Chapter 14: What the Hell

The next morning, Zhou Yi was jolted awake by three consecutive sneezes. Her head felt heavy and her limbs light. Her throat was dry and sore. Her nose was so stuffed she could barely breathe. In despair, she spread herself flat on the bed, hoping to stay like this until winter was over.

When she turned her head and saw an opened bag of cookies on the corner of her desk, Zhou Yi’s gaze froze and the memories came flooding back.

In that brief span, her face cycled from crimson to ashen, and finally settled on a dead-inside numbness.

It was just one night of drinking. She might have poured away every scrap of dignity for the rest of her life.

Should she move to another planet overnight?

Forget it…

It was only ten o’clock. Seven or eight more hours until dark.

Zhou Yi pulled the blanket up and twisted herself into a caterpillar on the bed.

Time crawled past eleven. Zhou Yi twisted herself hungry, washed her face casually, and trudged downstairs for food.

“Little Hei, where’s Brother?” Zhou Yi draped herself over the doorway and asked Little Hei, who was confirming a booking with a client.

Little Hei pointed behind him. “Pushed back this morning’s appointments. He’s home.”

Zhou Yi was puzzled. Tang Yuanzhou, who treated tattoos as his life’s blood, actually had days off?

Zhou Yi turned to look for him.

The instant her gaze collided with Mu Qinglin sitting across from Tang Yuanzhou, Zhou Yi’s mind went blank. She shoved the door open and bolted into the shop.

How could she have forgotten this person was coming to show Tang Yuanzhou the photos today!

Careless, careless!

But she’d dodged pretty fast. Mu Qinglin probably didn’t see her, right?

Bzzt! Her phone suddenly vibrated.

Zhou Yi nervously fished it out.

Mu Qinglin had messaged her on WeChat: 【See a ghost?】

You’re scarier than any ghost.

Zhou Yi sighed in defeat.

She had run so fast and still couldn’t escape Mu Qinglin’s notice…

Zhou Yi quickly checked the doorway to confirm Mu Qinglin couldn’t see her from this angle, then put on an act: 【What are you talking about?】

Mu Qinglin: 【Asking why you run the moment you see me.】

Zhou Yi: 【Who ran?】

【A reporter should stick to the facts.】

Mu Qinglin: 【You’re right.】

That easy to fool?

Zhou Yi didn’t buy it for a second.

Sure enough, within seconds Mu Qinglin’s follow-up arrived: 【Can you take this dose of medicine yourself?】

Zhou Yi’s hand trembled, and the phone fell with perfect precision into the trash can.

Little Hei heard the noise and peered over. “Can I fish that out?”

Zhou Yi kicked the trash can into an ignored corner with a wooden expression.

Couldn’t she just not bring up the medicine?

Did she have no shame?

Mu Qinglin was truly unbelievable.

Zhou Yi leaned back against the wall and began to take stock of the rest of her life.

One word could sum it all up: darkness.

“Where’s the boss?!” Nanbei, the tattoo artist, came sprinting over, face flushed, and asked Little Hei.

Little Hei gave him the same answer he’d given Zhou Yi.

Nanbei collapsed on the table sobbing. “I want to die…”

“Me too. Want to coordinate?” A ghostly voice drifted from the corner. Nanbei jumped so hard he nearly died on the spot.

“Don’t panic. It’s alive.” Little Hei shone a flashlight into the corner.

Nanbei followed the beam and spotted Zhou Yi. It was like finding a long-lost mother. He practically threw himself at her. “Little Jiu, please save me!”

Zhou Yi, startled out of her numbness, leaped aside like a reanimated corpse and yelled: “Talk it out!”

Nanbei’s face was pure despair. “I really can’t do this!”

Zhou Yi was wary. “Can’t do what?”

“There’s a high school senior who wants a tattoo. I told her our shop has rules, no minors. She started crying. She just started crying!” Nanbei fell apart. “If it were a guy, I’d grab a leg and toss him out. But a girl. I can’t be mean to a girl, and I don’t know how to comfort one. I really don’t!”

The more Nanbei spoke, the more suffocated he got. “I have social anxiety with the opposite sex—”

Zhou Yi couldn’t quite stand it. She set aside the “coordinated death” plan and said: “I’m a woman too.”

Nanbei paused for two seconds. “Oh right.” Then he said: “Your features aren’t that obvious. Forgot to count you.”

Zhou Yi: “…”

“Where is she?” Zhou Yi asked.

