhang Yang was acting this way?

The colleagues gathered around the table full of pizza boxes also looked over, their eyes flashing with confusion.

At this moment, the light from the computer screen illuminated Zhang Yang's grim, stoic face.

He glanced at the time in the bottom right corner; it was eight o'clock. There were four full hours left before the day ended.

Why am I writing about this subject? Because I have genuinely been losing weight these past few months—forty pounds, to be exact.

Every morning, I climb stairs on an empty stomach, eating oats and gnawing on potatoes. When I'm climbing, I inexplicably have grand, impassioned BGM playing in my head, hmm...