Chapter 23: Hair and Color Control

July 29th, 2023

The law enforcement team arrived on time, and Sato Ichiro cooperated without resistance as he was taken away. However, before leaving, he cast a cold gaze towards Chen Chu.

“Chen Chu, I will remember this,” Sato said.

“It’s just a small matter. Mr. Sato, you don’t need to worry about it,” Chen Chu replied with a tone of “you don’t have to thank me.”

“…,” Sato’s face twitched, and his gaze shifted to Lin Xuan in the distance, revealing a trace of resentment.

Chen Chu took a step to the left, blocking Sato’s line of sight.

Sato blinked and then a smile crept onto his lips. He didn’t say anything more, bowing and getting into the car.

The members of the law enforcement team saluted Chen Chu and drove away, escorting Sato.

Once the car had left, Chen Chu turned and walked towards Lin Xuan. At that moment, Lin Xuan was standing under a banyan tree, holding a bunch of hydrogen balloons in her hand and bouncing up and down, not knowing what she was doing. As Chen Chu approached, Lin Xuan still hadn’t noticed and was still trying hard to tiptoe. Curiously, Chen Chu asked, “What are you doing?”

“Ah?” Lin Xuan was startled by the sudden voice. She loosened her grip, and the rope she was holding slipped from her hand, causing the hundreds of hydrogen balloons tied to it to float freely into the sky.

“Balloons!” Lin Xuan jumped up and tried to reach for them, but once the hydrogen balloons were untethered, they ascended rapidly. Lin Xuan couldn’t reach them at all and could only dumbfoundedly watch as the hydrogen balloons drifted farther and farther away, becoming a scenic view in the blue sky.

“It’s over!” Lin Xuan wailed. These hydrogen balloons belonged to the amusement park. They must have been leftovers from when the park closed yesterday, and the staff had conveniently tied them to the banyan tree. Lin Xuan had been bored and came over to take a look, finding quite a few hydrogen balloons. She had a sudden idea to experience the feeling of being light as a swallow, so she took the balloons off and played with them. Originally, she planned to tie them back after playing, but…

That bunch of hydrogen balloons amounted to over a hundred, and they were expensive at the amusement park. Even if they were sold for ten yuan each, she would still have to compensate with a thousand yuan.

Why was she so unlucky? Just as she narrowly escaped death, she came back only to find that her phone had disappeared into the void. She hadn’t even had a chance to buy a new phone yet, and now she was in debt for another thousand yuan.

“My one thousand yuan,” Lin Xuan stared at the hydrogen balloons floating higher and higher, farther and farther away, her heart aching to the point of tears.

Why did she suddenly feel like crying?

Following Lin Xuan’s gaze, Chen Chu looked up at the colorful hydrogen balloons in the sky. Suddenly, he reached up and grabbed at the air. At that moment, a gentle breeze blew through the sky, pulling the soaring hydrogen balloons back down, slowly landing in Chen Chu’s hand.

“Here,” Chen Chu handed the rope with the hydrogen balloons back to Lin Xuan.

Lin Xuan stared blankly at Chen Chu, hesitating to reach out and take it. Her heart even began to beat uncontrollably.

[Ah, I’m being flirted with. I should give him a 30% discount.]

“This is what you wanted, right?” Chen Chu said.

“Shut up!”

Chen Chu was startled by the shout.

“Ah, yes, yes, this is what I wanted. Thank you, senior, for helping me retrieve it.” Lin Xuan almost snatched the rope back from Chen Chu’s hand and immediately turned around to tie the hydrogen balloons back in their original place. She tied the rope carefully, taking her time until the warmth on her face and the racing of her heart returned to normal before turning back around.

“Thank you, senior. If it weren’t for you, I would have lost another thousand yuan.” Lin Xuan thanked him again.

“No need to be so polite,” Chen Chu smiled. He noticed that Lin Xuan was really sensitive to money. The first thing she did when the balloons flew away was to calculate their equivalent value in money.

“By the way, the law enforcement team has taken Sato away, right?” Lin Xuan realized that the law enforcement team’s car had already left. “What will happen to Sato? Will he go to jail?”

