Yuan Luori looked in the mirror, pulling at the loose shirt he was wearing. It felt uncomfortable. 

He was an assassin, a killer. He preferred dressing in dark, skintight, flexible clothing that was convenient for hiding, not this kind of colorful shirt that showed his waist when he lifted his arms and his shoulders when he put them down. With a loose shirt like this, it was easy to let a corner trail out if you were hiding in the shadows. No assassin would wear it. 

The pants were all right, black and tight, easy to move in, though there were tears in the knees and thighs that showed skin. Yuan Luori tried to cover up a few times without success. He had to let it go. 

It didn’t matter. This was only temporary. For the sake of leaving the Protection Organization’s cage, wearing some unsuitable clothes meant nothing!

Yuan Luori had had enough of it here. Each day it was sleep, eat, be questioned, memorize all kinds of laws and statutes and ethics and norms. Even when he was washing his face, the speaker in the room would be playing “Ideological and Moral Education,” all about respecting the old and cherishing the young, fraternal affection, observing the social order, observing social morality, establishing proper values, having a healthy state of mind…

Wait! Stop! He couldn’t think about it again. If he thought about it again, he’d have it memorized! 

The Protection Organization had gone to great pains in order to put Yuan Luori, a Destroyer with a poisonous prior record, into ordinary circulation in society. Apart from questioning him every day, they played the speeches of important leaders even when he was asleep. It was simply the brainwashing method of education. 

To force Yuan Luori to learn of his own volition, the Protection Organization had promised that once he tested up to standard, he could leave to carry out the mission of an informer. The test was separated into written and oral, including all kinds of legal common sense, moral common sense, and the analysis of social phenomena. After going through this test, Yuan Luori could have gone to be a public servant.

Yuan Luori had only to think of leaving the Protection Organization’s base and helping his idol the clearer, and his heart would fill with motivation. Levelers struggled on the verge of death. Those who survived all had some particular stand-out aspects. If he focused the power of his survival instinct on studying, he was really unstoppable. In only half a month, he got a high grade! 

The Protection Organization indicated that he couldn’t be proud of these grades. If Yuan Luori’s present plight were judged based on Penal Law, he was being released on parole for good behavior. But he had to reinforce his studies, constantly consolidate all the knowledge he had learned before. Within a year of joining the studio, he would have monthly, midterm, and end of term tests. If he failed to meet the minimum standard on one test, then his informer’s identity would be revoked, and he would only be able to return once again to his informer’s position when he tested 75% or above. 

According to Criminal Law, releasing poison in a public area without bringing about dangerous consequences carried a fixed-term sentence of three to ten years. Yuan Luori had not caused major human casualties. Adding in that he was willing to become an informer and cooperate with the organization’s work, they had discretion to handle him leniently. 

The Protection Organization had discussed it and resolved to have Yuan Luori take tests for three years. After three years of force-fed learning, presumably he would have become a person willing to observe rules and regulations. 

Yuan Luori was driven to the studio by a car from the Protection Organization. The person who drove him was Lian Yufan. Lian Yufan was also his custodian, responsible for watching and guiding Yuan Luori. 

Lian Yufan asked, “How are your eyes? Have you experienced blindness again?” 

“Hmph.” Yuan Luori disdained to speak to Lian Yufan. He was the great master clearer’s subordinate. He had been forced to undertake a collaboration with the Protectors, but his soul was free. He looked down on the Protectors. 

Lian Yufan: “…” 

Fine. If you do go blind, no one will find a doctor for you. 

After the team building event (eating barbecue), Yu Hua had found a way to give Zhen Li the birdcage, and Zhen Li had used the bird cage’s vision to pass a few orders to Yuan Luori:

First, don’t let the Protection Organization know that Yu Hua is aware of special ability users. The reason isn’t important. Just don’t mention it.

