"Chu Ge, do something, Chu Ge."
First thing the next morning, Chu Ge had groggily just gotten up to wash his face when Qiu Wuji grabbed him: "They've all switched to that avatar. At a glance it looks like the same person talking over and over."
Chu Ge didn't think there was anything to be done. "I've seen another author's little ghost avatar before, and half his reader circle used it too... It's fine, the fad dies down in a couple of days..."
"But that's my own avatar! Are they all Qiu Wuji now?"
"It just means you're popular." Chu Ge tried to soothe her. "Pick any celebrity's fan group and you'll find ninety percent of the avatars in there are that celebrity. It means you're a celebrity now."
"They don't even know me. That's a character in a book. Does that count as a celebrity?"
"It's called a virtual idol. Look, mine is a two-dimensional pretty girl too, and I've had my avatar collide with other people's."
"...Speaking of which, I keep forgetting to ask — who is that avatar of yours, anyway?"
"...A foreign virtual star named Akizuki Airi. You don't need to know her."
"I don't want to be a celebrity!"
"It's fine. It's only virtual. It isn't you."
Qiu Wuji felt that hearing him out was very much like hearing him out — a whole speech that amounted to saying nothing at all.
She clearly hadn't wanted other people using that avatar, and yet, seeing that Chu Ge had put up some foreign Airi instead, she was displeased for a different reason: "You change yours to mine too. No foreigners allowed."
Chu Ge: "...All right, all right, all right."
With that he went into the bathroom and started scrubbing away. "Let's go visit Panda and Ah Jun today."
"Oh." Qiu Wuji had entirely forgotten that she'd blocked the man just last night. "Yes, we should visit. Panda worked hard on that avatar."
The two of them rode the electric scooter to the hospital, put on their Huluwa masks, and walked into the ward. Zhong Yi and Head Chef Jin and his wife were all there.
Seeing Chu Ge and his "wife" come in to visit, Wan Zijun and Panda were both deeply moved.
Little did they know how Chu Ge really felt about them. They'd assumed an off-the-books masked man meant no real ties — after all, none of the other masked men had ever put in an appearance. But these two had not only come to visit that very day, they'd even gone to help the Jins and faced a knife-wielding thug alone, then shown up again the next day. That was loyalty!
Real family might not be that devoted.
Both of them declared, "Third Brother, say no more. From now on, if there's ever trouble, just whistle — through water and fire we'll go, and if we so much as wrinkle our brows, you can twist our heads off and kick them around like a ball!"
Chu Ge badly wanted to tell them that they could just keep chatting in the group and he'd be delighted, but out loud he could only say, "It was nothing. Don't exaggerate."
Panda asked, "Third Brother, we want payback. What do you think?"
Chu Ge nodded. It was the inevitable reaction of anyone involved; perfectly understandable.
Rong Fu was some drifter from out of town; there was no way he'd targeted Black House out of nowhere — plainly he'd been hired. Which meant the one who paid him hadn't so much as gotten a scratch to this day. Who could stomach that? Just yesterday Lin Wuyang had been worried about revenge and had given them a warning.
Zhong Yi said from the side, "The cops came by yesterday and warned us not to try anything. I figure, as long as we don't commit any crimes, other kinds of payback are fine, right?"
Chu Ge said, "What kinds of payback?"
Head Chef Jin said, "The Wang family owns hotels, don't they? I'll make their guests think the food tastes awful. What's the police going to arrest me for?"
Chu Ge: "..."
Wan Zijun said, "Still doesn't feel satisfying. Let's think up a few more games. Relax, we won't cross any lines."
"Fine." Chu Ge said, "If there's ever something you can't handle and you need a hand, you can call me... but honestly, I don't want to get too deep into this sort of business. Bear with me, everyone."
"We get it, we get it. Third Brother has already been more than loyal! We shouldn't trouble Third Brother any further." Wan Zijun turned to Zhong Yi: "Boss Zhang, the one who hired us for that job — shouldn't we ask him what he thinks about all this too?"
Chu Ge saw that they were lively as ever with nothing wrong with them, and, not wanting to get tangled up in whatever revenge came next, had been about to say his goodbyes and leave — but at those words his steps faltered slightly, and he walked slower and slower.
Qiu Wuji had been trailing along at his side like an assistant the whole time. Seeing this, she asked quietly, "You're not suspecting that even Rong Fu was hired by Zhang Qiren? To force Black House into his corner and expand his hidden influence by proxy?"
"There's some chance of it." Chu Ge said in a low voice, "Look — if the Wang family were behind it, would they take care to order Rong Fu not to hurt anyone?"
"Hard to say..." Qiu Wuji hesitated too. "The Wang family just wanted to vent and get a bit of payback; not daring to go too big would be normal. But if Zhang Qiren did it, that somehow seems more..."
More vicious. And more like a novel.
The same thought surfaced in the hearts of both wordsmiths, and they shook their heads and laughed at the same time.