“Sato is an official esper of Country R. He won’t be detained for long,” Chen Chu shook his head. “But he has a history of illegal immigration, so he will be banned from entering Huaguo for a while.”

“That’s good,” Lin Xuan felt somewhat relieved. Although Sato couldn’t defeat Chen Chu, he could easily deal with her. She was truly afraid that Sato would be deported and then buy a plane ticket to come back and cause trouble for her.

Sato is clearly not a good person. Lin Xuan still remembers the look in his eyes when he killed Yamaguchi Yuriko. It didn’t look like killing a person at all, more like killing a chicken. This kind of person will definitely hold a grudge, especially since Lin Xuan also stole something from him, even though it was Sadako’s fault. But the grudge must be on her. That’s why Lin Xuan has been hiding here during the time waiting for the enforcement team, just to reduce her presence in front of Sato. It would be even better if she could be forgotten by him.

Well, she’s indeed a bit timid.

“Let’s go, to headquarters.” Chen Chu has already reported to Assistant Tan about saving Lin Xuan, and Assistant Tan asked him to take Lin Xuan to headquarters.

Lin Xuan followed Chen Chu and left the amusement park, called a ride-hailing car, and headed to 106 Chunfeng Road.

“Why did Assistant Tan want me to go?” Lin Xuan asked.

“Probably to give you onboarding training,” Chen Chu said.

“Onboarding training?” Lin Xuan was stunned. They have a job where they don’t have to work unless there’s something going on, and they still have onboarding training?

Chen Chu glanced at the ride-hailing driver in the front seat and said discreetly, “There are some knowledge you need to supplement, such as what happened last night.”

“Oh,” Lin Xuan suddenly realized that they wanted to provide her with knowledge about the alternate space, which she really needed.

What happened last night? Onboarding training? Unable to resist her imagination, Lin Xuan glanced at the man and woman in the rearview mirror, fully exercising her imagination.

What kind of job requires a man and a woman to go out at night, finish their work, and then receive onboarding training? These days, everything is so formal?

“By the way, do you want to call your roommate?” Chen Chu remembered something. “They were worried about you yesterday and even went to the police station to report it.”

“What?” Lin Xuan instinctively reached into her pocket for her phone when she heard that Xu Ruan and the others had reported it to the police, but she realized her phone was left in the alternate space yesterday.

“Here,” Chen Chu handed his phone to her.

“Thank you.” Lin Xuan took the phone and tried to recall her roommate’s number for a while but couldn’t remember it. She awkwardly handed the phone back to Chen Chu.

“What’s wrong?” Chen Chu was surprised.

“I don’t remember the phone number.” Lin Xuan felt embarrassed.

Chen Chu laughed, “You should learn to memorize phone numbers in the future, after all, we often lose our phones.”

Whether it’s entering the alternate space or fighting with others, it’s easy to lose or damage a phone.

“I will, I’ll write down the senior’s phone number when I go back.” Lin Xuan nodded repeatedly.

Chen Chu was startled and looked at Lin Xuan.

“And also Assistant Tan’s, headquarters’, I’ll memorize them all.” Lin Xuan anxiously and nervously added.

“Assistant Tan’s number is indeed worth remembering. He can be very helpful. Here.” Chen Chu handed his phone to Lin Xuan again.

Lin Xuan looked surprised and saw that this time the phone handed to her already had a somewhat familiar phone number entered.

“Assistant Tan helped you look it up, your classmate’s phone number, seems to be called Xu Ruan.” While talking to Lin Xuan just now, Chen Chu casually asked Tan Assistant for Lin Xuan’s classmate’s phone number. As the logistics support at headquarters, Tan Assistant has access to the social information of all of them.

“Thank you.” Lin Xuan took the phone again and dialed Xu Ruan’s number. The call was quickly answered.

It was now early in the morning, a little past six o’clock. For someone like Xu Ruan, who rarely has a day off and enjoys sleeping in, this is the sweetest moment of their dreams. But when Lin Xuan made the call, the other party picked up almost instantly.