Second, the great master will secretly monitor the studio’s progress. Yuan Luori should listen to Zhen Li’s orders. If he does well, he might have a chance to see the great master. 

Third, Yu Hua’s memory has been wiped. He doesn’t remember anymore that Zhen Li and Yuan Luori are special ability users. In the future, treat Yu Hua like an ordinary person who doesn’t know anything. 

Fourth, now that you don’t have a System, you’re an ordinary person, but you’ve attained your freedom. Live well, strive to improve, take root in reality, be an ordinary, hard-working, mediocre (importantly: resigned to your fate) social animal, and learn to enjoy (be forced into enjoying) one final world. 

After receiving instructions, Yuan Luori became a good deal better-behaved. Wearing the glasses of the appropriate prescription that the Protection Organization had provided for him, he made a concentrated effort to study, and at last once again saw the light of day ten days later. 

Wearing attractive, fashionable modern clothes, he walked into the studio. The organization of the inside of the studio had changed. 

The approximately 300 square meters of space were broken up by cubicles, separating out four little partitions less than 10 meters square. Zhen Li, Yuan Luori, Lian Yufan, and Yu Hua could work separately without bothering each other. The remaining 250 squares meters of space was entirely used for livestreaming. A huge mirror had once again been set up, and better and clearer livestreaming equipment had been arranged in a suitable position. There was also a phone to screen setup to throw the livestream image onto a big screen, to make it more convenient for everyone to directly watch the outcome of the livestream and follow the barrage comments. 

This had all been planned by Yu Hua over the last few days. He had been considering how to engage in a battle of wits with the Protectors, worrying about his marriage, disdaining Yuan Luori, creating a purchase plan and a refitting plan according to the studio’s particular qualities. After returning to work, his first order of business had been to reequip the office to have it all fitted up before the day Yuan Luori tested up to standard. 

Seeing the tiny office, Lian Yufan couldn’t resist wiping away sweat and letting out a hot and bitter tear. 

He, the mighty Protector district captain, public relations director of a studio of Destroyer informers, had spent ten days undertaking the work of redecorating! 

Yu Hua was too stingy. To save money, they had to do all the work themselves. He couldn’t stand to hire decorators. He’d gone online and bought material that was high in formaldehyde content but durable, borrowed some tools relying on connections from his previous job, given each person at the studio a mask, and the president and two directors had transformed into decorators and performed a large-scale construction project in the three-hundred square meter space. 

He had rationally and scientifically assigned everyone work, handed everyone a set of tools, clearly written out the price of the decorating tools, and requested that everyone sign an agreement that if they damaged the tools or building materials, they would pay out of their own pockets in compensation. 

Captain Lian Yufan had been up mountains and down into the sea, been stabbed and shot, studied the designs of precision weapons, understood the arrangements of battle formations, learned strategic distributions through practical experience, done fieldwork solving cases through inference. Even if there came a day when the world no longer needed the Protection Organization, given Lian Yufan’s personal abilities, countless military and police units would fight over such a talent. 

The only thing he hadn’t done was decorating. 

Yu Hua was different. When he had just gotten married, You Zhengping had produced a big heap of plans for their future apartment. In order to satisfy You Zhengping’s every brainwave, Yu Hua had investigated and studied with the designer, gone deep into the building materials market to understand the behavior and price of all kinds of decoration materials. He had kept a close eye on the whole decoration process. During rest periods, he had humbly learned from the designer, and had even taken a hand himself, resulting in practiced decorating abilities. 

“Can’t we outsource it?” Lian Yufan asked in a state of collapse when he had read his assignment. 

In a businesslike manner, Yu Hua took out the studio’s financial statement and unfeelingly said, “Due to the fact that the studio is currently short on capital, we are unable to hire many people. I wear several hats. Apart from human resources, I also attend to financial affairs logistics, legal tasks, technology, operations, and other such work. In order to ensure that the studio’s operations are open, fair, and impartial, I’ve prepared a detailed account. Take a look at the current decorating expenses. Do we have the surplus to hire anyone?”

