Yesterday I"d gotten a new job, and today I had to go to work. I looked at the time, then quickly got up and washed. I was brushing my teeth when Xiao Ning walked in.
"You"re up early," I greeted him.
"I went to mail my letter."
After exchanging good mornings I immediately got dressed. When I got to the hotel yesterday, I"d given my clothes to the hotel staff to be washed, dried, and ironed. A big hotel really was a great thing. My clean suit had already been delivered earlier.
A waiter brought breakfast to the hotel room. I ate as soon as I was finished washing up, sighing to myself. Under the corrupting influence of money I almost didn"t want to go to work. I just wanted to stay with Xiao Ning at his hotel.
I beat my chest and said to myself, Buck up, Shen Jianguo! In order to conduct myself with integrity, I had to display strength and discipline, spend the money I had earned myself so I could hold up my head. Though I was poor, my soul was still worthy, without any psychological stain. I could even sleep peacefully in a morgue.
When I was finished eating, Xiao Ning said, "You said you"d found another job. I"ll take you."
"No need, no need." I put a piece of bread in my mouth. "I"ll be fine taking the subway."
"Please let me take you," Xiao Ning said with light smile. "I really want to learn more from Teacher Shen."
Usually I would be happy to hear this, thinking it meant Xiao Ning was interested in me. But this time, even though I wasn"t a very sensitive person, I could still hear the bitterness behind Xiao Ning"s smiling expression.
"Xiao Ning, I think you aren"t in a good state right now."
He gave me the feeling of having ascended through an epiphany, as though he had already cast off the mortal realm. If he hadn"t been eating breakfast, I would have been afraid that he was going to shun food the way they did in novels.
Wake up, Xiao Ning! A novel is only for entertainment, it isn"t reality!
"It"s not what you think." Ning Tiance looked up at me. "I love my sect. It"s my dream to inherit the Maoshan Sect and carry it forward. But sometimes, it"s not enough just to love it. I want to learn more social principles from Teacher Shen. The old ideas are out of date. We need a new theoretical system. "
Ning Tiance was a really good student. He"d had this realization after attending just one cla.s.s. I was very glad.
Since he insisted on taking me to work, I graciously accepted.
After I got out of the car, my phone sounded. It was a message from Princ.i.p.al Zhang that had been sent around three in the morning.
Was there something wrong with the WeChat system? The message had only arrived after five hours.
Princ.i.p.al Zhang"s message was an answer to my question about Tian Bowen. She said that Tian Bowen had learned his lesson and would never hara.s.s the students again. As for the formalin he had used to breed his maggots, it had been completely destroyed. Ning Tiance hadn"t violated the law but had used aboveboard means to take care of Tian Bowen. I was rea.s.sured.
When I thought back to the Ning Tiance who jumped over walls and smashed up gla.s.s doors, I was full of satisfaction. Xiao Ning had grown up so fast. He was getting more and more reliable.
For the next three days my life was peaceful. During the day I was busy getting used to my new job. I tagged along after Manager Lu, working as his a.s.sistant. In the evenings I happily chatted with Xiao Ning. Since attending my cla.s.s, Ning Tiance had been very interested in my specialty, always discussing my courses with me. I"d accompanied him in performing a rite when I"d gone to his hotel before. Our lives were getting closer and closer together.
Xiao Ning was very interested in attending cla.s.s and kept asking when my next cla.s.s would be. I had to ask Princ.i.p.al Zhang. Princ.i.p.al Zhang said that the schedule for the other cla.s.ses had been full lately, and the driver wanted to take some time off. My cla.s.s would be postponed for now. It would start again in a week.
I thought that the busy cla.s.s schedule must have been Teacher Liu"s. I hadn"t seen him these past few nights, so perhaps he had been in cla.s.s.
My primary focus during these days shifted to my daytime work. Manager Lu wanted to acquire national rights to a foreign brand. These days his days and nights were reversed. Every night there was a video conference with a foreign company. The time difference was fearsome.
Originally I had thought that it would be enough for me to help with sales during the day. If we won the rights it would be to Manager Lu"s credit alone. It had nothing to do with a little intern like me, and there would be no cut for me.
But I thought that as a new employee it was always good for me to learn more. I had no cla.s.ses to teach at this time, so I volunteered to work overtime in the middle of the night with Manager Lu.
At three o"clock in the morning, after a video conference with our foreign partners, Manager Lu rubbed his temples wearily and said, "Get me a cup of coffee, thanks."
I handed him the coffee, held back a yawn, and asked, "Isn"t the meeting over? Aren"t you going to rest yet?"
"After the meeting, the other side will send us a quote. I"ll perform a market a.n.a.lysis and send it upstairs tomorrow. They"ll decide whether to accept the price," Manager Lu explained.
I took out a notebook to take notes on what he was saying. It was all experience.
Manager Lu, a twenty-five-year-old man with a future, saw that I was seriously taking notes and explained further. "The current price is actually already a concession from the other party. We"ll be able to make a profit. It remains to be seen whether the price will line up with what our superiors have in mind. What we need to do now is to find a balance between our superiors and the partners, find a way to satisfy both sides, so as not to be robbed of the rights by other companies. "
"Right, right." I nodded repeatedly.
Although Manager Lu was very young, he was in a much higher position than me. He had been perfectly poised while conducting an international video conference. Xia Jin was also a manager, but in front of me he always seemed helpless. I didn"t know whether it was because he just wasn"t very skilled or whether he didn"t hide his weakness in front of me.
In other words, Manager Lu, who seemed so capable, might have his own weak points, too.
