Chapter 8: Who Dares Touch My Little Toy?

The elevator went all the way up.

Back in the logistics department office on the first floor, the wall clock was pointing right at five in the afternoon.

It was almost time to clock out.

The office was noisy, everyone packing up to leave, keyboard clacks and chatter mixed together.

Zhang Jie was sitting at her workstation painting her nails.

Bright red, the kind that stings the eye.

When they saw Lu Yiyi come back, the whole office froze.

Zhang Jie’s mouth hung wide open, eyes about to pop out.

Everyone looked Lu Yiyi up and down.

No missing arms or legs.

Clothes clean.

Not dead, not crazy, her mental state so good it was almost enviable.

Not only that, that little face of hers had a healthy rosy glow, her complexion even better than when she’d come in that morning.

This was nothing like someone who’d just crawled out of a disaster-class containment room alive.

People would sooner believe she’d spent the afternoon at a high-end spa, topped off with a nice nap.

Zhang Jie’s eyes were practically bulging, fixed on the approaching Lu Yiyi.

The entire logistics department fell silent.

In the strange quiet, Lu Yiyi walked up to Zhang Jie’s desk and stopped.

“Sister Zhang, I’m back.”

A soft, babyish voice, carrying a naturally well-behaved quality.

Not a trace of being scared in it.

“You… you’re fine?”

Zhang Jie swallowed, her voice dry.

She stared at the pure, harmless face in front of her, feeling like she’d seen a ghost in broad daylight.

“I’m fine.”

Lu Yiyi blinked, her big eyes full of innocence.

Zhang Jie’s gaze swept over her, searching for any injury, any sign of an oncoming breakdown.

Nothing.

Not a thing.

“She… didn’t do anything to you?”

Zhang Jie pressed on, unwilling to let it go.

“Miss Xia is very nice.”

Lu Yiyi thought back carefully to her time on the seventeenth underground floor.

Besides a few odd habits, like liking to touch her legs and wrap an arm around her waist, she really hadn’t done anything out of line.

And Miss Xia smelled nice.

Leaning against her while sleeping had been especially comfortable.

Most importantly, Miss Xia had praised the cake she made.

Her hands were a bit too restless, always pinching at people, but so much better than Zhang Jie, who was always yelling.

“She’s very gentle. She even praised me.”

Lu Yiyi repeated truthfully.

Gentle?

Praised her?

The office filled with sharp intakes of breath.

Everyone exchanged glances, each seeing the absurdity in the other’s eyes.

What a joke!

That was Xia Qimeng, a disaster-class space-type spirit master!

A madwoman who could ignore the rules of space itself.

Since when did she praise anyone?

They’d sooner believe the director would show up in a grass skirt dancing in the square than believe Xia Qimeng was gentle.

“Stop talking nonsense!”

Zhang Jie’s voice went up, trying to cover her inner panic.

“Did you even go in? Did you just hide in the hallway for two hours?”

“I did go in.”

Lu Yiyi pulled a neatly folded sheet of paper from her bag and handed it over.

“This is today’s psychological evaluation form. Miss Xia already signed it.”

Black and white, plain as day.

In the task confirmation box at the bottom right, “Xia Qimeng” was scrawled in bold, sweeping strokes.

The handwriting was strong, the strokes sharp, radiating wild, unbridled arrogance.

Beside the name sat Xia Qimeng’s personal black bellflower stamp, pressed neatly.

Real and valid.

No way to fake it.

Zhang Jie stared at the receipt, her facial muscles twitching beyond her control, turning green, then white.

She’d only wanted to bully a soft persimmon, to get a bit of entertainment for herself.

Who could have guessed this little girl wouldn’t die, and on top of that, had completed a task that had sat on the bounty board for two months with no one daring to take it?

The bounty had been multiplied ten times!

A grand total of eight million!

That sum, enough to buy an apartment in the middle of the city, had now fallen into the pockets of this pushover who wouldn’t even spend money on a cup of milk tea.

Why?

Why would this gift from heaven land on the head of a newcomer who’d only been working five days?

Jealousy gnawed at Zhang Jie’s heart like acid.

Her fingers, with their bright red nail polish, squeezed the receipt hard enough to crumple its edges.

“Fine, leave it there.”

Zhang Jie’s tone was stiff.

She didn’t even bother to pretend anymore.

“Off work. Go.”

“Okay. See you tomorrow, Sister Zhang.”

Lu Yiyi nodded obediently and turned toward her own desk.

As she packed up, the smile at the corners of her mouth kept curling upward, unstoppable.

Today had been so lucky.

She hadn’t kicked the bucket on the seventeenth underground floor.

She’d met a nice person.

And she’d made a pile of money.

Eight million.

A full eight million!

Lu Yiyi sat at her desk, cheeks cupped in her hands, grinning stupidly at the financial reporting form she’d just submitted on the screen.

With this money, she could take her mom and dad out to eat tons of delicious food.

Oh right, when she went to see Mengmeng this weekend, she could also buy her a pretty new outfit!

She daydreamed happily, her two little feet swinging cheerfully under the desk.

At the workstation diagonally behind her, Zhang Jie was staring at the back of her head with a look that could kill.

Why?

This girl who’d been here five days, besides a face that fooled people into thinking she was innocent, had no damn skills at all!

She went down to the seventeenth floor, came back without a scratch, and got to pocket eight million.

The more Zhang Jie thought about it, the angrier she got.

Jealousy twisted her already mean face out of shape.

That money should have been hers.

She was the one who forced the task onto Lu Yiyi this morning.

Properly speaking, since she’d handed out the assignment, she ought to get half.

No.

All of it should be hers.

There was no way she was letting this silly girl walk away with that money nice and easy.

She might manage to get her hands on it, but she didn’t necessarily have the luck to spend it.

Watching Lu Yiyi humming a tune and bouncing out the door with her canvas bag, Zhang Jie took out her phone and dialed a number.

The Paranormal Bureau dealt with strange incidents every day.

An “accident” on the way home from work would be perfectly normal.

– Hey, Old Third? I’ve got a job for you…

Lu Yiyi stepped out of the bureau’s main gate.

The evening breeze brushed her face, lifting her spirits.

Just as she reached the entrance hall, the little ponytail on the left, tied with a strawberry hair tie, swayed on its own.

Like an invisible hand had flicked at it.

“Huh?”

Lu Yiyi stopped and reached up to touch her hair.

The hair tie was fine.

Not loose, not caught on anything.

“Weird…”

She muttered, straightening the hair tie.

She’d come into a windfall today, she had to treat herself well.

She made a beeline for the Wanda mall, ducked into her favorite pizza place, and grandly ordered the biggest shrimp and brisket pizza they had, plus an extra-large bubble tea.

She ate to her heart’s content.

Night deepened, lights came on across the city.

Lu Yiyi spent an absolutely wonderful evening.

The next morning.

Lu Yiyi walked into the logistics department on time, carrying a pink insulated lunch box.

The moment she stepped in, she sensed something off about the atmosphere.

A few coworkers were huddled together, whispering, none of them looking good, as if avoiding some taboo.

Zhang Jie’s station was empty.

Her half-finished nail polish was still sitting on the desk.

Lu Yiyi went to her own desk and set down the lunch box.

“Hey, Yiyi, have you heard?”

The round-faced girl at the next desk, Li Qian, leaned in, lowering her voice mysteriously.

“Heard what?”

Lu Yiyi said casually, turning on her computer.

“Sister Zhang is dead!”

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