Chapter 61

60 Beneath the Calm Routine…

“Bro~”

Not long after the girl with a baby face left the ward, Anna walked in carrying a small cloth bag, her eyes full of curiosity.

“What were you two just talking about? Miss Amy seems to be in better spirits—her eyes aren’t as swollen anymore.”

“Haha, of course it was good news!”

Having resolved the issue of his siblings’ schooling, Li Ang was also in high spirits, smiling as he delivered the good tidings:

“I didn’t take the compensation from Char Company. Instead, I asked her to help me get Melanie and William enrolled in school.”

“Really?!”

Hearing that her siblings’ schools had been settled, Anna’s eyes sparkled with delight.

She hurried to the bedside, sat down sideways, pulled out lunchboxes from the cloth bag, and asked with beaming eyes:

“Which public school? The one on Blackstone Alley? Or the one past the alchemy factory, outside the city?”

“Neither.”

Shaking his head with a smile, Li Ang didn’t tease—he gave the answer straight away.

“Bridgeview Public School—the one at the intersection of Bridge Street and Theater Street!”

Bridgeview Public School?!

Upon hearing the school’s name, Anna was overjoyed, a flush of excitement coloring her pale cheeks.

“That’s the best school in our old district! If William and the others get in, they can be promoted directly within the school—even all the way to university! Oh my! This is truly…”

“Don’t get so excited! Hey, hold it steady!”

Seeing his sister’s lunchbox tilt and soup seep from the lid’s gap, Li Ang startled and reached out to catch it. He saved his own lunch, but pulled his broken ribs, turning pale with pain.

“Bro!”

Startled, Anna leapt up, helping Li Ang lean back against the pillow as he gasped for air. After waiting a moment to confirm he was alright, she finally relaxed, her face filled with worry:

“Bro! Don’t move yet. I’ll feed you.”

Li Ang, grimacing from pain, nodded and slightly lifted his chin, trapped in the neck brace, to sip the fish soup offered to him.

“Sss…”

Was it too hot?

Hearing Li Ang’s sharp inhale, Anna blinked in surprise, scooped up another spoonful of the milky-white fish soup, and tasted it herself.

“It’s not hot?”

“Not from heat—from how delicious it is.”

Seeing his sister still worried, Li Ang didn’t mention the pain. Instead, he teased with a grin:

“Anna~ This hospital must be a great place. After you stayed here a few days, not only did you recover, but your cooking got even better~”

“My cooking hasn’t changed. It’s just that now we have money—we can afford fresh fish and spices.”

Pulling a handkerchief from her pocket, Anna wiped a few drops of soup from Li Ang’s lips, then skewered a small piece of fish and held it to his mouth, cheerfully saying:

“Bro, this morning someone knocked on our door—said he was your colleague—and delivered your salary for the week. Nine gold wheels!”

Nine gold wheels…

Hearing Anna’s words, Li Ang did a quick mental calculation.

His base weekly salary was twelve gold wheels. Add the two from the Toad mission, that should be fourteen total. After deducting his drinking bill, nine remain… So the director’s six bottles cost five gold wheels?!

Shocked by the price of the alcohol, Li Ang swallowed his fish and opened his badge panel to check the progress of [Alcohol Martyr].

117/1000

One hundred seventeen bottles… If each costs this much… On the night I passed out and the director carried me home, didn’t I drink nearly a hundred gold wheels?!?!

…

【Dear Miss Olivia, you incurred a total of 327 gold wheels in alcohol charges at our establishment ten days ago, and this bill remains unpaid. We kindly request prompt settlement. We eagerly await your return.】

“…”

After reading the overdue notice on her desk, the red-haired director picked up the bottle, tilted her head back, and gulped down the tea inside. She placed the whiskey bottle back on the table, staring blankly at the liquid inside—the same color as whiskey.

What on earth was I thinking, to let him drink so much?

Recalling the drunken friend who, though stumbling and on the verge of collapsing into the table, somehow never fell no matter how much he drank, the red-haired director rubbed her throbbing temples, fragments of that night’s memory surfacing.

Director, all these are drinks—shouldn’t we order some food too?

I’ll try a bit of everything, but just one sip of each.

Huh? That’s it? Your drinking capacity isn’t bad, is it?

Can’t you afford it? Should I chip in?

“…”

Did I get tricked?

Recalling, through her exceptional memory, how her wallet had been slowly emptied, the red-haired director grimaced, realizing she’d been played for a fool.

He swore he couldn’t drink, took one sip at a time, yet ended up drinking more than me! Worse—he passed out on the floor the moment the liquor ran out, and I had to carry him home!

Feeling her newly received salary vanish again, the red-haired director clenched her fist, gritted her teeth, and made a silent vow:

I, Olivia, would rather starve! Die of thirst! Drink tea in whiskey bottles to fool myself—than ever drink with Li Ang again!

Never again!

Crumpling the overdue notice and tossing it into the trash, the scowling red-haired director grabbed a stack of newspapers and began flipping through the week’s news.

The Sun: “Shocking! Citizen Passes Char Department Store, Suddenly Struck by Falling Fortune!”

“Pfft!”

Seeing the black-and-white photo on the front page—Li Ang buried under countless gold wheels, only his arms visible—the red-haired director burst into laughter. After a quick glance, she cut out the article and tucked it, grinning, into Li Ang’s file.

The report on the Amity Wine Sect’s Divine Descent incident is missing a photo—this’ll do perfectly. Hehe, payback for your stolen booze money!

Oh, and it’s been four days now. Given Li Ang’s condition, he should be back at work today, right?

After quickly scanning The Sun and finding nothing suspicious, the red-haired director’s mood improved further as she turned to other papers.

Daily Chronicle: “Our Editor-in-Chief Attacked by Rebels Yesterday; They Declare: Nobles Are Just Lice in the Crotch!”

Financial Times: “Due to Char Department Store’s Big Sale, Rose Department Store’s Revenue Plummets; Likely to Collapse and Liquidate!”

Entertainment Weekly: “Chief Actress of Theater Troupe Exposed in Scandal, Boycotted; No Replacement Available—Master Wang Erde’s Performance May Be Delayed!”

Hmm… Though many things happened, none seem related to ‘anomalies.’ The capital seems unusually calm lately!

Satisfied, the red-haired director was about to put the papers away when her peripheral vision caught a tiny, overlooked news item in the corner.

New Industry Daily: “Amity Wine’s New Couple’s Wine Launched—Couples Who Buy Together and Drink On-Site Get 50% Off!”

“Sss…”