Chapter 83

Perfunctory

Wan You thought he'd heard a familiar name.

He stopped and turned. In the corner, a woman in a cleaning uniform stood up, turned, and walked quickly in the opposite direction — coat hem lifting with her pace.

That person looks very familiar.

"Mr. Wan — this way, please." Secretary Liu was ahead of him, leading the way. He knocked twice on the door of room four and went in.

Wan You thanked him politely.

Curly Hair's sudden departure left You Jiu staring at the back of the man now entering room four. The more he looked, the more convinced he was that this was another NPC from the Chen Garden instance.

*

"Wan You — I wasn't expecting you." Chao Musheng still had his drip running; Wan You's appearance was a genuine surprise.

"Your colleagues came to my place for barbecue last night and mentioned you were in hospital. So I came." Wan You looked at the IV bag dripping steadily overhead and set his visit gift on the small table. "An indwelling cannula — how many more days of this?"

"About three more."

"Sit wherever." Chao Musheng gestured. "How's business lately?"

"Same as always — gets busy after six." Wan You took the chair by the bed. "You always look so energetic. How did you get this sick?"

The biceps visible on Wan You's arms made Chao Musheng think of when he'd first met him — pale and thin, listing slightly when he walked, tripping every few steps.

In just a few months, Wan You was unrecognizable.

The barbecue trade, it turned out, built character.

"Just a minor virus. Nothing serious." Chao Musheng smiled. "I almost forgot — congratulations on your end-of-term results. Top marks across the board."

The school had released grades in mid-July last year; this year they'd cited a system upgrade and pushed it to August. Wan You's results, as an auditing student, came out a week later than enrolled students.

"Thank you." Wan You's smile was very genuine. "I heard you also got all top marks?"

Chao Musheng performed modesty: "Pure luck. All luck."

"I hope I have luck like yours on every exam." He stood. "Let me wash some fruit for you."

"That's not—"

"Of course it is. Fruit has vitamins." Wan You glanced at Chao Musheng's face — which was, admittedly, very nice to look at but not exactly ruddy with health. Being attractive was all well and good, but physical constitution mattered too.

He went looking through the premium ward for somewhere to wash fruit. The room was well-equipped — a small kitchen and bathroom, a meeting room, a rest area. Wan You wasn't sure which door led where.

One door opened, and a man came out — elegant and striking, sleeves rolled up, carrying a plate of freshly washed fruit.

"Hello." He set the plate on the bedside table and dried his hands with a handkerchief.

"Hello." Wan You understood immediately. This was the person who'd been staying to look after Chao Musheng.

No wonder the fruit was already done.

Even carrying a fruit plate, the man had the particular quality that made people instinctively careful around him. He was categorically not a hired aide.

"Mr. Xu — this is my classmate Wan You." Chao Musheng made the introduction. "He runs a barbecue stall on the pedestrian street across from Kunlun. It's very good."

Hearing the phrase our Kunlun, something warm came into Xu Chenzhu's eyes. He set the handkerchief aside and extended his hand. "How do you do, Mr. Wan."

"How do you do, President Xu." Wan You shook with both hands.

"Wan You — Mr. Xu is my direct superior and a close friend." Chao Musheng said. "He's been looking after me these past two days."

Direct superior.

Chao Musheng was the president's assistant. His direct superior was therefore—

Wan You's hands went slightly unsteady as he released Xu Chenzhu's. He turned to look at Chao Musheng.

You're telling me this man — young, good-looking — is the head of Kunlun?

A company's head staying to look after an employee in hospital was unusual. But if that employee was Chao Musheng, somehow it seemed less surprising.

"Zhaozhao — what fruit do you and your friend like? I'll peel some."

"No — no, I'm really not hungry at all." Wan You's head was shaking like a rattle drum.

Under what circumstances would he allow the head of Kunlun to peel fruit for him.

The thought became moot when he watched Xu Chenzhu peel a honeydew melon and carve it into small bears, cats, and dogs with complete competence. Wan You went quiet.

Even allowing for the fact that this was Chao Musheng — this still seemed unusual.

Did the head of a company personally do things like this?

Xu Chenzhu skewered a piece of melon on a silver fork and held it toward Chao Musheng. "Try one?"

Chao Musheng leaned forward and bit it from the fork. "Sweet."

