Mr. Melancholy Wants to Live a Peaceful Life - Chap 23
The employment contract needed to be filed at the Bureau of Personnel. They had done this with Yu Hua’s contract before.
Zhen Li didn’t have this legal awareness. When he had hired Yu Hua, it had been Yu Hua, fulfilling the responsibilities of a human resources director, who had reminded him.
Yuan Luori sat in Zhen Li’s chair, legs crossed arrogantly on top of the desk. Seeing that Yu Hua was about to leave after arranging the contract, he got up out of his half-collapsed slouch and stood on the desk, the tips of his feet lightly touching the desktop. Then, like a black cat, he noiselessly appeared in front of Yu Hua.
“Where are you going?” Yuan Luori said in warning.
Yu Hua lowered his eyes to avoid Yuan Luori and his parrot seeing his contemptuous expression. In a resigned voice, he said, “When we hire a new person, I have to go register it at the Bureau of Personnel. That’s stipulated by law.”
“Ha, law?” Yuan Luori tossed the dagger playfully. “What good is law? Can you eat it? You natives have it too easy. In the eyes of us levelers, law is worth less than a slice of bread. Pooh!”
Seeing a sight too painful to behold, Zhen Li covered his face and turned away, not daring to look at Yuan Luori’s smug, arrogant expression. This was his first time feeling that knowing too much was painful.
“You both have super powers, so you think you can trample on the law, but I’m different. I’m just an ordinary person. I’ve spent the first part of my life properly observing law and discipline. I hope to pass the rest of my life just as steadily,” Yu Hua said.
“If you want to file it, go ahead, but…” Yuan Luori pointed to the wound on his face. “What will you do if someone asks you about that wound?”
“I’ll say…that a feral black cat scratched me.” Yu Hua looked Yuan Luori’s clothes up and down.
Yuan Luori could tell that Yu Hua’s “feral black cat” meant him. He didn’t take offense. Feral meant free, and feline animals had strong attack and alertness capabilities, which suited the life of an assassin. Feline imitation was among Yuan Luori’s skills. Calling him a black cat was tantamount to praising him, saying he was a killer in the night. He wasn’t averse to this form of address.
“You can only get at me with your words. Remember, if you dare to tell anyone, not only will you be poisoned to death, your family is also finished,” Yuan Luori said in a dangerous voice.
Yu Hua’s gaze swept over Yuan Luori. Leaving behind a meaningful gaze, he took the contract and left.
Hearing their dialogue, Zhen Li covered his face.
He had suddenly realized the great master’s intentions. The great master going to file the contract meant that they were going to keep the feral black cat. If you were taking in a stray cat, didn’t you first have to vaccinate it to eliminate anything dangerous it might be carrying? Maybe you even had to snip off its balls.
Thinking of that, Zhen Li felt excited. He thought, Ignorance really is bliss. Then he went over and said, “Director Yuan, should we discuss how to promote our ship? I can see that your skeleton is very supple, as flexible as a cat’s. It should be easy for you to learn to dance, right?”
Yuan Luori’s attitude towards Zhen Li was all right. It wasn’t the sort of superior attitude he had towards Yu Hua. He coldly said, “If you like making a fool of yourself, then go ahead. Don’t imagine that I’m going prance around with you! At most I’ll appear in front of the livestream camera. As for the ship, that’s your responsibility.”
“Okay.” Zhen Li nodded indifferently, then started planning dance moves according to Yuan Luori’s physique.
The great master wanted to conceal his identity, and he would cooperate for now, though first he had to prepare himself. Zhen Li thought that with Yuan Luori’s attitude, in a few days he would be studying sliding kneels along with him.
Yes, I’ll include the kneeling position in the dance teaching program. When we study it on the livestream, we’ll definitely be able to attract many fans, Zhen Li thought.
After they got popular, they would have to hire a dance teacher… Would the great master agree to spending money before they had earned any? Zhen Li was very worried.
While Zhen Li was racking his brain to plan out a program for making money, Yu Hua had already arrived at the Bureau of Personnel. It was upstairs from the job center’s hall. After filing the contract, he left behind one original copy of the contract, and put the other two in his briefcase. When he got back, he would give one to Yuan Luori.
When the time came that Yuan Luori no longer looked down on law and found out that he had to use legal methods to protect himself, maybe he would cry. Yu Hua thought this rather cheerfully.
He raised a hand to touch the wound on his face. When he’d left the studio, he’d immediately gone to a pharmacy to buy a bandaid to cover up the wound.
