Chapter 19: Help Fight? Part 1

When Xu Xiye came out of the elevator, he saw Jiang Wuning fire two shots at the boss’s office.

The office door was open, but the spot Jiang Wuning aimed at was empty—no one there.

Why shoot at empty air?

He didn’t get it. If you were going to shoot, shoot at the Boss, right? After all, all the Outsiders were infected by the Boss. It made sense to fire a couple of shots to vent some anger.

Xu Xiye quietly sprawled on the wall, watching this scene. Seeing Jiang Wuning still holding the gun, seemingly unwilling to give up, he hopped lightly and landed precisely on the wall beside her. He extended a tentacle to press down on her wrist. Stop shooting. If you keep shooting, you might damage the wall or something. That wouldn’t be good.

Jiang Wuning.

Jiang Wuning.

He called her name twice like that, but she didn’t react. Although she was still holding the gun, she was already retreating.

Xu Xiye had no idea what was going on with her. But he generally didn’t dwell on these things. Not understanding was normal. Outsiders, you know—either infected and crazy, or they had their own peculiar quirks.

He pushed Jiang Wuning onto the elevator and had Sister Liu take her down. Then Xu Xiye set his sights on the Boss’s office. The aura in this hallway was stronger than what he’d felt below. The one who’d gone crazy was definitely the Boss.

Sigh.

Xu Xiye crawled along the wall, all the way to the office door, then stylishly landed on the Boss’s desk. Finally, he saw the Boss.

The Boss was a middle-aged, overweight man. Every inch of his flesh looked as soft as a freshly steamed bun. But this was the first time Xu Xiye had seen the Boss not maintaining a normal human form.

He was even fatter than before. Sitting in his office chair, he was like a heap of spilled flesh. Thick, jet-black hair grew from the back of his head. His swollen face was a chaotic mess of several sets of facial features. For a moment, Xu Xiye wasn’t even sure which of the Boss’s eyes he should address.

It wasn’t that he thought the Boss looked strange, but when talking to someone, you usually looked them in the eye. It was a matter of politeness. At this distance, even though his own two eyes could move freely, trying to meet the gaze of all of the Boss’s one, two, three, four… eight eyes simultaneously was extremely difficult.

Forget it. Any eye would do, he supposed. Xu Xiye finally decided to initiate conversation with the eye right in the center, located directly below the nose.

“Boss, Boss? Boss, are you there? It’s me, Little Xu, from promotions and planning. Or Little Ye is fine too.”

No one responded. The office was dead silent. The Boss seemed to have lost his mind. Xu Xiye silently locked eyes with that one eye for a long while. The guy didn’t even blink.

Staring each other down… well, you couldn’t really say that. His own eyes were hidden beneath pitch blackness; no one could see them. Stare-downs weren’t really something the Boss could do.

Sigh. Xu Xiye suddenly felt drained. The Boss was such an amiable man. How could he just go crazy like that? What was he thinking about all day in his head?

Receiving no response, Xu Xiye felt at a loss for what to do for a moment. The Boss wasn’t some homeless guy on the street; he couldn’t just send him off to the psychiatric hospital without permission. The best course of action was still to try and wake him up.

He jumped up onto the ceiling, twisted and crawled around, then jumped onto the wall directly opposite the door to check if anything above had been damaged. Nothing. Not even a trace. That gun was almost silent. Probably no sound at all. Or maybe Jiang Wuning just had bad eyesight and poor aim, couldn’t even hit the wall.

The black blob extended tentacles of varying lengths, touching and examining things here and there, jumping up and down restlessly. It was unclear whether he was trying to wake the Boss with this ruckus or simply engaging in some nighttime activity.

Just as Xu Xiye was gradually getting absorbed in it, a slurred, almost delirious call reached his ears.

“xi… ye…”

Xu Xiye paused. His eyes swiveled to the back, fixating on the Boss. One of the Boss’s many mouths had moved slightly. It was the one speaking.

He knew it. There was no way any local could see someone else doing the dark crawl and just sit there unmoved.

Xu Xiye squirmed his form, finally hopping back onto the Boss’s desk. “Boss, are you a little clearer-headed now? It’s me, Little Xu.”

All the chaotically arranged eyes on the Boss’s face shifted in unison. They stared at the black thing before them for a long time, as if gradually waking from a dream. “Ah, it’s Little Xiye…”

The Boss’s voice was deep and resonant, sounding layered and a little weary. “Why are you here at this late hour instead of out playing?”

Xu Xiye, the whole black blob, tilted to one side. He didn’t speak, just scrutinized the person before him with confusion. “Boss, do you know what’s happened to you?”