Seeing him rubbing his stomach while drinking the coffee, I knew that staying up late and drinking coffee on an empty stomach had given Manager Lu a stomachache, so I went downstairs to buy two bowls of congee from a 24-hour fast food chain restaurant.
While I was taking the congee upstairs, the lights in the elevator flickered on and off, as if something was wrong with the power supply.
Ah, this company of ours. The mall was on a pretty grand scale, but the infrastructure wasn"t very reliable. The elevators kept malfunctioning, and there were always problems with the CCTV.
But this time it seemed that the problem wasn"t with the elevator. It must have been an unstable circuit, because the lights in the corridor by Manager Lu"s office were also flickering on and off.
As soon as I got off the elevator, I heard a shrill scream coming from Manager Lu"s office. I hurried over, setting down the bowls of congee.
The door of Manager Lu"s office was closed. I twisted the k.n.o.b and couldn"t get it open. It was locked from inside.
"Ah! Stay away from me, stay away! Ahhh!" Manager Lu screamed inside his office.
Could it be... that a crook had broken into the building in the middle of the night and locked the door while Manager Lu was writing his a.n.a.lysis?
I pounded on the door and shouted, "What is it, Manager Lu? Open the door, I"m here!"
"Ahhh! There"s a ghost!" Now Manager Lu was also knocking on the door. I heard banging sounds coming from inside, as well as Manager Lu"s screams: "I didn"t lock the door, but it won"t open... Ahhh! Stay away from me!"
I didn"t know just what was going on inside, but when I heard him say there was a ghost I wasn"t afraid anymore. There were no such things as ghosts, only people pretending.
I calmed down and said, "Manager Lu, step back. I"ll kick the door open."
"That... that won"t do any good, I just tried, the ghost closed the door and won"t let me out."
"It"s because you aren"t strong enough," I said. "Get out of the way, I"m kicking down the door!"
Then I backed against the wall behind me, charged at the door, and sent it flying open with a kick.
The lights in Manager Lu"s office were off. Only the 60-inch TV on the wall that we"d just held the video conference on was lit up. Some channel was playing The Ring in the middle of the night; it was just at the scene where Sadako climbs out of the well.
"Oh, so that"s what happened." I sighed. "Manager, it"s the middle of the night. Instead of working on your a.n.a.lysis or getting some sleep, you locked the door to watch a horror movie?"
"I — I didn"t!" Manager Lu sat on the floor, his face tear-stained. "I had my head down writing my a.n.a.lysis, and suddenly the lights went out. I looked up and saw the ghost girl about to come out of the TV. I wanted to run, but the door wouldn"t open."
"Of course it wouldn"t open after you"d locked it. Where"s the remote control?" I turned my back to the TV and looked for the remote. What was the big deal? All you had to do was turn off the TV.
"Ahhhh!" Just when I"d found the remote, Manager Lu"s eyes started out of his head in fear. Pointing to the TV like a dying goldfish, he said, "She"s coming out, her head is already out of the TV!"
I turned my head. No, she"d just come out of the well.
"Oh… As soon as you turned around she got back in," Manager Lu said in disbelief, tears in his eyes.
"Manager, I think you"re overtired. You"re having hallucinations after staying up late for several days. You touched the remote by accident without noticing it. You should go to bed as soon as possible," I advised him as I pressed the "off" b.u.t.ton on the remote.
The TV screen didn"t go dark. The ghost was still at the edge of the well. This movie was really taking its time.
"It"s useless. The remote control doesn"t work, I tried it just now." Manager Lu leaned against the wall hugging his chair, trembling all over with fear.
"Then the battery is out of power. I"ll have to go to the logistics department to get some batteries tomorrow. And we"ll have to change the lights. When the circuit was unstable just now the bulbs must have burned out." I wrote down tomorrow"s to-do list in my notebook and said, "Just unplug the power cord."
"There"s a current, I can"t touch it," Manager Lu said mournfully.
"There"s a leak in the TV or the TV outlet. Manager Lu, there"s a big problem with your office"s circuit. The light in the elevator was flickering just now, and the outlet is leaking. It"ll be very dangerous if this goes on. We must tell the maintenance department tomorrow. If it catches fire there"ll be a lot of damage." While exhorting Manager Lu, I walked around the room looking for an insulator.
There was nothing I could use as an insulator in the whole room. The chairs in Manager Lu"s office were all swivel chairs, not suitable for knocking out a plug.
"I remember there was a mop with a plastic handle in the utility room. Just a moment, I"ll get it. If you"re afraid, come with me."
I strode out of the office. Manager Lu"s legs were unsteady or something. He didn"t come with me, but stayed in the room screaming.
It was really worrying. I could only dash to the utility room, grab the mop, and go back to the office.
As soon as I came through the door, I saw Manager Lu sitting in front of the TV touching his neck. His tongue was sticking out. He was speaking with difficulty: "Don"t... don"t strangle me, help..."
I looked at the TV again. It was paused. The ghost girl was motionless by the well.
I patted Manager Lu. "Manager, I"ll turn off the TV. You should rest. It"s really not good to get too tired."
Manager Lu pointed to the TV and said, "The ghost girl... used her hair... tried to strangle me... you... didn"t... see?"
It was really bad with him.
I sighed and knocked the power cord out with the mop. The TV turned off. Manager Lu fell back in a faint.
The company had a rest area. I carried Manager Lu there, slung over my shoulder, and put him in the bed.
Looking at the dark circles under his eyes, I couldn"t help shaking my head.
He absolutely shouldn"t be staying up late. So young, and already having hallucinations.