Chapter 52

Chapter 52

“First, I need to make it clear that our department has a well-defined system of rewards and punishments. Merit must be rewarded, and wrongdoing must be punished.” Ling Fang gave Xie Qingling a pointed look before continuing. “Certain people made mistakes and received their punishment, so we’ll set that matter aside for now. But they will still receive the rewards they’ve earned.”

“If there’s anything you want, you can ask me for it – a weapon, some other piece of equipment, whatever you like.” Ling Fang paused. “Though you already have quite a few mysterious items on hand, don’t you? Sometimes too many tools only become a burden. You just need to find a few that suit you and feel right in your hands.”

Xie Qingling agreed with that view.

But if she did not ask for equipment, what else could she ask for?

Xie Qingling paused. It suddenly occurred to her that this might be a good time to bring up her raise.

But…

She had not even spent the fifty thousand yuan from her last paycheck.

The department covered her food, clothing, housing, and transportation. Money in her hands was practically a pile of wastepaper. Renovating the orphanage would not cost much either. Even if she sent her entire salary home this month, next month’s pay would arrive soon enough.

Xie Qingling fell silent.

Spending fifty thousand yuan was already this difficult. A larger salary would not do her much good.

Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined there would come a day when she treated money like dirt.

Xie Qingling sighed at the vagaries of life.

After thinking it over, she finally had an idea. “Director, I’ve decided. My wish is that I don’t want to write – ”

“Your reward cannot be used to escape your self-criticism,” Ling Fang immediately added, killing Xie Qingling’s plan before it could draw breath.

Xie Qingling was speechless.

How heartless!

“Then I don’t know what I want.”

Ling Fang nodded. “I understand. In that case, I’ll give you a week off.”

He might despise Xie Qingling’s attempt to fake an illness and escape punishment, but when she truly was sick, Ling Fang could at least act like a human being.

“Take the time to rest and recover,” he said.

Xie Qingling showed no particular reaction. She felt almost fully recovered already and saw no need for a special leave of absence.

Everyone else, however, looked ready to weep with envy.

Yu Wei reminded her, “Qingling, why aren’t you thanking the Director? Time off is precious in our department. I’ve worked here for years, and I only get one day off annually.”

Xie Qingling froze. It felt as though this one week had used up an entire lifetime’s vacation in advance. “Thank you, Director!” she said at once.

Come to think of it, Yu Wei had worked here for so many years and only got one day off each year. That was far too pitiful, wasn’t it?

Xie Qingling could not help feeling sorry for him.

“All right. We can continue discussing the follow-up arrangements for Chai Yuhu,” Ling Fang said.

When the subject turned to department business, Ye Anran bravely raised her hand. “Director, I think we should just hypnotize him and wipe this part of his memory.”

The incident with the Bride in Red had dragged on for quite some time. Even now, Chai Yuhu was still at the office and had not gone home.

With the Bride in Red taken care of, they naturally could not keep him there.

They had to release him, but how they would do so and what story they would use afterward were part of the routine cleanup following every battle.

“Ye Anran will handle it.” The department already had a well-established procedure for such matters, so Ling Fang wasted no more words on it.

“Dai Xingyu will write the post-operation summary and submit his report to me afterward.”

“All right. Meeting adjourned.”

At those words, everyone rose and left the conference table.

Ling Fang alone remained motionless in his seat. His curse had not fully lifted, and his lower body was still almost completely paralyzed. At the moment, he sat in a wheelchair rather than one of the chairs around the conference table.

As the others left, he made no move, merely continuing to sit there with a pretense of solemn composure.

Being a sorcerer was fine in every other respect. It was the times when a curse struck that were truly miserable.

“Xie Qingling, your vacation begins today,” Ling Fang called after her. “You don’t have to work. You’re free to arrange your time however you want.”

Xie Qingling stopped and glanced back at Ling Fang.

The moment she saw his rigid, wooden posture and the wheelchair beneath him, understanding dawned.
Thinking of the week off he had just so generously granted her, Xie Qingling broke into a brilliant smile. She scurried obsequiously to Ling Fang’s side, took hold of the wheelchair, and pushed him toward the enormous floor-to-ceiling window. “Director, are you sick too? This is the curse you mentioned yesterday, isn’t it? I didn’t expect it to be so serious. You can’t work today, can you? Come to think of it, we’re a lot alike. We both had an awful day yesterday, and we both got sick. Come on, I’ll take you to get some sun and build up your resistance.”