Nanbei immediately snapped back to normal. “I’ll take you.”

Zhou Yi followed Nanbei.

Before she’d gone two steps, she turned back, fished the phone out of the trash, and snapped a close-up of her face to send to the shop’s only other woman, Mu Qinglin. She asked: 【Are my feminine features really that unobvious?】

Mu Qinglin was drinking water and choked when she saw the message. By the time she opened the photo, Zhou Yi’s face practically pressed against the lens was so startling she forgot to cough.

“What’s wrong?” Tang Yuanzhou asked, noting Mu Qinglin’s strange expression.

Mu Qinglin minimized the photo. “Nothing. Horror movies in broad daylight are a bit jarring.”

Mu Qinglin: 【Still drunk?】

Zhou Yi: 【Sober enough to know one pair of hands has ten fingers!】

“…” Then how could she ask something that bizarre?

Mu Qinglin thought for two seconds and suggested: 【Go see a doctor.】

Zhou Yi read it twice and didn’t understand.

See a doctor for a cold?

What did a cold have to do with feminine features?

Zhou Yi asked Nanbei in confusion: “What does this mean?”

Nanbei didn’t hesitate. “She’s saying you’re sick.”

Zhou Yi hurled the phone straight into the fish tank.

Nanbei was stunned. “That’s the newest model! Over ten grand! Having money doesn’t mean you have to bury it!”

Zhou Yi stuffed her hands in her pockets and said evenly: “It’s waterproof.”

Nanbei: “…”

When Zhou Yi and Nanbei arrived, the girl was still crying.

She was sitting at the top of the stairs. Nobody could come down and nobody could go up. It was genuinely awkward.

“Little Jiu, she’s all yours. Handle this and I’ll buy you braised spare ribs for a month,” Nanbei whispered.

Zhou Yi flashed him an OK sign. “A year…”

Nanbei smiled. “Maybe I should just go die.”

The photo situation wasn’t something Mu Qinglin could resolve on the spot. She promised Tang Yuanzhou she’d take it to the colleagues at the technology center.

Tang Yuanzhou was immensely grateful and tried to keep Mu Qinglin for lunch, but she declined. “Something came up at the station. Another time.”

Tang Yuanzhou: “Sure. Come by whenever you’re free. It’s just a few steps away.”

“Oh, one more favor,” Tang Yuanzhou said.

Mu Qinglin: “What is it?”

Tang Yuanzhou placed a small box of individually portioned cold medicine in front of Mu Qinglin and flattered her: “You’re efficient.”

That was with a certain drunk. And when she’s sober, she’s not much more normal…

“You might not have noticed, but Zhou Yi ran from me faster than she’d run from a ghost,” Mu Qinglin said.

Tang Yuanzhou: “That’s just her saving face. It actually shows how close you two are. If you were some stranger she had no connection to, she’d be a few centimeters thicker-skinned than a city wall.”

…

No need to be that brutal.

Mu Qinglin spared a second of sympathy for Zhou Yi’s living conditions.

But then again, had they gotten close?

Maybe…

At the very least, she was probably one of the few people who had seen a different side of Zhou Yi.

Mu Qinglin picked up the medicine box and said conservatively: “I’ll do my best…”

“Going yourself, there’s no way it won’t work.” Tang Yuanzhou was blindly steadfast.

Mu Qinglin only felt the weight of responsibility.

“Wait…” Mu Qinglin called out to Tang Yuanzhou, who was checking the time and heading to the kitchen to prepare lunch. She handed him the card she’d found on the ground last night. “This is from Lu Chang to Zhou Yi. I read it yesterday. Handing it to her directly might cause a scene.”

“You’re afraid of her too?” Tang Yuanzhou teased. “I’ll hold onto it for now and find the right moment to give it to her.”

Mu Qinglin: “Mm…”

Mu Qinglin poured a glass of water and went to find Zhou Yi in the shop.

Little Hei told her: “Little Jiu? Walk about ten meters straight ahead and you’ll see her.”

Mu Qinglin: “Thanks…”

Mu Qinglin still hadn’t figured out what to say to Zhou Yi. Her steps were heavy.

If gentle persuasion worked, Tang Yuanzhou wouldn’t have tossed this hot potato to her.

But if she tried what she did last night, Zhou Yi would probably kick her kneecap in.

…

While Mu Qinglin wavered, she spotted Zhou Yi sitting on the steps.

There was a test paper on her lap. She hunched her shoulders and was writing away at a furious pace.