Lian Yufan’s pupils quivered as he asked Zhen Li in disbelief, “The whole studio only has 80,000 yuan in ready money?”

Zhen Li nodded. “That’s right. I don’t have any money. The platform gives me half the money from the fans’ tips, but that money goes to the rent and to pay the two of you. This 80,000 yuan comes from Director Yu to pay for equipment and decorating. It’s really too shabby to keep using a phone to livestream. Oh, right, because Director Yu produced the 80,000 yuan, I gave him 5% of the stock.” 

Lian Yufan took the itemized bill and the transfer of stock ownership form and saw that the 80,000 yuan had been produced under You Zhengping’s name, so the 5% of shares was written there in black and white in You Zhengping’s name. In other words, You Zhengping was also a named shareholder of this crappy studio; he was Lian Yufan’s boss. 

Yu Hua explained, “You’ve met You Zhengping. He’s my husband. That officer who’s about the same height and wears about the same size pants as you do. This money came from their workplace, and I borrowed his money. Of course I would have him become a shareholder.”

Lian Yufan: “…” 

Of course he knew where this 80,000 yuan had come from. It came from the 100,000 yuan of his own subsidy that You Zhengping had given Yu Hua under the guise of a reward, using the public security bureau. Yu Hua had used it to invest in the company and tricked the boss out of 5% of the shares. 

Lian Yufan remembered that in Yu Hua’s psychological consultation records, it mentioned that he had chosen this job because it had a high degree of freedom, and he could make the decisions. The boss was stupid. It would be easy to scoop up the company, turn the studio into his own enterprise. 

Then Zhen Li, smiling, said, “Right. Thanks to Director Yu, we’ve saved a good deal of money. We have to thank Director Yu.” 

A true example of saying thank you to the scammer after you’d been scammed! 

“I can provide money to employ people,” Lian Yufan said. Who didn’t have a bit of money?

“There we run into the problem of transferring stock ownership,” Yu Hua said in a businesslike way. “I personally have a very favorable view of this studio’s prospects and I’m unwilling to hand over any of the 45% of the shares that my husband and I hold. As for President Zhen’s 55%, President Zhen, if you transfer another 10% or more, then you won’t be the certain head of the studio anymore. Are you certain you want to sell shares for the sake of hiring some people? When breaking new ground it’s normal to do things yourself.” 

“Right, and I can’t sell anymore shares. We’ll have investors later. The next step will be to dilute the shares. I can’t go under 55%.” Zhen Li followed Yu Hua’s lead, with “Director Yu is an expert, listen to him” written all over his face. 

Was selling 5% of the shares for the sake of 80,000 yuan very wise, then?

Seeing that Lian Yufan still wanted to resist, Yu Hua simply took out the contract that Lian Yufan had been hired with and pointed to the terms in it. “Though our company has hired you as public relations director, these terms clearly state your duties. The last one clearly states, ‘During the entrepreneurial period when staff is scarce, the duties of the public relations director will include but not be limited to all work assigned by the president and shareholders.’ If you won’t participate in the decoration, this company has the right to dismiss you and request that you compensate us for the loss.”

Yu Hua had been the one to draw up the contract. Lian Yufan had signed it without even reading. As a Protector, as a watcher, naturally he wasn’t afraid of Yu Hua pulling tricks with the contract. But Lian Yufan hadn’t expected Yu Hua to turn around and teach him a lesson in the might of official power. 

“Are you sure that contract is in accordance with Labor Law?” Lian Yufan asked, pointing to the contract. 

Yu Hua smiled politely. “During the decorating period, the Zhen Li Studio won’t livestream. President Zhen is losing 1,000 to 5,000 daily in livestream tips. I’m planning on taking ten days to decorate. If the studio’s employees don’t cooperate and the decoration period exceeds my estimates, who will bear the losses? There’s an advertising company that’s inclined to have President Zhen advertise for them, but if they give up on it because President Zhen’s decorating drags on, the loss from a million fans’ advertising fees could come up to a six-digit number. Who will bear that loss? 