He needed to prepare a first aid box for the office. In the future, there would be many dust-ups like this. They couldn’t always go to the hospital. Yu Hua wrote out a shopping list in a small notebook.
After filing, he slacked off during working hours. He went to the office building behind the job center and entered the psychological consultation office.
Yu Hua had originally made an appointment for this time. Even if he hadn’t had to go file Yuan Luori’s contract, he still would have punctually kept the appointment.
Since he had started psychological consultation, using stress, anxiety, mania, and other such excuses to cover up his behavior, he had to see it through to the end. He needed a medical record of his condition gradually improving after changing jobs. This way his reasons for remaining at his post in Zhen Li’s studio would stand up.
Yu Hua planned for this process to last three months. At first he would come for a consultation every day or every other day. When the situation had been alleviated, he could go once a week to consolidate his position. In three months, he would make the psychologist issue the conclusion that he had already basically recovered. Regardless of whether the Protection Organization was going to investigate the follow-up records, since he had started, he had to play the game in full.
During an hour of psychological consultation, following the psychologist’s “lead,” Yu Hua explained how he had found a new job, that his boss was rather stupid, that he had little stress at work. The new position gave him room to spread out. His mental state was gradually stabilizing, and the desire to destroy decreasing.
He said that he had bought a stack of little makeup mirrors and put them in his briefcase. When his mood became unsteady, he could break a mirror for relief.
But he knew that this was a remedy that only made matters worse. It couldn’t treat his psychological malady at its roots.
Fortunately he had already learned to accept his imperfect self, accept that he was weak, selfish, and petty. He could speak openly with himself. He wouldn’t avoid problems again.
The psychologist encouraged and praised Yu Hua. At the end of the conversation, the psychologist hesitated and said, “Because of family circumstances, my place of work is going to change. I may go very far away from you. Would you object to online chats?”
Yu Hua paused. He stared at the psychologist and saw that this forty-something psychologist looked a trace unnatural. He understood.
It seemed that the World Protection Organization had already found his psychological consultation records. To observe him up close, the Protection Organization no doubt wanted him to switch to a psychology expert in their organization. Using online chats would make it easy to switch to a different person without being noticed. If Yu Hua didn’t accept the internet as a medium, that would be even better. They could simply recommend that he switch to someone more specialized.
Yu Hua considerately said, “I don’t especially like the online method. I feel that it’s unsafe and worry about my personal information being revealed. But I trust your insight. Could you recommend a psychologist in the Xuyang District area to me?”
As expected, his psychologist relaxed and easily said, “Of course I can. I can recommend a senior of mine from school who’s more specialized than I am, though the price will remain the same.”
“All right, thank you,” said Yu Hua.
It seemed that the Protection Organization knew that he was currently hard up and wouldn’t accept too high a price. They were fairly considerate.
Yu Hua didn’t hate the Protection Organization. If they hadn’t been protecting this world, the System would have occupied it long ago.
The System would occupy a world, then extract the living bodies in that world that had potential to service it in obtaining power. First it used its power to occupy one or two worlds. Then it would arrange for some intelligent life forms to die in accidents. These so-called deaths were fake. Actually, the System would extract the living bodies before death and throw them into different worlds to perform missions.
These living bodies, also known as levelers, carried out missions of many different kinds, but the basic goal was all the same: to destroy the world order and make it easy for the System’s power to invade.
The levelers were used, but they couldn’t be called completely innocent, either. Because when they accomplished a mission, as the System’s chosen teeth and claws, they would also obtain a part of the world’s power, becoming stronger and stronger.
The System used the eternally unattainable carrot of “clearing” to bait the levelers, used the explanation that this was “fake,” a “game world” to lower the levelers’ moral baselines. When the levelers had already killed many people across numerous worlds, the System would finally tell them the truth.
A small number of levelers, after finding out that they had killed people in real worlds, would mentally collapse, fall into total disorder, and the System could take the opportunity to absorb their energy. But the majority of the levelers would have already had their minds numbed after so many worlds. Some clever people may have already discovered that this wasn’t a game world, and that they were being used as executioners. But so what? They had to live, had to clear.
Over the endless years, the levelers lost their consciences and morals, but they didn’t know that they were all only thin branches of the System. Not only could they not clear, the System could absorb their energy at any time.
This was what it looked like to be meat on the chopping block.
The difference between Yu Hua, who was a clearer, and the rest of the levelers was that he was an aberration.