“Xu Ruan, it’s me.”

“Lin Xuan, where were you last night? Are you okay?”

Hearing the worried words of her friend, Lin Xuan, who had almost forgotten the thrilling events of last night, suddenly felt like crying. She turned away, trying to control her emotions and used the excuse that her phone was stolen and there was an urgent matter to brush off what happened yesterday.

The car soon stopped at 106 Chunfeng Road.

“You go in first, I’ll go buy something.” Chen Chu said to Lin Xuan.

“Okay.” Lin Xuan nodded and went in alone.

In the small building, Assistant Tan was already waiting on the first floor. It seemed that he had arrived not long ago and was brewing tea. When he saw Lin Xuan coming in, he looked her up and down, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.

To be honest, when Assistant Tan first heard that Lin Xuan had escaped from the alternate space being chased by Sato Ichiro, he thought she must be in a miserable state. But seeing her now, she seemed to be in good condition.

“Do you want some tea?” Assistant Tan asked Lin Xuan.

“I don’t drink tea, water is fine for me.” Lin Xuan didn’t have the habit of drinking tea early in the morning.

Assistant Tan didn’t say anything and handed her a glass of water.

“Thank you.” Lin Xuan took it.

“Did you get scared yesterday?” Assistant Tan asked.

Lin Xuan nodded. She was not just scared, she was almost done for.

“I take responsibility for this. I should have reminded you about the alternate space, but I didn’t go into detail with you because I thought your ability level was not high enough. I underestimated the extent of your misfortune.” Assistant Tan said.

Lin Xuan blinked and suddenly remembered the strange message Assistant Tan sent her yesterday. “Tan Assistant, when you told me to be careful yesterday, were you referring to the alternate space?”

“That’s right,” Assistant Tan nodded. “As an official organization, we can foresee every opening of the alternate space in advance. But the alternate space only devours abilities of rank D or higher, and you are rank F. I thought you would be fine, so…”

“I understand…” It’s all because of her -99 luck value.

“We recruited you into Group 6, originally not intending for you to fight or explore the alternate space. In fact, our role for you was in logistics. We planned to let you gradually familiarize yourself with logistics after you graduated. But I didn’t expect you to enter the alternate space first. Now it seems that we need to readjust our position for you.” The reason Assistant Tan only had Lin Xuan sign a confidentiality agreement and didn’t provide any onboarding training was because he originally positioned her as a regular logistics member. The alternate space is something that concerns combat personnel.

“No, it’s not necessary. I think being in logistics is good enough.” Lin Xuan really didn’t want to go through such incidents like yesterday again. Being a small logistics member, doing some divination when there’s nothing to do, that would be really nice.

“I don’t mind, but what if the alternate space devours you again next time? Are you sure you don’t want to have some advance knowledge?” Assistant Tan asked.

“…” Lin Xuan immediately put on a mournful face. She really wanted to say that being devoured again, she’s not that unlucky, right? But Lin Xuan, who had a keen sense of her luck value, didn’t have the confidence.

“These are some basic information about the ability realm that I’ve compiled. They can help you quickly understand some common knowledge about the ability realm. If you don’t understand anything, you can ask me. After your three-month probation period, I’ll give you an account that will allow you to directly access the official organization’s forum and access information on your own.” Assistant Tan handed her a USB drive and cautioned, “Be careful not to leak any information.”

“I will be careful,” Lin Xuan replied, taking the USB drive.

“Also, I added you to the group. Verify it,” Assistant Tan said.

“What group?” Lin Xuan was puzzled.

“The work group of Group 6. Originally, you were supposed to join after your probation period, but since everyone already knows about your situation from last night, I added you in advance,” Assistant Tan explained, then reminded, “Last night, for your sake, many people didn’t sleep the entire night.”

Several people sensed the opening of the alternate space door in the morning, and in the end, someone discovered that Chen Chu had gone ahead. They sent a message in the group, so others didn’t go.

“Ah?!” Lin Xuan widened her eyes in astonishment.

“Otherwise, how do you think Chen Chu managed to arrive and save you first?” Assistant Tan said. “He spent the whole night sensing the opening of the space door.”