“If you won’t cooperate with the company’s work, then our poor studio isn’t big enough to contain a venerable deity like you. We’ll ask you to leave and pay proportional compensation. Is there anything wrong with that?

“Labor Law provides restraints and protections for both sides. If you don’t take your work seriously in accordance with the contract terms, it shows that you haven’t performed up to standard during your trial period, and we can revoke the employment contract. We’re willing to pay some severance. If you don’t agree, then you can request a labor arbitration.” 

Of course, Lian Yufan couldn’t really kick up a fuss with Yu Hua, and there was Zhen Li cooperatively picking up an electric drill and preparing to decorate. What could he do?!

While Yu Hua wasn’t paying attention, he surreptitiously threatened Zhen Li: “As the boss, you can’t just listen to your director. How can you let him wield all the power in the company?” 

“But I don’t understand these things.” Zhen Li blinked adorably. “I’ve never done any work like this. Of course it’s better to find a specialist. Yu Hua is an employee I selected very carefully. You can see that he understands everything. What kind of boss wouldn’t want an employee like that? In fact, I don’t have money and I don’t have experience, and now I don’t have special abilities, so shouldn’t I make money to survive in this world? It doesn’t matter if Yu Hua turns me into a figurehead. As long as the studio succeeds and I make money to buy lots of pretty clothes and good food, the rest is meaningless.” 

Lian Yufan clenched his teeth. “I don’t care if you’re stupid, but don’t forget your mission!” 

“The mission requires expanding my popularity, and Yu Hua does that well, too. You saw me get on the popular searches the other day. People came right away to ask me to advertise for motor scooters. They said that if I posted a video making fun of my error and at the same time promoted their high safety factor scooter, the advertising fees would be high,” Zhen Li said, seeming stupid but in fact making sense. “If you can promote the studio’s fame, then you can order me around, too.” 

The subtext was, If you can’t, then don’t get in the way of Yu Hua’s work, we have to rely on him to get famous. 

Lian Yufan could only resign himself to his fate, pick up a saw, and get to work, but the quality of the tools Yu Hua had borrowed for free really was too poor. It broke after just a few uses. 

Lian Yufan had a repairing ability. He had been planning to repair the tool while no one was paying attention, but it was as though Yu Hua had eyes in the back of his head. Each time when a tool had just broken, Yu Hua would float over and sigh. “Another loss to compensate for.” 

Over the last few days, Lian Yufan hadn’t done much work and compensated quite a bit of money. He could have gone to the Protection Organization for money, and the organization could have made it up, but how could Lian Yufan feel comfortable speaking up about that? He could only clench his teeth and pay out of his own pocket. 

“I suspect that all the tools you’ve borrowed are defective!” Lian Yufan said. 

He hadn’t thought that Yu Hua wouldn’t answer very frankly: “Of course they are. Do you think we can borrow good ones for free? And I took that into account calculating the damages. I didn’t make you pay the full price, only half the price.” 

These ten days of decoration were ten days of history written in blood and tears for Lian Yufan. 

At the end of ten days, he wasn’t tired in body, but mentally he was extremely exhausted, and he had paid quite a lot of money. 

When they’d managed to complete the decorating, the whole room smelled of formaldehyde, making Lian Yufan’s head hurt. He criticized Yu Hua for not buying environmentally friendly materials, and Yu Hua said that the company had no money, they needed to increase income and reduce expenditures. When that was what the company needed, he should be tolerant. Luckily it was summer, so they could open the windows. 

Yu Hua used facts to teach Lian Yufan a lesson, give him ample knowledge of the palace intrigues of an office, of what it meant to leave someone dumbstruck with high-sounding reasons. 