"Good." Xu Chenzhu placed the fork in Chao Musheng's right hand — the one without the IV cannula. "Have a few more then."

"Mr. Wan." He set a separate washed plate in front of Wan You. "Please."

"Thank you." Wan You pinched a grape and put the whole thing in his mouth, seeds, skin and all, chewed twice and swallowed.

He hadn't done anything wrong, and yet he had an inexplicable sense of being one person too many in this room.

*

"The drip's finished." The bag had run dry. Xu Chenzhu pressed the call bell; a nurse came and removed the line.

"Boss." Secretary Liu came in and spoke quietly. "Video conference in ten minutes."

"Mr. Xu — I'm going to take my friend downstairs for a bit." Chao Musheng pushed back the covers and got up. "I've been in the ward for two days. I'm starting to feel the walls."

Xu Chenzhu pressed a palm to his forehead to confirm his temperature was normal, then helped him into a sun-protective jacket, careful around the cannula on the back of his hand. "Don't stay out too long."

"Yes, yes." Chao Musheng pushed the sleeves up and led Wan You out.

"The company has a video conference — you're not joining?" Wan You scratched his head. He'd never had a proper office job; he wasn't sure of the etiquette. But it seemed to him that management generally preferred their staff to work themselves into the ground.

"I'm on medical leave." Chao Musheng shook his head. "I don't get involved in company matters during leave."

From around the corner, a voice:

"The hospital is not your home. If everyone wanted leave, what would happen to our patients?"

"Being a healer is a doctor's calling — try to push through it."

The director of the ninth-floor premium ward was delivering a lecture to a resident who'd asked for time off. Hearing Chao Musheng and Wan You approach, he stopped mid-sentence and turned.

"Mr. Chao." A smile appeared. "You're looking much better today."

"Your hospital's care has been excellent — I'm feeling much improved." Chao Musheng smiled back.

The resident being lectured kept his head down, visibly depleted. Even Chao Musheng's presence nearby didn't register on him.

"Is this doctor going through something difficult?" Chao Musheng thought the young doctor looked genuinely wretched.

"He's a resident with us. Something's come up at home — he's asked for two days off." The director, aware his lecture had been overheard, smiled somewhat uncomfortably. "The ward is simply too busy to spare anyone right now."

"If it's something important at home, I hope you'll consider giving him a day." Chao Musheng looked at the resident standing there like he'd already given up. He said something on his behalf.

"Well—" The director hesitated. He thought of the young man in front of him: president's assistant at Kunlun, and the hospital was a subsidiary concern within the Kunlun umbrella.

He nodded.

"I can authorize one day. You must be back by noon the day after tomorrow."

"Thank you, Director! Thank you, Mr. Chao!" Something came back into the resident's eyes. He went to Chao Musheng and said thank you several times over, pulling off his white coat as he went and breaking into a run at the elevator.

He could still make it back in time to see his grandmother one last time.

"Ah." The director sighed and gave Chao Musheng a helpless smile. "Young people — they don't always know how to handle things. Sorry for the trouble."

"Missing someone you love is the most natural thing in the world." Chao Musheng smiled. "You're busy, Director. We won't keep you."

"Safe walking, Mr. Chao."

The hospital had its own regulations. Even with the best intentions, he couldn't bend the staff conduct rules by himself.

But with Mr. Chao's prompting, it became simple: if anyone asked, he only had to mention it was the Kunlun president's assistant who'd requested the consideration. No one would push further. The resident's evaluations would be unaffected.

A small-scale ninth-floor ward director — that was the limit of what he could do.

*

Chao Musheng took Wan You to the small garden and sat for a while, talking through some things about Wan You's studies. But his barbecue business was on Chao Musheng's mind, so he sent him a folder of reference materials directly to his phone. "Go and make your money. I'll be out of here in a couple of days — you don't need to worry."

Who said I was worried.

Wan You's face went a little warm. He was just — he was just not the kind of person who liked people thinking him cold-hearted.

Wan You did not have a thing for good-looking men.

"I'm heading off then." He stood, took two steps, and came back. "Let me walk you to the ward first."

He was the one who'd taken him out. Common sense dictated he bring him back.

"Uncle Chao!"

