A look of slight confusion appeared on Xu Xiye’s face.
Pursue someone?
Of course, Xu Xiye understood pursuing someone. He had watched plenty of romance dramas on TV. Like that one currently airing, “Love You Till My Heart Explodes”. In the beginning, the female lead took a liking to the male lead and pursued him passionately. She caught him, but a pity the male lead was only after her heart.
Scumbag.
Now, the plot had progressed to the female lead moving far away to forge her career, meeting a gentle second male lead who was her superior. The second male lead treated her very well and also showed signs of pursuing her. A seemingly peaceful, happy storyline, but it secretly made Xu Xiye a bit worried.
The second male lead kept praising the female lead for having a pure heart. Xu Xiye was worried he was also after her heart.
As for the man in the hotel… he hadn’t considered using the pursuit method. Pursue, fall in love, cohabitate—that way he would possess those beautiful silver-blue eyes.
It was a good idea, but Xu Xiye didn’t really feel drawn to it.
How was that any different from the male lead’s scumbag behavior of coveting the female lead’s heart?
Xu Xiye was just an ordinary citizen. He had no grand ambitions, nor excessively high morals, but he also didn’t want to be a scumbag.
And so, under the nervous or probing gazes of everyone present, Xu Xiye shook his head in denial. “No, I don’t have that. It’s not pursuit. I just want to keep the person at my place, that’s all.”
Wang Xiaodian was very confused, not quite understanding what that meant. Brother Zhang and Sharp Head, however, both subtly breathed sighs of relief.
Brother Zhang crunched the meat and bones in his mouth twice, swallowed them, and then said slowly to Xu Xiye, “If you ask me, as for dating and all that, you’re still too young right now.”
Wang Xiaodian: “?” His Shifu had been working for two years. How was that young?
Brother Zhang: “The work pressure is so high these days, who has the energy for dating?”
What, was he supposed to wait until retirement?
Wang Xiaodian muttered under his breath, “Dating can relieve stress. It’s good for the body and mind.”
Brother Zhang looked over. Wang Xiaodian had never thought such a pressuring, dangerous look could appear on Brother Zhang’s simple, honest face. He quickly lowered his head, not daring to interject again.
At this point, Sharp Head spoke up. “Tsk, that depends on what kind of partner you get. If it’s like Liu Lingling and her guy’s situation, the annoyance alone will kill you.”
Brother Zhang: “If you really want to date, any person you have to pursue personally is definitely a no-go.”
Sharp Head: “Hey, I agree with that.”
Jiang Wuning asked with great interest, “How so?”
Sharp Head: “You Outsiders wouldn’t understand. Anyway, no one would ever refuse someone like Little Ye.”
Jiang Wuning studied Xu Xiye. The young man’s good looks were beyond question, but based on her numerous experiences entering the Inner World, she didn’t recall everyone here being solely into looks.
Xu Xiye felt a little embarrassed. He said modestly, “It’s not that exaggerated. Not being refused might just be good luck, running into enthusiastic people.”
Actually, that was also the reason he had planned to just talk to the man directly last night. If he made the request, would the other party agree or not?
If he agreed, and also happened to be a shut-in, then naturally everything would be perfect. If he agreed but had the same nocturnal crawling habit, then he’d need to confirm whether their habits were compatible.
If he didn’t agree… Hmph. To borrow a line from TV: Man, you have piqued my interest!
After lunch, with about half an hour of rest time left, they spotted their target, Liu Lingling.
Having a group of people rush over to observe her would be too conspicuous. Wang Xiaodian and Little Li formed a pair and staged a deliberate “chance” encounter outside the restroom.
Sharp Head had said he bumped into Liu Lingling crying in the restroom several times. Wang Xiaodian paid close attention to the woman’s expression.
She had delicate makeup and a graceful figure. She fully deserved the title of department beauty. Except for her face being excessively pale, there were no traces of recent crying.
When she saw them, she even stopped and smiled, saying “Hello.”
In his eyes, Liu Lingling seemed neither heartbroken nor like a woman who would soon hang herself. She was too normal.
Maybe they had the wrong person. Or maybe the plot simply hadn’t progressed to that point yet.
He replied, “Hello,” and pulled Little Li towards the inside of the restroom. He couldn’t pull him forward. Little Li was still staring blankly at Liu Lingling.
What did Liu Lingling look like?
Little Li kept looking, from the tip of her shoes to the top of her head. White high heels, white trousers, a red belt fastened at the waist, a light-colored blouse, then the long hair draped over her shoulders. But he didn’t see Liu Lingling’s face.
“Little Li?”
Little Li came back to his senses and walked into the restroom with Wang Xiaodian.
“Little Li, are you okay? What was that just now?”
“I was looking at her face.”
Wang Xiaodian tried to understand him. “Was she pretty?”
“Really? Little Wang.”
“Huh… she’s alright.”
“Is Little Wang saying I’m good-looking?”
“What?”
“Because Liu Lingling has my face. Little Wang, look at my face. Isn’t it exactly the same as Liu Lingling’s?”
Wang Xiaodian: “!”
Wang Xiaodian stood frozen in front of the sink, not daring to move. A huge mirror was installed above the sink. From its reflection, he could see Little Li continuously closing in from behind.
Little Li: “Little Wang, look, look. Look at my face.”
Wang Xiaodian: “!!” Aaaah!