Having already driven him to this low, Yu Hua still turned to Zhen Li and said in astonishment in a “whisper” that Lian Yufan could hear: “Boss, is there something wrong with Director Lian? He seems like some spoiled rich kid from the social elite, why does he keep hanging around at our company? I’ve bled him for so much money, how can he put up with it?” 

Lian Yufan: “…” 

So you know that you’re bleeding me?

What could Zhen Li say when he was caught in the middle like this? He had to play dumb. “I don’t know. He came here of his own initiative, said he thought our studio had good prospects and wanted to work here. I even refused, but he insisted on coming, said lower wages were fine, so I had to hire him.” 

Lian Yufan hadn’t thought of a reason for dropping out of the sky into the studio. A boss didn’t need a reason for hiring someone. He thought that as long as he worked well for Zhen Li, that would be all. 

Now, Zhen Li could only make up a reason in the face of Yu Hua’s feigned ignorance to fob off both of them. 

“I’d thought he was here to take over the company and would threaten my position in the company, so I’ve been needling him the last few days, trying to force him to retreat in the face of difficulties. But instead he endured it. It’s really very strange. Does he have some goal?” Yu Hua asked. 

These words explained why Yu Hua had been openly making life difficult for his new colleague, and also put him in the favorable position of suspecting Lian Yufan’s goal. 

Before, it had been Lian Yufan suspecting that Yu Hua was a Destroyer; now it was Director Yu suspecting Director Lian of hatching plots. 

Zhen Li turned his head and looked at Lian Yufan, secretly listening with his ears pricked up. Then he looked at Director Yu’s encouraging gaze and tacitly understood how he was supposed to answer. 

President Zhen touched his own narrowly rescued features and succumbed. “He must want to pursue me. I can’t think of another reason.” 

Yuan Luori wasn’t there. He could only protect his flat but quite graceful face by finding someone else to be in a ship with. 

Having received a satisfactory answer, Yu Hua said with a faint smile, “Now I understand. I won’t needle my new colleague from now on. Before, we were promoting you and Yuan Luori as a ship, and the outcome was bad. How about this? Since the public relations director is interested in you, we’ll change ships. During the first livestream after the decorating is over, you can introduce Director Lian to the fans.

“You can use my previous persona wholesale. An elite director who abandoned a high-paying job and came to work at a worthless studio just for the sake of sheltering the beautiful president from the elements.

“When Yuan Luori comes back from having his eyes treated, we can have a love triangle. If the plot is more exciting, the fans will be more enthusiastic. I’ll go write a script.” 

Hearing Yu Hua, Lian Yufan couldn’t stand it anymore. He slapped the test and got up. “Director Yu writes such good plots. Why don’t you include yourself in them?” 

“You heard?” Yu Hua said in “surprise.” “That’s good. Whether you have that intention or not, please cooperate with the work in accordance with your contract terms. As for me, there’s no need for me to take part. I’m a married man. I won’t meddle in these affairs of yours.” 

---

Author's Note

Yu Hua: You used your authority to bully my Xiao You, so I’ll use my authority to bully you. You said that as a Protector, Xiao You had to cooperate with the work. Well, so do you. As a planted agent, you also have to make concessions to achieve your aims and cooperate with the work. 

Yu Hua: You insisted on using those pants to pose as a home-wrecker, so I’ll make you the third corner in LimingLuori. 

Yu Hua: Every rock you bring over, I’ll bring it smashing down right on your foot. 

Current ranking at the studio: Yu Hua, You Zhengping (without his knowledge has obtained 5% shares and become a leader), Zhen Li, Yuan Luori, Lian Yufan. 

Zhen Li (delighted): Before, I was in the worst position, and now I can order two people around, I’m so happy!

Yuan Luori: I’ve somehow become a minor leader. 

Lian Yufan: Would the next Destroyer please hurry up, I can’t hold out on my own!