Chapter 81
Chapter 81
Qiao Yu spent nearly a week loafing around with nothing to do. At one point, out of sheer boredom, he even went out and dyed his hair.
He had no idea what had possessed him.
He picked a milk-tea sandy gold.
Good grief. Once it was done, he looked at himself in the mirror and realized his face looked even paler. From a distance, he looked like some sickly invalid who didn’t have long to live.
Qiao Yu stared at the hairstylist, hesitating. “Um… can you dye it back?”
“You were already pale. I told you not to dye it this color, but you insisted on not listening.”
The hairstylist had a pretty good temper. After roasting him once, he reluctantly nodded. “I can dye it back, but it’ll take quite a while. Also, our salon was running a promotion before, and each customer can only enjoy the ninety-percent-off price once. If you dye it again, you’ll have to pay full price.”
Full price meant… seventy-eight instantly became seven hundred and eighty.
Qiao Yu immediately got up and scanned the QR code on the table. “Forget it. Now that I’m used to it, this color actually looks pretty good.”
The hairstylist frowned. “Really? If you think it’s too expensive, why not get a membership card? Hair services are fifty percent off.”
“How much is the card?”
“Only nine hundred and ninety-eight.”
“Forget it. I won’t take up any more of your time. Goodbye.”
Qiao Yu turned on his heel without hesitation and left the hair salon.
When Shang Yan saw Qiao Yu with a head of hair that was neither quite white nor quite yellow, he felt his whole world go dark.
After a long while, he asked tentatively, “How about I take you to dye it back? I’ll pay.”
Qiao Yu shook his head. “No need. This hair color is fine.”
Kids on the bus were even giving up their seats for him, afraid he would lose his balance, fall, and drop dead on the spot.
Shang Yan was silent for a moment. “…How about you start coming to work at the bureau tomorrow?”
If Qiao Yu kept being this idle, something was bound to happen sooner or later.
Qiao Yu asked reflexively, “What’s the salary?”
“Zero point six ten-thousand.”
“…Why don’t you just say six thousand?”
Shang Yan looked innocent. “Doesn’t it sound like more that way?”
Qiao Yu gave a dry laugh. “Wow. Thanks so much.”
**
On Qiao Yu’s first official day at work, a kindly looking older woman pushed him straight into the logistics department.
Then Kong Xianya, who apparently had no idea what the word “polite” meant, planted him in front of a computer and made him organize files.
The dull documents and line after line of baffling rules soon left Qiao Yu’s eyes glazed over. His head tilted, and he slumped onto the desk, asleep.
Then it was as if a hazy veil had been drawn over his eyes.
The temperature in the sealed space plummeted rapidly. When a gust of cold wind swept past, the bone-chilling cold seemed to shock Qiao Yu awake.
Before he could ask anything, there was a snap, and a dim yellow beam of light suddenly lit up above his head. Qiao Yu instinctively narrowed his eyes against the glare.
It was like he was taking part in a lonely stage play. Behind Qiao Yu was still a dense, inky darkness. He stood beneath that blinding beam of light and blinked in confusion.
Below him were row after row of seats in a vast, empty theater.
And he was standing on the stage, holding something that looked like a script. There were only four words on the cover: Imperial City Storm.
They were neatly written, as though by hand, not printed.
Qiao Yu opened the script to find the pages completely blank. He looked utterly baffled and subconsciously wanted to reach up and touch the tip of his nose.
Only then did he realize he was actually holding a gel pen, though he had no idea who had stuffed it into his hand.
He muttered to himself, “What does this mean?”
“Let’s play a game.”
The voice by his ear was ethereal, drifting near and far. He couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
Qiao Yu asked in confusion, “What game?”
“You write one sentence, and I write one sentence. Together, we’ll complete a script.”
This ghost’s voice sounded very sweet. She seemed to have a nice temper too.
Qiao Yu thought that, since he had nothing else to do anyway, he might as well play with her for a while.
He didn’t ask any more questions. He flipped open the page, and only then did he discover that the first page already had an opening line:
“In the winter of the first year of Zhaoqing, it was already nearing midnight. At some point, heavy snow had begun to fall outside the door.