Lin Xuan’s emotions suddenly became complex. It turned out that Senior Chen Chu stayed up all night for her.

“Don’t feel too pressured. This is also a convenience provided by the official organization. If you have the ability in the future, you should do the same,” Assistant Tan said.

“I will definitely do that,” Lin Xuan suddenly felt a strong sense of belonging to Group 6.

It turned out that it wasn’t just Senior Chen Chu; the other colleagues in Group 6 were also trying to help her, even without having met her before.

“What will we do?” At that moment, Chen Chu walked in, holding freshly bought breakfast in his hand, and walked straight to the two of them. He placed the breakfast on the table. “Has Assistant Tan eaten? Do you want to eat together?”

“I already ate when I was waiting for you guys,” Assistant Tan replied expressionlessly.

“Then let’s eat.” Chen Chu handed the bought buns to Lin Xuan. “There are no breakfast stalls nearby, but the buns from this 24-hour convenience store are pretty good.”

“Thank you, Senior.” Lin Xuan had been running for her life all night and was already hungry. She grabbed the bun and started eating it eagerly.

“You two eat. I’ll go upstairs first.” Having given all the instructions, Assistant Tan prepared to go upstairs to the office.

“Assistant Tan,” Chen Chu suddenly called out to him and asked, “Is there a spare phone in the department?”

“What’s the matter?”

“Lin Xuan left her phone in the alternate space last night. If there is one in the department, give her one so she doesn’t have to buy a new one.” Chen Chu casually mentioned it, but Lin Xuan was excited to hear it.

“I’ll go and check. There should be one.” Assistant Tan turned and went upstairs.

Lin Xuan waited until Assistant Tan had left before excitedly asking Chen Chu, “Senior, can we claim the department’s phone expenses?”

“It’s a spare phone, not an expense claim. Pay attention to your wording.”

Lin Xuan was stunned and took a while to react. What Senior meant was that the phone couldn’t be reimbursed, but in case of emergencies, it could be used as a backup. As for whether to return it or not, it was up to the employee to decide.

Understood.

Lin Xuan looked at Chen Chu with admiration. It seemed that only experienced employees could handle such matters of using company resources.

Chen Chu was amused by Lin Xuan’s admiring expression. If he didn’t know that Lin Xuan was under financial pressure and had complained to her roommate several times about losing an old-fashioned phone and having to buy a new one, he wouldn’t have thought of the department’s spare phone.

A few minutes later, Assistant Tan came downstairs with a phone in hand and handed it to Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan’s eyes lit up when she saw the packaging. Although it wasn’t the latest model, it was the latest model from Brand M last quarter, and it would cost around 8,000 yuan if she were to buy it now. She had never used such an expensive phone in her life.

Excited, Lin Xuan immediately unpacked the packaging, afraid that Assistant Tan would take it back if she was even a step behind.

“Just now, the Enforcement Team called and said you stole Sato’s wood elemental energy crystal?” Assistant Tan’s voice was filled with surprise and disbelief. It was already a miracle that Lin Xuan survived against Sato, and now she had managed to steal something from him.

“Ah, yes.” Chen Chu was also aware of this matter. Lin Xuan had no intention of hiding it from the start.

“How did you manage to steal it?”

Chen Chu also looked at Lin Xuan. In fact, he was curious too but hadn’t had the chance to ask before.

“Well… I guess I was lucky.” Lin Xuan herself didn’t know how she managed to steal it. All she knew was that it ended up in her hair when she came back.

“So, it was luck, but you did a good job stealing it,” Assistant Tan praised.

Huh?! Was she actually being praised by her superior?

“Then, what do you plan to do with this energy crystal?” Assistant Tan looked at Lin Xuan, his eyes filled with expectations.

“Do… do I need to turn it in?” Lin Xuan felt a chill run down her spine under Assistant Tan’s gaze, instinctively feeling that she should turn in her spoils.

“Do you want to turn it in?” Assistant Tan’s eyes brightened.

Chen Chu glanced at Assistant Tan but didn’t say anything.

