Chapter 51

Chapter 51

Braving the cold rain, Xie Qingling and the others made their way back from the outskirts to the office.

By then, it was already two thirty in the morning.

The night was deep and still, disturbed only by the unceasing patter of rain.

After parking, Xie Qingling and Shen Huaizhou went inside.

The sudden warmth made Xie Qingling sneeze again. It seemed she really was coming down with a cold.

She had always been robust and had not fallen ill in a very, very long time.

With her head spinning and her limbs weak, Xie Qingling felt as though she were walking on clouds.

Still somewhat dazed, she followed Shen Huaizhou into the first-floor hall.

The hall was brightly lit, as brilliant as day. Yu Wei and Ling Fang, who had been waiting there for some time, looked up toward the entrance.

Shen Huaizhou, Xie Qingling, Ye Anran, and Dai Xingyu filed in one after another.

They had brought Xie Qingling back.

“Xie – Qing – ling.” Ling Fang ground out her name through clenched teeth.

A shiver ran through her, and Xie Qingling’s foggy mind instantly cleared.

Just listen to the way he was spitting out every syllable. Listen to the fury in his voice, as if he wanted to swallow her alive. She did not even have to look to know he must look absolutely murderous.

Xie Qingling’s eyes darted around. After a moment’s hesitation, she closed them and let her body go limp, falling delicately toward Shen Huaizhou. He was the one who had taught her this trick, so he ought to understand what she was trying to do, right?

As it turned out, Shen Huaizhou was far more dependable than she had imagined.

While everyone else was still staring blankly at Xie Qingling, unable to process what had just happened, Shen Huaizhou immediately caught her by the shoulders. He pressed one hand to her forehead and reported to Ling Fang, “Director, Xie Qingling has a raging fever. She’s about to pass out.”

Ling Fang fell silent.

Xie Qingling immediately gave two feeble coughs. Clutching her chest, she struggled for breath and said nothing.

“Director, it’s late, and everyone’s tired. Whatever it is, let’s talk about it tomorrow,” Yu Wei said, breaking the silence in the room.

“Ye Anran, take a look at her.” Ling Fang sighed. “We’ll leave it at that for tonight. Meeting at eight tomorrow morning. No one be late.”

And so, under Ye Anran’s escort, Xie Qingling crept weakly past Ling Fang’s watchful eyes, then continued just as weakly upstairs to Room 206.

Only after they entered did Ye Anran feel her forehead and say, “So you really are sick.”

Xie Qingling was speechless.

Was her acting really that fake? That over-the-top?

Had they all thought she was pretending?

All right, it was true that she was sick, but the pitifully weak act just now had indeed been fake.

“Take a fever reducer first,” Ye Anran said. “My healing art can’t do anything about this sort of internal ailment. You’ll have to take medicine and wait for your body to recover on its own. Don’t worry. I’ll tell the Director you’re seriously ill.”

“Thank you, Senior Anran,” Xie Qingling said.

Even her voice sounded a little hoarse.

“Hey, don’t thank me yet. You may dodge it today, but you can’t dodge it forever. There’s no way you’re getting out of that self-criticism.” Ye Anran lowered her voice conspiratorially. “I think he might double the word count tomorrow. When that happens, don’t drag me into it. I don’t want to write one with you.”

Then Ye Anran noticed the wound on Xie Qingling’s neck. She was just about to treat it when she reconsidered and decided to leave it for now.

What if the Director had not seen it yet? They could deal with it tomorrow.

“All right.” Xie Qingling nodded, then obediently lay down on the bed.

Once Xie Qingling was settled, Ye Anran returned to her own room to rest.

It was already so late that everyone in the department chose to sleep at the office rather than leave.

Listening to the rustling and occasional footsteps beyond the door, Xie Qingling gradually drifted off.

She slept deeply.

Spirit Wielders could fall ill too, but their constitutions were undeniably excellent.

After taking a fever reducer and getting a night’s sleep, Xie Qingling felt almost completely recovered.

She checked herself in the mirror. Her face looked so rosy that walking outside and pretending to be weak might get her beaten up.

Before she could deliberate for long, eight o’clock was almost upon her.

The meeting was about to begin.

Xie Qingling flipped the mirror facedown and decided she would deal with whatever came, one move at a time.

If she could avoid writing the self-criticism, she would.

As Xie Qingling reached the turn in the second-floor staircase, before she had even appeared in the hall below, she heard Ye Anran arguing with Ling Fang. “It’s true, Director! I examined her last night. She was seriously ill! My guess is that yin energy entered her body during the fight with the Bride in Red, and then last night’s sudden rain was more than she could take, so she collapsed.”

“Sure, she can be reckless, but if we’re talking performance, shouldn’t she be our department’s top performer right now? I don’t think punishing our star employee while she’s sick would look very good.”

“Oh?” Ling Fang heard footsteps and looked toward the stairs. Catching sight of the healthy glow on the portion of Xie Qingling’s face that had inadvertently come into view, he drew out his words. “Is that so? She’s gravely ill? Too sick to get out of bed?”

Ye Anran nodded furiously.

Xie Qingling was speechless.

She was deeply moved, but this little fool Ye Anran was about to get her killed. Xie Qingling decided she had to stop this.

