“Uh… well…” Ye Yang admitted that Li Chanyi had a bit of a point, but still, “Even though I’m also a yaoguai, I’m not like them.”
“Before you knew I was a yaoguai, I told you I was an orphan, remember? That’s true. I don’t have a clan, and I wasn’t born in the yaoguai realm.” Ye Yang had never mentioned any of this to Li Chanyi before. After all, bringing it up out of nowhere would have been strange.
“To be honest, I didn’t learn about the existence of the yaoguai realm much earlier than you did.” Just two years earlier, actually.
“Everything I know about this world—about humans and yaoguai—I learned from the YCG and from university. So it’s perfectly normal that my worldview is different from other yaoguai.”
“And besides, what could Fu Ye possibly want from a little yaoguai like me? But I hear what you’re saying, Xiaochan. I’ll keep it in mind. It’s not like I’ll go looking for him unless I have a reason to.”
Ye Yang spoke sincerely. Li Chanyi’s tongue rolled around in his mouth several times, but in the end, all that came out was a noncommittal “Hmph.”
—
Back in Dongzhou, after attending the graduation ceremony, Ye Yang waited for further notice from Director Tu to find out where he would officially start working.
But Director Tu seemed extremely busy lately. She was nowhere to be found in the office, and all his messages went unread. Ye Yang also tried reaching out to Yu Bei and Director Bai, but neither knew anything about his work arrangements.
With nothing else to do, Ye Yang went back to help out at the research institute for a few days.
Shen Ming had already resigned from his teaching position at Dongzhou University. Amid the wails of Professor Cui Xipeng and a host of underclassmen, he had returned to the institute’s nine-to-six, five-days-a-week routine.
The institute had several new graduate students just admitted under Professor Cui. Their summer break had been hijacked, and they’d been dragged in to work. The pay was decent, but it was hard not to feel a bit uncomfortable having a freshly graduated undergraduate around who was far better than them at everything, working for free.
After a few days, Ye Yang finally realized that his presence wasn’t doing anyone any favors. Even though it wasn’t his intention, he was setting a brutal pace. When quitting time came, Ye Yang would wait for Shen Ming’s sample results, which meant the grad students didn’t dare leave on time either.
After thinking it over, Ye Yang stopped going to the institute.
Of course, he felt a bit disappointed. He genuinely loved working at the institute—doing experiments and research without distraction, learning new things. It was his greatest passion.
At home, there wasn’t much to do besides watch Xiao Shisan and Yu Siyuan’s livestreams, bicker with Little Crow, or make afternoon tea snacks to bring to Shen Ming and his colleagues.
Finally, in mid-July, Ye Yang received a call from Director Tu.
As soon as the call connected, Director Tu spoke rapidly: “Xiao Ye, I’ve got it all arranged. Someone will come get you tomorrow to onboard. That’s it, I have things to do—gotta go!”
“Wait—” Ye Yang didn’t even have time to get a word out before the phone gave way to a dial tone.
Well. Director Tu really was very busy.
The next day, Ye Yang received an email—an onboarding notice from Dongzhou Qichu Bumingzi Advertising Company.
Company? An advertising company?
Ye Yang was completely confused. Wasn’t he supposed to go to the Operations Department?
—
Ye Yang lay sprawled across his desk, chin propped on his hand in boredom, watching the clock’s hands tick forward one notch at a time.
At nine o’clock that morning, he had followed the address in the email and found this strangely named company.
Contrary to his expectations, the company looked fairly normal from the outside. It occupied an entire floor of an office building in Dongzhou’s southern district.
The area was full of advertising agencies, design firms, education training centers—that sort of thing. A subway station and bus stop were nearby, making the commute easy. It wasn’t far from Ye Yang’s apartment either.
After arriving at the company entrance and walking through the glass door, he found a reception desk. A man in a security uniform blocked Ye Yang’s way. He was thin and tall, with an unfriendly expression. One eye was closed, a scar running straight through it. His tone was also harsh. “What do you want?”
Ye Yang quickly pulled up the email on his phone. The scarred-eye security guard glanced at it, and his expression softened considerably. But maybe because of his features, he still looked quite fierce. His tone was still a bit rough, though his words were friendly enough. “So you’re the new colleague. Ye Yang, right? Good. I’m the security guard here. Just call me Brother Hui.”
Ye Yang obediently said, “Brother Hui.”
Brother Hui seemed quite satisfied. “Good. From now on, you’re under my protection here. If anyone dares to bully you, just call me! Alright, get on in.”
Having somehow acquired a big brother, Ye Yang finally made it past the reception desk and got a look at the full office.
At first glance, nothing seemed particularly special. The workstations were spaced far apart, each one highly personalized. Some were overflowing with potted plants, others piled high with books and documents. There weren’t many employees either. Wait… now that he looked closely, there wasn’t a single person here. Who was he supposed to report to?
Brother Hui suddenly poked his head back in. “Almost forgot. They’re out on a mission. Just find a place to sit for now. They’ll be back in a bit. The water cooler has hot water. Tea, coffee, and disposable cups are next to it.”