“So… I can actually choose not to turn it in?”

“…,” Assistant Tan felt a sharp pain in his chest from being caught off guard. Just a moment ago, he thought Lin Xuan was quite clever and understood the implied meaning of his words. How did she suddenly change her mind?

“Normally, as a member of the official organization, when ordered to enter the alternate space, any special items obtained should be turned in to the organization. However, your situation last night was special, and the organization did not provide you with any assistance. So, you can choose to turn in the wood elemental energy crystal or not. But if you turn it in, the organization will compensate you accordingly.” Assistant Tan looked earnestly at Lin Xuan.

I made it pretty clear, right? It’s your time to show your stance.

“What kind of compensation?” Lin Xuan asked casually.

This girl has such low emotional intelligence.

Chen Chu looked at the slightly wide-eyed Assistant Tan and almost couldn’t hold back his laughter. He had to turn away and focus on eating his bun, pretending he didn’t see it.

Assistant Tan calmly said, “It can be exchanged for points, and those points can be used to exchange for other things, such as energy stones that can enhance your superpower level, special items, or even exchanged for money, houses…”

“House?!” Lin Xuan’s eyes immediately lit up. She was about to graduate, and she needed a house.

“So, you want a house,” Assistant Tan also realized.

“Mhm, mhm, mhm.” Lin Xuan nodded vigorously, resembling a garlic pounder. “I want a house.”

“Okay, I’ll send you a list of properties, and you can choose one. The rest, I’ll exchange for points for you.” Assistant Tan reached out his hand. “Give me the wood elemental energy crystal.”

“Just a moment.” Lin Xuan immediately took out Sadako’s long hair from her storage space.

Assistant Tan and Chen Chu weren’t too surprised to see the sudden appearance of long hair. Lin Xuan’s skill of crawling out of the TV belonged to the spatial superpower, so having a storage space wasn’t unusual.

Lin Xuan’s hand fumbled through the long hair, finally finding the energy crystal tightly entangled within it. Whether it was an illusion or not, Lin Xuan felt like the crystal had become slightly smaller. Anyway, she would take it off first and exchange it for a house.

Lin Xuan tugged at it, but the crystal didn’t budge. She tugged again, but not only did the crystal remain motionless, the long hair tightened even more.

“…,” Lin Xuan understood that Sadako wasn’t willing to give it up.

“Sister Sadako, please give me the crystal. I want to exchange it for a house,” Lin Xuan pleaded in her mind.

Sadako ignored her and continued entangling.

“Although you stole the crystal, it was me who was being chased. Do you know how close you came to getting me killed? Here’s the deal, give me the crystal, let me exchange it for a house, and I’ll forgive you for this. Next time I find a crystal, I won’t turn it in; I’ll give it to you. How about that?”

Sadako still paid no attention and kept entangling the hair.

“What’s wrong?” Chen Chu noticed that Lin Xuan’s expression wasn’t right.

Lin Xuan awkwardly said, “The hair is tangled too tightly. I can’t get it out.”

“Let me see.” Assistant Tan offered to help, but as soon as his hand reached out, Sadako’s long hair suddenly snapped against the back of his hand, instantly turning it red.

Assistant Tan looked at Lin Xuan. “Do you have a problem with me?”

“No, no, it’s the hair… it’s a bit…” Lin Xuan didn’t know how to explain.

“Let me try.” Chen Chu’s eyes flickered, as he sensed a faint energy fluctuation in that moment. He reached out his hand to take the energy crystal, and an embarrassing situation occurred. Sadako’s long hair not only didn’t lash out at Chen Chu’s hand, but it voluntarily loosened its grip on the hair entangling the crystal.

Assistant Tan instantly became unhappy. “You still say you don’t have a problem with me?”

“I swear it’s not. You’ve wronged me. It’s this hair…”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s obsessed with appearances,” Lin Xuan revealed the truth.

This is a hair that would give Chen Chu a discount. Can you believe it?

“…” Assistant Tan.

“…” Chen Chu.

Author’s note:

Assistant Tan: You do have a problem with me.

Lin Xuan: Fine, I do.