Chapter Thirty-Eight: Are You Trying to Start Something?

In the S.H.I.E.L.D. office, Fury was going through paperwork. The Abomination incident had badly embarrassed the Military, and now they were busy trying to shift the blame and distance themselves from one another, especially from General Ross.

With the Military's bigwigs occupied with passing the buck, they naturally had no time to deal with the Abomination's disastrous aftermath. That mess had fallen to S.H.I.E.L.D. to clean up.

Of course, Fury had also volunteered to take it on. Cleaning up after the Military had nearly worked him to death, but he wouldn't pass up a chance to strengthen S.H.I.E.L.D.'s authority at the Military's expense.

The effort and the reward were worth it. At the very least, the next time Fury asked the World Security Council for more money and personnel, he'd have a much stronger case.

Knock, knock! The sound came from the door. Fury looked up and saw Coulson standing there.

"Coulson. Come in." Fury leaned back and set down the documents in his hands.

"Anything to report? I'm just about done with these files."

"Nothing, Director." Coulson walked over and neatly set a huge stack of files on the desk.

"Hill asked me to bring these over. She hopes you can deal with them as soon as possible."

"Hell, these are all—why are there so many?" Looking at the stack, which stood nearly half a meter tall, Fury felt like flipping his desk.

"Where's Hill? Given the security clearance on these files, her Level Nine access should be enough to handle them herself. Why send them to me?" Fury glanced over the files and frowned.

"Her work efficiency has clearly been dropping these last few days. Now she's just stopped working altogether? This can't go on. Something's going to happen, and she'll be held responsible." Fury tapped the desk as he spoke.

"About Hill..." Looking at Fury's unhappy expression, Coulson hesitated before continuing. "She's on her period, so she took today off. And while she was at it, she asked me to request tomorrow and the day after off too."

Fury: "...Fuck!"

Fury slumped in his chair, feeling completely drained.

"Has Lu Yifang come to S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Fury decided he needed a change of focus instead of thinking about the files he'd never finish approving.

"He's here now," Coulson replied.

"Where is he?" Fury asked curiously. Lu Yifang was technically part of a Hulkbuster emergency response team, with the title of team leader.

But the decision had been made in too much of a hurry, and the team hadn't actually been formed yet. So right now, aside from having a S.H.I.E.L.D. affiliation and collecting a S.H.I.E.L.D. paycheck,

he was just an idler. He had no direct superior at S.H.I.E.L.D., no office, and no coworkers. So what was he supposed to be doing?

"I think he's in the recovery area," Coulson said after thinking it over.

"What's a perfectly healthy guy doing in the recovery area?" Fury asked, puzzled.

"Probably..." Coulson paused. He wanted to say, How should I know? You've been piling so many tasks on me these past few days that I can barely keep up. Do you expect me to take on another job, constantly tracking Lu Yifang's whereabouts?

Did you think I was The Flash from the comics, or that I could make multiple shadow clones? (Huh! When did I watch that anime? Maybe I've been on so many missions that I forgot.)

Of course, Coulson kept all of that to himself. His promotion request was still in Fury's hands, after all. Under the pressure of authority, he could only bow to the bald bigwig.

"Maybe it's because everything in the recovery area is free," Coulson guessed, recalling what he'd seen earlier.

"What?" Fury was taken aback. A scene appeared in his mind.

By a swimming pool, Lu Yifang was lounging on a chair beneath a parasol, leisurely drinking a beverage and eating peeled fruit.

At the thought, Fury could no longer sit still. Damn it, he was working himself to death. He was one step away from lying there with an oxygen tube in his nose.

And that guy wasn't just doing nothing—he was enjoying S.H.I.E.L.D.'s benefits, too. Worst of all, this freeloader had already had the nerve to demand a monthly salary of fifty thousand dollars.

Unbelievable. S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't allow such an outrageous presence. They had to find something for the guy to do.

"Get him in here right now!" Fury shouted angrily at Coulson.

"Understood, Director." Seeing Fury in a rage, Coulson immediately took out his phone and called Lu Yifang. The call connected quickly, but all he heard was a busy signal.

Please pick up, kid. When Fury gets angry, the consequences can be serious. Coulson silently prayed for Lu Yifang.

Perhaps Coulson's prayer worked. The next moment, the call connected.

"Yifang, you—"

"You what? Tell me who you are, and give me a convincing reason in three seconds, or I'll show you just how serious the consequences can be!!!" A voice even angrier than Fury's cut Coulson off.

The voice seethed with fury and grievance, far more intensely than Fury's. For some reason, hearing it reminded Coulson of the time Fury had abruptly canceled his leave halfway through a date.

"I'm Coulson. The Director asked me to call you. I'll put him on now." Coulson had no idea why Lu Yifang was so angry, but he wisely passed the blame to Fury.

"Hello!" Fury, completely unaware, took the phone.

"Baldy, what the hell do you want?!"

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!!" Fury instantly saw red. No one had ever dared speak to him like that. Kid, are you trying to start something?

But he was the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. He had enough self-control not to stoop to trading insults with Lu Yifang. Besides, he could tell that Lu Yifang was genuinely furious.

Fury was bewildered. What was going on? He'd only asked Coulson to call him. Had he interrupted some major event in Lu Yifang's life? Was there really any need to get this worked up? Fury could practically hear him grinding his teeth through the phone.

Whatever the reason, he'd deal with it after he saw the guy.

"I don't care what you're doing. Get over here and see me right now!" Fury said coldly, then slammed the phone down on the desk and hung up.

As the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., even when someone talked back to him, he couldn't afford to lose his imposing air.

Coulson, watching the scene, twitched. It wasn't Fury's intimidating presence that got to him. It was because the phone belonged to him.

Meanwhile, Lu Yifang looked at the call that had ended. After sighing, he turned back and said something to Katie, then headed off toward Fury's office.