“What conjugate father-son pair?”
Ji Sinan was making soup in the kitchen, keeping one ear tuned to the study. When he heard the words “my brother,” his head slowly appeared around the doorway.
Without a moment’s thought, Ji Tan explained, “It’s a complicated relationship where you’re his dad and he’s your father…”
Ji Sinan: “???”
Xie Zhi hurriedly clapped a hand over Ji Tan’s mouth and whispered, “Your brother doesn’t have his memories right now. Don’t tease him.”
“Let go of him!” Ji Sinan raised the soup ladle in his hand.
Only then did Xie Zhi realize how inappropriate his position looked. He was sitting on the bed with one hand covering Ji Tan’s mouth from behind, practically speaking into his ear. From Ji Sinan’s perspective, that blond fellow was taking liberties with his little brother!
Once that occurred to him, Xie Zhi became acutely aware of the soft, slightly damp sensation against his palm. As though he’d been burned, he instantly raised both hands to proclaim his innocence. “We were talking about finding Ji Tan a job.”
Ji Tan nodded innocently.
Ji Sinan: “Right. He wants to be a hitman.”
Ji Tan: “…” Why did his brother still remember that?
Xie Zhi stroked his chin, suddenly much more enthusiastic. “That’s easy enough. I think he’d make a good hitman too.”
Ji Tan: “?”
The next day.
Ji Tan stood in front of the fish-cleaning counter at Tom’s Supermarket. “…”
“You and Ji Sinan really are father and son.” Taking the employment contract from the supermarket’s representative, Ji Tan ground his teeth and glared at Xie Zhi, who was wearing those flashy, multicolored wind goggles indoors, as though he thought he looked terribly impressive.
“This place belongs to a friend of mine. Just settle in and do your job,” Xie Zhi encouraged him.
Tom’s Supermarket was a large chain with an unusually comprehensive selection, including rare merchandise that other supermarkets didn’t carry. But shoppers needed memberships, and the annual fees were substantial. Neighbors from Broken-Wire Street, who begrudged even their electricity bills, would never shop somewhere like this.
Even so, business was booming. Plenty of customers could easily afford the membership fees and were willing to pay for convenience or simply to satisfy their vanity. That was how Tom’s Supermarket had spread throughout City A.
This particular branch was close to Ji Tan’s residential complex.
“You give your little uncle a job like this? How do you sleep at night?” Ji Tan set down the contract and dragged Xie Zhi aside to interrogate him. “Why can’t I work at the Order Administration Bureau?”
Here was the head of the mighty Order Administration Bureau, unable to arrange even a cushy desk job for someone. Instead, he’d had to pull strings with a friend to find Ji Tan work gutting fish. Did he really need Xie Zhi for that? He could have applied for this kind of job himself.
Loads of restaurants were hiring kitchen assistants to do the chopping and prep work. At least there was room to advance there: start by chopping vegetables, and someday you might graduate to tossing a wok. What sort of future was there in gutting fish at a supermarket? Ten years later, he’d still be gutting fish. The only thing he’d gain was a depressingly accurate personal bio: I’ve spent ten years butchering fish at Tom’s. My heart is now as cold as my knife.
Xie Zhi held one finger to his lips in a shushing gesture. Instantly, the sounds around them were cut off.
“If you join the Order Administration Bureau, you’ll only be able to enter the Police Sequence or the Bodyguard Sequence,” Xie Zhi said earnestly. He offered no further explanation, apparently hoping his personal charm alone would persuade Ji Tan. “Just take this job. Big Brother would never lead you astray.”
Ji Tan stared at him with open disbelief, the disgusted curl at one corner of his mouth stretching practically to his ear. Haven’t you done enough to me already? How do you think I ended up in City A? Director Ji kept the most cutting words to himself, but his expression made his meaning perfectly clear.
Xie Zhi: “…It pays fifty thousand a month.”
And Ji Tan would only have to work half a day, perfectly satisfying his three requirements: good pay, little work, and close to home.
Ji Tan’s eyes widened. Fifty thousand a month to butcher fish at a supermarket? Even a scam advertisement wouldn’t dare make a claim that outrageous. Were they sure he’d be killing fish and not people?
“Work hard. Once you’ve mastered the art of butchering fish, I’ll help you become an Orderbearer,” Xie Zhi declared with absolute confidence.
To Ji Tan, Boss Xie’s pitch sounded suspiciously like the sort of scam that lured students into sweatshops to tighten screws all day, promising, “This
is all valuable training. Get good enough at tightening screws and we’ll make you an executive.”
Besides, why would joining the Bureau limit him to the Police or Bodyguard Sequence? Could the awakening of supernatural abilities depend on one’s environment? Just like in apocalyptic novels, where hot-tempered people awakened fire powers and talented farmers awakened wood powers?
Then what kind of ability would butchering fish in a supermarket awaken?
It all sounded terribly unreliable.