If one compared the levelers to the System’s cells, then Yu Hua was a constantly splitting and consuming cancerous cell. He had survived countless missions, seized the System’s power, and finally had become a tumor that the System had no choice but to cut away. Before leaving, this tumor had dealt the main body a fierce blow, taking away the greater part of the System’s energy.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t entirely eliminate the System, or else the System’s other cells would die along with the main body. But Yu Hua had left behind the seeds of the cancer. If the cells could only seize the opportunity, each one of them could escape the System.
Yu Hua had known that this was a world that the System had never been able to capture. He didn’t know what there was in this world, whether he could live out the peaceful life he wanted there. But this was the hardest world for the System to control. No matter what kind of world it was, he would spend his last life there.
After coming here, Yu Hua had been fascinated by this world’s peace and had lived at ease. And at the most appropriate time, he had met You Zhengping.
He was grateful to the Protection Organization for guarding this world, though it would be better if they could return the wreckage of the phone to him when the investigation was over.
When he was finished with his errands, Yu Hua returned to the office and saw Zhen Li livestreaming with Yuan Luori.
Zhen Li had introduced the company’s Director of Environmental Maintenance to everyone, and indicated that from now on Yuan Luori would always livestream with him. Director Yuan learned well and knew some dance fundamentals. They would invite the fans to supervise the whole course of their dance studies. When they had a finished product, they would rent a specialized dance stage and record it for everyone to watch.
[There’s a little too much information in what President Zhen said. I don’t know where to start. Let’s line up.]
[What I want to know is, in a company with only three people, what’s the difference between a Director of Environmental Maintenance and a janitor?]
[I think there is a difference. You could read it as environmental protection + maintaining security, so he’s a janitor + security guard.]
[Their company has no equipment. The president is so poor he uses a cell phone for livestreaming. The picture is very narrow. If President Zhen’s movements are a little too expansive, they go out of the frame. What does such a poor company need a security guard for?]
[To protect President Zhen’s face! Are you telling me such a good-looking face doesn’t need protection?]
[Can’t Director Yu protect President Zhen’s face? Why did they have to hire Director Yuan? I don’t want the ZhenYuan1 ship, I want the YuZhen2 ship!]
[But Director Yu is married, and that policeman is also very handsome. They shouldn’t be broken up. Let’s ship ZhenYuan…]
[There’s nothing interesting about ZhenYuan. Director Yuan may be handsome, but he doesn’t move at all! He won’t even meet President Zhen’s eye. I’m not having any of this fake candy! Yuan Luori is too unprofessional, I demand you change to someone else!]
The barrage was full of a string of “I don’t agree to their marriage,” and “someone else, someone else.” Zhen Li didn’t dare to order around Yuan Luori, who was still living in an illusion. He awkwardly danced through the two hours of the livestream. After turning off the livestream, he looked anxious.
It wasn’t going too far to say that Yuan Luori was a security guard. Yuan Luori’s presence really was for the sake of protecting Zhen Li’s face. The netizens hadn’t guessed wrong.
Yu Hua, on the other hand, wasn’t in a hurry. He had a use for Yuan Luori.
When the Protection Organization saw that Zhen Li’s studio had hired another person, they would definitely investigate Yuan Luori’s identity. Yuan Luori was an out-and-out leveler. He absolutely wouldn’t stand up to investigation.
Yu Hua guessed that the Protection Organization would definitely have one final trial for him. Rather than let the other side act, it would be better to plan something himself. He would make Yuan Luori, who was entirely unsentimental about the natives, attack him. Yu Hua would be gravely injured, Yuan Luori would reveal himself in front of the Protection Organization, and Yu Hua would become the innocent passerby Yuan Luori saw him as, escaping entirely.
He very properly drew up a plan for the company’s professional future, putting on an appearance of working until it was time to leave. In reality, in the course of casual conversation, he had secretly hinted many things to Zhen Li. Next it would be President Zhen’s turn to act.
When Yu Hua came home, You Zhengping had just woken up. He was sitting up in bed, his eyes drowsy, looking lost.
Yu Hua changed to his slippers. Without even taking off his jacket, he walked into the bedroom and went over to hug You Zhengping and kiss his face. He had heard too much of Yuan Luori’s stupid, egotistical talk today. His mind was in disorder. He had come to You Zhengping to recharge his batteries.
Last time, his powers had awakened very abruptly. There had been absolutely no warning signs. The wholly unprepared Yu Hua hadn’t been able to control his power in time, leading to his power collecting entirely in his physical strength. Now, because of the stimulus of Yuan Luori’s poison, more of Yu Hua’s power had awakened than last time, but this time he had been ready. He had directed the power towards abilities that could hide his identity. His strength hadn’t increased. He could touch his husband as usual.