After thanking Brother Hui, Ye Yang began his long wait.
This wait lasted four hours. Utterly bored, Ye Yang had explored the entire company except for a few closed-door offices. He even sent Director Tu a message to confirm—yes, this was the right place.
At noon, Brother Hui invited him to have lunch together, but Ye Yang declined, afraid he might miss the others coming back.
Then Brother Hui left and never returned.
Soon it was nearly four o’clock. The entire company was dead silent. Ye Yang couldn’t help feeling suspicious—had he come to the wrong place? But with such an abstract name, there probably wasn’t another company like this in the entire city… maybe even in all of China.
A little while later, finally, just as Ye Yang was starting to wonder if someone was impersonating Director Tu to scam him, his future colleagues returned.
“Ooh, so this is the new kid, huh? Come on, sis will give you a tour.”
A very stylish, very eye-catching woman with a buzz cut patted Ye Yang on the shoulder and whisked him into the conference room.
After some introductions, Ye Yang learned that this beautiful sister—dressed head to toe in black leather studded with rhinestones, wearing black eyeshadow and black lipstick—was the Art Director. Her real identity was the Operations Department’s Chief Dispatcher and Intelligence Supervisor. Her name was Wu Shuwan.
“Just call me Sister Wu.”
Ye Yang obediently greeted her, but inwardly he couldn’t help noticing that the surname Wu was very uncommon in Dongzhou. His first thought went to Wu Rong. Could Sister Wu also be a descendant of Wu Peng? Well, maybe he’d ask someday when they knew each other better.
There were a few other colleagues in the conference room. Besides Brother Hui, whom he’d already met, there was a tall, burly male colleague. His shoulders and back were very broad, but for some reason, he wore a large hood indoors, revealing only the lower part of his chin.
Sister Wu introduced him: “This is your Brother Xing. He’s the designer and also the operations team leader.”
“Hello, Brother Xing.”
Brother Xing nodded and said, “Hello.” His voice was muffled, like he was speaking from under a blanket.
“Oh, the boss is here. Xiao Ye, this is our boss, General Manager Long Mi.”
A middle-aged man with a dignified, calm face, regular features, and a neat hairstyle. He hadn’t been there just a moment ago—Ye Yang didn’t even notice him come in. He was already seated at the head of the table.
For some reason, as soon as he entered, the conference room seemed to fill with a serene, tranquil atmosphere.
General Manager Long nodded slightly in acknowledgment. “Thank you for joining us. I hope we can work together pleasantly.”
“Alright, sis will show you around the company facilities.”
Sister Wu once again clamped her arm around Ye Yang’s shoulders and whisked him out of the conference room before he could refuse. For some reason, the tour route included the restroom, the break room, the lounge, the training room… and the workstations only came last.
Halfway through, Ye Yang couldn’t help asking, “Sister Wu, why are you giving me the tour? I saw on the company directory map at the entrance that there’s a Human Resources department.” Surely the Art Director shouldn’t be the one doing this job, no matter how you looked at it.
Sister Wu’s steps faltered. She forced herself to stay calm. “Our company isn’t some ordinary—ahem—isn’t some human company! No need to follow all those fussy human rules. Sis just likes showing you around. Sis wants to!”
After saying that, she looked at Ye Yang nervously. They’d finally gotten a new hire, and he seemed like an honest, capable kid. She absolutely couldn’t let him find out how empty their Operations Department really was—even the company directory map at the entrance had been pasted up overnight just to make the company look more reliable…
As for the so-called Human Resources department, that was completely made up. No such department existed, let alone employees!
Ye Yang stared back at Sister Wu suspiciously, a bad feeling rising in his chest.
—
That bad feeling quickly came true.
Ye Yang never imagined that the YCG headquarters, which looked so reliable, would have a field office in Dongzhou’s southern district that was such a ragtag operation.
Even though the company occupied an entire floor, the total number of employees—including himself—was only five.
Everyone he’d met yesterday was the entire staff!
He thought that was already the most absurd thing, but it got even more absurd.
Even though this was an operations branch primarily handling human-world affairs, not a single employee was human.
At first, Ye Yang didn’t know and naively assumed everyone was human. When he learned that Brother Xing was the operations team leader and its sole member, he was genuinely worried for his safety—until he learned the truth.
Sister Wu had instructed everyone to keep it from Ye Yang at all costs. They had to make him think they were human, for as long as possible—at least get past one month. Because after one month, Ye Yang wouldn’t be able to easily request a transfer. This was the best strategy they’d come up with after five consecutive years of failing to retain new employees.
Every time, those new hires would discover that not only were there barely any employees, but there wasn’t a single human among them. Task coordination and other issues kept cropping up. The newcomers would run off fast. This time, they absolutely could not let that happen again!
But how could people who always followed their true nature and let loose at the office possibly clean up their act and perfectly pretend to be human?
Especially when the one they were trying to fool wasn’t an ordinary new yaoguai from the yaoguai realm with minimal human contact, but Ye Yang—a clever little sea bunny who had attended four years of human university!
The first one to get caught was Sister Wu herself.
Even more hilariously, she let it slip herself.
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