But this place paid fifty thousand a month! Little Abyss had offered only 5,600 before tax for that “server maintenance technician” position. His brother could spend a whole year twisting spines back into place at Quick-Knife Li’s clinic and earn only a hundred thousand.
There was the interest on the loan, his brother’s medication, rent, electricity, and the lawyer’s fees for the divorce lawsuit against Huo Zhaixing… Everything demanded money. Nor could they rely entirely on borrowing under the Huo family’s name. The loan hadn’t come through yet, and the Huo family might discover it and cut them off at any moment.
He’d do it!
He would simply regard it as a programming job in an unusual workplace, writing the code of death for living fish.
From the manager of the supermarket’s fresh-food department, Ji Tan solemnly accepted his office equipment: a fish-butchering knife, a scale scraper, fish-bone tweezers, and a waterproof apron.
“Wages are normally paid monthly. If you need weekly payments, just let accounting know. You can’t take home any unsold fresh fish. If they die, report them as wastage and put them in the disposal bin. Staff can buy cooked food after eight in the evening for ten percent of the usual price…” The manager carefully explained every detail, glancing at Xie Zhi’s face every couple of sentences.
Xie Zhi clearly carried considerable weight here. The manager hadn’t even asked whether Ji Tan knew how to butcher fish.
“What’s your friend’s name?” Ji Tan asked discreetly. He wanted a powerful name to drop if anyone tried to bully him at work.
“Tom.”
“…”
Xie Zhi had said from the beginning that the supermarket belonged to his friend. So Tom’s Supermarket literally meant a supermarket owned by someone called Tom? That was some serious backing. His coworkers probably wouldn’t even believe it if he told them.
While Ji Tan was thinking about that, the manager began introducing him to a coworker. “Perfect timing, your colleague’s here. This is Lu Ren. Everyone calls him Old Lu. He’s a first-rate hand at cleaning fish.”
A middle-aged man approached, shaking water from his hands. He picked up an apron from behind the fish counter and tied it on. Hearing the manager call him, he lifted a pair of narrow, triangular eyes to look their way.
“Old Lu, this is our new hire, Little Ji. The two of you will work together, each taking half the day,” the manager explained.
Ji Tan extended his hand and smiled in greeting at his senior colleague.
Lu Ren stared at it for a moment before smacking the offered hand aside. “Manager Zhang, are you getting senile? Why hire a young kid like this? One look at those hands tells you they’ve never done a day’s work. This is ridiculous!”
To look more like a professional fish butcher, Ji Tan had deliberately taken off his ring. That meant the slap landed squarely on his bare hand with a sharp smack.
He looked down in a daze at his reddening hand. His fingers were long, pale, and slender, without a callus in sight. They really didn’t look like a fish butcher’s hands.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Xie Zhi raised his arm to shove Lu Ren aside, but Ji Tan stopped him.
Ji Tan took out his ring and slowly slipped it back onto his index finger. If he was going to be called unprofessional even without any accessories, there was no point in keeping up the act. He raised his chin slightly, gave Old Lu a sideways look, and sneered. “Hah. I take it you haven’t had any formal training?”
That question completely stumped both Lu Ren and the manager.
“Formal training? I’ve butchered fish at the seafood market for ten years. How is that not proper training?” Old Lu finally grasped that this young upstart was questioning his qualifications. The nerve of him!
Ji Tan picked up a fish-butchering knife from the counter, twirled it in his hand, and sneered again. “Heh. Did the seafood market issue you an official fish-butchering certificate, then?”
Old Lu: “Huh?”
Ji Tan pointed the knife at the chopping board and stabbed down hard. “I’m an outstanding graduate of Xijia Vocational and Technical College. I hold an Advanced Fish-Butcher Qualification Certificate, a Seafood Inspection Certificate, a Class-A Grade-Two Fish-Butcher Slang Certificate, and professional expert certifications in Java and C++…”
Manager Zhang wiped the sweat off his forehead and asked cautiously, “What kind of fish are these Zawa and Xi Jiajia?”
Elio’s Note ¹: Java and C++ are programming languages. Manager Zhang mishears their names as though Ji Tan is listing exotic varieties of fish.
Ji Tan waved a dismissive hand. “You wouldn’t understand even if I explained.”
When faced with workplace bullying, never fall into the trap of trying to prove yourself. Strike first. Find the other person’s weakness, whether it’s a lack of education, old age, or a wig… Whether the weakness is real or not doesn’t matter. If there isn’t one, invent one, then attack so relentlessly that your opponent is left reeling.
Lu Ren and Manager Zhang were both thoroughly cowed. Neither dared say another word.
Xie Zhi leaned toward Ji Tan’s ear and whispered, “Do you actually have those certificates?”
Ji Tan planted his hands on his hips. “Nope.”
Xie Zhi: “…”
Director Ji curled his lips into a wickedly charming smile. “That’s the advantage of an education. For highly educated intellectuals like us who’ve attended vocational school, intimidating a mere fishmonger is child’s play.”