You Zhengping, having been kissed, was about to smile when he saw the bandaid on Yu Hua’s face and said in concern, “What’s this? Did Zhen Li hit you?”
You Zhengping had thought all along that Zhen Li had bad intentions.
Yu Hua enjoyed Xiao You’s concern very much. He raised a hand to touch the bandaid and said, “No, a new employee came to the company today. His name is Yuan Luori. He and President Zhen seem to be old acquaintances. They started fighting as soon as they saw each other. I went to break it up and got hurt by mistake.”
“Another one?” You Zhengping was on the alert. “What does he look like?”
Before, if anything at all had happened in the Xuyang District, Captain You Zhengping would have been notified. But his family member was currently being investigated, and You Zhengping had been temporarily suspended from duty. His work was temporarily being handled by Lian Yufan’s squad. News was slow to arrive.
Seeing that You Zhengping was sounding the alarm bells, Yu Hua guessed that he was jealous again. In spite of himself, he felt glad. “Relax, he seems to have a good relationship with President Zhen. While I was in the office, they were always whispering to each other and livestreaming. I felt like a third wheel.”
Zhen Li and Yuan Luori had a good relationship? Could it really be a party of Destroyers? You Zhengping couldn’t keep lying down anymore. He pulled away Yu Hua’s bandaid. Seeing the wound under it, he said in surprise, “That’s no ordinary accidental injury. That was clearly done by a knife!”
“Yuan Luori is a little eccentric. He likes tossing around a dagger for fun. I put a stop to that, but President Zhen said that Director Yuan had a strong sense of propriety and wouldn’t randomly hurt people. And it wasn’t a big knife, the wound isn’t deep. It’ll be better soon,” Yu Hua said, holding You Zhengping’s hand.
“Better my ass!” You Zhengping said angrily. “This wound seems small, but it’s actually very deep. That dagger must be light and thin, very sharp. It’s clearly meant for hurting people. A wound of this depth will leave a scar!”
He struggled out of Yu Hua’s arms and jumped out of bed. “Who the hell is he? I’m going to go give him a seeing to!”
“Wait!” Yu Hua couldn’t let his husband face Yuan Luori directly. He quickly took You Zhengping’s hand and said, “You understand knife wounds very well.”
“I…” The impulsive You Zhengping sucked in a breath, looking guiltily at Yu Hua. Of course he understood. You Zhengping had been first in weapons skills in the nationwide competition. He was proficient in eighteen kinds of weaponry. He knew perfectly well what kind of weapons caused what kind of wounds.
“Have you seen wounds like this while carrying out your missions as an auxiliary police officer, or did you play with knives before when you were obsessed with extreme sports?” Yu Hua asked nervously. “Let me see if you have any injuries. If you’ve been injured, don’t hide it from me.”
“No, no! I haven’t been injured,” You Zhengping said quickly. “I… You know I used to be kind of rebellious, I really did play with knives, and so would Cen Xiao and the others. But I’ve cleaned up my act and settled down now. I don’t know whether Cen Xiao and the others still play around.”
“I’m glad you’re all right.” Yu Hua relaxed, at the same time feeling jealous again. “I met you too late. There are so many things I don’t know about you.”
Cen Xiao had been part of too much of You Zhengping’s past. Yu Hua couldn’t help feeling that it was somewhat unbalanced.
Before, You Zhengping wouldn’t have been able to read the subtext in these words. But after reading the calendar diary, he understood. He kissed Yu Hua and quietly said, “Then I can tell you about it over time.”
“All right.” Yu Hua smiled brightly.
“I’m hungry. I’ve been sleeping all day. I haven’t eaten anything.” You Zhengping rubbed his stomach.
“Soon.” Yu Hua quickly undid his tie, changed into home clothes, tied on a little bear apron, and prepared a lavish dinner for his starving husband.
As soon as he went into the kitchen, You Zhengping, clenching his teeth, picked up his phone and sent Lian Yufan a coded message, asking why he hadn’t been notified of the new developments today.
You Zhengping had just examined his phone. There wasn’t a single message. Lian Yufan didn’t take him seriously at all!
Lian Yufan said: The company has employed another Destroyer. Yu Hua’s identity is even more suspect. We’re keeping watch on the basement Zhen Li rents, waiting to question him when he returns. For the moment, you have no authority to learn this information. You’ll hear about everything after the date.
