“Just trust me and stick to the plan — you’ll definitely get to see it.”
Cheng Jianning leaned close to Song Nanxing’s ear and whispered a string of instructions. Then, chest puffed out and brimming with purpose, he marched off to the HR office to find Wang Xiaorui, as though he were carrying out a sacred mission.
Song Nanxing wasn’t sure what Cheng Jianning said to her, but before long, he saw Wang Xiaorui following behind him toward the office area — her expression a literal shade of greyish-blue.
Her long black hair, which reached her waist, hung loose down her back. With every step she took, her curvy figure swayed and her thick hair swayed with it. But at the ends of those strands, nestled among the dark tresses, were snake heads — crimson-eyed, flicking their tongues, hissing and baring sharp fangs at Cheng Jianning, poised to strike.
Cheng Jianning managed a stiff smile at Song Nanxing, giving him a quick exaggerated wink, then turned to Wang Xiaorui and barked out, “It’s monsoon season, the company’s doing terribly, where am I supposed to find someone to replace me? If this keeps up, when the hell will I ever get to resign? I don’t care, I want my resignation papers right now!”
Wang Xiaorui’s gaze was icy cold, and her normally gentle voice turned grating. “You signed a contract with the company.”
Cheng Jianning’s expression darkened. He snapped back, “So what if I did? It’s not a damn slave contract! I’ll just forfeit this month’s pay!”
“A signed contract isn’t something you can break just because you feel like it…” Wang Xiaorui was clearly angered now. Her long hair bristled like a wild animal, and the snake heads rose higher, hissing menacingly.
Song Nanxing hadn’t expected Cheng Jianning to go all in from the start — a full-on kamikaze move. Silently giving him a big thumbs-up, he put on a fearful expression as if trying to stay out of the line of fire, grabbed the puppet, and slipped away from the scene. Once he was out of Wang Xiaorui’s line of sight, he looked around. Everyone’s attention was locked on the loud argument.
Perfect.
In one swift motion, he darted into the HR office and locked the door behind him.
He headed straight for the desk. The folder labeled New Employee Applications sat in a tray on the desk. He grabbed it and flipped through quickly — but didn’t find what he was looking for.
Frowning, he went through it a second time, carefully this time. Still nothing.
Not only was there no application form for the doctor, but neither Wang Xiaorui’s nor the janitor auntie’s forms were there. Even Cheng Jianning’s wasn’t in the folder.
Song Nanxing recalled Wang Xiaorui mentioning something about a “contract”… yet he himself had never signed one.
His gaze drifted to the filing cabinet nearby. Just as he moved toward it to start searching, someone suddenly banged hard on the door.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Jia Jia’s mouth — filled with layer upon layer of sharp, interlocking teeth — was pressed against the glass panel of the door. Her voice came through, shrill and piercing:
“Song Nanxing, what are you looking for in the office~?”
She deliberately amplified her voice. The entire back half of the office area could hear it.
“Just listen to me and follow the plan—you’ll definitely see something.”
Cheng Jianning leaned in close to Song Nanxing’s ear and whispered furtively for a while, then marched off like a soldier on a sacred mission to the HR office to find Wang Xiaorui.
Song Nanxing had no idea what he said to her, but before long, he saw Wang Xiaorui trailing stiffly behind him toward the office area—her face literally pale green with fury. Her long black hair, which usually cascaded elegantly down to her waist, swayed ominously as she moved, and at the thick ends of her locks, snakes with blood-red eyes flicked their tongues, baring sharp fangs at Cheng Jianning, ready to strike.
Cheng Jianning forced a stiff smile in Song Nanxing’s direction and gave him a quick wink, then barked at Wang Xiaorui, “It’s the rainy season now, and with the company doing so poorly, where am I supposed to find new hires to replace me? At this rate, I won’t be able to resign until the next century! I don’t care—I want to resign now! Hand me the resignation form!”
Wang Xiaorui glared icily at him, her normally gentle voice now rasping like sandpaper. “You signed a contract with the company.”
Cheng Jianning’s face darkened as he swore under his breath. “So what if I signed a contract? It’s not a goddamn slave contract! I’ll give up my last month’s salary if I have to!”
“A signed contract isn’t something you can break just because you feel like it…” Wang Xiaorui was clearly provoked now. Her waist-length hair puffed up like a porcupine, and the snake heads rose high, hissing threateningly.
Song Nanxing hadn’t expected Cheng Jianning to play his trump card right from the start. Ballsy. He gave Cheng Jianning a covert thumbs-up, then, pretending to be afraid of collateral damage, grabbed the puppet and slipped away. Once he was out of Wang Xiaorui’s line of sight, and with everyone distracted by the argument, he darted into the HR office.
He locked the door from the inside and went straight for the file organizer on the desk.
The folder for employee onboarding forms was right there in the tray. He pulled it out and flipped through it quickly, but…
Nothing.
Just to be sure, he went through it again. Still nothing.
There were no onboarding forms for the doctor, Wang Xiaorui, or even the cleaning lady. Not even Cheng Jianning’s form was there.
Song Nanxing remembered Wang Xiaorui mentioning the “contract”… and realized he had never signed one himself.
His gaze drifted toward the filing cabinet beside the desk. Just as he was about to check it, a loud bang bang bang echoed at the door.
Ji Jiajia’s mouth—grotesquely stretched and lined with rows of overlapping sharp teeth—pressed up against the small window of the door.
Her eerie, high-pitched voice pierced the air:
“Song Nanxing, what are you looking for in the office?”
She said it loud and clear on purpose, so half the office could hear.
Of course Cheng Jianning heard it too. His heart dropped like a stone, and two blood-red words flashed across his mind: We’re screwed.