Zeng Ning ran up. Her wig had changed — the pink was gone, replaced by a deep gem blue, puffed outward around her head like a big watermelon-rind hat.

Somewhat dopey. Also somehow endearing.

"Thank you — you and Uncle Xu — the aides you found are taking such good care of my mom." She put two red braided strings in Chao Musheng's hands.

"These are 姻缘绳 — wish-cords for love — that I had a friend pick up from a Taoist shrine. The shrine is supposed to be very effective. If a couple ties them together, they stay together for life."

Her eyes were bright. "May you and Uncle Xu get better and better."

She pressed both hands to her red cheeks, looking flustered, and ran off.

Uncle Xu.

Love-cords.

Wan You's eyes — already large — went completely round.

"Don't read anything into it. The girl misunderstood." Chao Musheng felt Wan You's stare acutely. "Mr. Xu and I are completely ordinary friends."

"Right." Wan You moved his gaze elsewhere with great courtesy. "Children misread adult relationships all the time. Very normal."

Xu Chenzhu came out from the other end of the corridor. The moment he saw Chao Musheng standing at the garden entrance, something warm came into his usually expressionless face. "Zhaozhao."

Ordinary.

Wan You rubbed his somewhat pointed chin. The way President Xu looked at Chao Musheng was not exactly what he would describe as ordinary.

*

Wan You, exercising good judgment, said his goodbyes. He was walking slowly along the corridor when he became aware of a cleaner in the corner who was definitely watching him.

Which brought back unpleasant memories of being stared at by supernatural things in previous instances.

"What are you looking at?"

In front of him: heavily built, sharp-eyed, broad-voiced. One punch and there would be two of him.

You Jiu looked away. Categorically not the Wan You he knew.

Wan You noted that You Jiu had taken the hint and let it go with a short hm.

Qi Shi, standing not far from You Jiu, checked the reading above Wan You's head: anger 25, exhaustion 5.

Exhaustion of 5.

This was a person with a profoundly positive relationship with being alive.

*

Curly Hair came out of the director's office with a full bag of rubbish and immediately spotted Wan You in the corridor. She turned and went back in.

"Wang Xiaojuan. I knew it was really you." Wan You had already seen her. "What are you doing here?"

He'd known it. How many people in the world had a name quite that unusual.

Seeing Curly Hair here, Wan You understood within seconds: the Main God had designated this hospital as an instance space.

He looked at the enormous bag of rubbish in her hands with an expression that defied easy description. "You're working as a cleaner?"

In previous hospital instances, the bare minimum you could expect was a doctor or nurse role. How had things gone backwards?

Qi Shi stared at Curly Hair, thoroughly startled. How did an NPC who'd just appeared out of nowhere know her name?

"Don't. It's not a proud moment." Curly Hair's smile carried the weight of many accumulated humiliations. "We all came in the same way."

Every last shred of dignity, gone.

Wang Xiaojuan had never had trouble holding her head up before. Now she was either mid-humiliation or actively running toward the next one.

Wan You understood completely. The look he gave her was full of compassion.

The Main God was getting worse. Good thing he'd had the foresight to stop following it — otherwise he'd be starving on three meals a day.

He noticed Qi Shi and You Jiu both watching him and Curly Hair with varying degrees of attention. Players, probably.

"Excuse me." You Jiu walked over. His confidence in his own judgment was taking a beating. "Do you know a man called Wan You?"

"Happy to introduce myself." Wan You's chin came up slightly when he reached the relevant part. "Wan You. Preparatory student at Jinghua University. Owner and operator of Wan Xiang Barbecue on the pedestrian street opposite Kunlun Tower."

"You're actually Wan You?!" You Jiu's signature easy smile disappeared entirely. His face was just shock. "How are you here?"

"I just said — I'm a Jinghua preparatory student now." The pride and satisfaction in Wan You's bearing at this moment were complete.

Someone both You Jiu and Curly Hair knew. A player, then?

Qi Shi looked at the values above Wan You's head, expression unreadable.

A player with NPC data values. Was he still a player?

"Be careful." Qi Shi kept his voice low. "He's showing data. This could be a data-construct the instance generated to pass as a player."

You Jiu's expression was complicated.

What kind of sad instance would put this much effort into constructing a player-shaped decoy?

One that clearly didn't expect anyone to fall for it.