Yu Hua was a Protector’s family member. The organization had had misgivings about investigating him, so they hadn’t gone to question Zhen Li directly. Now that someone who was clearly a Destroyer had joined the company, the Protection Organization had to carry out its full function.
You Zhengping quickly deleted the message and stared gloomily at the phone.
He had seen Zhen Li. He was somewhat of a coward. The Protection Organization could easily control Zhen Li. But Yuan Luori didn’t seem easy to deal with. One meeting, and Yu Hua had been accidentally injured by him. He really couldn’t feel easy about Yu Hua working with the two of them.
Then Lian Yufan sent today’s psychological consultation record translated into code. You Zhengping read that Yu Hua said he was doing better and better now. He felt tormented.
The new job was making Yu Hua happy, letting him walk out of the shadow. As his family member, he couldn’t force him to resign.
When the news broadcast started, Yu Hua had just finished making a table full of lavish dinner food. You Zhengping, his feelings complicated, sat at the dining table. Looking at the four dishes and soup in front of him, he nearly started to cry.
Yu Hua hummed a tune while filling a bowl with rice for You Zhengping. He was clearly in a very good mood.
You Zhengping, enduring his sadness, began to gobble up his food. He choked after eating only two mouthfuls and started to cough violently.
“Don’t eat so fast. Eating slowly is good for your stomach.” Yu Hua passed over a cup of warm barley tea, lightly patting You Zhengping’s back.
You Zhengping swallowed the tea and nodded. “It’s so good, and I’m so hungry. I couldn’t hold back.”
The two of them ate up all the food while watching the news, concerning themselves with the country’s major events.
Yu Hua ate twice as much as usual. Now that his powers had been unsealed, he needed more food, and he had unconsciously increased the amount of food he’d made. You Zhengping saw how he was eating and thought that it was true that a good mood increased your appetite.
“Where are we going for our date this weekend?” Yu Hua asked You Zhengping, who was lazily lying on the couch while Yu Hua cleaned the room and washed the dishes.
“Let’s go…to the amusement park in the suburbs. I always went there when I was little. I kind of miss it,” You Zhengping said.
The swish of the water as the dishes were washed and the Fishermen’s Song playing as background music in the weather forecast mingled. Curiously, Yu Hua said, “Isn’t it going to be closed down soon because it’s too old? I heard that the government is planning rebuild the amusement park next year. While it hasn’t closed yet, will there be visitors?”
It was precisely because there would be few people that it was a good place to act. Choosing an amusement park that was about to be abandoned and renovated made it easy to encounter danger!
“Didn’t I promise that I would tell you stories about my childhood?” You Zhengping went into the kitchen and hugged Yu Hua from behind, burying his face against his back. He said, “I have lots of memories at that amusement park.”
“All right,” Yu Hua said lightly. “It’s good that there won’t be many people. It’ll be easy to be alone, and we won’t have to worry about getting lost.”
In another two days, it was the weekend. Yu Hua had been waiting in vain these two days for the Protection Organization’s attempt. Zhen Li, meanwhile, had been beaten up by Lian Yufan.
Complying with his subordinate’s instructions, President Zhen first told the Protection Organization that neither of the two directors was a Destroyer, and all he wanted was to start a business and live a quiet life. When that was seen through, he said that both of them were Destroyers. Then he said that Yu Hua was, while Yuan Luori wasn’t. Finally, after being punched twice, he said that Yu Hua wasn’t and Yuan Luori was. In short, he didn’t say a word of truth.
Lian Yufan knew that he couldn’t get the truth out of him like this, so he ordered Zhen Li to take Yuan Luori to the amusement park this weekend.
Zhen Li cleverly used code to tell Yu Hua about this. Yu Hua, who had been looking forward to a date with just the two of them, looked grave.
The Protectors and the levelers were both trying to destroy his two-person world.
“Fine,” Yu Hua said heavily. “Let them come.”
Author’s Note
Many people have come to the soon-to-be-closed-down amusement park today. They’re separated into:
Lian Yufan’s squad, seven people; Cen Xiao and the others, come to watch the fun, six people (seven in all adding in You Zhengping); the Destroyers Zhen Li and Yuan Luori; a Protector squad captain; and the world’s most powerful Destroyer, Yu Hua.
The amusement park: Do you people think I’m not closing down fast enough?
Translator’s Note
1The characters used are 真 and 圆, pronounced the same as their surnames but respectively meaning “true” and “circle.”
2Similar to the above, the characters used here are 玉 and 枕, “jade” and “pillow.”