Wang Xiaorui stopped yelling at him and stormed straight toward the office door.
She twisted the handle, only to find it locked from the inside. Her expression turned even more twisted. Her serpentine hair slithered through the door crack, flipping the lock open from the inside.
But when she flung the door open—no one was there.
Her long hair puffed out in a rage as she strode in and started yanking open every single cabinet.
Ji Jiajia clacked her jaws excitedly, urging her coworkers, “Come on! Hurry up! I want to see the drama!”
Cheng Jianning lagged behind, hesitated at the sight of the furious Wang Xiaorui, then gritted his teeth and stepped inside.
But the moment he did, a hand shot out from under the desk and yanked him down hard.
The office door slammed shut again—with a loud click as it locked.
Cheng Jianning looked back in shock. Song Nanxing crawled out from under the desk with the puppet in hand and, without hesitation, hurled it straight at Wang Xiaorui’s face.
Wang Xiaorui’s rage went off the charts. She let out a furious screech as her hair lashed out, binding the puppet. The writhing snakes opened their mouths, baring fangs, trying to shred it apart.
Cheng Jianning gawked, utterly speechless. He pointed at Song Nanxing, stammering, “Y-you-you-you…”
“No time to chat,” Song Nanxing snapped, pointing at Ji Jiajia, who was already sneaking toward the exit. “She’s trying to escape!”
Cheng Jianning didn’t even have time to think. His body reacted faster than his brain. The data cables wrapped around his body shot forward with a loud whoosh, tightly binding Ji Jiajia and the nearby coworker.
Ji Jiajia screamed curses like a banshee. “Let me go! You’re breaking company rules! The cleaning lady’s not gonna let you off for this!”
Cheng Jianning looked at Song Nanxing, his voice still shaky, “S-s-she’s right… Company rules ban fighting…”
Song Nanxing calmly replied, “The cleaning lady hasn’t shown up since yesterday afternoon.”
Then he gestured at Wang Xiaorui, who no longer looked even remotely human. “And look at her. Do you really think she’s going to let us go? We might as well strike first—then there’ll be no one left to report us for breaking company rules.”
Cheng Jianning froze, then nodded blankly. “You… might have a point.”
One of the data cables snaked forward and shot straight into Ji Jiajia’s gaping mouth. The thick cord pulsed and twisted like a feeding intestine, and within seconds—
Ji Jiajia and her coworker were completely sucked dry.
On the other side, black-red curses had engulfed most of Wang Xiaorui’s body.
Her form had fully mutated into a serpentine shape—mottled scales covered her once-fair skin, and the once-elegant face now bore only a single, massive, scarlet vertical pupil.
That vertical eye turned toward Song Nanxing, brimming with venomous hatred.
The moment their eyes met, Song Nanxing felt dizzy, as if his vision were spinning. It took a long moment for him to recover, and when he did, he saw Cheng Jianning’s data cables hanging limp to the ground, and the man himself standing frozen in place like he’d lost his soul—grayish-blue scales were beginning to spread across his face.
Startled, Song Nanxing grabbed him and shook him hard. “Cheng Jianning!”
Cheng Jianning blinked dazedly at him.
“Snap out of it,” Song Nanxing said urgently. “If you don’t help now, the fight’ll be over already.”
Cheng Jianning turned to look at Wang Xiaorui—her black hair was falling strand by strand, surrounding her were the corpses of terrifying, wide-mouthed snakes. That single scarlet eye on her face was now mysteriously closed, and from the top of her bald human head, a crack had opened up. Emerging from it was another snake head.
This new head was pitch black, triangular, and bore only one eye—looking even more sinister and dangerous than before.
“I-I-I-I’m scared of snakes…” Cheng Jianning trembled and inched closer to Song Nanxing.
Song Nanxing: “…”
He looked at the puppet still standing alone in front of Wang Xiaorui, and guilt tugged faintly at his conscience. “We can’t just stand here and watch, right? Shouldn’t we help a little?”
Cheng Jianning stared at the puppet as it bit off Wang Xiaorui’s newly grown head in a single chomp, eyes wide. “But… it doesn’t look like it needs our help…”
Before he could finish, Wang Xiaorui’s now headless body collapsed into a puddle of thick, black-red blood.
The puppet slowly crouched down and began clumsily fumbling through the blood, as if searching for something.
After a while, it finally retrieved a small red stone. Carefully wiping it clean, the puppet sluggishly walked over to Song Nanxing and held the stone up to him.
Song Nanxing: “…”
Welp.
Now he understood where that blue stone had come from.
Honestly, he didn’t really want it.
What normal person would collect monster remains? That sounded totally deranged—not to mention who knew if it was contaminated.
But the puppet was holding the stone up to him with that weirdly hopeful look. Like a scruffy little dog you’d fed once bringing you a dead rat in its mouth. The rat was disgusting, but the dog… was kind of sweet.
Song Nanxing sighed and took the red stone after all.
He grabbed a tissue and gently wiped off the bloodstains still clinging to the puppet’s body, thanking it sincerely. “Thanks to you, really.”
If it hadn’t been for the puppet’s help, with how utterly unreliable Cheng Jianning had been, things could’ve gone completely off the rails.
The puppet stared straight at him, its pitch-black eyes seeming to widen slightly.
Song Nanxing’s cleaning motions were gentle, his warm fingertips brushing over the puppet’s cold wooden body.
The puppet stood quietly in place, fingers secretly clutching the corner of Song Nanxing’s shirt. It let him do as he pleased—but inside its neural ring, it was already bubbling with joy like a kettle on full boil:
‘He touched me again.’
‘Feels so good…’
Song Nanxing glanced at its blank little face, and for some reason, he felt like… it seemed a little obedient today. Almost well-behaved.
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