Mr. Melancholy Wants to Live a Peaceful Life - Chap 13
Since the System app had been deleted by an as yet unknown mysterious person, Zhen Li’s days had been joyous.
Even though he was under observation by the World Protection Organization, even though he didn’t know what the mysterious person wanted him to do, Zhen Li’s state of mind was still extremely optimistic. He was so happy his heels didn’t touch the ground when he walked; each step tapped out a dancing rhythm.
The System planted in his head, which could have killed him at any time, was gone, and he still had his wardrobe, clothes, and alternate dimension stomach. Did human life contain any greater blessings than this?
In a refined white scholarly gown, holding a fan in his hand, wearing a graceful wig, Zhen Li spun happily in front of the mirror.
He had arranged the studio very simply. There were two desks, two chairs, a big wardrobe for clothes, and a big mirror occupying an entire wall.
“I really am handsome.” Zhen Li turned his fan as he spun in front of the mirror, long hair gently fluttering with him.
On a shelf next to him was a cell phone. On the phone’s screen, countless barrage comments were floating by:
[Hot, hot, hot, so hot!]
[Ever since seeing that basketball throwing video, I was charmed by the boy with a hundred looks. I spent ages looking for you, only getting by on strangers’ photographs. Today I’ve finally found you. From now on, I only have eyes for you and my cat!]
[Those gestures, that expression, that tone, it’s too smug! But I like it, please do another spin!]
[You don’t look at the livestream screen, don’t thank viewers for sending you submarines, don’t say your diehard supporters are awesome, don’t sing songs. You’re the least professional internet celebrity I’ve ever seen. But I like it.]
[What’s so good about a guy spinning around? It’s totally boring. I think I’ll watch it a few hundred times.]
Just then, a knock came from the wide-open door. “Hello, I saw your posting to submit job applications online. I e-mailed my resume to your company earlier, and the response said that I should come this morning at ten for an interview. My name is…”
Zhen Li didn’t even look at the man who had come for an interview. He was absorbed in looking at his own flourishing beauty in the mirror. He had established the studio according to the great master’s orders, but he didn’t know what the studio was supposed to do, didn’t know when the great master was going to come to give him his next assignment.
Out of boredom, Zhen Li had spent each day looking in the mirror, changing his clothes, posing, and doing a self-taught livestream. In a few days he’d gotten several hundred thousand fans.
The phone couldn’t film the applicant’s face, but it recorded his voice, and the fans watching the livestream immediately got excited.
[Here we go, here we go, every day’s essential event, watching President Zhen’s fancy way of refusing the interviewee.]
[The day before yesterday, he wouldn’t consider a university outside the top three, wouldn’t consider anyone who didn’t have mastery of less than five foreign languages.]
[Yesterday there was finally an applicant who had graduated from a big three with a foreign language level above the requirements, and he said they also needed to have three years of work experience in one of the country’s top 100 enterprises in a senior management role or more. What kind of top 100 enterprise senior manager would come here to work?]
[I suspect President Zhen is only recruiting people for the pleasure of refusing them. Sooner or later his requirements will get so high no one on earth will fit them. We only want aliens hidden among the crowd here, hahahaha!]
[Is it really a good thing he’s doing? He’s simply trampling on people’s hearts.]
[Oh, drop it. That poky little ad he posted on the job websites, however you look at it, it looks like a scam. What kind of decent job-seeker would consider this kind of dirt poor briefcase company? All the people who come to apply are his fans, all of them girls. It would be weird if he didn’t refuse.]
[Think of the way the applicants from the last few days shrieked. Were they there to find work? They were craving President Zhen’s body! Ah, I’m craving it, too (drooling).]
[But this time, judging by the voice, it’s a guy, and a pretty steady one.]
Zhen Li didn’t even look at the newcomer. He stopped his spinning steps, elegantly turned his fan over, then closed it against his palm.
Long, slim fingers holding the fan, Zhen Li said in an ethereal voice, “Our position here requires that you be a graduate of a top three university or better.”
“I am,” the livestream fans could only hear the newcomer saying. “Here is my diploma.”
Because there had already been a university graduate the day before yesterday, Zhen Li was calm in the face of crisis. He faced the mirror and fixed his somewhat messy hair. “You also have to be proficient in five or more foreign languages.”
“I’m a certified expert in English, Russian, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Arabic, and Latin.” The newcomer got all kinds of certificates out of his briefcase.
Was the applicant this time so awesome? Zhen Li was surprised, but he firmly told him the third difficult requirement: “Also, three years or more experience in senior management at one of the country’s top one-hundred enterprises.”
“I have that, too. Here is my resume. I used to be the human resources manager at ——— Company. I resigned half a month ago,” the newcomer said calmly.
