Chapter Ninety-Three: A Gift of Thanks

Chen Ziang was drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.

Swordsmanship is a highly technical discipline, but that does not mean the longer one practices it, the stronger one becomes. In truth, even the finest sword skill requires physical conditioning to be fully realized.

On that front, women are naturally at a disadvantage compared with men, and in most cases, experience alone cannot make up for it.

And yet Yuki Izumo’s physical abilities—her strength, agility, and reflexes—were all on par with Chen Ziang’s. It was obvious she had also undergone long years of professional training.

Under such circumstances, experience became the only true measure of victory.

And up to now, he had still not won a single bout.

Of course, he had not lost one either.

Each time his offensive faltered, Yuki Izumo would seize the opening and counterattack. Just as she was about to break through his defenses, she would suddenly leave a flaw for him to exploit, allowing him to regain the rhythm of the attack once more. In this way, the two of them traded blows back and forth, evenly matched, though admittedly exhausting.

“Do you get it now?” Yuki Izumo suddenly sheathed her sword.

“Yeah.” Chen Ziang panted heavily, then said thoughtfully, “The key is to maintain continuity in the attack. Every time I expose an opening, it means something went wrong with that continuity.”

“Yes. Where I come from, we call that offensive suppression,” Yuki Izumo replied. “Every living thing has the instinct to protect itself.”

“By showing your aggressiveness and forcing the opponent to spend more energy defending themselves, you seize a huge advantage. That is what we mean by offensive suppression.”

“Then how do you break it?” Chen Ziang asked curiously.

“That will be part of a later lesson,” Yuki Izumo said. “For now, it’s off-duty time. Go back and rest.”

“Come here again at two o’clock next Wednesday afternoon for training.”

Chen Ziang nodded his thanks, then took his leave of Yuki Izumo.

As he returned to the elevator, a faint sense of being unexpectedly favored began to rise in him. After all, for the head of the Public Security Bureau to personally teach him swordsmanship, the feeling of being valued was indeed intoxicating.

Of course, in a sense, it was also because he had been so thoroughly overlooked in his earlier classes.

As for Baba Eiken, there was no need to mention him. Everyone knew he was the infamous man who “doesn’t care about work.” As for Takahashi Kousuke, he also seemed rather hopeless now: though he had shifted the burden of the work onto Chen Ziang’s shoulders, he had provided no corresponding support, and instead worried that Chen Ziang might threaten his own position.

No wonder everyone said, “In the system, anyone who can actually get things done will only be assigned more work.”

...Hm?

Chen Ziang suddenly noticed, in the corner of the elevator floor, what seemed to be a pool of dark red blood.

Not paint. It was definitely blood, and it seemed to have been left not long ago.

How strange. Had someone injured passed through here?

Given that there were cameras inside the elevator, if anything serious had happened, he certainly would not be the first to know. So he gave up any thought of poking his nose into it.

When he returned to the office, half his colleagues had already left. Only Yuegong Lingna, at the workstation beside him, was clutching her abdomen and grimacing as if enduring some great pain.

Chen Ziang did not ask. As a veteran officer, he could tell at a glance what was wrong.

“Want some ginger tea?” He took a packet of ginger powder from the drawer. “Need a heating pad?”

“Uh...” Yuegong Lingna seemed a little speechless, but she still nodded. “Thanks, senior. But why do you keep these things in your drawer?”

“Three years ago,” Chen Ziang said helplessly, “there was a problem with the office heating pipes, and the whole building turned into an icebox.”

“I see.” Yuegong Lingna nodded, then pleaded, “Senior, I’m not feeling well. I want to rest a bit before heading home.”

“Sure.” Chen Ziang said, “Then I’ll buy you some dinner, and we can eat here at the office.”

Warmth filled Yuegong Lingna’s heart, and she could not help saying, “Senior~”

“What is it?”

“Lean your head closer. I’ll tell you a secret.”

“Sure.” Chen Ziang bent down. “What secret?”

Then a subtle, warm, moist sensation touched his cheek.

......

“All right.” Yuegong Lingna straightened up and said rapidly, “This is my thank-you gift for you staying here with me, so don’t you dare say things like ‘a girl should be modest,’ or ‘it would be embarrassing if our coworkers saw,’ or even ‘can we still be friends after this?’ That sort of nonsense is forbidden! Forbidden, all of it!”

As if facing a great enemy, she raised both arms and crossed them before her chest in an “absolutely forbidden” gesture.

Chen Ziang stared at her with his mouth slightly open, frowning for a long while before asking in confusion, “Lingna, were you hurt before by someone you secretly liked?”

“Why would you ask that?” Yuegong Lingna said warily.

“Because that line of reasoning sounds way too practiced,” Chen Ziang said blankly. “It just feels like...”

“...Forget it. It has nothing to do with me anyway. What do you want for dinner?”

“I want curry rice,” Yuegong Lingna said.

“Then I’ll go see whether the cafeteria has any curry rice,” Chen Ziang said.

At dinner time, the employee cafeteria had nearly half as many people as it had at lunchtime.

After all, some staff would choose to go home for dinner, while even more would head to an izakaya for drinks and to strengthen workplace ties.

Chen Ziang picked a window with a shorter line, and then suddenly saw Xia Qingyu standing at the end of it.

He instinctively wanted to avoid her, but after thinking it over, he found that ridiculous: after all, she was my superior, and also a beauty. Why should I deliberately avoid her?

“Qingyu, what a coincidence.” Chen Ziang lined up behind her and greeted her with a smile.

“Morning, ape.” Xia Qingyu said coolly. “Here to buy bananas?”

Chen Ziang: ...

Now he remembered why he had instinctively wanted to avoid her.

“Qingyu, why do you always like comparing people to monkeys?” Chen Ziang asked carefully. “Isn’t that... a little hurtful?”

“Being compared to a monkey is an insult, in your opinion?” Xia Qingyu raised an eyebrow.

“I think so,” Chen Ziang said with a sigh.

“Then if you want to evolve into a human on my side, you’d better work hard.”

Chen Ziang was left speechless.

The line moved forward at a visible pace. Chen Ziang lowered his head to play with his phone, only to see that Xia Qingyu had sent him a private message.

It was an installation package for some software.

“Qingyu, what is this?” Chen Ziang asked for confirmation.

“If you were a human, you’d definitely recognize that as a software installer,” Xia Qingyu said leisurely.

“I know it’s a software installer. The question is, what software is it?” Chen Ziang forced himself to keep smiling and patient.

“Did you install it?”

“No. I asked you first.”

“If you had installed it, you wouldn’t have this question. It seems your road to evolution is still a very long one.”

“Anyone who installs software from an unknown source for an unknown purpose is the one with a problem in the head, right?” Chen Ziang could not help complaining. “What if it’s a virus? What if it steals bank passwords? What if, right in the middle of a meeting, it suddenly plays some music that makes me die of embarrassment?”

“Chen Ziang.” Xia Qingyu’s tone was calm and even.

“You say.”

“The difference between monkeys and humans is that a monkey’s wild nature keeps it wary of everything, while humans possess the ability to judge the risks behind something according to its source.”

“...I’m not doubting you. I just... forget it. I was wrong.” Chen Ziang finally surrendered.

Thinking about it carefully, since the software came from Xia Qingyu, it really could not be some kind of Trojan or virus.

Chen Ziang tapped install, deftly skipped over the pop-up warning about an “untrusted source,” and quickly finished installing it.

Hmm, what is this?