“What’s happened to me?” The Boss looked equally bewildered. “Oh, oh, I’ve been a bit tired lately. Been staying in the office. It’s nothing.”

Xu Xiye shook his head solemnly. Cruel as it was, he had to tell him. “Boss, you’ve gone crazy. I know you don’t want to believe it, and even if you did, you wouldn’t admit it. But I still have to tell you: you’ve gone crazy.”

Fully expecting the Boss to shout things like “Impossible!”, “I’m not sick!”, or “You’re the one who’s crazy!”, Xu Xiye only saw the mountain of flesh in the chair shift slightly before asking calmly, “Little Xiye, how do you know I’ve gone crazy?”

Xu Xiye told him about the things the madman had conjured up. “I saw a hanged woman, a woman sprawled on the floor who can get people pregnant, and eyes that specialize in peeping at people peeing in the restroom!”

His tone noticeably hardened on the last part—he was a bit angry.

As the Boss listened, his expression grew increasingly complex. As Xu Xiye’s words fell, the entire mountain of flesh seemed to slump.

“So that’s how it is,” he murmured, then asked with surprise, “You… you saw them?”

His voice carried a hint of nervousness, probably thinking Xu Xiye had been infected. Xu Xiye definitely didn’t want to be mistaken for a madman and quickly explained, “Boss, I haven’t gone crazy. My mood has been very stable. I saw all that using an Outsider’s eyes.”

“Oh, oh. Stable is good, stable is very good,” the Boss said, his expression turning affectionate yet complex as he sighed. “Ah, have you been tired out? Working too hard lately? If only you could just swallow me whole.”

Xu Xiye nearly scrunched up his entire blob. He emphasized, “I don’t eat people.”

Boss: “Not eating people. I mean I hope you grow up. No rush. You’ll grow naturally in time.”

Well, that was true. The Boss was so huge. If he could swallow him in one go, he really would grow a lot bigger.

Xu Xiye’s feelings were also complicated. The Boss was crazy, yet still worried about whether he was growing properly. Still so gentle and amiable.

The two of them sat in the office in shared silence for a while. All eight of the Boss’s chaotically placed eyes rested on the black blob on the desk. A surge of mixed emotions, a heart full of complexity. It seemed he had many things to say, yet didn’t know how to say them.

After a long while, he finally spoke. “Little Xiye, do you want to know how I went crazy?”

Xu Xiye was interested in this. He guessed first, “Was it because of that person who peeps at others peeing?”

If every time you went to the restroom, someone was hiding in the cracks peeping, that would definitely be enough to make anyone snap. But if it were him, he’d drag the person out, beat them up, and then take their eyes. But a softie like the Boss definitely couldn’t do that.

And what about those two women?

Xu Xiye kept guessing. “Boss, are you afraid of people hanging themselves and getting you pregnant?”

“Sort of. You’ve guessed quite accurately.” The Boss answered vaguely and didn’t continue.

Xu Xiye expressed understanding. To truly explain everything clearly would involve a lot of private matters.

Many people, even in front of a doctor, are unwilling to lay bare their secrets, let alone in other situations.

Contrary to what Xu Xiye thought, the Boss’s reluctance to elaborate wasn’t because of privacy. Strictly speaking, the incidents that happened in the company—those three people had already formed a closed loop. There was no role for him in it, so naturally, there wasn’t much privacy to speak of.

He just didn’t say because Xu Xiye was different from them. Those things, if spoken aloud, would only mess with his memory and leave him utterly bewildered.

Besides, why should Little Xiye have to feel his sorrow and despair? He didn’t need that.

The Boss’s name was Feng Dun. His family ran a food shop, and he’d been interested in cuisine since childhood. Later, his major was also food-related.

After graduation, he partnered with a friend to start a company, and within a few years, it was thriving. His friend handled management, while Feng Dun spent most of his time in the R&D lab and production workshop. After ten years of partnership, the enterprise grew larger and larger, but their disagreements multiplied.

In the end, they had a falling out. The company was split, and his friend started a new business. The two companies became competitors.

Aside from the usual competitive tactics in the market, after Liu Lingling hung herself in the company, it became the best chink in their armor for public opinion attacks.

Problems like chaotic management, excessive overtime, sexual harassment, and workplace violence were exposed. These were real, existing problems, and Feng Dun was not a competent boss.

The matter fermented online and in the newspapers, sparking massive discussion. Many people were cursed at, and Feng Dun was definitely not absent from that list.

Later, all sorts of ghost stories related to Liu Lingling spread through the company. Some of it was the work of competitors, but there were also many difficult-to-explain aspects.