Zhen Li turned his head in shock and took all the materials from the newcomer’s hands. After sitting in his seat and carefully examining the materials, he said, “Since you’re so capable, why do you want to come work at this crappy little studio?”
Though Zhen Li had changed his position, the livestream screen also faced the desk. They could still see his ethereal figure. But the applicant seemed to still be standing by the door. He hadn’t appeared in front of the lens.
[What else could it be for? It’s for love!]
[Hurry, hurry! Hurry and let me see his face. Is he handsome? His voice is killing me, a first-rate voice actor’s voice.]
“I…” The newcomer hesitated, then said, “I had different views from my previous superiors. You could say I resigned peacefully. Owing to certain unfortunate events that took place when I resigned, it would be hard for me to find a new job in the near future. But it seems my present savings won’t be able to support modern life, so I really need this job.”
Zhen Li had just been worrying about what excuse he should use to refuse this very qualified applicant. Hearing this, he quickly said, “Oh, so this is only to fill up the transitional period for you. You’re unlikely to work long-term at my studio. What I need is someone who can collaborate and struggle with me in the long-term. If you came here only with the idea of adjusting your condition, then I’m very sorry, you’re outstanding, but you aren’t suited for this job.”
The newcomer laughed quietly. “No. I’d originally hoped to spend my time peacefully working at a fairly steady enterprise, form part of an ordinary working group. But what’s happened recently has made a change in my ideas. Rather than following all the rules and regulations of a large company, I hope instead to work at a small company with potential, forge a base with my own hands. Doesn’t that have more meaning? It’s the pleasure of entrepreneurship.”
Zhen Li’s expression at once became very brilliant. This applicant was very difficult to deal with. Could he be someone sent by another leveler or the great master behind the scenes?
He looked the applicant up and down. High, straight nose bridge, regular features, handsome looks, an upright back, a proper bearing, unnaturally long legs, and a plain black suit. Based solely on his appearance, the applicant was flawless, but there was an aloof quality about him. However you looked at him, he didn’t seem like a leveler who had experienced countless worlds, or like the matchless great master in person.
Zhen Li felt conflicted. He put the applicant’s materials down. Rubbing his hands, he said, “Uh…do you have a significant other?”
His question made the barrage heat up at once:
[Wait, why did he suddenly ask this question? Weirdlyexcited.jpg.]
[President Zhen, let me see the applicant’s face! My ears are getting pregnant just listening to his voice, his face must be so handsome.]
[I just drew a graph based on the direction of President Zhen’s line of sight, the distance of his eyes from the ground, and the distance between his position and the applicant. My preliminary estimate is that the applicant ought to be between 183 cm and 188 cm tall. I don’t know what his face looks like, but with that height, his legs must be up to standard.]
“I’ve been married for three years. I live with my husband in the Xuyang District. My husband also works here. I won’t resign because of a long-distance relationship. I won’t refuse to go on business trips because of my marriage. My husband is very supportive of my work.” Each sentence the applicant spoke left Zhen Li no way to refuse.
Married? Zhen Li smiled in satisfaction.
The System wouldn’t normally arrange a married identity for a leveler. When levelers came to a new world, they would for the most part get an identity with no family or connections, without any burdens. That was the only way to silently blend into the world without anyone detecting their identities.
Since this person was married and deeply in love with his husband, this also couldn’t be the person he wanted to find.
So Zhen Li straightened out the applicant’s materials and returned them. “I’m very sorry, but this company can’t employ you.”
“Why? Are you livestreaming?” the applicant asked.
“In order to be open and impartial, I usually livestream the course of interviews,” Zhen Li explained simply. “Even though your husband is supportive of your work, this company still hopes to hire some unmarried, even single, people. I’m unable to reveal the concrete reason. It involves this company’s secrets.”
In short, this company can’t employ you.
Just then, Zhen Li saw the applicant interlace his fingers and stride towards the livestreaming phone. He lightly pressed the palm of his hand over the phone. Just like that, Zhen Li’s new high-definition wide-angle view phone broke.
The applicant’s gaze swept coldly around the studio. He waved his arm gently, and the studio’s main door tightly shut and locked itself.
Then he went up to the mirror, crooked his finger, and tapped lightly. Just like that, the mirror occupying the whole wall shattered, the pieces crashing to the floor.
Zhen Li: “!!!”
The applicant raised his hand to untie his too-tight necktie and undo the top two buttons of his shirt, revealing sexy collarbones.
He walked over to Zhen Li’s president’s desk and leaned both arms on top of it. Unlike his previous warm voice, his current tone was extremely aggressive. “I told you to open a studio, and this is how you accomplish the mission? Livestreaming? Is that it?”
