“See, speak of the devil! Come, young man, and get to know him. This is our boss.” The doorman gave Guo Changcheng a shove. Guo Changcheng stumbled forward half a step and heard the person behind him say loudly, “Director Zhao, we finally have a new coworker.”
Director Zhao extended a hand toward Guo Changcheng, open and friendly. “Hello, hello! The warmest of welcomes.”
Guo Changcheng rubbed his damp palms on his pants as if his body wasn’t under his control and then, embarrassingly, extended the wrong hand. He shrank back at once like he’d been electrocuted. The armpits and back of his T-shirt were immediately soaked in sweat. A new world map slowly took shape on his shirt.
Director Zhao didn’t give him a hard time. Instead, he patted Guo Changcheng’s shoulder as if nothing had happened. Casual pleasantries rolled easily off his tongue. “Don’t be nervous; all the comrades who work here are friendly and united. Now, today’s your first day, so I should take you around and introduce you to everyone, but the thing is, today’s also a special day. We’re honestly just too busy. We might not be able to get you properly settled for a bit; I hope you don’t mind.
“Later, I’ll take charge of throwing you a welcome party. Though it’s the middle of the night now… Hey, how about this. I’ll get lao-Wu to take you inside to find Wang Zheng, our head of HR, and ask her to complete all your onboarding procedures. Then you can go home and rest for the day. Come back and report tomorrow morning, okay?”
Guo Changcheng nodded hastily.
For all that Director Zhao had been burning with impatience before, at this moment, as they stood there and talked, his speech was unhurried. It didn’t make his conversation partner feel iced out or dismissed. He was clearly very smooth when it came to dealing with people.
“Sorry, there’s something urgent I need to take care of, so I have to head off. If there’s anything you need, just come find me directly. Don’t be shy. From now on, we’re all family. Sorry for the trouble you took to make the trip today!” Director Zhao smiled apologetically at Guo Changcheng, then waved at lao-Wu before rushing off.
Lao-Wu had to be a loyal fan of Director Zhao. Even though he’d just listened to a round of empty bullshit that had nothing to do with him, he was as happy as a clam. As he led Guo Changcheng into the office building, he went on and on, “Our Director Zhao is young and capable, has an even temperament, and doesn’t ever throw his authority around with anyone or in any situation…”
Guo Changcheng, still fear-struck from the misfortune of meeting his boss, was too scattered to pay proper attention as he listened. Like an echo bug,1 he could only nod agreeably.
Because Guo Changcheng had always been too afraid to look people in the eye, he completely failed to notice that old Mr. Wu, who was leading the way, was as white as a sheet under the lights. His lips were bloodred, the corners of his mouth extended all the way to his ears, and as his mouth opened and closed, one could see that he was missing a tongue.
Inside the office building, people were coming and going, and they all looked extraordinarily busy.
At this point, the weirdness of the situation finally began to properly dawn on Guo Changcheng. Ordinarily, even if an urgent matter required working overtime until midnight, would the staff of the gatehouse and HR department need to keep them company?
Beside him, lao-Wu explained quietly, “Xiao-Guo, don’t get the wrong idea. In the future, as long as there aren’t any major cases, you’ll mostly be working during the day. It’s just these couple of days out of the year during the seventh lunar month when we’re so busy that night and day tend to blur together. You get something to show for it, though! Overtime pay is three times your usual, and your monthly bonus will be double too.”
Guo Changcheng was even more baffled. What was this stuff about “the seventh lunar month is so busy” supposed to mean? Did criminals have mid-year summary meetings and experience exchange conferences too? Following the lunar calendar?
But fear of coming across as stupid made him too embarrassed to ask. He just nodded, confused. “Mm.”
Lao-Wu continued, “I usually work the night shift. We have a different colleague in the gatehouse during the day. You probably won’t see me that often in the future.” He sighed. “The truth is, I’m happy to spend time with you young people. Did you just graduate? From which school? What were you studying?”
Guo Changcheng described his unimpressive academic background, ashamed. At the end, in a voice as thin as a mosquito’s buzz, he added, “I’m not very good at studying.”
“Aiya, what do you mean?! You’re a university student!” Lao-Wu hurriedly continued, “I just love cultured young people. I’d never be able to do it. When I was younger, my family was poor. When I was seven or eight, I attended a sishu with the xiansheng2 in the village for a few years. All these years later, I’ve pretty much given everything I’ve learned back to that xiansheng. I can’t even read most characters; I can barely read the newspaper.”
What year was this? A sishu?
Once again, Guo Changcheng didn’t understand, but he was still afraid of seeming stupid, and embarrassment kept him silent.
Happily, lao-Wu said, “Here we are!”
Guo Changcheng looked up to see “Department of Human Resources” in large text on the door, written in red on a white background. The red struck him as off somehow, but he had trouble putting a finger on why. After giving the words a long stare, it suddenly clicked: that rusty red was the color of dried blood!
Standing beside Guo Changcheng, lao-Wu knocked on the door. “Is xiao-Wang here? I brought a new comrade who’ll be joining us. Can we bother you for a second to complete the onboarding process?”
After a beat of silence, an airy, female voice came from inside. “Mm, coming.”
The voice seemed awfully distant, but also as if it was floating right by his ear. When Guo Changcheng heard it, he shivered reflexively. A chill brushed the nape of his neck.
But lao-Wu, seemingly oblivious, chattered on. “I’m so sorry, xiao-Guo, making you come all this way in the middle of the night. But there’s no helping it—our xiao-Wang is just like me. We can only work the night shift, so all the new employment procedures need to be done at this time.”
Wait…
What did he mean they could only work the night shift?
Why couldn’t they work during the day…?
A fresh layer of icy sweat gushed out of Guo Changcheng’s back. Trembling with fright, he finally steeled his nerves and swept his eyes across the passing employees. With a single glance, he saw a person wearing a uniform float past him, his feet unmistakably not touching the ground…
Or rather…he…h-h-he didn’t have feet!
The door to the office creaked open in front of them, the hinges emitting a hoarse moan. A young woman in a white dress appeared. In a wisp of a voice that made Guo Changcheng erupt in goosebumps, she said, “Did you bring your letter of acceptance and your ID?”
Cold, gloomy wind billowed out from the office. Guo Changcheng’s heart felt like it was suspended in his throat, no longer beating. He held his breath and looked up slowly. His gaze slid across the white dress, unsullied by even a single speck of dust, and finally landed on the girl’s bare neck…
A gurgling noise rose from Guo Changcheng’s throat as if he were being choked. Mouth agape, eyes so wide that they threatened to fall out, he took a step back. Fear coursed through him.
Upon closer inspection, he saw what looked like a red thread around the woman’s neck. But it was no accessory—it lay too close to her skin… Rather, it was a tight line of stitches that held her head to her neck!
A frigid hand came to rest on his shoulder. From right by his ear, lao-Wu’s voice said, “Hey, xiao-Guo, what’s wrong?”
Guo Changcheng whipped his head around to stare directly at lao-Wu’s face—a face that looked as if it were made from papier-mâché, with a large, bloody mouth that reached his ears.
Earlier, Guo Changcheng had foolishly thought that meeting his boss would be worse than meeting a ghost, and now he was suffering the consequences of his words. Tonight he’d not only met his boss—he’d met some real ghosts!
His dear uncle truly had found him just the loveliest, most extraordinary job.