Chapter 6 : The Bureau of Abnormal Affairs

The next morning, Rachel struggled to overcome her drowsiness and crawl out of bed.
The first thing she did after getting up was to drink water.
Rachel’s water bottle held 500ml, and she drank eight cups a day, totaling 4L.
Drinking plenty of water was good for her body, though it meant she often had to pee.
After drinking water, she washed up and had breakfast.
Her breakfast consisted of two slices of toast and a boiled egg.
After eating, she filled another cup of water to take with her.

Today, she wore her usual attire: a jacket, jeans, and leather shoes.
The only difference was that she wasn’t wearing a turtleneck sweater; instead, she had on a sleeveless shirt under her jacket.

The Bureau of Abnormal Affairs was conveniently located close to Rachel’s apartment.
It took her a leisurely fifteen-minute walk to get there.

The Bureau was situated on Narcissus Avenue, southwest of Sinhe City’s center.
It was a four-story building with the words “Bureau of Abnormal Events Investigation, Control, and Public Security” printed in large characters on its facade.

Rachel walked up to the entrance and took out her badge holder.
A bronze badge was attached to it, depicting crossed double-edged swords and a black shield.
On the other side was her ID card, with her name in the name field.
Below that were her gender, age, position, and serial number.
Next to it was a headshot of a beautiful young woman with blue hair.

Rachel swiped her ID at the electronic lock.
With a “beep,” she passed through the access control and went inside.

Swiping the ID wasn’t for getting through the gate, but for clocking in.
If she just wanted to enter, she didn’t need to swipe her ID.

Rachel arrived a bit early, at nine-ten, with twenty minutes to spare before the scheduled time.

She didn’t go to Old Luo’s office right away but went to her own desk and sat down, planning to head over at nine-thirty.

“What are all these?” Rachel stared at the mountain of unfamiliar envelopes piled on her desk.

“Rachel? Aren’t you on vacation?” A small head with long brown hair peeked out from the side of the adjacent cubicle divider.

It was Rachel’s colleague, Tina, a recent graduate with faint freckles on her face.

“Old Luo canceled my vacation and dragged me back,” Rachel said with a look of utter despair.
“What would you do if you got a call at two in the morning telling you your vacation was over and you had to go back to work overtime?”

“I’d just have to go back and work overtime, I guess. It’s not like I have a choice,” Tina said.
“No wonder you look a bit off.”

“So, what are all these things?” Rachel pointed at the envelopes on her desk.
“They’re about to form a pyramid on my desk.”

“These? They’re love letters for you, Rachel,” Tina said.
“It’s not the first time you’ve received them.”

“I don’t remember there being that many men here,” Rachel asked.
“Why are there so many envelopes?”

“Some of them aren’t from our Bureau,” Tina said, pointing to an envelope tied with a rose.
“This one is from Mr. Jericho. Do you remember him? He’s a local business owner. Two months ago, you rescued his young son from a group of psionic robbers. He’s been very grateful to you ever since.”

“Grateful, so he sends me roses? A fifty-year-old man with one foot in the grave? Doesn’t he have a wife and kids?” Rachel felt a chill run down her spine. Disgusting, so disgusting. How could you accept his letter and put it on my desk? Isn’t that disgusting?”

“Well, Mr. Jericho has made a lot of donations to us, financial support, so we couldn’t really stop his people,” Tina said with a shrug.
“I’ve always been envious of your looks and figure, Rachel. But I have to say, you do face a fair share of trouble.”

“So you see, being pretty is actually a bad thing, Tina,” Rachel said, exasperated.

“No, Rachel. Your kind of trouble is like a rich person’s trouble,” Tina corrected her.
“Who wouldn’t want to have such happy troubles?”

“I…” Rachel didn’t know how to respond.
“Maybe you’re right, Tina.”

“What are these?” Rachel pointed to several gift boxes next to the envelopes.
The boxes were of various sizes, some pink, some red, tied with colorful ribbons into bows.
One box even had a heart-shaped paper cutout glued to it.

“Presents, they came with the love letters. That biggest one is from Mr. Jericho,” Tina said excitedly.
“Open them and see, Rachel.”

“No,” Rachel said flatly.
“Do you have any empty boxes, Tina? My trash can isn’t big enough for all this garbage.”

Rachel spent five minutes of her life wasting five minutes of her life, just to throw the garbage that had rained down on her into the public trash can in the lobby.

“I really don’t get it. What do they see in me?” she complained.
“Can’t I just change?”

“You’re so charming, Rachel. It would be strange if men weren’t attracted to you,” Tina said.
“Maybe there’s a good man among them. Be a little patient.”

“I don’t want a man. I’m a staunch bachelorette,” Rachel said.

You’ve got to be kidding.
Ever since she transmigrated and transformed, Rachel had considered this body her “wife.”
If any man were to defile this body, it would be like cuckolding herself.

Getting close to girls?
She wasn’t interested in that either.
Not to mention she had no desire to be in a relationship, especially in another world.
Her perfect appearance after becoming a woman had raised her standards.
Rachel’s aesthetic threshold was very high now, after all, she looked in the mirror every day.
Most of the women she met weren’t as beautiful as she was, so she couldn’t get interested at all.

She would absolutely not fall in love.
Absolutely not.

“Besides, I dress like a punk every day. Look, I’m the kind of person who wears leather shoes and a jacket, like a street loiterer.”

Tina stared at Rachel’s exquisite curves and shook her head.
“Those clothes don’t cover your face, nor do they hide your figure. Men will only think your style is unique; it can’t conceal your charm.”

“Rachel, you’re really beautiful. I’m so envious of you,” Tina’s voice was filled with envy.
“Aren’t you happy that your charm is recognized by everyone?”

“May God bless me,” Rachel spread her hands and tilted her head back at a forty-five-degree angle.
“I won’t deny that my vanity is greatly satisfied, but, my God, I don’t like being harassed! Especially by men!”

With that, she picked up her water bottle and drained it in one go.

“I’m going to see Old Luo. Let’s talk later.”

Rachel said her goodbyes and headed upstairs to the director’s office.

‘I wonder what kind of job he’s going to assign me this time,’ Rachel thought to herself as she knocked on the door.

“Come in,” came the voice of that bald old Luo from inside.

With the sound of metal sliding and colliding, the lock cylinder in the door automatically opened, and the door opened slightly, revealing a crack.

Rachel pushed the door open and entered.
It wasn’t her first time in Old Luo’s office, so she was quite familiar with the layout.