“Senior Anran!” Xie Qingling called hastily. “Thank you for that miraculous Rejuvenation last night. After your treatment, I feel so much better! I really couldn’t get out of bed yesterday, and I even had to trouble you to look after me in the middle of the night, but I’m much better now!”
Ye Anran turned stiffly. The moment she saw the exceptionally healthy glow on Xie Qingling’s face, she instantly turned into a dud firecracker and fell completely silent.

Ling Fang sneered, then smiled pleasantly at Ye Anran. “It seems your medical skills have improved considerably. She was so terribly sick last night, yet one good sleep was enough to cure her.”

Guilty as sin, Ye Anran did not dare say a word.

“Since everyone’s here, let’s begin the meeting.”

Everyone was already in their seats. As soon as Xie Qingling sat down, the meeting began.

It was called a meeting, but in truth, it was yet another disciplinary session over Xie Qingling’s violation of workplace rules.

Ling Fang looked at Xie Qingling. “What’s the first rule?”

He was testing whether she had truly taken the rules to heart.

Xie Qingling answered solemnly, “Protecting the safety of department members is the Director’s responsibility.”

Ling Fang nodded and continued, “The second rule?”

“Following the Director’s orders unconditionally is the foremost duty of every department member. Anyone who disobeys an order without cause will be punished according to the severity of the consequences.”

“Excellent. Very good. You’ve memorized them well.” Ling Fang nodded in approval. Then his expression hardened. “Since you’ve memorized them so well, I shouldn’t have to remind you what you did last night, should I?”

Xie Qingling lowered her head. “I know I was wrong. I’ll go write my self-criticism now.”

So there really was no escaping it.

Ling Fang cut her off. “This is the third time. You claim to reflect on your mistakes in every self-criticism, but I’ve never once seen you change. This time, double the word count.”

Xie Qingling pulled a long face and forced herself to answer, “All right…”

Ye Anran and Dai Xingyu both cast her sympathetic looks.

“What’s more, I don’t think the existing workplace rules are detailed enough to govern the department’s daily conduct, so I’ve decided to add more regulations. If any of you have suggestions, bring them to me, and I’ll include them,” Ling Fang continued.

“What? More?” Ye Anran could not help crying out. “There are already ten times as many as before, Director!”

“Oh, only ten times as many? Then there really aren’t enough.”

Ling Fang turned his gaze on Ye Anran and sneered. “And you, Ye Anran. You lied through your teeth, helped a wrongdoer, and encouraged unhealthy practices in the department. You will write me a ten-thousand-word self-criticism too.”

“I – I freaking… I couldn’t be happier, hahaha, Director. I’ve always wanted to write a self-criticism!” Ye Anran said with a dry laugh, her face ashen.

Why had she been dragged into this again?

Ye Anran was numb.

But she did not dare resist in the slightest. Resisting would only double her word count!

Dai Xingyu had the uneasy sense that they were all in the same boat.

Yet out of loyalty to his teammate, he did not hide like a coward. Instead, he nobly pleaded Ye Anran’s case. “Director, I don’t think Sister Anran did anything wrong. She was just… just too concerned about the newcomer, that’s all. This is all the newcomer’s fault. It has nothing to do with Sister Anran!”

Ling Fang gave him a cool once-over. “You write one too.”

“I… Me? Why me?” Dai Xingyu stared at him in disbelief. “I wasn’t involved in any of this! Director, I didn’t help the newcomer lie, and I didn’t plead her case either!”

“But you’re too coldhearted. You don’t show enough concern for new members, which undermines team harmony,” Ling Fang said. “Hand in your self-criticism by the day after tomorrow at the latest.”

Dai Xingyu was speechless.

Numb. Utterly numb.

Only then did Shen Huaizhou speak with leisurely composure. “Never question any of the Director’s decisions lightly. Every choice the Director makes is well considered and unquestionably correct.”

“You, Shen Huaizhou.” Ling Fang shot him a sidelong glance. “Always scheming, even encouraging a new member to break the rules. I think it’s been so long since you wrote a self-criticism that your hands are itching for one.”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Hand one in too.”

Shen Huaizhou was speechless.

Ling Fang had gone on a rampage. An absolute rampage.

What did any of this have to do with him?

All he had done last night was say a word in Xie Qingling’s defense.

Shen Huaizhou fell silent.

So did Xie Qingling.

Still, with so many people in the department writing self-criticisms alongside her, she suddenly felt much less miserable.

At that moment, everyone’s gaze drifted toward Yu Wei. They looked upon the sole survivor with undisguised envy.

How enviable Old Yu was. He had gone to pick up the Director last night, so the Director had spared him.

He must have done an excellent job of picking up the Director.

If only they had volunteered to find the Director instead. What a pity.

It seemed that, in the future, they would have to jump at plum assignments like fetching the Director!

After making sure every one of them had been thoroughly dealt with, Ling Fang’s face darkened as he brought the disciplinary meeting to an end. “I hope you understand that everything I’m doing now is so that all six of us can still be sitting here at every meeting. The last thing I want is for a mission to end with me carrying your bodies back from the battlefield.”

“Understood.”

The five of them answered in unison.

“Good.” Ling Fang’s expression eased slightly. “You can hand in your self-criticisms tomorrow or the day after. For now, let’s discuss what to do with Chai Yuhu and Xie Qingling’s reward.”