There could not be many employees as considerate of their superior as she was, right?

Unfortunately, Xie Qingling’s attempt to flatter him and close the distance between them did not succeed.

Ling Fang heard her out, then said calmly, “No. I’m not as miserable as you are.”

His reasoning was impeccable. “Unlike you, I don’t have a self-criticism to write.”

Xie Qingling was speechless.

All at once, she no longer felt like showing any consideration for her superior!

She stopped in front of the window, positioned Ling Fang beneath the sunlight, and left, satisfied that she had done more than enough.

She might as well go back and write her self-criticism. It was twenty thousand words long, after all. That was far more worthwhile than flattering her boss.

Ling Fang’s hands were not very nimble and had yet to recover completely. He could do nothing about the wheelchair on his own.

Yu Wei and everyone else had already left.

And so…

Ling Fang alone remained there, greeting the brilliant midsummer sunshine.

The sunlight was dazzling, and Ling Fang’s suit was dark. Before long, his entire body was baking hot.

He sat bolt upright and paralyzed in the wheelchair like a salted fish left out to dry beneath the sun.

It was so hot.

And he could not even turn himself over.

Unable to move, Ling Fang’s face went livid.

…Xie Qingling! You did this on purpose, didn’t you?

* * *

When Chai Yuhu woke, he found himself lying on a soft leather sofa.

He was in the bright reception room of a villa. Yet although it was supposedly a reception room, several office desks had been set up inside, creating a bizarre jumble of styles.

What kind of company rented a villa for its office? They had to be filthy rich!

He looked around and saw only a man dressed in black, complete with black gloves, sitting before the floor-to-ceiling window. The man was basking in the sun, eyes narrowed, his thoughts impossible to guess.

It was noon, and the sunlight was fiercely bright and hot. A fine sheen of sweat had appeared on the black-clad man’s face, yet he remained seated in silence, stubbornly holding out for some unknown reason.

Could he be… working on his tan?

Chai Yuhu walked over. “Hello. May I ask what this place is…?”

Where was he?

Why was he here?

“You came to us yourself,” Ling Fang said.

“Me? I came here myself? What for?” Chai Yuhu was thoroughly confused.

Following the black-clad man’s lead, he tried desperately to remember. No specific event or motive came to mind, but somehow, the man’s explanation did seem to be true.

“All your hair fell out.” Ling Fang glanced at Chai Yuhu’s scalp, where the hair was about to grow back but which, for the moment, remained very bald. “You came here for help.”

All his hair had fallen out?

Chai Yuhu froze, and then his memories surged back like a tide.

He ran a hand over his bald head and could not help swearing. “Damn! I remember! All my hair fell out!”

So…

“Is this a hair transplant clinic?” Chai Yuhu surveyed his surroundings again, enlightenment dawning.

Ling Fang was speechless.

With great difficulty, he turned his head to look at Chai Yuhu. “Come push me, and I’ll tell you how to solve your problem.”

“Oh, sure, sure.” The thought that this was a hair transplant clinic left Chai Yuhu with complicated feelings.

He had only been a programmer for a few years. Who would have thought he would reach this point so soon?

The scythe of his hair-reaping profession had descended far too quickly!

But the man before him looked disabled. He seemed more like a traveling charlatan than a doctor. Could he really solve Chai Yuhu’s problem?

Chai Yuhu’s emotions churned. Had some shady advertisement duped him into coming here? They were not about to charge him an astronomical sum, were they?

At last, Ling Fang escaped the blazing sunlight, and his whole body felt much better. He let out a breath of relief and said to Chai Yuhu, “Our attending physician examined you. Your problem isn’t serious, and it isn’t pathological hair loss. You’ve been under too much pressure at work lately, which triggered a stress reaction and caused your hair to fall out. You don’t need a transplant, so there’s no reason to waste the money.”
“A… stress reaction? Hair can have stress reactions too?”