At the crucial moment, Wang Xiaodian shoved Little Li away and bolted out. As he looked up, he still caught the reflection of that face in the mirror.
The man in the mirror wore clothes identical to Little Li’s, but he clearly had no face!
Wang Xiaodian sprinted back to the office at top speed. The instant he entered, he rushed towards Xu Xiye. “Shifu! Aaaah! Shifu, save me!”
Xu Xiye irritably nudged the person groveling at his feet. “How many times have I told you? Don’t scream in that horrifying voice. Look, look, everyone’s staring at you now.”
Wang Xiaodian shuddered violently. Hearing the word “look” terrified him now. “Shifu, I saw a ghost!”
Xu Xiye: “Nonsense! There’s no such thing as ghosts in this world!”
Wang Xiaodian: “…”
A speechless silence.
For some reason, hearing this resolute declaration, Wang Xiaodian suddenly found it a bit funny, yet also absurd.
Xu Xiye: “Get up. What kind of behavior is this, crouching on the floor?”
Wang Xiaodian obediently stood up. Just then, Little Li walked into the office. He quickly glanced over and then whispered to Xu Xiye, “Shifu, can you quickly check if there’s something wrong with Little Li’s face?”
Xu Xiye found it hard to understand but still looked.
In just two short days, Little Li seemed to have lost a lot of weight. His complexion was pale and greenish, his lips showed little color, and his eyes were vacant. As Xu Xiye looked into those eyes, for a moment he seemed to see many things, yet also nothing at all.
Xu Xiye didn’t react for a long time. Wang Xiaodian panicked. Fearfully, he asked, “Shifu, wh…what did you see?”
“Sigh,” Xu Xiye sighed. “What could I see? I see a haggard face. Tell your fellow townsman, if the pressure is too much, he can resign first. Otherwise, he’ll collapse sooner or later.”
The company wouldn’t keep a madman. If he failed the probation period, he’d have to leave all the same.
Wang Xiaodian let out a huge sigh of relief. This at least meant Little Li’s face was still there. But halfway through the sigh, he remembered Jiang Wuning’s words.
Anomalies cannot see the anomalous phenomena caused by pollution.
If the person in the restroom was the real Little Li, then the problem might not be Little Li, but himself.
He was polluted.
Damn it all! He’d only interacted with Liu Lingling once! He even thought she was perfectly normal! And now he had to see this kind of ghostly thing.
Weak and drained, Wang Xiaodian slumped in his chair, watching as Little Li came over and sat down, then asked him, “Little Wang, why did you run away just now?”
“Little Li…” Wang Xiaodian said, looking at the face before him, “What did you say to me in the restroom?”
“I said, took a look at my face. Little Wang, isn’t my face exactly like Liu Lingling’s face?”
“…” Wang Xiaodian forced the words out. “You saw that Liu Lingling’s face was the same as yours?”
“Yes. Liu Lingling has my face. Little Wang, tell me, am I Liu Lingling, or am I Little Li?” He furrowed his brows, deeply troubled by this question. Not afraid, just troubled.
This wasn’t right!
Wang Xiaodian rallied his energy and told both Little Li and himself, “Little Li, you are Little Li. Your full name is Li Weiyan. Your face is your face. Liu Lingling’s face is Liu Lingling’s face. That was a hallucination. It’s because we’ve been polluted.”
“I am Little Li. I am Li Weiyan.”
“Right. You are Li Weiyan. We both need to stay calm, keep our mental state stable! Shifu! Talk to me some more!”
Xu Xiye: “…”
Xu Xiye: “Talk about what else? Work’s started again. Get to your tasks. Send me the new product’s marketing copy draft tomorrow.”
“Oh, oh, oh.” Wang Xiaodian really went to write.
Work. Work could numb everything. Which corporate slave wasn’t a walking corpse, a body without a soul? With no soul, how could one go crazy?
Seeing Wang Xiaodian start working, Little Li turned back around. He just sat there dully, doing nothing. After a long while, he turned and looked up. Xu Xiye saw him and also looked up.
The ceiling fan hung quietly from the ceiling, nothing out of the ordinary.
Little Li turned back, resuming his dazed sitting. Xu Xiye withdrew his gaze and secretly shook his head.
Brother Zhang definitely wasn’t getting his 200 yuan.
When he followed Little Li’s movement and looked back at the ceiling again, a woman was suspended below the fan.
The back of her head faced him. All he could see was a mass of black hair. The ceiling fan slowly turned. The woman followed, turning half a circle. Again, all he saw was the back of her head.
Deathly white toes swayed in the air, now and then kicking at Little Li. Little Li watched, a grotesque smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.
This… was that a corpse hanging there, or some colleague stretching their neck?
Xu Xiye couldn’t be blamed for this question. Depending on individual constitution, some people died from hanging, while others’ necks were flexible enough to hang casually.
Think of it as appropriate stretching.
The woman continued to rotate slowly with the fan. Turn as she might, she always kept the back of her head to him.
Xu Xiye shifted his angle several times, but still couldn’t make out who was up there. He couldn’t help but feel dejected.
It must be a colleague. There was nothing there just a moment ago. No one could have suddenly died hanging right there. It could only be a colleague slacking off.
Hanging up there right now, weren’t they afraid the higher-ups would catch them and dock their pay?
Xu Xiye was just about to suggest they find somewhere else to hang when Little Li withdrew his gaze at that moment. The woman hanging from the fan vanished.