Zhen Li: “!!!”
Looking at the applicant’s murderous expression, Zhen Li felt like he’d had icy water poured from his head to his feet, the cold bone-chilling. Every bit of skin stung from the freezing cold.
Zhen Li immediately sprang up from his seat and knelt on both knees in front of the applicant, putting both palms on the ground. The movement was smooth and natural. He must have practiced it many times.
“I-I-I-I didn’t know that it was you, great master. I was blind. I’m really too stupid!” Zhen Li said with his head lowered.
Naturally, the applicant was Yu Hua. He looked down from on high at Zhen Li kneeling and sighed gently. “I didn’t tell you to kneel.”
“Right, right!” Zhen Li nodded repeatedly. “It’s my way of using body language to express my worship for someone I revere. It comes from the heart!”
“Get up. I don’t have that sort of feudal hobby.” It was June, and wearing the thick suit was a little warm. Yu Hua took off his jacket and sat in Zhen Li’s chair. The look in his eyes was cold and unfeeling, as though looking at a tiny ant.
Zhen Li falteringly got up. He didn’t dare to raise his head to look at Yu Hua. He could only warn him, “Great master, I think the World Protection Organization has been observing me. I don’t know whether there are cameras in this room.”
“Just call me Yu Hua. You’re the boss,” Yu Hua said calmly, sitting in the boss’s chair. “There’s surveillance in the office building’s lobby and in the corridor outside your door. There’s someone secretly filming from the office building across the street. As for the inside of your office…is there any need for surveillance?”
Zhen Li had the livestream turned on all day. There was no need to install surveillance inside the office. And the World Protection Organization didn’t want to alert him, so they had been using long-distance methods to keep watch on Zhen Li.
Zhen Li looked at the window and thought it was lucky that the sun was too intense in the afternoons and would affect the lighting in the livestream. To better show off his complexion, he had closed the blinds long ago. Even if there was surveillance outside, they wouldn’t see what was happening inside the room.
“Yes, I was wrong, I shouldn’t have been livestreaming, and I’m very stupid, I didn’t recognize you at first, great master….Yu Hua,” Zhen Li obediently acknowledged his mistake.
“Forget it. You’ve done very well from the standpoint of attracting others’ notice. And all levelers have their own hobbies. I’m not planning on suppressing your nature,” Yu Hua said amiably.
Even he yearned for a peaceful life and struggled to cover up his superhuman skills. During his university entrance exam, he had forced himself to make mistakes, avoiding the calamity of testing into the number one university.
Over the endless years, levelers all developed some psychological problems. It was normal for them to have some eccentric hobbies.
“How long have you been a leveler? How many levels have you passed?” Yu Hua asked.
“It’s just been fifteen years. I’ve passed four levels. This is my fifth,” Zhen Li answered truthfully.
Yu Hua frowned slightly. He remembered that the first ten levels were for newbies to get adjusted. They were very simple levels that you could pass thinking with your feet. When he had been a leveler, it had only taken him half a year to clear the first ten worlds, and his companions had also only taken one year. Even if he and his companions had been exceedingly strong and Zhen Li’s cohort of levelers were weak, fifteen years ago, the System had had the greater part of its energy removed. The difficulty of the levels had fallen to one fifth and below. It had taken Zhen Li fifteen years to go through four newbie levels?
“Though I deleted your System, in order to deal with the other levelers, I left you your foundation item from the first world and the ability that took the most points. What are your remaining item and ability?”
The first world’s carry-on item could be upgraded, and it was the basis on which a leveler could survive in a world where survival was difficult. As long as Zhen Li still had his first item, Yu Hua could help him upgrade it, give Zhen Li the strength to deal with other levelers. That way, Yu Hua could hide himself.
As soon as the item and ability were mentioned, Zhen Li cheered up. He said exultantly, “My first item is a wardrobe that can hold tens of thousands of pieces of clothing. I filled the inside up with clothes! My ability is an alternate dimension stomach. I can eat without getting fat. It’s a very practical ability!”
Yu Hua: “…”
Author’s Note
Zhen Li: This company requires a top three university diploma.
Yu Hua: I have that.
Zhen Li: This company requires mastery of five foreign languages.
Yu Hua: I have that.
Zhen Li: This company requires three years or more of senior management work experience at one of the country’s top one-hundred enterprises.
Yu Hua: I have that.
Zhen Li: …This company doesn’t hire humans.
Yu Hua: I think I really wasn’t human in the past.
Zhen Li: …This company doesn’t hire people from this world!
Yu Hua (faint smile): What a coincidence. I’m not.
