Chapter 21: A Beautiful Day

Eight in the morning was the start of the workday. At 7:30, Xu Xiye stepped out of his house. By this time, he no longer resembled the flat, pancaked black blob from last night. He was the picture of perfect, handsome human form.

His hair was black, looking fluffy and wonderfully soft to the touch. His features were picture-perfect, his eyes pure and black as ink, exquisitely charming.

He was rejuvenated and even a little excited, because today, someone from the Psychiatric Hospital was coming to pick up the boss. Once the boss was taken away and his condition confirmed, the Head Fee he’d earned from his side gig would be arriving soon.

300 bucks.

Thinking of this, the corner of Xu Xiye’s mouth lifted. Of course, money wasn’t the most important thing. The most important thing was that the boss could get treatment, and his colleagues would be at less risk of infection.

And those Outsiders, Little Wang and the others. With the boss—this source of the illness—gone, their symptoms should alleviate considerably. They should even be able to heal on their own.

What a beautiful day.

With these thoughts in mind, Xu Xiye rushed to the company before work started. And then he was stunned dumb.

Xu Xiye: “?”

Where’s my company?

What is this ground full of rubble?

He turned his head sideways to look at Brother Zhang beside him. At the exact same moment, Brother Zhang slowly, stiffly, turned his head to look at Xu Xiye.

Xu Xiye: “…”

Brother Zhang: “…”

Silence.

Xu Xiye and Brother Zhang stood there in mute, silent shock. However, the street itself was far from silent.

Some people walked by, craning their necks to gawk. Others had stopped and were pointing and gesturing. Still others bumped into the person ahead of them, nearly starting a fight.

Amidst the noisy street, only a few people were the same as Xu Xiye and his companion—standing before their ruined company, a tableau frozen in time.

They were all colleagues from the company. Even if they didn’t know each other’s names, the faces were familiar.

The group looked at each other, every face an expression of existential doubt.

Xu Xiye couldn’t help but rub his eyes. He looked at the wreckage again. The wreckage was still there. The company building was nowhere to be found.

It was done for. It had really collapsed.

How could this happen?

It was perfectly fine when I left last night.

Xu Xiye was in a daze, a sight so pitiful it tugged at the heartstrings. “B-Brother Zhang, what happened here?”

Brother Zhang stood there like a block of wood, his brain struggling to respond. “I don’t know. It was like this when I got here. I don’t like crawling towards the city center at night, so I really had no idea.”

“I was here last night, but I still don’t know…” Xu Xiye trailed off, suddenly recalling that faint booming sound he’d heard right as he reached his complex’s gate. Could that have been the sound of the company collapsing?

Xu Xiye found it unbelievable. What reason could there be for it to just become like this?

He made wild guesses: “Could it be a shoddy construction project? Cutting corners for profit? Plus, our company building is pretty old… so it just collapsed?”

Brother Zhang considered this. “Possible. Let me go ask around. Someone who was nearby last night might know.”

Xu Xiye followed along to ask. People were very enthusiastic, telling them what they knew in a jumbled chorus.

Just as he’d guessed, that sound last night had been the company’s collapse.

The collapse started in a room on the top floor. According to an eyewitness, first there was a flash of silver light, then a muffled bang, and after that the whole building began to shake.

It spread from the office building to the cafeteria, to the dormitory, to the production workshop. Every structure belonging to the Delicious Food Company collapsed utterly, completely, into rubble.

“It might have been an explosion caused by electrical circuits or appliances,” someone speculated.

Another person refuted, “Then why weren’t the adjacent buildings affected at all?”

It was true. Not even the building closest by had suffered the slightest damage.

“This area is just too old. The engineering must have been poorly done. Some small accident, and everything was dragged down with it.”

This reasoning made a lot of sense and convinced everyone.

“What a shame. I actually really liked this company’s food. At least a 15+ tastiness level. Delicious! Delicious! Delicious! Fifteen or higher, man, hsss, amazing!”

“Oh yeah? I like things a little milder. Four or five tastiness, better when mixed with the food.”

Everyone started discussing their taste preferences, their words full of regret that they couldn’t eat it anymore. But they didn’t chat long. Soon it was off to work, off to drop off the kids, off to buy groceries. The crowd dispersed.

Xu Xiye felt a bit lost. He stood there, not knowing what to do for a moment. Soon, he noticed something wrong. The building had collapsed, but what about the boss? What about his other colleagues? Their company was huge; there should be more than just the handful of people standing here. It was work time. Why hadn’t anyone else shown up?

Oh! And Little Wang, Little Li, and those Outsiders—not a single one to be seen. They were staying in the dorms. They weren’t all… blown to nothing, were they?

And the boss—did the boss leave before it happened?

The more Xu Xiye thought about it, the darker his expression became. He hurried closer to the ruins, trying to discern something from the wreckage. Whether they were buried or vaporized—he had to find out.

This was a very important matter. The company building collapsing was very different from the company boss being gone.

Before Xu Xiye could find anything, he first spotted Sister Liu standing alone off to the side. Sister Liu was still wearing those old black cloth shoes. Her form and complexion were both very faint, but she was much more distinct than she had been at night.

Remembering how Sister Liu liked riding the elevator at the company, she probably left later than he did. Maybe she knew more. He decided to go ask.

“Sister Liu—”

Xu Xiye had just called out, not even having voiced his question, when Sister Liu spoke first.

“The boss is definitely gone.”

Xu Xiye: “!”

Brother Zhang, who’d followed him over: “Huh?”

Sister Liu looked at him, then at Brother Zhang, and stated, “This month’s wages haven’t been paid out yet.”

A person could be indifferent, but not indifferent to wages. She proposed, “Getting our pay is definitely out of the question. But we can pick through all this scrap metal. Pick for a couple days, gather it up, sell it to the scrapyard. That should about cover our wages.”