I woke up from the cold. Only then did I realize the bedroom door had been blown open a crack by the wind. I shuddered and felt a fine layer of goose bumps prickling along my arms.
I quickly got up and walked over to close the door. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw…
The story appeared one word at a time, as if someone were writing on the other side of the paper.
Right on cue, a cold gust swept across the empty stage, followed by the sound of a door opening from who knew where.
Creeeak-
In the hollow theater, it was especially grating. The atmosphere instantly hit its peak.
Qiao Yu ignored all of that. Out of habit, he bit the end of his pen, as if deep in thought. Only after a long while did he tighten his grip on the pen and write: Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw myself in the mirror, and then I died from how handsome I was.
The next second, a rustling cough sounded beside his ear.
The cough was like 3D surround sound. Qiao Yu couldn’t tell where the other party was, so he could only look ahead with concern, his dark eyes seemingly unfocused. “Are you okay?”
The other party ignored him, but within a few breaths, another line appeared on the blank script.
[Reborn into this life, I smashed the mirror first! Then, a bone-chilling wind blew in through the crack in the door…]
Qiao Yu raised his pen and wrote: The wind blew a faceful of dust onto me, so I had no choice but to fetch water and wash my face. Then I died from how handsome my reflection in the water was.
[…]
Another long while passed. The other party seemed to have decided to go head-to-head with him, continuing after the ellipsis:
[On my second rebirth, I decided to stab both my own eyes blind!!]
Qiao Yu: But I couldn’t resist the image I imagined in my mind, so for the third time, I died from how handsome I was.
[You mother… Fine, you’re ruthless!]
Qiao Yu clicked his tongue. “We were having such a nice time. Why’d you start cursing? Are you a sore loser?”
[Retracted.]
[On my third rebirth, I slammed my head into a pillar and knocked myself stupid first, so that I wouldn’t be able to imagine what I looked like. Finally, I stabbed both my own eyes blind.]
Qiao Yu let out a scornful laugh. This ghost was actually being pretty thorough.
Interesting~
A wicked smile suddenly appeared on his face. The tip of his pen danced across the paper, the scratch of writing never stopping: Then a doctor came to take my pulse and reached a conclusion. He said there was something wrong with my sense of aesthetics.
[…In the end, unable to withstand the blow, I decided to kill myself!!!]
Oh? It had even learned to strike first?
Qiao Yu raised an eyebrow: But after watching a thirty-second ad, I revived on the spot.
Snap! The pen in Qiao Yu’s hand broke, and a string of gibberish appeared on the paper.
[!E#@$%^%$#@ Bleep-Get the hell out! You’re not welcome here!!]
“Why are you such a sore loser?”
Qiao Yu felt very wronged.
They’d been having such a good time. Why had it turned hostile again?
He hadn’t even gotten hostile yet!
Just then, the sweet voice that had been full of goodwill turned extremely shrill. “Live Stream Room, I don’t want this streamer. I want to use a replacement card!”
Qiao Yu: ??
What was a replacement card supposed to be?
Did ghosts have their own shop system too?
Before Qiao Yu could figure it out, his vision abruptly went black.
When he opened his eyes again, he had appeared at a hospital?
There were a lot of people lined up at the hospital entrance. Every one of them either had missing arms and broken legs, or looked sickly and pale.
With his frail, invalid-looking face, Qiao Yu blended in among them with no sense of disharmony at all.
He lifted his head and glanced at the signboard: Ningping County First People’s Hospital.
A hospital??
Qiao Yu stared at it for a while and found that the two metal characters for “People’s” were especially new, reflecting a different, lustrous glow under the sunlight.
Taking things as they came, he followed the flow of people and slowly moved forward.
The nurse at the entrance glanced at him and said coldly, “Registration fee.”
“How much?”
The nurse impatiently tapped the fee schedule on the desk and pointed at the registration fee column. “One hundred sixty-eight.”
Qiao Yu swept his eyes over the fee schedule, then let his gaze fall on the recruitment notice beside it. A lie slipped smoothly from his mouth. “Um… I’m not here to see a doctor. Actually, I’m here to apply for a job.”
The nurse: ??