Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Pei Yu packed the steamed buns into a lunch box so I could take them with me to and from work every day.

And it wasn’t just my body. My mental state improved, too.

I even began to doubt whether that memory had been real-because if it had only been a dream, then another memory made much more sense.

After all, that dream was far more terrifying.

When I was little, I was always hiding from something.

I couldn’t see its face clearly, but I remembered its hunched, unnaturally long body. It was always wandering beneath the eaves, or just under the window…

Before I knew it, I woke in the grip of an overwhelming fear.

In front of me, a woman was leaning against the service window. Her hair was pulled into a tight, glossy bun, combed smooth with oil. The hem of her overly long skirt dragged on the floor, covering the tips of her shoes, and her thin lips were still opening and closing.

“Xiao Su, Xiao Su!”

I hurriedly answered.

It turned out to be Sister Luo, the administrative director.

No one was allowed to enter and leave the computer room at will. Usually, only a small window was opened for business, so she had no choice but to lean over it, her face pressed out of shape. “The leaders asked me to retrieve this.”

As she spoke, she handed me a picture.

It was of a statue, about the size of a palm, wrapped in red cloth. It looked a little familiar.

I glanced over her paperwork and immediately shook my head. “I can’t release it. You’re missing an official seal.”

She smiled pleasantly. “We’re all colleagues here. Can’t you make an exception?”

“No. We have regulations.”

After being refused again, a shadow swept across the woman’s face. Her expression darkened. “Xiao Su, you really are impartial, aren’t you?”

“You’re too kind.”

“…”

Outside the window, the tap-tap-tap of footsteps faded away.

After Sister Luo left, I took a steamed bun from the lunch box and practically wolfed it down.

Only then did that hollow, drained feeling slowly recede.

I was just about to eat the rest when Dawei suddenly slapped me hard on the back. My grip slipped, and one of the steamed buns went rolling away, disappearing somewhere out of sight.

He sighed. “You even dared to offend Sister Luo?”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“She’s connected. A relative of the Senior Leader.”

“Oh.”

My lukewarm response did nothing to kill his appetite for gossip. “But that statue looked kind of like the one you were secretly looking at…”

There were surveillance cameras in the archive room, so it wasn’t surprising that he’d found out.

Seeing that I didn’t deny it, Dawei grew a little excited. “What happened after that? Anything weird?”

“No.”

“…Tch. Boring.”

Finding it dull, he went back to playing his game.