It probably wasn't that. Come on, treating Zhang Qiren like some big final boss? He'd only recently taken over a business whose whole purpose was to take the blame, and he didn't have much authority to begin with. He was being watched closely these days, even the underground boxing ring had been shut down; where would he get the strength for that many maneuvers?
His brother Zhang Xiaoren, on the other hand, was under investigation for tax evasion and his rear was practically smoking — who knew whether that made things even more favorable for Zhang Qiren's bid for the succession.
"Leaving that aside, Qiren's overall game has been pretty impressive. With this string of soft-and-hard moves, the Wang family and his brother are savaging each other, and that atmosphere where he could be hauled in at any moment seems to have lifted. Everyone's eyes are off him, and meanwhile he's quietly scooped up all the benefits."
Qiu Wuji lifted her head and thought it over, then shook her head. "Since you and I know it, do you think his father knows?"
In a small one-story apartment, a fat, richly dressed matron led a crowd of people and kicked the apartment door open.
A middle-aged woman whose hair at the temples had already gone white stood there, stunned. "What are you doing?"
"You rotten whore — ask that little bastard of yours what he's been up to!" The fat woman stepped in and slapped her. "I said it long ago: you dog-bred trash only ever wreck a household!"
"Smack!"
The slap never landed on the woman. At some point she'd been pulled back, and Zhang Qiren was standing where she'd been. He didn't block it; he took the fat woman's palm squarely with his face.
The slap was so heavy that Zhang Qiren's head was snapped sideways and his glasses knocked askew, but he didn't make a sound. A trace of cold laughter appeared at the corner of his mouth.
And at that same moment, the same crisp "smack" rang out on the face of the fat woman who had done the slapping, and her cheek visibly swelled red before their eyes.
No one had hit her...
Was striking Zhang Qiren somehow rebounding onto her?
The fat woman clutched her face and howled in pain: "Little bastard! Little bastard! You dare hit me!"
Zhang Qiren straightened his glasses, turned, and steadied his mother, smiling faintly. "How would I dare hit Auntie? If Auntie wants to hit me, all I can do is take it."
His own face was swollen too, but he smiled as though he couldn't care less.
His mother fumbled for the medicine. "This child... honestly..."
The fat woman roared, "What are you all standing around for? Teach him a lesson!"
The subordinates beside her exchanged glances, then looked at Zhang Qiren's smiling face, and none of them dared move.
This was a family matter — what business did they have sticking their hands in? And what if this one ended up taking over the business someday? Would they get any good fruit out of it then? Besides, his ability... hitting him was the same as hitting yourself. Who'd be full enough to go hit him?
"Fine. Fine. Your wings have grown, you won't listen anymore, is that it!" The fat woman was so furious that all her fat was trembling.
Zhang Qiren cut in with a smile. "There are some things Auntie won't like hearing, but if I don't say them, you already know them... The family's money — I want it. The real estate company, all of it — I've had my eye on it for a long time. Which means this tax blow is a cut into my own flesh as well. The Wangs, I'm grinding my teeth at them too. So Auntie doesn't go looking for trouble with the enemy, and hates me instead — what sense does that make?"
"Isn't it because you're a rotten ingrate, biting the hand that feeds you! Anything you can't have, you'd rather destroy!" the fat woman shrieked hysterically. "Don't I know your kind, you low-born trash!"
"Heh..." Zhang Qiren laughed, though there was no laughter in his face at all, and said mildly, "If you're going to talk, talk evidence. I could just as well say that Zhang Xiaoren provoked a fellow company on his own initiative, and that a waste like him couldn't repay what the family has lost in ten lifetimes!"
The fat woman's rage turned into a laugh. "And you think a little bastard like you could?"
Zhang Qiren said evenly, "The state takes espers more seriously with every passing day, and you're all still playing the old game — brawling, running gangs, the sex, gambling and drug trades, underground fight rings... beyond finding scapegoats and greasing palms, you're good for nothing."
He paused, then snorted coldly. "If there's an ability that can make people think the food tastes awful, then there's surely one that can make people all want to buy our apartments. If there's an ability that can make a man tell the truth, then there's surely one that can dominate the negotiating table. But you fat-headed lot have never once considered... the times have changed, Madam."
A man's voice came from outside the door: "You want to whitewash yourself?"
Zhang Qiren answered at once. "I'm only saving myself, Father. The Zhang Xiaoren sweating through his interrogation right now — that was the ending they prepared for me a month ago. Now I'm letting him taste it in my place. That's all."
Registry of Ability Users:
Name: Zhang Qiren.
Identity: illegitimate son of the Nanjiang Zhang family's mistress; current legal representative of Miracle Nightclub.
Ability: Backlash — reflects any damage received.
Development level: Unknown.
Nature: Combat?
Potential: ?
Gu Ruoyan got this far, lifted her pen, and frowned. She felt she had no way to rate it.