Hearing that he would not need a transplant put Chai Yuhu somewhat at ease, but it also saddened him. He could not help running a hand over his empty scalp, thinking that his hair was far too fragile and utterly lacking in resilience.

“In any case, once you go home, rest properly for a while. Eat on time, keep regular hours, and take care of yourself. Once your health improves, your hair will naturally grow thick again.”

Chai Yuhu looked troubled. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. It’s too difficult.”

Eating on time was manageable. Keeping regular hours truly was not.

He usually worked nine to nine, six days a week, and sometimes even around the clock, seven days a week. There was overtime on top of that!

Chai Yuhu asked urgently, “Don’t you have some permanent solution here? Can’t you just transplant a full head of thick hair onto me? Money isn’t an issue. Whatever it costs, I’ll pay!”

Ling Fang gave his bald head a meaningful glance. “A hair transplant normally takes follicles from places where the hair is thick and moves them to places where it is thinning. But look at the top of your head… Where do you have any thick hair left? I’m sorry, but objectively speaking, you aren’t a candidate for a transplant.”

“…Damn it!” Chai Yuhu broke down.

He had never imagined that he could earn money yet fail to keep his hair. So even money could not save him from baldness?

Life’s gains and losses were far too cruel.

Chai Yuhu, barely in his twenties, had already begun considering a career change.

Being an adult was so hard.

* * *

Only after they sent Chai Yuhu away did Xie Qingling emerge from the kitchen carrying a cup of coffee, which she set in front of Ling Fang.

“Professional. Very professional!” Xie Qingling said with a grin. “Who knew you were such a convincing liar, Director?”

“You were so convincing that even I almost believed we were a professional hair transplant team. If we printed out a photo of Shen Huaizhou, edited it, and put it on the wall as a before-and-after comparison, we’d look even more authentic!”

She ran into the sunlight and stretched. Looking back at Ling Fang sitting in the shade, she asked helpfully, “Hey, Director, would you like to sit in the sun a little longer?”

Ling Fang’s face turned wooden, and he said nothing.

Out of habit, he picked up the coffee to drink it. Then he noticed his hand was shaking slightly. Without a word, he drew it back as if nothing had happened.

“You seem to have a lot of time on your hands.” Ling Fang glanced at Xie Qingling. For some reason, seeing her now made his head ache automatically. He had suffered the same symptom when Shen Huaizhou first joined the team. With a sigh, Ling Fang said, “You have seven days off. You don’t have to stay at the office the whole time. Go out and walk around.”

Anything to stop her from constantly hovering in front of him and staying here just to infuriate him.

At the thought that he might still be stuck in this wheelchair tomorrow, Ling Fang’s expression soured further.

His reminder quieted Xie Qingling.

The vacation had come so suddenly that she had not yet figured out what to do with it.

After some thought, she said, “Then I’ll see if any of my friends are free and find something fun to do.”

Ye Anran and the others still had to work. Xie Qingling was the only one on vacation.

Naturally, she could only look for someone else with time to spare.

Ling Fang nodded and watched her go upstairs.

Xie Qingling took out her phone, opened the group chat, and sent a message to her old dorm group.

[Xie Qingling: I have vacation time! A whole mini-break! Lulu, Jiajia! Want to go see a movie together?!!!]

[Xie Qingling: spinning_wildly.jpg]

Jiang Lulu and Dong Jia both replied instantly.

[Jiang Lulu: Aaaah, I’m crying with envy! But I don’t have time off. I found another internship, and I’m slaving away again]

[Jiang Lulu: sobbing.jpg]

[Dong Jia: I do, I do! You’re all off doing internships, and I’m getting so bored at school I’m about to grow mold]

[Dong Jia: Want to go see a gorgeous woman? @Xie Qingling (smirk.jpg)]

[Jiang Lulu: What? You’re sending selfies? Hurry up and post them!]

[Dong Jia: Oh, I didn’t mean selfies (bashful.jpg)]

[Dong Jia: I mean my goddess! She’s performing in Future City soon, and the tickets are almost impossible to get!!! But our club has some! Qingling, want to go together?]

With that, Dong Jia uploaded an admission ticket for a dance performance to the group.